The 101 Series ~ Chemistry 101 ~ a PReview (Parent Review)

High school science can be a tricky subject for many homeschoolers and their parents, wouldn't you agree? There are solid textbook curricula, which I used for my eldest, but textbooks aren't always the best answer for different types of learners. I am grateful to have been given the chance to preview Chemistry 101, one of three DVD courses offered by The 101 Series . 

My Middlest is doing Biology this year, so this was a chance for ME to check out an alternative Chemistry course for his use next year. I did not take Chemistry in high school, so this is also a good way for me to get a handle on what he'll be learning.

A short back-story~ my Eldest used a more traditional Chemistry curriculum. As I have been watching the lessons on our TV, she has been "listening along" as she works on a piece of art, and expressed the feeling that Chemistry 101 would have been much more interesting for her. 

Video

The video production is excellent, which isn't surprising when you realize that Wes Olson has 15 years of corporate film production experience. Each lesson is very well done, with excellent "lecture" set in in visually interesting backgrounds (fields, streams, libraries, the home, etc...) interspersed with narrated multi-media presentations.

The "lessons" definitely caught my Eldest's attention, as well as my Youngest's (Middlest was elsewhere doing his schoolwork, which is fine, because he'll be seeing this next year :). That is another point in Westfield Studio's favor~ the videos are geared towards the high schooler, but as the producers are homeschoolers themselves, with a variety of ages, they made great effort (in my opinion) to ensure that the videos were family friendly and appropriate for most ages. As I am writing my review, and watching a portion of a lesson again to catch some details, my Youngest is sitting beside me asking if we can finish watching the lesson that included "The Grand K." If that isn't an endorsement to the engaging quality of the DVD portion of the course I don't know what is!

I am sure that this will be an engaging course for my "Techie" Middlest, who greatly prefers to watch and listen versus read. 

Guidebook 

Included on the last DVD in the case is a pdf Guidebook, which is essentially the text book for the course. It includes and expands on the material presented in the DVD lessons. There are interesting side bars, discussion questions, and multiple choice quizzes.

I appreciate all of the above, although I might wish that there were some slightly more rigorous testing options for portfolio purposes. However, in true homeschool form, and following my favorite methodology, much of the assessment of your student's comprehension comes in during times of discussion, so I can't complain too loudly. :)

Schedule and Course Accreditation

Speaking of High School portfolios and credits, there is also a file on the DVD that gives a comprehensive schedule, with estimates on the time spent for the course, and places to record actual time spent if this is how you assess credit hours. I know that this schedule is going to come in handy with my Middlest, as he does well when his requirements are clearly spelled out. 

I am very impressed with what I've seen so far, and believe this will be a good fit for my family. Be sure to check out the other reviews which will include more reviews on Chemistry 101, as well as Physics 101 and Biology 101. 

  

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: The 101 Series 
• Product: Chemistry 101
• Ages: High School
• Price: $69.95

You can visit The 101 Series on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

HelpTeaching.com Pro Plan (Printable quizzes, lessons, and worksheet generators Review}

As part of the TOS Review Crew I was recently given a one-year subscription to HelpTeaching.com's Pro Plan, which gives me access to all of their resources for all ages.

HelpTeaching.com offers:

• Printable tests and worksheets covering a wide range of topics from PreK-12th grade~

• Arts
• Early Education
• English Language Arts
• Life Skills
• Math
• Physical Education
• Science
• Seasonal and Holidays
• Social Studies
• Study Skills/Strategies
• Common Core ELA
• Common Core Math
• Math Worksheet Generators
• Printable Game Generators
  
• Lessons in:
• English Language Arts
• Math
• Science
• Game Generators
• Bingo
• Word Bingo
• Wordsearch
• Test Maker that can be populated with their library of over 130,000 questions or your own questions for quizzes, tests, and worksheets. The ability to make and print your own tests/quizzes, is probably most useful for those who unschool or create their own curriculum, and are required to have portfolio materials to submit. The rest of us use materials that have quizzes and tests incorporated. ;) 
• Online Testing that allows you to schedule tests for each of your students
• A dedicated space for you to upload your own content for test and worksheets  

For the purposes of this review we were asked to focus on the materials for the upper grades. With the wide variety of resources, I was hoping that they would be useful for our homeschool. We had mixed results with the various resources.

I checked out a number of worksheets and realized that they are less informative worksheets than quizzes for material that we may or may not have covered. For the purposes of this site, I would suggest that "worksheet" = "quiz." I actually started to feel a little like a public school teacher, who is required to teach for the test, as I searched through the elective materials available, so I backed off from the worksheets for my older children, as they didn't actually coordinate with anything they were currently working on, so would have been an exercise in frustration. Again, I think these would be fantastic for someone who uses a boxed curriculum that coordinates, or who puts together their own materials, and uses the quizzes as a starting point, as they put together their own lessons.

I printed up some of the worksheets for my youngest, and we had good success there, as his materials are a little more straightforward.

I did assign some random lessons and tests for both of my older children, and we had mixed results there as well~
Eldest's first experience with a lesson/test was not stellar. Part of that was my fault. When I set her test up I didn't know to click that first check box, so she wasn't able to go back and forth from one question to another.

Although she expected to be able to, as there was a "back" button. Since she wasn't actually planning to "change" her answers, this wasn't really something either of us had considered, she was just skipping the ones she didn't know right off the bat, to do the ones she did... typical SAT test taking strategy that backfired here.

I also hadn't clicked the "Enable Practice Mode" check box, which it turns out would have been a good idea, so that she could retake the test. Because I didn't, she was locked out of being able to take it again, and complete the questions that she had skipped (thinking that she could return to them...). I tried to send it to her again (And deselect her brother), but it turns out that one can only add students, not delete them. I *was* able to send her the link, so that she could take it again, with the ability to go back and forth. 

Eldest: even though we ran into issues with the test on using Parallel Structure, she enjoyed the quotes from great literature, and the exercises required in the test. One of the questions that she did answer the first time through the test amused her, so she sent me a screenshot:

Note the greyed out "previous question" ... oops! 

Here is another bit, from the teacher end of things: Can you guess what she wrote about??? Her answer is the "Student answer" following the "Sample answer that is included to help the teacher assess the student writing.

Yes, our doggy had surgery, and at night is required to wear "The Cone of Shame and Destruction" :) Clearly, fodder for creativity... ;)

My sense is that the ELA resources (And math resources if they coordinate with what your students are studying), are probably the most intuitive to use. The Science resources really have to match up well with what you are studying to be extremely helpful, in my opinion.

For Middlest, my son went through a lesson on fish (because he loves fish/fishing, and reads about them/it all the time), and took the test, but the site never showed that he actually took the test, and his results never came through.
Middlest's input: "The tests aren't set up very well in conjunction with the lessons~ there were questions on the tests that weren't discussed in the lesson, so that was confusing and discouraging."
Here is a screenshot of a portion of the lesson, which included a video. Side note: he enjoyed the video, although he would like me to note that this is a secular company, so don't expect your science to have a Christian Worldview... ;)

It's important to note that the "Related worksheets" and "Related Lessons" only show up on the teacher side, not on the student side, so if you want them to do the related worksheets or lessons, you have to assign them. The "Additional Resources" DO show up on the student side. 

Final thoughts: 
All in all, I would say that this is a very useful site for those who enjoy making up their own worksheets, or creating a course based on ready-made worksheets. There are a few quirks that could be smoothed out (like the test results that disappeared into cyberspace, and making the test taking process more intuitive~ it wasn't clear that it wasn't possible to skip questions and come back to them~). We may try the scheduling aspect again, but to avoid frustrating my children for now, I have decided that we will print most quizzes/worksheets. It's great to have that option! :)

I think the English/Language Arts resources are very helpful, particularly when you are covering a specific topic (say, hyperbole), and you want to find a ready-made, printable worksheet.

For the younger set, the math worksheet generators, and the ELA worksheets could be used every day!

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company:  HelpTeaching.com
• Product: Pro Plan
• Ages: Resources for PreK-High School
• Price: $24.95 per year

You can visit HelpTeaching.com's Social Media Pages: 

Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter  

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

"S is for Smiling Sunrise" Alphabet picture book (TOS Review Crew)

If you have a Pre-K - second or third grader, you might be interested in this latest item I received for review, S is for Smiling Sunrise, which is an ABC Picture book. In addition to the book, if you visit the WordsBright website, you can download a free Teacher's Guide (*Note: the Teacher's Guide comes in two levels Pre-K/K and K-3), and a free mp3 alphabet song.

