CHSH-Teach.com (Christian HomeSchool Hub) CHSH Download Club Annual Subscription (Review)

As a homeschool parent, Support Group Leader, Awana Leader, Church Musician, and general chauffeur to dance, baseball, youth-group, and any other activity, I don't have the time OR the energy to reinvent the wheel. I'm sure that many of you feel the same, and that's why sites like CHSH-Teach.com are such a boon to the busy homeschooling family. With over 50,000 pages of educational material, many homeschoolers are sure to find useful a number of ready-made worksheets, as well as forms and other pages to use for notebooking, lapbooks, journaling, and general portfolio-building.

While there are quite a few free resources available, in order to access the entire site, members of the TOS Review Crew were given an annual subscription the CHSH Download Club. In order to get a feel for the quantity of downloads available you may wish to peruse their catalog. You'll find the downloads organized in a few different ways:

By Subject:

• Arts, Music and Crafts
• Bible Related Resources
• Electives
• Health
• Language Arts
• Languages
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies

By Grade Level
Pre-K/Kindergarten
1st-3rd Grade
4th-8th Grade
9th-12th Grade (High School)

By Month (2 months at a time, with seasonal highlights)
General Organization and Classroom Helps
Miscellaneous including Curriculum Treasures from the Past, Fun Pages, and Lapbooking and Notebooking Units.

Sampling of some of the variety of pages/units available to download.

Because it was summertime during our review period, we weren't doing a lot of work that was required "extras," plus we spent two weeks on a cross-country road trip, so I actually mostly checked out some of the e-books available, rather than using worksheets.

I was intrigued by the "HomeEc" section of of the "Curriculum Treasures From the Past" and downloaded A Little Cookbook for a Little Girl. As many books printed around that time, the instruction comes in the form of a story about a young girl who wanted to learn to cook *now* not when she was older. Her mother, grandmother and aunts all work together to create a cookbook for her birthday with some of the "simple" recipes from their cookbooks.

How interesting (And what a history lesson) to read through this cookbook! While some recipes could be attempted today, some of them might be harder to alter, as the instructions are based on cooking over a fire, or possibly on a wood stove. I was also amazed at the recipes that were considered "simple" as some of them are nothing my graduate would like to attempt.

At any rate, it was a learning experience that gave a little glimpse into the practicalities of one of the basics of life (cooking) a little over a hundred years ago.
An excerpt discussing how to cook bacon. I especially love the way it ends... ;)
This is much nicer than bacon cooked in the fryingpan or over coals, for it is neither greasy nor smoky, but pink and light brown, and crisp and delicious, and good for sick people and little children and everybody.

I did take a peek at some of the other areas, and am sure that as we get our fall school schedule up and running there will be a number of useful items. These really only touch the very tiny tip of the iceberg as far as the pages available...

The Graphic Organizers file includes 80 different organizers as well as a number of examples, which is very helpful. There are generic organizers as well as author study sheets, graph paper, storyboards, language/grammar/writing organizers, science, reporting, and more. Pretty useful bunch of printables!

I was pleased to find a unit on Johnny Appleseed geared for upper elementary ages rather
than the usual first and second grade offerings. Johnny is a favorite of ours, as he shares a birthday with one of my sons, and got his start in Massachusetts. The unit found at CHSH-Teach.com has some information included that I had never read before, so will be new and interesting to my Youngest.


I am also looking over the High School World History course (Student textbook and Teacher manuals all available for download). School starts for us on Monday coming, so I haven't gotten that far with him just yet, but it looks very thorough. Part 1 covers 3100BC-1800's with 21 units and over 600 pages in the student text. The 242 page teacher manual includes Unit Focus, Suggestions for Enrichment, Unit Assessment, and Answer Keys for each unit.

I am very impressed with the quantity of resources presented on CHSH-Teach.com, and expect that I may find myself checking here first if looking for a resource for a specific topic.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: CHSH-Teach.com
• Product: CHSH Download Club  
• Ages: Resources to use for K-12
• Price: $25 Annually OR $99.99 Lifetime

Visit Christian HomeSchool Hub on the web at any of the following Social Media sites:
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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~

A+ Interactive Math Math Mini-Courses (A Review)

My Youngest has been a regular number cruncher ever since he was an itty bitty, but every now and again I like to check and see if there are any "Holes" in his maths education. Our latest review from A+ Interactive Math can help with catching and filling some of those holes. Although I haven't been on any of the other reviews, the TOS Crew has reviewed A+ Interactive Math's individual grade level packages in the past. This time we had the chance to check out their newest offering, Math Mini-Courses, for grades K-8.

