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Brookfield Zoo free days

Brookfield Zoo is a great field trip destination even in the winter months. They also have an abundance of free days in the next couple months. I like to look for warmish days that fall on these free days and enjoy some great outdoor time with my kids. The zoo offers plenty of educational content for a day of learning outside of your home “classroom.”

Even on free days you should plan on paying for parking, but general admission is free on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. You can also enjoy the Children’s Zoo and the Hamill Family Play Zoo every day of the week the rest of January and through February for free. The Family Play Zoo has some great indoor activities especially geared toward younger kids that can be a great way to enjoy the zoo even on a colder day.

Check the forecast and make some plans to enjoy the animals in their winter habitats.

View the press release from the zoo with all the details.

TOS Crew Review — Easy Classical

The demands on homeschool mother’s schedule are many and I enjoy finding products that make our life a little easier. The company Easy Classical has worked to put together a number of schedules to help homeschoolers incorporate more great materials into their school days.

They offer schedules for specific grades, subjects, and topics. Their schedules are thorough and offer abundant information. They do require additional purchases as they do not include the books you actually read, but merely provide book lists that their schedules incorporates. Most of the books you could either view online, order through CBD, or borrow from your library or Interlibrary loan.

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Product: Early Modern History Schedule

Details: A thorough year-long schedule including book lists of history texts and read alouds, quizzes, activities, and tips to get the most out of this year of study

Price: $29.95 for downloadable product. Or, $35.95 if  you would prefer a physical product shipped to you.

What we loved . . .

  • Loads of resources. This is far more than just a couple page schedule to get you through the information in a year. They have gathered some great titles and put them into bite sized pieces for an educationally rich year of history study.
  • Favorite titles. Although I don’t recognize every book that they recommend I do see many familiar favorites and others that I have heard others rave about.
  • Classical approach. Well, I don’t know if I should say we love this, but I know many others would. I lean more toward Charlotte Mason if anything, but I do see some of the benefits from a classical approach. So, that said, this schedule does build on a Classical educational philosophy (hence the company name — Easy “Classical”), which is a time proven method.
  • Permission to adapt. One problem I have run into with schedules is my self-imposed need to do it all. This schedule says at the outset that you should not attempt to complete everything that they recommend. They just want to offer enough variety for the many different students and teachers that they are serving. And, they also acknowledge that life will sometimes get in the way and we won’t accomplish all that we had hoped in a given week. That is of course okay, and they reassure you that they expect that in the formulating of these materials.
  • Age range. It is sometimes challenging to teach a wide age range of students on a daily basis, but Easy Classical is designed to teach kids in grades K-6 and I felt that some of it could be adapted to older kids as well. I would have no trouble using this for all of my learners, pre-K through 8th grade.
  • Look before you buy. By looking through their website and downloading the samples you can get a good feel for this product and see if it is right for you and your family before purchasing it. Sample schedules could be used to give it a trial run in your homeschool and you just might find this product a great fit for your homeschool.

Some considerations . . .

  • Would still require some advanced planning. While the schedule is made out, you would need to round up the books and have other supplies on hand. They make it as simple as possible without selling you hundreds of dollars of books to go with it, but you will need to track them down. They do have a wonderful page on their site that links to all of the books and resources that they recommend.
  • Might not work for everyone. Any time that you find a great product, it will not fit every family. Some kids won’t enjoy the books, some won’t like the writing (which I felt this schedule was a bit heavy on, especially for younger kids). But, you can try it before you commit, so that is definitely not something to hold you back.

I have used schedules in the past from various sources and always get away from them. I prefer book based programs because I get so bogged down and “check-box” driven when I use a schedule. I end up using them more as a book list than an actual schedule. I also prefer oral narration to quizzes, but that comes from my Charlotte Mason bent. That said, I think this is a great resource. It looks easy to use, fits a wide range of ages, and uses top-notch books as its spine. This would be a great asset to any homeschool looking for a quality history program.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Easy Classical as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Math Facts Now

Speed drills are seen by some as a necessary evil in teaching and motivating kids to learn their basic facts. Not so in this day and age. Now, they do still need to practice and memorize, but it doesn’t need to be the palm sweating”upside down paper on the desk until the signal” event of yesteryear.

Math Facts Now has created a program to help kids learn their facts through repetition and review on the computer. Parents can set up the program according to their own expectation and with the specific target areas needed. All that’s left is for the kids to get on their regularly and see their skills improve.

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Product: Math Facts Now

Details: A customizable, computer based program to help students learn their basic math facts

Price: $15.95 for download product. An additional $3.95 if  you would prefer a physical product shipped to you.

What we loved . . .

