Leadership Garden Legacy (Review)

Every now and again we are asked to review items that are more electives vs core. That would definitely be where this latest group of material falls on the spectrum. Leadership Garden Legacy sent me a set of books, pdf files and mp3 audio books to be used in what I would call a Character Training Course for future leaders. 

The main product that I used in this set was the book U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS: Growing My Leadership Garden. This paperback book is an 8 chapter allegory set on a farm. The story follows a timid little sheep named Hugh, who learns through visits with the animals on the farm how to harness his Understanding, Nurturing, Inventive, Quality, Unstoppable, and Expression qualities that will help him to develop his own unique style of leadership, based on his strengths. Throughout the story Hugh also learns how to weed out weaknesses (or weeds) in his leadership garden.

The Activity Guide (pdf file) includes discussion questions and activity suggestions for each chapter as well as "Standards" descriptions if your state requires such integration (thankfully, that section is all Greek to me at this point :) ). There are a number of activities that lend themselves more to classroom use than homeschool use, and some of them seemed a little more nebulous than my concrete thinkers were able to appreciate. 

Included in the Activity Guide download was the Leadership Garden Journal, which includes themed journal and activity pages that are integrated with the activity guide above. I will admit that my children take after their mother and are not great "journalers" so this was not as useful to me at this point in time.

For those who find value in hearing as well as, or instead of, reading an audio version of the book is available as an MP3 download. My children generally tend to prefer to read on their own or listen to me, but I *do* appreciate the option. 

There is an adult version of the book available as well, that is a little more detailed, but follows the same general storyline as the U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS book:  U.N.I.Q.U.E. Growing the Leader Within.  The Leadership Garden Guidebook contains similar materials to the children's Activity book and Journal, but on a higher level. 

One of the tools that I particularly enjoyed using (for myself as well as my children) was the Leadership Balance Wheel which gives you an idea of where your strengths together with areas that could use strengthening in order to be more well-rounded. 




There are definitely things to appreciate about this story and the many of the lessons found there. The whole thing sort of struck me as a response to the helpless victim mentality that we so often see in society today. Rather than being a generation of responsible and capable people, so many in our society today seem not to know what to think or do. As a result they just let life happen to them, instead of taking charge of their lives. Many of the lessons covered are an attempt to help alleviate that sense of helplessness and apathy. 

I see a rather significant caveat to these books as a follower of Christ~ Because the secular world also needs guidance in leadership qualities it seems that this course may have been written to allow for inclusion in a public classroom. In order to do this, it appears that the humanistic tendency of so many self-help books today, the power of positive thinking, has slipped in as the cornerstone of success. 

There is a bit of a tightrope walk that in my mind is difficult to accomplish without mentioning faith in God and HIS strength. . .  positive thinking will only take one so far. It can be a powerful TOOL, but the real power comes in acknowledging that "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13. 

What I'm trying to say here is that while I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater here, I would proceed with the understanding that I may wish to supplement the lessons with Biblical principals as well.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Leadership Garden Legacy
• Ages: recommended 5-12 /12+

• Products and Prices: 
• Physical Books:
• U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS: Growing My Leadership Garden ($18.95)
• U.N.I.Q.U.E.: Growing the Leader Within ($18.95)
• The Leadership Garden Guidebook ($18.95)

• Downloadable Resources: 
• U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS Activity Guide & My Leadership Garden Journal - PDF Downloads ($8.95) 
• U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS Audio Book MP3 Download ($8.95) 
• U.N.I.Q.U.E.: Growing the Leader Within - Audio Book MP3 Download ($14.95)  (includes bonus pdf materials from the printed book) 

Leadership Garden Legacy is offering the TOS Community a “Spring Special Discount” of 20% on all their Empowerment Tools. 

This is in addition to their already discounted Tool Kit bundles.

 

To receive your discount, enter the discount code: TOS-SS20D upon checkout. 

This is a limited time offer and the code will expire on May 31, 2013.

Preview the bundled Tool Kit Discount options

With the bundle price of the Family Empowerment Tool Kit and the TOS extra 20% discount this is a $28.70 TOS savings off the retail price of the products. 

I can see pulling this out every couple of years as a refresher/review in addition to a picture of progress made. 

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~

Supercharged Science Online learning program

Science is something that is often considered challenging to teach, although it is also often one of the most intriguing subjects to investigate if your mind is of a curious bent. That's why my family appreciated one of my latest reviews, offered by Supercharged Science, a one year subscription to Supercharged Science's  e-Science online learning program. 
One of the best ways for you to get an overview of the program is to check out one of the links above or click on the graphic to the left and explore the videos and links included on that page. However, before you head right on over, let me try to give you a quick synopsis of the program. 

Supercharged Science is filled with over 1000 experiments and activities/projects throughout 19 (Soon to be 20) different units. These units encompass essential scientific concepts from mechanics, matter, and magnetism to astrophysics, chemistry, biology, and many more. Most of the units are multi-age, while others are written specifically for the high-school student, but even those can catch the interest of a younger curious mind (a little more on that in a bit).

The core of the program in my opinion is the incredible number of extremely detailed and engaging videos featuring Aurora Lipper, the owner of Supercharged Science and a bonafide rocket scientist. There are videos that introduce each unit and lesson, to catch the student's interest, as well as videos of experiment demonstrations and detailed instructional videos to carry out the experiments/projects/activities yourself. Aurora is very pleasant to listen to, and even throws in the occasional joke or entertaining thought or story. You can get a feel for her style in this video talking about her program:

 
And here is a sample experiment video: Making an Air Horn
 

Beyond that, there are lesson plans, and all the resources needed to use this as a stand-alone core science curriculum. The basic structure:

• Highlights page
• Introductory Video 
• Reading Text (Which can printed if desired)
• Experiments and Videos
• Exercises   

For those that are already committed to another science program, but would like to add a little "punch" to their studies, Supercharged Science can be an excellent supplement. 

To make using Supercharged Science as a supplement easier, they have even created "Conversion Charts" to help you match up lessons and experiments with the science program that you are already using. Just as promised on the website, if the book you are using isn't already included with the 20+ publishers listed, feel free to send Supercharged Science a Table of Contents, and they will put together a conversion chart for your book. This works very well! I didn't see "Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology" included in the Apologia pdf, so I emailed a link to the TOC, and was sent a nifty chart to use with my middlest. (Thank you!) 

Another plus~ when one signs up as a member they are not given access to the entire library of units, simply to help avoid information overload. Each month you are typically given access to a couple of units. If they don't fit what you want to study at the time, the folks at Supercharged Science are happy to make sure that you have access to the units that are appropriate for your studies in response to a simple email request. Nice! :)

Additionally, members are always welcome to comment and ask questions for any of the units/lessons, etc. . . and Aurora often joins in on the discussion. :) 
 
Remember I mentioned even the youngest may enjoy some of the high school material? When my Eldest and I sat down to watch the introductory Chemistry video, Youngest hung out and was riveted by the conversation about the use of chemicals and the possibility (???) of changing lead to gold by manipulating the atomic number! Oh yeah... Alchemy is alive and well... ;) (Well.... kinda... not really,  but for my little MineCraft fiend, this was VERY interesting listening for him, and now he wants to get a particle accelerator... ;) ) 
 
Some experiments and projects that we have enjoyed during our review period:

ROBOTIC HAND

Middlest has started using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, and this project creating a "robotic hand" not only fit in with the study of bones, muscles and ligaments, but was also right up his alley. 

The project is carefully demonstrated in a step-by-step video, which was fairly easy for Middlest to follow on his own. We did employ a couple of modifications, the most obvious being that we used much thinner cardboard than was called for, which meant modifying the "joints" in the fingers. Here you see the front and back of the hand:

and here you can see the hand in action:

Middlest has already decided that these were just prototypes, and that he wants to make a couple more. He would like to experiment with seeing how the hand curls with different baseball pitch/holds, and he was having fun making the "peace sign",  holding up 2 fingers, then 3, etc...  

MICROWAVING SOAP

The next experiment is one that has been making the rounds on pinterest, etc, but we hadn't tried it just yet. Have you seen "microwaving Ivory soap" yet? We used a control soap (A sample of Dove) and a block of Ivory soap that we cut down to a similar size. We first discovered the relative density of each soap (Dove sank to the bottom of a cup of water, Ivory floated), and discussed WHY the Ivory floated (Air particles trapped inside). We also talked about what happens when water heats up (It gets "excited" and moves faster). Then we popped the soap in the microwave.

Now... I have to be upfront here, and mention that the Ivory Soap we used is a vintage left-over from a soap-carving project many many moons (aka years) ago.... and I noticed as I took it out that the packaging was looking rather "old and wrinkled/dehydrated." However, I like to use the materials I have on hand, so this is what we used. Turns out that the soap WAS dehydrated, and the end result was not nearly as spectacular as I had hoped. Even so, the difference between the "Dense" Dove soap, and the "Whipped with Air" Ivory Soap when heated was enough to come to the correct conclusion~ that  there were some water molecules trapped in the air bubbles inside the soap, and when they were heated up~ well, they wanted to get out of there! :) (Plans are to go get a fresh bar of Ivory soap and try again~ so I'll probably edit this post to add in at least one new photo. :) )

I think most of my pros were listed above, but I do have one semi-con/disclosure that I felt should mention. Once you are on the Supercharged Science email list (not as a paying customer, but a free subscriber), you will be receiving on average 10 emails/month. Some of them are definitely interesting and include great resources, but there are also a number of "Sales Pitch" emails. I have no problem ignoring them until something catches my eye, but I know many folks who find these sorts of emails very annoying. 