There are 20 Math Mini-Courses available. I'm listing them below in approximate order of grade:

• Counting and Identifying Numbers (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons
• Place Value and Number Combinations (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons
• Naming, Comparing and Arranging Numbers (1st-3rd) - 17 lessons
• Early Elementary Fractions (1st-3rd) - 10 lessons
• Early Elementary Addition (1st-3rd) - 17 lessons
• Early Elementary Subtraction (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons
• Elementary Geometry (1st-4th) - 19 lessons
• Elementary Algebra (1st-4th) - 27 lessons
• Time (1st-4th) - 20 lessons
• Money (1st-5th) - 18 lessons
• Tables, Charts and Graphs (1st-6th) - 17 lessons
• Elementary & Middle School Multiplication (2nd-6th) - 13 lessons
• Elementary & Middle School Division (2nd-6th) - 15 lessons
• Measurements and Conversions (2nd-6th) - 23 lessons 
• Number Types and Conversions (3rd-6th) - 35 lessons
• Ratio, Proportions, Probability & Statistics (3rd-6th) - 14 lessons 
• Decimal Numbers (3rd-7th) - 20 lessons
• Advanced Geometry (4th-7th) - 35 lessons
• Advanced Fractions (4th-8th) - 26 lessons
• Percentages (5th-8th) - 13 lessons

Some of the concepts are very basic, and others more advanced or something that might be left out, particularly if you don't follow a specific curriculum and teach math more "organically," which is actually something I did with my Eldest through about 4th grade.
She learned basic math (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Decimals, Time and Money) as we went through life, and with a hodge-podge of worksheets and activities. If these had been around then, I might have chosen to use the Tables, Charts, Graphs or Measurements and Conversions, Number Types and Conversions, or Ratio, Proportions, Probability & Statistics, as those weren't things that came up in our daily life. 

Moving on to the present time, and my Youngest... as I said, he's been fond of numbers (and used them fairly well) since he was about two. He has had the benefit of using more actual "Curriculum" for the early grades than his siblings, but even so, there are some skills that could use a little more work. 

Because we are right in the middle of 3rd grade, it seemed like a good idea to check out 

Elementary & Middle School Multiplication as well as Elementary Algebra.

I will say that the interface for A+ Interactive Math isn't exactly intuitive for me, so it took a while to get used to where to find things, and how to actually submit answers, and finalize quizzes. They do supply a pdf guide to help you get started, but if your student is used to entering a number and then using the "enter" key to submit the answer, it may take a while to get used to this. We also made the mistake of closing the window when reaching the end of a worksheet or quiz without saving or finalizing the worksheet, and *poof* it was gone. Not a major issue, just something that we had to "learn" in order to use the program properly. :) This is a screenshot of part of the pdf explaining how the program works. 

The first page of the Quick Start-up Guide shows what the student dashboard looks like. From here they will access the Video Lessons which include Interactive Review questions before moving on to the next icon which is where the online worksheets and tests are generated. If your student prefers pencil and paper for their mathwork, visit the blue icon to the right to access pdf worksheets. The green icon is also for those who like to have a hardcopy in their hands. This is the place to print the information from the video lessons in pdf form~ a print-on-demand "Textbook" if you will.

The bottom row of icons are the "details" ~ The first icon for Assigned Online Worksheets and Tests doesn't show up on my son's dashboard, as I chose not to "assign" anything, but rather to let him work through at his own pace. Very adaptable as to how you use this program!  The second icon gives you a place to view worksheet reports, test reports, Interactive question reports (from the video lesson), and video lesson completion summary. 

This screenshot is from the worksheet report the week we started using the Mulitplication course:  

Elementary and Middle School Multiplication (2^nd-6^th grade) lessons: 

• 1 - Introduction to Multiplication
• 2 - Multiplication in Relation to Addition
• 3 - Multiplication Using Objects
• 4 - Multiplication Using a Multiplication Table
• 5 - Multiplication Tricks
• 6 - Multiplying a 2-digit Number by a 1-digit Number
• 7 - Multiplying a 3-digit Number and a 1-digit Number
• 8 - Multiplying a 2-digit Number and a 2-digit Number
• 9 - Multiplying a 3-digit Number and a 2-digit Number
• 10 - Multiplying a 4-digit Number and a 2-digit Number
• 11- Multiplying a 5-digit Number and a 2-digit Number
• 12 - Multiplying a 3-digit Number and a 3-digit Number
• 13 - Multiplication with Three Numbers

As you can see, it does get more difficult, so we haven't worked all the way through this course just yet. I do appreciate the ability to just hang out on a topic and have worksheets generated (and graded) until I'm sure that he has a handle on the concept. 

We've also done some work in the Elementary Algebra Mini-Course. 

1.1 Recognizing and Predicting Patterns

1.2 Extending Patterns

1.3 Increasing Number Patterns

1.4 Decreasing Number Patterns

1.5 Balancing Equations

1.6 Arithmetic Number Patterns

1.7 Geometric Number Patterns

1.8 Find the Missing Number

1.9 Properties of Addition and Multiplication

1.10 Completing Equations

1.11 Numeric Expressions and Equations

1.12 Number Comparisons using Symbols

1.13 Completing Number Sentences with Addition

1.14 Comparing Number Expressions with Addition

1.15 Completing Number Sentences with Subtraction

1.16 Comparing Number Expressions with Subtraction

1.17 Number Patterns using Addition and Subtraction

1.18 Number Patterns using Multiplication and Division

1.19 Unknown Variables in Mathematical Equations

1.20 The Number Line

1.21 Variables, Expressions and Equations

1.22 Writing Expressions and Equations

1.23 Inequalities using Variables

1.24 Formulas

1.25 Order of Operations

1.26 Evaluating Expressions

1.27 Equations with One Variable

While some portions of this course are solid, it was good to check out the patterns lessons. They include a variety of pattern types, so that my son learned to look at a string of numbers from a variety of angles to discover what the pattern might be. 

This screen shot shows the end of a pattern worksheet, and the directive to complete the worksheet. :)

The A+ Interactive Math Mini-Courses offer a comprehensive way to fill holes using a variety of methods... video lesson, pdf lesson (textbook), online interactive questions, unlimited generated worksheets/test (Graded for you!), pdf worksheets/test with solutions. Many different options. This can also be a great resource to include in your child's portfolio, especially for those who do math more organically and need something to show for it. ;)

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: A+ Interactive Math
• Product:  Math Mini-Courses
• Ages: 1st through 8th grade
• Price: $9.99 to $19.99 (Depending on the course) for One Year Access

You can visit A+ Interactive Math on their Social Media Channels:
Facebook, Twitter, 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~

Some Nuggets of Gold for the Merry Month of May!

Hello friends!

I have run across some Nuggets of Gold that I wanted to share with you today. There are a variety of free resources included, so pick and choose what will be helpful for you, and Enjoy!

Christian Liberty Press offers a free download each month. May's Selection is Training Children In Godliness 2nd Edition - PDF Description from the website: "Training Children in Godliness provides parents and other adults with a course on child training in Christian values. The primary purpose of this book is to sharpen the skills and understanding of those individuals who have a burden to guide youngsters in the path of righteousness."

Hands of a Child's Freebie is currently a Unit (Project Pack and Note Pack) on Metals for 4th-10th grade.
Description from the website: "With this unit study you will be able to teach your 4th-10th grade classroom about metals.  Metals are chemical elements that are characterized as durable, lustrous, and strong.  They are so strong and malleable that no other materials compare!  Make your lesson planning easy with the Metals Curriculum  from In the Hands of a Child. This pack includes a 6-day Planning Guide, Related Reading, 15 Hands-On Activities,  a 9-page Research Guide, and Answer Key.  Students will be introduced to the properties of metal, the periodic table, types of metals, key regions where metals are found, mining for metal, recycling, and more."

A Journey Through Learning has a number of Freebies available, among them a nice little "Spring Activities and Games" pdf file which includes a scavenger hunt, a coloring page, and a spot the differences picture among others. I am going to print a couple of pages to take outside on this gorgeous day!

VisionForum offers new audio downloads every day, so what is The Ancient City of the Jaguar: Part I from "The Hunt for Beowolf" album. I've downloaded a number of free Jonathan Park tracks and my boys, particularly, enjoy them.
available today will be gone tomorrow. If you are quick, you can download a free track from the Jonathan Park series~

Currclick regularly offers freebies, and one season-appropriate file is this "mini-helper" 15 page unit on Butterflies.
Description from the website:
"Once it emerges from its chrysalis as an adult, most butterflies have just a few short weeks to live. This is just a quick mini helper to learn a few facts about butterflies. 15 pages."

If you enjoy this small selection of quality Nuggets of Gold for your homeschool, I would love to hear about it in my comments!

Blessings~

Looking for elementary(And beyond!) worksheets? KB Teachers Review

From the founders of KnowledgeBears and the interactive KBear website, comes a new activities, printables and worksheet generator,  KBTeachers. For the purposes of review, the TOS Crew members were given a premium membership to the site, so that we could fully access all of the features, and see how things work.

There is already a nice webpage that lists the benefits of joining KBTeachers, so I won't enumerate those all here, but I will give you a quick overview of our time so far, using KBTeachers, and the nitty gritty details.

If you (or in spite of you, your kids) are worksheet lovers, then  KBTeachers could come in handy.

• The "Alphabet Factory" enables you to print up a variety of Alphabet Skills worksheets, with your choice of 5 fonts, beginning cursive worksheets, as well as Morse Code and Sign Language worksheets! (Where were these when we were ran into Samuel Morse in a Unit Study? That would have been fun!) 
• English Worksheets that include Grammar pages for 6th-8th grade skills.
• Dynamic Math Worksheets that are different every time you print~ for everything from basic math to multiplication, division, telling time, and using money.
• Then there are some worksheets for Science(Elementary-Jr. High levels included) and Social Studies (Mostly geared for grades 7-12) (Just a quick note this is a secular site, so expect some evolutionary content)
• Clipart for you to use just about anywhere, for anything, as long as proper credit is given. 
• Additionally, there are seasonal and monthly themed worksheets that show up on the site on a rotating basis.... they show up a little before needed, and disappear soon after(This can be a little disconcerting unless you are expecting it).

Galaxy of Education Math Programs

As part of the TOS Crew "Math Immersion Experience" this year(smile), we were given the opportunity to try out the math packages offered by Galaxy of Education's Math Galaxy.

Math Galaxy offers K-12 :

• Interactive "tutorial" math programs, with topically complimentary "motivating" games,
• Worksheet Generators with unlimited problems, and the option to add "Riddles" to the worksheets (Over 500 Riddles available... if your worksheet has one you've seen before, you can ask it to choose another one before you print the page!)
• 2 "Ebook" versions of the riddle worksheets for Fractions and Whole Numbers that include 130 of the 500 available riddles, for those who prefer that format.

The math programs range from basic math (Adding and subtracting, telling time, etc...) all the way up to algebraic equations. You can get a feel for how the programs work (and their "Teaching style") by checking out some of the limited free features available on the website.

The "interactive"/tutorial portion is like a textbook program, that explains the given mathematical operation, and gives examples, then lets the student solve the problems.

There are two options for solving the problems

• "Step-by-step", where each numeral in the answer is keyed in a separate step, or the
• "Final Answer only" option, where the student can choose to solve mentally, or on paper, and then key in the final answer.

I found that my 9 year old benefited from the step-by-step option when working on 2 or more digit multiplication problems. It helped him to figure out the process by prompting him to remember to carry, and later on to add. I can imagine that it will also be useful when we start long division, with the multiple steps required there as well.

On to the "Motivation" aspect of the program, the games... The labyrynth maze kind of reminds me of vintage computer games.... and my boyo "goes" for that sort of thing, so that's good. If your kids are more into glitz and glam, and outrageous graphics, they might be quite as inspired.....

The Word Jumble is kind of a "Wheel of Fortune" type game, with a scrambled word, and math problems for each letter~ Here's a partial game screenshot:

The Riddles require you to do a math problem for each letter also~ Here's another screen shot;

In Bridge the Swamp, you are trying to get from the top of the mountain, across the swamp to your respective color, by selecting the numbers that work with the operation to give the answers in an adjoining space~ I'll show you the game just starting, and then almost finished:

I would be remiss if I didn't mention a few other things:

• I did find the program, and the "Vintage" look to be a little difficult to "navigate"
• It took a little getting used to the way the "Step-by-step" answers were to be filled in (although once we "Got it", it made perfect sense, and I appreciated the way it worked...)
• My "older" attempted to do some of the Algebra problems, but was having a hard time "interfacing" with the product....Maybe she just wasn't ready? I'm not sure~ It could be that the "Text-book" wasn't as clear as it could be...
  
• My monitor is an old 15 inch, so on the rare occasion, there may have been a line of "tutorial" cut off~ I didn't run into anything that would cause us significant trouble, tho'.
• While the labyrinth game is "Self-limiting" because the kids have to earn robots in order to play, once they become adept at the game, one robot life (Which means one math problem....) can last FAR too long! Need a timer on that thing!
• The "Tutorial" aspect is a little dry on its own, but with a parent/teacher overseeing the first bit of screen time, I think it works out fairly well.
  

