Touch Math for Pre-K

For the past few weeks my younger children have been using the Pre-K level of Touch Math.

Touch Math generously provided me with all 6 pre-school units and 3 different fun manipulatives; Touch Shapes,  3-D Numerals, and Texture Cards.

Touch Math Texture Cards and 3-D Numerals

Touch Math Pre-K includes:

• 90 Student Activity Sheets
• Implementation guide
• Six module guides complete with strategies and answer keys
• Pre-and Post tests for each module

Touch Math uses a multi-sensory approach.  Students see, say, hear and touch manipulatives and do paper and pencil activities.  This was very easy to prepare (just print out) and everything is laid out step by step.  There are pre-activities for each worksheet (or group of worksheets) and instructions in the teacher pages for each worksheet.  I printed out the worksheets as we went but I think in the future I am going to print out an entire module at a time and put them in a notebook since I tend to misplace things.

Sadie (3) completing a sorting activity with the Touch Shapes

Connor doing a Touch Shapes activity

This has been a wonderful curriculum not only for my 2 pre-school age children but for my son with Down syndrome who is older and hasn't really been able to grasp math yet.  He is making slow progress with this and I am THRILLED. This is the first time he seems to be grasping the idea of one to one correspondence.  YAY!

Connor...so proud of his work!

The 230 page pdf curriculum is divided into 6 modules. Each module has 15 workmats (worksheets that you print, but they refer to them as workmats.)  I really like these.  They are not only great for activities, but the kids enjoy coloring them too. They are all black and white which is nice for saving on ink.

Each workmat is aligned to a Common Core Standard if that matters to you.  (It doesn't to me.)  Answer keys are also found in the same module for each workmat.   A progress monitoring sheet is included if you like that sort of thing for record keeping.

I really like how the teacher pages (Instructional Strategies) lay out everything including scripted dialogue, pre-activities and instructions for each worksheet.

Here are a couple of clips from the Instructional Strategies:

The six modules include:
Counting and Number Sense
Comparing and Classifying
Sorting, Classifying, Graphing and Patterning
Identifying, Sorting and Classifying 2-D Shapes
Identifying, Sorting and Classifying 3-D Shapes and Coins
Representing Quantities and Numbers


Touch Math recommends you spend 2 to 2 1/2 times the learner's developmental age per day.  So a young child is only going to be spending less than 10-15 minutes each day building skills.  (love this!)

The Touch Shapes are definitely needed to start with this program.  Several of the workmats and activities require the use of the shapes.  (I guess you "could" make your own shapes with paper but if you're like me you never will.  Just go ahead and order them...that is my advice!)

The Texture Cards and 3-D Numerals are not needed early on, but would make a wonderful addition to the workmats (and are used in later modules.)  The 3-D Numeral set comes with the plastic numbers and a CD-ROM of printable worksheets to go along with them.  The worksheets also match the Texture Cards.

One last picture of Connor after completing a workmat.

I guess I've never really thought about purchasing a Pre-K math curriculum but now that we are using one I can see the value in it and I really like Touch Math and will consider continuing on with it when we finish the 6 modules of the Pre-K program.

View sample pages.

Purchase:
Touch Math Pre-K $59.95
Touch Shapes $30.00
3-D Numerals $79.00
Texture Cards $99.00




See what others are saying about Touch Math (various levels) on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Greek and Latin Root cards

If you would like your children to learn Latin and Greek roots you will love Greek and Latin Root Cards from Lone Star Learning.  There are 60 cards total; 30 Latin Roots and 30 Greek Roots. They also come with an answer card with a list of all of the roots with their meanings.


These cards use pictures to help remind you of what each root means.   The cards are rather large at 5.5" x 8.5" and according to the website can be attached to your "word wall".  I don't have a word wall or anywhere to post anything like that, so smaller cards might be a bit more practical for me.  However, we LOVE these cards.

As you can see here each root is made into a picture.  For instance, the root ONYM means name and is pictured as a name tag and HYDR mean water and is pictured as a hose with water coming out of it.  Very ingenious. 

At first, I thought that we'd learn 2-3 roots a week and build from there.  However, Emma (10) wanted to go through the whole set every time. Amazingly, within a week she knew them all!  We even set them aside for a bit and when we came back to them she still knew every one! I am completely impressed. I thought that maybe she didn't really know the roots, but had memorized the pictures and made up a matching worksheet for her and she really does KNOW them.

