Teaching Music

16. December 2008 by Shannon.

I am blessed to have an extremely musical son.  I grew up surrounded by music, and it was a core focus for many of my adolecent years.  My mother loved to sing in church and as part of a folk group.  I played english handbells from the time that I was 12 and my church bought their first set.  I play the flute, tenor sax, and several ranges of recorder… oh, I love to sing too!

My oldest children never really got “into” music besides a general appreciation of others who could perform… guess their musically challenged Dad has stronger genes than I do.. *grin*  But then along came Greyson… who seemed to be born to make music.  From infancy, he was soothed by music, loved to sing back at me, and shake or bang things to make sounds.  He was delighted when I gave him a “tap a tune” xylophone piano… he’d press keys gently, hard, and even shook the thing to make different noises.   And he, too, loves to sing.

My dream for him would be to find a career in music… in any form.  But I would also love for him to play the piano.  Many a songwriter picks out a tune on a piano keyboard to “set” the melody in place.  I want that for my son.  I have NO piano skills whatsoever, though… so I will definately have to rely on others to pave the way for him.

Imagine my delight to be asked to review Kinderbach!  This is an online program which is geared towards teaching preschool (well, 3-6 year olds) how to play the keyboard, along with teaching them some musical theory principles (high/low tones, notes, etc…).  Each lesson is taught as a online video, all you need is a computer, internet connection, and a small keyboard to get started!

It seemed better suited to the 6 year old than to the 3 year old (lost interest rather quickly, although enjoyed doing the activities with an older siblings encouragement)… as some of the activities seemed to be relating on a kindergarten level (imagine, KINDERbach… LOL!), but it was enjoyed by both children. 

There are printable colouring activity pages, online lessons, and more.  Karri from Kinderbach is the very personification of a preschool teacher, speaking at the child’s level, enthusiastic and upbeat.  The animations are cute and engaging.  The cost is a little on the steep side for our budget personally, but I know from speaking to many friends who have children in piano lessons, that the price is extremely competitive for that kind of teaching (a mere $7.16 a month - billed as a 1-time annual payment of $85.95 *a savings of over 50%* or $14.95 a month - billed monthly). 

The one caveat I would like to mention though, and Kerry mentions it on the site as well…. if you have only a dial-up connection, you would be better off buying the DVD version of the course (only 217$ US, less than $7.50 a lesson!!  Try to find a piano teacher for that price!) as the videos do take up a lot of bandwidth.  It took me on average 40 minutes to load a 5 minute video… which proved frustrating at best… but that is what ya get for livin’ in the country, I guess! LOL!  

Also, I would like to mention that there is absolutely NO RISK with Kinderbach.  If after trying it for 30 days, you find you don’t love the product, Karri will take it back and give you a full refund!  What do you have to lose?  If your preschooler has a call to music, why not start them off with Kinderbach?

Blessings!

As a review blogger,  I am provided a free copy of the book, curriculum or product to test and use in order to write an honest review. I receive no other compensation and the opinions I share are my own and not influenced by the company in question.

Posted in T is for Teaching | Print | 1 Comment »

Inspiring Women

15. December 2008 by Shannon.

I am no modern day feminist, but I love stories of strong, inspiring women. I love seeing examples of success.  I especially love hearing of Proverbs 31 being true helpmeets to their husbands by running their own home businesses while not giving up the responsiblity of raising their children to an institutional facility… ie. public school.  I love the example that they set for their sons and daughters.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has put together an ebook of these inspirational stories of women “having it all”… but not in today’s worldy sense of the phrase… instead, “having it all” means being free to homeschool their children, be keepers of the home, and to be a godly wife and mother.  With dozens of successful women sharing their stories… this is a must have book for the homeschool mom who wants to try her hand at supplementing the family income without leaving her family - or for her homeschooled daughter.   The Home Work ebook will be available very soon at the TOS store!

Blessings!

As a review blogger,  I am provided a free copy of the book, curriculum or product to test and use in order to write an honest review. I receive no other compensation and the opinions I share are my own and not influenced by the company in question.

Posted in M is for Mom | Print | 1 Comment »

WOW!

12. December 2008 by Shannon.

I can hardly contain my enthusiasm over this FANTASTIC AMAZING program… Core Learning has made available the Crayola Art Studio.  Now, this is not your “ordinary” paint program… this is an incredible feat of technology!  Not only can you create VERY realistic art.. but you can do some pretty cool things with it too.  Ev (my will-be-15-in-a-few-days year old) absolutely LOVES this program… so much that, even though it was a review copy, I’m kickin’ myself for not saving it as a birthday gift… he hasn’t stopped playing with it… I’d have gotten some great brownie points for that one! LOL! 

Not only does HE loves this program, but my 3 year old, 6 year old, 13 year old, AND Mom are constantly playing with it.  This is truly the best piece of software I’ve received in years!!! 

Core learning sells this program for ONLY (and, believe me, this is completely underpriced… but don’t tell them *I* told you so!) $24.95… YES.. for about 25 smackeroos you can have the entire family engaged in a creative and productive computer activity.  If one of the kids is playing (or if Mom is playing *grin*) with the Crayola Art Studio, there is GUARANTEED to be a sibling or two hanging over their shoulders enthusiastically responding to the creative process going on.  I’m not kidding!  It’s been such a wonderful blessing in this house… finally there is no more, “give me breathing space” arguments at the computer.. instead I’m hearing, “Hey, Kenz… come check this out!” and “WOW” when she sees what her brother has created! 

I give this product two thumbs up… and still that seems short-changing somehow… I wish I had more thumbs! LOL!

Here are some samples of art work we’ve created with the Crayola Art Studio (and this barely gives you a sampling… this program can do more than I could ever show here… I could fill a whole blog with the art we’ve all made so far!):

Ev calls this “Black Fill”

and this one he calls “double Brom” (a character from the Eragon movie, he grabbed a snapshot from his screen, then edited it to make him younger and with elfin ears… I’m amazed at the work he is doing on this program.. he’s even made custom pointers for his computer!  Who would have guessed this program had so much to offer.. it looks like it’s for little kids from the package, no?  Well, not so much.. Ev is 15 and doing some pretty intensive graphics work on it!  What a great program!!

Kenzi calls this ”Horses Running” which not only uses the tempera paints, but also the stamps.  Very cool. 

Blessings!

PS, I edited this to add in Ev’s second picture… and months later, I can honestly say this is something that several people use EVERY SINGLE DAY in our home… I cannot recommend it enough!  And if you buy it for your 3 year old, they are sure to be able to use it for at least 10-15 years… that makes your investment VERY small when considering play-value.  Way to go Core Learning!

As a review blogger,  I am provided a free copy of the book, curriculum or product to test and use in order to write an honest review. I receive no other compensation and the opinions I share are my own and not influenced by the company in question.

Posted in F is for FANTASTIC! | Print | 1 Comment »

Teaching Times Tables… ugh.

9. December 2008 by Shannon.

(I can hear all your groans from here…) 

Let’s be honest.  As homeschool moms.. this is probably not our “best thing”.  I hated times tables in school - and found that growing up didn’t endear them to me either… *grin*

Unfortunately, my kids suffer from the same repulsion of rote times tables learning, and so they’ve kinda sucked at it too.

HOWEVER… there was a bright ray of sunshine in our house this past week as my daughter (13) and son (15 next week) saw light at the end of the tunnel when I pulled out some flashcards and lo and behold… THEY KNEW THE ANSWERS!  

How did I do it??? What happened???

Let me tell ya!!! 

You see, a few posts back I was telling you how Peace has come into our home - or at least into my Boy’s room… well, the makers of the Clean n’ Flip charts are ALSO the makers of this fantastic learning tool called Times Tales.   This system incorporates a “picture story” that teaches each of the “hard ones” (3×6, 3×7, 3×8, 3×9, 4×6, 4×7, 4×8, 4×9, 6×6, 6×7, 6×8, 6×9, 7×7, 7×8, 7×9, 8×8, 8×9, 9×9).  Often these are the ones that the kids get stuck on.. and once our children start struggling - it can lead to discouragement, frustration, “I’m dumb”, and so forth.  What a wonderful world it would be if no child had times tables struggles to wreck their love of Math!

What did my kids think?  Well… Ev loved it.  He “saw” the pictures as soon as he heard the stories… I quizzed him on it a few days later and he got every single one right in very little time.  He’s kinda auditory that way, as soon as I showed him the flashcard, he could “hear” the story in his head and knew the answer.  Even though I’d probably say he is older than the “target” age for this product… he is SO thankful we received it.  He found his math lessons following the Times Tales a fair bit faster as he didn’t have to stop to figure things out.. and his answers were right and he was more confident as he did the lesson.  

Kenzi, on the other hand, found the pictures somewhat distracting and hard to recall… she is a very kinesthetic learner, and I’m afraid this was over stimulating for her as it’s basis is all visual and auditory in nature… but some of it must have sunk in as her next math lesson had more correct answers than I’ve seen in a while… and it took her less time to do the long division working out parts.  (love my technical terms? LOL!).  

I haven’t tried it with the Littles yet as they are much too young to be thinking about times tables (being only 3.5 and just turned 6), but I will absolutely be using this, possibly to start the year off next year’s “fun thing” in September, and then we’ll see what difference it made as time goes on and we get closer to multiplication in a year or two… I’m considering it as “preventative therapy” for the “I’m dumb syndrome”.

I would definately say this product is worth the investment of only $29.99 US… the program is completely non consumable, so you can use it with all your children (for me that works out to less than 8$ a kid for a life-changing approach to multiplication!!).  There are practice quizzes, flashcards, even a dice game - everything your child needs to master those daunting times tables. 

This product definately got our “thumbs up”!!!

Blessings!

As a review blogger,  I am provided a free copy of the book, curriculum or product to test and use in order to write an honest review. I receive no other compensation and the opinions I share are my own and not influenced by the company in question.

Posted in T is for Teaching | Print | 1 Comment »

It’s CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

3. December 2008 by Shannon.

And one of my favourite stores EVER is having a Christmas Sale!! 

Blessings!!

Posted in W is for Websites | Print | No Comments »

My Neighbour’s Geography

2. December 2008 by Shannon.

This is one of the most imaginative books I’ve ever been asked to read! 

As part of the TOS Review Crew, I was sent a copy of the book “Little Man in the Map” by Schoolside Press to review.  The author’s goal is to make learning American Geography (yes, my neighbour to the south) easy for children.

Now, in a small way this book reminds me of Times Tales (yes, I haven’t forgotten about reviewing that… it’s coming, check back next week… LOL!), except in this case, instead of little stories as memory triggers, E. Andrew Martonyi has used verse and pictures cues - all stemming from this one “Little Man” (or MIM as the children call him) hiding inside IN PLAIN VIEW the map of the United States!

I passed this book on to a friend, as my Littles are a bit young for all the names of States… and my Bigs were busy with other things… also to get more opinions.  Here are some samples of feedback I received:

“OH!  That’s so cool!!!” - Nicholas, age 9, upon “discovering” MIM for the first time.

“LOOK AT THAT!” - a friend of Nicholas’ who’s name escapes me at the moment, who was visiting the day they looked at it.

“It’s a great idea.  The Man in the Middle is the best example of the possiblities - but I don’t feel it works as well past that point.  It is probably more suited to kids aware of State names already or would definately require a teacher’s guide to help it stick long-term.  There doesn’t appear to me to be a link between reading the rhymes and remembering the names… and learning all that verse might be more work than just learning the names off a map.” - Johanne, mom to Nicholas

I asked Ev to read through the book and he said,

“It’s VERY imaginative, but there is so much information that I found it too confusing and I don’t remember any of the names besides Texas, but I knew that one already” (helpful, eh? LOL!)

So… my impressions.  The book would work well for a child who loves to memorize verse.  The reason I say this is, that there is no grounding “rote” leaning happening without the drill part to fix it unless your child can remember the dozens of lines of verse that gives them their clues.  I doubt the pictures alone would trigger the names.  HOWEVER, I think that if someone had a very visual learner, maybe it would work better.  I have auditory and kinesthetic learners in this house… so it would take a bit more “practice” before it clicks.

Luckily, the clever folk over at Schoolside Prss are putting together a downloadable teacher’s guide which might help make the geography stick.

The book costs $19.95 US, which I wouldn’t spend on a book for just the book’s sake alone, HOWEVER, as a teaching tool, I’d easily spend that.   It is a beautiful hardcover book with dust jacket and is a nice read.  I would like to offer a mild warning, though, this book does mention “magic” (as in the magic of your imagination) and does contain elf-type creatures in it.  So it might not be suitable for all families.  I found it cute and entertaining, and it did help me put a few of the States in order in my head (MAGS -  an acronym for Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and SOUTH Carolina… that helped!).

So, all in all, I’d give Man in the Map a thumbs UP as a teaching tool - it’s fun and educational… a GREAT combination! :o)

Oh… before I forget, a great review tool would be http://www.wartoft.nu/software/seterra/ and that is FREE!  We love Seterra as a geography review in our homeschool… I’m sure you will too.  BUT BE WARNED, it is VERY addictive… like late nights, missed bedtimes, sibling competition, the whole nine yards!  LOL!

Blessings!

As a review blogger,  I am provided a free copy of the book, curriculum or product to test and use in order to write an honest review. I receive no other compensation and the opinions I share are my own and not influenced by the company in question.

Posted in T is for Teaching | Print | 2 Comments »

Who makes the gifts?

1. December 2008 by Shannon.

(I should preface this by saying that we don’t “do” Santa Claus around here - however my children know OF him and that it is “just a nice story” people tell around Christmas time…)

Overheard conversation between our contractors and my 6 year old son while they were eating lunch together:

Contractor #1: So, are you all ready for Santa to come?

Greyson:  Silly, Santa is just a nice story!

Contractor #2: Santa is just a story??

Contractor #1: You mean he’s not real?? (pretending to be shocked at the news)

Contractor #2: (misunderstanding that he’s not just “testing” to find out, but in fact, really knows that there is no Santa and is completely happy and content in that knowledge) Are you sure?  I’m pretty sure he’s real!

Greyson: No.. MOM makes the gifts!

Contractor #2: your MOM is Santa?

Greyson: No, she’s Mom.

Contractor #1:  Well, maybe someone else makes the gifts too…?

Greyson:  (thinking) GOD makes all the gifts, and He shows Mom what to give me.

(Trying not to laugh out loud with joy at my son’s understanding… and also trying not to be irritated at their insistance to convince my son that a myth is truth.  Although all myths may have a grain of truth in them, the “popular” Santa is just not something we are interested in teaching our children to believe in.  Why do so many people have such a hard time with it… it’s not like I am telling their kids there isn’t a Santa… I just tell my own children the truth.  If other parents choose to get into the whole “magic of Christmas” thing, that’s their business.  We prefer the “miracle of Christmas” instead.)

Contractor #1:  If there is no Santa, then who takes care of all the reindeer?

Greyson: Huh? (with a funny screwed up face on… too cute)

Contractors got fed up and went on on their own conversation.

I don’t know.. it just seems funny that I am so “fringe”.  I never really was part of the in-crowd thing when I was a kid, teen, and apparently even now.

HOWEVER… one thought following this conversation did occur to me. 

It is a VERY good thing that my 6 year old is homeschooled… can you imagine all the tears and hurt feelings when this whole month is dedicated to something “fake” and all the other children are hearing from their friend that there really isn’t a big fat elf-king who rides a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer who visits all the “good” girls and boys for Christmas and brings them their hearts desires?  *rolling eyes*

Ya, I’m glad to be a Homeschool Mom.

Blessings!

Posted in M is for Mom | Print | No Comments »