  • Focus on math not entertainment. Kids can sometimes be distracted by the “extras” that are included in many educational programs. Math Facts Now recognized this and offers a program that allows students to focus on the work they need to do and master their basic facts as efficiently as possible.
  • Requires them to review their mistakes. They program requires that students who make an error must retype the one that they got wrong at least twice (you can choose to make it more) before going on. This does take some time, but was a great way for kids to review what they missed. When I showed my son that feature he said, “I’m never gonna get one wrong!” Yep, it did motivate him to be extra careful in his work.
  • Warns them when they are on a tricky one. If they previously missed an answer the next time that some question comes up it will warn them to “be careful.” This could be a bad thing, because for my daughter she just remembered the one she got wrong had an answer of 18, so she didn’t look at the problem itself, just the warning. However, most other time they had multiple ones they had missed, so it was not an issue.
  • Customizable. I loved that we could set up whatever we wanted the quizzes to be. They could drill them on just “1+” or 1 through 4 or 1through 12 or whatever we were covering at the time. It automatically does 0-12 with whatever numbers you set, so it might not work well for really young kids, but all of my kids are past those early facts so we did not have to deal with that challenge.
  • Easy to set up. I took the time initially to set up multiple quizzes. I set up each drill set (1; 1-2; 1-3; 1-4; etc.) for each basic operation. Then I set up individual ones as well (just 2, just 3, just 4, etc.) That is a lot of quizzes, but it gave them a lot of options and had all the work from my end done. I also set the time higher on the ones I knew my younger kids were doing so they would not keep getting them wrong just because they type a little slower. If my older ones decided to do the early addition tests I could still see their average time although they would not get it wrong if they answered slow. This kept me from having to set up multiple versions of each test for older and younger kids.

Some considerations . . .

  • No lock for the changes you make. Technically students could enter the quiz set up area and change the amount of time, questions, or other content. None of mine messed with this, but it is possible.
  • Can’t pause in the middle of a goal.  If you set it for your child to get 50 correct before mastering a test and he takes a break after 35, he has to start again at the beginning the next time. This was a challenge when I made the goals longer, but as long as you keep the tests a reasonable length it should not be an issue
  • Takes some time to set up. Because this is fully customizable, it does not come with preloaded tests. You will need to take the time to set them up how you want them. It is very quick to do, and I went ahead and set up numerous ones when we first received it so i did not have to continually create new ones. A few minutes at the beginning and they had quizzes to last them for weeks. When you set up one quiz multiples students can use it, so you don’t need to recreate the same quiz for multiple students.

We really enjoyed the simplicity of use with this program and how versatile it was for a wide range of students. The price seemed quite reasonable for the length of time you could benefit from the product, and it did its job in helping my kids improve the speed and mastery of their math facts.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Math Facts Now as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Positive Action for Christ

A few years back I made a conscious decision to incorporate a Bible time into our school day. With many reasons for homeschooling my kids, one of them is to give them a solid grounding in their Christian faith and a clear understanding of how it should impact their daily living. Having this as a priority in our day has really made a difference, and it also keeps me on the lookout for ideas to keep this time fresh.

We received a 6th grade curriculum from Positive Action for Christ which included both a teacher’s manual and a student workbook. These became our Bible time for the last month and we have enjoyed many aspects of these materials.

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Product: Positive Action for Christ

Details: A Bible study curriculum that includes a teacher guide and student workbook to direct a time of study in God’s Word.

Price: Teacher’s Manual — $33.95; Student book — $12.95 (or $10.95 each if buying 5 or more)

What we loved . . .

  • Progressive. The great advantage to purchasing a Bible curriculum is that it will have a flow to it. They have taken the time to lay out the material and make sure that topics are covered and build on each other and that the material is age appropriate. Winning the Race is designed for 6th graders that have been in the program before, but we had no trouble picking up where it was. If your child has a familiarity with key Bible stories and doctrines he should have no trouble jumping in at whatever grade level he is at. There was one reference to “as we learned last year,” but it was something all of my kids were familiar with as well.
  • A great beginning. These curriculum books came about as one Sunday School teacher shared what he had created and it simply caught on. People knew a good thing when they saw it, and nearly 40 years have gone by since those early days of what became Positive Action for Christ.
  • Doctrinally sound. It is of course important to me that the Bible curriculum that we use lines up with our doctrinal beliefs. You can take a look at this company’s history and doctrinal statement to see if they match up with yours as well.
  • Engaging. Even though many of my kids do not enjoy actually writing in workbooks, they do enjoy having something in their hands to look at while I teach or read. They took turns with the student book that we had and followed along as we discussed various Scripture references and character qualities.
  • Adaptable. Although we received the book for 6th grade I found it easily adaptable to a wider age range. My 1, 4, and 6 grader definitely gleaned some good information from our time together. It was of course a little young for my 8th grader, but still workable and still prompted some good conversations.
  • Variety. Not just a typical Bible lesson, these units brought up character traits, key verses, life principles, vocabulary, and other activities and teaching strategies.

Some considerations . . .

  • Maybe a little too broad. As each lesson covers memory verses, vocabulary, character, key verses, Bible characters, doctrine, application, and Bible study it was sometimes hard to see how some of the different components fit together. Sometimes I felt like I was stretching a bit to find the link between the key verse and the main Scripture passage. The week did end up being tied together, but not always as naturally as I was hoping, and the memory verses still seemed unrelated, although we did enjoy memorizing part of the Sermon on the Mount.
  • Not really enough material for 5 days.  Although it is marketed as a daily Bible lesson for 35 weeks, 3-5 days a week, we did not really find enough to keep us busy each day of the week and we ended up going through the lessons in about 3 days and then just moving on to the next one. This might work well if this is a subject that you only teach a few days a week, or if you have other plans for when you finish the book.
  • More variety in songs would have been nice. I really appreciate that they chose to include hymns in their study. However, when we study a hymn we like to sing it each day that we study it and they only have a new song every 4 weeks. We got a little tired of the same song and moved on much sooner than that.

Positive Action for Christ has put together a quality product with a lot of thought and information. They would probably work well for a student that loves workbooks and discussion. If you are looking for a

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Positive Action for Christ as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

ICHE Mother Daughter Conference

A wonderful opportunity for building memories and passing on a legacy of faith between mothers and daughters:

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Time Schedule

8:00  –   9:00    Doors open for check in and fellowship.

9:00  –   9:15    Welcome

9:15  –   9:30    Hymns and prayer

9:30 –  10:30    The House that Mom Built – Stacy McDonald

10:30 – 11:15    Coffee break and fellowship

11:15 – 12:15    The Heart of Chastity – Stacy McDonald

12:15  –  1:45    Lunch and fellowship

1:45   –  2:00    Hymn and prayer

2:00  –   3:00    Christianity:  The Real Women’s Liberation Movement (discusses the history and error of feminism) – Stacy McDonald

3:00 – 3:10        Break

3:10  –   3:40    Q & A with Stacy McDonald

3:40  –             Hymns, prayer, and closing

TOS Crew Review — Tiny Planets

My kids have definitely enjoyed their share of online “worlds” in recent years, and they were excited to try out another one.

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Tiny Planets has  a Sesame Street feel to it while giving kids a safe place to play and explore. The site has a vast amount of information including lesson plans, science information, as well as games. Kids enjoy playing around on it and parents can find information and helpful teaching tips.

Product: Tiny Planets

Details: A website with activities and fun for kids. Membership is free, but you can purchase keys to unlock various features on the site. Various sections of the site offer learning opportunities, fun games, videos, picture stories, science information, and a galaxy filled with adventure for each “cadet” to explore in their space ship.

Price: Free, but additional purchases of keys will add to the enjoyment of this site

What we loved . . .

  • Entertainment. Yes, it was fun. My kids all enjoyed a little mental break as they roamed the universe. Flying their space ships around allowed them to play games, build their own planet, and “shoot” things. My 5 year old enjoyed the shots which look like fireworks and don’t cause any damage. Not something I want him sitting around doing all day, but it was not the focus of the game either.
  • Free. No cost to sign up your kids, and they can find lots of fun activities.
  • Educational content. There is information on various planets, space discovery, and other educational information. There is a lot of information throughout the site that is targeted at different ages. Some is definitely for preschoolers (fun activities with mirrors) while other sections would be geared toward middle school (like when they discuss the different gases in the atmosphere on various planets).
  • Safe. They have taken some important steps to make a safe place for kids to play on the internet. There are no ad pop ups to worry about. Kids can only chat with pre-chosen phrases. And, even the cadet names are assigned by the program (although you can flip through them if you don’t like the first one) so you don’t need to worry about those sometimes questionable names that other kids come up with on internet worlds.

Some considerations . . .

  • Can cost money. If you enjoy this and want your child to get the full experience you will have the option of purchasing keys. These range in price from $1.95 for 10 up to $49.95 for 600 (and various denominations in between). These can be used for unlocking videos, books, space ship parts, planet decorations, etc.
  • The educational value could easily be skipped.  When my kids got on the site all they wanted to do was fly around and play games or build their planets. They didn’t spend time reading the books, printing the worksheets, reading the articles on the planets, or even watch the videos. They just wanted to play games. So, while the content is there, it is in a separate place where kids might not necessarily go looking for it unless steered there by an adult.
  • Based on aliens. Although it is a make believe world, I would have preferred an astronaut as the guide rather than aliens. They are cute and cuddly, but are definitely not my first pick for my children’s teachers.
  • Names are a little funny. I’m glad that my kids didn’t have to pick their own names (which usually ends up as some weird variation of their original name with lots of letters and numbers after it to find a user name that hasn’t already been used). But the names were still long and not always easy to remember (Electro Dragon, Buzzy Whale, Rowdy Butterfly, etc.)

