A Cry from Egypt-- TOS Review

My eyes lit up when I first saw this review! Being a mom to boys always has me on the search for Godly resources to help guide me in raising them. Great Waters Press, which published the practical guide to Raising Real Men by Hal and Melanie Young, has two new books coming out. We were able to review the "physical" copy of A Cry from Egypt (it was also available to review in PDF form).

 A Cry from Egypt was written by Hope Auer and illustrated by Mike Slaton, both recent homeschool graduates.  Hope Auer has been writing stories and plays since she was very young.  She began writing A Cry From Egypt, the first book in The Promised Land Series, as a school assignment when she was only thirteen and her family was studying ancient Egypt!  This historical fiction book deals with the period before the Exodus, when the Israelites were still in slavery.

The book is for children age 8 and above. My 10 year old son read it and LOVED it! The book itself wasn't so big that my son was intimidated by it. It was easy for him to read (and understand) and really did a great job in giving a clear picture of life in the day of the Israelites during that time.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the Research section at the end. The research section had notes and websites further explaining things discussed in the book. For example, the author addresses points such as the possibility of two Pharaohs: Rameses the VII and Rameses the VIII. She gives websites that give examples of what Egyptian clothing would look like as well as Hebrew clothing (a picture truly is worth a thousand words!). There were many sites to peruse regarding architecture. She points out that the grand pyramids that everyone thinks of when one thinks about Egypt are in a completely different city. The Israelites depicted in this story were not the ones working on building those pyramids.

This book is being published by Hal and Melanie Young of www.RaisingRealMen.com. You can find A Cry from Egypt for purchase at the cost of $12.50 here.

To see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Great Water Press resources, visit the Homeschool Crew Blog to read more.

**Disclosure: My review and opinion written in this post is entirely my own. This product was provided to me for free in exchange for my review as a member of the 2012 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew.

Speekee TV~TOS Review

I was SO EXCITED to have bee chosen for this review! My younger kiddos love to watch Dora the Explorer and try to learn the Spanish so I was all about reviewing this course to its fullest! Speekee uses children filmed on location in Spain with puppets to teach Spanish (in an immersion approach).   Each video has a theme (e.g. El Cafe, El Zoo, etc.) with consistency in format.  This repetition within each program helps the kids to learn key words and phrases in a fun way.

 

 We found this course to be fun and engaging, my girls giggled through the videos as they worked hard to pronounce and repeat the words and phrases. It amazed me at how they focused on something that I thought they might not understand. That was not the case. They were able to get clues from the themes and how the "lessons" were taught. They came away with WAY more knowledge than I ever thought they would!

The target ages for this course is toddler through elementary grades, I reviewed it with my 6 year old and my 4 year old daughters.  Speekee TV provides you with access to the videos, and something called Speekee FastTrack which lays out an easy to follow plan over the course of 40 weeks.  Each week has suggested activities with corresponding video clips, worksheets and other resources.  They also supply vocabulary flashcards by episode for review with your child.

I used the worksheets and vocabulary flashcards with only my 6 year old. She was able to follow the content this way and it really helped reinforce what she had previously learned.

Subscribing to Speekee TV is easy.  They give you 2 weeks free to try it out and then charge just $7.50 per month for your subscription through PayPal.  Or if you prefer, you can pre-pay for one year at $60. Take a risk-free look and see what you think! We'll be continuing with this throughout our school year, I love using fun resources that engage my children during the learning process! :)

To see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Speekee TV, visit the Homeschool Crew Blog to read more.

**Disclosure: My review and opinion written in this post is entirely my own. This product was provided to me for free in exchange for my review as a member of the 2012 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew.

Math 911--TOS Review

 

Professor Martin Weissman has been teaching Math for 50 years. He created the Math 911 software because he is passionate about the subject and wants to help students overcome their fear of Mathematics (and to master it).  Throughout his years of teaching, he felt that students needed fewer explanatory textbooks and more illustrative examples to help them understand how to do higher math problems.  Because of this need, he decided to develop the Math911 tutorial software.

