One Minute Science Mysteries!

Once again we were introduced to a new favorite from the TOS Crew! 

When you have children that love science and mysteries, One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! is a winning combination. This award winning book published by Science Naturally helps in "Bridging the gap between the blackboard and the blacktop." 

 

One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! as you probably guessed is the second One-Minute Science Mysteries books.  Each fiction and non fiction story, as the title implies, takes about a minute to read.  After reading the story, children are then challenged with brainteaser type questions that help them to utilize their science knowledge and critical thinking skills.  

In One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! you'll read stories and solve mysteries about gravity, sonic booms, magnets/non magnets, rocks and measurements.  

More specifically, this book is covers topics in: 

• Life Science
• Earth and Space Science 
• Physical and Chemical Science
• General Science 

We thought the book was challenging and enjoyable. The book is geared for children ages 8-12, but I found that my younger children (4&6 year old boys) also enjoyed it and were able to interact with us.

Eric and Natalie Yoder, a father-daughter wring team, have worked together on several books.  Each available for purchase through Science Naturally for $9.95.

• One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!
• One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!
• One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math!

You can also purchase the I Love A Mystery Set, which includes all three of the books listed above, for $24.95.

These books would make great summer reads.  The are stories are short, but the lessons really pack a punch!

See what other TOS Crew members have to say about the Science Naturally Books here.

Papa's Pearls: A Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren

With age and experience, wisdom usually follows. Wisdom is exactly what Carol Joseph Flynn gained through the ups and downs of his life. Living through the Great Depression, and being a kid going down the wrong path, he turned life lessons into great pearls of wisdom.

Diane Flynn Keith, his oldest daughter, wrote about these pearls of wisdom in her book, Papa's Pearls: A Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren. 

 

I knew when I saw this book it would be a little gem. This book is full of humor, love and of course, wisdom. The way that Diane writes of her dad shows the immense love that she has for him, and that he had for their family.

Papa's Pearls takes us through many of the lessons Papa learned in his life. I just love the sayings that he came up with to remember them! Here are some of my favorites:

You don't kick someone when their down, you give me a hand up.

Let it go, like water off a duck's back.

Be grateful every day.

Life is too short. Take a little time off.

Keep a foxy pocket.

Doodle-lee Do It!

Papa took life experiences, like growing up in the depression and living with out necessitates and turned them into little rules for himself. As he grew up and earned money he saved and invested it. He taught his children and grandchildren to do the same. He encouraged them to save half of any money they were given or earned. He even doubled any money they put in their savings account as an added incentive. He taught his kids and grand kids to always "keep a foxy pocket," so they would never be without a little emergency cash.

Diane, thanks so much for sharing your daddy with us. I was glad to hear he got his whistle back!

Papa's Pearls is available for $21.95. It would be a great summer read!

 

Click to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

Phonics and Reading with McGuffey App

Over the years I have heard great things about the McGuffey readers series. Many moms have successfully used this set to teach their little ones to read. It wasn't until recently that I got to check them out for myself.

LiteracySoft has taken a tried and true McGuffey reader, and turned it into an interactive phonics and reading app.  The Phonics and Reading with McGuffey App is a complete beginner level phonics and reading program.

I loved this quote from LiteracySoft's website....

“The generations which made America rich and great all grew up reading the McGuffey's Readers.”

The goal of the program is to bring the user to a 1st grade reading level. The App consists of 53 Lessons that are based off of the McGuffey Eclectic Primer, which has been successfully used for over a century. 

Each lesson has several different activities to help students learn, as well as retain letter sounds and words. There is plenty of reading and spelling practice in the program, but with enough variety to keep it fun and exciting. The program is flexible, allowing students to work at their own pace, and even repeat lessons when necessary.

According to LiteracySoft's Website, this app includes:

• All 53 McGuffey Primer lessons

• All 44 letter sounds of English and their graphemes

• 60+ letter sound animations

• 400+ practice word vocabulary

• 9000+ nonsense word audio dictionary

Here are a few pictures of this app is action....

By dragging the letters into the Phonics Blender, students practice spelling words.

Illustrations through out the lessons add interest to the stories.

Here you can see the different activities in the lessons....

This activity was probably our favorite! You are asked to build (or load) a word, after you have spelled the word correctly the truck drives off.  Pretty cute!

 

Little Bits, my Pre-K'er, was my guinea pig for this review.  He seemed to do pretty well with it. I think t hat for him, the progession of learning the letters and words was just right.  I do feel that this is something that I need to be near by to keep a watch on what he is getting and not getting.  This way I know what he needs to repeat.  

For the most part, I was pretty impressed.  I do wish that the app keep track of what they have mastered and what they haven't.  We plan to continue to use this as a supplemental activity.  

You can purchase the Phonics and Reading with McGuffey app for $19.99  It is currently available for your PC, Mac, iPad and iPhone.  We use ours on the iPad.  

LiteracySoft also offers a Lite version of this app.  They give you the first 10 lessons to try for FREE!

Check out what other Schoolhouse Review Crew members are saying about this app! 

Timeline Builder

 

History is one of my favorite subjects to learn, ahem, I mean teach.  As a high school student history was the one class that I really enjoyed.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until I started homeschooling that history really came alive and clicked for me.  Prior to homeschooling, what I knew about history seemed fragmented and sloppy.

One thing that I think has really helped the kids and I to put things in perpective is having a timeline.  It allows one to stand back and look at the big picture.  Enter, Timeline Builder from Knowledge Quest, a user friendly App for history lovers of all ages!

 

 

 

Things we really liked about the Timeline Builder:

• We do already have a LARGE timeline on the wall in our school room, but I love that this one can be seated right next to me wherever I am.  Like when the kids and I are snuggled on the couch reading a good historical fiction and we want to add some thing we learned to the timeline or look something up.

 

• Timeline Builder is very user friendly, for moms and kids! This App has instructions that explain how to get the most out of your timeline.  I felt that the timelines were easy to create, change and add to. 

 

• When adding a new timeline event or figure you can connect to Wikipedia to add facts and pictures.  I must say this is quite an awesome feature!

 

• I like that you can create several different timelines.  You could have one for American history, Ancient history, your state's history, composers, scientists or even your family tree!  Endless possibilities!  The kids can also personalize their timeline a bit by choosing their own background.

 

• Fun!  The Timeline Builder is actually really fun to work with.  The kids and I both enjoy using it. We like that you can be creative and design your own timelines.  Kids love to move the pictures around to arrange their timelines.

 

What I felt could be improved:

• While this is not a huge deal, I would like to be able to create a timeline from creation to present that we could scroll through.  This doesn't seem to be possible due to the fact that each timeline is a as big as one iPad page.  Not a deal breaker by any means, just a feature I wish they had.

Here is a great video of the Timeline Builder in action....

 

The Timeline Builder is one of our favorite products that we have reviewed.  We will continue to use it for years to come!

You can purchase your own Timeline Builder through the App store.  Normally it is $6.99, but it is currently on sale for $4.99.

 

 

You can see what others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew have to say about the Timeline Builder over at the SRC site.

 

 

A Journey Through Learning {Review}

 

As a home school mom I have learned that learning doesn't have to be boring.  I love finding new ways to make learning interesting, as well as enjoyable! There are several ways to do this, two of my favorites things to do are add lapbooks and unit studies. 

Recently, we were given four downloadable products from A Journey Through Learning for review.  Here's the line up of what we received:

Letters, Numbers and Shapes Lapbook (ages 3-5)

The Earth Lapbook (grades 1-4)

Knights and Castles Lapbook and Learning Guide (grades 2-7)

Astronomy and Space Unit Study (grades 2-7)

 

 

 

        

 

 

After looking them over, I decided to do Letters, Numbers, and Shapes with Little Bits, my four year old. Can I just tell you I can hardly think of a time that I have seen a kid so excited to do school! Literally, every single morning my little guy would faithfully bring me his workbox of supplies so we work on his lapbook. 

Through the Letters, Numbers, and Shapes lapbook we got to learn and trace each letter, as well as search magazines for pictures to go with each letter. We practiced counting and tracing numbers. There was even a memory game that we got to make and play, then store in the lapbook. We went over shapes and what shapes different objects are.  We also got in a pretty good amount of practice with our cutting skills.

 

 

Here are some of the letters we traced and cut out pictures for.  You can also see the pictures used to describe the different shapes.  

 

 

More letters!  There is a counting booklet where we were able to trace numbers and number words in.  You can also see the cards to a matching game we got to play.

 

I was pretty impressed that there were even games, activities, poems and book suggestions included!

