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Families Again
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Do You Need a Good Laugh?
Topic: General

I got this from one of my TOS Homeschool Crew fellow crewmates. You need to call the Nestle Crunch Hotline at 1-800-295-0051. When it asks you to press one for English or two for Spanish, don't do anything, just quietly stay on the line and listen. You'll love it!

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Posted by tink38570 at 4:22 PM CST
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Friday, 20 November 2009
Exploramania's Gymathtics - Can You Keep A Secret?

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I've got a secret! I have never revealed this before on my blog. But you have to promise me that you will keep this secret. If you can't, then just scroll on down to the next paragraph. If you can, then read further. I was once a teacher! What's that? You can't read it? Ok, I'll make it a little bigger. I was once a teacher! Still too small? Ok, ok,  I will write it loud and clear. I was once a teacher! There! It's out! I was a teacher in a private Christian school in Florida for eleven years! Well, actually I was an educational therapist for eleven years. What's an educational therapist? It's a person who works one on one with kids who have learning problems.

"Well", you may be thinking "that is all well and good, but what does that have to do with this new product you're reviewing - Exploramania's Gymathtics?" Actually it has a lot to do with it. I learned that many times kids learn better when moving. The traditional thought is that you have to be quiet and sitting still in order to pay attention to the teacher and learn. However, I can tell you from experience with my kids that isn't always true. My son Joshua, for instance, likes being upside down. He can actually listen and repeat what I said while standing on his head! He also learns well when he is moving around. As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was given a free copy of Exploramania's Gymathtics DVD in order to try out and review on my blog and I found that is the theory behind Exploramania's Gymathtics.

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Gymathtics, though, takes it a step further. Instead of just willy-nilly moving around while learning, why not learn while exercising? They take healthy exercises and combine them with basic math. During a typical Gymathtics session, you may be learning the different shapes while warming up, counting by 2's or sequencing while doing aerobics, or learning healthy living skills while cooling down. In fact, a Gymathtics session is divided into four parts:

  • Shape Stretches Warm Up
  • Counting Calisthenics
  • Pattern Power
  • Well-Being Wind Down

Although it is encouraged to do all four sections at once, my son, Joshua, started out by only doing a section at a time. After several time through the sections, though, he was able to do them all together. During the sessions, Ms. Carrie and her four helpers, lead you through the routines. During that time, Ms. Carrie is explaining the math concepts that you are learning. There motto is "Get fit! Get Smart! Have Fun!" and they certainly do all three on the video. During "Shape Stretches Warm Up" you are making different shapes and angles with your body while Ms. Carrie is explaining them. In "Counting Calisthenics" you are counting by twos, fives and tens, as well as learning odd, even and prime numbers and place value. "Pattern Power" has you repeating different exercises in a pattern. Finally, during "Well-Being Wind Down", you're learning well living skills while cooling down.

It's all a very unique idea that my first grader Joshua loved. My toddler Jacob even tried it out for a little while. However, although it has teenage children performing the exercises in the video, 13 year old John Allen was not impressed. I could see this video working well with children that have learning problems. As I said, Joshua, who has Asperger's syndrome, loved it. Toddlers through younger elementary children would probably do well with it as well. However, the younger children in the video did have a difficult time with some of the activities, especially the cool down ones. You may need to do it a section at a time with the younger ones. They may not understand all of the math concepts or even be able to do the skip counting etc, but they should be able to do most of the exercises and sooner or later the math will stick.

All in all, I think this is a great video for the younger crowd. The exercises, along with the basic math skills, make it an excellent learning video for those ages. Exploramania even has a second Gymathtics video that just came out. And, they have other great exercise equipment on their website as well. The videos sell for $24.99 and you can find the Exploramania's website by clicking here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. If you want to see what the other TOS Homeschool Crew is saying about this product you can click here. Happy exercising!

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Posted by tink38570 at 11:59 PM CST
Updated: Saturday, 21 November 2009 12:12 AM CST
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Thursday, 19 November 2009
Thank A Vet!
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: General

Are you blessed whenever you go to church every Sunday? - Thank A Vet!

Are you thankful for the freedom to say what you want when you want? - Thank A Vet!

Are you glad that you are able to travel where you wish when you wish? -  Thank A Vet!

Did you vote in the last presidential election? - Thank A Vet!

When you look at your 1 or 2 or 5 or 7 or 10 or however many children with love in your heart and are blessed to have each one of them? - Thank A Vet!

I could go on and on with reasons to ... - Thank A Vet!

There are many reasons for you to be thankful this Thanksgiving. Even with all of the things going wrong in our country and world, God has still blessed us with many things to be grateful for - a roof over our head, food to eat, clothes to wear. Many times, however, God uses others to provide the blessings that he has given us.  And, many times, those that he uses are neglected and forgotten. Let's not forget the men and women who have served or are serving our country this holiday season. The Red Cross has an excellent program called "Holiday Mail for Heroes". Take a look at the following clip from YouTube:

This holiday season let's thank a vet by sending them a card. Let's be a blessing to those who God has used to provide blessings to us. You can go to the "Holiday Mail for Heroes" website by clicking here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. In the meantime, have a very Happy Thanksgiving and a Very Merry Christmas.