I really like the worksheet generator (For when my kids WANT worksheets... because regardless of MY preferences, sometimes that is their desire...), and the riddles make it more fun!

The "Math Galaxy Word Problems" program has a nifty feature, in that it can be a "game" for up to 4 players. Each player's math problems can be chosen, individualized for their ability and the topics they are studying, so that the 7th grader can play the 4th grader, and it's "equitable". :) I like it! (The game follows a board, with "caves" that are similar to the Labyrinth mazes, but the "play time" is limited, in that there is only one cave available per turn. This might be a good idea for the regular labyrinth maze as well.... one maze per problem. :) )

Math Galaxy System Requirements: Windows 98 or later or Mac OS X.

• The ______ Fun programs are $29.95
• The Worksheet generators are $29.95
• The Riddles e books are $14.95

All have free shipping

If you are interested in a different math program with a lot of potential, and don't mind working with a "Vintage feel" in both style and graphics, this might be just what you (or your child) are looking for! Moral of this story in MY family~ 9 yo who didn't care for other programs seems to really enjoy this one, 12 yo who LOVES other programs wasn't all that enthralled....

For other views and experiences, please visit the TOS Crew, and see what other families thought.
As always, I hope that this helps you spend your homeschooling dollars wisely. If you have any questions about our experience, feel free to comment. :)

Blessings~

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this/these item(s)/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

abcteach.com Membership

The TOS Crew members were given a short trial membership to abcteach for the purposes of review, and there just wasn't enough time to take advantage of all the things available there!

In case you have never heard of abcteach.com, I'll give you a little bit of information, so that you can decide if it would be helpful for you in your homeschool.

abcteach contains a wealth of educational material, aimed mostly towards preK-8th grade needs. There are worksheets galore and units of study as well. Here is a page that will give you more information about abcteach, including an idea of what is offered on the free portion of the abcteach site, but now I want to let you know about how we used the member portion of the site...

WORKSHEETS~
I know LOTS of homeschooling moms shudder when they hear that word, but guess what?

• Sometimes it's exactly what your KIDS are looking for! (This *is* the one reason that I have my kids doing a spelling "workbook curriculum".... they are both fairly natural spellers, but they LIKE having a workbook to complete each year.... OK, I can handle that.... ;) )
• Sometimes it's what YOU need... I know that a lot of our "work" is done orally, so sometimes having something that reviews what they know is helpful for inclusion in a portfolio of work, and quite honestly,
• Sometimes a little "busy work" is good for the siblings of a toddler.... ;) Read on, though... some of this "Busy work" is just plain fun!

But seriously.... there are worksheets for so many different areas, themes, topics that you might be studying.... here is a list of the "sub-categories" in the member directory:

• Art and Music:
• Book Units:
• Border Papers:
• Clip Art:
• Fun Stuff:
• Graphic Organizers:
• Handwriting:
• Holiday/Seasonal:
• Homeschooling and Parent Resources:
• Language Arts:
• Languages/ESL:
• Learning Centers:
• Math:
• Middle School/Junior High:
• Montessori Materials:
• PowerPoint:
• PreK/Early Elementary:
• Puzzles/Games:
• Report Forms:
• Science:
• Shape Books:
• Social Studies:
• Sports/Physical Education/Health:
• Teaching Extras:
• Test Taking Skills:
• Theme Units:
• Think Green, Teach Green:
• Thinking Skills:

Each of these include further break-downs~ there is a LOT of material to make use of....
I'm going to give you an idea with a couple of the larger catergories....

In the "PreK/Early Elementary" section you will find numerous pages on the following....

abcteach Early Reader Word Walls - Alphabet Letter Patterns - Alphabet Posters - Badges - Booklets - Certificates - Charts - Class Surveys - Coloring Pages - Colors - Community/Community Helpers - Cut and Paste - Days and Months - Dots - Early Readers - Easy Puzzles - Easy Rebus Sentences - Elkonin Boxes - Facial Expressions - Family - Flashcards - Folder Game Boards - Handwriting - Matching - Math Concepts - Math Counters - Miscellaneous - Paper Beads - Patterns - Picture Cloze - Picture Sentences - Picture/Photograph Cards - Pre-Reading - Primary Maps - Projects - Punch Pin Cards - Reading/Book Units - Rhyming - Senses - Sewing Cards - Signs - Songs - Sorting - Spelling - Story Sequence - Theme Day - Tracing Patterns - Word Families - Word Shapes Activities - Word Slides - Writing

and in the "Teaching Helps" you will find a staggering number of pages as well:

Alphabet Letter Patterns - Badges - Banners - Bookmarks - Bookplates - Bulletin Boards - Calendars - Candy Bar Wrappers - Certificates - Classroom Discipline - Classroom Helpers - Daily Schedule Cards - Desk Tags - Flags - Flashcards - Folder Board Games - Forms - Gift Tags - Greeting Cards - Homework Extras - Incentive Charts - Labels - Lesson Plan Templates - Maps - Memory Books - Mini Offices - Monthly Assignments - Name Tags - Newsletter Forms - Notecards - Paper Beads - Passes - Patterns - Pocket Chart Cards - Portfolios - Postcards - Posters - Rubrics - Signs - Subject/Theme Assignment Sheets - Templates - Tracing Patterns - Vocabulary Extras - Word Families - Word Slides - Word Strips with Pictures - Word Wall Words - Word Wheels

Now, I realize that a lot of these look like they are generally geared more for the earlier years, but there are graphic organizers, thinking skills, writing prompts, science report/chart/forms, maps and... oh so much more.

However..... my absolute FAVORITE thing about the member site is the ability to create my own worksheets! Below you will see some of the variety that are available, and you can even check them out and print out a ready-made sample, to get an idea of what your worksheets could look like.

custom worksheet generators

ABC Sort

Shapebook & Border Paper

Word Search

Unscramble

Crossword

Math

BINGO

Sudoku

Word Shape

Spelling

Missing Letter

Circle & Spell

I was looking for something to challenge my 4th and 7th grader with the science curriculum that we are using right now (More about that later this week... ;) ), so I pulled up the crossword generator, typed in the vocabulary words and definitions for the first unit, and hit "Create". Now... the really cool thing is that I was able to make this crossword with two difficulty levels. The 4th grader's version had a word bank, but the 7th grader's version did not. How great is that? I think that my younger finished a little before his sister, but not too much before, so I felt that I was able to review the same material at the same time, but have something that was able to challenge them both on different levels with not too much work on my part!! :)

I plan to utilize the word searches as well, and DD is a huge fan of sudoku, so I can just print them out for her here! BTW, if you DON'T utilize a spelling "Workbook" curriculum, (ie.. All About Spelling, Spelling Power, etc....) I think that these worksheet generators would be perfect to add some fun to a child's spelling. (The main thing that my kids REALLY enjoy besides the tests... {grin} are the crosswords and scrambled words in their workbooks.....hmmm... maybe I can do without next year?)

If you are at a loss as to how these "generators" work, abcteach has developed a number of tools and tutorials (including videos) that will help you to make good use of your time and effort, when looking to supplement your curriculum.

There are only two things that I could think of that would improve the "useability" of the abcteach site:

• A "preview" of each document~ I found it takes a little more time than I'd like when I'm looking for a particular worksheet or subject to find exactly what I'm looking for. If the premade pdf pages could be "previewed" on the website before downloading to my computer, that would be a great help, not only in time, but in space on my computer, which is almost bursting at the chips....
• When searching by keyword, I would find it useful to have a list on the side, like Amazon or Ebay, or any number of other types of sites, where the search results are categorized. I realize that the directory is also helpful, but this would be a useful touch that would streamline the search process.

All in all, I am very impressed with abcteach, and find it a good value for the money, so much so that even on a tight budget, I scraped up funds to purchase a year's membership.
The current prices are:

• $40 per user per year, or $70 per user for 2 years (individuals and "Groups" of 2-9... each user pays $40 fee)

Now, I imagine that a homeschool group would "Qualify" as a "Group".... you'll have to contact abcteach.com to verify that... but here is the information

• $35 per user for groups of 10-29 people
• $25 per user for groups of 30 or more,
• and if you catch it when it's offered (I know that the Homeschool Buyers Co-op has a group buy for half price going on until November 30) there is a Super Site license for groups of 100 or more.
  

If you think this could be a good fit for your homeschool.... Check out the free portion of the site, with 5000 worksheets, and then decide if you might like to utilize the 30,000 more that are on the members site, not including the ones that you can generate yourself..... ;)

As always, please check out my fellow TOS Crewmates reviews, to help you make the most sound decisions on where to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~