The League and the Lantern (Middle School Fiction Review and Giveaway)

Happy May! Summer is creeping up on us, and with summer comes the need for some good summer reading, yes? I'll be having a few reviews and posts with ideas in the coming weeks to help keep your kids (and maybe *you*) supplied with good books this summer.

First up is The League and the Lantern, a debut title by Brian Wells. Brian is an executive producer who has worked on many award winning network television movies. He knows what "Interesting" looks like! When he had a difficult time finding current fiction for his children to read that included entertaining and engaging story lines with characters worth emulating, instead of the inappropriately mature and dark plots that are so common today,  he chose to create rather than complain. Great idea that!

The League and the Lantern is an adventurous read for the Middle School ages. There's some mystery, some history, a smidge of sci-fi, and a LOT of pop culture references for kicks (running the gamut from The Princess Bride to Sonic the Hedgehog, To Kill a Mockingbird to all the major Super Hero Characters... my daughter lost count, but it was like a treasure hunt to see what would be mentioned next!).

Mixed in with the story, Brian also promotes rich vocabulary literacy, having woven in 140 of the top middle school vocabulary words. My  daughter wasn't aware of this information when she read the book, and can attest to the fact that their integration is unnoticeable and seamless. I love a book that uses good words! As a bonus, if you sign in to the League and Lantern website, you will find (among other resources and fun things) a vocabulary guide for parents, which documents the words, their context, and offers some vocabulary exercises to help judge comprehension. Pretty nice little bonus if you want to include a little learning in that summer reading! :)

From the publisher (Because I don't want to give anything away, I'll use their synopsis :) )
Jake Herndon’s middle school sleepover takes a shocking turn when a dangerous organization invades. As he and his new friends Lucy and TJ race for their lives on the streets of Chicago they unravel a centuries-old mystery and an incredible secret about Jake’s family. Packed with unforgettable characters, mind-bending twists and laugh-out loud humor, The League and The Lantern is a ride you won’t soon forget.

Don't you love it when one action serves a dual purpose? I have some good news for you! If you purchase a hardcover copy of The League and the Lantern this spring or summer from the League and Lantern website, you will be providing a free book to a needy child as well as your own. Click here to read more about their partnership with local and national organizations.

Action/Adventure with a bit of a National Treasure feel, this is a book that your 5th-8th grader will most likely enjoy reading, and hey, they might even learn something along the way! You can check out a sneak preview of the first six chapters of The League and the Lantern at The League and Lantern website.

And if you hurry, you can enter my giveaway for a free copy of The League and the Lantern, ends Wednesday, May 25.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can also visit The League and the Lantern's Social Media pages for more information and discussion:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube

Blessings~

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Zeezok Publishing LLC Music Appreciation: Book 1 for theElementaryGrades (review)

Music is one of my favorite subjects, and I really love it when there are products that encourage music appreciation for those happy learners of elementary school age, to head them in the right direction! :) Enter Zeezok Publishing LLC and their Music Appreciation: Book 1 for the Elementary Grades, which Youngest and I have been enjoying for a number of weeks, as he learned about the composer Joseph Haydn.

I have been a fan of Zeezok's Musician Biographies for a long while, and have managed to pick up a couple of them over the years, but this Music Appreciation Activity Book/Lapbook/Music Discs/Biography SET really steps it up a notch.
 Book 1 includes studies that coordinate with the biographies of:

• Bach
• Handel
• Haydn 
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• Paganini
• and Schubert

As I mentioned above, for the purposes of this review, we chose to learn about Hadyn, the Merry Little Peasant.

I mentioned to my Youngest that one of the very first tunes I learned to play on the piano when I was young was by "Papa Haydn." Of course, he had to wait to the very end of the book to hear it on the accompanying music disc (because I didn't recall the name of the actual tune...). How apropos that it was from The Surprise Symphony ~ what a surprise!

Composer Biography
Youngest is a huge fan of history/historical fiction, and has been very enthusiastic about doing this study, as he gets to read about the history of the composer. This has been a nice addition to some of the other historical biographies that he devours on a regular basis, and has had the added value of sparking an interest in listening to more Classical Music than he otherwise would.

Music Discs
The music discs coordinate with the text of the biography, and include the most recognizable snippets from various works of the composer. I will note that my ancient MacBook Pro had some issues with reading the discs, but when I had access to my husband's newer laptop, the discs played just fine. I am normally a "physical product" person, not a "cloud" person, but in this instance, I would have appreciated the ability to listen to these snippets online. Perhaps someday Zeezok will include a password protected area on their website with links to each piece, which would allow us to take our study on the go, and listen from any device. ;)

Student Activity Book
This book is a wonderful resource to use alongside of the biographies. It is broken down into Units by composer, and sectioned further into 4 weekly lessons per composer.

As you can see, the edges of the pages are nicely color-coded so that you can easily find where you are each week. Major blocks of color for each composer. The coding at the top has a long line at the beginning of each unit, and the smaller lines are the beginning of each weekly study. Nice detail!

Each Unit includes a weekly lesson plan, with a variety of activities.

• Composer Biography~ The week begins by assigning the reading one or two chapters from the biography. This was my Youngest's favorite and least favorite part... simply because he LOVES the reading/history, but he HATES to stop! ;) 
• Comprehension Questions~ followed by worksheet-like pages

Character Qualities

• Character Qualities discussion~ each chapter pulls out various character qualities that could be seen in the composer's life. Love this! 
• Tidbits of Interest ~ These are *quite* interesting! I am very impressed with these Tidbits, as they give insight into the time period in which the composer lived... very much a Social Studies reading, with some great, full color illustrations.

  

  Tidbits of Interest pages

• From here the activities begin to vary widely, and might include:

• Composer Lapbook  piece assembly ~ there are pieces to cut out from the student book as well as pieces to print from a pdf file included in on the lapbook CD found bundled with the Music CDs. Some of the pieces are not put together with the larger handwriting of the early elementary student in mind, so I would recommend that they dictate their answers on some of them. ;) 

  

  Assembled Lapbook

• Geography/Map work ~ The Haydn unit had mapwork that showed the various cities where Haydn lived, and also where he traveled (these are found in the activity book, and are not part of the lapbook, just in case you were looking. ;) )
• Science Experiments ~ The Haydn unit did not include a science experiment, but as an example, the first unit in the book on Bach had an oxidation experiment as they talked about the copper patina at the top of St. Michael's church
• Recipes and/or food suggestions ~ Foods and recipes from the Composer's time period and country. Youngest was amazed to learn that Mac & Cheese became popular during Haydn's lifetime. How fun! 
• Music Activities ~ These could include listening to tracks from the CD's, learning about instruments (classical/world/band), the makeup of an orchestra, as well as other musical groups.
• Timeline Activities ~ These are fairly simple, and include information about major world events during the composer's lifetime. 
• Copywork ~ Again, not something that shows up in the Haydn unit, but is included in other Composer units. 

I am VERY pleased with this entire set, and think it is well worth checking out. Music and Music Appreciation are so undervalued in our world today, but are such a rich component to add to our children's studies. I am delighted that Zeezok Publishing has come out with not only their wonderful biographies, but also this fantastic resource to enrich our children's understanding of the life, music, and times of these Classical Composers.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Zeezok Publishing LLC 
• Product: Music Appreciation: Book 1 for the Elementary Grades
• Ages: Elementary
• Price: $169.99

You can visit Zeezok Publishing social media pages on
Facebook 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~

Nuggets of Gold (End of April... already? How did that happen?)

