I thought it would be helpful for me to put a short, sweet, top summary entry here on my blog. This way you can get to my different categories quickly. Just click below to get to category summaries you'd like to go to:
April is giving away THREE different levels of Peterson's Handwriting Program, for Levels K, 2, and 4. Head on over to her blog and enter to get the level of your choice!
From the ALEKS website:
"ALEKS is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking."
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I wanted to get my 3rd grader to use ALEKS to help me get an opinion on the program. I wanted to be able to get his opinion to help me in my review. However, simultaneously, he had more than one computer math program available to him. After a couple of times of using ALEKS, whenever I would ask him to spend some time using ALEKS, he would inevitably ask to use one of the other math choices, whether a different program, or a workbook page, whatever. Hmmmm. That's interesting...
So, it became necessary for me to sit down under his ID and work my way through some of the ALEKS program, which I had intended to do. So I did.
I really wanted to like ALEKS. I really wanted it to be an answer for me. I wanted to have a great math program that I could, each day, say to my son, "Time to do your math!" And he would respond, cheerfully (or at least willingly), "Okay, mom!"
But that was not to be. I found ALEKS to be tedious, slow, boring... unpleasant. So... on with my review.
PROS:
ALEKS has things going for it that you can take into consideration:
It is a complete program, from beginning grammar level through college;
It begins with a comprehension evaluation, so the program knows where to start the student.
It gives instruction, and it gives review. If you don't understand something, you can click on the "EXPLAIN" button, and it will explain the concept it is teaching you! If you aren't "getting it", it will provide review and review and review, and help your student plug away at it until he/she really, really "gets" it.
On the flip side, the program evaluates the student, gives a certain amount of repetitive evaluation to be certain student really grasps the concept, then moves on, not requiring the student to continue doing busy-work in a cocept-area the student already understands.
It provides a weekly report. The parent/administrator has a regular report and can see/document the student's progress.
It has a visual pie that is really nice, that shows the concepts the student must acquire by the end of the grade level/course, and the color changes to green, incrementally, on each section of the pie, as the student acquires the different levels of understanding for the different levels of tasks (example: clock understanding starting with time on the hour, moving to time on the half hour, quarter, by the fives, then finally by the single minutes...).
The program is/can be self-administered, freeing the parent/teacher while the student does the studies.
This program is ideal for remedial work, and I'd guess (but can't be certain) is much better suited to an older student who is flitting in to cement or grasp a concept from his normal school work that he/she just can't get a handle on. I know that if a program has spent 2 lessons on understanding number of degrees in angles on a triangle, and then just moves on to other subjects, a student can get left behind. This program would be ideal in a situation like that where a motivated student is well aware that he/she has an weakness in geometry, wants to really understand circle circumference, or adding degrees in a geometric figure, and can go right to that topic and work on it and work on it until he/she really, really has it cemented in the mind.
Now, the negatives:
As I mentioned earlier, this program actually comes over as tedious, dry, boring. It might be an issue with my home technology, but for me the program was slow. It is really annoying when you push a button to submit and answer, and then have to wait and wait and wait while the little round clock-dial indicator spins and the computer doesn't quickly respond...
The program approaches new concept sections without instruction, but relies upon the student to click on the "EXPLAIN" button if they cannot already see how to get the answer to the problem presented. Now, we're all lazy by nature. The tendency is to skip the "EXPLAIN" section, attempt to figure out the answer on our own, try a couple of times and fail, get frustrated, and quit. And that's my perspective as an adult. I'm sure a child could not articulate that well, but they have the same innate inclination. My recommendation here, to the creators of the program, is that when a new concept is introduced, it is on the first page, making it more likely that the student will read the instruction before attempting the problem for the first time.
The program is self-directed, which in one respect is a negative. As the student approaches his/her pie, showing the entire pie and all the material not yet mastered, it can be overwhelming. Not only that, but ...where to start? I think ALEKS thinks of this as a "PRO", that the student can decide where to start. But, for an 8 or 9 year old, it is a "CON". They usually do much better if they are just told, "This is what you are doing today." "This is what you are working on this week"
Some things are not "intuitive", and this is compounded when using a lap-top, because there is stuff that gets cut off the bottom of the page, leaving the student wondering what the computer is asking for. Specifically, when a new concept is introduced, there is a page that shows a problem. If you understand the problem, you are supposed to click on a button that says "PRACTICE", but if you don't understand the problem, you are supposed to click on "EXPLAIN". However, the page is presented as a normal worksheet page, so my tendency was to try to get the cursor to work on the spaces where I was "supposed" to type the answer in (on a worksheet page), and it wouldn't click. Very confusing. My recommendation would be that this page should have a "CONTINUE" button instead of a "PRACTICE" button. Just would make more sense here.