 

 Math911 is set up in the form of a tutorial and generates problems for students to solve in the following courses: Introductory Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Statistics, Trigonometry, and Pre-Calculus.  We're barely at the introduction to algebra level with my oldest child but we gave this software a shot (and to keep in mind for the future). After registering the software we were able to get access to the program. There are no frills, it is a very simple program but very straight forward to use. We chose the Intro to Algebra level to begin, below are the topics we started with for Pre-Algebra review:

• Introduction to integers
• Addition and subtraction of integers
• Multiplication and division of integers
• Exponents and order of operations
• Factoring number and prime factorization
• Addition and subtraction of rational numbers
• Multiplication and division of rational numbers.

 

There are 8 levels to complete under each category as well as 2 midterms and 2 finals spaced throughout the tutorial. No questions are ever marked wrong however there are a certain number of problems that need to be “correct” to prove mastery and move to the next level.  If the student does not understand how to do the problem, he may click on a button for step-by-step instructions to see the problem being solved.  He may follow these step-by-step instructions for as many problems as necessary to understand the process.  Professor Weissman wanted to give students practice, practice, practice in all types and variations of problems.

It was easy (and quick) to download this software off the site and because we were working in Pre-Algebra, there were also free PDF downloads with some explanations of how to do the problems.

To see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Math 911 visit the Homeschool Crew Blog to read more.

**Disclosure: My review and opinion written in this post is entirely my own. This product was provided to me for free in exchange for my review as a member of the 2012 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew.

Reading Kingdom--TOS Review

Reading Kingdom is an online program designed to teach children ages 4-10 years old how to read and write (to a third grade level).  This is an interactive reading program and you can customize it based on each child's needs. I found it very easy to use and because it is so fun, children feel as if they are playing a game and are eager to practice. My daughter loved this as a way to get more computer time; I didn't mind because I know this program was helping her have fun and get better at reading!

 

This program isn't your every-day-run-of-the-mill reading program! I found it uniquely different in the way it brings in elements of phonics (and whole language) and added in other skills needed to achieve reading and writing success. There weren't a bunch of complicated rules to work through; we noticed the use of something called the "six skills method." This method focuses on sequencing, motor skills, phonemic awareness, meaning, grammar, and reading comprehension. This reading enhancement program works with any curriculum and can used in any homeschool, preschool – 3rd grade classrooms, ESL programs, and special education classes.

Below is an example of  the 6 skills method and the areas covered in this reading method:

 

I found this program to be comprehensive in what it had to offer, definitely worth its weight in gold! In the Reading Kingdom program, you can expect:

• Easy to use… after a few lessons, children can often use entirely on their own.
• Customized to match each child’s skill level
• Major emphasis is placed on accurate spelling, punctuation, and writing
• No boring, difficult rule memorization! The system teaches rules implicitly.
• Designed to minimize error
• When error occurs, specific techniques are offered to overcome the problem
• Regularly checks child’s progress
• Children progress quickly with sessions only 15-30 minutes in length
• A parent/teacher report is always available when you log into the program

 

My daughter especially liked the graphics used throughout the program, she was always engaged and never lost interest! I smiled because I new she was learning and having fun at the same time. One of the things she does is try to look at pictures and determine what is said in the sentence based on what the picture looks like. You can see in the screenshot below that the sentence doesn't say a thing about bowling. My daughter learned very quickly to go right to the sentence instead of trying to evaluate the picture instead. :)

 

I consider this program to be risk-free because you have the ability to create an account and use the program (at no charge) for 30 days.  You can see if you like it and if it would work for your family. If so, you can buy a subscription for $19.99/mo or $199.99/yr for your first reader/child.  Additional readers are $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr.  Also, if you are interested, additional books, kits, and resources are available in the Reading Kingdom Store.

Overall, we found this program to be a win-win for our family! 

To see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Reading Kingdom visit the Homeschool Crew Blog to read more.

**Disclosure: My review and opinion written in this post is entirely my own. This product was provided to me for free in exchange for my review as a member of the 2012 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew.