{TOS Review} Dive Into Your Imagination

Started by Annie Crawley (also known as Ocean Annie), Dive Into Your Imagination brings the ocean to life for children and adults alike. By teaching students about the ocean, she hopes to inspire them to care for our environment and the oceans.

I was able to review Who Lives in the Sea? on DVD. In this DVD, we met all sorts of ocean life from dolphins and sea lions to sharks and octopi. The photography in this video was phenomenal. The bonus feature, Underwater Alphabet, highlights even more ocean creatures.

There are educator’s guides for each of the DVD’s in this series. Each of the guides includes math, science, social studies, and art activities. There are pages of printable activities, teacher’s notes, and hands-on ideas. These guides are available for Pre-K/K and 1-3 grades.

Who Lives in the Sea is one of three DVD’s in the Dive Into Your Imagination series. What Makes a Fish a Fish? and Dive Into Diversity are also available. Each of the DVD’s is available for $19.95, and can be purchased at anniecrawley.com .

During the months of May and June, Annie is offering free shipping to my blog readers when you place an order through her store.

To read more reviews for Dive Into Your Imagination, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer:  I received the product mentioned above in exchange for my opinion. No other compensation was received.

A New Seating Area

Last month, I decided to create a new seating area in our front yard. I need a place to sit and watch my kiddos ride scooters and bikes. And, I need something to sit on.

So, we tilled up the existing garden area and extended it two feet in the front of the house and four feet on the side. Then, we took it all the way to the fence. There was no garden space on the side of the house when we started.

I now have a nice little sitting area with a nice little bench to sit on. I love the gravel area in front of the bench. And, I love being surrounded by all the beautiful flowers.

I can’t wait for all the flowers to fill out and fill in the garden space!

{Intentional} Summer Plans – Overview

I have intentionally NOT listed any goals here for the past few weeks, because I knew I would be setting myself up for failure! This is my busiest time of the year as we wind down the school year and gear up for Emma’s dance recital. Recital means extra practices and picture days – which are so crazy busy!! So, I’ve been doing well just to keep my head above water and get the bare necessities taken care of.

However, now that summer is creeping up on us, it’s time to start some intentional summer planning. If I don’t have a plan, we will spend the summer being couch potatoes. And, I don’t want that!!  So, I made out my June planner this morning. This planner includes just the ‘fun stuff’ for this month. I’ll go back to posting my weekly goals which will include household chores/projects and summer ‘school’ stuff.

Summer Plans - JUNE!

As you can see, each day has a theme. This is so that the kids know what to expect on each day even if the activity/outing will change. They will know that Monday’s will be library and an outing day. I sent a copy of this calendar to each of the mommies I babysit for. And, I sent our Week One schedule to a few more friends in case anyone wanted to join us and make a big play date out of it! I’m so excited for this summer! We are going to have so much fun!

We will also be doing a tad bit of academic stuff this summer. Not every day but most days. I haven’t got those plans nailed down yet, but I will post them here when I do.

Each week, I’ll post an overview of the upcoming week (on Fridays) and a review of the past week in pictures (on Saturdays). I’d love to hear what everyone else is doing for the summer. Leave me a comment and let me know your plans.

And the {TOS} winner is…

As the 2011-2012 Crew year comes to a close, we are once again presenting awards to our vendors. The awards are known as the TOS Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Awards. The following vendors are the recipients of the award this year. Click on their name to check out the Crew reviews!

• Favorite Reading Instruction Product: Reading Eggs
• Favorite Writing Product: Write Shop
• Favorite Language Arts Product: Progeny Press
• Favorite Social Studies Product: TruthQuest History
• Favorite Science Product: Amazing Science
• Favorite Math Product: Math Mammoth
• Favorite Online Math Product: Math Rider
• Favorite Foreign Language Product: Visual Latin
• Favorite Fine Arts Product: Artistic Pursuits
• Favorite Christian Education Product: Apologia: Who Am I?

~~~

• Favorite Preschool Product: Before Five in a Row
• Favorite Elementary Product: All About Reading
• Favorite Middle School Product: Write with WORLD
• Favorite High School Product: Excellence in Literature
• Favorite College or College-Prep Product: Excellence in Literature

