TOS Review - Write Shop Primary, Book B

We didn't have a formal writing curriculum this year.  We had a handwriting curriculum, but any writing was done on the fly.  (I won't dwell on my anxieties of how "behind" other first graders that we are.  That's why we homeschool, right? Right?!? Don't leave me hanging!)  Anyhoo, I was hestitant when asked to review WriteShop Primary, Book B, but it turned out to be right up our alley.

WriteShop offers incremental writing programs for Kindergarten through 12th grade.  The first products they offered were for middle/high school students, but now they have Primary (K-3) and Junior (3-5) levels.  This is an overview of the Primary level from the WriteShop website:

WriteShop Primary teaches the skills of the writing process at the very simplest level through activities, crafts, and picture books. It accommodates pre-writers as well as beginning and developing writers, so your youngster needs no previous reading or writing experience. Slowly and gently, the child is asked to help with the actual writing, first in simple words and later, through copywork. And by turning these stories into a little craft, he will have a project to proudly share with others.

Several schedules help you plan according to your child’s grade or skill level. Lessons are divided into eight Activity Sets to thoroughly cover a topic without hurrying the child. Examples abound to make teaching oh, so easy for you!

Each Activity Set includes Guided Writing Practice. Activity Sets 2-8 also include a key activity or project.

Activity Set 1: Guided Writing Practice only

Activity Set 2: Pre-writing Activities and Picture Book

Activity Set 3: Brainstorming

Activity Set 4: The Writing Project 

Activity Set 5: Editing and Revising

Activity Set 6: Activity Set Worksheet

Activity Set 7: Publishing the Project 

Activity Set 8: Want To Do More?

My Musings:

For our writing pace, WriteShop Primary was a good fit for us.  It's lessons are laid out in three, two or one week plans depending on how quickly or slowly you want to progress through the activity.  The writing activities can either be done by the student or as teacher guided writing (which is the way we went). The beginning units we completed were on writing a friendly letter (page formatting and expanding on what you want to say) and how to address an envelope.  Those both came at the time we were working on her Thank You cards from her birthday, so she was able to see it used in real life.  (Not saying her thank you messages were full of information, but she got the basics covered.  Lol)  Another activity that we did was learn about acrostics, so we did one for SUMMER.  I should have taken a picture of it, but it included swimming, making cupcakes and running outside.  All kinds of fun.  The lifeblood of the program, in my opinion, is the Teacher's Guide.  It is totally scripted (if you like that kind of stuff - it does have to be edited for your family) and has all the activities and instructions that you need to teach.  Some curricula you can fudge your way through without the TG, but you cannot use this program without it!  There is an activity pack for each level that is purchased separately.  Here is a sample lesson from Book B:

The Teacher's Guide is available in a print edition for $29.95 or as a digital e-book pdf $26.95 and the Activity Pack is available in a print edition for $4.95 or as a digital e-book pdf for $4.50.  WriteShop is offering my bloggy friends (that's YOU!) a 15% discount on the WriteShop Primary and Junior products. Enter in the coupon code: CREW15 at checkout.  Offer is good through June 15, 2012.

*Disclaimer:  As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew,  I received a set of WriteShop Primary Book B in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was received.*

TOS Review - Go Science DVD

We seem to be focusing a lot on science lately. We enjoy it though, so we'll just go with the flow. Library and Educational Services provided us the opportunity to review a couple DVDs from their series, Go Science, featuring demonstrations by college professor, Ben Roy. Recommended for ages 6-14, there are currently six titles available:
 Volume 1: Motion and the Laws of Gravity
 Volume 2: Simple Machines, Sound, Weather
 Volume 3: Magnetism, Electricity, Engineering, and Design
 Volume 4: Chemistry, States of Matter, Life Sciences
 Volume 5: Air, Flight
 Volume 6: Water, Space, Solar System

My musings:
We chose Volumes 2 and 4 for our review. We were in the midst of our life sciences unit (and had just finished learning about simple machines and a separate unit on clouds/weather), so I felt these would be a good complement to our lessons. The DVD includes several demonstrations (volume 2 has 14 and volume 4 has 11)on the specific topics. Each one follows the same format: Mr. Roy does a short teaching segment in front of a group of kids, often using one as a helper. He ends each segment reminding them that as they learn more about science, they are learning more about our Creator. While we enjoyed watching the demonstrations, most could not be easily duplicated at home without buying specialized materials and advanced planning. That is a downside for us. Julianna likes to try the experiments at home - she's a hands-on girl. One of our favorites was the demonstration on making clouds using dry ice. I love watching how dry ice rolls over surfaces when water is added to it. (I used to work in the radiation safety department at West Virginia University in a previous life. Our office would receive all the shipments of isotopes that were ordered for the Univeristy Hospital and various research departments. Most came packed in dry ice which would then become billowing blankets of vapor pouring out of the sink after the package was picked up. Good times. Wonder where you even buy dry ice? I digress...) Overall, I would recommend the Go Science series if you want to use video demonstrations to supplement your science units. If you are looking for experiments for easy duplication, this might not be for you.

Disclaimer: As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received 2 volumes of the Go Science DVD series in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Makes perfect sense

What do you do when you're done with your school work for the day, you've just put some outgoing mail in the box and it's raining?

You go jumping in the puddles, of course!

 Happy Monday, friends.

An American Girl Weekend Extravaganza - Part 1, Party Day

Well, friends, I am now the mother of a seven year old.  I know, I can't believe it either.  How this snuck up on me is a mystery.

I've mentioned before that Julianna is a *little bit crazy over American Girl dolls. (*A little bit crazy = completely nutso).  Last year, we went to the American Girl Place in NYC for her 6th birthday.  You can read about those escapades here. This year, we already planned on Dad taking the day off and taking her to the new American Girl Place that opened up outside of Washington, DC.  To kick off her birthday weekend, we hosted a small AG party for a few friends.  Our plan was to make some AG doll sized clay foods and crafts (Which is one of Julianna's favorite activities...creating AG or Barbie sized anything!), eat and play games.  Mission accomplished.  We didn't get to as many of the crafts as I had planned, but the girls got to take them home to complete.  Here are a few pictures of our par-tay.

The party poof idea I got from Pinterest.  (Pinterest, oh, Pinterest, how I doth love thee!)

Our AG table centerpiece built by Dad. :-) 

Yum!   

An excited birthday girl...and her helpers.  Lol

  

The girls and their girls.

Mama's Favorite Summer Ride

For the past few weeks (since it has been a crazy, warm Spring, so far), I have been taking (when I can fight her steering wheel away from my husband) this beauty out for a spin on Thursday nights.  I put on my sunglasses, slick my hair back (so the wind doesn't mess it up too much) and hit the gas.  Every time I'm in the driver's seat the song "Born Free" ('Born free, free as the wind blows. Free as the grass grows. Born free to follow your heart') plays in my head.  Okay, maybe I sing it aloud, as well.  

  It's the simple pleasures in life, my friends.

TOS Review - Amazing Science!

One of Julianna's favorite things about school (and trust me, there aren't that many faves) is doing science experiments.  That's why I knew we would enjoy Amazing Science, Volume 1 from www.scienceandmath.com.

Volume 1 includes 23 experiments in the areas of electricity, magnetism, heat, temperature, pressure, surface tension, buoyancy and more.  

My musings:

I knew this DVD was a winner when Julianna wanted to watch the experiments and then rush right off and do them.  We had already learned about surface tension, so we picked that experiment as our first to try.

First we added food coloring to some milk in a shallow plate.  The food coloring doesn't do much in the milk until you put a q-tip (that has been dipped in dish liquid)  into it.  The color shoots across the plate.

Groovy, huh?

She then wanted to try the experiment again with all the food coloring we had:  8 colors.

The Amazing Science!  DVD set was a huge hit in our home.  It would be an awesome supplement to any science curriculum...or if your kid just likes to do experiments.  I can see us trying all of the experiments in our future.  

Details:  

The Amazing Science!  Volume 1 DVD is available for shipping for $19.95 or you can also do an online download of the experiments for $17.99.  

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was given a copy of the Amazing Science! DVD in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was received.  

TOS Review - K-5 Learning

If you Google the phrase "reading or math online activities" you will get over a million results...literally. Obviously you won't be able to check them all out , so you just choose a couple from the beginning and go from there. (I feel kinda bad for the results on latter pages of a Google search.  I mean, really, who goes past page 4 or 5?) Well, I can give you one to add to your short list:  K-5 Learning.

K-5 Learning is a supplemental program designed for Kindergarten through 5th grade.  It covers 4 areas: reading, spelling , math, and math facts.  When you first sign up for the program (and they do offer a free trial period), your child completes assessments in both math and reading to get a level for the program to begin.  Parents have access to an interactive dashboard that allows them to view progress reports of lessons completed and at what level their child is performing and also assign specific lessons in the different areas, as well as adding customized spelling lists.

My musings:

I really liked K-5 Learning.  So much so, that I'm pondering extending our subscription past our review period.  The main selling point for me is the fact that parents have detailed reports available all the time (pro/con for me because I tend to care a little too much about being on grade level) and the ability to customize the lessons to correspond with what you are teaching.  Another plus is that the characters, while still cartoons, are not too young for her...or animals...or aliens.   And the lessons seem to move at a good pace.  No continuous repetition of skills that are already mastered. (Not that I feel repetition is a bad thing, but when it seems like the activities are repeating at a lower level with no challenge at all, boredom and silly mistakes set in which cause the activities to repeat again.  Vicious cycle.)   

Julianna's musings:

"Well, math is okay, but not reading.  The reading is kinda weird because they say fairies are not real and they're real!"  (There was a game about things real vs make believe and it said fairies were make believe.  As if! We'll keep your secret, Tinker Bell.) 

If you are looking for a supplement for your reading and math instruction, check out K-5 Learning.  After the free trial offer, unlimited memberships run monthly ($25 one student/$15 additional students) or yearly ($199 one student / $129 additional students).  The pricing is on the high side (in my opinion), but is worth it if it works for you.  

**Disclaimer:  As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a trial subscription to K-5 Learning in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was given.**