The Master Ruler (Crew Review)

We recently had to opportunity to review a few products from Master Innovations, thanks to the TOS Homeschool crew. Master Innovations is a company that specializes in making unique and easy-to-use tools to help children learn how to measure the world around them and understand tricky math concepts like time, fractions, mixed numbers, and much more.

We received two Master Rulers (one standard and one metric) and a workbook to try out. When I first learned about the review my first thought was, “Oh Goody, a ruler.” But after I visited the website and watched this video I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to get our products in the mail:

As you can see, the Master Ruler does more than just measure length. With the Master Ruler your students have a visual, tactile tool to use to help learn about fractions and their relationships. I tried out the products with two of my children. For my 8th grader, we used the ruler with the portions of the workbook covering fractions. With my 5th grader, we used the measuring portions of the workbook.

My 8th grader has long struggled with fractions and she found after getting the hang of HOW to use the ruler to help her, understanding fractions was much easier. All she had to do was use the ruler to find the mark that coincided with each fraction she was given and compare them. We both found this to be much easier even than using fraction “pie manipulatives” because it was quicker and there were no little pieces to keep track of.

For my 5th grader, this was his first time measuring anything more detailed than 1/4 inches. The different layers of the rulers for each unit of measurement made it easy to figure out how to measure things to even 1/16 of an inch! I am looking forward to using these rulers in the future with my 2nd grader also.

Along with the Master Ruler, Master Innovations has several other products available including the Master Clock, Master Fractions, and Master Angles. I have yet to try any of these other resources, but after reading the reviews of my fellow Crew members, I have added them to my homeschool “wish list”.

The Master Ruler (U.S.  or Metric) can be purchased for $9.95 each directly from Master Innovations. I think this is a very reasonable price, considering how many uses it has and how sturdy it is. The Student Workbook  is available for $15.95 also, or you can purchase The Master Ruler Starter Set which includes metric, U.S. and a teachers ruler plus the workbook  for $41.25. Make sure to check out the other products that are available, too!

DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free for review purposes through the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion.  Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner above to read more reviews on this and other products by other Crew members.

Looking For a Little Math Help? (Crew Review)

We recently were gifted with the opportunity to review a very unique, web-based math tutoring program through the TOS Schoolhouse Crew. Before I share our opinions of the program, let me tell you a little bit about America’s Math Teacher.

The program is essentially an online video tutor. America’s Math Teacher covers Basic Math, Advanced Math, Pre-Algebra and Algebra skills.  Each individual video tutoring session is linked to practice worksheets for your student to complete.  Basic Math is for 4-5th grades and Advanced Math is for 6-7th grades.  Tests are included for each level, making it easy for you to evaluate your student’s progress. Not sure where to begin? The program also has an initial evaluation to help place your student in the correct lessons.

The courses cover:

Basic Math Skills:
This course is for 4th and 5th graders. Topics include whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents, integers, geometry, and much more.
Advanced Math Skills:
This course is for middle grade students. Students will master the critical skills necessary for success in pre-algebra. Topics include whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents, integers, geometry, and much more.
Pre-Algebra:
This course is a must for students prior to taking Algebra I. Integers, exponents, order of operations, ratios & proportions number theory, linear equations, probability & statistics are just a few of the topics that students will learn and master.
Algebra I:
This course will guide students to master the “gateway” subject, algebra. Algebra opens the doors to more advanced classes in math, science, and technology. Students will learn and master all of the essential algebra skills. The lessons are carefully explained in clear, simple terms, so that all students will understand, learn, and master each and every topic.

America’s Math Teacher operates on a mastery-based approach. Your student will spend several consecutive lessons honing a specific skill area before moving on and learning a new concept.  The lessons are set-up in the following order: review of math facts, review of previously learned topics, learning a new skill, and then practicing that skill.

America's Math Teacher was founded by Rick Fisher. He is a math instructor in San Jose, California. Rick graduated from San Jose State University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Rick has devoted his time since to teaching fifth and sixth grade math students. Each year approximately one-half of his students bypass the seventh grade math program and move directly to an eighth grade algebra program.

The cost for this program is $195 for one year of online access for as many students as you need. There are also plenty of free materials for you to try out so you can get a feel for the program before purchasing.