This is a nice addition to any Alphabet Book collection (yes... I have one of those :)), and can be used with a variety of ages. Each letter of the alphabet is accompanied by an illustration and a rhyme. The rhymes are positive interpretations of things in the world around us, and celebrate goodness, beauty, and wonder. The first time we read this book, I had my 7 year old read it to me. Another time I read each letter/rhyme and asked youngest if he thought it was talking about goodness, beauty or wonder. Beauty and Wonder were often both his answer. It was a nice comprehension exercise which helped him think a little more critically about what we were reading.

Some of the letter rhymes offer a little art, others a little science, and a few emphasize character-training, or are more relational in nature. Almost all of them are good jumping off points for discussion.

If you have children on the younger range, there is a one page Parent's Guide with Pre-K recommendations to extend the learning. While a little young for my second grader, I personally felt that the Teacher's Guide could be most useful for the 4-6 year old range. It includes Concepts, Questions, Vocabulary and Activity suggestions for each letter/rhyme of the alphabet. If you do a "letter of the day" in your homeschool, this might be right up your alley!

No offense to the person singing the "S is for Smiling Sunrise" ABC song, but I didn't find it to be something that my children young or old would be interested in listening to. However, it was nice to hear the way the rhymes fit together in the traditional ABC tune, so that they can be sung at home.

When reading this book to my 2nd grader I have to admit that he wasn't overly excited about the concept. In his opinion, ABC books are for "little kids." However, once I explained to him that ABC books can be used to explore different topics, and show what you know about something he was much more willing to be a participant in listening and discussing.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: WordsBright
• Product: S is for Smiling Sunrise and Teacher's Guide (Free)
• Ages: Pre-K to 3rd(?) grade
• Price: Hardcover List price $16.95, ebook also available. Check your favorite online book seller for the current ebook price. 

Visit WordsBright on Facebook.

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

Snake Oil Salesmen? (Out of the Box Review)

While I am a self-avowed Curriculum Junkie, we always enjoy it when the TOS Review Crew is sent something extra fun for review. How delightful that our last review for the 2014 run was just that. We were sent Snake Oil ~ Party Potion (for ages 8 and up), a product of Out of the Box Games (other crew members received the original Snake Oil game for ages 10+, so be sure to check out the link at the end of my review to see how these games were received in their homes).

The basic premise is that there is a “Customer” and there are “Snake Oil Salesmen” (with the customer rotating throughout the round till everyone has had a turn). The customer draws a customer card and chooses to be the character on either side. The Salesmen (Everyone else) draw 6 cards each and choose to use 2 cards to create a product that they will pitch to the customer.

Here is an entertaining little video that introduces the game and how to play: 

The game can be played with 3-6 players, or adapted to group play game-show style, with a host, 3 contestants (salesmen), and an audience. We personally felt it worked best with at least 4 players. There was a handful of cards that we decided to remove from the deck since we're not fond of gross humor in our house (potty, snot, pimple, butt) and a couple others (skull, spirit) that didn't fit with us well. Also, for some of my readers who stay away from wizards and magic, there are customer cards that include those characters, but they can be avoided easily enough. 

We enjoyed playing out of the box, and all over the room (the couch, the rocking chair, the desk...), which didn't make for very good picture taking opportunities, but I did record a somewhat edited transcript of some of the rounds so you can get a feel for the game. I am going to list the customers and the products that were being pitched to. You can decide which product you would have chosen as the winner. I will list the winners below my disclaimer in this post, and you can see if your choices match our customers. The participants in this record were Mom, Eldest (17), Middlest (14), and Youngest (7).

Waitress

• Smile Sponge ~ When you wipe the table, your customers will be guaranteed to smile, and less than 10% tips will be a thing of the past.
• Jar Locker~ Holds everything on the plate, so you never need to worry about dropping any plates when your tray is filled to overflowing.
• Tummy Chair~ Releases chemicals that create space in the tummy, so your customers will always have room for dessert. 

Grandma

• Volcano Grave~ If you’re at a volcano that is erupting, you can use the Volcano Grave to ‘Bury” the eruption.
• Memory Ribbon~ Will help Grandmas remember memories~ rub the ribbon while thinking of something, and when you touch it later, the memory will return.
• Yarn Security~ Insurance for your yarn~ will replace your yarn if it gets stolen, lost, or damaged by an act of God.