 

 

Little Bits really enjoyed all the cutting and gluing that he got to do.  He especially liked the ice cream cone, bubble gum machine and fire truck for the shapes portion of the lapbook.  This lapbook has become his favorite things to!  I think that the variety of letters, numbers, shapes and games really helped to hold his interest. 

I thought that the Letters, Numbers and Shapes lapbook, as well as the other lapbooks, were very well laid out and had a good number of components with each of them.  There is enough content for a child to learn, yet not so much that they get overwhelmed and bored. 

Even if you have never done a lapbook before I recommend giving it a try.  They are lots of fun and the kids love to show them off and retell (narrate) what they have learned.  When I first saw them I was a little intimidated but really it is just like scrapbooking.  Here is a quick video on what lapbooks are and how to do them.

 

See, it's easy!

 

 

I would most definitely recommend the lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning!  They offer tons of different lapbooks on all kinds of different topics at affordable prices.  All of the lapbooks that we received are available for instant download for $13.00.  There are several lapbooks that are even available for just $1.00!

Check out what other TOS Crew members have to say about A Journey Through Learning's lapbooks and unit studies!

Essentials in Writing

We were given the chance to review a wonderful language arts program recently, Essentials in Writing.  EIW offers curriculum for grades 1-12.  In grades 1-6 the program focuses primarily on grammar skills and then starts to shift into writing for 7-8 grades, while still weaving in grammar lessons. For 9-12 grades, students work on sentence structure, paragraphs, essays and research papers, again with grammar woven into the lessons. 

We were given the 7th grade level for review, which was perfect for the Lil' Chef. 

The way that EIW is laid out is that you first look over your assignment (which can be printed out from a PDF. file or done in a workbook), then the student WATCHES the lesson via DVD.  After gaining an understanding of the new concept, the student then completes their assignment or assignments that correspond with the lesson.

We like that Essentials in Writing is a DVD based curriculum.  It is a blessing to have an experienced, former middle school English teacher teaching the lessons, and me overseeing and helping when needed.  The videos lessons are laid out well and easily understood.  The 7th grade level that we reviewed covers the following (from EIW's website):

 

• Review sentences types and sentence structure (compound sentences) and address sentence errors (fragment and run on), dependent and independent clause
• Parts of a personal letter & Writing a personal letter
• Parts of a paragraph & Writing a paragraph
• Other forms of written communication:  lists/thank you note/invitation/diary entries
• How to choose an appropriate writing form.
• Writing a business letter (includes format and composition)
  The writing process (prewrite, draft, revise, edit/publish)
• Use the writing process to compose narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive writing in formal paragraphs and informal writing
• Essays; compare and contrast essay, expository essay
• Effective writing skills: strong details, transitions, beginning/middle/end concept, logical sequence of events, variety of sentence structure, and use of figurative language including simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole; vivid language
• Revision:  word choice (use of a thesaurus), using strong details, a variety of sentence structure in writing, & figurative language when appropriate, adding dialogue when appropriate
• Research Project - a complete research project including planning, gathering information, drafting, revising, and publishing.

Supplemented with:

• Capitalization rules: beginning of sentences, names, city/state, holidays/countries, titles
• Punctuation rules:  period, question mark, & exclamation point, and comma usage; titles
• Grammar:  subject/predicate (both complete and simple, and compound subjects/predicates), nouns, proper nouns, action verbs, adjectives, pronouns, linking verbs, possessive nouns, subject/verb agreement, adverbs, propositional phrases, appositives, proper adjectives
• Spelling rules for plural nouns
• Mechanics of dialogue and purposeful dialogue

The Lil' Chef has a pretty good foundation in grammar, which is recommended before starting this level (the 6th grade level offers a pretty intense grammar course, from what I understand), at this point we really need to focus on her writing.  Essentials in Writing 7 pretty much jumps into writing, but as I mentioned, it also weaves grammar into the lessons.  With EIW, grammar rules are reviewed and not forgotten. 

So far, the Lil' Chef has done some grammar review, worked on paragraphs and now we are on to essays.  The video lessons have been helpful for her in understanding new concepts and improving on her writing skills.  I have noticed that EIW has also increased her confidence level with her writing.  At this point she is plugging along in the program and doing great! 

