Orphs of the Woodlands

Our latest review has been a fun one! Our summer school schedule is pretty light and includes reading every day with a few learning-filled activities added in. My philosophy for our family is that schooling is a way of life, meaning that we look for the learning opportunities in everything we do. The kids are especially happy when I tell them that we're watching a movie on TV or playing a game on the iPad for "school." 
  

Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree falls in that latter category. This app from Star Toaster is an 122-page, interactive book that can be used on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 8.4 or later. It's great for ages 7+ and is a good transition to chapter books. 

Along with encouraging reading and improving comprehension, this app teaches much more.

• math
• thinking skills
• vocabulary
• science
• grammar
• the arts
• character
• life skills

The story follows Abba, a flying squirrel from Hoggoh Hollow. There was a terrible storm, causing the dam to break and flood his home and the entire hollow. All the other critters are missing except 6 orphans, or orphs, from the Woodlands. It is up to Abba to care for the orphs, which include 4 babies, all while gathering supplies and looking for his father. He travels all over the Woodlands to complete his tasks. 

In order to for Abba to buy the necessary supplies, he must complete jobs by helping other critters. He visits many occupations in Stumptown.

• Beaver Builders: This section reviews math concepts, like counting by 100s; tally marks, fact families, etc..
• Woodland Watchers: These jobs encourage thinking skills including paying attention and memory tips.
• Woodland Scurrier: This is where the vocabulary practice is found and focuses on compound words, homonyms, definitions, and more.
• Brainstormers Inc.: This science section contains videos and information about predicting weather, pulleys, animals, and other things from the book.
• Pinecone Publishers: These grammar exercises include similes, nouns, and types of sentences.
• Gopher Gifts & Supplies: The arts encourages impressionism through paintings.
• Cricket Cards-- Some of the character traits highlighted in this section include your life speaks, be patient during trials, and you write your history.
• Critter Cafe: These jobs teach life skills about nutrition through information about nuts and blueberries.

My kids absolutely loved playing this! My daughter (8 years) started as soon as I set up the game. She loves to read and was excited to see what the game was about. She has a soft spot for babies and felt bad for the little orphs. She couldn't wait to earn enough stars to purchase each new supply. At first, she was confused by some of the questions asked in the jobs areas, because the story didn't mention them. I showed her how all that information was in the job training section before each task. She was able to figure out everything on her own after that.

My son (10 years), on the other hand, was reluctant to try the game. His sister had completed the entire game before I finally told him that he had to play it. After the first day, he said, "Wow! This is so much better than I expected!" By the second day, he had finished the whole thing. He is a fast reader, but he also skipped all the job training sections and completed the tasks either by prior knowledge or guessing.

After they enjoyed it so much, I created myself an account and played too. The chapters are short and include many rich vocab words. The game is colorful and allows you to earn rewards along the way and keep your attention. It covers a wide range of subjects without feeling overwhelming.

This is what the kiddos had to say about it:

"I loved it. I liked reading and answering questions. I learned that frogs and toads croaked loud and long before it rains."

"It was pretty cool! I like that when you answer questions you earn stars to get stuff for your orphs. I like that they came up with so many backwards and forwards names like Hattah, Hoggoh, and Stots."

If you're looking for a way to encourage the love of reading, increase reading comprehension, and teach other subjects in fun way, Ophs of the Woodlands is a great option. My kids are eagerly awaiting the next story.

You can connect with Star Toaster on the following social media sites:

Facebook

Twitter 

If you'd like to read more reviews of this app from other homeschoolers, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Dig-It! Games Review

We're year-round homeschoolers, and while summertime means that our workload is light and our schedule is flexible, the kids know that they have some sort of learning activity each day. It's exciting though when I tell them, "You have to play a game today." And when that game is played on the iPad or the computer? Well, that's a real treat.

