I received 2 products from Christianity Cove, I reviewed Daily Dilemmas: 26 True to life dilemmas and “Tween and Rock and a Hard Place” Lesson blueprints.

The first product, Daily Dilemmas goes through 26 different scenarios and then list 4 multiple choice answers that it wants the student to rate in order of the best and least likely to respond to the scenario. A scenario is outlines, there are then about 3 scriptures to read, and then the student is asked to rate the 4 responses. The scenario section is followed by a reflection section that points out the best answer and topics to discuss with your child. [Read more...]

I had the opportunity to review Math Rider, I’m always on the lookout for good math tools for my son so I was looking forward to reviewing this product.

Once I received the program, it was super easy to download and install, no issues there. I set up a login account for him and let him loose. Math Rider is intended for use with children in grade 2 to 6.

My son is in the 6th grade and I figured that he would need to work on his multiplication and division first so that’s where he started.

The player then starts a new quest. The rider is sent on a mission to find the flower that will cure his mother of the multiplication flu. The player rides a horse and the player must answer the multiplication question that is presented on the obstacle. If it is correct, the horse jumps over it, if it is incorrect, the horse stops and goes around the obstacle.

The great thing is that if you get it wrong, the pace of the horse slows down so that your child gets more time to work through the problems. They are also presented with the question again so that your child works on the problems that he has difficulty over and over to help them really get it.

There’s also a great master list of skills where you can see which questions your child is having difficulty with which gives you a great overall outlook. I was able to look at the list and give him some help on certain problems he was having. We were also able to review some of it orally. [Read more...]

This is a review for the Leadership Garden Legacy is for the U.N.I.Q.U.E. Growing the Leader Within program which is meant for high schoolers or adults. We also received the U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids: Growing my Leadership Garden (age 5-12).

The Growing the Leader within program includes:

• Growing the Leader Within paperback book ($18.95)
• Growing the Leader Within audiobook download ($14.95)
• The Leadership Garden Guidebook ($18.95)

The kids program includes:

• U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids: Growing my Leadership Garden paperback book ($18.95)
• U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids: Activity Guide and Journal pdf ($8.95)
• U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids: Audiobook download ($8.95)

The acronym stands for:

U – Understanding
N – Nurturing
I – Inventive
Q – Quality
U – Unstoppable
E – Expression [Read more...]

I was super excited to receive a subscription the the Supercharged Science e-science course. I’ve been drooling over this product since I started homeschooling and I was never able to afford it so colour me excited when I was picked to review it.

Once I gained access to the site, you are overwhelmed with science overload, in a good way. There’s so much that is included in the subscription that it takes a bit to get through, you definitely want to read the introductory material under the Getting Started tab. There is usually a video of Aurora explaining how things are done, they are clear and easy to follow.

How to get started:

• Watch the video
• Pick a study unit
• Gather supplies for experiments
• Get started – watch videos and complete activities

I actually decided what unit we would be working on by looking at the materials list in the lesson plans first. We all know that gathering science supplies are a pain, however, if you don’t have them on hand, science doesn’t get done. So I started by looking at what materials I would have to purchase since cost is an issue for us here.

I decided to go with the matter: atoms, density, and solids. On the right side of the screen is where you see the navigation area with all the goodies. Under the lesson plan it lists: [Read more...]

I love lapbooks and was pretty excited to review the A Journey through Learning  lapbooks.

I received 4 lapbooks:

• Letters, numbers and shapes preschool lapbook  ages (3-5)
• Astronomy and space (grade 2-7)
• Knights and Castles (grade 2-7)
• Earth (grade 1-4)

I worked on the preschool one with my 5 year old and my 6th grader did the Astronomy notebook.

We love lapbooks here an we’ve done a lot. I know a lot of people get worked about about all the organization, cutting and pasting but the kids do really enjoy the finished product and they love showing them off to family members.

I know some people think that you have to be crafty to finish a lapbook but you really don’t. Because I’m not. I do the cutting for my son and he goes at it afterwards. I could see how this could be a pain for those with multiple kids but since my boys like them, I don’t mind. I use regular printer paper and that’s it. You can go all out using cardstock or different colour paper and such but we don’t have that in our budget here so we make it work. [Read more...]

This review is for Computer Science for Kids  for their Beginning Small Basic Programming (age 10+) program.

My son is interested in computer programming because he knows it will lead to learning how to program a video game. He was very excited to get started. I had him download everything himself and showed him where all the folders and such were.

I started by printing out the lesson notes so that we could read it together and work on the computer. I ended up having printer issues so later on I had both the pdf notes open on the screen and the small basic program open beside it. This actually worked out better because when he was writing long lines of code, it was easier to read from.

The introductory lesson shows you how to use the program, open, close, run the programs and where to save them.

I sat with my son through the first two lessons but after that he was able to work on his own. I’d only read the introductory lesson portion.

As the program tries to teach you the why of what they are learning, it is pretty wordy for my 6th grader so we read the beginning of the lesson together which is mostly theory. Once he needs to start working in the program, he can do it on his own. I understand that they are teaching how the code works but it kind of goes above the scope of my son because of the math and terminology. [Read more...]

I’m so excited to be reviewing Essentials in Writing, I received the 6th grade curriculum for 11 to 12 year olds to review with my son. The first half of the program focuses on grammar while the second portion focuses on writing.

The grammar portion has a lesson on all the various parts of speech followed by worksheet or two. Most of the worksheets include a summary of the video. This is great for those who do not learn well with DVDs or who prefer to read it themselves. There is then an activity to work on during the lesson.

The table of contents shows a very thorough program and I was really excited to  get started. This was not the case for Jodo. He really doesn’t like writing so I was curious as to how he would like the program.

I sat him down and told him to watch the video. The first video is an introduction so I knew he didn’t need to complete any workbook pages, so I left him at it. Twenty minutes later he was still watching the video and getting pretty bored at this point. Well, silly mommy was only listening to the video and not watching it with him so he watched like 5 lessons worth of videos. I was expecting the video to stop after the lesson was over but if you hit play it just continually plays all the lessons, duh. [Read more...]