Our family found it difficult to incorporate this program into our every-day routine, mainly because we already use a video-based math program daily. I found myself using it most often to help explain a concept that my kids just weren’t getting a good grasp of, and also to give them extra practice with those really important skills. America’s Math Teacher enabled me to give my students an alternative method for learning a particular skill that had previously eluded them via our regular program.

I feel this program would have been much more useful for us had we been using a more traditional, textbook-only program. The only aspect of the program that I would change would be to include courses for grades 1-3. There’s really not much else that this program is lacking. In light of the fact that the subscription cost covers more than one student in a household, I feel the pricing is right on, especially if you have more than one student in 4th grade or higher.

All-in-all I feel that America’s Math Teacher would be a great addition to any basic homeschool math curriculum!

Happy Homeschooling!

 

DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free for review purposes through the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion.  Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner above to read more reviews on this and other products by other Crew members.

More about starting a new school year – part 2

Tonight I thought I would share a little bit about how I plan for a new year, or rather how I am currently planning (it changes every year). I shared some basic info on how I was handing planning in my previous post, but I thought I might use this time to share with you exactly how I am getting things done right now.

As I stated in my first planning post, I am planning in 6 week terms. My goal is to start the year with 3 terms worth of lessons mapped out, as well as all the papers, copies, etc. organized into term folders for future use. It’s all about simplification folks! I am not going to lie, it’s been a lot of work. But it is going to save me so much time weekly/daily and that’s a good reason for me! I would much rather plan and prep for a week every 6 weeks than every single weekend. I started out with a form I found at Donna Young’s site and tweaked it to fit my needs and preferences.

Anyhow, here is an example of the form I started out with:

^ week Lesson plan Log -

And here is what I ended up with:

Math Lesson plan term

Unfortunately you can’t see my beautiful font on these pages, because it did not transfer when I uploaded the document, but you get the idea. SO I go through each book and lay things out with a daily schedule. I then print these pages and put them behind the correct term’s tab in my record binder. I also printed off a copy of the first term’s plans to place in my son’s binder. This is what he will refer to when he looks through his binder and fills out his daily assignment sheet at the beginning of the day. (You can find that form in my previous post, More about starting a new school year – part 1.) So I have done that for each and every subject we are doing this year, except Tapestry of Grace, which I made a custom form for and has both boys’ work on one page. I am still trying to decide how I am going to work with the TOG plans for their work binders, since we do a lot of our Tapestry activities as a group. Oh yes, and I still have to make a spelling lesson plan for Drew, then I will be done with this phase of my planning. In case you were curious, here is a blank form I made to use for TOG lesson planning:

TOG Weekly block planner

I have made lots of forms in my homeschooling journey, but this has to be one of my favorite so far. It is typeable and has all the info I need in one place. Anyhow, this is what I use to plan all our TOG related work for every week. There are 2 pages because we are doing the curriculum half pace for now, so I stretch 1 week plan out over 2 weeks.

I plan on writing another post this week on how I go about planning my TOG in such a way that I don’t forget things or schedule too much work in one day, so stay tuned for that!

Anyhow, after going through this process with all our subjects for the coming year, I have a great road map that shows me exactly what I need to prepare for the coming term and put into the kid’s binders for them to work through. I will also be using the plans on these pages to pre-prepare (is that a real word) by getting papers ready and organized for upcoming terms.

Just a few sidenotes – in case you were not already aware – I love forms!! But I am never happy with just using someone else’s forms as they are, so I tweak and I modify until they are exactly what I want. Yes, I waste spend a great deal of time doing this. It makes me happy, what else can I say?

Secondly, this is my first time ever attempting to plan so far ahead. Mostly just because I am not a schedule-it, plan-it, prep-it ahead of time kind of person. I like to fly by the seat of my pants whenever possible. But I am become painfully aware that when you homeschool, and have 4 kids, this is not always the best way to do things. It’s not an easy change for me, but I know it will be worth it. The hardest part will be sticking to the plan as much as possible, at least when it is in my control to do so. Life happens!

So I hope I haven’t bored you to tears with all me detailed explanations, or confused you. I just thought it would make for an interesting read. I really enjoy reading how other homeschool families make it work and I hope you will, too!

See you soon!

Blessings,

Curriculum Plans for Next Year

Anyone who knows me well knows tax season is full of business for me. We filed a lot later this year than we typically do, as W2s were lost in the mail and we had to wait for new ones to be sent. But we got them done and received our refund last Friday. Because of hubby’s long stretch of unemployment last year, we didn’t get back as much as we are used to, but we did get enough to do what needed to be done and a little extra, so I’m not complaining!

I always plan our curriculum for the following year and purchase what I need with our refund. We are going to be doing some new things next year that I am really excited about!

• Latin’s Not So Tough Level 2 – I think next year is going to be a good time to start formal Latin study for Drew. I looked at a lot of programs, but I chose this one because of all the awesome reviews, ease of teaching, and the fact that it used the classical pronunciation.
• Critical Thinking – I purchased some material from Critical Thinking Company (again, for Drew) to prepare him for logic studies in a few years. They have so many awesome books, we are going to start with Building Thinking Skills Level 1 and Reading Detective: Beginner.
• Saxon Math 5/4 – I’m a little nervous about switching math programs, but I think this is going to be a good choice for us. We have used nothing but BJU math since first grade and we really like it. But as we are delving into harder concepts, I am noticing Drew’s homework and test grades slumping a bit. I am hoping the review cycle with Saxon will remedy that. the big selling point for me was the Saxon teacher cd-rom. This little puppy is going to save me LOADS of time everyday! And I won’t have to worry about confusing my kids on the more difficult subjects as the cd lessons will cover how to do the problems. The only thing I am worried about is that the BJU math has not prepared him enough to move into a more advanced program, but we will just take it slow and review, review, review!
• Lessons in Responsibility for Boys Vol.1 – I have had my eye on this for some time now and I think this book will be a HUGE help to my boys. They are getting older and it is becoming extremely important to me that they begin to mature into responsible adults. I am hoping this series will spur on some great discussions in our home and help them to understand the importance of responsibility in every area of their lives.

In addition to our new things, we are continuing with TOG and I will be purchasing units 3 and 4 of year one, along with the lapbook templates. I already have all the other materials I will need to get us through year one. I don’t see us finishing year one until Fall 2011, since we are going half pace for now.

I also purchased BJU Reading 2 and 4 (mostly used) for next year. I went back and forth on this and was seriously considering using MCP Plaid Phonics and Reading A-Z, but especially since Isaiah was a late reader, I don’t want to make any mistakes with this subject! So I decided to keep using the BJU reading program for both boys. I am hoping next year will be the last year I feel Drew needs a formal reading program. Depending on when I feel he is ready to move into Dialectic level work, that’s when we will nix a reading curriculum and focus more on literature and reading from TOG. So we may end up doing BJU Reading 5, too. Time will tell. I am also thinking about ordering the Phonics Review workbook to go along with Isaiah’s reading, but I will wait until I have a chance to dig into the curriculum before I decide. I learned the hard way with Drew that phonics is so very important and shouldn’t stop after they learn to read. Especially if it doesn’t come easy to them.

We will be continuing with Easy Grammar through next year also. Right now Drew is about a quarter of the way through EG 3, and Isaiah recently started EG 2, so I am getting EG 4 from a friend later in the year since we won’t be ready for it for a while.

Isaiah will continue with BJU Math through 3rd grade, then I will switch him to Saxon 5/4 also. I had already purchased an additional 3rd grade math worktext last year, so I had no need to purchase anything for his 3rd grade math.

Hmm, what am I missing..

Oh yes, I also went through my TOG booklist and picked out a few of the books that I thought would be worth it to buy to add to our library. A couple of these were selected because I can not find them at my local library, others because they are used in several week plans, and others just because I thought they would be nice books that we would get a lot of enjoyment from. All of our other books we will get from our library. I will continue to purchase books for units 3 and 4 as I can throughout the year.

That pretty much covers our plans for the 2010-2011 school year. I put a lot of work (as I always do) into choosing curricula that would be a good fit for my kids. I am relieved it is all ordered and now I can stop stressing over it, LOL! Now all that’s left to do is wait fro my boxes of books to arrive, which is my favorite part next to opening the boxes and pouring over the books for the first time.

Have you started planning and purchasing for next year? What things are you excited about using? I really want to know!

Blessings,

Learning Materials – BJU Press Math

This is the first post in my attempt to share with you the different types of materials we have used (or are currently using) in our home for learning. In the near future, I will link to these “reviews” in my sidebar by subject to make them easier to find.

Today I would like to talk about BJU Press (Bob Jones) Math curriculum.

