Archives for November 2009

I received two wonderful books to review for Bright Ideas Press.

A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers filled a big gap for me. I had scheduled our Composer study for every Friday, but was having trouble piecing it all together. This book is one-stop shopping! It is written for grades 4-8, but is easily adaptable for younger grades. It is a full year’s curriculum, but it will last us much longer since we are just doing it one day a week. All of these wonderful resources are included:

• 32 weekly lessons
• 26 Bios of Famous Composers
• 6 Eras of Music Explained
• Easy-to-Use Comparative Timeline
• Easy-to-Use Maps
• Composer Info-Cards & Game Directions
• Note-Taking Pages
• Quizzes
• Answer Keys Listening Suggestions
• Intricate Coloring Pages
• Resource Books

The only thing I am not crazy about is the binding. It makes copying pages difficult – I will eventually have the spine cut off of mine. It is available in CD-Rom, but I like having the book in front of me while teaching. You can view sample pages HERE.

The Nitty Gritty:

• CD-Rom       $29.95
• Paperback  $34.95

Things I Like:

• Lessons are written from the viewpoint that music is from the Lord.
• The composers are in chronological order.
• There is a good variety of activities.
• It is a very complete curriculum.

Value: Worth every penny.

(I am looking forward to the release of A Young Scholar’s Guide to Poetry!)

Over Our Heads in Wonder was the perfect way to kick off our school year. It is a lovely little science book that shows God’s power through studying the weather and the sky. These topics are discussed:

• Clouds
• Rainbows
• Sun
• Stars
• Snow
  
• Wind
• Storms
• Air

This book was written for grades K-5. We used it for our morning devotional time & it worked great for my whole gang. I think it could serve as a science curruculum for the younger grades. You can view sample pages HERE.

The Nitty Gritty:

• $9.95 Paperback

Things I Like:

• The experiments use items commonly found around the house.
• Each section has its own Table of Contents. It is very easy to mix & match the lessons.
• My kids loved heading outside each day to observe God’s world in a new way.

Value: I think this is a great deal!

See what my TOS Crew Mates have to say about Bright Ideas Press!

I am an internet resource junkie. I love to find fun educational websites, and even set up a site to house all my links.  I’ve visited abcteach many times to make use of their 5,000+ free printables.

I’ve always wondered about the 35,000+ printables available to members … were they really worth the cost of admission? Well, I got to spend a month poking around on their site for free and found some wonderful things.

Here is a sampling of the resources to be found in the abcteach member area:

• unit studies
  
• file folder games
  
• science diagrams
• puzzles
• learning centers
• writing prompts
• poetry guides
  
• tons of seasonal/holiday activities.

Many of these types of activities can be found in the free section, so you might be wondering what good a paid membership would do you. Well, I’ll tell you in one word: customization. You can design your own worksheets, puzzles, notebooking pages, shape books and copywork.

There are several different fonts to choose from. This is a big deal to me because I have one child who uses traditional cursive, one who uses HWT cursive, and one who is still in manuscript print. I can easily whip up a copywork page for all of them in the style they prefer. You can try out the abctools here.

The Nitty Gritty:

$40 for 1  year / $70 for 2 years  **buy through Homeschool Buyers Co-op by November 30th & get 50% off your membership!!

Things I Like:

• There are so many activities from which to choose.
  
• Many of the pages have multiple uses.
• The ability to customize!!!!

Value: This will depend on the individual, but for me it is worth every penny if the only thing I ever use it for is making copywork sheets. (But I will be using it every week for all of the seasonal/holiday fun.)

See what my TOS Crew Mates have to say about abcteach!