I mention this to simply say~ don't let the "soft/hard" sell emails deter you from checking out the fantastic program and resources being offered~ while the marketing is not my favorite style, the program is really, REALLY cool! :) 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Supercharged Science
• Product: e-Science online learning program
• Ages: K-12
• Price: K-8 ($37/month) K-12 ($57/month)

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~

Winner of PIECES OF ME Giveaway

Hey y'all~ 

Just wanted to let you all know that Rafflecopter chose the winner for the autographed copy of Eisley Jacobs' PIECES OF ME. 


Jennifer M.M. won with the 13th entry~ Congratulations, Jennifer! I'm sure you will enjoy the read! 
 
For everyone else ~ you can order directly from 

• - CreateSpace: ($6.99 plus $3.59 U.S. shipping) Order from CreateSpace.
• - Amazon: ($6.99 plus shipping or free shipping with Prime) Order from Amazon .
• - Amazon Kindle: ($2.99 electronic delivery) Order from Amazon
• - Barnes and Noble: ($6.99 plus shipping) Order from Barnes and Noble.
• - Barnes and Noble Nook: ($2.99 electronic delivery) Order from Barnes and Noble.

Blessings~

A Journey Through Learning Lap-Book/Unit Study

Over three years ago (Fall of 2009... WOW! Where does the time go?)  I reviewed an autumn lapbook from A Journey Through Learning, which I completed with my middlest (When he was 9).  This year A Journey Through Learning gave members of the TOS Review Crew the opportunity to review their choice of lapbook from the following options:

• Letters, Numbers and Shapes (ages 3-5)
• The Earth (grades 1-4)
• Knights and Castles (grades 2-7)
• Astronomy and Space (grades 2-7) 

Because Middlest has enough on his plate at the moment, I decided to do a little work with my youngest. He is beyond the preschool option offered, so we went with The Earth, which was a little bit above his level, but definitely of interest to him. 

screenshot of an info page

The pdf download incorporates a study guide with information that can be read directly to the older child (you can have them read it directly depending on age), or you can use it as a guide to modify the information for your younger learner. 

screenshot of a page element

The pages to print include directions for each element, as well as placement instructions, which is nice! 

about the Earth

Youngest was very excited to be doing Science, and made me realize that I need to do a little more. He also thought it was cool that we had all of these little books to put together that would help him remember what he learned. Most of the time I took dictation, but as you can see by the very fancy "EARTH" he wanted to be involved a little bit. :)

He really enjoyed talking about the makeup of the earth, and various rock formations. I had to laugh because we ended up referring to Minecraft during those conversations~ since he's often "mining" for iron, the fact that the Earth's core is made of iron and nickle was very interesting to him. We also talked about obsidian being an igneous rock and not made in  a reactor ala Minecraft.

Another conversation about igneous rock included the example of melting sugar (A crystal) into a liquid, and then letting it harden. We discussed how igneous rocks can be of different hardness depending on how hot the liquid rock was, and how it cooled etc. . . I  tied it into candy-making this Christmas, when I heated up sugar (and other ingredients of course) to make caramels that were soft and chewy, and then heated up some of the remaining liquid to a higher temperature to make a more toffee-like candy. If I had heated it even higher, we would have had a very hard candy. Fun stuff! 

He was already familiar with the concept that rocks are made of minerals because we had recently (before starting this lapbook) watched the Reading Rainbow episode that includes "The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth," which covered that concept rather well.

One other fun coincidence... when we were done talking about the various forms of rocks, I went off to do something else, and Littlest decided to settle down with "Eyewitness Living Earth" (Nice coffee-table book)which was hanging around the living room. I had hardly been out of the room for one minute when he called me back to see the page he had turned to... it just happened to be one on "The Changing Earth" which included photos of all three types of rocks, as well as descriptions of moving plates, etc... Totally unplanned! Nice little confirmation for him that God is interested in the smallest details of our lives, including what we are learning about each day. :) 


What I Liked:

• Super Easy to use~ Information AND graphics are at your fingertips
• Each "graphic booklet" element page followed the relevant information page~ I really liked that organization, instead of having all the information first, and having to hunt for each element that related to what we talking about.

What I didn't like:

• A bit of a catch 22 here... I tend to be fairly frugal with my paper, so I felt that some of the Graphic pages were a little  wasteful of my paper (Especially when I chose to print on colored paper for variation). Some of them could have been set up to print using only 1/2 the page, and then be flipped over to print the other 1/2. However, I would then lose the aforementioned ease and simplicity... not precisely a "Con" but possibly worth pointing out? Efficiency vs Economy ...  ???

Really... that was the only thing that I didn't care for, so not really a big deal! 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: A Journey Through Learning
• Product: The Earth Lapbook
• Ages: (grades 1-4)
• Price: $13 for instant download

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

Blessings~