~~~

• Best Online Resource: Reading Eggs
• Best e-Product: Heritage History
• Best Homeschool Resource: Apologia: Educating the Wholehearted Child
• Best Book, Novel, or Magazine: Apologia: How to Have a HEART for Your Kids
• Best Children's Book: Amazing Animals by Design
• Best Game or Toy: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything
• Best Hands-On Resource: Pitsco Education

~~~

• Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: eMeals
• Best Customer Service: K5 Learning
• Most Adaptable Resource: Creek Edge Press
• Most Family-Oriented Resource: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything

~~~

• Kids' Choice (favorite of CHILDREN ages 0-12): Reading Eggs
• Teens' Choice (favorite per the TEENAGERS): Pitsco Education
• All Around Crew Favorite: Visual Latin  

Each winning vendor has received this wonderful award to display with pride:

  Congratulations to our winning vendors! We hope you will sail with us again!

Many Crew Members are blogging about these awards as well. Click below to see what they have to say!

Powered by Linky Tools Click here to see the Crew Blog Posts...

{Wordless Wednesday} Isaac started Brazilian Jui Jitsu

Youth Sunday ~ Recognizing the Seniors!

Sunday, our senior graduates were honored at church. The church served all the families breakfast. Then, we presented our seniors with a blessing (which Dad read over Logan). Then, the youth lead all three church services, and then the seniors were all recognized at the end of each service. They did a wonderful job! Logan gave the closing prayer at all three services.

{TOS Review} Write Shop Jr., Book D

Write Shop Jr., Book D - Book D is recommended for 3rd, 4th, or reluctant 5th graders. Students learn to write and publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry using a variety of pre-writing games, graphic organizers, and self-editing tools. Effective with both reluctant and enthusiastic writers. Accompanying Activity Pack is REQUIRED.
For the purposes of this review, I received an e-book version of the teacher’s guide ($34.95), junior activity pack ($29.95), time-saver pack ($13.95), and the fold-n-go grammar pack ($11.95).
Skills Introduced in Book D

Identify and use proper grammar and punctuation
Narrow a broad topic to a specific topic
Brainstorm before writing
Structure a sentence
Write a paragraph
Choose strong words instead of weak ones
Use emotion words to develop voice
Use the five senses to add descriptive detail
Self-edit and revise their work

For several years, I have used a different writing curriculum with Emma (3rd grade). However, it doesn’t involve creative writing. And, creative writing is something Emma LOVES to do. She is forever making up stories and writing them in this notebook or that one. However, she wasn’t having the benefit of prewriting, editing, and publishing a final copy. Enter Write Shop! It was an instant hit with my budding writer.


Once I got all of the files downloaded and saved to my computer, I printed out all the pages for unit 1 and created a teaching binder. Included in the teacher’s guide are step-by-step lesson plans, flexible weekly schedules, and a list of all supplies needed for the lesson.
  
To begin the lesson, we created a ‘fold-n-go’ reviewing punctuation marks. This is a great resource to have on-hand throughout the writing process. We then completed some pre-writing activities which included covering the parts of a letter of invitation. To reinforce this skill, we played a mix-and-match style game (included in the activity pack). Emma practiced writing a letter of invitation in her writing journal. This is ‘ungraded’ meaning I read it, and that is all. No corrections. No pointing out mistakes. Just a free writing activity to get the creative juices flowing.

 Then, she did some brainstorming. I loved the cake model (shown above) where each piece of the letter was a different part of the cake (from the candles to the cake stand). This helped Emma visualize all the parts of the letter. She then used her ‘cake’ to write a letter of invitation. We edited it together before she created a final copy.
All in all, Emma and I loved this program.  We will be using the remainder of the lessons next year (in the fourth grade). This was a subject she asked to do daily during our review time! That’s always a plus.  However, at almost $65 for just the teacher’s guide and the activity book, I’m not sure this is something I would purchase on my own. I’ll have to evaluate that thought more next year as we go through the remainder of the book.
To see what my fellow Crewmates thought about this and other Write Shop products, check out the crew blog.




Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received a free copy of the product reviewed on this page. All opinions are my own. No other compensation was received.

{TOS Review} CapJax Math Fax

We have reviewed several online math programs this year, and this is one of Emma’s favorites. She prefers CapJax to flash cards any day.

