20 Best Tips

Strider Running Bikes

stider bikes

When Strider Bikes agreed to be a part of the 1,500 Subscriber Celebration I was VERY excited. My excitement, however, was no match to that of a certain {then} 2-year-old. Kaleb was practically beside himself with happiness.

Fortunately the weather was gorgeous in late November when we pulled it out to have Kaleb ride it ~ and he took off right away, all smiles, stopping every now and then to say the color of his bike and tell me the letters on the bike {grins}.

Strider Bike ride

I promise you that every.single.day since he first rode the bike he has asked us {no less than} five times a day ~ “Can we go on a bike ride today?” It’s become a family joke of sorts, but Kaleb REALLY loves his Strider bike!!!

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What is a Strider Bike?

You might be wondering what makes a Strider bike so special {admit it…you’re curious}. Strider Bikes are essentially a pre-bike for kids ages 1-5. They have no pedals, chains, or sprockets. The bikes sit low to the ground and enable children to quickly learn to balance and build motor skills as they ride.  Within just three 20 minute spurts of riding his bike, Kaleb was lifting his feet and gliding for 15 to 20 feet stretches.
Here are a few of the things that I love about the Strider Bikes:

  • puncture-proof tires
  • adjustable seat starting at 11” extending to 16”
  • 7 pounds
  • adjustable handlebars
  • goes together in right around 5 minutes {the kids timed me putting it together!}

This video clip will give you a little more insight into Strider Bikes and some of the advantages to starting your child out with one:

All Strider Bikes {$99} come with a 60 day money-back guarantee, a full one year warranty and ship quickly via UPS {we had ours in just 2 days from the time it was shipped!}.  You can purchase your own bike through the company website ~ along with a few other bike supplies.

This giveaway is now closed

Disclaimer: Thank you to Strider Bikes for providing this product. This review is based on my own experiences and gives my honest opinion.

Homeschool Library Builder ~ Fill Your Shelves!!

Last year I reviewed the site Homeschool Library Builder and wanted to share a little of the information with you all again ~ especially a great sale that is coming up this weekend!

Homeschool Library Builder is a site that helps you fill your homeschool library shelves with quality literature ~ at affordable prices. They carry a large variety of books {out of print and current} and organize their books by category making books quick and easy to find. It is a site run by two homeschool moms with a love of books and an understanding of providing excellent literature to families.

Here are a few of my favorite features of the site:

  • A handy search feature to search for books for books related to a specific curricula: Beautiful Feet, Sonlight, Five in A Row, Tapestry of Grace…very nice!!
  • Ability to search for books by country/geographic region (which I am LOVING!!)
  • Spotlight on the season: ideas and suggestions for the upcoming season that includes crafts, lesson plans and other resources.
  • New arrivals ~ a listing of all of the books that have recently been added to the site

Speaking of sales, you might want to mark this one down! This Superbowl Sunday {February 7, 2010}, you have the opportunity to take up to 35% off your order and help a great ministry that is supporting relief efforts in Haiti.

Homeschool Library Builder is already offering a 20% off your entire order sale for the entire month of February, but will send you a coupon for an additional 15% off on Superbowl Sunday when you make a donation of any amount to Heartline Ministries.

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Head on over to Homeschool Library Builder to check out their stacks of books and see if there are any you’ve been looking to add to your library! You can also sign up to receive their newsletter which will alert you to special sales they have in the future.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.
 

This product was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.
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Rosetta Stone Homeschool Level 1 {Review}

rosetta stone 1 Rosetta Stone is a company well known for their language learning software. Did you know that they also have a special version of their language software geared specifically for homeschoolers?

Their homeschool language software is one the children {and adults!} can work on at their own pace and is fully interactive. The software provides up to five levels of instruction in some languages and begins with the foundation of listening comprehension, reading and writing. Rosetta Stone offers 31 different languages in their homeschool language software.

rosetta stone 2One of the features of the Homeschool software is that parents are able to see their children’s progress ~ which exercises have been completed, how much time they have spent learning and also test scores. Parents can also print off progress reports and lesson plans to save for documentation. Full features include:

  • Lesson Planning ~ predefined lesson plans
  • Full Year Curriculum~ the software is designed to guide students through in one level in a scholastic year.
  • Testing ~ students are tested periodically throughout the year and reviews are based on their scores.

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Another feature of the program are the audio CDs that help reinforce what students are learning. The Audio Companion CDs can be listened to while traveling in the car or loaded onto a student’s mp3 player for additional practice.

In the Box

Here is a look inside the box of our Spanish {Latin America} Level 1 for Homeschool:

  • Application CD
  • Language CD
  • Audio Companion™ CDs
  • User’s Guide – Discusses the basics of the Rosetta Stone program
  • Parent’s Guide – Aids the parent in lesson planning, tracking student progress, and effectively using Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3 in a homeschool environment
  • Headset with microphone
  • Quick Start Activation Card
  • Supplemental Education Materials CD includes printable files for:
    • Table of contents
    • Scripts for each lesson
    • An index to all words in the program
    • Student workbook including a quiz for each lesson
    • Unit tests
    • Answer key for workbooks and tests

Purchasing Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone Homeschool ranges in price from $229 to $299 a level, but does offer ‘bundles’. Levels 1-3 may be purchased for $539 and Levels 1-5 may be purchased together for $699.

Product purchases include free shipping in the continental US and from now until February 15, 2010 they are offering a 10% discount on all personal and homeschool product purchases. Rosetta Stone also offers a 6 month money back guarantee on all of their products.


This review is based on my own experiences and gives my honest opinion.

Out of the Box ~ Backseat Drawing Jr.

 

Drawing is something that can keep our children occupied for a very long time.  When Out of the Box games agreed to be a part of the giveaway celebration, they sent me the game Backseat Drawing to play with our kids. Guess who was VERY excited?

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We pulled out the game on a snowy afternoon and it was an immediate hit! Even Zachary {with a little extra coaching} was able to play along with us.

To play the game, one person is chosen as the ‘Director’ {aka the one who describes the picture that needs to be drawn} and another person is the ‘Artist’. The Artist must draw a picture that only the Director has seen ~ drawing a picture based on what the Director tells him to draw.

Backseat Drawing Jr.Everyone else then tries to guess what the picture is and the person who guesses correctly gets a point along with the Director.  Instead of using paper, the game uses a dry erase boards, so there isn’t a lot of clean-up or mess when playing the game.  The first person to get five points wins!

We played the game for several rounds {i.e. until everyone had a chance to win. :) While the game is for ages 7 and up, Zachary {who is 5} did play along with us by both Directing and drawing. Granted, his directions were a little more sketchy than others, but he was able to work through many of the cards without much difficulty.  Below you can see a few of our artistic endeavors while playing.

Backseat Drawing Jr
Backseat Drawing Jr. is a great game to use in helping focus on directions and also incorporate some great positional words ~ ‘draw a smaller circle inside the larger circle’ or ‘draw a medium triangle upside down under the circle’. Out of the Box Games also has a sheet of the educational standards for Backseat Drawing Jr.

Backseat Drawing Jr. Game
Ages: 7 & up {depends on the maturity of your child}
Number of Players: 3 to 8
Time per game: About 20 minutes per round
Where to buy? Available online from OTB Games

Out of the Box also has many other fun and educational games, including Apples to Apples Jr. {another favorite here}, so be sure to browse around their website a little bit.

 
Disclaimer: This review is based on my own experiences and gives my honest opinion.

Mathscore {Review}

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When I tell you that the last month and a half have been a flood of math products for us to review…well, I’m not kidding. Fortunately our kids enjoy spending time ‘playing’ on the computer, so it really a win/win situation for all of us. They get to work on math and I can learn about new products and share with all of you.

About Mathscore

Mathscore was developed by MIT graduates in an effort to help children practice math {grades 2 through 9}. It provides a way for parents to easily keep track of their children’s progress and has been shown to raise math test scores. 

The emphasis on MathScore is efficient math practice. Typical competing services place a large emphasis on the teaching aspect and much less on practice. Statistically, most students in the United States don’t get enough math practice, which we believe explains the low test scores. MathScore is fun and competitive. As a result, typical students will complete hundreds of math problems for every hour of use. This great efficiency in practice leads to very rapid rates of learning. MathScore’s patent-pending technology even adapts the difficulty based on performance, making every problem attempt productive, unlike typical “drill-and-kill”.

from the Mathscore site

Parents initially log into the site and create a user name/password and can then create separate accounts for each of their children. Children each have their own username and password to work on their math facts. If you have more than one computer, multiple users can be logged on at the same time.

Students are asked to answer math problems and these problems increase in difficulty based on their performance. They can start on a worksheet or follow a small lesson. The worksheets are timed, but parents can increase the time if their child struggles with the limits. Parents can also switch levels for their children and decide which topics they would like them to work on.

Assessment tests help show where your child excels or struggles and the program will then suggest areas of focus. The site does provide samples for each math topic so students have an idea of what is being covered before beginning lessons and worksheets.

Daily reports are sent to parents for each of their children so that they can track progress. Reports give information on the math topics that were covered, accuracy, worksheets completed, how much time they spent working, etc. The reports can be printed off also and put into school files for reference. You can view additional parent features here and also access a free math worksheet generator through the Mathscore website.

Price

Mathscore varies in price based on your membership commitment. If you sign up for the month-to-month, it is priced at $14.95/month for the first child, $5/month for your second child, and $3.95/month for each child thereafter. For the first two months of your membership, your first child is only $9.95/month.  Another benefit to the site is vacation freeze ~ you can temporarily freeze your account if you go on vacation.

My Thoughts

Compared to some of the other math sites that we have been using lately, this one didn’t hold our kids attention as much. While the site itself is thorough, there aren’t a lot of extras {avatars, cute graphics, etc…} ~ for some that might be a drawback, especially if the programs you have been using do. :)

While I think this is a great product, for me the price is a little bit of a deterrent. $14.95/month {plus the cost of additional children} can add up pretty quickly. For us, a full year of the program would be around $170 for just two of our kids. If your child is in need of more focused tutoring, this may be a great option to try first, since it would be more cost efficient than tutoring.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.

This program was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

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Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling {Apologia Press}

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If there was ever a book that I wish I would have had handy when I first started homeschooling, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling  from Apologia Press would be one I would have referred to often…and fortunately still can.  Each member of the Homeschool Crew recently received this revised and updated edition by Debra Bell to review and it’s one that will stay on my shelf for me to use and lend out to friends.

About The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling

Debra Bell, the author,  is no stranger to the homeschool community. She homeschooled her four children from kindergarten through high school and now speaks at homeschool conventions, sharing what she has learned over the years and helping other parents navigate the homeschooling maze.

This newly revised and updated version of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling is larger than previous releases {500 pages} and included current information for websites and using technology at home. It also includes ideas for working with kids at different grade levels, how to keep toddlers busy, and teaching middle/high school classes.

What areas does the book cover? Apologia Press offers the ability to view the full table of contents and a sample chapter online {Six Ingredients of a Successful Home School}. The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling is divided into ten different sections:

  • Homeschooling: Is It for You ~ looks at the challenges and advantages of homeschooling and also includes information for single parent families along with tips for success.
  • Choosing a Curriculum ~ learning styles, curriculum fairs
  • Organization and Planning ~ learning environments and daily schedules
  • Preventing Burnout ~ provides ‘Burnout Busters’
  • What to Teach ~ When and How
  • Homeschooling Teens ~ course study, college admissions
  • Computers in the Homeschool ~ Hardware and software
  • Creative Solutions ~ toddlers, reluctant learners and the transition from school to home
  • Measuring Your Success ~ assessment methods and targets
  • Resource Guide ~ products/supplies, academic contests and competitions

My Thoughts

I’m currently a little partial on the section related to burnout {grins} and also the 50 pages of resources that the book provides. It is chocked full of great information. Overall, this book from Apologia Press is a great tool to recommend to families that are considering homeschooling, new to homeschooling, or even looking at the ‘next step’ for their younger children. 

You can purchase  The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling directly from Apologia Press {$20.00} and also find it through major online retailers such as Amazon. If you are interested in learning more about science products from Apologia, be sure to read my review on their Young Explorer Science Series.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.
 

This product was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

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