Weigl Book Review

For this review I had the opportunity to check out three different types of books from Weigl Publishers and the digital content that accompanied each book. We reviewed Glaciers, A Lion’s World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. These were digital books with interactive content. For each book you receive a PDF of the book and inside the PDF there are instructions for going to the website and entering in the book code to access the digital features of the book. You do need internet access in order to use the digital content and extras but you can view the PDF of the book without internet access once you have it downloaded.

The first book was Glaciers from the series “Earth’s Water” published under their imprint Lightbox. This book was geared towards upper elementary and middle grades students and packed with information. While it technically is a nonfiction book, it was so much more than a book. There were awesome web links, videos, and other activities included as you read through the book. I could have done an entire unit study on glaciers based off of this book and the extra activities and information that were linked in the book. There were maps and even quizzes included with the book. The illustrations were excellent including real photographs as well as diagrams that were beneficial to understanding the science concepts. The end of the book included a cool science experiment. We thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to go back and revisit it later when it ties into our regular science curriculum. I do want to mention one thing that may be an issue for some of my readers, it did discuss a timeline for glacier movement that spanned millions of years.

The second book we looked at was A Lion’s World belonging to our “EyeDiscover” series. Weigl says that it is intended for a K-2 interest range which I believe is appropriate but my four year old also really enjoyed it. It was much shorter with more basic (age appropriate) information. It included audio aspects that were a great way to keep younger children involved and interested. Benjamin (4) said when reading about lions and watching them run, ” That is like how fast I can run with my big strong legs.” Each page had one sentence and the sound and movement made the book a wonderful experience for my son. After I showed it to him initially he asked several times to read it again.

The third book was a fiction title that was geared toward lower elementary school students, There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. This was a silly rhyming fictional book. You could choose to have it read to the student or for the student to read it themselves. While this was probably our least favorite book as a family, I know some other students who would have really enjoyed the silly story. The ability to have it read to them while they followed along with the words is a great strategy for developing readers.

We enjoyed these books, particularly the non-fiction titles. I recommend them for families looking to add a digital element to their reading or wanting to support developing readers with the read aloud options. Check out all of the available titles by Weigl Publishers and let us know which ones you think your family would most enjoy.

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

YWAM Heroes of History Book Review

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For the last several years we have been using some of the wonderful biographies by YWAM Publishing to supplement our homeschool. However, we had never used the study guides prior to this review. We received the Heroes of History-Alan Shephard book and study guide from the Heroes of History series for this review. My son was very excited to add it to his collection of books and I was excited about having a unit study already planned out for me.

This book like the other ones we have read from this series did not disappoint. While it would make a great family read aloud, the level of difficulty in the book makes it appropriate for independent reading for upper elementary and middle grades students. My 11 year old, 6th grade son was assigned this book and parts of the unit study to complete as an independent reading assignment. We chose to take about two weeks ) to cover this book and study. We could have easily increased that amount of time if we had covered everything in the study guide.

He loved the book and would have been happy to read it on his own during free time. It was an engaging story with lots of great information. I loved seeing him come to his father or myself and excitedly sharing some new tidbit of information he had gleaned as he read. He has been interested in astronauts and space so this was a great fit for him. I love the way the books incorporate the historical accomplishments and the moral character into the books. This gives our children great examples of heroes that they can look up to with qualities they can emulate. My son enjoyed it so much that he is hoping to get several other titles from this series for his birthday which is at the end of this month.

In looking at the study guides I was amazed at how many ideas and activities were included. We could have used this study for many different subjects in our school day, including history, reading, writing, geography, and science. We did not complete all of the activities in the study guide but did a variety that fit well into our day and my son’s interests. There were over 84 pages of information, ideas, and worksheets for just this one book included in the study guide. They even listed other books and resources that could be used to further your study. One section that we did not get the opportunity to really incorporate but that I think is a great resource is the community links section where they give ideas for incorporating community resources into your unit study.

He completed part of the questions that went along with each chapter, a timeline and information sheet about Alan Shepard, and a couple of other activities and projects. One of the activities was to build their own rocket and launch it. There are some fairly simple ideas for this available on the internet but since he had been given a small rocket kit for Christmas that he had not yet completed he used that for the project. He was pretty impressed with himself for being able to turn his rocket kit into ‘school work’. As you can probably tell from the picture below he and his sister both enjoyed that part of the study.

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We have used the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series before with our missionary studies for the last several years including my children’s favorite one, George Mueller. We also incorporate this biographies into our history whenever possible, most recently using the audio version of Heroes of History- Theodore Roosevelt.I highly recommend these books as family read alouds or as a part of your curriculum. They are interesting, engaging, and full of excellent information. Check out all of the other Crew reviews of various selections and tell me in the comments which one you would like to read.

Modern/Cold War (1953-80)

For the month of may we will be focusing on modern history through the Cold War from 1953-1980. This will incorporate the space race, Vietnam War, Kennedy Assassination, the Civil Rights movement and the building of the interstate system.

One of the things that I look forward to most with this more modern history is the availability of firsthand accounts. We are able to talk to people who served in Vietnam, people who were a part of the civil rights movement. Though we do not know anyone that worked with NASA we do know people that remember the build up and watching that first shuttle launch. My children have grandparents that can tell you where they were when Kennedy was assassinated and friends and neighbors that serves in Vietnam. This personal connection helps make history more meaningful to the children.

Based on our schedule we are going to first cover the interstate system and the Vietnam War. We have been studying Vietnam on the side because of Heroes Next Door so for us this will be the culmination of those studies. We have a bit of traveling to do this month so the children can get real world experience with the interstates.

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Then we are going to cover the Civil Rights movement and the Kennedy Assassination. There are some excellent books that talk about the Civil Rights Movement as well as an exhibit at the North Carolina History Museum. In this month’s resources there are some great YouTube videos from this period that include recordings of speeches and news coverage.

We will follow that up with a week of Space Exploration.This is always an exciting topic for the children to explore. Matthew has been reading Heroes of History: Alan Shepard that is a great biography to include in this study. There are fun science experiments that can be done to better understand space and some additional YouTube videos of news coverage. For a bit of fun you can watch these videos of children’s books being read aloud in space.

We will close out the month with a study of the Cold War. This can be a difficult concept for children but we are going to use The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss to introduce the concept. My son is very interested in spies so we are going to also include some books like The CIA and Other American Spies. I plan to use lots of pages from our NotebookingPages subscription to help them share and organize what they are learning.

For field trips we are planning on the North Carolina History Museum and the Eisenhower Historic Site. We will also do virtual tours of a fall out shelter and NASA. We will round out the month with some Astronaut Ice Cream and maybe a trip to Chick-fil-a which first opened during this time period. There are many other great movies, books, and television shows that I’ve included in this month’s resource list. Let us know how you plan to study this era in history!

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It’s Time To Party (and Read)

Nothing says fun like a good party! So why not encourage reading by combining it with a party. There are many ways to combine books with parties, some are super simple and some more elaborate. While I do not discount them, I am not talking about parties that are rewards for having read a certain amount of time or books, but parties that incorporate reading. As one of my favorite authors once said, “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” – C.S. Lewis

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One of our favorite ways to combine parties and reading are our “Poetry Tea’ times. During those times we sit around the table, complete with table cloth and our nicest dishes, and enjoy reading poetry while partaking in snacks. Sometimes it really is hot tea with cookies; other times it might be lemonade and popcorn, or milk and a bit of cake. I will read a few poems and then the children take turns reading poems. They look forward to these times of fun and reading.

There are times when we combine books and parties by focusing on the time period or geographic location of a book. For example, if we are reading Little House on the Prairie we might cook over our camp fire or make recipes from that time period. We loved making maple candy as they discussed in one of the Little House Books.