One thing, in particular, really bothered me on the section on measuring. ALEKS has a really cool "ruler" concept (that takes a little fiddling with to figure out). My complaint is that the ruler is not to scale. Using a "not-to-scale" ruler is fine for older students, but I don't believe a normal 8-year-old is ready for that concept. And why use it? The ruler was being used to measure a 3" toothpick, and instead of using a 3-inch ruler, there was a 2-inch ruler that said it was 3" long... Why? You're not measuring something larger than the computer screen... The thing that I'm guessing is that the ruler cannot be changed, and is "not-to-scale" throughout all grade-levels, so they're just stuck with this. But, if they're not, I'd recommend they evaluate what level normal math programs introduce "not-to-scale" measuring, and introduce it there, not at the younger grade levels. (I think it is at least 4th, 5th or 6th grade, not 3rd grade...) And, when introducing the concept, INTRODUCE IT! Don't just use it! Otherwise the student begins to think that 3" is really only 2" long...
Okay, if I think of any other disadvantages that I'm forgetting, I'll come back and add them. The main thing to remember is that I REALLY wanted to like this program, and I just can't. I find it hard to imagine this being a great program to use instead of a book curriculum (great in addition to, but not instead of), because it is just so dry, tedious, and boring. So, while there are a lot of favorable aspects to this program, for my family it was not a winner.
However, every family is different. That is why I presented both sides. With different family/student dynamics, maybe this program would be a good one for YOU?...
- Zone Cleaning which focuses on Living Room/Entry, Kitchen, and Bathroom
- Bedroom Cleaning which, obviously, focuses on the bedroom, and
- Laundry which teaches children, step-by-step, how to do the laundry on their own.
Be sure to come back and read the Crew's reviews of these wonderful and helpful products. In the meantime, for more information, see the Trigger Memory Systems website.
The Clean 'n Flip charts are wonderful tools for teaching your children basic cleaning habits. They are available in 3 versions:
- Zone Cleaning which focuses on Living Room/Entry, Kitchen, and Bathroom
- Bedroom Cleaning which, obviously, focuses on the bedroom, and
- Laundry which teaches children, step-by-step, how to do the laundry on their own.
My review of these products:
Zone Cleaning is similar to the system I myself have been using in my own home for many years. However, I had never extended my cleaning to assign tasks to my young son. I occasionally ask him to sweep, or pick up a "zone", but I am looking forward to working through this book with him. It is set up so that you can assign different tasks on different days of the week, and even different tasks different times of day.
This book does seem very suitable to families with one or several children to share the chores. The pages of this book have a special coating, and it comes with a WIWO (write on, wipe off) marker so that the kids can write who does what, and check the tasks off as they get done.
This is a great chore organizer to help everyone get their jobs done and keep the house running smoothly.
This is a unique book that can help your children get organized in their bedroom. It starts with the concept of getting everything into a pile in the middle of the room, and then sorting through the pile to put away, give away, or throw away. The author recommends using laundry baskets to sort things into, and I suppose this could work. I just don't already have baskets, or a place to store a small stack of empty baskets between uses. But I guess I will keep working on the idea, because my son needs this. (He doesn't think that he does, but he does!)
My biggest struggle with all of these great books is the part where I need to make sure I myself follow through with helping him to learn to stay on task. Right now I'm in a place in my life where I'm having trouble staying on task myself...
$7.95 at the TOS Schoolhouse Store
I have not yet expanded to having my guy work o the laundry, but the day is coming. This book will make it easy for him to walk through the steps of doing the laundry, from sorting the laundry, at Step 1, to hanging, folding, and putting away at Step 6. This book is designed so that he can have the book with him, as he is learning, and can read it step-by-step as he walks through the task. Wish I had had this when my girls were young.
Do you remember the Mother Goose nursery rhymes from your childhood? "Jack and Jill", "Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick", Mary had a Little Lamb"? If someone asked me to recite "Little Jack Horner Sat in the Corner", I can even still remember the Little Golden Book it was in, and the cute little Eloise Wilkin illustrations! Same thing with "Goodnight Moon" (three children later). Why is that?
