Can you guess…

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Mikayla has her Candy Day costume picked out. Can you guess what she is going to be?

 

The Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.  She is really loving the Tapestry of Grace three week Egyptian trial, and I am over the moon about it too. Her interest in history has peaked and she is wanting to do her history first thing in the morning.

Yesterday we practiced putting on the makeup and doing her hair. This weekend we will put the finishing touches on her crown and get started on her dress.  

 

I think we need a brighter shade of red for the lips, what do you think?  This picture is from December 2006 as we were gearing up for the new cheer competition season. Isn’t she so cute, our little Superstar.

She loved the hair and makeup session and got into the Queen role rather quickly. I asked her to fold up the linen napkins and she looked at me and replied: “Queens don’t do laundry.” Oh my!

Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday ~ pantry raider

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TOS Review ~ Read, Write & Type

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We had the opportunity to review Read, Write & Type by Talking Fingers, Inc. this past month, and let me just say, Mikayla had a blast playing this game and defeating the evil green blob, Vexor! I loved it too because she was learning a new skill, typing, at the same time. Who would have thought a program could teach reading, writing, and typing at the same time? Well, I am here to tell you that Read, Write & Type by Talking Fingers, Inc. does!

Read, Write & Type Learning Systems  is an exciting interactive computer program that builds reading and phonics skills while children learn to write and type.  Children in grades K-3 help to defeat Vexor  who tries to steal the letters with the aide of colorful talking hands, Lefty La Dee and Rightway McKay.  Lefty and Rightway help guide the student through 40 different levels of play.  The program also includes games and activities that help build speed and accuracy, a place to type a story, and games to practice beginning sounds. All these activities build phonemic awareness, blending skills, and the ability to sound out and type words and sentences.

This program has two different options for purchase. For $35. you can purchase a five-year home license to the online version. This is only good for one child, but once that child has passed through all the levels their progress can be archived so that another child may play as long as it is within the five year time frame for the license.  For $79. you can opt for the CD-ROM version and receive additional bonus material including an activity book with stickers, a laminated keyboard, and 18 leveled readers.  With the CD-ROM version you are able to use it with multiple children for as long as you wish.

Mikayla thoroughly enjoyed this program and frequently requests to play it. If you are looking for a excellent all around program this may be a good fit for your family too. Check out what my other crewmates had to say about this program here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and as such received a copy of Read, Write & Type online software in exchange for a thorough and honest review.  Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews.  The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided .

Week in Review ~ Week 7

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We did accomplish some things this week even though I feel as though we did not. It was an eventful weekend with a trip to the ER for Montana and then I ended up getting the flu Monday evening. Tuesday I was out for the count on the couch. We had a teacher in-service day and the girls went to Walnut Grove for the afternoon. I am just now starting to feel better, however when I look at the mountain of laundry that needs to be done I get nauseous, but I am blessed to have daughters who accumulate so much laundry so I wont complain, too much :-)

I had plans to start Mikayla on the Egypt 3 week free trial of Tapestry of Grace, but it didn’t happen. I did however get to look around the TOG website and start to get a feel of the program. I think this program is going to be so helpful for me as we make the switch next school year. Marie, Madison, & Montana are continuing on in their respective Sonlight Cores, but I have already stopped using Mystery of History for Mikayla, it just wasn’t working for us.

I hope I have more to report next week as we start wrapping up our first quarter soon. Check out what others have said on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly wrap-up.

TOS Review ~ Digital Frog International

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Have you ever wanted to go on a field trip to the Rainforest? How about the Wetlands or the Desert? Well I am here to tell you you can! All without having to don your galoshes or filling up the canteens to quench your thirst in the desert. How you  ask? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Head on over to the Digital Frog International site and check out the array of digital field trips they have to offer.

When I first heard I was on the list for Digital Frog International I got excited. Would they be sending us the virtual frog dissection??? How cool would that be, I love biology! But we received something even better, the Digital Field Trip Series with 3 virtual field trips to the Rainforest, the Wetlands, and the Desert. And we don't even have to leave the comforts of home.

Each DVD software features the following components:

• An interactive map
• Definitions for every word and pronunciations of scientific words
• Ability to bookmark favorite screens
• Online updates

The accompanying teacher's guide includes teaching suggestions, lesson answers, and graphic resources for K-3 activities all in a digital format allowing you to print directly from the CD. Also included is an extensive student workbook that makes an excellent study guide while on your trip.

Right from the start you are taken into the trip and ready to navigate the series.

The Rainforest

“Experience the tropical rainforest of Belize with 28 virtual reality posts from deep in the forest and even up in the canopy. Other topics covered include rainforest types and mechanisms, an interactive dependency web game and a botany primer."

The Wetlands 

"Explore wetland ecology with a virtual field trip to a wetland in southern Ontario. Includes wetland types, bog formation, plus detailed sections on photosynthesis, food chains and webs and nutrient cycles."

The Desert

 

“Five deserts of the southwestern U.S.—from the saguaro cacti of the Sonoran to the sand dunes of Death Valley—are brought to life in our biggest field trip ever. Try your hand at building your own desert, learn about landscape formation and in-depth sections on adaptations and homeostasis.”

 

Multi-platform:

The Digital Field Trip series is a hybrid disc—so basically you can run the same disc on both Macintosh and Windows platforms.

System requirements:

Windows

Windows 2000, XP, Windows 7 or Vista (32 bit) (some features may not work in the 64 bit version of Vista)

• 32 MB of RAM (64 or more recommended)
• 75 MB of hard drive space for QuickTime

Macintosh

• Mac OSX 10.3.9 or later
• 30 MB of available RAM

Homeschool pricing: 

Depending on what your looking for the pricing ranges from $40 - $125.

• Cell Structure and Function - $40
• Field Trip to the Desert - $60 
• Field Trip to the Rainforest - $60
• Field trip to the Wetlands - $60
• Digital Frog Dissection - $85
• Digital Field Trip Series (all 3 field trips) - $125

We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent trekking through each of the field trips. Getting a up close, hands on look and being able to explore was fantastic. I can’t wait for next year when Marie will be in 9th grade biology and we get to explore the Digital Frog 2.5 dissection. I would recommend these trips for anyone looking to enhance there studies. To check out what my crewmates have to say, click here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and as such received a copy of Digital Frog International software in exchange for a thorough and honest review.  Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews.  The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided .