Review: Library & Educational Services Go Science

As part of the TOS Review Crew, we were recently given the opportunity to review two more Science DVDs, this time from the Go Science series, available through Library and Educational Services. (Library and Educational Services is a wholesale distributor, which specializes in Christian educational materials, and sells to churches, daycares, schools, and homeschools. Sign up for their mailing list, and you'll frequently be tempted by their fantastic sales.)

There are 6 volumes in the Go Science series, with each volume focusing on two to four scientific principles. Each DVD sells for $8.97, or they are available as a set of six for $47.95. The DVDs are recommended for students ages 6-14.

We were sent Volume 2, Simple Machines, Sound, and Weather, and Volume 3 Magnetism, Electricity, Engineering, and Design. Both of these videos clocked in at just under an hour. (I browsed the website, and discovered that some DVDs in this series were a little shorter, in the 40+ minute range.)

The format of the shows is as follows: Ben Roy, (a university instructor, and formerly the director of a science themed television program,) acts as host and instructor. He is assisted by a group of children, and an occasional adult.  The kids help Ben with a variety of scientific demonstrations. (Each of the videos I received included 14 demonstrations.) Ben is lively and cheerful. The demonstrations are done using pretty straight foward materials. There are no high tech computer generated simulations or animations.

Volume 2 included the following demonstrations:

1st Class Lever                                                                         2nd Class Lever

3rd Class Lever                                                                        Incline Plane

Pulleys                                                                                      Trebuchet

Singing Glasses                                                                         Singing Rods

Sound Waves                                                                           Singing Pipes

Making a Cloud                                                                       Weather Balloon

Tornado Tube                                                                          Air Pressure

Volume 3 included the following demonstrations:

Monster Magnets                                                            A/C Electromagnet

D/C Electromagnet                                                          Making a Compass

Static Electricity                                                               Light Bulb

Jacobs Ladders                                                               Conductivity

Solar Energy                                                                    Tesla Coil

Color                                                                               Cut Paper Halves

Heat Engine                                                                      Plastic Pre Forms

Our impressions: I thought these DVDs were fun. They somehow reminded me of my childhood, watching Mr. Peppermint, and Lambchop's Play Along, when we learned without so many technological bells and whistles. (Yes, I'm getting old.) These DVDs aren't meant to be a stand alone science curriculum, so in and of themselves, they probably wouldn't be "enough" to teach a full science course. They would be a great supplement or enrichment to whatever else you're using, though. Ben's excitement is contagious, and most teachers I know, homeschool or otherwise, are always looking for ways to get kids excited about math and science.

After each segment, Ben makes a link to God, the Bible, or Christian living, reminding us that learning about science is learning about God's creation. That's not something I'd run across before, but I thought it was a neat aspect of the show. (One of my personal peeves is the idea that God and science are somehow mutually exclusive.)

My one complaint about the show was that the volume was fairly uneven, with some segments much louder than others. My easily overstimulated son, (with sensory processing issues,) periodically had to cover  his ears and run shrieking around the room due to volume changes. (In fairness, most people would probably notice the volume changes, but not be so disturbed by them.)

To see what other families thought of these DVDs, check out the linky on the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

Disclosure: I received 2 free DVDs in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are my own.

Review: Artistic Pursuits

L has really overcome his fine motor delays, and has turned out to be a pretty good little sketcher. We've picked up a few how to draw books, the ones that focus on particular cartoon or comic book characters, but that's been the extent of his artistic instruction up until now.

I feel pretty unqualified to teach art. I'm undoubtedly crafty, but not too artsy. (The one year I took art class as an elective in middle school, I nearly failed. Groan.) Art lessons sound good in theory, but they're expensive.

I was really excited to be chosen to review one of the Artistic Pursuits books, as part of the TOS Review Crew.

I chose Book One, An Introduction to the visual Arts, which is suitable for grades K-3. The softcover, spiral bound book is available through the Artistic Pursuits website, and retails for $42.95. It includes many colored photos, and is a concise 88 pages long. It's essentially a non-consumable book, which means it could be used for several of your children. (There is one certificate to fill out in the back, upon completion of the course. Otherwise, there's no need to write in it.)

There are, as you would expect, some additional supplies that need to be purchased in order to use this curriculum. (If you're an artsy craftsy family, you may have some of these items already in the house. We had a few of them.) If you need or want to purchase a full set of supplies, there are several different avenues you can take. You can buy a pre-assembled supply kit for this book directly from the Artistic Pursuits site for $85+shipping. The Artistic Pursuits site also links to another site where you pick up a supply package for $55.94+shipping. If you want, (or need,) to take a thriftier approach, you can always buy the supplies as needed, instead of in a bundle, and take advantage of the weekly 40-50% off coupons from your favorite craft stores.

I was really impressed with the customer service this company provides. Since they knew we'd want to dive right into the books as soon as we got them, they sent a letter about a week before the book shipped that included a supply list, and had the items we'd need immediately highlighted. How cool is that?

The book includes 32 lessons, one per week, broken into to three subject areas: What Artists Do, What Artists See, and Where We Find Art.

Each lesson is essentially broken down into three components.

1. A discussion of what you'll be learning about and working on, a theme for the week, if you will.
2. A photo of, some background information about, and discussion prompts for a piece of art that exemplifies the theme.
3. Third, the actual assignment.

(You can check out sample pages from lesson one here.)

The actual assignments are just what you'd hope for. They include open ended prompts, which allow for actual creativity, while also providing practical instruction on technique.

The book requires no advance preparation for the the teacher, other than gathering appropriate materials, and it doesn't assume any previous knowledge on the part of the student or teacher. In short, it was perfect for us.

The kids are super excited to be making "real" art. (Three and a half year old V is working along with us, to the best of her abilities.) L is developing new skills, like how to properly use a paint brush, (as opposed to grinding it roughly across the page,) and learning to appreciate things like perspective.

Three and a half year old V's kitty cat, drawn for week one's assignment.

I'm really excited to finally have a workable, systematic way to teach art to the kids, even though I'm not particularly gifted in that area. I like that the course covers art appreciation, art history, and actual technique. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to incorporate art into their homeschool.

Artistic Pursuits offers art curriculum for students of all ages, from preschool to high school. All of the books cost $42.95. (Obviously the supply kits will vary from year to year.) To find out more about what other homeschoolers thought about this, and other Artistic Pursuits products, check out the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.






Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of Artistic Pursuits in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are my own.

Review: Aims Getting into Geometry

I've heard a lot of homeschool moms say they're kind of scared of teaching math. As someone who has always been more of a words person than a numbers person, I can relate.

Don't get me wrong, even I, who barely squeaked through high school algebra, (ahem, even with a tutor,) am able to tackle the first grade math that I'm teaching my son. The problem is really one of confidence. I want to make sure he's learning the right things, in the right order, so that he never gets lost like I did.

I've lost more sleep over choosing the correct math curriculum than any other subject.

I was recently sent a copy of Getting into Geometry, by Aims Education Foundation, to review with L, as part of the TOS Review Crew program.

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The book is recommended for grades k-1, and retails for $24.95. It's a softcover, 255 page long book, broken down into the following sections:

2-D Shapes
Composing and Decomposing Shapes
Symmetry
3-D Solids
Spatial Relationships: Location/Position
Playful Practice

One of the great things about the book is that it includes a CD ROM which contains any necessary printables. That means you won't have to tear pages out of the book to copy them for the kids to use, (which is tedious,) and it means it's convenient and cost effective to use with several children.

I had hoped that maybe V (aged 3 1/2,) would be able to do some of the activities along with us, and indeed, she has been able to, so far. (We haven't worked through the entire book yet, but it appears that we will eventually lose her, as she's still technically a little young for the curriculum.)

I love that the book includes lots of hands on activities, as opposed to just worksheets. L is in some ways, your typically wiggly little 6 year old boy, but as I've written elsewhere, he also has ADHD, and some days he's extremely active. He learns better when there is something to be doing with his body, some way to channel all that energy. I think the abundance of fun, hands on activities is one of the major strengths of this curriculum. 

Another strong point is that the book pretty much lays out what to say and ask throughout the lesson, which is great for parents that aren't terribly confident in their ability to explain the principles properly. If you read along as you go, it's pretty much foolproof.

A number of household supplies are called for in the various lessons, things like Play Doh, and straws, and chalk, which you probably already have lying around. Tangrams and foam geometric shapes (Geo-Solids,) are also called for throughout the book. These are available from Aims, at a reasonable price, ($3.95, and $14.95, respectively.) You could, in a pinch, use paper tangrams, but the foam shapes appear to be pretty much mandatory, in order to effectively teach the sections dealing with 3-D shapes.

There is a fairly minimum amount of prep time required, which mainly consists of gathering materials, and printing things off the disk.

There was nothing I didn't like about the curriculum. It seems to be chiefly intended for traditional classroom use, and included information about standards and benchmarks for each activity, which wasn't particularly relevant to me, but also wasn't a problem. A few of the activities may have to be tweaked slightly if you are only teaching 1 child, instead of a classroom full, but it hasn't been a big deal for us.

We're going to continue using this curriculum. L is enjoying it, and I think it's a really solid, user friendly resource.

The AIMS website and catalog are full of neat looking science and math resources, from books, to math manipulatives, to complete lab kits.

To find out what other TOS Crew members are saying about this, (and several other,) AIMS products, check out the linky on the TOS Homeschool Crew review blog.




Disclosure: I was provided with a free copy of this book, and the accompanying CD, in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are my own.

Review: Hands-On Science by Elizabeth Brough

Up until fairly recently, we've been sort of touching on science as it comes up in our unit studies, or L shows an interest. In general our homeschooling style is pretty laid back, but I've been thinking something a little more systematic might be better for us.

Experimenting with volume.

I was given the opportunity to review Hands-On Science, vol. 1: Particles in Motion, by Castle Heights Press, Inc. It's intended for grades K-6, and sells for $29.95

I 'll admit I was initially curious how a science curriculum could effectively cover such a broad age range. I was pleasantly surprised.

The book consists of four sections:
Thermodynamics
Weather, Climate, &Water
Aerodynamics
Astronomy

Each of the four sections includes a number of experiments related to the topic. For each assignment, the basic experiment is explained, and there are instructions for further exploration to elaborate on the topic, as well as more challenging assignments for older students.

Essentially the student(s) would do the experiment, and if they were an early elementary student, you'd discuss the findings with them. An older student would take the assignment further by perhaps charting or calculating their answers, etc. In this way a family with several students could use the curriculum together, while tailoring the assignments to the students' abilities.

Experimenting with density.

L and I enjoyed this curriculum. As the book explains, at his age, (6,) science is mostly about the joy of discovery, not about memorizing steps and formulas. We did some of the experiments several times, on different days in order to reinforce the lessons. Even 3 year old V was excited to participate in the weighing and measuring. 

The materials called for were generally things you'd probably have lying around, or could easily acquire. This is a huge plus for me, as anything that requires tons of prep work by me in advance is less likely to actually happen around here. 

I really like the idea that we can use this curriculum now, and then we could actually revisit it in a couple of years, expanding on the explorations as L's abilities increase. I'm planning on using it next year, as an enrichment to the Heart of Dakota curriculum that we've selected.

I think this is a good, solid intro into science that kids will enjoy, and parents will find totally do-able.

Castle Heights Press offers a variety of neat products on their website for all ages, as well as a blog covering topics of interest to homeschoolers. You can also connect with them on FB or Twitter.

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of this book in order to facilitate the review. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are my own.

The Curiosity Files: Dung Beetle (Curriculum Review)

I recently had the opportunity to review an e-book from The Old Schoolhouse Store. It is part of a series of e-book unit studies, called Curiosity Files: Dung Beetles.

The retail price of this e-book is $6.95, although at the time of this writing, it's on sale for an unbelievable $1. The study is intended for use with students in the 8-13 year old range. The e-book is a whopping 80 pages long, and covers many subjects areas, with a surprising amount of depth.

So what's included?
Background information about Dung Beetles
Assessments to track comprehension of the background information
Biblical tie ins to the topic, memory verses, and copywork
Several math activities
Reading selections, and related activities
Spelling & vocabulary lists
Crosswords, word searches, etc
Lots of science activities, and great forms for recording activities and observations
Craft activities and links
Coloring pages
Links to videos and other information elsewhere online.

