Math Facts NOW!

I am horrible at math.  Well, basic math.  Adding and multiplication are a bit difficult for me, or at least moreso than they SHOULD be.  I don't want my children to struggle like I did.



Enter Math Facts NOW!, a math facts drill program designed by a homeschooling father of 9 to help with practicing math facts.

This is an entirely on the computer program, BUUUUUUUUT it doesn't have the characters and songs and such that let's face it, can sometimes be a bit... much.  Thing 1 is not a huge fan of music, and often covers his ears, so having a program like this that doesn't have excess noise is GREAT!

When you first open teh program, you are greeted by a screen asking you to select who will be doing a lesson

(I created a special little profile so that Thing 1's real name wouldn't be on here :)  )

After thaaaaat you select which lesson you're going to use.  There aren't any premade lessons when you get the program, but the creation of lessons is incredibly easy.

On this screen you would simply select "Create a New Lesson" and then you get brought to the step-by-step lesson creation screens!  You select how long the child gets to answer each question, how many problems they have to do, and how many times they have to type the problem if they get it incorrect, on TOP of choosing the operation you are drilling and which facts to include (like, Addition, 1 facts) that you would expect from a drilling program.

One thing on this that I (and Thing 1) did not like, although it's more because us than the program itself, it completely makes sense for it to be there, is that when you get a problem WRONG, you have to type the entire problem in at least 2 times (depending on how many were set in the lesson creation).  Thing 1 doesn't use a lot of symbols as he types right now, so having to put in a + and an = is a bit hard for him and frustrates him.

This program, in our household, is well worth its 15.95 price tag (add 3.95 if you want a physical copy, and not the download).  I can create numerous different drills, Thing 1 gets practice without too many things that frustrate him, it's customizable, and it's very user friendly (well, besides the whole + and = thing for Thing 1, but he'll get past that with more practice ;)  )  If you're unsure, or want to take a look at it before purchasing, you can actually try it online, as well, and THAT is also great!

For more information you can check out the Math Facts NOW! site, or you can also go and see what my fellow Crew members thought of this program :)

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review of this product.  I received no other compensation for this review.

Thing 1 and Grammar

Unschooling seems to really work right now for Thing 1.  We're going to take a much mroe structured turn in a few months, but so far, I don't feel like I've ruined him with unschooling.

Take this conversation for instance

"What does it mean when you put an is-is on the end of a word?" (that's seriously what it sounded like he said)
"A what?"
"You know, when you have the little line up on the top and then an s"
"OH!  An APOSTROPHE and then an S"
"Uhmm... yeah" 
(insert explanation on what the apostrophe S means, including examples)
"What about when it's an s and then an apostrophe?"
(insert explanation)
"Ooooh so it's like *insert going on for five minutes about different examples he's read recently*"  

He better not throw off grammar studies like he did read :P

(and now he's playing on KIDO'Z on the Nick Jr site and learning different words in Spanish... *sigh* Slow down my young one, slow down)

2011: Goals, First Quarter

Since I have a major life event happening around April, and making resolutions/goals for the whole year seems a bit silly with that in mind (y'know, the usual "I will get in shape"... well, the only shape I will be for a few more months is ROUND and getting ROUNDER... not something I want to be thinking abotu when assessing how I'm doing on goals)

Soooooo instead I am going to set goals for the first quarter!

~Get everyone eating healthier, and get some sort of efficient system so mealtimes are easy to get through
 ~Get the house organized and KEEP it that way
~Get (and stay) on top of laundry
~During this first quarter of the year, I want to get a good bit of stuff tentatively planned for Thing 1's first half or so of first grade.  That way I can just GO rather than flounder when the time comes

Not much as far as "typical" type goals.  I'd also like to get around to crafting a LOT more.  I love doing it, it's my "me time" and I just don't get to always do it.

Craziness Continues

The past two and a half weeks or so have been a major whirlwind of activity.  We had Thing 1's birthday, MY birthday, then Christmas.  Besides that, I have been busting my pregnant behind to try and get the house into some semblance of organization in preparation for Voom and for first grade (starting around April, we are going from our very unorganized unschooling approach to a more classical lean with organization and schedule-type things going on)

In the next couple weeks I am expecting a package from Rainbow Resource of things I had the chance to order ahead of tax-time (yay!), and then I can add the gear of planning school stuff to the rest of the gears slowly getting into motion.

And there are two days left before the new year begins!  Where did this year go?  Thing 1 turned 6, Thing 2 turned 1, and Voom is over halfway through baking!  Link and I bought a house and went through the lovely process of moving (always loads of fun there... NOT) and getting settled into actually being homeowners (can't just call maintenance when something goes wrong, have to figure it out or hire someone ourselves).

And through all of this, I am still managing to work on getting the downstairs cleaned, like I said a few weeks ago needs to happen.  I'm also working on the upstairs as well, although my original plan was one floor at a time.  I can just only handle working on the downstairs for so long before I start to go crazy from a lack of scenery change ;)  Because of this, the playroom is clean and organized (or was the other day when I walked out of there...)

Aaaaand of course, the crochet continues!  Always have to have something going for crochet :)  (I DID manage to make a hat for Link, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and a set of mittens for Thing 1 and Thing 2 all before Christmas)

Now I am off to go continue working on my house, clean my desk for the 50th time this week (where does all of this stuff COME from?!) and contemplating what my resolutions should be for 2011!

WOW!

And the crazy thing about this picture?  It was taken about 8 hours ago and the snow hasn't stopped!  We've got a good foot or so of snow right now and it's STILL GOING!

This is an area not prepared for this sort of thing (there's general panic when there's a dusting) so it's been pretty much a ghost town from what I can tell.  We stayed home all day so I can't be sure lol

Thing 1 and Link built this snowman around 11 (a couple hours after the first picture was taken) and the whole bottom section of him is covered now and you can't see the laurel on his head at all.  He's just a mound of snow in the back corner from what you can tell, although you can see the arms still ;) (he's like some poor hiker trapped in the snow... poor thing!)

AAAAH!

Only 5 more sleeps until Christmas!

Good thing I'm pretty much ready except for a couple small crochet projects I need to get done ;)

Well, and waiting for a box from my parents to come in (I have gotten all of the other boxes they sent, but the one with Thing 1's birthday stuff and all of the Christmas stuff in it is taking its time to get here...)

I don't think Thing 1 has ever been this excited about anything in his life.  Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy because Link and I like to make Christmas all about the kids :)

Tiny Planets

Recently Thing 1 and I were given the opportunity to play a bit on Tiny Planets, an award winning website for ages 4-12. 



When you sign up, your child has what is called a "Cadet" account, which is managed by your own parent account.  I LOVE this.  We use a number of programs around here that involve a parent account above the child's, and it just makes so much sense to me.  Especially since in the case of sites like Tiny Planets, there is a paid service.  The Parent account is able to add purchased "keys" to the Cadet accounts, rather than an adult having to log onto the Cadet account directly and purchase the keys.  And if you have more than one child playing, you are able to manage all of those Cadet accounts from your one Parent account.  So no logging into numerous accounts for you to manage the Cadet accounts.  You can purchase and distribute keys all from the comfort of your own login :)

The Keys, which while not 100% NECESSARY for the website to be used, make the Tiny PLanet site a bit more interesting and fun, are purchased at the following prices:

10 keys- $1.95
25 keys- $3.95
85 keys- $9.95
250 keys-$25.95
600 keys- $49.95  (That is a LOT of keys, but there is a LOT of content you can unlock with them!)