One I have not yet done with my children but have seen other children really enjoy are character parties. You can choose a book or let each child choose their own book and everyone dresses up like their favorite characters. You can have generic party snacks or if it is appropriate you can have snacks that are representative of the book. For example, if I was reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar I could have the snacks that the caterpillar ate. If I was reading a book about a ballgame I might have traditional ball park fare like hotdogs and popcorn.

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One idea that we recently participated in was a book tasting. A good friend of mine had seen the idea and offered to set it up for our 4-H club. It was so much fun. The children each brought some of their favorite books representing different genres and some fun easy to eat snacks. Then we put the books on different tables based on genres and gave the children ‘menus’ that they could fill out with information about books that they thought they found and thought they would enjoy reading. This gave the children exposure to a bunch of different books in various genres that were enjoyed by their peers.

Today is the last day of the 5 Days of Homeschool Blog Hop. I hope you have enjoyed it! Check out the rest of the posts from today: homeschooling with the Brain in Mind

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SPECIALS!!!

I wanted to take a minute and let you know about a few great deals going on this week that you don’t want to miss.

Today Apologia starts their big sale. $5 Shipping and 25% off of many of their products including Young Explorers!

Notebooking Pages 50% off sale! This is a great deal for a lifetime membership and some added bonuses.

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels has just opened up enrollment for the Clubhouse program (an annual membership). In honor of that the entire site is 25% off!!

Schoolhouse Teachers is doing a Huge Spring Sale that could have you set for curriculum for next year. Only $99 for your whole family! And as a bonus they will mail you a beautiful tote and a new print magazine. Check it out here.

Use Codes: $9.95/month – Monthly Membership [Coupon: MONTHLYOPTION ] & $99/year – Annual Membership [Coupon: YEARLYOPTION ]

History Through Reading

We really enjoy learning about history and feel that it is a vital part of our children’s education. However, we do not want history to be about memorizing a bunch of dates and random facts, but an understanding of our past and how it shaped our lives today. One of the ways that we encourage this love of history is by combining it with our love of reading.

There are some excellent history and historical fiction books that help us to really understand the ‘story’ of history. Some of our favorite historical fiction books are classics like Johnny Tremain and Number the Stars. We recently read, The War that Saved My Life, while we were studying World War II. They enjoyed it so much that I’m planning on purchasing the sequel, The War I Finally Won for us to enjoy as a family.

Historical Fiction for Homeschool

Through these historical fiction books the children have a chance to understand what if might have felt like to live through the historical events and in various times and places. It allows them to understand not just the facts but the emotions and implications of those events.

Of course our favorite historical fiction book is Heroes Next Door: Hornet 24. I am sure I’m a bit biased but it really is a great way to learn about what life was like for our men who served in the Vietnam War. And now for an interview with my favorite historical fiction author, my husband, Chris Peluso author of Heroes Next Door.

1) What made you decide to write a historical fiction novel?

We run a bookstore. A while back, we took in a huge lot of Vietnam era material. I read a few of the memoirs and thought, ‘these would be great to share with my son.’ Unfortunately, the adult targeted content was far above his reading and maturity levels. Not long after that our next-door neighbor came home with a Vietnam era helicopter on a trailer. I saw an opportunity to connect the two in a way that would share some of the stories with younger readers and engage their interest and awareness. I choose the historical fiction approach to allow freedom in story flow and bring elements together as I felt they worked best.

2) Why do you think reading historical fiction is beneficial to children?

I think it gives an opportunity to connect with an individual and experience history through their perspective, in a comfortable, low stress, enjoyable reading environment. It is so easy to be overwhelmed with history, facts, dates, statistics; historical fiction helps remind us that history happens to people, not just calendars.

3) What was your favorite historical fiction novel when you were a child?