Dig-It! Games is a company that focuses on game-based learning. In 2005, Suzi Wilczynski, founder, began to create fun, interactive learning experiences for middle school students by using her education and archaeology background. Not only are children naturally drawn to fun and games, but these games have "the potential to enhance learning by encouraging persistence, valuing effort over rote performance, and rewarding success without punishing failure." Depending on the game, they also learn important facts along the way. We've been learning the last several weeks by playing Roman Town (iOS App) and Mayan Mysteries (Online Game).

Roman Town is set in the ancient city of Pompeii. It is your job to help catch Ladrone, a master thief, by using strategic thinking, spatial reasoning, memory, logic, math skills, and problem solving. On your quest through the city, you play game with people you meet along the way. If you win the game, they give you a clue to help solve the case. 

Along with learning facts about Pompeii, you'll also learn about Roman life, experience ancient Roman games, and play 35 unique puzzles. The game teaches social studies, math, and literacy skills.

Jake, my 9-year-old, tested this app for me. He was thrilled to play the games and find the clues. Had I not put a limit on his game time, he probably would have completed the entire game in one sitting!
There were a couple times when he asked for my help (like the Roman numerals game), but otherwise played it by himself.

Mayan Mysteries is an online game in which Ladrone is back on the loose. You along with Professor Alex Quinn, Fiona, and Charlie make Team Q and try to figure out who is digging up Maya sites, looking for ancient artifacts. On your mission to save the mythical city of Ich'aak from looters, you'll discover 7 Maya sites and play more than 25 challenging puzzles.

The game teaches skills in social studies, math, language arts, geography, critical thinking, and reading enrichment. It is historically accurate, aligned to National Standards, and offers built-in assessments.

Since this game is best for grades 5-9, Jake played this one, too. He's actually a tad young for this, and it showed in both his understanding and enjoyment of it. There is a lot of information involved. You can either read the text yourself or choose the option to allow the characters to speak aloud to you. If Jake read it, he lost interest; if he listened, he stopped paying attention. The game is very fact-heavy. That can be a good thing for learning, but it just frustrated him. Every day after playing for a while, he'd ask, "Can I be done now?" It was a very different experience from Roman Town.

This conversation sums up his feelings about the games:

Me: What did you like about the Mayan game?

Jake: Nothing really. There were too many quizzes and so much information that you needed to remember.

Me: So, it didn't really feel like a game?

Jake: Not at all.

Me: What did you think about the Roman game?

Jake: Oh, that one was awesome! That had a lot of fun games.


I was in contact with customer support several times because of both a game-related issue and a user-caused issue. Each time, the service was prompt, helpful, and extremely understanding. I was very pleased and confident in the company.

Both games are full of historical facts and bring a fun element to learning. Jake might appreciate Mayan Mysteries as he gets older, but his 9-year-old self loves Roman Town.


You can connect with Dig-It! Games on the following social media sites:

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

If you'd like to see how other homeschool families used these games, you can read more reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog. 

Trident iPad Case

I have 4 young kids. My life is noisy, rambunctious, and always busy. And things get broken. (Thankfully no people parts, just personal possessions.) No matter how much you tell kids to be careful, accidents happen. That's why we as parents take precautions before something goes wrong. We put fragile items out of reach, give them plastic dishware, place things of value someplace safe. And cover the iPad with a Trident Case.    

As soon as we bought the iPad a few years ago, Leighton purchased a heavy-duty case to cover it. Things wear out over time though, especially when the 4 previous mentioned kids mindlessly play with the rubber covers and stretch the material. The review for the KRAKEN A.M.S. CASE FOR APPLE IPAD 2/3/4 (compatible with the iPad 2, iPad 3, and iPad 4) came at a perfect time.

They have many colors for the cases, and after browsing the site looking at the different options, I chose the lime green. The cover is mostly black with a few pops of color. For this particular cover, the black sections are plastic and the green are rubber. It comes in 3 layers: shock-absorbing silicone inner layer (with plugs and dust filters for power ports, audio jacks and speakers), covered by a hardened polycarbonate outer-casing, with a built-in screen protector.

Those layers keep the device so well protected that the cases meet military standards by independent testing for drop, vibration, dust, sand, and rain:

• Drop (Mil-STD-810F, Method 516.5) – 26 drops onto concrete from 4ft.
• Vibration (Mil-STD-810F, Method 514.5) from 20-2000Hz across 3 different axes for a total of 18 hours.
• Dust (Mil-STD-810F, Method 510.4) – blow dust for 3 hours at 29 ft / sec.
• Sand (Mil-STD-810F, Method 510.4) – blow sand for 3 hours at 59 ft / sec.
• Rain (Mil-STD-810F, Method 506.4) – 7.9 inches per hour of rain at 40 mph wind velocity for 1 hour.

All that sounded great. But then came the real test--my 4 kids.  Hubby is the techy one in the family, so I let him assemble the case. The pieces easily snapped together and he was done in a minute or so. After we each ogled it, we handed it over to the kids. The case definitely adds extra weight to the iPad, but they're used to that anyway. Over the last many weeks that we've been using the Kraken case, I've not heard one negative comment from the kiddos. And of course, they even did some of their own drop testing--not purposely of course. Like I said, accidents happen, and this poor iPad has seen some accidents. We've not had one issue with the iPad though, not a scratch or a crack or issues with the screen. Nothing. This tough, American-made case truly protects it.

One thing to note is that the case does have an attachment port on the back. This supports a twist-and-lock feature to securely fit a variety of interchangeable accessories: stand holder, windshield mount, bike mount, headrest mount, hand strap, and more. If you have need of those things, I'm sure it's a convenient option. Without them though, the attachment port just leaves a raised section of the case. It's not a huge deal--it doesn't make it wobble or become unstable, but it also doesn't sit flat. My main issue with it is that between the raised port and the slipperiness of the polycarbonate, the tablet easily slides across the counter and table. It's not something that would keep me from buying the case, but I wanted to point it out.  

Something that I was impressed with is the patent-pending audio technology that redirects the sound to the front of the device to provide an enhanced audio experience. No more do I have to flip the iPad over when listening to music to get the most volume or have the sound directing away while watching a video. It's the details like that that make this a quality case.

I love that I don't have to worry about the kids using the iPad with this case on it. Even seeing my 2-year-old walking around with it doesn't make me flinch. I am confident that this case will keep it protected. Even if you don't have little ones, this case is great for all ages.

This case can be purchased from the Trident Case website for $69.95 with free standard shipping to the United States and Canada.

Trident Case carries so many options for cases to protect smart phones and tablets. If you'd like to read more reviews of this case or one of the other cases, head to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Wordless Wednesday 3/26/14

Talking Fingers

My kids love using the iPad. I love when they're learning. So when we can put the two together, everyone's happy. That's why we were excited to review the Talking Shapes iPad App from Talking Fingers, Inc..

The Talking Fingers, Inc.'s goal is to get children to realize that text is speech made visible. We use our mouths to make the sounds of words and our fingers (writing or typing) to represent the sounds on paper. Once children see the relationship between the sounds and letters, they can use that code to write the words they say. They'll make their fingers talk.

Talking Fingers, Inc. has created a new, interactive learning app for preschool readers. This app teaches that letters are "talking shapes" that represent sounds. It is divided into 3 parts: Read to Me, Draw Letters, Play Game.

Read to Me

The Read to Me section uses 3 made-up stories, to teach how two sisters invented the alphabet. The Fat Cat, The Silly Hen, and The Dancing Pig introduce 6 speech sounds and their letters. Each letter is drawn as a picture, or talking shape, to help the child easily remember both the sound and the shape. For instance, the letter C is a curling cat, T is a tree, and S is a slithery snake.

Draw Letters

In the Draw Letters part, the child practices drawing the letters on the screen with his finger while speaking the sound with his mouth. Combining two 2 components (shape and sound) helps cement them in his mind. There are different ways to practice:

• drawing the letters within guidelines inside the Talking Shapes picture
• drawing the letters within guidelines only
• drawing the letters within the Talking Shapes picture with no guidelines
• drawing letters to make three-letter words

Play Game
There are 3 games to choose in the Play Game section.  

