SAT prep…in Elementary School!

As you’ve read before, my homeschooled/college enrolled soon-to-be high school seniors are college bound in some way or another.  And whether we like or not, these boys are going to HAVE to take the SAT.  They’ve been studying… but I can’t help but think how nice it would have been if we had started studying when they were MUCH younger!

Being as I’m abundantly blessed in the offspring department, I get another chance to do things a little bit differently.  Enter Marie’s Words.

Marie’s Words is a fun way to teach the vocabulary needed for the SAT!  Included in Marie’s Words are 550 vocabulary flash cards.  Each card has a nifty little hole in the corner so you can put a ring in it and take it with you.  Like this:

I have most of the A’s on a ring here.  It’s nice to be able to take a smaller amount of cards on the go, or to the lunch table for review.

Marie’s Words claims it can be used for students starting with Kindergarten!  Included in the box are instructions for playing games with the cards as well, though for my young students the games would be too hard initially, they still REALLY enjoyed talking about the picture (some really funny ones) and felt like they were doing “high school” work since their older siblings have been studying for the SAT as well.

        This is our little pocket chart that sits at the end of our homeschool table.  Every couple days we explore 2 or 3 new cards.  We talk about what they are seeing in the picture and what the word could possibly mean by what they see.  Amazingly they can get pretty accurate with their elementary vocabulary.  We’ll probably be doing this for years!  What a great value!  As the years progress and they become more and more familiar with the definitions, we’ll be able to expand their knowledge by learning the synonyms and antonyms of the words and by playing the suggested games.

In our homeschool we take a Classically Relaxed approach and vocabulary flash cards fit into that framework very nicely!

Timberdoodle sells Marie’s Words for $23.99.  You can read all about it here.  Besides Marie’s Words, Timberdoodle is the #1 resource (in my opinion) for the most unique and engaging homeschool materials.  You can request a catalog here and see for yourself!  And don’t forget to like them on Facebook, they are always giving away AMAZING resources!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of Marie's Words in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Tintin for young readers~Review

As part of the Timberdoodle Blogger Review Team I was given a copy of this fascinating Young Reader’s Edition of The Adventures of Tin-Tin:  Red Rackham’s Treasure.

Just look at that tongue…apparently Tintin requires a lot of concentration!

Written for children 9 and up. Let me just say that there wasn’t one child in my family NOT interested in this book.  In fact, my oldest two were so excited to see it, they snatched it up and took it hunting with them!  They both gave the book positive reviews and Banana Taffy really enjoyed the end of the book, where the REAL adventure along with actual photographs and descriptions is shared.  Here’s what Timberdoodle says about it:

New historical photos, original sketches, timelines, and more!
Now some of the most beloved titles are available in a popular, easy to pack standard paperback size. What makes this especially appealing is that there are now character biographies at the start of each book, so new Tintin readers can get to know the players in each episode. Even more exciting are the additional twenty-five pages of back-story. Parents who want more than a gutsy tale will be thrilled to find the global history of Tintin, with character and story inspirations, historical photos, original sketches, actual diagrams upon which the vehicles in the books were based, timelines, and more included in these newer reprints!

Sweet Strawberry Taffy has been so sick…this book was a great distraction for her!

I never realized that Tintin’s adventure’s were based on actual events!  The children all really love to read books comic style and to have them learning something at the same time makes for a happy Momma!

Finally!  He was the LAST one to get his hand’s on the book!

I even found myself laughing at some of the funny antics of the different character’s in Tintin’s adventure!  My only complaint, and this is just the result of my age more than anything…the words were a little small and I had to wearing my “granny glasses” in order to read the story.  The children didn’t complain though!  lol

Timberdoodle sells several different Tintin Adventures in this Young Reader version, which includes the historical information at the end of the book.  They sell for $7.99.  If this sounds like something you would love to get for your budding historian/adventurer, visit Timberdoodle! 

Tis the Season!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Legal Disclosure:
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of Red Rackham's Treasure Young Readers Edition in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Wondermaps~Review

In conjunction with Timberdoodle and Bright Ideas Press I had the privilege to review the downloadable version of Wondermaps.  I don’t think I’m equipped to do justice to describing what this program is…so I’m including the YOUTube here. 

What I do want to say is how I'd wished I had this a couple years ago when I used The Mystery of History.  What a helpful learning tool!

This program has all the maps you need for using any one of these books and more!