Captain Jack says:  Reinforcement builds skills. Feedback rewards skill performance and maintains importance of program. CapJaxMathFax™ employs a patented rating system that uses reinforcement and feedback data to create a game-like feeling. Ratings allow learners to keep score and set personal achievement goals. Student ratings also constitute a measure telling teachers and parents precisely where a student is in his or her math fact development.

This program is a great one for drilling math facts in a fun way. Students can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Students progress through different levels as they improve their skills.

Students can play for practice or play for rating. Playing for rating means that the program is keeping track of their progress and their time so that students can race against themselves. They can choose their level and their operation. The nifty bar graph on the left of the screen above shows them their progress. 

 

After each round, the kids get their ‘rating’. This shows their improvement from one round to the next. Emma is keeping track of her ratings in her math binder by coloring in a graph that I can put in her portfolio when she completes it.

You can download CapJaxMathFax for $29.95, or purchase a CD version for $5.95 more. In my opinion, this program is well worth the cost for my anti-flashcard kid!

Be sure to check out what my fellow Crewmates thought on the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.

Ready for chapter books?

Now that your beginning reader has gotten some confidence, it’s time to move on to slightly longer books – chapter books.  Don’t worry! There are plenty of chapter books just right for the younger crowd.  Let  me preface my list with a statement about twaddle vs. ‘good’ literature.  I believe that every child needs exposure to good, quality literature at all ages. I, however, also believe that (within reason) kids just need to read! And, if Junie B. Jones or Captain Underpants is what gets them reading, then I say let them read it! They will have time to appreciate quality literature soon enough. And, parents can use the classics for bedtime stories at this age. Having said that, here are a few of our favorites (or not so favorites ):

Amelia Bedelia – I list these here, because some young children just don’t “get” the tongue-in-cheek writing in these books.

Cam Jansen – This spunky little girl with a photographic memory will keep your kiddos entertained.

Geronimo Stilton – While these are not a favorite of mine, my third grader is currently making her way through this series. She loves them. We listened to one on CD during our drive to Austin a few weeks ago, and I vetoed having to listen to a second one. But, they keep her entertained!

Junie B. Jones – I despise these books! These are not ones I will read-aloud to Emma. I hate the incorrect grammar and the use of the word ‘stupid’ throughout the books. But, I did have a few in the garage from my teaching days. Emma found them, and read them all.

The Magic Treehouse – We really do love these books. The kids enjoy following the journeys of Jack and Annie, while I enjoy the little tidbits of history and science that are woven into each story.

Some of my favorite quality literature geared for upper elementary students includes:

Charlotte’s Web – An all-time favorite!

James and the Giant Peach – Follow James and his buggy friends as they travel to NY in a giant, floating peach!

Stone Fox – I first read this book when I taught third grade. I read it aloud to my class, and I love it! Each of my kids has read it, and they have all enjoyed it as much as I have. Grab your Kleenex, though. It’s a tear-jerker.

The Little House series – This series is a hit with both boys and girls!

Great Illustrated Classics – I enjoy introducing my kids to the classics with these books. Sometimes, we read the Great Illustrated Classic and then read the original at a later date. They already have a picture of the book in their mind so they can stay focused through the older language and writing style of the unabridged versions. For instance, I had Emma read an abridged version of The Secret Garden last year on her own. This year, I read it to her. She thought she knew the story, but was pleasantly surprised to know there was much more to the story. I am not sure the book would have held her interest if she didn’t already know the ‘meat’ of the story. The language and writing style is so different (in a good way) from what she’s used to reading on her own. So, the GIC versions are a wonderful introduction to some wonderful literature!

5 days, 65 bloggers, 325 blog posts! Check out what others on the TOS Crew are writing about for the 5 Days of Series here.

Books for beginning readers

Once your child is ready to begin reading on his/her own, what sorts of books are available?  Well, to start with, you have the picture books that you’ve been reading to them.  Some of them are great for beginning readers.  Select a few Dr. Seuss books. Their rhyme scheme is a big help for beginning readers. Other books and series that are good for beginning readers include:

Again, this is just a sampling of books available for beginning readers. Check with your librarian for more selections.

5 days, 65 bloggers, 325 blog posts! Check out what others on the TOS Crew are writing about for the 5 Days of Series here.