Essentials in Writing is a great program that is also very budget friendly!  Each Essentials in Writing level is only $40!  I was pretty amazed at the price to be honest.  For $40 you receive the writing lessons via DVD, as well as the PDF files that can be used with multiple children.  If you prefer a workbook over printing, they offer a student workbook for an additional $20.  A bargain either way!

Check out what other TOS Crew members have to say about the different grade levels from Essentials in Writing.

TouchMath - A Multisensory Approach to Math

For the last several weeks Little Bits has been "doing school," just like his brother and sisters.  He was so excited to start his new math program, TouchMath Kindergarten. 

TouchMath is a multisenory math program developed by an elementary school teacher that saw a need to help children connect abstract and concrete ideas.  She met this need by creating numbers that have counting points or "TouchPoints" on them, one for each count to get to the number the student is working with.  Counting the "TouchPoints" in the TouchMath program is really the key to the program, and what sets this program apart from the rest. 

The TouchMath program consists of four units, each one includes 90 student activity sheets, that are to be spread out through the school year.  As you can see, TouchMath covers a wide range of topics:

   

    

While the activity sheets are heart of the curriculum, there are many other components that can be added to enhance your child's learning experience.  We were given the four units of activity sheets, TouchShapes, Kindergarten Software and the 3-D Numerals.

  

This is the first official math curriculum that Little Bits has used so far.  While he is not quite in kindergarten yet, I felt this level was a better fit for him than the preschool level.  He seems to be doing quite well with it.  He is not writing on his own yet, but he is still learning the concepts from using the 3-D numerals, TouchShapes and the computer program.  He really LOVES the Kindergarten Software program!

 

 

At first, using the 3-D Numerals and counting the TouchMath way was a little foreign to my little guy.  I think he had a hard time understanding why he had to count some of the dots on the 3-D numerals twice.  After a little practice he got it, and now enjoys using them.

We like TouchMath and plan to continue using it for his kindergarten year.  I think it is a very thorough program. TouchMath is laid out very well for the homeschool mom, I felt that it was simple for me to understand and teach.  I liked that it was very hands on for my busy little boy.  One major plus, Little Bits really enjoys it!

TouchMath has programs for grades Pre-K through 2nd grade:

• PRE-K
• KINDERGARTEN
• FIRST GRADE
• SECOND GRADE

 

Each of the TouchMath units are available for $59.95.  You can also purchase all 4 units for a discounted price of $199.95

 



There are additional components to the TouchMath program available:

• TouchShapes
• TouchMath Tutor Kindergarten Software
• Math Fans
• 3-D Numerals
• TouchPoint Posters
• Texture Cards
• Number Concept Posters

We found the Tutor Software, TouchShapes and 3-D Numerals to be extremely helpful pieces of the program!

 

Please take a peek at what other TOS Crew members have to say about TouchMath!

  

 

Flowering Baby Review

 

 

 

My youngest child is 4 years old.  Many times I have wonderful intentions of doing this and doing that with him. Sadly, many times these ideas continue tobe just ideas.  We read together and do a few letter crafts here and there, but for the most part that is about it. 

When we got the opportunity to review a fun and interactive preschool curriculum called Flowering Baby I was pretty excited.  After I looking over the sample activities, I knew that they would be a good fit for Little Bits, and simple enough for me to implement.  You may also have read that I am contemplating/ taking classes to open a home daycare.  I also thought that Flowering Baby would be a great fit for a home daycare curriculum. 

  

 

 

Flowering Baby is a simple, yet effective, curriculum that helps children to develop cognitive, language, gross and fine motor skills, emotional, social skills and independence. 

We were given Volume 4: Three to Four Years & Volume 5: Four to Five Years in CD form to review.  While we used Volume 5: Four to Five, I did look over Volume 4: Three to Four Years.  I felt that they were similar in nature, just a younger level.

The Flowering Baby curriculum is laid out by calendar month, and includes 10 -15 days of activities, each taking about 30-45 minutes per day.  During the month of January you learn about the color blue, ears, healthy foods, and cold days, while reading books like Blueberries for Sal, Owl Moon and The Berenstain Bears: Too Much Junk Food. 

The suggested activities focused on the areas of language, math, music, science and foreign language.  More specifically you do things like:

• practice writing and counting numbers
• focus on a new letter each day by practicing to write that letter and looking for things that start with that letter
• when learning about shapes you do activites like reading a book about shapes and then making some of your own from paper
• reading and then having children retell (narrate) back to you what they just heard
• learn about holidays and make various crafts to go along with that particular holiday
• learn about body parts, colors, weather, firestations, magnets, etc..
• learn Spanish words for colors, shapes, numbers, etc..