Tiny Planets has some fun to offer kids of a variety of ages. While I wouldn’t use this as part of our school day activities, it was a fun, safe place for them to spend some of their free time. Cadet accounts are free, so you might enjoy checking it out as well.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Tiny Planets as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — North Star Games

“Why are they called ‘Meeples’?”

“Because they don’t want to call them ‘bets.'”

So began one of our first conversations about the new Wits and Wagers Family board game from North Star Games. Apparently the Meeples come from another game about 10 years ago and have been used as game pieces elsewhere also, and it makes for a cute playing piece that helps you stake your claim and earn points in this one. But, lets start from the beginning . . .

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Product: Wits and Wagers Family game

Details: A board game for 3-10 (with teams) people that involves guessing the numerical answer to a question. Each player writes down his best guess and then they are placed in order smallest to largest. Each player then guesses which answer he thinks is best by placing his meeples on the numbers. Points are awarded for each correct (or closest) guess whether written or by placing meeples on it.
Price: Retails for $19.99.

What we loved . . .

  • Fun for everyone. Even my 5 year old could play this fairly well because it just involves guessing. Some rounds he did better than others, but every round he had fun. All the kids enjoyed this game.
  • Something unique. I like board games that are new. While this is a new twist on their original Wits and Wagers, it was a very new idea to us. Definitely not the same old, same old. And, with 300 questions you could play for a long time before repeating the same questions.
  • Easy to learn. The box says two minutes, and that’s just about right. This was a quick study!
  • Perfect length. Some games are too long, others too short. This one was just right. About 15-25 minutes depending on how good the guess went. My 13 year old rocked it one round and it ended in 10 minutes. So, if you play against a major trivia buff it could go quickly. No problem, just play for the best 2 out of 3. 😉
  • Might have other uses. Once you have the markers, Meeples, and mini white erase boards you can use these for all kinds of things. Review for upcoming tests (everyone writes down their answer and then all guess which is right), quiz dates from your time line, maybe even use it to brush up on basic math facts. Feel free to think outside the box.

Some considerations . . .

  • Some questions were really easy. Many of them you would have no idea (How many times does the average person blink in a day?) And, others someone might know exactly (how many feet are in a mile?) Most of the questions fall somewhere in the middle, but all it takes is a couple easy ones and a game can be over quite quickly.
  • Accommodating the little ones. My five and six year olds had no trouble playing along with the rest of us, but we did at times give them some advantages. They could have an extra Meeple (or two), or we would give them some verbal prompts in writing their guess after everyone else was done. It was very easy to level the playing field a bit.
  • The answer could be overlooked. Kind of funny how they laid out the answer side of the card. The answer is actually in a lighter gray ink on the side of the card and more explanation about the answer is in bold across the middle of the card. It took us a few questions to realize that the answer was there, we just hadn’t seen it! That made the game a little easier . . .

North Star Games has definitely put together a winner in this game. We really enjoyed it as a family game and a larger group game. I think this one will be coming with us to our family Christmas gatherings as well. It’s a keeper.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through North Star Games as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

Up for a drive?

It’s not next door, but I have heard this conference is worth the drive. We do have lots of great conferences coming up right here in Chicago a little later in the year, but if you love to have the company of thousands of homeschoolers at a massive conference, grab some friends and head to Cincinnati!

Free Art Classes

This is a special class just this weekend taught by a well loved homeschool art teacher . . . Karine Bauch (feel free to check out her personal website as well):

Creative Clay Ornaments – for ages 6-9
Watercolor Cardinal Painting – ages 10-12

Click on the Batavia Public Library calander link below to learn more and find out how to register:

http://evanced.bataviapubliclibrary.org/eventcalendar.asp

The classes are this Saturday:

10:00-11:30 Students can create holiday ornaments using colorful clay that can be brought home and baked for hardening. Artist Karine Bauch provides design ideas while encouraging individuality and creativity. Registration required. To register please call the Youth Services department at (630) 879-1393.

12:30-2:00 Students can learn watercolor techniques as they are guided by artist Karine Bauch in the drawing and watercolor painting of a scarlet cardinal in a winter scene. Registration required. To register please call the Youth Services department at (630) 879-1393.

Give the library a call if you are available and interested.