Schooling While Sick- Computer Learning!

In case you missed my whining on Facebook, I have been sick for two weeks.  I was in bed for six days of that time, either asleep or coughing.  Pneumonia and bronchitis will do that to 'ya!  It was NOT fun!  Still isn't, but, hey, at least I am out of bed and I think the second round of antibiotics has finally worked.  At least, I hope so.

So what to do when you are a homeschooling mom that is sick in bed?  Those are the days I was, and am, very thankful for computer based programs!  Seriously. 

Here's a confession.  Once upon a time I was one of those moms that scoffed at computer based learning.  I mean, why would you commit to school your child and then put them in front of a TV or computer screen?  Doesn't that defeat the point of you teaching?

Little did I know and lots of apologies do I owe!

I still may not ascribe to full time computer learning for personal reasons, but I have come to appreciate the value and reasons behind it.  If it had not been for some of those very programs, one of my children in particular would have done no school this past two weeks.  That is reality.

Luckily for him (in my opinion, not necessarily his, of course!) some of his school work is on the computer and he is able to do it on his own.  Because of that, I cannot call the past 14 days a complete flop in terms of school.  Other things are another matter! ;)

So what did he do?

History!  If you have not heard me rave about Veritas Press Self Paced History, hear me do so now.  This was one of those review items I did for Schoolhouse Crew that I did not realize would bless us as much as it has.   It is just the best history I have found.  My second grader is able to log in and view the lessons, do the activities and take the tests with no help from me.  I will admit I usually view the lessons with him because I enjoy them as well and have learned a lot from it, but for the past few weeks he has been on his own.  And even completed two lessons on several days!

Math!  This is where IXL has been a huge blessing.  Since it is a review based program, he may not have advanced into a new subject, but he has certainly not fallen behind.  Again, he was able to log in and review math concepts for 15-30 minutes a day. 

Language Arts!  Again, IXL to the rescue.  Some of the concepts for his grade level have been new to him, but because you have access to all levels he knows he can go back and review 1st grade material as well.  Another program we have used for over a year now is Reading Eggs.  This is more game based and flashy, but CJ loves it and so do I!  His reading soared by leaps and bounds when he first started Reading Eggs and he continues to do well with it.  I love that it covers reading comprehension, sight words, grammar and more.  He is required to do a level a day to "unlock" his 30 minutes of free computer time or a 30 minute movie.

OK, so it may not be a complete day's worth of curriculum, but for a sick mom, it is a small victory!  And the glory of schooling year round is that we are not in a race against the clock or the calendar.

Yay me!  Yay homeschooling!  And yay computer based learning!

What about you....do you have a computer base program you use and love?  I think I am ready to add a few more to our list and we would love to have you share what works for you!  If you have reviewed something you love and use, feel free to leave us the link!

Blessings,


*I am getting no compensation for mentioning these companies.  The opinions expressed are mine alone and based on our family's experiences.

CTCMath- TOS Crew Review

I am not a natural at math.  Neither are several of my kids.  That is why I was so excited to be able to review CTCMath, 12  Month Family Plan, an online math tutorial program for grades Kindergarten up, featuring over 1400 video lessons.  Yes, kindergarten and up! Algebra 1 and 2 ,Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus and Calculus are included as well.  And with your family subscription, you are given access to all levels for up to 5 children automatically.  Need more slots? Just contact CTC customer service and they will work to expand that!

The first thing you will notice when you start CTCMath is that the teacher has a beautiful Australian accent.  My kids loved that! Although it originated in Australia, you can get this program in several versions to fit the currency and measurements in your country, so most of you will want to ask for the US version. Cool, huh?

On the student page you will find each grade listed, broad subjects, and then subsets of those subjects.  Just click on where you want to start and you are off.  We have currently worked with three different levels on a regular basis (and one additional level as a life saver for our college student) so let me break it down a little for you.

My youngest has recently finished 1st grade math so we started there for him, mostly to see how he much he has retained for the year.  We decided to use the program 4-5 times a week.  Each lesson begins with a quick video explaining the concept.  Videos last about 1-4 minutes each.  My 6 year old started with pretty simple concepts like counting by ones and then moved on to things like skip counting, addition, subtraction, and multiplication and division.  "Multiplication and division?!" you may say?  At least I did!  But I loved how they taught it.  Instead of just 2x3 or 12/3, they used pictures to show groups of things and dividing groups of things.  So while at this age a child might not be learning his or her multiplications tables yet, they are learning the concepts behind those tables.  Love it!

For each section that you do you have one of two choices.  You can take a comprehensive test that will test you on all the sub-categories taught or you can work through each section.  If you take the test, you can choose between two versions, one which is slightly longer.  If you have children that really only need review, this is a good option.  Have them take the test and if they do well, move on.  Your second choice is to go through each lesson individually.  This option allows you to watch the video, again usually only one to four minutes long, that teaches the concept.  Afterwards, your child answers a series of questions to practice and receives a score for that section.  The sections are averaged together and award certificates are given.  As you can see below, those certificates became a HUGE motivator for my son.  Huge!  I had no idea that would be what spurred him on to do more sections, but hey, it works! I had intended to just allow him to test straight through the sections to see where we found information he did not know and then start there, but as soon as he realized he would not get the certificate if he did it that way he insisted on doing every section.

Each time your child is awarded a certificate you are emailed that info and weekly progress reports are sent to you so you can keep track of your child's progress.  These are especially helpful for those who have older students that you are not monitoring daily.

My 12 year old son is just finishing up 6th grade and is actually pretty strong in math, but when pursuing the topics in the 5th grade level we ran into a few I did not think he was familiar with.  For that reason we have started in the 5th grade level and preceded forward.  Three to four times a week I had him complete many of the individual levels, one or two at a time, but we are going to start just doing the comprehensive tests so he can get to a level,  probably in the 6th grade area, that he is more correctly placed.  As with any math program, some concepts are taught in a slightly different manner than what he is used to, but I think that has been a good practice in being flexible.  Unlike his brother, while the same certificates are offered, it has not been something that interested him.

My 16 year old is just now finishing up Algebra 2, so we have been using this program as a supplemental study in preparation for taking the CLEP.  What we have found in studying for that test is that she has gotten rusty in some of the Algebra 1 and Geometry concepts she has not practiced in a year or more.  CTCMath has been a great review and one that she is now using three times a week until test time, just jumping to subjects that she needs a refresher on.  The format for these higher levels is slightly different we found.  Instead of a problems tab, it says view worksheet on it.  Your child must work the problems on their own and then click the enter results tab to enter their answers separately, matching a letter assigned to an answer with each problem.  Switching back and forth became a hassle to my teen and caused her to get a few problems wrong by a careless transfer of numbers.  We both wish those two pages were in a one page format.

And then there is my college girl!  We had no intention on her using this at all but I just have to share a HUGE success story.  Due to transferring as a second semester junior to a new college, she suddenly found herself taking a basic math class online. Math has never been her strong suit, and remember, she has now been out of a math class for over several years.   After struggling with a concept that she had just completely forgotten (logarithms) and with no teacher close by to explain, I encouraged her to jump on CTCMath and see if she could find a video (she is a visual learner).  She did, watched it, did the practice problems, and then made a 100 on her college math quiz!  Success!!  Be aware that at these higher levels the video clips do tend to be a bit longer.



So would we recommend CTCMath?  You bet!  While they advertise being a math tutorial program, I have no doubt that you could teach math from this program alone at the younger levels. At high school levels, I think it is an excellent review program as well as one to turn to for practice or when your child is just struggling to grasp a new concept.  The problems are clearly taught and easy to follow.  At the younger grade levels, bright, fun illustrations are used that are engaging and eye catching for visual learners.  The audio is clear for auditory learners and pleasing to the ear.  For those who are more kinesthetic, for many of the problems there are graphics that you can manipulate just like you would ones at your own home. There are blocks to count out, make groups with and otherwise use to help compute the answer.  My youngest loved that part!

If I was going to change anything I would like to see a function that would take a child directly to where they left off.  When jumping around and reviewing, it is not a big deal to get to any place you want, but for the younger kiddos especially, it would be nice if you could go directly to where you left off from in your previous session.

CTC Math is currently on sale (at the time of this review) can be purchase for $78.80 for a year for a single student, or $118.80 for a family plan.  I would encourage you to check it out!

You can find CTC Math here-
Facebook CTC Math - https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath?ref=hl
Facebook Aus (Maths Online) - https://www.facebook.com/mathsonline.com.au?ref=hl 

The Adventure Bible Website- Review and Bible Giveaway!

I have boys who love to play games on the computer.  And quite frankly, they are not real picky about which ones they play.  Unfortunately they have a mom that is (that's me!) and so their game time is rather limited.  Have you seen the choices out there lately.  Not impressed.

So to say that I was excited to find that Zondervan has a site out there for kids ages 8-12 called The Adventure Bible Website, is an understatement.  An opportunity to review it- a breeze and a privilege!

And even better news- it is free.  Yep, just go on over and get started!

Here's a little of what you will find-

Bible Search- This is a keyword or reference search feature for your kids.  They just type in what they want to find a verse about and it gives them all kinds of references.  Easy to use!

Bible Activities- This is actually the biggest category and MY favorite by far.  There you will find reading plans to print out for your children, crossword and word search puzzles, devotionals, maps, illustrations and a words to treasure section that allows you to print out flash cards with verses on them.

And of course, Games- my boys favorite section.  Who would have guessed, right?    Luckily for them, I loved the games as well.

    Leaping Lemurs has you guessing the missing letters to complete a Bible verse.
    Truth Quest  has over 100 trivia questions to answer.
    Books of the Bible allows your child to put the books of the Bible in the correct order.
    X Marks the Spot is all about maps and locations of places.  (Let's just say I need to study up on my bible cities knowledge more so than my son)
     Leopardy- yep, think Jeopardy hosted by a leopard.

In addition to all of that there is a Educator and Classroom Teacher section that you can sign up for and then log in to additional teacher resources to use.

Love it!

Here's why-
There are just too many web sites out there with fluff at best and complete junk at worst.  They are often too flashy for my taste, too boring for my kids, or too violent to even give the time of day.  To find a site that not only entertains my kids but has value to it- well, that is a win- win situation.  The website is easy to navigate for the kids and fun to use.  It stretched my almost seven year old a bit with the trivia but he enjoyed it none the less and my 12 year old was pleasantly surprised with the site.  I was a little surprised myself at not only how well he did with it (did I mention he knew more trivia than I did?) but also that he enjoyed being on it.  12 year boys...well, you know.  Hard to please sometimes.

If you are looking for a safe site for your kids to be able to have a little fun and learn about God and the Bible, this is one I highly recommend you add to your favorites.  Remember it is FREE!  The printables would make great activities for quiet time as well as great handouts for a Sunday School class.  There is also an iPad app that we found just as easy to navigate.

The folks at Zondervan have graciously offered to bless one of our readers with the new color Kids Adventure Bible!  It is beautiful.  For your chance to enter just click on the rafflecopter below.

Blessings,



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Learning to Count to Six Again- Our daughter's Change in College Plans

Have you heard the latest news at our house?  Our oldest daughter, a college junior, is coming home to finish her degree online.  Yep, like packed up all of the stuff in her dorm and moved back in with us.  I know, crazy, right?  As my husband said - we are learning how to count to six again, now that four kids are back in the house.

I want to tell you a little about the decision and how it came to be, but I want you to know from the very get go that this is MY side of the story and how her father and I see it.  I cannot speak for her, though I did get her permission to post this.  She will have to tell you her side of things next week.

My husband and I both went to college.  It was what one did then and what we grew up believing it was the norm. Therefore, as our oldest got closer to that age, we began planning her college future.  She dutifully took the ACT, CLEPed a few classes and dual credited her senior year here at home via online classes.  We, as in her parents and her, researched many colleges, visited a few, and then she chose one she felt was the best fit for her.  That being said, all the while this process took place, she kept telling us she would rather stay home.  We patted her on the hand, smiled, and then told her no.  She was young.  She was our first born.  She was timid and we felt she had a lot to learn and that she needed to do that out from under our roof.  And so out of obedience to us, she went away to school, entering as a sophomore because of the classes she had already taken online.

We stopped counting to six and started counting to five.  It was a hard transition. For all of us. Because we are a military family, we knew that no matter where she chose to attend she would not be close to "home."  She chose a school over 1,020 miles away. She got through her first year.  She would tell you it was not the most fun experience, but she proved to herself and to us she could do it. We were proud of her.  We saw our timid, first born child take her life in her hands and accomplish great things.  She made all A's except for a dreaded B in Ancient Biblical Greek (my bragging mom moment) and she grew by leaps and bounds.  She made friends that she will always cherish and she found out she was able.  She took classes that she loved and she managed to find joy in the little things.

But, in the end, we were ALL glad when summer came and she headed home.  All too quickly fall came again, but this time because of our recent move, we were now only 7 1/2 hours away from her. We told ourselves it would make all the difference in the world.  It did not.  Despite being closer to her and seeing her more often, my husband and I watched our bright, vibrant girl losing her joy.  Yes, she loved her friends at school and continued to excel in classes and even found her dream job sewing in the school's costume cottage, but on a whole the unhappiness seeped through.  Before even Thanksgiving we began to talk about the what-ifs.  What if she finished with an Associates degree now?  What if she transferred to a school that was closer?  What if we ended up moving even further away from her - then what?

There were so many things to process and decisions to be made.  Here is what it boiled down to -
Her joy is found in the home - cooking, sewing and helping around the house.  While that may not be the "popular" thing, it is who she is and what she loves.  Those are things not easily done in a small dorm room.
She found she could finish her BS degree online and possibly even a semester early.
She had honored her parents by going away to school because they felt she should, but not because she felt called to or wanted to.  She had accomplished that which we had asked of her, though in hind-sight we now will tell you she probably could have done all that at home as well.
She didn't need to go away to "find herself" or discover who she was or what she liked.  She knew those things already and quite frankly they were right here all along.
We knew if we stayed put in our current location, she could "make it through" for another year and a half, but if we moved there was no way she was going to want to be even further from us.
Sometimes mom and dad don't have the perfect plan or all of the right answers.  We are learning and growing too!  (please don't tell the younger three)

At that point her father said, "If she cannot see herself staying there if we move, then she does not need to stay there regardless of where we live.  No one should be miserable at school, except at the Air Force Academy."  ;)   Was she miserable? No, but pretty close and you get the point.  Staying just to stay was not the right answer for us or for her.  And so, when her semester finished, her hero daddy packed her up and helped bring her home.

Let me tell you where this has all landed us, other than having to learn to count to six again! ;)

We are overjoyed that she is home to stay for a while.  While I am thrilled that she went out of obedience to us, I feel a little guilty that that is why she went to college.  We have learned that there is more than one way to do things.  Yes, we knew that, but we obviously did not apply that in this situation.  Instead we followed what the world said was the thing to do.  Raise a kid until they are 17 or 18 and send them off.  Do not hear me wrong, we are not now rejecting the college path.  I am thankful even today that she will still get a college degree.  But, if asked, we do now acknowledge that there is, as my mom would say, more than one way to skin a cat.  Online classes work well for our daughter, and quite honestly would probably have been the best bet for her all along.  Every child is different and is called to something different.  That is also not to say that the past year and a half at school were wasted.  God works ALL things for our good and I do not think He wasted one minute of her past year and half at school.

Every experience God gives us, every person He puts into our lives, is the perfect preparation for a future only He can see. 
-Corrie Ten Boom

I do think that she was on a good path that her father and I thought at the time would take her where she wanted to go.  We now see that that path was not only not quite where she wanted to go, but was also not the best path for her to take anymore.  Flexibly is not always this family's strong point but we are learning.

To trust God.  And to trust our daughter.  I think they are onto something.

And in the meantime, I am just glad to see the joy coming back as she not only spends time continuing to learn but doing the things that she loves with the people who love her best.

Hey, I not only got my girl back, but my seamstress, cook, and cleaner all in one!  What a deal!

I hope you will come back next week for her side of the story!

Blessings,

CREW Review- Reading Kingdom

Kindergarten- The Year of reading.  Or at least, trying to!  

For the past month we have had the privilege of reviewing the Reading Kingdom website with our 5 year old.

  LOVE IT!  

We were currently "doing" another reading program, but this is the one CJ began to ask to use daily and so, sure...read on, CJ!

 

Reading Kingdom is an online program geared for grades K-3rd to teach reading, comprehension, and writing. Developed by Dr. Marion Blank, author of the book The Reading Remedy and director of the Light on Learning program at Columbia University, Reading Kingdom uses parts of phonics and whole language learning and adds sequencing, motor skills, sounds, meaning and comprehension to teach reading and writing.

 

When you first begin Reading Kingdom your child will take a skills test which places them in the appropriate level.  There are 5 levels with 6 books in each level.  Before a child reads a book, he or she is taught all of the words they will need to know to be able to read that book.  Instant success = happy, confident child.  After each level there is a progress check.  If your child shows mastery, they move on to the next level.  If there is an area of weakness, your child will continue at that level with more review.  There are tons of other details that you can check out by going to Reading Kingdom's website Parents tab!

  OK, enough of the parent details.  I want to share with your our experience.  

We started, of course, with the skills survey.  It was painful- for both of us.  BUT, we did it in bite size chunks and with a lot of encouragement plowed through it.  CJ's frustration was that he did not get everything right.  Well, surprise son, you can't really read yet!  Because he has just turned five and is just starting out, he was placed in the Seeing Sequence and Letter Land level.  Sequencing is just that- seeing a sequence and typing it in.  I was worried he would not be able to remember them (on the example below the word dog would disappear and then he would type it), but he did fine.

   

 

 

Letter Land is simply familiarizing the child with the keyboard.  I was worried he couldn't do that either- he did.  I have heard from several people using this program that their frustration with it was that their child "tested" into a lower reading/skill level because of issues with the keyboard.  I can see that happening, but I would encourage you to think of it as a whole, not just for one specific skill.  With this day and age, even our young children need to become well versed with a keyboard.  If learning that side by side with reading works, then all the better, as far as I am concerned.  Once past that level we finally got to learning words.  (hey, no one said learning to read was a fast process!)

 

The first words he learned:  kid(s), boy(s), girl(s), some, more.

 

Yep!  That was it.  Not your ordinary first word experience.  I admit, I was surprised by the choice of words, but quite frankly it did not faze him at all.  It would start by asking if you could type the word some.  He would type s and press Enter, the program would assume he needed help and then proceed to teach him to spell some with a series of activities.  Once he got all the words, he got to the first book!  We cheered.  Then he actually read it and we cheered again!

Finding the space where the word SOME would fit.

Did I mention I love this program?

 

Let me break down a few more details I think you should know.

 

THINGS WE LIKED-

*Reading Kingdom is repetitive with the skills, but presented in several different ways.  It changed activities and characters enough to keep CJ interested, once we passed the skills test.

 

*The voice behind the directions, a cute little owl, is clear and easy to understand.

 

 

 

*The animation is simple and cute without being annoying.

 

 

*If your child does place into a level you are not happy with, you can easily contact customer support and they will move your child forward or backward, per your request!

 

 

*You can go back and repeat lessons as many times as you want if your child needs more review.

 

*Your child accumulates points while they work which in turn "opens" a passport at specific point levels to reveal an animated scene.  More points mean more animation.  Maybe silly, but CJ loved it and would often do another level just to get to open his passport.

 

 

*Level 1 teaches 36 new words and 63 new words and variants, just in six books!

 

*By the time your child reads a book they have been taught the words they need to know to do so.  I do remember saying "some, more, kids.., really?  What happened to a, the, and it?" But I am telling you, when CJ read the phrase Some more kids, his face lit up!

 

*The book was animated.  After reading the sentence and pushing the arrow key, the pictures come to life with simple animation.  Not your average, boring reader.  You also have the option to have the story read to you. 

 

 *You can receive progress reports by email or online.

 

*There are two keyboard options.  You can use the mouse with an online keyboard or you can choose to use your physical keyboard.  At first we started with the one on screen, but CJ asked me to switch and that has worked better for him.

 

*There are game like activities, but this is not really game based.  I like that.  I want my kids to be challenged sometimes and not to expect that everything has to be fun and entertaining to be worthwhile.

 

*What I loved most- that CJ asks daily to use this program.  When we took some time off to travel, he asked when we could get home to start again.  It is not always easy for him, there are definitely some challenging aspects, but he is learning to read and gaining confidence.

 

WHAT WE DID NOT LOVE-

*The skills test- but hey, it is a necessary evil.  I recommend you up the mommy encouragement factor and promise there is more fun ahead.  Good things come to those that keep working, or something like that!  ;)

 

*Once the activities became more challenging CJ would occasionally not type in a response fast enough and the computer would give him help, assuming he did not know the answer.  Since beginning, though, I have found you can increase the wait time under the parent options, so really, this is no longer a thing I don't like!

 

Our bottom line,  LOVE IT!  (did I say that already?)  We have since shelved the other reading program for a while and will continue to work with Reading Kingdom for the rest of the year.  If he is learning to read and enjoying it all at the same time, how can we go wrong?

 

You can begin Reading Kingdom with a free 30 day trial.  After that is it $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year.

 

Check out what fellow CREW members had to say about Reading Kingdom by clicking on the banner below. 

 
    Disclaimer- I received a free one year subscription to Reading Kingdom in exchange for my honest review of this product.  The opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced by the company in any way.