Once you have your accounts set up, the site is divided into six sections, Tiny Planets TV, My Tiny Planets, Tiny Planets Books, Tiny Planets Fun, Tiny Planets Lab and Tiny Planets Learning.  A few are pretty self explanatory (like the TV one).  My Tiny Planets is the section where Thing 1 and I spent most of our time.  And it was in fact both of us because the navigation was a bit much for Thing 1 to have been able to handle (honestly, it was tough for ME at times... it was similar to in video games where there are icy sections... lots of coasting involved).  In My Tiny Planets, you have your own spaceship and even your own planet which you earn stars to purchase additional upgrades for by playing various mini-games.  You can purchase some of the upgrades with the previously mentioned keys as well, further expanding the customization options for your child.  This is also the "social" area of the site, where your child can make friends with other cadets.

On Tiny Planets TV, you can use the Keys to purchase videos to watch.  There is one free one, and then after that, the videos cost at least 5 keys to unlock.  Tiny Planets Fun contains Bing and Bong's individual corners, containing games and coloring pages respectively.  Tiny Planets Books is similar to the TV section, where you have a couple free samples, and the other books are purchased using Keys.  Tiny Planets Lab has the new games to be tested out, a link to find out what else is new, and access to the blog.

Then you have Tiny Planets Learning, which is the educational section.  This area contains puzzles and lesson plans.  This is the section with educational material regarding such things as science and numeracy, and social and emotional development.  These lesson plans DO utilize videos and books from elsewhere, so you will need Keys if you want to do all of these lesson plans.  You can explore the website without using these lesson plans, but the lesson plans tie things together rather nicely.

All in all, we enjoyed this website.  We focused on free content while exploring, so I know that Thing 1 and I would've enjoyed it even more with additional content available.  Perhaps sometime in the future the Keys will give Thing 1 incentive to do his chores or something.  Who knows?

If you want to learn more about Tiny Planets, go over there and explore a little yourself!  If you'd like to know how my other Crew mates felt about this, head on over to the Crew blog and take a look.

Disclaimer: I received this opportunity in exchange for my honest review.  I received no other compensation.

Happy Birthday Thing 1!

Today, my darling Thing 1 is 6.  SIX!  How did this happen?!

So, here is a look back at him from when he was a wee bit smaller.


This is obviously from the day he was born, waaaay back in 2004!


His first Christmas!

And here is one from today, before opening gifts.

And another one from today, he wanted to go out in the snow.  He did eventually zip up his coat, I promise.  And he came back in before the ENTIRE back yard was covered.

My dear Thing 1, who wants to be a pirate (for today at least) is getting big soooo fast!

Works in Progress

My Current project list is a bit... uhm... crazy.

You see, I have this tendency to have numerous projects going at once, so I can work on what strikes my fancy at that moment.  You'll see what I mean with this list...

Bells Ornaments for Mom
Afghan for parents (going to restart this one, I didn't like how it was coming out)
Blanket for Thing 1
Washcloths to use up my cotton yarn
Bookmarks
Longies

Things I need to get started on at some point after at least a couple of THOSE are done include

Thing 2's blanket
Other ornaments (I don't really have much by way of describing this, sorry)
Blanket for Voom
Hats and Scarves and such for family
Other ridiculously cute baby stuff for Voom


And thanks to the internet, I am always always ALWAYS finding new stuff I want to make.  No wonder Link is always threatening to ground me from the internet!

Oh the Chaos!

I am not an organized person.  I never have been, and try as I might, it will never come naturally to me. 

I have accepted this.  I really didn't have much choice BUT to accept it.

This is made worse by the fact that I enjoy doing all sorts of different hobby things.  The current BIG one, which has taken over most of the others, is crochet.  I have tons of yarn, tons of ideas, notsomuch time, and even less natural ability to keep it from taking over the HOUSE as well as my free time.

Add in the school stuff, and two VERY active children and my first floor looks like a disaster zone.

Soooooooooooooo, in the next month or so, I am planning on getting things cleaned up.  Once we can afford to, the school area/my desk are getting a major overhaul, but I need to get stuff thrown away/donated/stored before that can happen.