                     

So far in our homeschool, we have used grades 1-3 BJU Math and we love it! This was not the first Math program we used (we previously tried several resources from Alpha Omega) but once we started using it, we were hooked.

General Info

Publisher: Bob Jones University Press (BJU)

Grade Level(s): K-12

Price: from about $70 to $120 for a grade level set (depending on where you purchase)

What we like about it:

Oh goodness, where to begin? I would say the thing we like MOST about this math program, is that it is geared towards all learning styles. Each lesson has teaching suggestions that you can pick and choose from and tailor your lesson to your child’s unique learning style. You can do as little or as much in each lesson as you want. For instance, when I am introducing a new concept, many times I use the included Home Teacher Packet pages and the Student Materials (and at times other simple materials I have on hand) to go over the new concept with my child. For my kinesthetic learner, I use a lot of the manipulatives so he can work with his hands and get a physical representation of the concept. For my visual learner, we many times just work through some problems using just the Home Teacher Packet and/or scrap paper and the white board.

The worktext pages are set up so that you have one page front and back for each lesson. For new or challenging concepts, we work through the front page together, then I have my kids do the back independently. The same exercises that are on the front, are the same types of exercises that are on the back, so there is no re-explaining how to do a specific type of problem (with the exception of a few review exercises here and there).

The teacher manual is a HUGE help. To be honest, I don’t always use it for every lesson. If it is a concept I can easily explain on my own or something we have done before, I just sit down with the worktext page and show them what to do. Other times, they know what to do and work through the lesson on their own. But when it comes to new concepts or something that is tough for my kids to grasp, the TE is a huge help. It describes how to teach each concept step-by-step so there is no guesswork involved.

What we don’t like:

The only negative thing I have to say about this program is that it tends to be a bit pricey. But for me, being able to reuse it with multiple students (by merely purchasing a spare worktext) is worth the cost. That said, it is very easy to find BJU curriculum second hand for a reduced price. If you must purchase it new, I highly recommend purchasing it through CBD or Learning Things online. It is more expensive to purchase it directly through the publisher.

So all in all, BJU Math is a great program and I highly recommend it for your homeschool!

Star rating:

  4/4 Stars

Looking for fun, free math games?

I stumbled across this site while reading through my feed reader today. I am definitely going to make these games for the boys, I think they would enjoy them!

Storm the Castle math game

Loot the Pirate Ship math game

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Daily Report – Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

We had a pretty good day today.  I think we are starting to get used to Daddy being gone all day and most of the evening now. It has been a tough transition for all of us. I take comfort in knowing that right now is the busiest time of year for his company, and it will slow down a bit in a few weeks.
It has been tough figuring out how to get the house straightened up, prepare meals, and do school every day with the little one getting more demanding and impatient since his birthday. But I am slowly learning how to juggle it all and still spend some good quality time with him every day. Granted I am usually exhausted by the end of the day, but it is worth it!
So far this week, including today, we have completed every single lesson I put on the planner last Sunday. So that’s definitely something to be proud of. I am really tired of always being behind and playing catch-up.
Today we took some pictures of various parts of our school day that I thought I would share with my readers….

Here’s a pic of the boys finishing up their Bible work for the day and putting it away in their binders. As usual, Isaiah was taking a bit longer than Drew…

They asked me to put the pictures they colored up for all to see….

Drew’s picture..

Isaiah’s picture…

Drew’s math assignment today required him to complete multiplication problems using a calculator. My boys REALLY love it when they get to use their calculators!

In this picture, Isaiah was using his number line to complete his math lesson. he is learning his fact families thru 18.

What was Joey doing while this was taking place you ask? Well for some of it he was napping. But here he was playing contentedly with a straw. Hmm, I spend hours choosing and arranging toys and activities on the bottom shelves for him, and this is what keeps him happy?

Hey there big brother, can I borrow that pencil for a sec? No? Maybe a crayon then?

Drew taking his English test…

he did a very good job!

He wanted a picture to show how happy he was about his grade! He took this himself…..wow that’s what I call a close-up!

Here is Isaiah practicing his spelling list for this week on spellingcity.com. We are really loving this site, it is free and it makes spelling less of a chore for the boys.

So that does it for our pictures for today. We did a fun science activity too, but unfortunately Joey was not cooperating enough to allow me to take pictures of that as well. We are doing another tomorrow so maybe I’ll get some then! Hope you enjoyed our pictures!

Blessings,

Cassie