 

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Posted by tink38570 at 7:11 PM CST
Updated: Thursday, 19 November 2009 8:27 PM CST
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009
AVKO Website Membership
Topic: Homeschool Product Review

What do you do when you have a child that is horrible at spelling - like my son John Allen. I am constantly correcting his writing pages, grammar pages, anything that involves putting words on to paper. But, what do I do? Do I wait until that word comes up in his spelling book? Do I go back and review the word from a previous spelling list? Do I have him write the words that he misses ten times each? Would he even remember how to spell that word a week later if I did? Recently I found the answer! AVKO's Sequential Spelling. Now before you start shouting at your computer that this is a spelling program that has spelling books, and wouldn't that be the same as looking back at former spelling lists, let me explain.

Recently, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free membership to the special AVKO member section of AVKO's website in order to try it out and review it on this blog. As you can see on the banner above, "AVKO is a non-profit organization devoted to helping teachers, parents, and researchers since 1974". You are correct in saying that AVKO does have a series of books called Sequential Spelling. I had been looking at it for some time to possibly buy for either John Allen or Joshua. But, did you know that anyone could take the principles that Sequential Spelling is based upon and use those principles themselves? Neither did I, until I began looking around AVKO's membership section. In fact, they not only tell you how to develop your own spelling program, but have downloads with word families to help you develop your own program.

Let me first explain how Sequential Spelling works. You first begin with a word family - let's say the in family. You would dictate to your student the word in first. You would then dictate a word such as pin. You may then add an "s" and ask them to spell pins. Then you might add the doubling rule and ask them to spell pinning and possibly spinning. Later you might add the word bin just to make sure that they are understanding that all words in that family are spelled alike. You get where this is going. Instead of learning a rote list of words that they will forget in a weeks time, your child is learning practical word families. If you buy the books, all of this is done for you. Unfortunately, you are then stuck to waiting until a particular word comes up in one of the future lessons, or, if he learned it previously, go back and review it. If you buy a membership to AVKO's membership section, then you can download for free their great, over 1600 page (yes I said 1600 pages) book The Patterns of English Spelling Plus Word Families in Sentence Context.  This fantastic book has all of the word families listed so all you have to do is look up a word and develop a spelling list around it!

Recently John Allen spelled the word because - becaose. So, I'm going to develop a word list to help him learn how to spell this word. I look in my downloaded book, find the word "because" in the alphabetical list and it tells me that the word family that "because" is in is word family 436. I look up word family 436 and see that I need to begin with the word cause then progress to causes, and caused, then because, clause, applause etc. It's as simple as that. I have now developed a spelling list for a spelling problem that John Allen is having right now. I don't have to review or wait until later! I can do the same thing with any word that he is having trouble spelling.

But, that's just one really neat thing that I found that you can do with an AVKO membership. There are a lot of great ebooks that you can download that will help you with your homeschooling. In fact, if you bought all of the ebooks that you get free with a membership, it would cost you into the 100's of dollars! They also have a large section titled "Readings for Comprehension". It includes puns, funny stories, inspirational stories, humorous quotations for comprehension or dictation, puzzles and quizzes and more. There is even a link to a great website called "Spelling City". AVKO has teamed up with Spelling City to create spelling lists for those of you who don't want or have time to create your own.

What does all of this cost? Hundreds of dollars? Nope! It's just $25 a year for a Basic Membership or $100 a year for a Deluxe Membership. Here are the differences between the two as described on the AVKO website:

Benefits of AVKO Deluxe Membership

Institutional Membership is open to individuals as well as tutoring centers, schools, learning centers, homeschool resource centers, etc.
Access to all of the benefits of AVKO's Basic Membership (see below)
25% discount off all materials ordered
Read-only access to ALL AVKO curriculum materials (except for Sequential Spelling and Engaging Language Kits)
Access to AVKO's newest e-books:
Word Family Supplements 1-7 for Sequential Spelling
Spelling Remediation Test Kit

Benefits of AVKO Basic Membership

Discounts on AVKO printed materials
Hundreds of dollars worth of FREE e-books (PDF)
The Patterns of English Spelling (All 10 Volumes) with Word Families in Sentence Context
To Teach a Dyslexic
Starting at Square One
The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
Access to the Member Only section
AVKO Newsletter with freebies, discounts, resources, and promotions
Access to Don McCabe's most popular workshop recordings in MP3 format.
Supplemental Curriculum Materials including word games, worksheets, activities, and more!
Access to Pretests and Placement Tests
Access to the Answer Keys for the Unscramblers and Family Reunion exercises of the Engaging Language Kits

As you can see, there is something for everyone in AVKO's membership section whether you use the Sequential Spelling books or not! An AVKO membership is something that you can use for your child if you homeschool or if you are just trying to supplement your child's public or private school education. Even if you don't want to become a member (but I'm sure you will), there is a free section on the AVKO website that you can use. To check out AVKO's website, just click here, or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. To see what the other TOS Homeschool Crew members are saying about AVKO, click here. I am really sold on AVKO and I think you will be as well. Check it out today.

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Posted by tink38570 at 1:35 PM CST
Updated: Wednesday, 18 November 2009 11:21 PM CST
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Quick Update! How Cool Can You Get?

I was very pleasently surprised to find that CBH (see below's post) had special links where you could actually put the devotional from the day's Keys for Kids or the Down Gilead Lane half hour radio program right on your own blog! So, at the bottem of the left column is the devotional followed by the intro to the radio program. The devotional will automatically change daily and the radio program will change weekly. There is even a button that you can click on to hear the devotional read to you by "Uncle Charlie"! The radio show looks like it is a continuous story that involves a mystery. Should be fun. Don't forget to check back here every day! How cool can it get?

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Posted by tink38570 at 12:05 AM CST
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