This year my 9th grader is using Beautiful Feet US and World History.  She needed a map of what our country looked like during the Civil War. 

All I had to do was click on Historical Maps.

Then I clicked on Revolutions to Rising Times.

Next I chose the time period I was looking for:

When I clicked on that, a gorgeous map appeared that I was able to customize to her needs.  It popped up looking like this:

And I was able to change it to this:

And then my daughter was able to label it like this, as required by her history curriculum.

Honestly, sometimes programs like this confuse me a little bit.  I’m not real program savvy and I need things to be really intuitive or I lose patience with them.  It only took a matter of seconds to get this map the way I needed it.  As she continues through her history curriculum and as my younger children have need, I can see myself returning to Wondermaps repeatedly!

Timberdoodle sells the Wondermaps CD  for $44.95. You could literally be using this for years and years, so considering that it’s not consumable and it can be used repeatedly for each year of homeschooling, it’s a pretty good value.  . 

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

P.S. If you want to see the other great geography products that Timberdoodle sells visit this link

Legal Disclosure:
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of WonderMaps in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Sea Turtle~Timberdoodle Review

As part of the Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review team I was asked to review a piece of their fantastic Toddler Timberdoodle Core Curriculum Package.

Would you just look at this adorable Sea Turtle? 

Officially it’s called Educo Colorback Sea Turtle Bead Maze. I think that’s a wordy title, but it’s sure a fun learning toy.  The goal of the maze is to move the colorful magnetic balls into the corresponding color pocket on the turtle’s shell using the magnetic wand.  Here’s an example:

          

And he finished it!

And just look at the joy on his face!  He adores this maze and the feeling of accomplishment that he gets from it.

Edco Colorback Seat Turtle is designed for children ages 2-7. (My 6 year old LOVED it too.)  It’s durably made, the plastic front isn’t scratching like you might expect from a toy like this.  I also like that the cord has one of those break-away thingy’s.  Not only is this a safety feature but also a deterrent for carrying it around by the cord. 

When you order the Toddler Timberdoodle Core Curriculum Package, not only do you get this great maze, but you also get all these other unique  learning materials.  Timberdoodle also includes a handy planning folder (which I also reviewed).  I love reading everything Timberdoodle writes but this folder is particularly helpful in that in gives ideas and suggestions for using each piece of the curriculum.  My favorite pages being the ones titled How do you do it all:  Housework, Home Education and Home Business?  Amazing wisdom from a family that has been there and done that.

Timberdoodle sells The Colorback Sea Turtle for $24.95.  And while that might seem a little spendy, it’s made with the kind of quality and care that makes it a treasure that can be passed down through all the 2-7 years that grow up in your home. 

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Legal Disclosure:  As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Beginning Geography~Review

As part of the Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team I was given a copy of Evan-Moors, Beginning Geography to review.

We are having so much fun with this book!  It’s a really simple and gentle introduction to Geography, aimed at children from Kindergarten thru 2nd grade.

This is my kindergartener and she is probably getting the most out of the book.  She is learning direction, both left and right and North, South, East and West.  She is learning to read a map and to use it’s key to find things.  She is learning what a compass is and what it’s for. 

You can see that some of the fully reproducible pages require cutting and gluing, which only adds to the fun!

We do two pages each day, it only takes about 10 minutes and it’s a favorite subject with my younger three.

This is my 2nd grader and while I think this book is too easy for him, he’s still enjoying it and proclaims daily, “I love Geography!”

As an added bonus my 3 year old has been able to participate in some of the activities.  Especially where it’s not required for him write something, but to locate something or follow directions. 

We have yet to cover major landforms and continents, but they are in there as are two fully colored maps that the children will love to see hanging on the wall!

Timberdoodle sells Beginning Geography for $10.75.  You can get your copy here!  I’m pretty excited because I’ve already purchased the next book for my 2nd grader to use when he starts 3rd grade and I’ll be interested to see how much of it my newly turned 1st grader will be able to understand and participate with!

Timberdoodle loves to give out catalogs, to get one mailed to you, click here.

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Legal Disclosure:
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of these books in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Critical Thinking Press~Review

As part of the Timberdoodle Blog Review Team I had the honor of reviewing 3 books by Critical Thinking Press.

First on the list is Mathematical Reasoning Level B.

