All About Spelling

One of the best aspects of participating in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine review project is discovering products that I wouldn't have taken the time to really look into and finding that rare gem that surpasses my expectations. All About Spelling is one of these. This is a curriculum that appeared too "textbooky" for me, on the surface. I would have taken one look at the thick softcover books and the sheets of flashcards and thought, "Nope, too "schoolish"." In reality, this is an excellent hands-on spelling program that is perfect for my kinesthetic learners AND my visual learner.

All About Spelling uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning paths to help students learn more effectively. Building upon the Orton/Gillingham phonograms, AAS uses phonogram cards, letter tiles, and tokens to cement the sounds and spelling rules into the student's mind. The tokens are used to segment the sounds, the letter tiles to spell the words, and the phonogram cards to remember rules and introduce/reinforce sounds. My children found it much more fun than your typical spelling program and I loved the fact that they could learn to spell a word with the letter tiles, rotating vowels in and out to make new words, before having to actually write them on paper. The combination of activities seemed to make it easier for them to retain what they were learning.

There are currently four levels available, with plans to complete a total of six levels which would bring you through high school level spelling. The author suggests beginning with Level One no matter the age of the child, and this is the advice we followed. I used this with my 1st-8th graders and the older ones were able to breeze through the first level without problem, but I do think it helped to set up the structure of the program. I have a few children who struggle with spelling and I believe this to be a great product for my family and am fully confident in the future spelling success of my children if we continue with AAS.


The prep work to start this program is a little overwhelming. The phonogram cards come in sheets, which I then cut out and placed in a card box. The author, Marie Rippel, has responded to our pleas for less prep work and has stated plans to perforate the cards, which would be wonderful. You will need a materials packet for each child if you want to teach them at the same time. As they are manipulating the tokens and letter tiles throughout the lesson, sharing doesn't work very well. I had two sets and just rotated my children through two at a time. Because the older ones could go through the lessons more quickly, I shouldn't have more than two students in a level at a time anyway.


Once the cards are cut and filed for the level, the prep work ends. You can just pick up the book, gather your children, and start the lesson. It's very easy to use. The letter tiles come with magnets for the back and are set up in the same sequence each lesson. It is suggested that you purchase a magnetic white board and simply store the letter tiles on the magnet board, making it even easier to get started. I may do this in the future, but for now I had my children set them up themselves and found it to be good alphabetizing practice.

This was a good lesson in not "judging a book by it's cover". Sometimes there are real gems I just walk right by because it doesn't seem to be what fits my family. On closer inspection, it's perfect. If this seems like something worth looking at for your family, check out samples, find answers to FAQ's, and peruse the many articles on the All About Spelling web site.

Levels One and Two are available for $29.95 each,Levels Three and Four for $39.95 each. The Letter Tiles are $9.95 per set and are necessary for using this program. You can pick up the magnets for the tiles for $5.95, which I would highly recommend. These give them even more sturdiness (the tiles are laminated) and flexibility. There is also a phonogram audio CD for $14.95 which sounds out all the phonograms for you.

Looking for help with homophones? Marie Rippel has also brought us All About Homophones, which is a lot of fun. Check out my thoughts HERE.

All About Homophones: Your Complete Toolkit

All About Homophones: Your Complete Toolkit by Marie Rippel is a great resource for teaching children Grades 1-8 all about homphones! Homophones are always fun and are an important part of learning to spell with our crazy English language. This book contains graphic organizers, fun worksheets, crossword puzzles, riddles, tongue twisters, puns, card games, and even a list of homophone books you can check out from your local library.

The pages themselves are visually-appealing and well done. I love that the author includes a book list, as I could see making a whole Homophone Unit with this book. There are worksheets for grades 1-8 (4th & 5th grade seem to have the most), which is helpful for homeschool moms teaching a number of different grades. The worksheets themselves do not list a grade level, making it even easier to pick and choose what works well for your children.

The Website contains articles with more ideas for teaching homophones and a really fun tool called The Homophone Machine. Your student can type any sentence into the machine and it will convert it to homophones. For instance, "I would like to show you my new horse." becomes "Eye wood like two show ewe my knew hoarse." That sentence right there illustrates the importance of teaching homophones as a spelling tool!

This is available as a softcover book ($29.95) or as an e-book ($27.95). I'm not usually a fan of e-books in general, but I do like them when there are multiple pages to copy so I was happy to receive this version. The e-book makes it easy to just print the pages you need at the time, but it's nice to have the option to order a printed version if you prefer.

Update:
I received this promotion code for you in my email this morning- "To celebrate the launch of All About Homophones, your readers can get $10 off any order at www.all-about-homophones.com! To receive the discount, visitors to the site need to enter "FUN" in the customer code box during checkout. The coupon code is good for one week, through February 2, 2009."

Deeper Roots Bible Curriculum-Rooted & Grounded

Deeper Roots Publications offer short term missions resources and Bible curriculum. Rooted & Grounded is the Bible curriculum offered for Senior High, recommended for grades 10-12. It contains twenty-seven lessons, covering topics such as sanctification, servanthood, forgiveness, submission, prayer,and humility and is meant to be used as a one year course.

A different unreached people group is highlighted at the beginning of each lesson, as a focus for prayer. This is similar to the Operation World books, with a beautifully drawn sketch and "people profile" designed to promote learning and interest in "different customs and cultures". Prayer suggestions are included.

This is an academic based study and would be best used as a Bible course rather than a devotional. It is ideal for those seeking a more academic study that is free of fluff and fun. This is a question and answer type program, which would be great for getting a student to dig into the Scriptures for their answers. There are Memory challenges and writing assignments are included in the text. A Unit Test package is available separately.

As someone not overly fond of question and answer type curricula, I grudgingly find myself impressed with this study. It hasn't been too difficult to find good devotionals for my teenagers but most of the good Bible class products that I have come across have been part of a larger curriculum (Starting Points for example). This study gets the student into the Bible and covers basic doctrinal principles.

My biggest concern is that it is so academic. There is a lot of writing and I know it would not appeal to my hands on learners. As I wouldn't want studying the Bible to become drudgery, I would either choose something else for my kinesthetic students or adjust the writing assignments to become discussions, skits or something along those lines.

Rooted & Grounded Student Workbook is available for $23.95 . The Test package is $3.95 . There is also a Teacher's Guide for $39.50 . In my opinion, the Student Workbook is sufficient unless using this in a co-op or church situation where discussion notes would be beneficial.

Science For High School- Physical Science

Bridget Ardin's Science For High School curricula is an eclectic, non-textbook homeschooler's dream. It's a High School Science curriculum that is not merely read the text, answer the questions, and do the experiment. Instead, the student researches the information on their own, through using the public library and Internet as well as any science books in your own homeschool library. They discover the answers themselves, thereby owning the information and retaining it longer.




High School Physical Science In Your Home is a "Researched-Based Independent Study Guide for Home School Families". It contains a full year of study and covers topics such as Weather, Astronomy, Simple Machines, Light, Electricity, Magnets, Chemistry, Earth Science, Geology, and more. Quizzes and Final Exams are included, as well as Weekly Experiments and a Lab Manual.

The Student Manual comes three-hole punched and ready to be placed in a binder. The instructions are written directly to the student at the beginning of the manual. The remaining pages contain questions for each week that the student is to research and answer before meeting with their parent for discussion. After discussion, there is a weekly experiment and the Lab Manual is tabbed and easily found towards the back of the book. The pages are clean and uncluttered and the experiment instructions are written in a simple, easy to follow manner.

The Teacher's Guide contains much more information on how to use the program and answers frequently asked questions such as "Does this meet High School requirements?" (Yes.). There is a detailed supply list, broken down by the week, with the more difficult to find items in bold. The manual is tabbed and divided by Semesters, Quizzes, and Labs. In the Semester sections, you have all of the weekly questions from the student manual along with the information your student should have discovered in his research. These can be used during the weekly discussions to ensure the student has researched properly. You can always fill in areas you feel are important that may have been missed as well. The Quizzes and Final Exams section is pretty self explanatory and contains the answer keys. The Lab Manual contains probable hypothesis and observations.

I love the philosophy behind this program. I know that when I research and plan a unit study for my children, I learn so much more than they! One of my goals in homeschooling has always been to teach my children HOW to learn. We will always have gaps in our education as it it's impossible to teach everything. They key is to give our children the skills to discover information on their own. By High School, they should be capable of researching and finding information on their own. This program allows for this, as well as for using living books as well as more technical ones.

