Schola Publications Latin Road to English Grammar

Latin? Isn't that a dead language? So why should we learn Latin? I took one year of Latin in high school, and I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't do so hot with it. BUT, as an adult I still remember some of the roots that I learned. If I had known then what I know now....well, you know how the old addage goes....


I've looked into Latin programs once, but never really knew what to look for in a good program. So you can imagine my excitement when I was chosen to review this program. http://www.thelatinroad.com/index.html

Latin Road to English Grammar is based on the Church Latin (Italian) pronunciation because it is the closest to English and it is the only Latin you will hear spoken today. Not only does this program teach Latin but English grammar as well. So you cover two subjects with one program. It is geared towards grades 5th through 12th, and once all three volumes are completed it will count as 2 credits of foreign language and 1 credit of English grammar for High School. Each lesson should take about an hour with the parent working along side the student...the first 20-30 minutes are done together and then the second half each works seperately. This way the parent is learning along with their student.


I have to admit that this was the part that was hard for me to do, with six kids I didn't always have the time to work alongside my students. So, because of this I utilized the audio cds and teacher training dvds. The audio helped to teach us the correct pronunciation of words and the teacher training dvds helped to answer the typical questions that have been asked over the years.
This program was designed with the idea that you (the parent) do not have any background in Latin (which was perfect for me). So the lessons are all laid out for you. There is a little set-up prep for the parent (putting the notebook together), but other than that it is basically open and go. All-in-all, we really enjoyed LREG program...my kids didn't hedge when it was time to do Latin and they are retaining what they are learning.



The cost of this particular program varies. They offer different packages, so I will give you the whole package price and all it includes. You can see the different packages here: http://www.thelatinroad.com/volume_one.html

The Latin Road to English Grammar package includes: COST $249

-- Materials for the TEACHER --
--Textbook: 142-page textbook which makes a clear presentation of the forms, syntax, and vocabulary of Latin with relationships to English. Translation exercises, word studies, and readings are included.
--Worksheets act as quizzes following each chapter.
--Tests to be completed every two chapters.
--Teacher’s Guide: your notebook all set up for you with lesson plans, all answer keys, and verb charts.
--Vocabulary Cards: keyed to the textbook and color-coded with extra large print for easy oral drills.
--Audio CD’s: Correct pronunciation of all forms, vocabulary, exercises, and readings on 2 CDs.
Teacher Training DVDs
-- Materials for the STUDENT --
--The LATIN Road to English Grammar Text with worksheets and tests.
-- White 3-ring binder with the 10 professionally printed index tabs he/she needs to begin this study.
-- Our Latin Comprehensive Reference Guide showing at-a-glance all the Latin grammar that he/she will learn through this 3-year study, color-coordinated to the 3 Volumes; a great reference tool.
-- Colored Notebook Paper - enough blue, pink, and yellow notebook paper for the student for the year to coordinate the vocabulary notebook pages with the vocabulary cards for easiest memorization.
-- Colored Ink Pens - blue, black, brown, red, and green ink pens to complete the coordination of notebook pages and vocabulary cards.

Here's some free samples you can download: http://www.thelatinroad.com/free_sample.html


They also offer The Bridge to the Latin Road for grades 3rd-6th and The PHONICS Road to Spelling and Reading for grades K-4th.

Rocket Phonics

TOS Crew was given the chance to review a product called Rocket Phonics http://www.rocketphonics.com/ . This is a phonics product created for kids ages 4-10, and it makes learning how to read FUN! It uses games, jokes, riddles and stories to teach kids how to read. This program is great for all types of learning styles. "Rocket Phonics readers go from non-reader to 5th grade reading in two years or less."

In addition to using games and jokes, Rocket Phonics also uses ITA (which means Initial Teaching Alphabet). ITA is a 36-sound alphabet which is designed to help a child associate a symbol with a sound, by picturing a common word. For example /a/ is for apple. I'm still on the fence on whether I agree with this method or not, because I lean more towards the traditional way of learning how to read.

For my special needs guy I was hoping this would be a good fit for him, but when it comes to reading sentences like the one shown above he got distracted with the letters underneath. He didn't quite get what they were trying to do with those letters. My son has comprehension difficulties so the fact that this didn't work for him doesn't necessarily mean it won't work for other kids. I'm always saying that what works for some may not work for others. We did love the games and the treasure hunt was a huge hit! They really do make learning to read fun, and that is really what I like about this program. It teaches that reading can be fun, which will instill a love of reading in a child.

