Fir and Cypress

Friday, May 1, 2015

LaLaLogic Review

I was recently given the opportunity to review the La La Logic Preschool Curriculum with my 4 year old daughter. You could start using the program as early as 3 years old, and the program is geared for children from ages 3-6. La La Logic is $29 for a lifetime subscription, and it has a free trial you can try out for one month as well.

La La Logic is based on IQ tests and encourages critical thinking skills and problem solving for your children. As my daughter is only 4 and I haven't done a lot of formal school work with her yet I was amazed at how well she did and how quickly she picked up new skills!

When you sign in on La La Logic's website you'll be taken to the parent's center which will give you and overview of the 100 week course of study. Each week has both online activities and extra printable and enrichment activities. It's meant to be used at least 3 times a week. For older or more advanced students, it's suggested that you can do extra lessons each day until they reach and area of the program that is more challenging, but it should still be done in order as many activities build on the ones that came before it. There is also an area called "Continuous Brain Challenge Mode" which is great for kids who want to keep going or older children who want to try out the program. (Every homeschool mom knows that as soon as the younger one is seen trying out a new fun computer game, everyone wants a turn!)

We started out by doing several weeks at a time, since the first lesson were quite simple for my daughter. You can use the activities on a computer or touch-screen type device. We chose to use my laptop as I wanted my daughter to get some practice with the mouse pad (she's quite adept at using the tablet already!) She enjoyed the funny characters on the screen and called her baby brother over to watch them dance. Most of the activities were pretty self explanatory and she was able to figure out what she was being asked to do with adult assistance (I did sit with her and helped her when she got mixed up). The enrichment activities we did later in the day and she enjoyed having "real schoolwork" like her big brothers.

Overall, we really have been enjoying La La Logic's preschool curriculum. I think its an excellent value for what you get and it will be of a lot of use to us as we still have another children who will grow into it soon! I would encourage you to take advantage of there free trial offer as well, you won't be disappointed.

Find La La Logic on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/lalalogic

Come read what other Crew members had to say!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

ARTistic Pursuits Review

Art is something that is very important to me. I am a creative person and I always have some (read 20) crafty projects going on in my house. So as a homeschool mom I love teaching art to my children. My eldest son in particular (he's 9) loves to draw and has and entire drawer filled with "how to draw" books. A while back I decided to look online and find a curriculum that might help me introduce different artistic mediums and more knowledge of Visual arts to my children and I ran across the ARTistic pursuits website. I fell in love with their art curriculum, but it wasn't at a time where I could add anything to the course of study we were already doing. Imagine how excited I was when I got the opportunity to review their first book Early Elementary K-3 Book one: An Introduction to the Visual Arts as part of the Review crew!

ARTistic Pursuits' book one is broken up into three sections: What Artists Do, What Artists See, and Where We Find Art. There are a total of 36 lessons separated into these three sections, so easily enough to last you through a school year. Each lesson has a section to read and learn about artist and art and then a project for you to do with your children. There is list a supplies to have on hand at the beginning of the book and then what you'll need for each project at the beginning of each lesson.

The lessons give your children a chance to think like an artist, and then translate those thoughts into their own artwork. There is also many full color prints of famous artwork through out the book that gives your children the opportunity to study artwork and see what emotions, subjects and mediums different arts have used in the past.

We have really been enjoying working on this curriculum together. Because it is geared for Kindergarten through Third grade (it says ages 5 and up) my 9, 7, and 4 year old all were eager to participate (so was the baby, but we mostly just let him color with crayons in the highchair as we talked). My 7 and 9 year olds were most fully able to understand all the subject matter, while the 4 year old enjoyed more participating in the art project portion of the lesson. For our family, art is never a subject that is boring or difficult to get my children to participate in, they were all eager for every new lesson and several times wished they could do another art project rather than work on reading, math or spelling.