Fisherman

• Forest Puddle ~ A private Puddle in the Forest, where the largest bass are found more easily, because there is less acreage for them to hide in.
• Video Coat~ A coat that plays videos, for when you’re sitting around doing nothing while you’re fishing.
• Spider Escape~ A spray that will eliminate any spider you run into on the path, on the shore, or in your boat.

Olympic Athlete

• Peace Dust~  Sprinkle it on to calm your nerves before your competition.
• Trail Putty ~  to fix the spots that might be broken or rough (or missing manhole covers on the way to the event venue...).
• Tickle Tub ~  to distract your dog when it’s taking a bath. (?)

School Bus Driver

• Victory Slipper~ Wear it so your favorite athlete or team will win!
• Fact Rug~ for the aisle of your bus~ It will help to avoid spill and slips and falls and bruises, but not only that, it is educational~ it will help the students on your bus learn their mathematical, grammatical, geographical, and any other ical fact they may need on the way to school. AND not only that, it will so entertain your students that they will be quite as mice.
• Guilt Pants~ for the misbehaving children on the bus, that don’t always tell the truth (Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?)  These are pants that you put on the child (like snowpants), and they will tell you the truth!

OUR THOUGHTS

Littlest: I love playing Snake Oil because it’s fun

Middlest: This is a really great game. It makes people think and be creative. This would be a fun game for Youth Group! 

Eldest: Snake Oil is entertaining to watch people play, but it isn’t great for the literalist.

Mom: Snake Oil is a fun, easy to learn game that helps to promote creativity, and encourage public speaking skills when played with theatrical expression. Out of the Box Games even offers some extra "Classroom activities"  for 5th grade+ to expand on those themes~ I like having more options, and it makes me feel better about having the occasional game days. :) 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Out of the Box Games
• Product: Snake Oil ~ Party Potion
• Ages: 8 (or early readers) to adult
• Price: $14.99

You can visit Out Of the Box Games on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say about Snake Oil - Party Potion and the Original Snake Oil games. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

*NEWSFLASH* This is my last TOS Review Crew for the 2014 calendar year, and it marks my 250th Review for the TOS Review Crew since it started in 2008. Milestone worth mentioning... :)
Blessings~

Waitress~ Jar Locker

Grandma ~ Yarn Security

Fisherman ~ Forest Puddle 

Olympic Athlete ~ Trail Putty 

School Bus Driver ~ Fact Rug

How did these choices stack up against your choices? 

IXL Math and Language Arts Review

Youngest was delighted to know that we were selected to review IXL one more time, as he frequently requested to use it for math last year and occasionally over the summer. (You can read my previous reviews for IXL in 2012 and IXL in 2013 to see what my thoughts were for K/7^th grade and 1^st grade). 

This time I used it mostly with Youngest for 2^nd grade IXL Math and we tried out the 2^nd grade IXL Language Arts as well. Middlest is using an Algebra program that doesn’t totally follow a traditional track, so he only popped on to check it out a couple of times. There are skills for children from Pre-K -12th grade in Math, and 2nd-8th grade in Language Arts. 

Our experiences were very similar to in the past~ I appreciate the ability to check out the reports, of which there is a huge assortment! I would imagine that this would be especially useful to homeschoolers who live in states that require huge amounts of documentation.

• Status Updates include a pie chart as well as a Proficiency assessment, News flashes and a Report Card
• Usage (which includes the ability to see all of the problems attempted, only those with correct answers, or only those with wrong answers among other options) along with a list of the skills practiced and a Usage Log which shows the session time each day, the amount of actual time spent practicing, the number of problems attempted and the number of skills practiced. This is helpful for keeping kids accountable~ if the length of their session doesn’t correspond to the actual time spent engaged with the program you might want to talk about distractions and diligence… 

• Performance, by category and by skill
• Trouble Spots
• Progress (Improvement over Time)
• State Standards

As in the past, my Youngest has been very motivated to fill in his Math award chart with stickers (and we are somewhat disappointed that there isn’t a chart for the Language Arts program, but hopefully that is in the works). We do run into trouble sometimes if we try to do too many skills out of order, so I go between having him work on specific skills and work on completing the skills required to collect a sticker.

Here is what his Award Chart looks like currently:

A word about our general process~ this is something that can be an independent practice program. However, I have discovered that Youngest tends to do a little better when I’m next to him, reminding him to read the problems carefully and to check his answers before hitting submit, as a careless answer will end up creating more problems for him to complete, which will then take more time, and can occasionally cause frustration at the inability to complete the skill in a timely manner.

