When I first received a box from the We R Fun company and I opened it up to find the preschool version of Life on the Farm, I hid it on the fridge and out of the kid’s sight for two reasons:

1. They would want to play it right away.
2. They would want to play it over and over again.

I was right…but fortunately for me they didn’t see it until I was ready for them to see it! Because when it made it’s debut, the kids were VERY excited ~ especially since they beat me every single time {and can I just say, I don’t care much for losing???}.

We have been playing with the preschool version of Life on the Farm and I am very impressed with the quality of the game and the durability of it! And if you know Zachary {our 5 year old} well enough, the fact that it survived the first 10 minutes of play is proof enough of that! I’m thrilled because it’s also going to be a great game for Kaleb {almost 3} to play ~ and it’s rare that he plays along with the big kids. Usually games are too much above his level, but we can easily help him out with this one.

About the Game

Life on the Farm is really simple to play and the kids caught on right away. The game board is made of five foam puzzle pieces that go together quickly. Once put together, there is a path of colored squares that take players around the board, with farm animals along the path.

Each player has a thick foam barn that has places to put different farm animal pieces into {pig, sheep, goat, cow, horse, etc…} and you collect the pieces by landing on certain squares. Traveling around the board is easy too ~ you draw color cards from a pile and move to the appropriate color square.

My Thoughts

Do I like this game? Yes, I do!!! One of the main reasons that I would recommend it is the quality of the board. We have a lot of board games that meet an untimely end in this house because the boards are folded in the wrong direction and ripped apart. The ‘game board’ itself is made of a thick foam ~ as well as the game pieces. Huge bonus points from me on this point!

A few more things that I love:

• the colors are bright and vivid
• the graphics are cute!
• each game piece has a different shape: heart, circle, square, etc…so you can also work on naming/recognizing shapes
• the game focuses on colors to move around the board, so you are also working on color naming skills
• helps with puzzle skills too as kids put the animals in their barns
• and the obvious ~ naming farm animals, etc…
• it’s non-toxic…for all those little ones that might like to chew on pieces while watching their older siblings play

Find Out More

If this is a game that your little ones might be interested in {and don’t complain to me if they beat you over and over again…}, you can purchase the game through the We R Fun website for $20 {plus s/h}. The game is also available through Amazon {$19.99}. We R Fun also offers a version of Life on the Farm for kids ages 8 and up that might work for your family too!

A few weeks ago we received a DVD from Exploramania called GyMathtics to review for the Homeschool Crew. The kids were so excited when they saw the kids exercising on the front cover and wanted to try it right away.

About the Product

Exploramania was started to help children develop healthy lifestyles and also a love for learning. The Gymathtics DVD is a 30 minute exercise routine that incorporates math facts and learning into the routine. It includes four sections:

• Shape Stretches Warm Up: Kids stretch their bodies and form lines, circles, and polygons.
• Counting Calisthenics: Aerobic time for kids along with counting by 5’s, 10’s, odd and even intergers.
• Pattern Power: Exercises are done with repeating patterns.
• Well-Being Wind Down: Cool down time for kids.

Gymathtics In Action

The target age range for Gymathtics is 2nd through 5th grade because of the concepts that it covers, but personally I would put it in a younger range {K – 3rd}. Our three oldest {8, 7, and 5} have enjoyed it quite a bit and pull their ‘exercise mats’ {a.k.a. towels} out several times a week to get some exercise in. In fact, when I went out of town for a few days and the kids were left with ‘homework’ they wanted Gymathtics on their list ‘to do’ each day ~ ’cause they’re strange like that! {grins}

Find Out More

The DVD is currently available for purchase directly through the Exploramania site for $24.99 {with free s/h} and also through Amazon. The company also has several other exercise products available, including a second DVD in the Gymathtics series, a math mat, and several math balls.

While this DVD is a hit in our house, be sure to consider the age range of your kids when purchasing. I’m happy that our kids are getting some exercise and some energy out while reviewing math concepts, but older kids might not be as thrilled with the content.

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

AVKO is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping students who struggle with reading and dyslexia. They provide low-cost materials for teachers, homeschoolers and others based on the multisensory approach {AVKO stands for Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, Oral}, specifically in the area of language arts ~ reading, spelling, handwriting and keyboarding.

You may think you’ve never heard of AVKO before, but if you are familiar with the program Sequential Spelling, you do know them. AVKO is the company behind Sequential Spelling and also Engaging Language. As a member of the Homeschool Crew, I received a complimentary basic membership to the AVKO site to browse through the services that they offer.

Membership to AVKO

AVKO offers two different levels of site membership: Basic {$25} and Deluxe {$100}. Both memberships are for a one year period and include:

• 25% discount on all AVKO printed materials
• access to the members only section
• access to mp3 workshops by Don McCabe
• a LOT of free ebooks
  • 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
• AVKO newsletter
• Access to Pretests and Placement Tests
• Access to the Answer Keys for the Unscramblers and Family Reunion exercises of the Engaging Language Kits
• Additional materials like worksheets, activities, and more.

The Deluxe membership also offers read-only access to all of their products online.

Find Out More

If you’ve been looking at purchasing any of the programs that AVKO offers, including Sequential Spelling, a membership to the site might be beneficial to you, especially because of the 25% materials discount. While I personally do not have a need for the site at this point, I know that there are many families that would benefit from the helps that the AVKO site does offer.

The AVKO site can be a little overwhelming {and a little confusing to navigate} because there is a LOT of information. I would offer a word of caution ~ pre-read anything that you might be presenting to your child. Both To Teach a Dyslexic and the Readings for Comprehension contain some one-liners and puns that might be offensive to people.

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

I received a CD-rom from American Heritage Education Foundation in the mail recently to review and was a little puzzled at first about what exactly it was. After reading through the information that came along with the CD, I discovered that I had a wonderful little tool in my hands ~ it was actually a FULL American history curriculum for grades K-12.

You want to know the best part? It is completely FREE. As in, no charge. How wonderful is that?

The Mission of American Heritage Education Foundation {AHEF}

AHEF is a non-profit, non-partisan education foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America’s factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens.

AHEF accomplishes this patriotic mission by writing, producing, and distributing FREE K-12 lesson plans to teachers, students and families in all 50 states and through additional initiatives, programs, and partnerships.

More about the Curriculum

America’s Heritage has full lesson plans and resources for grades K-12 in history and related subjects. It is a curriculum that was developed by teacher and lesson plans are divided into three different age levels: elementary, middle, and high school. The plans can be adjusted and made age appropriate through for different age groups. The creators of the plans also provide any national standard information {NCSS or Core Knowledge Skills} as they relate to the lessons. Although it was originally developed for use in the public school system, it can be easily used in a homeschool setting.

Each lesson focuses on at least one {or more} of the following core themes: freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility. The plans are broken down into three sections which each cover different topics/areas.

Plans for elementary aged children include the following topics:

• Colonial American and the American Revolution
• Declaration of Independence
• George Washington & US presidents
• history of Thanksgiving
• Statue of Liberty
• America the Beautiful

Middle school topics include:

• US Constitution
• Bill of Rights
• Gettysburg Address
• National Motto
• Pledge of Allegiance

High school topics also cover:

• Mayflower Compact
• First Amendment
• American’s Creed
• Federal Flag Code
• National Documents
• Entrepreneurs in history

Each level of curriculum is set up in a similar way and provides the teacher with several different things ~ the purpose of the lesson, the lesson objective, time it takes to teach the lesson, material needed, and any prior preparation that needs to be done ahead of time. Lessons also include extra activities that relate to the lesson like games, copies of documents {such as signatures, the Declaration, Constitution, etc…} and other fun things like theater scripts, puzzles, and puppets.

Find Out More

Did you catch the fact that this is a free resource for everyone? That fact alone should get you hopping over to the page to request a free CD of the curriculum {a $150 value} or you can order it all in a 3-ring binder {$19.50}. Depending on the speed of your internet provider, you can also download the curriculum.

I’m excited to have this as a resource for us to use next year since we’ll be studying early American history ~ and the less planning I have to do and the more resources I have the better!

Bright Ideas Press recently sent me All American History Volume 1 ~ The Explorers to the Jacksonians by Celeste W. Rakes to review as part of the Homeschool Crew. We were able to choose a product from the company and I requested this one knowing next year we are going to be covering early American history and I can use all the help I can get! I was only expecting the student text , but also received the teacher guide and student activity book that go along with the student text.

About the Curriculum

All American History: Volume 1 Student Text {$44.95} is a full year’s history curriculum that features 32 weekly lessons for grades 5-8. Volume 1 covers the time period from the early explorers til 1840 and includes European exploration, the colonies, revolution period, and the period of establishment and expansion. Celeste Rakes, the author, wants children to experience and know that history is NOT boring while providing parents and teachers with a helpful framework for teaching history to their children.

Features of All American History include:

• hands-on activities and ideas for further study
• an emphasis on the social and cultural history surrounding an event
• context for different events {each chapter has an ‘Atmosphere’ section}
• weekly summaries of the important parts of the lesson

Each week students read a chapter from the Student Text and use the Activity Book {$16.95} which contains forms, maps, review questions and activities for further study that go along with the weekly lesson. The Teacher’s Guide/Answer Key {$18.95} provides resources for each lesson, recommended books for further study, and additional options that can be used with each unit. The back of the book also includes the answers for the Student Activity Book as well as additional forms that can be used with students.

My Thoughts

You all are probably wondering how {because we’re studying world geography} we incorporated it into our curriculum. While we haven’t been going through American history over the last few weeks and using all the resources that came along with it, the book did come in rather handy when we were studying Spain and Italy, because several of the explorers we were learning about were covered in the first part of the book.

The text was a little above our kid’s level right now, but it can be adapted easily enough for children that are a little younger {part would depend on your child’s reading level also}. Instead of having our kids read it, I would ‘retell’ the story in easier to understand words. Next year I plan on using this to refer to often when we study early American history.

Find Out More

If you are interested in learning more about Volume 1 of All American History or seeing some of the other products that Bright Ideas Press offers, visit their website. You can view the a sample from the Student Text, see sample pages from the activity book, or see the table of contents from the curriculum. Each of the books I reviewed is available for purchase as follows:

• Student Reader, 443 pages ~ $44.95
• Student Activity Book, 312 pages ~ $16.95
• Teacher’s Guide/Answer Key, 268 pages ~ $18.95
• Set of all three books ~ $68.00

I’ve apparently been living under a rock, because until abcteach came up for review with the Homeschool Crew I had never heard of them {please tell me that I’m not alone in this???}.

Needless to say, I heard the word printables and headed right over.

About the Site

abcteach has over 5,000 free printables available for download that you can use to help enhance your school lessons. As a subscribing member to their site, there are over 30,000 printables available for grades PreK – 8th by just searching with key terms. You name it and it’s most likely on their site: coloring worksheets, flashcards, clip art, writing, puzzles/games and so much more.

One feature that the site also offers is called abctools. This tool allows you to customize and create your own worksheets including crossword puzzles, suduko puzzles, and spelling lists.

Depending on how often you use worksheets, you might want to consider the site. Because I happen to like creating my own stuff, so it isn’t something that I would personally use very much. It is also a little pricey {unless you are part of a group}, but it would be a really convenient tool and resource for many families. Here’s a little more information on the membership levels and costs:

New material is added weekly and one of the benefits of being a subscribing member is there is no advertising on the member site. If you’d like to see a little more about abcteach, be sure to take the video tour and browse around the site.