Some more Nuggets of Gold for you~

Music to download at New Release Today:

Found a really neat artist there this week~ The Gray Havens title track from their new album Ghost of a King ~ what an interesting sound and song! Hadn't heard of them before, but loving this sample of this husband/wife duo. I've been listening to their album on Spotify, and it is lovely, haunting, and memorable. You can listen to it here, but be sure to head over to New Release Today and download the track to listen to at any time. :)

Interestingly enough I really liked another title track offered (Hurry, it will disappear sometime next week, probably Friday!) by Phil Wickham from his new album Children of God.

and sisters Lauren and Brooke DeLeary together are Love Collide whose song Yahweh from their album Resonate: Ripple to a Wave is a pleasant listen,

You may enjoy some of the other songs being offered, but these are my favorites this week! :)


Noisetrade is offering a free download of a remix by Matthew Parker of Jonathan Thulin's Compass that is an interesting listen...

A couple of books that are "seasonal" and free on Amazon:
One of my favorite "discovered" children's author as an adult is Arthur Ransome of Swallows and Amazons fame. Here are a couple of sweet, shorter books, perfect little introductory reads.

  

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Blessings~

Devonian GREEMU ("Green" Emu Oil alternative ~ A Review)

I don't know if you remember reading a review last spring featuring Emu Oil from Koru Naturals? I reviewed their Emu Oil and their Koolpurrie Balm, and we had very good success (mostly dealing with very dry, cracked, winter hands). This time, we were sent a "Green" alternative to Emu Oil... GREEMU by Devonian, an arm of Koru Naturals.

I have to admit that I prefer using plant-based solutions for skincare whenever possible. It just feels "cleaner" and fresher to me, so I was quite pleased to hear that the scientists at Devonian had come up with a blend of oils that compares with the make-up of the essential compounds found in Emu Oil.

The ingredients for GREEMU include Macadamia Seed Oil, Palm Oil, Shea Butter, Sunflower Seed Oil, and Rice Bran Oil. Obviously, if you have allergies to any of these, you would be wiser to stick with the Emu oil, but if not, you may wish to give GREEMU a try.

Because we had gotten past the "winter skin" issues this year before we received our bottle of GREEMU, I don't have any extreme photos to share like my previous review. I have been using a drop of GREEMU on areas that tend to be dry or rough, and it works similarly to the Emu Oil, although it takes a little bit more time to sink in.

My son (the major "Dry Skin" person in the house) is not enamored with the oil (he prefers a lotion or balm), and is not patient enough to let it sink in before needing to go do something with his hands, but when push comes to shove, next winter, you can be sure I'll be pulling out the bottle of GREEMU to soothe his cracked knuckles. ;)

I used GREEMU as an occasional hair/scalp treatment, and found no significant difference in its performance vs Emu Oil, but again, I prefer the "Green" version vs the "bird" version. ;) I also did an experiment, rubbing in a drop of GREEMU on one side of my face before bed (I am getting to the age when some of those fine lines and "pre-wrinkles" are beginning to show up). The next morning, I asked my daughter if she could tell a difference between the two sides of my face, and she correctly identified the right side, which was less "puffy/fine-lined" and smoother. Sounds like a winner to me! :)

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Devonian 
• Product: GREEMU
• Ages: Family
• Price: $10.80 for 4 fl.oz.

You can visit Koru Naturals/Devonian's Social Media Pages
Facebook and Pinterest

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

Blessings~

YWAM Publishing Heroes of History- William Penn (A Review)

We have been fans of YWAM Publishing's Christian Heroes Then and Now, and have collected quite a number of them at Conventions as well as one received for review (Jim Elliot). I was intrigued by the Heroes of History Series, as we didn't have any of those on our shelves yet. From their wide selection of biographies, covering historical heroes from Christopher Columbus to Ben Carson, we were sent Heroes of History- William Penn, and the coordinating Unit Study Guide.

My memory of William Penn from my history classes in grade school was a little fuzzy, so this was a great refresher for me, as well as a good overview for my kids. The recommended age for this particular book is 10+, and I would agree with that as a minimum, but might even edge it up to 12+. The first chapter begins with William Penn in the Tower of London, passing implements of torture, whose use is described~ perhaps a little gratuitously, and you can probably easily skip that chapter... my high school students who were reading this book would have preferred not to start the book with that sort of beginning (when I read the book, I accidentally skipped that chapter, and it didn't affect the story at all). I had to remind my Eldest that the time period William Penn lived in was really still coming out of the Dark Ages, and life was not pretty or easy, but that William Penn was definitely a huge part of paving the way to "Liberty and Justice for all."