• Find the Shapes gives the child a word to spell. There are 6 letters inside their picture to choose at the top. The child drags each picture shape to the proper space to spell the word. So, if the word is cat, the child find the picture of the C and cat, then the A and acrobat, and finally the T and Tree. Then the word cat is read, sounded out, and read again.
• Find the Letters shows just the letters, no picture shape at the top. A word is read, and again, the child drags the letter into the appropriate place. As each letter is touched, its sound is read.
• Draw the Letters shows just the picture shapes at the top with no actual letters. When the target word is read, the child finds each picture, drags it to its place, and draws the letter. For instance, if the word is wet, the child will find the pictures of worm, elephant, and tree and draw the letters W, E, T. 

After each of the spelling games, the child listens to a short poem that incorporates the words. After it's read, a word will disappear, and the child has to find the word as it passes the screen in a floating balloon, flapping hen, or flying pig.

Zac (4) has been learning how to make simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, so this app came at a perfect time. When we first downloaded it, he and I sat on the couch and played together. Within a few minutes, Alyssa (5) and Jake (8) joined us. They all were enjoying the stories and pictures so much that they were each trying to be the one to find the letters or pop balloons. Of course, it's a bit too easy for them (even Alyssa is reading long vowel words), so they never choose to play by themselves. It has been great for Zac though. Not only does he enjoy playing, but he's also making improvements with his reading. He has gone from sounding out each letter of the word, to reading the word as a whole.


You can purchase Talking Shapes (the first of 3 apps to teach 40 phonemes) for $5.99. It is compatible with the iPad and requires iOS 6.0 or later. 

You can connect with Talking Fingers through Facebook and their YouTube channel.

To see what others thought of this app, you can read more reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Phonics and Readng with McGuffey App

My kids love using the iPad, and I love giving them educational apps to use. That's why I was excited to review Phonics and Reading with McGuffey from LiteracySoft.

The app is based on McGuffey's Eclectic Primer Revised Edition, the most successful education textbook of all time. The 53 lessons allow the student to learn at his own pace and gives him the confidence he needs to read at a first grade level.

The app is designed to accomplish the following:

•  Ensure no expert phonics supervisor is needed for students to gain maximum value from the lessons
• Work for any literacy level 
• Act as your own personalized tutor, except in a computer 
• Let students set their own pace, repeating or slowing down lessons as much as they like 
• Guide your student step-by-step through reading and spelling practice 
• Provide multi-sense learning including sound, vision, and motion to appeal to a wide variety of learning styles 
• Utilize the power of synthetic phonics – the dyslexia-busting learning technique 
• Be simple and easy to use for students at any level

I downloaded it to the iPad (also available for PC) and handed it to Alyssa, my 5-year-old. The set-up was easy. She chose a spot on the user screen and typed in her name. From there, she started the lesson. The app is designed to be the teacher, so my presence was not really needed. I sat with her as she completed the first few lessons, but she often went off by herself after that. (Though that was because she was trying to get away from her noisy brothers!) 

   

I really have mixed feelings about this app. For one thing, when it gives the sound of r in lesson one, instead of saying a true r sound, he says "ruh." It does the same thing with p, b, and g also. Alyssa used to pronounce the sounds correctly when she was sounding out words, but I've noticed her adding that "uh" to the end of the letter. 

Another pronunciation that I don't like is the word a. In this case, the word should be pronounced "uh," but it is said as a long a (ay) sound. 