The cost of Rocket Phonics is a bit pricey ($159 or 3 payments of $54), but it is non-consumable, and takes a child from pre-reading to 5th grade reading level. So it can be used for at least two years, and can be used for other children in your family. Included in the kit are: 2 big Rocket Phonics readers, Two sets of Play & Read symbol cards, Bingo chips, Rocket Peeker, Bingo sheets and Word lists for testing

In addition to purchasing Rocket Phonics they are also offering three bonus gifts:

1) Free 28 supplements: With your purchase, you’ll receive by email free each week for 28 weeks a supplement to your kit. New! Now incuded: Spelling Strategy -- multi-sensory, developed by spelling specialists, and nearly foolproof! Also, 12 Writing Lessons, perfect for kindergarten or first grade. You and your child will be thrilled with each week’s additional stories, riddles, games, beginning reading tips and more. There's extra practice for each grade level! ($69.95 value)

2) Two Rocket Phonics Treasure Hunts: The rhyming clues are written both with and without Rocket Phonics’ unique helpers, so very early readers can read beyond their grade levels to figure out clues and find the treasure. Your children will love these. Prizes, such as sticky hands, kazoos, etc., are all included and ready for fun. ($16.95 value)

Even though this program was a little difficult for my special needs guy, he still had fun with the games. And having my son learn while he plays is always a good thing in my book.

Write Shop Storybuilders

http://www.writeshop.com/

Do you have a beginning writer? Or maybe a reluctant writer? You may want to check out WriteShop's Storybuilders. This product is a gentle approach to teaching writing skills to your beginning writer. There are 4 different themed Storybuilder products: World of People, World of Animals, World of Sports, and Christmas Mini-Builder. Storybuilders uses card decks to help jumpstart a beginning writer's creative writing project. In each of the the card decks contain 4 sets of cards: character, character trait, plot, and setting. You also get instructions on how to implement the cards. I'm sure you may be thinking that you could probably make something up like this yourself, but the cost of this product is worth saving yourself the trouble: the larger sets are $7.95 each, with the mini-builder costing $3.95. Plus they come in ebook format, which I personally love because not only can you reuse this product, but it doesn't take up space in my house!

When I went to use this product with my kids they were a little hesitant. My kids are not enthusiastic when it comes to writing, especially creative writing. They moan and hedge when I ask them to make up a story, but it wasn't so with Storybuilders. The cards helped to motivate my reluctant writers to create funny imaginative stories. Needless to say, my kids loved this product.

One Year Adventure Novel

Homeschooling a high schooler can be a little scary, especially when trying to find a good writing curriculum...and The One Year Adventure Novel is a good writing curriculum.
This is a high school writing course that was created and is taught by an award wining novelist, Daniel Schwabauer.

The One Year Adventure Novel can be used as a supplement to any English curriculum or can be a stand alone program. For those counting credits this can be counted towards a full year English course.












The complete curriculum contains: The Compass, a textbook with detailed explanations of the concepts explored; The Map, with over 400 questions and acts as a guide to your student's original story and gives direction toward making that story more effective; Teacher's guide, which shows the teacher how to grade your student's work and improve their writing skills; a set of dvds containing all 78 lessons; and a resource disk with resources to quizzes, video FAQs, and 14 classic adventure novels.

The OYNA is an independent curriculum, with minimal teacher involvement. The way OYNA works is this: the student watches a lesson (each video lesson is approximately 10-15 minutes long), then goes to the workbook to do exercises on that lesson, read excerpts from an adventure novel and answers questions. The teacher then goes and reads the students work, grades and then offers suggestions to improve the students writing.

I loved this curriculum! My 10th grader enjoyed it too. It encouraged her to write, which is no easy task. There is little to no prep for me, the teacher, or for the student. It's well-laid out and easy to follow for both student and teacher.


You can check out samples here: http://www.oneyearnovel.com/samplelessons.html

All About Homophones

All About Homophones http://all-about-homophones.com/order.html


All About Spelling came up with a wonderful supplement called All About Homophones: your Complete Toolkit. This is a 240 page book teaches about homophones, those pesky words that trip up so many kids (and adults for that matter) when spelling them. Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently; like BEAR and BARE, PIECE and PEACE, or THEIR and THERE. This toolkit is just that, a supplemental resource that is used along with your regular language arts curriculum.
All About Homphones is a great toolkit geared towards grades 1-8, that helps teach these tricky words through tons of card games, worksheets, cross word puzzles, and more. There are fun riddles and puns to help reinforce what the child is learning.


There are also sections that contain student record keeping worksheets, tongue twisters, answer keys, lists and an appendix. There is also a homophone machine that you can use to help show children how fun homophones and homonyms can be. You just type in any sentence and it swaps out the words for similar sounding words.... for example: I typed in "I would like to show you my new horse" and out came this sentence "Eye wood like two show ewe my knew hoarse" .

We really had a great time using this program, the games, riddles and puns really held my kids' attentions. This is a fun resource to have to help your struggling spellers with those tricky homophones and homonyms.


You can order this book in either a soft cover copy($29.95) or in ebook format($27.95) through this site: http://all-about-homophones.com/order.html You can also view samples at that link.

Deeper Roots Bible Curriculum

Looking for an indepth Bible study for your child? Check out Deeper Roots website http://www.deeperroots.com/ they have several different studies for grades 7th through 12th. The cost of these studies are reasonably priced, the teacher edition costs $28.95 and the student workbook goes for $19.95. They also offer other homeschool resources; such as videos, workbooks, regular reading books and more.

The curriculum we reviewed was "Discovering Our Amazing God" by Jan L. Harris and Howard & Bonnie Lisech. This Bible study is geared towards 7th through 9th grades. This curriculum is an indepth study of the Bible using exercises in scripture memory, journaling, questions and more.

This is a teacher taught curriculum, which is really the best way to have a child learn about the Bible because the parent should be the one to disciple your child and help them grow spiritually. A self-taught Bible study may not give the same results as a parent led one. The great thing about this curriculum is that it is well-laid out, with minimal teacher prep and to me, a mom homeschooling 6 kids, this is a REALLY great thing!

Discovering Our Amazing God also focuses on some of the less familiar Bible stories and events to give the student an new appreciation of our loving God. They use artwork, line drawings, different ways of answering questions, and suggested activities intermingled with inductive Bible study to keep the student refreshed, interested and motivated.

My daughter and I both enjoyed this study. There is a lot of writing assignments in this study so if you have a child with special needs or a child that is still transitioning from elementary grade work to jr/sr high you may want to adjust the curriculum to fit their needs (which isn't hard to do).

If you are looking for a more academic based study rather than a devotional type Bible study then check out Deeper Roots website. They also offer free samples for you to check out.

Critical Thinking Co.

Critical Thinking Co.

I have often received a catalog from Critical Thinking company, but unfortunately am unable to purchase anything from them (you know how it is with a budget). But I sure do love to look through their catalog and drool at the wonderful products that they offer. Luckily, Critical Thinking joined the TOS Review Crew vendor list.





They graciously sent me two thick books....Level 2 and Level 3 (verbal) of their Building Thinking Skills series. And when I say thick, I mean THICK. Each of these books has approximately 300+ pages of activities for the student to do, is reproducible (for family use only), and cost $29.99. The fact that you can re-use these books is a great help, especially for those who are homeschooling more than one child.
Critical Thinking Company carries many award-winning products that have helped students of all abilities achieve better grades and higher test scores.

My kids enjoyed doing the activities in these books. The lessons are short and actually fun! Considering these are workbooks, I thought maybe there were tons of lessons, with tons of drills and memorizing...but not so. These books contain activities that build upon themselves...they are sequenced so that children learn to analyze relationships between objects, between words, and between objects and words. This helps a child to develop better thinking and communication skills which provides a stronger foundation for learning.

Check out their website for samples: sample page

New CPSIA LAW is hitting small businesses....

This new law that the CPSC has gotten passed is not only hitting thrift and consignment stores but many small, family operated homeschool companies as well. In the media the stories mostly talk about thrift and consignment stores, so I'm not sure if the media (or Americans in general)
really understands just how big of a deal this is....this law could very well ruin American small businesses.
Here are some emails I have received in just the last two days from some small homeschool businesses that I often purchase from;

handsofachild

January 12, 2009
Dear Valued Customers,
Due to the new CPSIA law In the Hands of a Child, for the time being, is discounting our Kit Pack inventory in order to lessen our possible loss in the event that an exemption is not granted.