I remember The Machine Gunners, by Robert Westall. It is set in England, during the Battle of Britain. A group of kids find a downed German bomber and recover the tail gun. They then build and equip a small fort, preparing to defend Britain from the impending German invasion. I wasn’t exposed to them when I was younger, but now I really appreciate the works of G.A. Henty.

4) Tell us a little about your novel.

So my book, Heroes Next Door: Hornet 24 follows two precocious kids as they interact with their next door neighbor, who just happens to own a Vietnam era helicopter. The kids help refurbish the aircraft, during their time ‘next door’ they learn about Army aviation, duty, honor, respect, teamwork, and current events in the 1968-69 period. They follow Mr. Ed through a series of stories, trying to connect the men who flew helicopters with the war. One important theme explores the cost of war, both in lost opportunity and individual sacrifice, concepts that are easily lost when studying what I’ll call macro-history.

5) Any teasers about future books?

The business side of writing is tricky, editing, publishing, marketing; with this first book I had to navigate through those, that was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. The writing part is really the easiest part for me. There’s so many great stories out there picking which ones to explore next is really difficult, but, yes, I’m working on the next edition with a new set of characters in a new conflict. With a little support and interest, I can see several more after that. Please like and follow https://www.facebook.com/HNDHornet24/ @HNDHornet24 for updates plus bonus material/conversation starters.

We would love to answer any questions that we can about writing a book, historical fiction, or Heroes Next Door.

Check out all of today’s other 5 Days of Homeschool Blog Posts: When College Isn’t the Next Step

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SPECIALS!!!

I wanted to take a minute and let you know about a few great deals going on this week that you don’t want to miss.

Today Apologia starts their big sale.

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels has just opened up enrollment for the Clubhouse program (an annual membership).

Schoolhouse Teachers is doing a Huge Spring Sale that could have you set for curriculum for next year.

Keep Them Reading…Our Favorite Series

Sometimes series of books can get a bad reputation for not being good literature. Some may deserve this reputation just as some non-series books are not good literature, but there are some excellent choices available that can help you encourage a love of reading in your children.

A good series takes you upward and inward, exploring the story in new ways. It expands the characters and helps you feel like a part of the experiences and lets you vicariously live the adventures. Series can help fuel the hunger for reading by building excitement and anticipation for the next book in the series, no one likes a cliffhanger afterall. For some children this is as simple as offering them the first book to read; but for those that do not even want to get started you might try a read aloud. You can read the first book in a series aloud and once their interested provide the others for them to read on their own.

When I was a child I loved reading mysteries! There are several series that I loved then and have had the pleasure of introducing to my children. It has been fun watching them learn to love the characters as much as I did. The Boxcar Children are short chapter books that are so much fun. The children have grand adventures. I prefer the original ones that were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner to the later ones that were written by other authors. Probably my favorite series of all time is the Mandie series. I would read these so fast that my mom could not keep up with purchasing them. I loved feeling like I was right there with Mandie as she went on adventures and solved mysteries. Later I even visited historical Moses Cone Manor because scenes from a Mandie movie were filmed on location. There are Christian messages throughout the series.

Some series are perfect for new readers. They are short, easy to read, and have the same characters which can make it easier to follow along for young readers who are still working on decoding words. The Billie B. Brown series is a great example of a series that works well for newer readers. Fancy Nancy is another one that my daughter really enjoyed when she was first reading on her own. In that series Nancy likes to use new ‘fancy’ words which she then explains. It is a great way to build vocabulary in a fun way.

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Some series have stood the test of time and became classics in their own right. One of our family favorites to read aloud, and that my son enjoys reading on his own is the Chronicles of Narnia. This series by C. S. Lewis is full of adventures and lessons. It is a great analogy of the story of Christ wrapped into a wonderful and fun fantasy. Our family enjoyed this book so much that we are often quoting various lines in our day-to-day life; I may have even hidden a few in this blog. The Little House series is another series that I remember from my reading as a child. This series can make you long for ‘simpler’ times and while making you appreciate all of the luxuries of today. These like the Chronicles of Narnia are longer chapter books that are probably best enjoyed by stronger readers or as read alouds.

Two great series of biographies are the Christian Heroes Then & Now and the Who Was.. series. The Who Was.. series are shorter easy to read chapter books but even my sixth grader who can read much more difficult books still enjoys them. The Christian Heroes Then & Now books are longer and more in-depth. My son reads these frequently on his own and I use them for our missionary studies and to supplement our history studies as read alouds. This series (along with several of the other ones I’ve mentioned) is also available on audible.

There are many more series including the Green Ember series, The Penderwicks, and Giada De Laurentiss’ Recipe for Adventure that our family enjoys reading. Finding engaging books that keep the children begging for more is a great way to encourage a love of reading. There are series for all ages, tastes, and reading abilities. Even C.S. Lewis’ dear friend penned a well known series that has found renewed interest-can you name it in the comments? What is your family’s favorite book series?

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Check out all of the other 5 days of homeschool blog posts and my guest post over at the Crew blog today: Encouraging Reading

SPECIALS!!!

I wanted to take a minute and let you know about two great deals going on this week that you don’t want to miss.

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels has just opened up enrollment for the Clubhouse program (an annual membership). In honor of that the entire site is 25% off!!

Schoolhouse Teachers is doing a Huge Spring Sale that could have you set for curriculum for next year. Only $99 for your whole family! And as a bonus they will mail you a beautiful tote and a new print magazine. Check it out here.

Use Codes: $9.95/month – Monthly Membership [Coupon: MONTHLYOPTION ] & $99/year – Annual Membership [Coupon: YEARLYOPTION ]

Reading With Your Ears

I love the feeling of a good book in my hands. I am one of those ‘hold outs’ that can’t quite get into reading on our electronic devices. We do have a Kindle and I use it occasionally for informational reading, but it is just not the same. However, life is busy and I do not have time to read every book we want to read.

That is where audio books come into play in our family. We have found audio books to be a great way to supplement our other reading and give our family hours of enjoyment in situations where traditional reading isn’t really feasible.

How to Use Audio Books in Your Homeschool

There are multiple ways to use audio books. The most common for our family is listening while we ride. Whether a short jaunt to grandma’s house or a long road trip the audio books help make traveling with children a much more pleasurable experience.

We have found that having that story going helps keep them from getting bored and irritated with each other. It also supplements my read alouds and helps to give us that common experience of a story.

Another great use of audio books is during quiet time for children who are not yet reading. As my children out grew their naps I found that it was still beneficial for them to have a quiet time in the afternoon and having an audio book to listen to can help ease that transition and keep them quietly in their rooms.

Audio Books for Struggling Readers

Audio books are also beneficial for struggling readers. You can have them listen to the audio to hear information or stories that they would not otherwise be able to read or to reinforce content written above their grade level. For example, our Apologia Science text is available on audio.

You can also have them use the audio and book together to strengthen reading skills. By following along in their books with the audio their comprehension is increased but they are still getting reading practice which is so important for struggling readers. It is much harder to enjoy something that is a struggle, so increasing that fluency is important.

Where Do You Find Audio Books?

I am often asked where to find good audio books. We use a variety of resources for finding great audio books. One of the most versatile is Audible which is a subscription service that you can use to download audio books. (You can try free for a month and get two free books.

Also, you can cancel at any time and you keep the ones you have already purchased) In addition to the credits we get from our Audible subscription, we can often find additional books on Audible for very reasonable prices. They also download easily onto our Kindle making them very easy for us to take with us and listen on the road.

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Another great resource for audio books is Heirloom Audio. Heirloom does great dramatizations of GA Henty books. These books are rich in history, story, and moral character. The children love them for the excitement and I love them for the lessons they teach.

