Triad Math, Inc. (Review)

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I might be showing my age, but I remember having teachers tell me that I wouldn’t have a calculator in my pocket when I needed to do math. Fast forward to today and most of us carry phones that can do more math than the calculators we used in class. With that in mind, I was excited to review Mastering the TI-30Xa Scientific Calculator: Augmented Intelligence for all 21st Century Students from Triad Math, Inc..

I know that calculators are common tools and can be a huge help to math students, but only when they understand how to utilize the calculator. As a former teacher and now homeschool mom, too often I have seen students get problems incorrect because they were not appropriately using the calculator. My seventh-grade daughter is currently taking pre-algebra. She does fine in math but it is not her favorite subject. However, when I explained that this program was going to be showing her how to use her calculator in her math class, she was thrilled at the chance to give it a try.

We did this program 2-3 days a week in addition to her regular math program. Each lesson took her about 20 minutes to complete. There are a total of 25 lessons, but as a pre-algebra student she is only working her way through the first 13 but as she goes into algebra next year she will go through the next two lessons, and then when she reaches trigonometry she will work through the last lessons.

The program consists of a paperback student workbook with twenty-five lessons and a video component to accompany each lesson. There are also pre-tests for each skill and then a quiz after completing the lesson. The program is designed specifically for the TI-30xa calculator and the first lesson goes through an introduction of that calculator. Then the lessons begin teaching specific skills on the calculator such as negative numbers, percentages, multiplication and division. Then it moves into fractions and decimals. As students progress through math, and this program, they can learn to do trigonometric functions like SIN, COS, TAN, and engineering functions like density.

When I asked for her opinion, she said that overall she liked the program. She mentioned that she felt it was important to understand the math concept before you did the lesson. That was important because this program does not teach the math concepts, only how to use the calculator to solve them.

After seeing how much it helped her and the confidence it gave her in using her calculator, I plan to purchase another book and have my son who is a freshman take the course. I think he will find it beneficial as he moves forward with higher-level mathematics.

Overall, I would recommend this program for any student that wants to be more comfortable using a calculator in upper level math work. I wish there were options for different calculators but much of what is learned would transfer to other calculators and the TI-30xa is a fairly inexpensive and readily available model. Visit Triad Math, Inc. to find out more or purchase this product and click on the graphic below to read about how other families used the program.

Homeschool Court Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I debated pretty heavily on whether or not to review the Homeschool Court Student Worktext, teachers guide and case summaries from Homeschool Court. I was very interested in the concept but knew that we had a lot on our plates and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to add one more thing. However, I am so glad that we decided to give it a try.

I received the Homeschool Court Student Worktext, Homeschool Court Teacher Manual, Homeschool Court High School Supplement, as well as the student and teacher case summaries for three cases. I really appreciated that there were teacher’s guides to go with each component that made it easy for me to lead the class even though there were components that I was learning right along with my children.

We decided to use this program with both my seventh-grade daughter and my ninth-grade son. During this review period we had a long road trip, and while I was concerned about getting everything done, the road trip proved to be a great time to work on this program.

I printed out the first two chapters of the Homeschool Court Student Worktext and the Homeschool Court Teacher Manual before we left. Then I had my children read through the first chapter while we were riding. Once they were familiar with it, we discussed the chapter and worked through the activities together. The time in the car gave us extra discussion time without feeling like we needed to rush to the next activity. We continued through the first two chapters in that fashion and then when we got home we started working together during nap time for the younger children. I appreciated that my husband was also able to contribute to the discussion while we were riding.

This program is set up to take students from the basics of laws and legal vocabulary, to an understanding of the Biblical foundation of our laws. Next, it talks about the various positions in the judicial system and an understanding of the different components of the judicial system. This includes state and federal courts, criminal and civil courts, etc. Then it moves onto the types of trials and teaches about persuasive arguments. The final two chapters cover preparing for a mock trial and actually having a mock trial.

Activities from the various chapters included vocabulary work, discussions, worksheets that helped students understand how the laws of the United States relate to the 10 Commandments, and practice analyzing different scenarios. I really liked how it helped students to look at things from various perspectives and see how there are often many factors that play into decisions.

If you have a high schooler, the high school supplement adds some depth to each chapter. I think that even without the supplement there is a lot of good material for most high schoolers. The supplement gives enough depth that I think you could use it all together for high school credit. We were using it as an extra curricular activity.

Once we have completed the Homeschool Court Student Worktext we can choose one of the case summaries as our final project. This can be done in a mock trial setting, a debate, or even a paper. We plan to do ours as a debate since there are only a few of us working through it as a family. You could do a mock trial as a family, but I think that option would be ideal for a co-op type setting.

Overall, I am enjoying this product. I love that it is bringing up some really good discussions with my teens. I also appreciate that it is written from a Biblical perspective. The course can be used from fourth grade through high school, but I feel like it is ideal for middle and high school level students as it really lays a solid foundation for the intricacies of the justice system.Be sure to take a closer look at Homeschool Court and then click on the graphic below to see how other Review Crew families used it in their homes.

Easter Resources for Toddlers to Teens

It is so hard for me to believe that we are only a week away from Easter! March seems to have flown by. I wanted to share a few resources that you can use this week to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus in your home.

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Knowing that I am probably not the only one that feels like the days are flying by and there are often not enough hours in the day to get it all done, I have tried to highlight activities that do not take a long time. These ideas are not only low prep on your part but packed with powerful lessons.

We often remember to celebrate with young children, but as our children grow into teens, there seem to be fewer options. I have tried to include ideas for all age ranges and some that are great to do together as a family.

Easter Resources

Tauna over at Proverbial Homemaker has this great study, Stories of the Resurrection. This study is designed to be used over 4-8 weeks, but there are parts that can be used over the course of this week and then you would have the study to use more in-depth next year if you chose. It includes devotionals, a hymn study, activity pages, coloring pages, and more.

This Easter Escape Room is fun for the whole family and a great way to include your teens. It takes less than an hour of time to complete but gets them using their Bibles and focused on Jesus. We did this last week and really enjoyed it.

I can’t not mention Resurrection Rolls because they are always a favorite. It is a great visual for young children but even my teens enjoy eating them. It only takes a few minutes and it counts as breakfast!

We love incorporating music into our celebrations, you can do this free hymn study of , “Up From The Grave” and if you have a ChalkPastel.com membership there is a new art lesson designed to accompany it!

I am planning to include several of the Easter videos from SchoolhouseTeachers.com in our celebration this year. I want to watch The First Easter with my younger boys and The Week that Changed the World with my teens.

You can also check out our Hymn Study page for several other hymns that are appropriate for Easter and our Easter posts from years past for additional activities. There are so many ways to incorporate Easter into our homes and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I would love to hear from you about your favorite resources and ideas.

Additional Easter Resources:

Hymn Studies

Easter Resources and Ideas (at Home)

The Easter Storybook Review

Easter Resources and Ideas

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If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Leapfrog Academy Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I received a subscription to LeapFrog Academy® by LeapFrog® to review with my six-year old son. I also used the program some with my three-year-old when we could work together. Leap Frog Academy has lessons that would take my six-year-old systematically through math, reading, science, problem solving skills, and more. They even include music and art to encourage creativity.

In addition to the systematic lessons, he could choose games to play for various skills and books to read. While the lessons needed Wi-Fi, we were able to choose games and books to be downloaded so that he could play them without Wi-Fi. We were traveling during part of this review period and appreciated him being able to continue to reinforce those skills while we were on the road and did not have Wi-Fi access. It was also a great way to keep him from being bored while we were riding, I felt like it was a great use of that time that otherwise might become challenging.

While I set aside each day to work one-on-one with my son, I also need him to be able to do some of his work independently while I help his older brother and sister or entertain the toddler. This program was great because once I got him set up, he could do it independently.

There is a parent dashboard where I could track his progress on lessons and games, see how many activities he completed in a particular week, and even see what skills he was working on during his time. The reports were easy to find and read and made it easy for me to track his progress. The parent dashboard would also allow me to choose different paths for him if I wanted him to work on a different set of lessons.

We try to limit screen time, especially for my three-year-old. However, I decided to try a few of the preschool games with him. He enjoyed games that reinforced colors and numbers. I sat with him and he would show me which answers to choose. There are a large variety of games at various levels to allow students to choose different games and to keep progressing in the level of difficulty. I did not have him complete a lesson path, but simply chose a few fun games for him to work on with me.

Overall, we enjoyed this subscription to LeapFrog Academy® . Both of my sons liked the activities, it was easy to use, and taught or reinforced a wide variety of skills. I wish that the lessons could be done without Wi-Fi, but appreciate that they can at least play some of the games and read the books without Wi-Fi. If you have preschool or early elementary students, I recommend you check out the LeapFrog Academy® subscription. Also, be sure to click on the graphic below to see what other members of the Review Crew thought and how they used it in their families.

LeapFrog Academy® One Year Subscription {LeapFrog® Reviews}

How We Garden

We have been gardening to some extent for many years. Depending on what is going on in our lives and the weather trends, some years we have a larger garden and sometimes it is just a few tomato plants. This week the Review Crew is talking about How We Garden.

Background

Almost sixteen years ago, when we purchased the land where we live, it did not occur to me that I should test the soil to see if it would be good for a garden. I had always lived in places where with a little work you could have a great garden.

We are blessed with about four acres of land, which is plenty of space for any type of garden; however, we have extremely sandy soil which makes gardening more challenging. The sand does not hold moisture well at all and is also missing many key nutrients.

Over the years, we have tried a variety of different things to help our gardening efforts. We have done some container gardening with potting soil, chosen plants that tolerate drier soil, amended our gardening beds, and allowed for a slower growth rate on plants by planting early in the season.

Last year we had a lot of success with our garden, in part because we had extra time in the spring (due to COVID restrictions). We also were able to use some natural fertilizer from our livestock as well as some products we purchased to enrich the soil after utilizing the free soil testing through our cooperative extension.

Current Projects

This year, I am very excited to be adding two big raised beds to our gardening efforts. I joke that my husband bought me dirt for Valentine’s Day but in reality I am super excited. He and my son built the beds and then filled them with a mix of wheat straw bedding from our goat barn and fresh topsoil.

My thirteen-year-old son normally manages the garden beds, and will continue to manage our regular ones, but my six-year-old is excited to help me tend to the raised garden beds. We used a seed starting kit, and have a variety of plants started.

Among the plants that we will put into the raised bed are carrots, turnips, lettuce, and cauliflower. My son filled up the seed starting kit and then planted the seeds (with supervision so they didn’t’ get mixed up). This week he is transplanting the carrots and lettuce into the raised beds.

Lessons Learned

We will plant a variety of fruits and vegetables in our garden for all three of our growing seasons (spring, summer, fall). Some of our favorites are the melons and tomatoes of summer, but we have found that spring and fall tend to be easier seasons for gardening in our area. There are less pests, more rainfall, and fewer weeds. It is also easier to be outside working in the garden because of more temperate weather.

Do you have a garden? What are your favorite things to grow? Any tips for making a garden more successful? Make sure to check out all of the other Review Crew gardens!

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FREE Month of Kindle Unlimited: I have been using this for my own pleasure reading as well as books for my son and daughter and really enjoying it.

Not Consumed has a new Pre-K and Kindergarten Curriculum for sale!

Family Mixed Martial Arts (Review)

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

We have friends that love martial arts and we have always been impressed with the character traits and physical skill that come from participating in martial arts. However, our family has never participated due to time constraints and other activities. That is until last month when we were given the opportunity to review Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Preschool Mixed Martial Arts with my six-year-old son. This program from Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos is all digital and asynchronous which was a great fit for our busy family.

When the opportunity arose, I asked my son about it and he was immediately on board. He had already been somewhat interested in martial arts, because some of his friends are heavily involved, so this was a great chance to give it a try.

Product Description

Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Preschool Mixed Martial Arts is a martial arts and character development program designed for children ages four to seven years. The course begins with an introduction to the instructor, supply list (mostly basic supplies from around the home such as a towel or mat, ball, etc), and an explanation of terms and some fundamentals of the program.

After the introduction, the course is divided into sixteen lessons. You can choose to do each lessons once, or if you feel your child needs more time for mastery you can repeat a lesson until you are ready to move on to the next lesson.

The individual lessons are broken down into five different components. Each component is relatively short, lasting only two to five minutes. First there is the warm-up section, then technique (this is the new mixed martial arts (MMA) technique that is covered in that lesson), the character lesson, review and game (they work on the skill from the technique component), fun exercise, and they finish up with a lesson review. Each lesson can be completed in about fifteen minutes.

When we were reviewing this program, each component was broken down into a separate video and sometimes several videos per component. This is my one complaint about this course. You cannot just turn on a lesson and watch it to completion. You have to click on each individual video (often less than a minute long) to move onto the next section. This is not a huge deal but does mean that it takes more parent involvement and attention than a video that will just play through. However, they have updated it in the last week to make it so that each lesson is combined into one video.

In addition to playing each section of the video, there is parent involvement in some of the other components. Sometimes the child will need a ‘parent partner’ to help with the game or technique. This could also be done with an older sibling/teenager.

Our Experience

My son felt a little overwhelmed the first day because of all of the new information, but quickly figured out the program. After that first day he would request to do the lessons and enjoyed them each day. He also liked to show off his new skills to family members.

Overall, while I felt that the short video clips make it a little clunky to use, it was a good program. We appreciated that the program was step by step and easy to follow even for a young child. There were lots of different games and activities to help keep their attention. The focus on a combination of self-defense and good character traits was well done and beneficial. I would recommend it for children in the four to seven age ranges, but the parent needs to expect to be available to facilitate and assist in the course.

Be sure to click on the graphic below to see what other families thought about Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Preschool Mixed Martial Arts and how they used it in their homes.

Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Preschool Mixed Martial Arts {Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Reviews}

The Crafty Classroom Tracing Bundle (Review)

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

When I decided to review the Tracing Bundle from The Crafty Classroom, I had my six-year-old son in mind. We were finishing up the letter portion of a phonics program and I knew I could easily incorporate some of the Tracing Bundle with that program. However, I soon realized that I could also use it with my three-year-old.

Product Description

The Tracing Bundle includes almost 300 pages of tracing sheets that also review various other skills. There are beginner pages that are just tracing different lines and pictures. For more developed students there are also pages that practice tracing numbers, letters, shapes, and even words. They even included some fun holiday tracing sheets.

In addition to the tracing sheets, there is an editable name tracing pack. This pack allows you to go in and input your child’s first, middle, and last name and then it creates a variety of pages using the child’s name. My son already knew how to write his first name, but this was great practice for learning his middle and last name.

Our Family’s Experience

I started out just printing one or two sheets each day for my six-year-old. I would choose sheets that went along with the letter he was learning or something I thought he might be interested in learning. The letter sheets were a great way to reinforce the letters from phonics and work on his handwriting skills.

However, my younger son (who turned three during the review period) thought the sheets looked like fun and started asking me for his own ‘school sheets’. I was able to print out some of the basic lines and curves for him to work on. This was a great way to help him work on fine motor skills while also keeping him occupied during my instruction with the six-year-old.

We even tried these on a road trip, I printed out a variety of pages from this pack for both of the boys to work on in the car. I think it was a great way for them to get a little work done, stay engaged, and not be too dependent on the extra screen time in the car. In addition to the tracing, some of the pages have coloring and even connect the dots to add a little extra challenge.

Conclusions

Overall, I thought that this pack was a great resource for working on fine motor skills, handwriting, letters, numbers, and shapes. I loved that there was a huge variety and that it was print and go and required very little prep on my part. It is a great supplement for preschool through early elementary ages or for older students that need more practice with fine motor skills and handwriting.

Be sure to click on the graphic below to check out not only how other Crew families used this product, but to also learn more about some of the other products from The Crafty Classroom.

Fine Motor Alphabet Bundle, Superstar Spelling & Tracing Bundle {The Crafty Classroom Reviews}

A Perfect Picnic: Vision versus Reality

When I saw that the Review Crew was talking about the perfect picnic this week, I had to laugh. Our family loves picnics and when the weather is nice we often eat outside at least a couple times a week. We also tend to picnic a lot when we travel to save money and allow everyone a chance to move around and stretch their legs. However, I find that our picnics are never perfect and often do not fit the vision that I have in my mind.

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A Perfect Picnic

In my mind a perfect picnic involves delicious homemade food, a soft blanket on the grass, cooperative and happy children, sunshine, and quiet fun. There would be a variety of delicious sandwiches with lots of tasty toppings, chicken salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and all sorts of other tasty treats.

Real Life

My real life picnics rarely look like that. Some days we plan to eat in our own yard on the grass, but then the ants want to join us. Other days we plan for a sunny picnic and it rains so we have to reschedule or eat on the porch. Other times, the drinks fall on the sandwiches and flattens them.

Eating outside is normally fun for children, but there are also the times when the toddler is having a meltdown because he no longer likes his favorite food.

Often, I don’t have the time to make a homemade picnic and so it ends up being tuna salad kits or summer sausage with cheese and crackers. Nothing like the fancy lunch in my perfect picnic vision.

Enjoy Your Reality and Make Memories

Years ago I would get so frustrated because the perfect vision in my head never seemed to be our reality. However, through the years I have learned that the ‘perfect picnic’ is the one we do together as a family. It will probably never look the same way in real life as it does in my head, but I can still make wonderful memories with my children.

When they look back on their childhood, it won’t be the ants and spilled drinks that they remember. It will be the time spent together, talking and laughing. It will be the sights and sounds of the places we stopped to picnic as we hiked or traveled.

If you are tempted to not do have a picnic (or insert some other memory creating event) because you know they never turn out quite like you planned, I encourage you to go ahead and do it anyway. It may never be perfect but it can still be good and worthwhile.

What do you think of when you hear ‘perfect picnic’? Be sure to hope on over to the Review Crew blog and see what the other Crew Members had to say about a perfect picnic.

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Everyday Education Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers (Review)

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I love teaching reading, history, science, and up until Algebra I don’t mind teaching math. Writing is another issue altogether and tends to be the most challenging subject for me to teach in our homeschool. I am always on the lookout for great resources to help me teach my children to be good writers and so I was happy to review the Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers by Everyday Education.

I know the high value of writing in a world where communicating your ideas is so important and I understand that no matter what career or life path my children choose, good writing skills will be beneficial. My middle and high school students know all of the basics of writing and can write an essay, but they tend to struggle with correct grammar.

Section One

The Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers is over 400 pages of writing resources and very comprehensive. It is broken down into two main sections. First, is an introduction to essays and arguments; this section helps students learn to write a quality essay. It helps them to understand different types of essays and research papers and breaks them down into key components. It also helps them learn to ‘argue’ their point of view in a productive way and how to structure different types of papers.

This section even goes so far as to teach about the functions of different types of paragraphs and how to use those paragraphs to form a good essay. There are descriptions and information as well as exercises that the student can do to practice those skills.

For example, there is a list of topic sentences and the student is asked to indicate the function of the paragraph for each topic sentence. Another section has a paragraph with blanks where there should be transition words. It is the students’ task to fill in the transition words to make the paragraph flow more logically.

Section Two

In the second section of this book you get into more of the nuts and bolts of grammar. This section is titled, Introduction to Usage and Style. There are hundreds of different grammar rules and word usages explained in this section. The table of contents is amazing, it goes into great detail so that you can easily find exactly what you need.

For example, there are seventeen sections just for pronouns. One of the sections that we used was on commas, because that is a struggle for my teens. I was easily able to go in and find and print the sections on commas because of the detailed table of contents.

Uses

This book can be used in a number of ways. We chose to mostly use this as a reference book for helping my students with essays that they had already been assigned. As I looked over their rough drafts, I would find the areas that they seemed to be struggling with. Then I could print out the material on that particular error and allow them to use it to go back in and correct their essay.

They can also have access to look up information as they are writing when they are unsure of the convention. In addition to basic grammar, this book contains information to help with references, bibliographies, clarity, logic, and structure, and even essay formatting.

If you wanted to use it as a writing curriculum, you could choose the various sections and assign the exercises or other writing assignments based on the content of that section (especially in part one).

Conclusions

Moving forward, I plan to continue to use this as a resource and also to add some specific assignments from part one based on weaknesses I see in their writing. I appreciate that I do not have to use the book in it’s entirely or in any particular order, but can customize it based on their skills.

Overall, I recommend Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers for middle and high school aged students as a great resource for writing. I even plan to make sure my teens take a copy of this book with them to college because I feel like it will continue to be a great resource for their college level papers. Be sure to click on the graphic below to see how other families on the Review Crew utilized this resource.

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers {Everyday Education Reviews}

The Reading Game (Review)

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

My six-year-old has finally learned all of his letters and is starting to sound out a few words. He is an active boy and had not really wanted to take the time to sit and learn how to read. Therefore, I was excited to try out The Reading Game, 2nd Edition by Allsaid & Duun, LLC.

I am always on the lookout for fun games and activities that can supplement our normal curriculum and make learning a bit more fun. Since my son has been resistant to learning to read, I was grateful for the opportunity to try this game and see if he enjoyed it.

Overview and Game Description

The premise of The Reading Game, 2nd Edition is that through this game your child can be reading their first book in just a week. This is a pretty lofty goal, so I was interested in seeing how well it worked.

The game starts with a simple memory match game using ten cards (five words) at a time. The child memorizes the words as you play the memory matching game and then moves on to the next ten cards. Once the child has learned two sets of cards, they are able to read sentences off of a larger picture card.

The child continues to learn more words in a similar fashion and once they reach thirty words they are able to read the corresponding picture book. The game includes six story books and the matching word cards for each of those books.

Our Experience

Once a child has successfully completed the entire game, they should have a reading vocabulary of 180 words, most of which are high frequency or Dolch sight words. The game is fairly open and go and requires very little prep on the part of the parent. I was even able to have my thirteen-year-old daughter help my son on the days that I was busy.

We played this game with my son 3-4 times a week over the course of about the last month. He loved the game and enjoyed the matching component. He was able to learn the first several sets of words and was so excited to be able to read the sentences. He even made sure to read them to his dad and grandparents.

However, he is not quite finished with the first level, and so still unable to read the first book. I am sure that some students who are quick to memorize will be able to read the book with-in the first week, but I would expect that many students would take longer than a week to get through the first level.

He does continue to ask to play the game and I see the progress that he is making, so we will continue to use the game. There is no phonics included in the basic game, but there are some instructions on including basic phonics once your child has mastered the words included in the game.

Conclusions

While some families may find it suitable for standalone reading instruction, I think this game fits in best as a supplement. It is a great way to learn the sight words and to increase reading confidence, but I would pair it with a solid phonics program.

Overall, we did not see the rapid results of reading in one week, but we did find this product to be an enjoyable game that increased reading fluency. Do you want a copy of the Reading Game for yourself? Head over to the Homeschool Review Crew Blog to enter the giveaway! The Crew will be giving away FIVE games. Not sure yet if the game is for you? Read more of the crew reviews, then enter the giveaway!”

The Reading Game, 2nd Edition {Allsaid & Duun, LLC Reviews}