One more thing, and this may just be me being picky, but I'm a little undecided about the phonics blender section in the levels. While Alyssa (and her two brothers) loves switching the letters to make words, I'm not so sure it's helping with the spelling of real words. For instance, since the McGuffey Primer teaches the z sound of s (like in has) before it teaches the typical s sound (like in sat) or before it teaches the z sound, the app teaches it that way as well. So, as the kids were playing around, Alyssa decided to spell Zac's name since when she touched the s, it sounded like z. She wrote sac, but it pronounced it as Zac. Does that make sense? They were able to make many real (and silly) words as the lessons went on, but many times it was not as they were truly spelled. One of them would say, "Look, Mom, I made _____!" And though that's what the voice said aloud, that's not actually what they spelled. For instance, pal would be pronounced as pale because they chose the ā, mon is said as moon, rum becomes room because of the ū, and so on.

But there are some good points that I really like, too. For one thing, it matches up to the McGuffey Primer. We've used some of the McGuffey books with our oldest and now I can use the Primer right along with the app to reinforce what Alyssa is learning. And what's even better is that she likes using the app and even asks if she can do it! Even though little Zachy is only 3, he likes "playing" it, too. They always laugh at the silly little animated graphics and really enjoy making words in the phonics blender. While there are aspects that I don't like, the two of them are learning from it. I have seen an improvement in Alyssa's reading.

The full version of Phonics and Reading with McGuffey costs $19.99. You can also try the lite version or the first 10 lessons on the PC for free and download a free copy of McGuffey's Primer in color to aid in the lessons.

Want to see what other families thought about this app? You can head over and read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

Wordless Wednesday 4/24/13

Wordless Wednesday 3/20/13

Christian Keyboarding

My kids love using the computer. They're great at using the mouse, and most of the time, it suites their needs. But . . . it's those times when they need to actually type something when they struggle. Click . . . click . . . click go the letters. Then, "Mommy, where's the Y?" . . . click. It is time-consuming for sure. 

That's why I was excited to review Christian Keyboarding. I know my kids are young (oldest is 6), but the more they're familiar with something, the easier it will be to learn. Let's face it, this is a very techy age. Kids need to know how to type. Somehow, when I was in school, I never took a typing class. Oh, it was required, and I have no idea how I missed out. Either way, I learned by typing up reports and such, but it took longer. If my kids can learn while they're still young though, it'll make it much easier for them.

 

Your kids are going to type something while they're typing, right? (I know, deep stuff here.) What better way to learn to type than using verses. Leanne Beitel created Christian Keyboarding by combining the elements needed to satisfy state education requirements and Biblical references (I can't endorse the version used) for the private school requirements.

The lessons are short. That's a big plus for my little ones. The first of the thirty-two lessons starts with learning two letters, f and j. In lesson two, they add two more letters and then review the first two. The lessons continue in this fashion until they've practice enough lessons to start forming words. By the end, they'll be typing full paragraphs. 

This curriculum offers two versions, elementary ($12.95) and secondary ($15.95.) These are both printable e-books. Instead of printing out each lesson though, we viewed them on the iPad and typed from there. It was easy to zoom in to make the font bigger for my 6-year-old. The format of the lessons is basic. In a good way. There are no pretty pictures to distract them, no dings or buzzers to validate the work. 

My son was very excited to learn to type. That excitement lasted too . . . for a few lessons. He realized that it was going to take work. It was going to be difficult. He was going to make mistakes. You see, my son is very much like his mother. (Shocking, I know.) We're perfectionists. If we're not good at something, we don't like doing it. It didn't matter how many times I praised him for how well he was doing or ensured him that it was ok to make mistakes, he became discouraged. I understand that his small hands don't like to stay spread properly across the keys. I know that his little fingers are still weak. And that's ok. Like I said in the beginning, the more familiar you are with something, the easier it will be to learn. 

I think this is a fantastic program. 

I think it will benefit my children greatly. 

I think we'll wait a bit before trying again.

Don't let that stop you from buying it though! From now until August 29, 2012, you can save 20% on your order using code SUMMER2012! Also, there are tons of free lessons on the site and resources to help you along the way.  

     
As always, you can read more reviews of Christian Keyboarding on the Crew blog.

* Disclaimer: I received this e-book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sentence Structure Fun

We have had so much fun building sentences lately! We've been playing learning sentence structure on the iPad with Rainbow Sentences from Mobile Education Tools. 