Maybe it is related to the cute illustrations and the catchy rhymes, combined with repitition, repitition, repitition!
Wouldn't it be great if we could find a way to get our kids to memorize their multiplication tables the same way they memorized Mother Goose, so that they were memorizing so subtly that they hardly noticed it?
Well Trigger Memory Systems has come up with a system to help our kids do just that!
Times Tales Deluxe is an innovative new program that makes memorizing the upper multiplication and division facts fast, easy and FUN! Times Tales uses simple graphics and one line stories to provide your child with a visual "hook" to quickly recall these tricky facts.
The way this system works is that numbers are assigned a personality that the kids can easily remember, such as the number 8 is tied to the image of a snowman; the number 4 is tied to the image of a chair, the number 9 is tied to the image of a tree.
The program is broken up into four steps. The first two steps are completed in week 1, and the second two steps are comleted in week 2.
Step 1 is memorize the "personalities" for the lower numbers (the very easiest numbers are not targeted because they are so easy).
Step 2 is memorize the stories that go with each number combination.
Practice these facts for the first week.
Step 3 is memorize the "personalities" of the upper numbers.
Step 4 is memorize the stories that go with each number combination.
Practice all facts for the second week.
There are flash cards included, and number dice that you copy and construct, that have pictures of the personalities on some of the sides, and just plain numbers on some of the sides. There is a set of "dice" for the lower numbers of Week 1 and a 2nd set for the higher numbers of Week 2.
Once they have the multiplication facts down, there are bonus flash cards you can use to introduce division. By showing them a division problem, you can ask them, what number is missing from the story? If they can remember the story, they can come up with the answer to the division problem without even realizing they did it!
I found this to be a wonderful program. It gave life and variety to our Math for the year at a time when we were starting to get down in the trenches and discouraged, and dragging our feet. It was new, interesting, cute, and it really worked! I highly recommend you consider it for you blooming mathematician, as well as your struggling math student. My son was not quite nine when we used the program, and I am very pleased with the results.
My Time4Learning reviews are going to be progressive, that is, I will be posting one per week till I've used the product for one month. (As I complete each week's review, I will hyperlink the week and it will become clickable to the review.)
Have you ever read Anne of Green Gables? How about Little Women? Or Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms? Or even Caddie Woodlawn? How about Rascal, by Sterling North?
Can you think of something that these books have in common? (Even loosely in common?)
Let me ask you a different way. What is so great about books that were published before the 1960s? How about:
moral virtue;
character;
respect towards adults, parents, and those in authority;
promoting the value of two-parent families;
depiction of a culture that valued honesty and integrety, hard work, fortitude, and charity;
dependable language, lacking in vulgarity, cursing, swearing.
Okay, here's another question. What's so great about the Internet, as it relates to books published before 1933? (This is not a trick question.)
The answer is that many of these older books are now available on the internet through the use of public domain, books whose copyright has expired.
However, What's NOT so great about using the Internet and Public Domain books?
Have you ever tried to snuggle up to a laptop for a read aloud with your son or daughter?
Do you want to have to wade through public domains to find just the right book for this age group, or just the right book for that topic or this time period?
So, this is what I have been leading up to! What's so great about Salem Ridge Press? Salem Ridge Press is a company that, as they say on their website, is dedicated to bringing back quality children’s books of the 1800’s and early 1900’s for a new generation of readers. They strive to republish books that are well-written, interesting and wholesome.
Salem Ridge has taken the time to select fantastic titles to reprint. They have an amazing breakdown on their website that shows which books are for which age-group, and which books fall into which historical time periods, and which specific historical topic (like Ancient Greece, for instance).
Salem Ridge Press was founded by a homeschool graduate, Daniel Mills, who loves the Lord and desires to serve Him and other people, especially other homeschooling families, through his business. In his early teen years, he read two particular old books, At Seneca Castle by William Canfield, and Our Fellows by Harry Castlemon, that so impressed him with a desire to see them republished that the idea was planted of someday doing that himself. You can read more about his story, HERE.
Book prices seem to range from $10.95 to $24.95, depending upon the book and whether you want it in hard cover or soft cover. The books are all attractively reproduced.
Salem Ridge Press gets a firm thumbs-up from this house for what they are working to accomplish, in getting old-time, quality books reprinted at reasonable prices for average homeschool households today. Check them out!
Well, we have another week of Time4Learning under our belt, and I have these observations for the new week.