Initial LA Problem I intentionally got wrong
to show how to complete the problem.

Thoughts on the Language Arts portion: We used the first problem as a learning tool so that he would understand what was being requested (by purposely getting it wrong, so as to get to the instruction…). 

Generally speaking I was fairly happy with the skills, although Youngest wasn’t thrilled with the Language Arts portion~ as there is really no immediate incentive to complete skills, and they are fairly “workbook-ish” in nature, so not very attention grabbing. I do have to say that they receive nice certificates for completing certain amounts of questions, so that is helpful. :) 

I will also mention that there were some sentences used in the examples that I was not prepared for Youngest to read. Probably not an issue with most people, but it did cause some discussions that we hadn’t had. He hasn’t run into “step-family” situations personally, so he requested an explanation of Stepfather and Stepmother when they both showed up within minutes of one another. Yes… unfortunate facts of life, but I didn’t think a language arts program would introduce them.

As I mentioned above, Middlest only used the Algebra portion a little bit. He didn’t feel that it works well as a teaching tool, but is probably useful as a practice tool if it follows your Algebra program.

New to IXL is the ability to access IXL on your tablet. This is sometimes easier for my Youngest to manipulate, so he uses the ipad with regularity to get his IXL Math done. You can download the app and practice up to 20 free questions a day to get a feel for how it works before purchasing.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this has been a requested program by my youngest, so that speaks volumes about how he generally feels about it, and as a teacher, I am pleased with the scope and sequence of the mathematics in particular, somewhat less so with the LA, but if your kids thrive on workbook style curriculum, this might be a great way to get some great practice in, with good records to show at the end of the year. 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: IXL 
• Product: IXL Math  and  IXL Language Arts 
• Ages: 
• Math ~ Pre-K- 12th (Pre-Calculus)
• Language Arts ~ Currently offering 2nd to 8th grade
• Price: 
• $9.95/month for Math OR Language, $15.95/month for both
• $79.00/year for Math OR Language, $129/year for both
• Additional children are $2/month extra or $20/year extra

You can visit IXL on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

If He Had Not Come (Christmas Book Review)

We just received a new Christmas Picture Book, If He Had Not Come , that is a not a new story (It was originally published in 1938 as part of an anthology), but it is freshly illustrated by Charles Jaskiewicz and reintroduced by David Nicholson to reach a new generation of children. 

The premise is that a young boy, Bobby goes to bed Christmas Eve thinking “Christmas thoughts” with a repetitive undercurrent in his mind of words from his Bible reading earlier that night from John 15:22 “If I had not come.” He awakens to a monochromatic world, where not only color is missing, but also many things that are a part of our everyday lives. Some things are obvious: no more “Christmas” and churches. There are some other things missing that might be less evident, until one considers their Christian origins. The story ends with Bobby realizing how very different the world would be if Jesus hadn’t come, and Bobby’s determination to live a thankful and intentional life.

This book may be a little too deep for the very young, but has the potential to spark some interesting discussions with your elementary aged child on up. There are some resources included in the book that could be useful in either a family or group setting to help those discussions along.

·      A set of open-ended questions at the end of the book that may help the children hearing the story to really think about it, and dwell on the main concept.

·      Going Deeper questions and activities that pull in Scripture to help emphasize the impact of the birth of Jesus.

·      Gospel Message ABC’s explained (Admit, Believe, Confess)

This may be one of those books where insight is gained through repetition, as a child grows. The very youngest may mostly hear it simply as a story (Which was my youngest’s reaction as a seven-year-old), but as they age, the profound impact of “If He Had Not Come” may seep more into their psyche. My seventeen year old appreciated the story, much as David Nicholson did on his first hearing, when she read through the book on her own. 

A word about the illustrations by Charles Jaskiewicz~ They are warm pastels (?) that exude warmth when appropriate, and show confusion and the chill of a world without Christ.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: David Nicholson
• Product: If He Had Not Come 
• Ages: 6+
• Price: $18.95 hardcover, $3.99 ebook

You can visit David Nicholson and If He Had Not Come on Facebook. 

All proceeds of the sale of If He Had Not Come will be donated to the National Christian Foundation, which grows funds in order to offer grants to charities, so your purchase has the potential to bear both spiritual and temporal fruit, and it would make a fine “Advent” gift for the young families in your life.

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~