The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks is a virtual world based on the children’s story book series by John Bittleston. Through the web-based game, children ages 7 to 14 travel to places around the world, meet different historical people, play games, interact with other children online. This virtual world has more than 100 real and imaginary locations to help children learn about various cultures, people, and important historical events.

The site is intended to be a safe place for kids to play and explore:

Parents can look forward to a safe site for their children where they will be learning about history, geography, landmarks, famous people, inventions, the environment, animals and more.

{from the Wiglinton & Wenks website}

My Thoughts

When I first had the opportunity to review Wiglington & Wenks, I was excited. The graphics were amazing {and cute} and since we are doing geography studies this year I thought it would be a great addition to our school time.

The girls wanted to play right away ~ and really I couldn’t blame them. However, they quickly became frustrated trying to figure out how to access the program and got to the point where they just wanted to do something else. I tried to figure out how to start traveling in the game and ended up having to search through some forums for in order to gain full access. 

Truthfully, it’s not a program that I would want to invest my money in. While it does offer some fun things for kids to do, I had a few concerns:

• Lack of explanation on how to begin. While the site tells you to go to the museum, there are no directions on how to GET there. I ended up finding the museum for the kids, but was getting pretty frustrated myself. You are then supposed to find key items to help various historical figures remember things…again, good luck with that. The girls were just wandering around and not doing much in the way of learning.
• The site offers chat features between players ~ while it is moderated, some kids know how to get around the ‘no profanity’ rule and will use use inappropriate words. You can report various players if you witness something inappropriate {which I did..but couldn’t figure out how to report it}. That said, I’m not comfortable letting my kids explore a site that isn’t as controlled and monitored as I would desire it to be. The company is updating their chat monitoring software, but at the time I am writing this review, it is not done.
• Basically, the game ended up being a huge time-sucker and since we don’t allow the kids a whole lot of computer time, it’s not educational-based enough for me to justify a paying for a membership.

Find Out More

Anyone can play Wiglington & Wenks, but if you would like access to special features {like we did}, you’ll have to subscribe. There are several different options for membership: Monthly {$5.99}, 3 Month Ticket {$16.99}, 6 Month Ticket {$29.99} and Yearly {$48.00 ~ currently 20% off}. For more information, visit their site.

Last year I reviewed Building Thinking Skills from Critical Thinking and was not disappointed this year when Language Smarts C showed up on my doorstep for us to review. This book actually kicked it up a notch from the other workbook ~ full color graphics, glossy paper and packed with over 300 pages of activities to help improve your child’s writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and thinking skills.

Language Smarts C {$39.99} is geared toward 2nd and early 3rd graders and covers topics such as: palindromes, contractions, compound words, nouns and pronouns, double negatives, possessive nouns, homonyms, suffixes, prefixes, categorizing and more. Want a peek inside the colorful book? You can view a slideshow sample here on the Critical Thinking website and also view the table of contents.

Language Smarts guarantees top performance on assessment tests, including:
~ Criterion Reference Test (CRT)
~ Iowa Tests of Basic Skills® (ITBS®)
~ OLSAT-Otis Lennon Scholastic Abilities Test
~ California Achievement Test (CAT) and many more!

The workbook is reproducible and rather than including an answer key to take up added space, you can download the pdf answer key file from the Critical Thinking website. While I appreciate that it is reproducible, I’m sad and pathetic and wouldn’t reproduce it in color so that it wouldn’t suck my printer cartridges dry of ink ~ only because the pages are VERY colorful.

We were able to use the book for a little bit during our school time and will continue to use it for the rest of our school year. I actually had the binding cut off the book so that it would be easier to use. While it is termed a workbook, it really doesn’t have that ‘workbook’ feel ~ just fun and packed with a lot of learning.

Find Out More

You can purchase Language Smarts C {$39.99} from the Critical Thinking website. They also offer a LOT of free printables and samples of their products on their website, so be sure to check those out also!

Note: This workbook is licensed to be reproduced for use within one home or one classroom {per Critical Thinking}.

Math Galaxy is a math tutorial program for grades K – 12 that covers topics from Whole Numbers to Word Problems, all the way up to Algebra Fundamentals. It offers you the opportunity to have your own personal tutor in the comfort of your own home. 

Unlike most math textbooks, which throw a mass of material at the student, Math Galaxy focuses student attention on concepts sequentially and interactively, based upon the ideas behind math manipulatives (such as counting blocks) and connecting new concepts to familiar experiences. Unlike most math software, it goes beyond simple games, low-level operations or rule memorization to link familiar and concrete experiences to higher-level processes.

~ Math Galaxy website

We were given the opportunity to review Fractions Fun {$29.95}, a tutorial that covers topics such as comparing fractions, reducing fractions, prime factors, greatest common factor, least common multiple and more. The program includes games for learning and the website also offers online resources as well as printables.

My Thoughts

This year we’ve had the opportunity to review several computer math games with our kids. While there isn’t anything wrong with the program, this one did not grab the attention of our kids like many of the others did. The graphics aren’t as ‘flashy’, so I’m pretty sure that had a lot to do with it.

I do like the fact that it is a one time cost to purchase the program {rather than a monthly fee to use it online}. The games/review seemed a little slow overall ~ but they are thorough and do not lack in information. The worksheet generator would be very useful too ~ over 500 to print off and use as you like.

For More Information

Math Galaxy offers six different products that are all available for download at $29.95 each. They also have worksheet generators priced at $29.95 each. You can also take a guided tour of their programs to find out more. Math Galaxy also offers a 30-day Money Back Guarantee.

System Requirements

Windows 98 or later or Mac OS X.  Math Riddler Worksheet Generators require a printer.  Programs also require Java plug-in.

Our children really enjoy listening to audio books while we run errands and just drive around town. We have a wide variety of books that we like to listen too, and many times I find myself enjoying the books {as much as the quiet that ensues when all the kids are listening!}.  Children’s Bible Hour Ministries recently sent us the Seasons of Faith book series to review with our kids.

Seasons of Faith

This series is intended to encourage children in their walks with God and each book focuses on a ‘season’ in our walks. Each book in the series is beautifully illustrated and includes an audio CD telling of the story.

Each book in the series is beautifully illustrated and includes an audio CD telling of the story. From the website, here is a description of each of the stories:

“Becky spends spring break on her cousin Sarah’s horse farm in Montana. Taking horse rides amidst the beautiful mountains and valleys, Becky tries to share her faith with Sarah as she talks about God’s creation. Will Sarah listen?”

“Adam and his new friend Zack decide to build a tree fort one warm summer day. After zooming down a hill and falling into a muddy pond, Zack asks Adam about going to church and salvation. Will Adam be able to explain his faith to Zack?”

“Batter up! When Brad accidentally breaks the ice cream shop’s sign, the owner forgives Brad. But when his best friend Doug ruins Brad’s favorite baseball cap, will he be able to forgive Doug?”

“When Thomás moves away from his neighborhood and into a mobile home in his grandparents’ backyard, he misses his friends. There’s nothing to do around the apple orchard with no friends, his dad works a lot, and his little brother was hurt in an accident. All his sister wants to do is play with her dolls. Will Thomás be able to rely on God to get through the difficult times?”

My Thoughts

For our family, these books have brought up some great ‘discussion’ questions, but have especially encouraged our children to reach out to their friends and talk more about their love for God ~ which has been very wonderful to see. Somehow hearing the children in the stories talk with their friends about God triggered something in our two oldest and gave them a little boost of confidence to more openly talk with several neighborhood children about coming to church with them.

The Children’s Bible Hour website also provides a list of discussion questions that can be used to go along with each of the books in the series.

Find Out More

Each book in the series is available for $10. When you use the code FREESHIPAPR15 between March 17 and April 15, 2010, you can receive free standard shipping with the purchase of the 4 book set.