While we are still praying for this situation to work out for all small businesses we feel that it is in our best interest to lessen our possible loss. And what better way than to pass the savings on to you, our wonderful customers, who are praying with us through this difficult situation!!

Please help us clear our shelves and enjoy a 35% savings on all Kit Packs!! Savings will be automatic! Spread the word and help us empty the shelves!!

This sale will continue until our Kit Pack inventory has been exhausted, so purchases will be on a first-come-first-served basis.

Once they are gone, they are gone!

In the event the law is modified, In the Hands of a Child reserves the right to bring back Kit Packs in the future at full price without any discount, implied or expressed, during this sale.

Cannot be combined with any other offer, special, discount, coupon or sale. Super Member discount DOES NOT apply to this sale.Tax and Shipping not included in calculating discount price. Not valid toward prior purchases. No rainchecks.


from hands and hearts

It is with the deepest possible regret that we must announce that we are discontinuing production of our Hands and Hearts History Discovery Kits. We, like so many other small business in America, are simply unable to afford to get in compliance with the new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act.We know that these kits have blessed thousands of homeschoolers around the world, and we have prayed, wracked our brains, and sought council in hopes that we would not need to take this step.

As of today, the prices of our kits are discounted. We will discontinue the sale of these kits on February 9th, or when current stock is depleted, whichever comes first.

We do honestly believe that amendments will be made to the CPSIA, and it is our hope that these amendments will be reasonable enough that we will be able to offer our kits again at some point in the future. We want to absolutely walk in integrity, so we want to be clear that while we HOPE to be able to offer these kits again, we simply cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. Only you can decide if you want to buy a kit now so that you know that you will have it, or whether you are comfortable waiting and hoping with us.

It is also our hope and intent to leave our store open after Feb. 10, but the loss of revenue from our kits may force us to close our business entirely. If it is important to you to purchase anything from us, please consider doing it now or you may be unable to do so in the future. This law affects MUCH of our inventory, and there are many, many products which are being discontinued by their manufacturers. As a result, we will not be able to reorder any of those products once our current stock is depleted. We would like to urge each of you not to buy in a panic, but to pray about what you need to do.

Please read this article that I have written.
It contains an overview of the CPSIA and a detailed action plan with steps that we can take to try to get this over-reaching law ammended.
Please let other homeschoolers know both about the above article and about our sale. It saddens us to know that we cannot reach everyone and that there will surely be many homeschoolers that come to our site too late and are unable to purchase kits. We will be continuing to send updates and breaking news about the CPSIA and the status of our company through our newsletter, so if you are not a subscriber please use the form in the left-hand side of our website to subscribe.

IMPORTANT: Shipping times WILL be delayed due to this sale. If you need your order within a certain time frame, let us know and we will try to accommodate you. As we sell out of kits, they will be removed from the website.

Blessings,
Jeff and Kate Estes

homeschoolfreebie of the day (also owns homeschool radio shows)

This has been one of those crazy weeks for us. We had to makea major decision about our business, and it hasn't been easy.

We really don't want to do this...

We really, REALLY don't like doing this...

But it looks like we have no choice.

Read and see why:

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DyuxZ&m=1gXS7LBELQYxun&b=vHUf2Rwj5cGYcS_BwPrxow

Even though this is tough on us, we hope it willbe a blessing to others.Go ahead and take advantage ofit if you can, so we at least won't have to takea government-mandated trip to the landfill todump a good portion of our business there.

Important Note:We sent an advance notice about this out to a smallportion of our list over the weekend, and thingsjust went nuts here. We've since revised whatitems remain and want to warn you that this pagewill probably only be available for today - maybeeven only for a few hours -as we are getting low on most of these collections.

As you might suspect, taking care of all thisis a major undertaking, and we are currently completely snowed under tryingto sort this all out and get this all wrapped up in the next couple ofweeks. Therefore, instead of providing all new resources this week,we will be re-running some much-requested items from our earlydays. If you missed any of these the first time around, here's your chance.


So as you can see this new law does not just affect thrift and consignment stores....it is affecting all small businesses that cater to children's goods. Sure, the big companies have to comply to this new law, but they can afford it...and to be honest they are the ones who caused this law to come into play. They outsource their manufacturing to China, who in turn has flimsy laws governing what they put into their products. All the recalls in the last few years were primarily from products manufactured by the big companies that import their products from China. I wouldn't be surprised if the big companies are the ones who pushed this law in under the radar...after all the recalls, many Americans turned to local or small businesses to purchase their goods...which probably hit the big guys in their wallets.
We all need to write to our representatives and speak out against this law. There is a way to protect our kids from toxins but this is NOT the way.

ALEKS free trial

I just received from ALEKS a free trial to pass along to homeschoolers who have not tried ALEKS.

This free trial is different from their regular one that they have posted on their website http://www.aleks.com/ (which is a 48 hr. free trial)...this new one is for 1-month! AND if you refer 2 homeschoolers they will increase the 1-month free trial to 2-months. The stipulations to the referrals is that it has to be 2 people (not including you or anyone in your household), and they will verify the referrals.

For those of you who do not know what ALEKS is you can find my review of it here :

http://cliffcrew6.blogspot.com/2008/12/aleks-online-math-course.html

Give it a try....what can you lose?

Kinderbach

Kinderbach

We were given the chance to review Kinderbach. Kinderbach is online music lessons for preschoolers (ages 2-7yrs). It teaches music using the piano keyboard as the base instrument. KinderBach offers online sessions ($85.95/year or $14.95/month), DVD lessons (one year package $217.75), or curriculum for early childhood classes.

Kinderbach was created by Karri Gregor, who has an extensive background in music education, singing, keyboarding theory and visual arts to name a few. She has created a curriculum that not only teaches piano, but also teaches music theory, note readings, rhythym, ear training and more.

I tried this curriculum for my younger two kids; and although my 7yo didn't really care for it much, my youngest daughter (4yo) really took to it. She enjoyed the cute characters, the activities, and the movements that went along with the lessons. The lessons are easy to follow, and super fun too! It kept my daughter's interest, which can be hard since she has ADHD. She loved the movements that were incorporated into the lessons, and the coloring pages were a big hit too.
I would recommend this for anyone who does not have a strong background in music and would like to teach their preschoolers music theory. They also offer two free lessons...you can check them out here: free trial

Math Mammoth

Math Mammoth : http://www.mathmammoth.com/

We were blessed to be given the chance to try out Math Mammoth. Math Mammoth was created by Maria Miller, who has a master's degree in mathematics with the teacher educational studies, and minors in physics and statistics. After working with homeschooled students she noticed that the books many homeschoolers used were inferior to what she had used growing up or while studying math. Those experiences prompted her to start writing books especially for homeschoolers. She wanted to create a math curriculum that was easy to teach as well as having it affordable. In addition to Math Mammoth, Maria has also created a website called HomeschoolMath.net which is a wonderful math resource for homeschoolers.



Math Mammoth carries 4 different series of math books which are offered in either pdf form or cd-rom. There is Blue Series (organized by topic for grades 1-5), Light Blue Series (complete curriculum for grades 1-5), Green Series (worksheets organized by topic for grades 3-8), and Golden Series (work sheets organized by topic for grades 3-8).

We were graciously given grade 2 light blue series, green series geometry, and 7th grade golden series to review.

With the grade 2 math I found it to be very easy to teach and implement. The graphics are simple which is great for kids who get easily distracted by complex graphics (I have a couple kids with ADHD, so this curriculum is great for us!). This series is a complete curriculum, and for the cost you really can't beat it ($14 each or $27 for both A & B). And then add in that it is reusable, it really is a bargain.

I feel the same with the other series that we used. I like that there are no busy graphics, and that the instructions are easy to follow. The difference with these series and the Blue and Light Blue series is that the Green and Golden series are just worksheets. These are for reinforcement, practice or review...these aren't complete curriculums. But the neat thing about these series are that each workbook is broken into topics, with each page focusing on one topic. There are review pages, but for the most part each page concentrates on one concept. Making easy to assign work to the student. The cost for these series are very reasonable too: Geometry Green Series $7ea; Golden Series 7A $8 (includes cost of answer key) 7B $8.50 (includes cost of answer key).