The backs of the cards are blank.  I thought I might need to write the meanings on the backs of the cards, but we didn't have any trouble just using the reference card.

These cards are recommended for grades 3-8, but if your high school students need to learn roots this would be a very fast way for them to learn them. 

Here is a list of the roots that are included:

Greek Roots		Latin Roots
chrom chron cosm cycl deca derm drome geo graph helio hetero homo hydr hypn macr	mania metr micro onym phil photo poly proto scop sphere tele therm tom tox zo	amor aug cor cresc dent dict dorm filum flex here hum loqu medi migra mit	mort noc port prim ridi rog scrib simil spec stru tact temp tort uni vor

Greek and Latin Root Cards are available for $39.99. Despite the fact that I love these cards, I would never pay this much for them.  I would love to see them design a smaller set of cards (the size of a typical deck of cards) at a more reasonable price.

Visit Lone Star Learning to see all of the Get the Picture Vocabulary cards in a variety of subject areas as well as Digital Products and more!

See what others are saying about Lone Star Learning products on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Flowering Baby Pre-school Curriculum

Flowering Baby, LLC is a delightful preschool curriculum in five levels for ages birth through five year olds.  Though I received all five levels of Flowering Baby, we focused on the Three to Four year old curriculum and some of the Four to Five year old curriculum.

Flowering Baby Curriculum was written by Martha Saunders and her mother, Carolyn Schulte.   Carolyn was a Kindergarten teacher for over 30 years and has spent the last 12 years doing therapy with children birth to age 3.  The original curriculum was written for Martha's then three year old son. It has since grown into this full preschool curriculum .What they have come up with is a detailed day-by-day curriculum to use with children from birth to age 5.  It is easy to use, a lot of fun and beneficial for the child.

What I love most about this curriculum is that it is so flexible. I liked to look at the week and see what we should be doing and then try to check off each thing during the week (not necessarily on the suggested day, but when it fit into our schedule). I could set some time aside to do all of the activities or just try to hit on them throughout the day (which is more likely to happen here!)

I also love that everything is planned out right down to what books to read, fun activities to do, music to listen to etc. I am a sucker for book lists and the book lists in Flowering Baby are excellent, as are the music selections.

In the 3 to 4 year old program (and the 4 to 5 year old program) there are 2 guides.  One is the monthly curriculum guide and the other is a theme guide.  The monthly guide has 115 pages and has an introduction, suggested websites, a list of books to be read throughout the year, a CD list as well as a supply list.  It is broken down month by month with daily activities.  Each month also has a supply list for that month and a breakdown of the books to be used for that month by category, music for the month and a list of holidays for that month.

Next you will find a list of daily activities to complete with your child. There are between 10 and 13 days of activities for each month (more activities are in the theme guide so there is plenty to do each month).  You can see an entire month of this curriculum at Flowering Baby.(scroll to the bottom)  Here is a small sample from one day:

Day 6:
ABC’s: Using a book your child knows well read it again today. Skip a page or leave out something important. Does he notice? Does he know what was missing?
Math: Select two objects that are similar in at least one respect but different in another. Example: an orange and a basketball are both round and orange but not the same size and used for different purposes. Discuss with your child what is similar and what is different about the objects. Then select two different objects and have your child explain the similarities and differences to you.
Discrimination: Gather a variety of objects from around the house. Ask your child to identify them based on appearance, color, shape, or physical characteristics. Some examples are: apple, ball, stuffed animal, shoe, book and plate.
Physical: Today’s physical activity is fun – it is all about laughing. Laughter is so wonderful for our emotional state, relaxes us and increases learning function. Sometimes in life we get so focused, so busy, we forget to just be silly. Today is about being silly. Make funny faces, tell jokes, play fun games or sports that you enjoy (we like balloon ball where we hit a balloon around the house), look at funny pictures. Use your imagination and laugh today.
Social: Discuss emotions and the value of feelings today. I discuss a variety of emotions (happy, sad, angry, and surprised) and give examples of each. Children learn better when there are emotions attached to what they are learning.Self help: Let your child dress himself today and observe if he knows to get the proper items of clothing (underwear, pants, shirt, etc) and if he can dress himself correctly (shirt facing forward, socks on correctly).
Composer of the month: Mozart. Listen to music composed by Mozart, don’t expect your child to sit and listen to this, just play it in the background while he plays or while you are in the car.

The monthly guide also includes several appendices.  One is a worksheet of questions for naming things, another has recipes for playdough, another is for Learning Through Stories which gives questions and an activity for 15 different popular children's books. (wonderful!)

The second part of the curriculum is the Theme Curriculum Guide.  You are encouraged to do two of these per month.  Themes include each season, musical instruments, dinosaurs, aquarium and arctic life and many more.  Each theme guide has approximately 6 days of activities.  There is a suggested schedule of themes to use for each month but you can choose the ones you want to do in any order.

This is a short sample from the Rocks and Minerals theme guide:



Day 1:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Go rock hunting. Take a walk and collect rocks of different types, shapes, sizes, colors. Then wash them off and compare each. You can use a magnifying glass to get a better look. Save the rocks for tomorrow. Discuss the characteristics of each.

Day 2:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Using the rocks you collected yesterday, ask your child which is his favorite. Then try to determine what type of rock it is. Draw a picture of your favorite rock. Remind your child to notice the slight differences of color and line in the rocks.

Day 3:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Research and determine a few different types of rock that are common where you live. Try and determine if you have found any when you went rock hunting or find a picture in a book or on-line. Tell your child a few characteristics and the name of at least two of the common rocks.

Day 4:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Using the rocks you found and some tools have fun breaking them up to see if they look different inside. This can be messy so you might want to do this task outside on the sidewalk. Wear goggles to protect your eyes and depending on the type of rock this is likely a job for the adult.

Here are a few of the things we really enjoyed:
 A trip to our local aquarium as part of the Aquarium and Arctic life theme:

Making a Healthy Foods collage (the kids absolutely loved this...I never think to do things like this.)

Decorating a star fish with fruit loop cereal. (another activity they loved)

There are so many more things we have enjoyed doing from counting Cheerios, to making a triangle on the floor with tape to walk on, reading LOADS of books, listening to a wide variety of music styles and on and on.  We are really enjoying Flowering Baby and I would highly recommend it.  It is available as a pdf or on CD.  I would prefer a physical copy.  If you are like me you will want to spend the time and money to print the guide out and bind it.  If you like just working from your computer screen then you don't need to worry about it!

The Four to Five year old program is extremely similar to the Three to Four curriculum and can easily be used simultaneously.  The books are often the same though more books are listed for the Four Year Olds, the some of the activities are also more advanced.

You can view a full month of each level by scrolling down on each of the following pages:

Birth to One
One to Two
Two to Three
Three to Four
Four to Five

Here is some basic information about the other levels that I received, but did not use for the purpose of this review.

Birth to One is 87 pages and includes an introduction with book and music suggestions.  It is then broken down by what to do for each age.  There are 27 days of activities for birth to one month, 65 days of activities for ages one to three months, 64 for ages three to 6 months etc. up to twelve months.  The 2 page appendix includes words to rhymes and songs to sing with your baby.  Visit the Birth to One page for more details and samples.

One to Two has 99 pages and includes an introduction, supply list, book list and CD list of what is needed for the year.  Then each month provides 20-25 days of activities to do with your child. The appendix for this level contains rhymes and songs and a couple of playdough recipes.

Here is a sample from the 17 month old section:

Day 6: 

Certain aromas build brain power. Today have fun with some spices. Make herbal tea (cinnamon, peppermint, chamomile or similar) and then drink and enjoy. Just make sure the tea is not too hot. 

Listen to “Beethoven” today, for at least fifteen minutes. 

Day 7:
It seems laundry is a never ending household chore. So, get your child to help. At this age there is not really much he can actually help do, but he sure will feel proud that he “helped” out. I would dump the clean load of whites on the bed and have him sort them into like piles. Ask him to put the socks in one pile, the underwear in another and the t-shirts into a third pile. 

Recite “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”. 

Read Runaway Bunny. 

Day 8:
Learn more about water and the different forms it can take. Always be extra careful with your child when water is involved and monitor him carefully. Pour some cold water into one bowl. Pour warm, not hot, water into another bowl. Put ice cubes into a third bowl. Put crushed ice into a fourth bowl. Let your child feel and play in each bowl. Talk about what he is feeling and the differences he might notice. 

Play “Wee Sing” CD today. Enjoy and sing along.

Two to Three has 159 pages and includes an introduction, supply list, book list and music list that is needed.  Each month also breaks down exactly what you need for each month.

By the time your child reaches three he will have learned at least eight shapes, ten colors, the alphabet, counting to ten in English and Spanish, heard dozens of books, completed science projects and several fun physical activities, enjoyed a wide variety of music and understand about the community helpers in your town.   --from the website 

Each month has 20 days of activities.  Here is a sample of a day for a 31 month old.

Day 17:
Language: Sing the ABC song. Roll out and form Play-doh into letter ‘Y’. 

Math concepts: Count backwards from 10 - 0. 

Song of the day: Yankee Doodle. 

Story of the day: Gingerbread Baby. 

Science project: Clouds are important to our environment. Clouds are made up of millions of tiny droplets of water and they come in all shapes and sizes which produce different kinds of weather. Go outside today and observe clouds. Ask your child to describe the clouds he sees, if you are lucky and the cumulus (big white fluffy) clouds then you can try to find something in the clouds. You might use your imagination and think the cloud looks like a bird, or a fish, or even an ice cream sundae! If you wish you can take along construction paper and crayons and have your child color a picture of what he sees. Or, if the weather does not permit you can use cotton balls and blue construction paper and have him glue on clouds. He can glue them on full and puffy or stretch the cotton ball out to represent (cirrus) long wispy clouds. 

Other: Have your child work on squeezing today; this will improve his gross motor control. You can use kitchen tongs for this activity. Gather various items of different sizes, shapes and weights for him to practice picking up with the tongs and moving into a bowl or box. For added difficulty you might work on fine motor skills and have him use tweezers and pick up small things such as beans, cereal or small toys.

Purchase any of the 5 levels of Flowering Baby individually:

Birth to One $30.00
One to Two $30.00
Two to Three $30.00
Three to Four $38.00
Four to Five $38.00

or you can purchase the entire five year Flowering Baby curriculum for $132.00.

Get a 10% discount on any order by using code Blog10 upon checkout.

See what others are saying about Flowering Baby, LLC on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.




disclaimer: I received all five levels of Flowering Baby, LLC in pdf format in exchange for an honest review

KinderBach

Earlier this year, I reviewed KinderBach and I have been given another opportunity to review it.  KinderBach at Home is a wonderful music curriculum for 3-7 year olds that teaches them music through  playing the piano (or keyboard).  The last time we reviewed this Ellie (4) just loved it and she never stopped talking about it even when we no longer had a subscription.  We are very excited to be able to have a new subscription!

KinderBach does not color, sticker or number keys or turn the keyboard sideways. It teaches the children where the notes are using ANY piano or keyboard. One of the first concepts the children are introduced to is that the piano has groups of 2 black keys and 3 black keys.  They learn to identify the 2 black keys with a cute story about a donkey named Dodi that lives in a house built over the two black keys.  There is video instruction, worksheets and even cards that the kids (or adult) can color and laminate to put on the keyboard as shown here:

Ellie placing the cards

a close up of the cards

Children are also simultaneously taught rhythm, dynamics, and tone.  Everything is taught using cute stories, songs, games and fun worksheets.  One of the early worksheets, has an apple tree with apples in the tree and on the ground.  When children hear a low sound (in the video or a parent can do the sounds) they color an apple on the ground.  When they hear a high sound they color an apple in the tree.  There are similar activities with loud and soft sounds.

The kids coloring the apples.

As they meet each piano pal they learn more about the keyboard and progress to playing real songs in a pretty short time using special notation. Eventually, they progress to reading music.  You can read more about each piano pal here.

Here is a short video sample of one of the lessons.




All of my younger children LOVE KinderBach.  Sometimes we watch more than one lesson in a day (most of the time) and they are free to watch them as often as they like.  KinderBach currently has 6 levels.  Each level has 10 weeks of lessons.  Each week has 4 lessons. By the end of level 5 students will be reading music.  This is a wonderful way to bring music education to younger students.

Each level looks like the picture above.  You just click on the appropriate circle to access your lesson. Lessons are the perfect length for little ones (short!) At the bottom of the screen there is a link to the pdf workbook that goes along with all of the lessons from the level you are on. This is very handy if you want to print out the whole book at one time. You can also access worksheets one at a time in the actual lessons. Note that the first 2 weeks of Level 1 are free.

I can't speak highly enough about how much the kids enjoy this.  I can't think of anything negative to say about it.   If you have young children, you should definitely give it a try.  It's cute, it's fun and educational.  Who could ask for more?

Purchase an online subscription to KinderBach for $99.95 for a year or $19.99 a month.  KinderBach is also available on DVD. Songbooks, Activity Packages and Value Packages may be purchased as well.

I'm also happy to offer a coupon code to my readers for 30% off any order - homeschool, classroom, online or DVDs.

Coupon Code: TOS_crew2012
Expires: 12/31/2012

Creator and "star" of the show, Karri Gregor

The crew is also reviewing the new KinderBach app for iPad and iPod that normally sells for $26.99 but is going to be on sale 50% off next Friday (October 19).  I plan to get it.  We already have the free Simply Discover Piano FREE app (gives you the first lessons and then you can purchase future lessons in app.) The kids really love it.


Like KinderBach on Facebook to be sure not to miss out on any specials.

See what others are saying about KinderBach on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.




disclaimer: I received a 6-month subscription to KinderBach in exchange for an honest review.  (I also received free downloads of 2 of the pdf coloring books.)

Review - This Week in History from TJ Ed

This Week in History is a really neat resource that I am happy to have the opportunity to tell you about.  TWIH is an online weekly "bundle" of resources that relate to every day of the year.  It is a cross curricular resource that incorporates math, science, language arts, geography, current events etc. all tied to events in history.

There are two ways to access This Week in History.  First, you can go to the website and secondly, you can receive it in a weekly e-mail.  I really like getting the e-mail as it is a reminder to me to use it and everything is right there for me without having to go to the website to sign in. The e-mail is optional so if you prefer to just go to the website you can do that too. I think it would be nice to get a daily e-mail so each day would be right there ready for me but having the weekly e-mail is a nice convenience.

The content is searchable by date, topic and keyword.  Subscribers also have access to the entire year at any given time. So, you can plan ahead or choose a date that is special to your family (birthday, anniversary etc) and use it that way.

Here are some ideas for using This Week in History:

1. In advance, you review the coming week's resources and consider how they fit with your interests, your kids' projects, etc., and plan how to use it. 

2. On the day of, you get up and review that day's resources, print out a few pdfs and preview a few topics, and then invite the children to discover with you. 

3. In the moment , you bring up the site and wander your way through it like a treasure hunt. 

4. Review the archives (available at the bottom of each week's article, or by searching by date or keyword) to explore for a date of interest, like a child's birthday, your wedding anniversary, or even some random date chosen by your child-of-the-day, and explore what is notable about that date.

I haven't ever used this by planning in advance, but I love being able to go to the page each day and find something to learn about with the kids.  We've learned about opera, people in history, states, patents, and so much more.  This has been a fabulous summer resource to keep the learning going all year long. I will continue to use this throughout the year.

If you are a fan of Delight Directed Learning this would make an absolutely wonderful basis for your homeschool.  You could also easily create your own unit studies and lapbooks.  If you are a traditional textbook family then this would make a nice addition to your normal routine as well.

a partial sample of one day

See more sample pages.  I love how everything is clickable so all of the work is done for you.  You'll find a bit of history and lots of links to explore then questions for discussion and activity ideas.  Lots of fun and learning all in one place.

Prior to this review I had never heard of Thomas Jefferson Education. It is based on an educational philosophy and a methodology by which great individuals throughout history have been educated. Discovered and articulated by Oliver and Rachel DeMille, Thomas Jefferson Education is based on 7 Keys of Great Teaching and the 4 Phases of Learning. Read more about the founders and find TJEd on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Purchase This Week in History for $9.99 a month. It appears you have to set this up as a subscription through Paypal which is not something I've ever done, so I'm not exactly sure how that works.  It is explained on the website.  Visit the TJ Ed store to see other books, e-books, audio CDs and mp3 downloads.

See what others on the crew are saying about This Week in History on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.



disclaimer: I received a free full year subscription to This Week in History in exchange for honest review.

Write Shop Junior

I think most homeschooling moms would agree that writing is one of the hardest subjects to teach.  I was very excited when I found out I was going to have the opportunity to review Write Shop Junior Book D. Write Shop is an incremental writing program with resources for grades K-high school.  I received the Write Shop Junior Book D Teacher's Guide,  Activity Pack and the Time Saver pack all in pdf format.

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. The accompanying Activity Pack is required. The Time Saver pack is not required but is very helpful.

The Teacher's Guide walks you step by step through everything you have to do.  One thing I really like about the Teacher Guide is how detailed it is, including scripted conversations you can have with your child to get their creativity flowing. This is a problem for us. We just aren't all that creative. So these scripted conversations were a big help to me.

The activities are often hands-on and not just sitting with a blank piece of paper in front of you.  Even the brainstorming sheets are fun and age appropriate.

brainstorming worksheets

I have to admit this was quite overwhelming at first.  I ended up printing out quite a bit of it to get a handle on it.  Once I knew where everything was it was pretty easy to implement. I've shown a picture below of what the pdf Teacher's Guide looks like on the screen. It is not a typical one document pdf.  Each chapter is separate and you view and download them individually.

This is how you view the book.  Each chapter is a separate document.  

It is only $5 more for a printed version of the Teacher's Guide. My personal opinion is that it would be well worth it to have this in a book format rather than the pdf format.  If you have more than one student you would benefit from having the pdf version of the Activity Guide and the Time Saver Pack but with one student, I think in the long run you will save yourself time, money and aggravation by just spending the little bit extra and having all of that work already done for you.

A few sample worksheets

Write Shop Junior Book D has 10 lessons.  Each lesson takes 2 to 3 weeks to complete depending upon which schedule you choose.  Both schedules are included in your Teacher's Guide.

The required student activity pack is two books in one.  It includes 60 activity pages your child will use to complete portions of each lesson. Games, word banks, worksheets, and graphic organizers introduce children to lifelong writing skills such as brainstorming and self-editing. Part one of the activity pack includes the worksheets, part two contains the Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack (another 63 pages). An answer key is also provided. The activity packs are available in a tear off pad or as a pdf.  You can reproduce as many as you need for your family if you own the pdf.  The tear off pads are NOT reproducible.


Student Worksheet Pack includes

• Pre-writing Activities
• Skill Builders
• Journal Prompt Pages
• Brainstorming Worksheets
• Reading Log Forms
• Self-editing Checklists
• Writing Skills Evaluation Charts

Your child will make the following guides using the Level 1 Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack:

• Lesson 1: Punctuation Marks
• Lesson 2: Self-editing
• Lesson 3: Nouns
• Lesson 4: Pronouns
• Lesson 5: Verbs
• Lesson 6: Adjectives
• Lesson 7: Adverbs
• Lesson 8: Prepositions
• Lesson 9: Capitalization
• Lesson10: References

The Fold-N-Go Grammar pack is my favorite part of this program.  Each Fold-N-Go has 6 pages which I printed on colorful paper. Then I trimmed each page to the appropriate size, stapled the pages together and used glue stick to affix them to a colorful file folder.  The Fold-N-Go has a two fold purpose (no pun intended).  First, they are worksheets where the student learns about a new subject such as punctuation marks or self-editing and second, once completed correctly they can be used as a reference. I highly recommend these! Within this set you also get 20 bookmarks for quick review.  It would be a good idea to laminate these and keep them in a place where your student can find them easily.

the self-editing checklist

Teaching children to self-edit their work is key in WriteShop Junior.  I love this part of the program.  There are some fun ideas included for motivating your child to edit their work.

The Incredible Shrinking Machine activity

 Here is an activity we did to help learn how to narrow down a topic.  Emma made an incredible shrinking machine and we used various sized paper with post it notes to demonstrate how to narrow down a broad topic.  This is something I never would have thought of on my own.

The Time Saver activity pack is the last component of WriteShop Junior Book D.  It includes 20 pages of game spinners, cards and other props that you could make yourself if you wanted to but would be so much easier to just print or tear off.

Emma really enjoyed using this and actually lists it among her favorite things we did this year.  We plan to continue on with this when we start school again in the fall.

Download a free sample or view placement information.

You can purchase Write Shop Junior Teacher's Guide for $39.95 (print) or $34.95 (pdf), the Activity Pack is $39.95 (print) or $34.95(pdf) and the Time Saver Pack is $13.95 for print or pdf.  Also available separately is the Level One Fold-N-Go Grammar for $19.95 (print) or $11.95 (pdf). Visit Write Shop for writing programs for all ages or check out their Story Builder Writing Prompts.

Kim Kautzer, author of WriteShop, has been kind enough to offer 15% off any WriteShop Primary and Junior products in the WriteShop store (including e-books) using coupon code CREW15 at checkout. Offer valid through June 15, 2012.

See what others are saying about Write Shop elementary writing programs on the TOS crew blog.



disclaimer: I received  a free copy Write Shop Junior pdf teacher guide, activity pack and time saver pack  in exchange for an honest review.

Judah Bible Curriculum

      I am always excited when any kind of Bible curriculum comes along that I get to review for the TOS Homeschool crew.  For the last several weeks we have been trying the Judah Bible Curriculum which included a 100 page pdf manual, a notebook ideas book and 8 mp3 teacher training lectures.

• Principle Approach curriculum for Bible class. 
• Develop a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible. 
• Build strong, Godly character in your children. 
• Study the Bible together. 
• Study the hand of God in the lives of individuals and nations. 
• For homeschool, Christian school, Sunday school. 
• Teach your children living Biblical principles to guide their lives. 
• Apply God’s word personally in every area of life. 
• The Bible is the textbook.

Judah Bible Curriculum has a page with extensive information about their philosophy of education.  A brief synopsis is this: We want the Bible to be the center of our education, having a Christian school is not enough.  All education produces character which influences government.  The curriculum is based on the fact that God is sovereign and that he rules the individual internally by love.

The Bible is divided into 5 themes that are taught each year.

In the first semester, the first three themes are from the Old Testament:

Theme 1 CREATION
Theme 2 THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION BEGINS
Theme 3 KINGDOM OF ISRAEL

The second semester covers the remaining two New Testament themes:

Theme 4 KINGDOM OF GOD
Theme 5 EARLY CHURCH

You can read about the themes here.

Each THEME is broken down into Bible Keys. In each of the five time periods, students will study a few  of the key individuals, key events, key institutions, and key documents for that period with a view towards identifying the hand of God, the character of God, and the place of that Key in His purpose for history. They blank key sheets are printable and are placed into the student notebook. The student notebook is NOT just busywork.  It is designed to be something of value that the student will later be able to each from.

1) Judah Bible Curriculum K-12 Manual, e-book format to download;
2) Elementary Notebook Ideas booklet to view online or download;
3) Eight-lecture Teacher Training Seminar. listen online or download.

Watch this video to get an idea of what the audios sound like:

My opinion:  I really wanted to like this curriculum but I have struggled greatly with implementing it.  I printed the entire guide and had it bound and listened to the audios but had a very difficult time figuring out how to use the key sheets with my older students.  For younger students,  you are given the theme and ideas for how to begin, however, there are no worksheets or activities. You have to come up with those yourself.  I did make up some notebooking pages for the creation theme to use with my kids and you can download them free here.

I really like the idea of building notebooks. I also liked listening to the audios although they clearly would be better if they were videos.  Sometimes the speaker is referring to visual aids which are included in the back of the pdf book but I didn't know that when I was first listening to them.

I think this curriculum would be great for someone who likes the principle approach or notebooking and really wants to spend a lot of time preparing Bible lessons.   You need to really dig in for a while to be able to use this.  It's non-consumable and is intended to be used year after year (on a 6 year schedule) so it is very affordable.  I really think this could be a valuable way to study to the Bible so I am going to keep at it.

You can download the Judah Bible Curriculum for $44 or if you prefer a hard copy version that is available for $69 plus $5 shipping and handling.

Read the JBC statement of faith and a chart of the scope and sequence.

To Order by Phone or Mail:
217-344-5672
Judah Bible Curriculum
P.O. Box 122
Urbana, Illinois, 61803

See what others are saying about the Judah Bible Curriculum on the TOS crew blog.

disclaimer: I was given a free copy of the Judah Bible Curriculum in exchange for an honest review.