Focus on the Family radio theatre is another great option for dramatized audio books. They feature mostly classic books like The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, or our personal favorite The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

There are many great stories that you could start with depending on the ages and interests of your family. As I mentioned above we love The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the entire Chronicles of Narnia series. The Tales of Beatrix Potter is another great one to start with, especially if you have younger children. Recently we have found the Green Ember Series.

What Audio Books Do You Enjoy?

Audio books are a great way to support and supplement your other reading times. Whether you are listening just for enjoyment or education there are many wonderful options available. What is your favorite audio book?

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Check out all of the other 5 day blog hop posts over on the Crew Blog: Fostering Independence

Planet 316 Story Bible App Review

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When I asked to be on the review team for Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App I was thinking about my four year old but it turns out that my 10 year old enjoyed it as well. This is a beautifully illustrated children’s book of Bible stories and a really neat app by Planet 316 and WorthyKids/Ideals.

When we first started using it I would sit down with my four year old and let him pick the stories and we would use the app together. My 10 year old saw us looking at the book and app and asked to use it as well. While the stories were geared towards a younger audience she really enjoyed the technology aspect of it and it became something they could do together.

As you chose a story you could aim your phone or certain tablets (apple products) at the pages of the book and make the people and animals ‘come to life.’ They would move and talk on the screen adding an extra dimension to the reading experience. For example on the page where Noah is loading the Ark he says, “elephants check, giraffes check.” and if you touch the animals they make their animal sounds.

In looking at the book itself the illustrations are colorful and beautifully done. My son enjoyed looking through them even when he wasn’t able to use the app or have someone read to him. I also really liked that each story included the scripture reference for where it came from so that you could look it up and read the actual scripture if you chose to do so. Most of the stories are only a page or two which was a great length for keeping the attention of younger children.

We had the benefit of having this book and app for Easter this year so I used the stories leading up to Easter both with my son and on Easter Sunday in my Pre-K class at church. The children loved the stories. My son kept asking me to read them again. When I asked him his favorite stories he showed me the story where Adam was naming the animals and Noah’s Ark first but then he started showing me almost all of them and saying, “and this one.” I think it is safe to say he enjoyed all of the stories we have read so far.
My one complaint is that it was a big difficult to line up and see using my phone. The app worked on the phone but holding the book and lining up the small screen on my phone so that both myself and the children could see the characters on the phone screen was a little bit difficult. I think using a compatible tablet would make that a lot easier but we did not have a tablet that would work with the app at this time.

All in all I found this to be a fun and engaging activity to do with my four year old. I think it would be most engaging for the preschool and early elementary ages though as in our house, older siblings may enjoy using it with the younger children. This would not replace our family Bible time but was a great supplement. Check out the Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App and let me know what you think.

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Where Oh Where Do We Read?

When I was growing up I loved to read and read every chance I had. In the car, on the boat, or at my desk at school my nose was in a book. These days my preferred reading locations are in the swing on my front porch or a chair at the beach (I said favorite not most frequent). Sometimes we forget that if we as adults would rather read somewhere comfortable and happy our children probably would too. I think it is important, especially with those that do not love reading yet, not to make reading something you only do at a desk during ‘school’, we need to ignite the flame of reading passion!

Start those fond thoughts of reading by doing fun family read alouds in a comfortable place at home. My littles like to be in my lap in the recliner, while my bigger children gather on the couch to hear me read. This helps them see reading in a positive light as a fun activity, not just boring schoolwork.

We also love to read outside. Sometimes I read aloud and sometimes it is the older children reading to themselves. During these beautiful spring days, we like to take a large blanket or tablecloth and spread it in the grass so they can lay down and read while getting a bit of sunshine and fresh air. A tablecloth may seem like an odd choice but I find they are often easier to clean than the blankets if the grass gets stuck to them. Sometimes, they use our front porch or string their hammocks from the playset out back.

