A Stable Beginning

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids ~ a TOS review

Beginner Spanish Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Review

These days it’s almost essential that you know another language. Maybe not fluently, but enough to communicate basically. In our family we choose to learn to speak Spanish after we learn Latin, normally around upper middle school, 8th grade. However, we had the opportunity to introduce Spanish in a fun and exciting way with the Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids.

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids was founded by Kit Strauss who was looking for a quality program for her three sons. Her program offers children aged 3 and up and adults alike the chance to learn Spanish in a short period of time in a fun and exciting way through immersion videos. The videos provide a positive way to learn Spanish with a dose of good humor and laughs throughout without having to rely on painful memorization that doesn’t work for everyone.

The complete program was designed so that your students will:

• succeed in discovering another language

• become enthusiastic about learning Spanish

• have positive feelings about Spanish

• have a good experience that will last a lifetime!

We received the complete Starter Set 1 which includes:

~ DVD videos for Levels 1-3

~ Parent – Teacher Guides which include detailed lesson plans and fun, hands-on supplemental activities for reinforcement

~ Flashcards and card games for each level

~ Workbooks for each level

~ Stickers for each level

***I want to mention right of the bat that we are currently on vacation and I mistakingly forgot to bring the camera cord to load my pictures. So bear with me for right now and I will upload our pictures early next week when we return home.***

Over the last several weeks I have used this program with my three youngest children aged 9,6, and 2. I have a background in Spanish, so this was a fun refresher for me.

The concept of the DVD portion of the program is that of an in-flight movie as you start your journey traveling from Washington, D.C. to Lima(flight 101), Peru on the first leg, then from Peru to Bogota, Columbia (flight 102), and finally from Columbia to San Jose, Costa Rica (flight 103).

The Teacher’s Guide includes everything you need to complete all three levels of flight in roughly 20 weeks. The detailed lesson plans tells you where to start and stop the DVD and which workbook pages to complete when.

Your in-flight entertainment is found in the student workbooks that includes helpful information on the geography and culture of the countries and are designed like a magazine for kids in 3rd grade and up. There is a corresponding workbook for each journey of the flight that includes several activities such as fill in the blank, matching exercises, crossword puzzles, and more. Helpful answer keys are included in the back of each book.

The included color-coded flashcards are great for drilling words or playing games and included both pictures and words. Also included in our set was a set of vocabulary stickers that could be stuck on different objects around the house. The kids especially liked this and helped them relate to the word and put it into context. The stickers are not so sticky that they don’t come off, so that is great for moving the stickers to multiple objects if necessary.

We have all thoroughly enjoyed using this program and working through Flight 101. Now that our school year has started I plan to continue working our way through the rest of the Flights until completion. Having a background in a foreign language helps tremendously in other areas of schooling and life in general. I love that this curriculum gives me the opportunity to provide that for my children at such a young age.

Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this program by clicking the banner below and reading their reviews.

Company ~ Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids

Product ~ Starter Set 1

Format ~ We received the Physical Product, digital product also available

Price ~ $140.25

Ages ~ ages 3 - adult

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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Wordless Wednesday

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Saturday, August 13, 2016

Weekly Wrap Up ~ Big Boy Gibby, week TWO

I really need to concentrate on staying "home" more during the week. It is a challenge to get things done with school when I am running here, there, and everywhere. Gymnastics training is still on summer schedule and Madison had a Girl Scout function to attend, plus the Summer Olympics has all of us staying up way too late, ahem. But we made it through week two without me getting too frazzled.

Tuesday morning all three older girls had somewhere to be as well as Micah having his ENT appointment that has been scheduled for 2 months. After making arrangements for everyone to get where they needed to be we all piled into the Honda Odyssey to go and the LCDR realized that we were all really packed in like sardines. So, after Micah's appointment we stopped by the local Nissan dealer to test drive a Nissan NV Passenger.

I have wanted to upgrade to this vehicle for 2.5 years (I even have the brochures for the 2014/2015 models) and finally on Tuesday the time came. I test drove a white NV and fell in love. The space is amazing and it handles like a dream. I have driven Chevy Suburban and GMC Yukon XL Denali's in the past, and I knew I did not want to go back to one of those models because we have two children in full size car seats that take up a lot of space. I am not too sure why Nissan calls the NV 3500 a van because it definitely drives like a truck. It is after-all, built on the Nissan Titan's chassis. I love that is am not so low on the ground anymore in our power wagon.

The LCDR is a car buying guru! Not only did he get the price we needed to sell our 2015 Honda Odyssey off but he negioated the price down for the NV and my payment is $10.00 less than the Odyssey, score! We ended up getting a black SL model and we have nicknamed it, Big Boy Gibby :-) {Bonus points if you know what show Gibby was on. It was one of the Nickelodeon shows that I liked watching with the girls}. Here are a few pictures and I will post more pictures once we put the rear seat dvd's in and after I have driven it more, but I really do love it!

Mikayla and McKenzie's training this week was switched around so that Mikayla finished at 130 P.M. each day instead of having double days on Tuesday/Thursdays. She was able to attend the live screening party the gym put on Tuesday afternoon for the Women's Team final. Go U.S.A as they won GOLD! We have loved watching all of the Olympic competition. I cried during the All-Around competition when Ally and Simone clinched their Silver and Gold medals. I also cried as Micheal Phelps stood on the podium for his 22nd Gold medal and when Simone Manuel won the 100m freestyle. Truly amazing individuals they all are (I was just super emotional that night, LOL)!

As far as school goes, things are going rather smoothly, just the way I like it. Work is getting completed and the girls are learning and retaining information. My grammar group finished our papier-mache sun. It was a fun hands - on activity that everyone enjoyed. This year I have started having the girls complete a Draw ~ Write Storybook page about something they learned this week on Fridays. I hope to get them to really put to paper what they know about one subject. Chemistry has been going great for Madison! I was worried she would not fully grasp the significant figures concept, but she's got it and will be ready to take the Module 1 test when school resumes in two weeks.

Yes, you read that right. We are taking a week long break and heading on vacation to the beach. Everyone has been looking forward to this for the last few months, I can't believe it is finally here. I am going to do my best and document our week for the weekly wrap up. I am going to be brainstorming scheduling ideas in my mind over our break. I need to figure out a way to get some extra time in with my older girls and their studies. I am looking forward to summer gymnastics training coming to an end and school year morning training's starting for both Mikayla and McKenzie. The schedule is supposed to be released this coming week, so I am looking forward to that.

That was our week in a nutshell, how was your week?

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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Weekly Wrap Up ~ Back to school, Week ONE

This week we headed back to school for our 8^th year! WOW, 8 years guys! I remember the LCDR and I decided to homeschool our girls. Since then we have added two children, McKenzie and Micah, to our Academy and have graduated Marie.

Once again I am going to do my best and try to document our school weeks on the blog. Instead of writing on Fridays, I plan to link up on Saturdays. Fridays are still incredibly busy days with school and sports and honestly I am just plain tired by the end of the week to write.

This year we have a 10th, 8th, 4th, 1st, and a nursery / preschool prep students. We have busy days but there is so much learning happening every day both inside and out of the classroom. It's a bit challenging in August since my gymnasts are still on summer schedule, but we are making the best of it and getting our work done. We did our traditional back to school photos. Only McKenzie and Micah would hold the signs I printed from Pinterest.

Mikayla actually woke up Monday morning and asked to switch to five days instead of four. All on her own without any input from me. She has definitely switched over into the Logic stage and is really starting to take interest in her education. This is huge, guys! She was one of my reluctant learners and there were many tears on both my end and hers the last two years. I am so glad that she is interested in learning and completing her work. Keep it up Mikayla and the sky's the limit!

Madison had a great week of school. She has really enjoyed studying Chemistry and Home Ec this year. This week she made a Tropical Smoothie with coconut milk. It was a little too coconutty for me but she and her sisters and brother liked it. In Chemistry she is plugging along with conversions. Once again we are using Red Wagon Tutorials and their Chemistry Workbook. I love the throughness of the program. In the past we used their Flash drive program, so this is our first time using the workbook option. Next year, she is already enrolled into the Live Physics class.

Madison and Mikayla, my high and middle schoolers, are doing school 5 days a week. Montana, McKenzie, and Micah are only schooling 4 days a week, Tuesday through Friday. This schedule works so well for us right now. On Monday I use the time for appointments, errands, and to prep for the school week for them. I also get to focus on Madison and Mikayla's workload.

This week we only completed a few subjects as we got back into our groove. It differed for each child what subjects they completed this week, but I hope to add in one extra subject for all this week. Next week we will be prepping for our upcoming trip to the beach. It will be a much needed break and we are all looking forward to it.

Marie is working hard at both of her jobs at Burger King during the week and a local family restaurant on the weekends. She doesn't necessarily need to work at BK, but she is enjoying the experience. I personally think the managers take advantage of her hard work ethic by having her stay late and letting her off after her shift, but she is learning to speak up for herself. Next week is her last week working at both jobs because we will be taking her back to school at the end of the month. Wow, summer for her went by quickly! She is eager to get back to studying though. She is especially excited about her new roommate and her sewing class.

That's our week in a nutshell. We are all so excited for the Olympics that began last night. I like to watch all the sports, but we are all excited for the Gymnastics competition. Do you have a favorite Olympic sport?

Hope you have had a great week!

Reviews I wrote this week:

Talking Shapes: A Supplemental Curriculum for Early Literacy

CTC Math

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Talking Fingers: Talking Shapes: A Supplemental Curriculum for Early Literacy ~ a TOS review

Talking Shapes {Talking Fingers Inc. Review}

For the past few weeks McKenzie, Micah and I have been reviewing the new online version of the Talking Shapes: A Supplemental Curriculum for Early Literacy app from Talking Fingers Inc.

Talking Shapes is a research-proven phonics program created by neuropsychologist Dr. Jeannine Herron and is geared towards the younger kiddos in PreK-K. This app came about from funding as part of a research grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Using pictures as mnemonic devices to help to teach young children that letters are just “talking shapes” that each have their own special speech sounds it introduces all 40 English phonemes. Through 4 steps, listen, draw, play games, and read, this app helps young children develop the correlation between the shape of a letter and sound of the letter makes. All the while leading your child into reading success for years to come.

The version we received is for Online access to the phoneme awareness program. We received a one-year subscription that is good for multiple users. The program begins by telling a story of how “Two Sisters Invented The Alphabet”. These sisters Pat and Nat invented the alphabet after hearing so many stories and they wanted a way to preserve the stories in books. With three choices to pick from your youngster can have the story read to them, practice drawing letters, or play the games.

Within the three choices is the option to choose from several different interactive books. Your child will hear the letter sound story read to them and then they can click on the screen to make the story come to life.

Listen ~ each letter in the picture story helps the children to remember both the shape and the sound the letter makes.

Draw ~ using the mouse your child traces and draws letters on the computer screen. Practice includes drawing letters within Talking Shapes pictures or drawing letters to make three letter words. With the help of visual clues, along with hands on drawing the program helps to see the connection between the shape of the letter and the sound.

The game section has many neat features to help reinforce the letter decoding skills learned. The three games are so much fun that your child will hardly notice that they are learning at the same time. Play Games ~ through the use of fun games your child will learn to name target pictures and spell words correctly.

The last step is reading! With the help of visual clues your child is able to fill in the blank and read the words in the sentences provided. It starts out with easy words to build confidence.
Read ~ Success comes to your child when they read their first words.

I am so pleased with this new computer program! It has been expanded on from the app version with more stories offered which is great! The stories progress in word family sounds and build upon each other. I really like that the place that you leave off in the story is saved. That is a great feature so the child does not have to go through the whole story to find their place.

I was able to use this with McKenzie who is nearly 7 and Micah who is 2. The phonics and active learning opportunities were perfect for McKenzie. She is such an eager learner that she loved having screen time and playing along with the games offered. Micah loved the interactive stories and making them come to life. For him, I really just let him listen to the stories and then push the button so that it came to life. I had the children play on their computer, which is not a touchscreen version. While they had fun, they definitely enjoyed the program more when playing on my touchscreen desktop. But don’t let that detract you from trying, it’s a great program touchscreen or not.

Be sure to see what my CrewMates thought of this program by clicking the banner below.

Company ~ Talking Fingers Inc.

Product ~ Talking Shapes: A Supplemental Curriculum for Early Literacy

Format ~ ONLINE game

Ages ~ Preschool – early reader