My biggest concern with this curriculum is a personal flaw on my part. If I don't have a materials kit that contains everything I need for experiments, I tend to skip them. Yikes, I know, bad mom. But it's the truth. If I was able to purchase a materials kit with all my supplies, I would be ecstatic. They do offer a kit with the more difficult to find items, which I appreciate, but I want it all! If you are anything like me, I would suggest putting together your own kit when doing the yearly curriculum shopping.

Physical Science is available for $79.99. The Total Package, which includes the hard to find lab items, is $110. Sound interesting? Sample pages can be found at their web site!

Science For High School Biology and Chemistry also available!

FYI: Storytime Writing Contest

"Exciting News from TOS! Attention writers! Grab your pencils and get those creative juices flowing!

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is hosting our second Storytime Writing Contest! We have two creative fiction categories: adults (16 and up 2,500 words or less) and children (15 and below 1,500 words or less). Deadline to enter is March 16, 2009. $7.95 fee per entry.

Grand prize winners in both the adult and child categories will receive prize packages valued at over $1,000, publication in the Summer 2009 issue of TOS, and publication in our Storytime 2009 Compilation E-Book. Eleven Honorable Mentions from each category will also be included in the E-Book in addition to receiving gifts from top homeschool companies.

We look forward to reading your entries!

For a detailed list of prizes, official contest rules, to meet our judges, and to upload your story, please visit: www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com/Short_Story_Contest.php.

Need help teaching writing? We have over 200 writing products in the Schoolhouse Store!"

Insight Technical Education: Advanced Complete-A-Sketch

Insight Technical Education specializes in self-directed materials that teach technical and practical skills. They offer training in subjects such as Technical Art, Drafting, Accounting, and Graphic Design. It states on their web site that these materials were created to teach their children. I'm always a fan of parents using their skills and knowledge to teach their own and then sharing that with the homeschool community!

Advanced Complete-A-Sketch is the last in their Complete-A-Sketch series and can be a good bridge between their other Complete-A-Sketch programs and their Practical Drafting program. The Complete-A-Sketch products teach children the skill of technical art, or "drawing what they see". This is a very practical art and a practical skill to possess.

Advanced Complete-A-Sketch is designed for Middle School and up and contains orthographic and isometric sketching, multi view sketching, and 3D paper models to build. Advanced is the correct term for this, as these are not simple sketching or paper model projects. You will need a couple of simple drafting tools for the sketching, such as a straight edge and a french curve or flexible curve.

It is available on CD ROM only and you have the ability to print and use as many copies as you like for your personal use. There is a brief explanation of each concept and then a number of sketches for you to practice that concept. The completed sketch is in the upper left hand corner and the body of the page contains short lines to help you in drawing what you see. At the end of the book, there is graph paper to print out and try your hand at sketching these on your own.

The 3D paper models are pretty cool. You can build a house, a castle, a tank, an oil rig, a bridge, a catamaran, and an airplane (one that looks like an actual airplane). Plus you have access to more 3D models in the Bonus materials section, including the Sydney Opera House. I'm not very technically minded but even I was excited by the 3D models. I want to build a tank when I have some spare time. Oh wait, this is supposed to be for my kids. Sh.

Advanced Complete-A-Sketch sells for $28. You can check out sample pages on their web site. You receive 37 sketch projects, 8 3D models, and 25 bonus projects. There are also helpful links that will direct you in learning even more. Technical anything is not in my area of expertise, but if you have a child interested in drafting, realistic sketching or building 3D models, this seems to be a good product.

KinderBach

KinderBach is simply piano and music lessons designed for preschoolers! Using the piano or keyboard as a basis, young children ages 2-7 learn how to play and read music. Karri Gregor, the creator of KinderBach, believes that children do not have to know how to read in order to play the piano. She uses animated characters to represent the notes on the piano and the videos are done in a style that reminds me of Blue's Clues. Karri is the one bit of reality as she teaches the kids and is surrounded by cartoon rooms and characters. It's really very cute!

My six year old tried out the first several lessons of this program and loved it. We placed our keyboard in front of our desktop and he had no problem following along when needed. He also enjoyed using spoons and pencils when rhythm instruments were requested. Karri and Frisco (the main animated character) were bright and friendly and he loved singing along with them and following their lead.

My friend's four year old came over to try it out as well and it was a hit! She came up with the idea to place the characters over the keys right before Karri suggested that in the video. Good thinking! She was very motivated to "play' with KinderBach and asked to play again the next time she visited. Who knows, maybe her mom will be convinced to be a new customer.

The lessons are very short and both kids wanted to do a week's worth in a day. If you were using this with a two or three year old, you'd probably want to keep it to one lesson a day due to short attention spans, but the older ones really get into it and want to keep going. The whole family liked gathering around and watching, even if they would never admit it. GRIN.

KinderBach is available in a couple different formats. The online subscription is what we had access to and it's referred to as the Learning Center. You log in online and watch the videos via the internet. There are activity pages available for you to print off and use with the lessons specified. This is the most economical way to enjoy KinderBach. Access to all web lessons and included pdf files is $85.95 a year. You can also choose the option of monthly billing at $14.95.

The other option is purchasing the lessons on dvd. This is called KinderBach at Home. The most economical way to do this is to purchase the first year package, which includes Lessons 1-30, activity e-books, activity audio cds, and a songbook package, for $217.75. I am assuming a second year package is forthcoming.

There is also a Classroom KinderBach available for those who wish to purchase this in bulk. This seems to be designed for day cares, preschools, and the like. I don't think this would apply to most homeschoolers but it is available if interested!

Personally, I would choose the dvd package if money were not an issue. Internet is always subject to possible slowness, freeze ups, or site issues. Dvds would be more convenient and more useable for future children. However, internet allows frequent updates and is definetly less expensive. Having both as an option is wonderful.

You can try out the first two lessons for FREE! I love that. I am a big try before you buy kind of person. Try it out and see if you and your children love it. We did!

KidsWealth Money Kit

The KidsWealth Money Kit is designed to teach children how to become financially successful. The kit comes with five account wallets, a parent guide, a kid's guide, pay calendar with pay stickers, a pay agreement, five pencils, a calculator, and decorative stickers. There are also age appropriate Tracker books available, which contain games, activities, and puzzles that reinforce the teaching of the money kit. The back of these books have a tracking section to keep account of your child's money.



The creators of this product have a very interesting back story. According to the letter I received with my kits, Michael and Elizabeth DaSilva ended up over $90,000 in debt. After studying personal financing and investing, they were able to not only get themselves out of debt but now have a net worth of $2.5 million. Wanting to teach their own kids how to manage money, they created their own financial program for kids. In 2002, they founded KidsWealth.

The idea behind KidsWealth is that rather than paying for your children's "wants", you pay your children a "paycheck" and your children then pay for their own "wants". Through this, your children learn financial principles. Their pay is divided between five wallets. 30% of their money goes into their Wealth wallet. This is for investment purposes and is not spent. 20% goes into their Plan wallet. This would be a long term savings account, for larger items that they desire. 20% is placed into their Learn wallet and used for educational products or field trips. 20% is for their Fun wallet and is used for entertainment purposes. 10% is placed in their Angel wallet and is for charity or tithing.

I was very impressed with the quality of the materials. The wallets are well made, sturdy, and colorful. The guides, calendar, and Tracker books are bright and colorful and the characters they use to portray various principles are well done.

I love the idea of teaching kids financial responsibility from a young age. My husband is a pastor and does a lot of financial counseling and it only reinforces the importance of teaching these concepts to our children. As homeschoolers, we have even more of an opportunity to teach practical skills in a practical manner. KidsWealth could be a good tool in this teaching.

My only issue with this product is that, realistically speaking, we can't use it as written. With seven children and a limited income, we are unable to pay our children a decent "paycheck" as suggested. However, I do plan to use this system and tweak it to fit our family. We have used Larry Burkett's principles for years, including the envelope system at times. We plan to use KidsWealth wallets in combination with these principles.

For those who can use KidsWealth as written, I think it would be a great product for your family. For those who would have to tweak it a bit and possibly combine this with other methods you are already familiar with (such as Larry Burkett or Dave Ramsey), the product itself is well crafted and kid friendly.

KidsWealth Money Kits are available for $39.95. More information can be found at their main site, as well as HERE. If you have experience with these yourself, questions regarding this product, or any other thoughts, please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you!