I just hope the overhaul can come sooner rather than later.  Thing 2 has taken to climbing up on Thing 1's desk and turning the monitor on and off because it has a button.  (We've had to disable the power buttons on all of the computers because Thing 2 has a major love of buttons, and my desk chair can't be pushed in because otherwise he wreaks havoc on my entire desk)

But the current motivator is to at least get things manageable in the meantime.

When I can drag myself away from my crochet.  (I seriously have five skeins, 3 different TYPES of yarn on my desk, including one attached to a project I'm currently working on)

Really Trying!

I am really trying to get back into this whole blogging thing.  Since I had been wanting to keep our big announcement a secret for a while, and I have a HORRIBLE time keeping secrets like that when I'm excited (Link got his Christmas present the day it came in, rather than waiting a couple more weeks or so for Christmas, because I couldn't wait any longer)

I am even trying to get posts lined up to post on different days (something I've never done for non-review posts before) and that should help.

Maybe if I get into the hang of it NOW I'll be able to do a 365 sort of thing come 2011!  That'd be awesome :)

Good Morning, God

 

 Apologia Press is known for publishing such things as the Exploring Creation... series of science books and their Apologia Academy online.

But did you know that also publish picture books for younger children?





Good Morning, God, by Davis Carman, is one such picture book, available in hardcover for $14.00 from Apologia Press.  With a target audience of ages 1-8, this is a great way to introduce the concept of loving and thanking God every day to a young child.

Aside from the beautiful illustrations (which you can get in coloring book form for $4.00 from here), it is a short and sweet little run through a week in the life of a small child.  (There is even a picture on the page discussing the school room that makes it pretty obvious the family in the story homeschools!)  And while for the older end of the target audience, this may not seem like much, at the END of the book is a page for each day, with questions and scripture reading suggestions so you can expand on the daily worship concept with your children.  So you can use this as either a sweet little bedtime story, and leave it at that, or you can expand upon it and turn it into a mini study for your children.

This is certainly a sweet, well-written and beautifully illustrated book.  If you don't believe me, you can see a sample here :)  Or you can go and see what other Crew members thought of it.


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book at no charge for the purpose of this review.  The opinions in this review are mine and only mine and I received no other compensation for providing them.

State of the Topsy Turvy Household

Thing 1, my darling almost 6 year old (already?!) is anxiously awaiting his 6th birthday, coming in December.

At the Aquarium, I love this shot!

Thing 2 is getting into EVERYTHING, and has taken a particular liking to Link's computer (oooops).

This is what happens when an almost 15 month old gets ahold of a watercolor colored pencil and tastes it.

But I think the BIGGEST news in this household is the little darling set to arrive sometime in April.

B is Body, H is Head.  This was the best shot that they could get :)

At our anatomy ultrasound this past week, we were informed that it is most likely that this youngling is a boy (I'm still trying to decide between Little Cat A and Voom for a nickname.  I'm rather fond of Voom)

And now as December is fast approaching, I am fully intending to stay more up to date on here ;)  I was having problems with wanting to spill the beans about the baby before the planned time.  I am good with secrets... if they are OTHER PEOPLE'S secrets.

KB Teachers

 Around here, I have a bit of an oddity: I have a child who LIKES to do worksheets.  This is all well and good until you're on your 50th page looking for a worksheet that will work online.



Enter KB Teachers into the arena of our home.  Currently in the process of a website upgrade (which I'm excited to see the result of), this website has a plethora of worksheets and other printables (such as graphics) that you can download.

My particular favorite part of this website is the addition sheets generator.  I can print a sheet, with answer sheet (not that I need them... no really, I don't I can add!... barely) and then generate another one in order to keep our worksheet "folder" stocked.  I also am a huge fan of the "What Time is It?" worksheet generator, which can do sheets of "to the hour" all the way down.  Since Thing 1 was in desperate need of practice on both of these, this was perfect timing for us.

A few things to note: This website does not have a "Search" function.  The creators feel that you should be able to reach any page within a few clicks.  For some, this may be a disadvantage, but I happen to like it.  For whatever reason, when I'm on a site with a search function, I tend to pick the wrong key words or something and end up never finding what I wanted.  Also, you cannot save these worksheets to print later.  You print directly from the website (using your browser print button can actually cause some issues).  I have heard that you can "print" to a PDF by using specific programs, I have no idea how these work and so have not tried it myself.  Also, there are different themed worksheets that come out for things like Halloween and Thanksgiving.  These are not linked on the main pages year-round.  We received our logins for this site before Halloween, and after November 1st, while the other Fall worksheets were still available, the holiday specific ones were not.  And that is also when the Thanksgiving ones BECAME available.  However, if you're looking for something specific and can't find it, you are encouraged to contact them and they will get back to you.

While this website (and what I focused on) has a LOT of worksheets for the early elementary level, there are also some worksheets in the science and history areas that are geared more toward older students.  So this website is one that likely will stay in use in OUR family for a while.

If you want to purchase a membership to KB Teachers, a single year is $29 (after a 10 day trial), and a two year membership is $49.  If you want to get more information, you can check out their FAQs page, their Facebook page, or you can go and check out other reviews by my fellow Crew members.

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion on the product.  I received no other compensation for this review.

Collectorz Book Database Software

 If you're like many homeschoolers, you have an almost ridiculous amount of books.  Yes, there is the library but there's just something awesome about being able to reread a book 50 times in 10 years without having to go borrow it from the library again.

Once you've got this huuuuuge collection though, how are you supposed to keep yourself from repurchasing the same book again because you don't think you own it?



Enter Collectorz and their Book Database Software.  With this product, you are able to enter in a minimal amount of information from your book (ISBN is a good thing to use) and the rest of the information will be there, without you having to go across and type every single little detail yourself.

• ISBN, Author and Title
• Publisher data and Publication Date
• Format, Genres, Subjects, Nr of Pages & LoC Classification
• Cover Images
• Plot summaries and a lot more 

And if you don't feel like typing in every single ISBN?  They also offer nifty little scanners that you can use to scan the correct barcode on the book and it will pull the information for you.

Keep in mind, not EVERY book is in their system, so there are some ISBN's that will not bring up anything.  I ran into this problem, and all I did was add the additional information myself.  A bit frustrating for me, since the first few books I tried entering were in this category, but I think in the grand scheme of things, MOST of them are in there.

And what makes this program even more useful, because I know a LOT of people who have a TON of e-books, is that you can actually use the program to keep track of e-books and audio books as well!  You scan your computer for them, and it adds them to your batch so you can make sure the information is correct before adding it to your database.



This program is available for multiple platforms, and also there are additional programs to help you keep track of what you own for OTHER types of media as well.  Movies, comics, games, music, MP3s, photos...  If you like to have everything cataloged, and want to make the process easier, then this product is definitely geared toward you.

This database, if you keep a hardcopy printed off somewhere safe, and/or a digital copy uploaded somewhere away from your computer (such as an online storage site), there is a chance that this could even be used in the case of insurance issues to get collections replaced.  

The Book Database Program, which is what I received, is available in two editions, the Standard for $29.99 and the Pro for $49.99, although you can sign up for a free trial (I am not sure if this is equivalent to Pro or Standard though, sorry).  The Pro has a LOT of features that the Standard does not, such as a couple different Export options, the ability to use it along with the CLZ Mobile Apps (available for $9.99), and a number of customization methods for how you see your collection listed.  The optional scanners start at $19.99, although the better ones are, of course, the more expensive ones (the top one actually has built in memory as well)  While these scanners are not necessary to use the program (I don't have one) they do make life a bit easier because you don't have to wear out the number keys on your keyboard, and if you have thousands of books to enter, it would certainly streamline the process.

All in all, while I recognize that this is an AWESOME program for people who have huge collections and need to keep track of them, without a scanner to help me and a large amount of time to sit and type in ISBNs, this program just isn't feasible for me to use to its max potential at this time.  Someday I hope to have some of that "free time" I hear other people talk about ;)


Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion on the product.  I received no other compensation for this review.