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We have the benefit of taking a lot of day trips as we travel with my husband on business. This means we get to see a lot of great places but it also means we sometimes spend a lot of time in the car. Reading in the car is a great way to pass the time and get in more reading. Even my four year old brings books to look at the pictures while we ride.

When we are reading during our ‘school time’ and I need the children to stay with me and not spread out into other locations they have comfortable places with-in our school room. They have large pillows or bean bags that they can sit in and for Christmas they received these hanging pod chairs that they can use in their rooms or in our school room. They love being able to just relax and read. One of my favorite parts of our school room is the window seat that my husband built for me to be able to sit and read to our children. It might be a bit silly but I had always wanted a window seat where I could curl up and read.

There are many other places to read. The important thing is to remember that reading does not have to happen in a desk or in isolation. By reading in comfortable places and various times we start to help our children realize that reading is a pleasurable adventure and not just ‘boring schoolwork’. I know that most of my fond memories of reading did not occur sitting at a desk. I encourage you to get out a good book, or your tablet and read! Try a new place, a new time, or maybe a new genre.

Tell us in the comments where you like to read!

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https://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=285486

Keeping the Read aloud Revival Alive

A+ Interactive Family Math Review

With a preschooler and a new baby in the house I have been working towards more independent/self study lessons for the older children. So I was grateful for the opportunity to review the Family Math Package by A+ Interactive Math (by A+ TutorSoft Inc.) with my oldest son. He is a sixth grader who has typically done well in math but struggled some this year with decimals and fractions this year.

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This program provides online lessons and practice questions followed by online quizzes and tests. When we got started I realized that I needed to show him where to take the quizzes and help him with general navigation around the program’s interface. After that initial help he was able to operate the system independently. I loved that the practice questions allowed him to go back and fix mistakes but the quizzes showed me the score he received on his first attempt. If a child does poorly on an attempt, you can have a new quiz created for them to complete. Since we chose the Family Math Package we had the ability to place him in the grade level that we felt best fit his needs and chose the lessons I wanted him to work on. The Family Math Package allows you to use the programmed order or skipped around to work on the areas of highest need.

We have found that it takes my son about 15-20 minutes to do a daily lesson including practice problems. This length of time is nice for us because it fits well into our philosophy of short lessons to keep attention and it is easy to fit into a busy day. He does work through problems reasonably quickly and it could take a bit longer if you have a student that works at a slower pace.

When I reviewed the first quiz result I was shocked that he only scored a 20/100. Normally he’s pretty good at testing, and the first lesson should have been a review for him. So, I asked him about it. “Mom, I thought I could only use the computer. I didn’t use any scratch paper.” Sometimes he does follow instructions! The moral of this anecdote; if your learners are new to online math it may be worth it to encourage them to work their problems out on paper before answering.

Once he understood how the lessons worked and that he could use his pencil and paper to figure the answers things went smoothly. This week he even came up to me all excited, “Mom, I got a 100, that is three 100s in a row!”

I love all of the reports and data that I can access to keep track of how he is doing without having to constantly look over his shoulder. I can see how he did on the practices and worksheets, what his averages are, what lessons he has completed, and other useful reports from the admin panel. You can see some examples of reports that I had for my son below.

We have enjoyed using this program. For our family, I do not think it would work as a standalone math program this year. My son needs a bit more instruction and practice but it made an excellent review for him and helped him understand some areas he had been struggling with. With the instruction, practice, and quizzes it could be a complete math program for many students depending on the ease at which they learn new math concepts. I intend to use this program to continue reinforcing math concepts and introduce new concepts. He enjoyed the immediate feedback of the online grading and the ability to go back and see what he missed.

If you are looking to foster some independence in math or to review skills that your child is struggling with I suggest checking out the Family Math Package by A+ Interactive Math (by A+ TutorSoft Inc.). If you want even more automation they also offer an Adaptive Math Curriculum that has the student go through pretests and then gives them lessons based on the results of the pretests. You can click below to read reviews about that program from some of the other Crew members.

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