The second part of the curriculum is the theme or mini-unit study part.  Each month gives 2-3 suggested themes.  For instance, the themes that they suggest for January are Aquarium, Arctic Life & Dinosaurs.  The activities in this section include books, crafts, field trips and fun ideas to cement what you are currently learning from the reading. 

What I liked about Flowering Baby:

Just as I suspected!  It is fun, creative and SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE!  This curriculum allows me to focus my time on my son and teaching him, not on planning.  The curriculum guide is easy to understand and very detailed, giving you a list of supplies needed, suggested books to read and specific activities to do with your child.

I liked the different themes, I think they offer the perfect amount of activities.  They study a topic long enough to learn about it, but then they get to move on to something new and exciting the following week.  I feel that the activities included are enjoyable, engaging and challenging for my little guy.

If you know me, then you know I have a love for books.  I think Flowering Baby did a superb job with their literature selections!  And I LOVE that she has these little guys narrating back!  Never had I thought to do that with my little one.

I also did not feel bogged down by this curriculum, you type A mommys now what I mean!  Things were simple enough to accomplish in a short period of time, it was just enough. It was freeing to me that there where not scheduled activites to do every s.i.n.g.l.e day, especially at this age.

What I would change:

As far as the curriculum itself, I think they did a fine job and I really would not change anything. They have letters and number concepts down. And they include LOTS of great books and activities!

Purchasing Info:

Flowering Baby is currently available in CD and PDF form, which is great for keeping costs down. I actually received the CD for this review.  They are currently working on a printed option.

The CD and PDF files are available for each age level.  Birth to One, One to Two, and Two to Three are $30 and Three to Four and Four to Five cost $38 each.  You may also purchase all five year plans for $132.  This is a very reasonable price for all that is included.  The Flowering Baby curriculum is available for ages:

 

Would I recommend this?

I would indeed! If you are interested, but kind of on the fence, try out a months worth Flowering Baby for FREEEE!  You can do this by clicking on one of the links above and scrolling to the bottom.

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

 

 When you order PLEASE take advantage of a 10% discount by using the CODE: Blog10
(good only at www.floweringbaby.com)

 

Please check out what other TOS Crew members have to say about Flowering Baby!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Growing Up Wild {Review}

We love reading about missionaries.  It is very exciting to read about how they live, the people they are are sharing the gospel with and how God is using them for His Kingdom. 

Imagine our excitement when we got Growing Up Wild to review for the TOS Crew! 

 

Growing Up Wild is a video series that consists of 15 episodes spread out over 5 DVD's.  Each DVD also includes an activity guide CD ROM for teachers to use along with the DVD's.

The main characters of this DVD series are the Wild Family.  They are a homeschooling missionary family living in Papua, Indonesia.  Most of the show revolves around the four sons, The Wild Brothers. 

We were given 2 DVD's for review:

 

 

Volume 1:
Home Sweet Hut - This episode gave us a glimpse into the home life of the Wild Family.  We got to see their home and how they live.
Supply Trip - Here we got to see how this family in the jungle gets the supplies that they need for everyday life.  It is a lot different then running to the local Walmart, that's for sure!
Sun & Water- We got to see how the Wild family creatively uses the resources around them to have power and running water. 

Volume 4:
Amazing World Around Us - The Wild Brothers explore God's marvelous creatures around them!
Adventures in Culture - This episode gives a very good picture of the Indonesian culture.  The boys learn about war, hunting, red fruit and noise piercing.  Heads up: The boys actually get their noses pierced.
Tribal Calling - The Wild Family shares about how they knew the Lord was calling them to be missionaries to a tribal group. 

 

 

We enjoyed watching the Wild Brothers.  It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see how they live and the adventures they have.  I felt that the Growing Up Wild series gave us a wonderful picture of how missionaries live in the jungle.  It was a very good visual for us to have.  It kind of brought missionaries to life!

Growing Up Wild Volumes 1-5 are available for purchase for $18.99 each.  Currently, you can purchase them as a set for $80.99, which is 15% off the total price if they were purchased separately. 

 

There are lots of other reviews from the TOS Crew about Growing Up Wild.  Check them out!
Disclaimer: We received this product at no charge to us for review purposes only. 