 According to their description, 

"Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues. The who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure."

The easiest level starts with 2 color-coded groups of words. The student drags each group to its corresponding color line. There are many options to increase the difficulty, such as lengthening the sentence, separating the groups of words into single words, un-coloring the lines, and un-coloring the words. The hardest level contains 10 or more single words, all black, and black word lines. 

After the student finishes, the sentence is read back to him. He also has the opportunity to record the sentence and hear his own recording played back. This was my kids favorite part. After playing through a few sentences, Jake (6 yr) said, "I want to hear the boy say it." He had no idea that he was hearing his own voice! He wouldn't even believe me that it was him until I had him record something funny instead of the sentence. Now, every time he and Alyssa (4 yr) play it, they record such silly things along with the actual sentence. There is always much giggling. They have fun while learning. Is that allowed???

The student also earns puzzle pieces as he progresses. Jake likes figuring out what the picture is with only a piece or two. He also likes showing his newborn baby brother the colorful pictures and recording him silly messages, like the one where he goo-goo gaa-gaa-ed then inform me, "I don't think he understood."

The app costs $7.99 and is recommended for ages 3-10. Both my kids really liked this. And I think there may be a typo. Instead of ages 3 through 10, it's supposed to be age 3 times 10, because even at 30 years old, I enjoyed playing the hardest level. Maybe it's because I have an English major; maybe it's the word-puzzle lover in me. Maybe it's just a good app.

You can find more reviews of Rainbow Sentences and Story Builder (another Mobile Education Tools app) on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

   

* Disclaimer - I received this product in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Things That Make Me Smile 4/6/12

Can it really be Friday already??? This week has just flown by. Tyler will be 2 weeks old tomorrow! He's put on a little bit of weight, is finally starting to get a somewhat consistent eating schedule, and is losing some characteristics of an "early baby." I am very pleased with how well he is doing. God is good!


1. Jake counted to 100 by 20s. When I asked how he knew that, he said, "I don't know. I just made it up!"

2. Our April Fool's Day meal.

3. Jake was saying the same phrase over and over again. 
Me: "Jake, I don't want you saying that anymore."

Jake: "Can I just think it in my head and not say it out loud?"

Me: No, because eventually you will. What you think about is what you'll talk about."

Jake: "I just can't stop thinking about it."
Me: "Whenever you can't stop thinking about something you shouldn't, just sing 'Let's talk about Jesus, the King of kings is He, the Lord of lords supreme through all --'"

Jake: "Did you just say 'whipped cream?'"

4. During a science lesson, I asked, "The sun gives us light and what?" (heat) Jake answered, "Vitamin D!"

5. Alyssa asked for a Twizzler's Pull & Peel. Since we had only 1 left, I told her that she and Jake would have to share it (Zac was napping.) I cut the candy in half and gave it to her. She walked over to Jake and asked, "Which one do you want?" Had it been the other way around, he would have measured them and chosen the bigger piece - even if it was only bigger by a smidgen!

6. Alyssa said, "Wanna feel my breath, Mommy? It's hot. That's because I swallowed something hot and it made my breath hot."

7. Zac was picking out a sucker to eat. He grabbed two, so I told him to put one back. He hid one behind his back, showed me the other hand, and said, "I have one!

8. Leighton bought an iPad on Craigslist. He's been wanting one forever, but we just couldn't justify spending the money. Now that we have all our debt paid off, got a good tax return, and found a great deal, he bought one. I didn't really see the point in having one. (I am not the techy one.) We have a laptop, desktop, and an iPod; why did we need one more device? Now that we have it though, and Leighton showed me things we can do with it, I love it! It's been so convenient using it for school this week. Maybe he does know what he's talking about . . .

9. Instead of a lemonade stand this summer, Jake wants to have a science stand where he'll preform experiments for $1.00.

10. I bought the kids chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs. Alyssa ate one and said, "They're even better than scrambled  eggs!"

Have a Happy Easter!