Our experience:
I knew L would be interested in the topic. He's a little boy after all, and there are few things funnier to most little boys than poop or bugs. I wasn't disappointed. I found that although many of the activities, were, as expected, somewhat out of his range, we were able to use some of them.  (He'll be 6 next week.) We did the reading portions of the unit via the computer, rather than printing them out, in order to save printer ink, as ours  is expensive. I printed out coloring sheets, copywork, and several worksheets, which he happily completed. We watched several of the videos linked to in the e-book as well. Afterward he was able to verbalize many of the facts we'd covered, and even dictated  a letter to his grandpa telling him what he'd learned.

My impression:
I thought the unit was fantastic. The activities were interesting, and there were a lot of activities, so you could either pick and choose for a short little study like we did, or complete them all over a longer time, perhaps a couple of weeks. I loved the that even in a unit about insects, the authors made many (logical) Bible references. I thought the retail price was actually a good deal, and wouldn't hesitate to plop down my cash for another of these units, if L was a wee bit older.
I can't think of any real "cons." L was a little too young to utilize the whole e-book, and I suppose if you were determined to print the entire e-book, you'd run through a good bit of ink.

I'd totally recommend this product. It's available at www.theoldschoolhousestore.com. There are other titles in the series, including several other insects, (Fire ants, Cicada-Killing Wasp,) and other animals and topics, like Puffer Fish, and MSRA.

Disclosure: Thanks to the Old Schoolhouse Magazine for providing me with this title for review. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions in this post are my own.

Review: Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory (One Week In)

I recently asked you all for some curriculum recommendations for first grade. (Thanks for the feedback, by the way.) I did some follow up research with all of the suggestions, as well as a few other companies that were on my radar.

In the end, I decided on the Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory curriculum, by Heart of Dakota. (I had actually considered their material for kindergarten, but had been too afraid to commit.) I took the plunge, and went ahead and ordered it, so we could start using it right away.

We're finishing our first week with it, and I have to say, I love it, and so far, so does L.

It requires maybe 5 minutes of prep time, which is a huge plus for me right now. The lesson plans are very complete, covering basically every subject area, (except a foreign language.) It's a Christian curriculum, with both specific Bible lessons, and also biblical tie ins to other subject areas. It takes between 1 and two hours a day to complete, which I'm really happy with. Finally, I thought the price was reasonable. The package I ordered was just under $200.

I have no complaints or negative observations about this curriculum, thus far. I'll check back in later on, and let you know how we're doing with it.

Disclosure: This review was not compensated in any way. 

Review: See the Light Drawing Children to Him

It's not often that you're really blown away by a review product.
I recently saw a call for reviewers of the See the Light-Drawing Children to Him DVD on Twitter. It sounded interesting, so I chimed in saying I'd like to check it out. I was expecting some sort of Christian art lesson.
It turns out that while there are art lessons on the DVD, there's also a lot more to it. The first portion of the DVD consists of two Bible stories, "The Crossmaker," and "Jesus Loves the Children."  The stories are beautifully illustrated with chalk drawings, in a style that's wholly different from the computer generated animation that makes up most children's programs today.
The stories themselves are adaptations of Bible stories, told from unusual points of view, like the boy who built Jesus's cross, and the children the disciples tried to turn away. I found nothing in the telling of the stories that I could imagine being divisive or offensive to any Christian denomination. In short, they were fantastically done.
The next portion of the video is the Plan of Salvation, narrated by a group of children, and again illustrated with the same gorgeous chalk drawings. This would be an amazing outreach tool for VBS, or other church functions. This portion of the DVD alone would be worth purchasing it for.
Finally, there is the art portion of the DVD. You can either watch the artist, Gloria Kohlman draw while listening to worship music, or you can opt to listen to her commentary and bits of instruction as she draws. It's pretty amazing to watch what initially looks like scribbles emerge as a moving piece of art.
There's also an actual traditional drawing lesson  in a classroom setting with children. I enjoyed watching the kids put their own spin on the drawings. The lesson itself actually looked very doable. I'm going to try it with my son as soon as I can get some appropriate chalk.
Altogether, the DVD offers 115 minutes of education and ministry. The DVD retails for $14.99, and is available at http://seethelightshine.com/. There is an in depth lesson plan on the website to go along with the DVD. It's free! There is also an art club on the site, for which a free trial is available, and you can "like" See the Light on FB, or follow them on Twitter, to keep up with the company.
I'm hoping they'll be coming out with some follow up DVDs soon. I'll buy them.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or sevices mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally, and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Comsission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Stepping Stones Together Review

One of the neat things about doing product reviews is that I'm frequently introduced to products I might not have otherwise ever heard of.


One such Product is the Stepping Stones Together reading program, which is a reading program aimed at children 3-7 years old. The program is based around 3 sets of 5 emergent reader books that you can access online or print.


The really neat thing is that there are 6 different book themes to choose from, depending on your child's interests. (The available choices are animals, fairies, princesses, sports, superheros, and transportation.) I think this is an important point, since kids are easier to engage when the topic is interesting to them. Each book is 8 pages long, and includes questions for you to ask the child at the end, as well as a writing or drawing prompt. In addition to the books, you can also print a progress chart, flashcards for each book, completion certificates, a packet of ideas to extend the learning, via several different games, and even paper for the child to do the writing/drawing exercise on. It's pretty all inclusive. Other than purchasing a membership, you'll need a printer, a stapler, and some crayons.


There's a section on the website that covers how to introduce the material, how many times to read each book for optimal results, etc. According to the stated schedule, the whole program of 15 books should take 60 days.


I printed out the first 10 books of the Transportation set for L. This program relies heavily on high frequency words, and as expected, the books followed a repetitive, predictable pattern. The cute, simple illustrations (which are closely tied to the text, and meant to aid the child in reading,) are meant to be colored as part of the program.


I was impressed with the program, and I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it previously. The cost of a 90 day membership is $19.99, or you can subscribe for a full year for $39.99. In my estimation, this makes the cost comparable to other emergent reader programs.

I haven't actually started using the books with L yet, as we don't officially start school for another couple of weeks.I'm going to be using them with him when we start though, and I'll update you then with how he does.

In the meantime, if you're wondering "how am I going to teach my child to read?" and want want to know more about the program or its creator, check out the Stepping Stones Together website at http://www.steppingstonestogether.com/, or you can also follow them on Twitter.

Disclosure: I was provided access to the Stepping Stones Together website in order to facilitate the review. No other compensation was provided.

Next Year's Curriculum Choices

I'm still plugging along, trying to get things ready for the next school year, which for us will start at the beginning of August. We had thought about buying a boxed curriculum this year, just to make things easier for me, but decided that for at least another year, we'd continue on a somewhat interest led unit study approach, cobbled together by yours truly.

As boring as it sounds, we're going to be using a few plain old workbooks around here next year. L actually likes to work in them, and why try to reinvent the wheel every day, right? We'll be using mostly kindergarten level workbooks to teach math and phonics. I'll throw some fun stuff in too, but that's the backbone of our plan, at least for now.

For handwriting, we're going to try out Draw. Write. Now. It looks fun, and lots of people seem to love it. L is really getting into drawing, so I think this may be a hit with him. We'll also continue to do some general work on fine motor skills, which should help L in the long run.

Our science and social studies will basically consist of our unit study for the week, and whenever possible, our art projects will tie into that as well.

I'm tentatively planning on using History for Little Pilgrims for history. I have read through the text and the teacher's manual pretty thoroughly, and I like it, but I'm not 100% sure whether L is quite old enough to "get" it. If not, we'll hold that off for another year, and I'll come up with something else.

For Spanish, we'll be relying primarily on Boca Beth materials, both the things we've purchased, and the free resources on line.

I'm still working on what we're going to do for bible study, other than just reading the bible. I think I'm going to try to take a topical approach, (for example, learning about Noah's Ark during boat week).

Anyway, that's our ever evolving plan. L is excited about starting school again. V is too. She says she's going to "have kindergarten too."

Added to the linky at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.