William Penn's biography is very timely, with this being a Presidential Election year, we've been talking about the Constitution and the principles on which our country was founded. Even though this is a mostly Junior High aged book, it is a great vehicle for opening up even more discussions and showing where basic concepts come from such as a fair trial with jurors who make decisions based on facts and conscience, not making decisions as ordered by a crooked judge.

UNIT STUDY
Because I used this book with older, high school students, more as a historical literature reading assignment, we didn't really do much with the Unit Study at this time. In looking it over, it offers a very thorough unit of study for a Middle Grade student. We received the downloadable version, it also comes on CD. After opening up the zip file, you can access it through your browser by clicking the Start-Here file, or you can access the pdf files directly. This is what the browser-version of the Unit study looks like:

They very nicely offer suggestions on classroom, small group, and homeschool use, as well as some bonus materials and background on William Penn.

Unit Study- Part 2 contains the graphics for geography work, timeline, and a biography sheet
Unit Study - Part 1 contains the bulk of material:

• Key Quotes: Interesting quotes that are related to the theme of the book. In this case there were quotes that referenced Liberty and Justice (or fairness/tolerance). It is suggested that the quotes could be used for memorization, as part of a display, or to kick off a skit of some sort.
• Display Corner: Suggestions for gathering and displaying materials that relate to Pennsylvania and William Penn's life. This is a fun idea for the younger student if you have the space to utilize a display corner. 
• Chapter Questions: Each chapter has four questions:  a vocabulary word from the chapter, a factual question, a comprehension question, and an open-ended opinion question. Basic Middle School level stuff here.  Because of my students' age, the open-ended questions were most useful~ While I didn't bring them all up in conversation, they offered good jumping off points, as the topics arose. 
• Student Explorations: This section offers something for everyone, from essay and creative writing assignments to hands on activities~ arts, crafts, and audio visual. I would recommend checking this section out on the sooner side when beginning this study, as some of these projects could take a while to complete. 
• Community Links: Suggestions for field trips that relate to the book
• Social Studies: 
• Places/Locations mentioned in the book, 
• Vocabulary
• Geographical characteristics
• Timeline
• Conceptual Questions. 
• Related Themes to Explore ~ this is another place that can be expanded to offer upper level students more topics to dig in to if time allows. 
• Culminating Event~ many homeschool families enjoy the opportunity to wrap a Unit Study up with a final "event" that showcases some of the subject matter in a creative way~ whether shared with other homeschoolers, or simply in a family setting. Because of our crazy schedules, we don't have a place on our calendar for something like this, but I really like the idea (Especially for the younger student).  The Study Guide gives some great suggestions for activities, menus, displays and presentations, among other things. 
• Appendix A offers a large list of books (for a variety of ages) and other resources (including film) that coordinate with the topic. 
• Appendix B contains answers to the Chapter Questions. 

I was surprised and impressed by the scope and quality of the Unit Study Guide. Because I planned to mostly review the book as historical biography/literature (using it with older students), I did not plan to use the study guide, but rather look it over to see what I could use in a few years with my youngest. I believe that if I had known the depth allowed before the review period started, I might have been able to adjust my high school students' schedules to incorporate more of the study guide options into their days. 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: YWAM Publishing 
• Product: Heroes of History- William Penn
• Ages: Publisher suggested 10+ (I'd agree, or possibly even 12+, due to historical content~ depends on your child, but could be used with a younger age as a "Parental-Edited" read-aloud)
• Price: 
• Biography ~ List $9.99, YWAM current price: $7.50
• Unit Study Guide ~ List $9.99, YWAM current price: $7.49

You can visit YWAM publishing on their social media pages:
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and their Blog

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say about the Unit Studies they used. There were four Christian Heros Books/Studies and twenty-four Heros of History Books/Studies that were reviewed. I'm anxious to go read the Milton Hershey reviews~ which was one of my top two choices for review. :) As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

Apologia Educational Ministries Writers in Residence

Apologia Educational Ministries has become a favorite curriculum provider of mine over the years, and I'm sure you're familiar with their highly regarded Science courses and their more recent Worldview Courses. Well, now they are offering a Writing Course from a Christian Worldview for Grades 4-8. As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I was blessed to receive Writers in Residence , a new curriculum by Debra Bell.

Writers In Residence is a HUGE resource, with the main student book being an "All-In-One" text and workbook. Just to give you an idea~ the preface/introduction/how-to-use-this-book section is 47 pages. The rest of the book, the actual text and instruction, including appendices and index is 576 pages! WOW! See the photo below next to a juvenile fiction chapter book to get an idea of the size.

Some highlights from the layout of the book itself:
Spotlight on Christian Writers
Each of the Six Units highlights a different Christian Author, and starts with a Q&A interview with the author. Included are:
Bill Myers (best known for the  McGee and Me series)
Amy Gree (author of Christian Juvenile fantasy series the Amarias Adventures)
Irene Howat (Prolific author of almost 50 books including Ten Boys Who Changed the World and Ten Girls Who Made History.)
Jason Lethcoe (Author, Director, Animator, and Storyboard Artist who worked on movies including Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and The Little Mermaid.)
Amy Parker (Author of 20+ books including Thank You, God, For Mommy and Thank You, God, For Daddy.)
and
Phil Vischer (Most commonly known as co-creator of the ever-popular Veggie-Tales series.)

I really like that they included a variety of authors, not just Novel and Picture Book, but authors that work in Film as well. Very cool!

UNITS
The six Units in Writers in Residence focus on ways authors come up with stories

• I Remember ~ Favorite Childhood Memories, using Cynthia Rylant's When I Was Young In the Mountains
• I Imagine ~ Using Imagination to write letters, using Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah Plain and Tall as an example
• I Investigate ~ Research, in this unit, that means uncovering your family history, using Roald Dahl's collection of true stories Boy: Tales of Childhood
• I Think ~ The Personal Essay... oh boy! Expressing your opinion about your favorite author
• I Remember ~ Again... this time writing a personal narrative, using excerpts from popular children's fiction authors autobiographies, Beverly Cleary, Sid Fleischman and Mary Pope Osborne
• and I Image ~ Again, but this time to write a piece of totally wild Superhero fiction, not related to something one could imagine might *really* happen. 

I really like the variety of tools Writers in Residence uses to come up with ideas~ a great help to kids who can't think when faced with a blank piece of paper!

I also appreciate that for each unit and module there really isn't a lot of that blank paper space to intimidate young writers. The pages of the manual are presented in such a way that they draw out information from your budding author one bit at a time.

One of the first activities, the Memory Chart, was to come up with a favorite place with lots of memories, and then to brainstorm those memories. There are sections for 5 different people (Or groups of people), the favorite things done with them, and descriptive details to help flesh out the memories. This chart could easily be a one day assignment depending on the age, but we took a couple of days, trying to come up with a bunch of activities and great words to help describe them.

The next step was to translate those memories into a pattern that followed Cynthia Rylant's pattern of "When I was young in the mountains I..." Because Youngest chose to write about our annual camping trip, his was more along the lines of "When I was young in Dathforth Bay..." This also took a couple of days for him to complete~ but if your kids love to write they might zip through it. ;)

After the rough draft, there is a little focus on choosing and using words, which lets the child take a break from writing their own material, and instead filling out something more worksheet-like.

The rest of the Unit follows a similar pattern, encouraging original writing interspersed with fill in the blank sorts of exercises to increase word power.

I really appreciate how Debra Bell has broken the process down and made space for creativity while still teaching form and function: How to come up with ideas, organize those ideas, create sentences that are interesting to read, using word choices that clearly convey the idea, with proper voice and writing conventions.


Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Apologia Educational Ministries
• Product: Writers in Residence 
• Ages: Grades 4-8
• Price: $89

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

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Blessings~