I can’t even tell you how long I’ve been eye-balling this book, so you can imagine my excitement when I was asked if I would like to review it!  What a blessing!  Bubble Gum Taffy, who is 5 and in Kindergarten has been working her way through this book designated more for 1st grade/6 year olds.  I don’t consider Bubble Gum Taffy to be exceptionally bright, but this book sure is!  It’s so gentle, so non-assuming, but completely able to teach concepts that she was having difficulty with prior.

The first few pages are written to the parent, giving you suggestions on how to use the book and assuring you that you can take the liberty to use the book however you deem best.  I especially liked that they mentioned adding my own manipulatives to help teach a concept, had they not said that, I might not have…I’m a little dense like that sometimes. 

                  

Here she is choosing which of the items doesn’t belong in the set.

And this was a fun page teaching her how to add using a numbered line segment.  I’ve used this sort of concept before but with a number chart.  She really enjoyed this.

This is probably her favorite activity.  It’s a page of addition problems that she gets to solve.  You can see she’s using a number chart to help her add.  On the next page she completes a dot-to-dot using the answers  as clues to which dot to go to, feels more like a game than an assignment.

Topics/activities include: action, addition, bar graph, calendar, capacity, count, fractions, language, length, likelihood, manipulative, match, money, number line, odd/even, order, pattern, probability, real world problems, shapes, subtraction, symmetry, temperature, time, weight, and whole numbers.  Answer guide included in the back of the book.

My only complaint about the book is it’s binding,  she had a little trouble writing on the page that didn’t open all the way.  This could easily fixed with a quick book-chop at the local print shop though!

I wasn’t sure about the price of this book and if this book alone would be enough for a math curriculum, but I can see that I was wrong on both accounts, well worth the money and plenty enough for a years worth of learning!

The second lovely book I got to check out is Beginning Word Roots.

Blue-Raspberry is blessed to be able to use this book.  I sort of make a big deal about Latin in our homeschool.  I think it’s so useful for vocabulary and so interesting to learn.  So when I told him he got to a new “Latin book” to do he was thrilled!  Beginning Word Roots is directed at children in 3-4 grade, 8-9 years old, Blue-Raspberry is officially in 2nd and just turned 8 in December.  He is an excellent reader and like I said, VERY eager to learn Latin.

Each lesson focuses on Root Words and either suffixes or prefixes that go with the Root Word.  He was able to grasp this concept through the great graphs they have in the lessons, dividing up the prefix/suffix and their definition and the particular Root Word that is being studied.

He had no problem understanding how to make new words and definitions by combining the prefix/suffix with the Root.  Each lesson is between 2 and 4 pages long, we usually did a page or 2 at a time.  I was not able to completely let him do this independently, I probably could have if he were a little older.  Click here to see some sample pages.  Once he’s learns the root and it’s suffixes or prefixes, he gets to use those words to describe pictures and fill in the blanks of sentences used describing the word in context. 

I was honestly surprised by how much he enjoys this book!  I will definitely be getting the next one in the series when he completes this one!

And finally, the last book by Critical Thinking Press that I got to review is Building Thinking Skills 3.

This book is geared toward children age 12 and up, grades 7+.  Strawberry Taffy got this one!  She’s 12 years old and in the 8th grade.

“Building Thinking Skills Book 3 Verbal's activities are sequenced developmentally. Each skill (for example, classifying) is presented first in the semi-concrete figural-spatial form and then in the abstract verbal form. Children learn to analyze relationships between objects, between words, and between objects and words as they:
Observe, recognize, and describe characteristics.
Distinguish similarities and differences.
Identify and complete sequences, classifications, and analogies.”

She’s been working through it now for a couple weeks and her honest opinion is that it’s “a little boring.”  When I was asking her why I realized that book is divided into sections with the same sorts of activities, so it wasn’t that it was boring per se, it was that she was doing the same type of thinking skill each day.  To make things more interesting I suggested she move around a little in the book to keep things fresh and exciting.  That did the trick! Here are some sample pages for you to look over.  And thankfully, for those of us who have never been given the opportunity to learn how to think critically, the answers are included in the back of the book! 

Overall, all three of these books has surpassed my expectations.  It’s no secret that Critical Thinking Company is on the higher end of the price scale for subjects that don’t seem core, but I believe teaching our children how to think and solve problems is foundational for all their other studies and well worth the investment.

A big thanks to Timberdoodle for letting me review such nice products.  Timberdoodle would love to send you free catalog too, click the link and sign up today!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Legal Disclosure:  As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of these books in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.