 

IEW's Primary Arts of Language

 

 

 

 

Institute for Excellence in Writing, also know as IEW, is a pretty well known curriculum in the homeschooling world.  They have built a reputation that homeschoolers have grown to know and trust.  We actually got to review their Student Writing Intensive for them a few years ago. 
 

 

This time we received their Primary Arts of Language (PAL), which is a complete language arts program for children in kindergarten through second grade.  PAL is broken down into two separate programs, Primary Arts of Language Reading and Primary Arts of Language Writing.  While they are purchased separately they are meant to be used together. 

 

 

First let's talk about the PAL Reading curriculum.  This program, based on the Blended Sound-Sight System of Learning by Anna Ingham, takes a mixed approach to teaching reading by using both phonics and whole words.  It incorporates Classical, Charlotte Mason and Montessori methods of teaching.  PAL uses poetry to teach phonics and whole words, while using phonetic games and a farm themed sticker board to help reinforce phonetic concepts to build a good foundation for reading.

To teach children how to write each of the letters and help them remember their sound, PAL uses fun little stories for each letter.  My 6 year old knows his letters already but the has a hard time remembering the difference between b and d, the letter stories help to remember which is which.  I think this is my favorite thing about PAL, well this and the poetry!

 

The Phonics Games are AWESOME!!  My boys get to feed bones to a done named mugs and park cars all while learning the letter sounds!  This is also one of our favorite parts of PAL!

 

The PAL Reading Complete Package includes the following:

Primary Arts of Language: Reading Teacher’s Manual

Primary Arts of Language: Reading DVD-ROM - the DVD includes:

• Instructional Video by Jill Pike
• The Four Language Arts MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa
• Nurturing Competent Communicators MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa
• Poetry as an Integrator MP3 Audio by Anna Ingham
• Intro to the Blended Sound Sight Program MP3 Audio by Anna Ingham
• Primary Arts of Language: Reading Student Book (e-book)

Primary Arts of Language: Phonetic Games

Primary Arts of Language: Phonetic Farm folder with Stickers

The PAL Reading program is available to purchase for $69.00
________________________________________________________________________________

Now about the PAL Writing program.  The writing part of the program includes printing, copywork, composition, and spelling.  As, I mentioned earlier, the PAL Reading and Writing curriculum's are meant to be used together.  The only exception would be if your child is already reading independently.

The first 23 lessons teach the children how to properly print each letter, after that they start using copywork for printing fluency.  PAL also includes Story Summaries, Journaling, Style and Composition. 

The PAL Writing Package includes:

Primary Arts of Language: Writing Teacher’s Manual

Primary Arts of Language: Writing DVD-ROM - this DVD includes:

• Instructional Video by Jill Pike
• Reading Comprehension MP3 Audio by Adam Andrews
• Dictation, Narration, and Public Speaking MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa
• The Four Language Arts MP3 Audio by Andrew Pudewa
• Primary Arts of Language: Writing Student Books (e-book)
  (Would you rather have us print out your PAL student e-books for you? Click here)

All About Spelling Basic Interactive Kit

All About Spelling Level 1 (Teacher’s Manual and One Student Material Packet) By Marie Rippel

Bonus e-audio downloads:

• Units 1 & 2 in the K–2 Classroom MP3 Audio by Shirley George
• Unit 3 in the K–2 Classroom MP3 Audio by Shirley George
• Preparing the K-2 Writing Environment MP3 Audio by Richelle Palmer

The PAL Writing Program is available for purchase for $89.00.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Alpha Boy learning how to spell his colors.

I am going to be honest, at first this curriculum looked a bit overwhelming to me.  But after watching the DVD's going over the teacher's manuals it didn't seem as overwhelming to me. 

The TM's are set up so that you can easily follow along.  The lessons are so well laid out and explained that even the newest of homeschoolers will feel like a pro!

I feel that PAL is a very well rounded program.  It has all the bells and whistles that you would hope for in a language arts program.  To me, it is very hands on with lots of fun stories and games to help the children actually enjoy learning.  Yes, there is a little bit of prep for mom in the beginning but after that it is pretty much smooth sailing!

 

 

I am not the only one that loved PAL!  Check out what other TOS Crew members have to say about PAL.

Disclaimer: We received this product at no charge for review purposes only.