reviews Archives - Page 16 of 18

review – EDUDPS

October 5, 2009 By: amyswanderingcomment

Writing is an area that needed a lot of improvement in our home, and EDUDPS came to the rescue. We received Write with the Best Vol. 1 and Roots and Fruits.

Write with the Best Vol. 1 teaches students to model writing after great works of literature.

Describing an Object from Jules Verne
Describing a Place from Charles Dickens
Describing a Character from Daniel Defoe
Dialogue from Kenneth Grahame
The Short Story from O. Henry
Fables from Aesop
Friendly Letters from Robert Louis Stevenson
Poetry – Rhyming Verse from William Wordsworth
The Ballad or Narrative Poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The lessons are short and we really enjoyed the variety of activities. We read the passage, talked about descriptive writing, and searched for different parts of speech in the story. You can sample the first two units here.

Something to Note: EDUDPS has an unusual security feature on their ebooks. You are only allowed two printings, so you need to print the entire book at once. I understand their desire to protect their product, but I wish there was a way to only print a page or section at a time.

The Nitty Gritty:

e-book $19.95 on sale for a limited time for $14.95
pages only – no binder $22.95
3-ring binder $24.95

Things I Like:

Very teacher friendly – just open and go.
You can go through the material as quickly or slowly as you want. We needed some extra work with adjectives and adverbs, so we stretched that part of the lesson out a bit longer.
This is very easy to use with students in different grades.
Kids are exposed to classic literature.

Value: I think this is a great price for what you get, especially if you buy it on sale. We will probably stretch ours out for the entire school year.

Roots and Fruits makes learning vocabulary easy. It teaches your child to decode words by learning roots and prefixes and their meanings. I learned to decode words like this in school and I still use this method as an adult.

You can see a sample here.

The Nitty Gritty:

e-book $14.98 on sale for a limited time for $11.25
pages only – no binding $17.48
comb binding $19.98

Things I Like:

It covers grades K-12
Very teacher friendly – just open & go. (I’m seeing a pattern here. LOL)
The list of words is extensive with 673 roots and prefixes.
There a several fun games to play to reinforce the vocabulary words.
It only takes a few minutes a day.

Value: I think this is a steal! You get a K-12 vocabulary curriculum for less than $15.

Note: This has the same security restrictions that I mentioned above.

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

review – A Journey Through Learning

October 1, 2009 By: amyswanderingcomment

We recently had a chance to review A Journey Through Learning lapbooks. We’ve only tried lapbooking once before with a very complicated set, so I was eager to get a look at a different company.

We decided to start with the Autumn study. We also received these studies to view:

Amphibians

Desert

Parables of a King

Reptiles

We are still not crazy about lapbooks, but I am very impressed with these! There is a good balance between the information and the work involved.

The Nitty Gritty:

Instant Download $13.00
CD $14.00
Printed $21.00

Things I Like:

The graphics are very appealing.
There is a lot of learning going on while working on these. It is not just a bunch of busywork like some of the other lapbooks I’ve seen.
The study guide format is easy to follow – each lesson & the matching lapbook components are together (instead of all the information, then all of the pieces, which leaves Mom to piece it all together).
They have a lapbook for any subject or season!

Value: These are priced about the same as other lapbook study guides, but the end result is much nicer in my opinion.

See what my TOS Crew Mates have to say about A Journey Through Learning!

review – Growing Healthy Homes

September 28, 2009 By: amyswanderingcomment

We’ve made several changes in our home over the past year in our quest for a healthier lifestyle: whole grains, unrefined sugar, organic when we can afford it, trying to cut out high fructose corn syrup. I was so excited to receive a copy of Nutrition 101: Choose Life. It not only teaches what changes you should make, but WHY you should make them. I strongly believe that God created specific foods and nutrients to strengthen and heal our bodies. This book is an amazing look into His awesome design.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is a Biblically based curriculum for the entire family. It is a huge 448 page book, with over 100 of those pages in the form of an information-rich appendix. It is co-authored by homeschool mother Debra Raybern, N.D., M.H., C.N.C., I.C.A.; homeschool mother and researcher Sera Johnson, B.MU; mother and writer/editor Laura Hopkins, B.S.; and mother, grandmother and former Home Economics teacher Karen Hopkins, B.S.

The curriculum is broken up into these six units:

The Brain and Nervous System
Digestion and Elimination
Respiration and Olfactory
Muscular and Skeletal Systems
Cardiovascular and Immune Systems
Endocrine System and Emotions.

Each unit has discussion questions, hands-on activities and power recipes to make together. Some of the material is a little over the heads of my gang, so I pick and choose the info to study. I am reading through all of it myself, and I will be using it again in a few years as a more in-depth high school study.

You can view a sample of this book HERE. I strongly urge you to take a minute to read the introduction and take a look at what is included in the huge appendix.

The Nitty Gritty:

the CD-Rom is $79.99
the book is $99.95
the CD-ROM/book combo is $129.99

Things I like:

Lessons are taught from the viewpoint that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
There is something for most ages (starting in early elementary, in my opinion).
There is so much information provided in these lessons. I am using this for our science curriculum this year. I pull whatever is age appropriate from the lesson and add in my own things like notebook pages or goodies I find on the internet.
The appendix is full of wonderful things to help me in my quest to provide the best nutrition for my family.

Value: I will be honest… I thought the price of this curriculum was really high when I first saw it. Now that I’ve had a chance to read through and use it, I think it is worth every penny! I reviewed the e-book and printed off only what I needed to teach the lessons. I think the ideal, if you can afford it, is to purchase the book combo. You would have the physical book to read and the e-book to print off resources and activities.

See what my TOS Crew Mates have to say about Growing Healthy Homes!

review – Studypod

September 23, 2009 By: amyswanderingcomment

My opinion of the Studypod book holder before it arrived: What a neat little gadget! Maybe we will use it to display a seasonal book on the coffee table.

My opinion of Studypod after using it for a few weeks: How did I ever teach without this??? I use it Every.Single.Day. I like it so much that this is going to be my standard high school graduation gift from now on.

Studyingworkingtogether

We are studying explorers in history right now. I put my book in the Studypod so that I can read and still easily write on the whiteboard. I then put the map we are creating on top of the book and sit it in the middle of the table. All of the kids are able to see it at the same time and work on their maps. I get to avoid the chaos I would hear if I were to put it flat on the table: “Your head is in the way, I can’t see it! Your elbow is poking me! She wrinkled my paper!”

You can watch a video of the Studypod in action:

Studypods come in black, blue or pink. Bookpods are the same thing, but marketed for general use, and come in black, gray and beige.

The Nitty Gritty:

One is $19.95; buy 2 or more & get them for $16.95 each. My readers can get a $5 dicount by using this code: TOSBLOG5

Things I like:

It fits any size book, large or small
It folds up to the size of a book so you can throw it in a bag & go
It holds the book at a comfortable reading angle, similar to a laptop.
There is a mesh pocket inside to store study supplies
It is a great servant to me and makes my job easier

Value: The Studypod is obviously not a homeschooling essential, but use it for a week and I think you will wonder how you ever taught without it! Definitely worth the money!

See what my TOS Crew Mates have to say about the Studypod!

review – Hank the Cowdog

September 3, 2009 By: amyswandering1 Comment

“Stricken with Sneezaroma Because She Whacked Me on the Nose with a Wooden Spoon” is one of the chapter titles from The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse, our first experience with Hank the Cowdog.

We LOVED it!!

Hank is the Head of Ranch Security and Drover is his trusty sidekick. They spend their day getting in and out of hilarious predicaments around the ranch. My husband read 2-3 chapters each night before bed in his best Texas twang. This book had us clutching our sides – my husband even had trouble reading some of it because we were all laughing so hard.

Tales and Tunes of Hank the Cowdog has excerpts and songs from ten of Hank’s books. It was amusing to listen to the song that we had just read in the story, but overall my kids were not crazy about this. It’s only $3 though, so worth the price I think.

The Tornado Game got a much warmer reception. If you are familiar with the game of Sorry, then you will know how to play Tornado. I really like how all the pieces are stored inside the folding plastic gameboard. This would be a cute gift for the little Hank fan.

A Word of Caution: The Hank series uses some words that may not be allowed in your family. Examples: dadgum, stupid cat, boy calls his mom dummy (and is then disciplined). It would be very easy to edit these books if you read them out loud. [Our kids are not allowed to say some of these, but we live in Texas and they grew up hearing others speak “Cowboy”. LOL]

The Nitty Gritty:

Paperback book $4.24
Tales & Tunes CD $3.00
Tornado game $12.99

Things I Like:

our whole family looked forward to storytime every night because we knew this book would have us in stitches
they want to read the whole 54 book series!
the Tornado game was fun for all ages and folds & locks for easy storage

Value: I think you get a lot of bang for your buck.

See what my TOS Crew Mates have to say about Hank the Cowdog!

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