This week I have noticed new things that I like (and dislike) about Time4Learning.
This week I have noticed that I like that some of the areas within Time4Learning are interactive/audio, while some are not. This feature, and the amount of audio, probably varies with grade level. I am looking at Grade 3, with the ability to also look at Grade 2.
I like that there is audio. Sad but true, I like being to work in the next room and be able to hear that my son is still doing what he is supposed to be doing and hasn't switched to some other website to quietly play some game or something.
I like that it is only partially audio. I mean, selfishly, I wish that it were ALL audio-interactive, for the reason stated above. But, I know that it is wise for it to be a combination, because when it is audio-only it is not stretching the child's reading ability.
I like that it has a variety of topic areas to choose from in the subject areas. We were able to spend time in the Social Studies section this week. I don't know why, but my son didn't want to do the Vikings area, so it was nice to have other topics to select from. It was SUPER nice to have the 2nd grade section to choose from, as well, increasing our choices. Although the activities were below my son's ability level, that can sometimes be a good thing to warm a child up to doing an activity he is resisting (school, in general, and more specifically, school... ::sigh::)
In the area of discovery of things I dislike, I noticed this last week but forgot to mention it.
I don't like that my son can sit at the computer looking out the window, not doing the work, twiddling his thumbs, making paper airplanes, or walk away and use the bathroom, ...and the timer still ticks away until it gets to his time for "Playground" time. I haven't figured out an answer to this yet, but I'm wondering if the system can be programmed to notice if the child is not interacting with the system, and ask the child a question like, "Are you still there reading?" and stop the timer if it doesn't get a response.
I mean, I hate feeling like I'm the one with the rebellious child who is able to check out all the quirks in Time4Learning's system, but that's what I'm finding, that if there's a way to get around an assignment, my son will be looking for it.
Well, that's it for this week's review. Next week I am going to look at subject-area progression. I was looking at the "Scope and Sequence", comparing subject matter for the different grade levels, particularly in the area of Social Studies, and there is more I want to look at before I comment on what I saw that left me wondering...
So fun to do! So many books available at the library! Why would I buy a curriculum?
1) My state requires "Art" as one of the subjects I teach. Where do I start? What do I do? How much is enough? How do I do it? What is appropriate at what grade level?
2) I just plain don't don't know what I'm doing.
3) I need direction. I'm too creative. I get these great ideas... too many great ideas... and I get overwhelmed. Then the next step is I just don't do any art at all. I never get started. Spears Art Studio
How can I describe how wonderful this program is, and what a wonderful fit it is for me.
Let me start by telling a story of me, this summer.
Every summer I like to go to my local county fair. We are a 4-H family, and have been since 1996. My daughter was even 4-H Fair Queen in 2005! Here she is pictured with her brother, my youngest.
One of my favorite things to do is to go through the 4-H building, and the Arts and Crafts building, and look at the art done by the children. I like to see what they did, get ideas, imagine that I could do that with my son, write down ideas, think about what he would like to do, and on and on. I did that this year, making a list of potential art activities for the year, and checked out books from the library to try to make my intentions become realities.
But library books have due dates, and life gets busy. The books were returned, and the art did not get done. I barely knew where to start anyway!
September passed, and still no art. October came along, and still no art. And then, along came the Spears Art Studios program! I can't say enough about how excited I am about this wonderful program! There it was, in file after file, page after page, the instructions and very information I needed to make my art intentions a reality. Not only did it cover the things I wanted to do, spread out over nine years worth of weekly plans, but it also laid out for me when and how to introduce different activities, techniques, and such. I am so ecstatic!
Now, not having thought in advance, I don't have a bunch of wonderful photos that I can plug in here of my own little caboose and art projects he has done using this program. Suffice it to say, I'm really looking forward to his 4-H art entries at next year's fair!
Have I piqued your interest? Well, guess what?!!! If you go to their website and scroll down the page, you will see that you can get free sample art lessons! Plus! You can get a free pdf book(let) download, "How to Teach Drawing"!
This curriculum is definitely worth it! For $39.95 (includes shipping!) you can get nine years worth of weekly, progressive art lessons by a professional artist with a BA in Art, English, and Education, and a Masters in Christian Counseling, and a Doctorate in Christian Education. She is state certified for both elementary and secondary, and has taught on and off for 30 years!
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SPEARS ART STUDIO K-8 CHRISTIAN ART CURRICULUM, A TEACHER'S MANUAL©