ARTistic Pursuits Early Elementary K-3 Book one: An Introduction to the Visual Arts is $47.95. I hope we'll be able to purchase the other books in the curriculum as well, I think ARTistic Pursuits will give your children a well-rounded study of art throughout their homeschool career. Click on the link below if you want to hear what other Crew members had to say about some of the other curriculum levels that ARTistic pursuits offers.

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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Memoria Press Review

I have recently had the opportunity to review a cursive writing curriculum from Memoria Press called New American Cursive:Penmanship Program Workbook 1. Cursive writing is not often taught in our school systems today and I was eager to teach my own homeschooled children. Though Memoria Press includes this soft-covered, spiral-bound workbook with their first grade classical curriculum, I decided it would be the best fit for my third grader.

New American Cursive is a workbook with fun interactive lessons that are engaging to young children. Some of the letters are somewhat simplified from classic cursive writing, making them easier to write. As they learn each new upper and lower case cursive letter, there is a space for their own unique artwork. My son used this are to draw pictures of the cursive letters going on extraordinary adventures. It worked out to be a great way to capture his interest and provided him with extra practice on his letters!

I think this workbook will be a great introduction to cursive for any young child K-3 depending on the child. My third grader has some fine-motor delays/ dyslexic-tendencies and handwriting has always been an area of struggle for him. I know that often children who do struggle with printing can improve when taught cursive. I hope this is the case for him, he did really enjoy using the workbook and mommy enjoyed that it was simple for him to understand what was required of him so he could do the work independently. I also really like the format of this book. the spiral binding is at the top of the book making it equally effective for left and right handed children. This is an aspect often overlooked by publishers and so I really appreciate the forethought that went into New American Cursive.

There is a teaching guide at the beginning of the book which gives several suggestions on how to make this program successful for your children. It also talks about why cursive is important for your children. I didn't know that cursive can improve the neural pathways between the left and right side of the brain! I'll be eager to see how this benefit my strongly left-brained child. The work samples of some of the 6 and 7 year olds that did this program are very impressive, however I know that not all children will be capable of such excellent penmanship so early on and I am happy with the age we are starting at as I feel it's perfect for our situation.

New American Cursive is $22.95, there are several pages you can look at and try out on their website if you would like to see the format they use. There are also additional levels that Memoria Press offers for more advanced cursive practice.

If you would like more information, please go check out Memoria Press' website and the other reviews by Review Crew members (click the link below). Memoria Press also offers lots of other classical curriculum materials on their website, so be sure to check them out as well.

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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Egglo Entertainment Review

Easter is on it's way! My kids are always excited about celebrating Easter with an egg hunt, and we got to have one early this year as we tried out some fun Christ-centered products from Egglo Entertainment.

Egglo Entertainment sent us several Easter products to try out in our home including a set of their glow-in-the-dark eggs, The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure book, Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls, and their downloadable event curriculum. Here's our family's impression of each of these items:

Egglo Glow in the Dark Easter Eggs : These eggs are a stronger, more durable version of what you'd typically find in the stores. Plus, if you charge them well (instructions come in the box) they have a very strong glow!! We had an indoor night time egg hunt since it's been very warm here and there are LOTS of creepy crawlies outside at night. =)The eggs were easy to spot in the dark, even for our 2 year old. It was really fun to have a different kind of egg hunt at night, the kids had a lot of fun with it. There are some pre-made scavenger hunts on the Egglo website if you would like to make your egg hunt into a scavenger hunt.

Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls: Each Scripture Scroll had a shortened version of a Bible verse written on it, many with the theme of Jesus being the Light of the World to tie into the theme of a glow in the darkness. The inventive little scroll design made these different and fun for the kids. The paper is a thicker on these, which makes them more durable for rolling and unrolling. I do wish these had the full Scriptures written on them as they would make a wonderful Bible memorization tool if they did.

Bible Verse Scroll Stickers These are a sticker version of the Scripture Scrolls. You can use them for decorating your eggs, for Easter cards for friends, or even inside the eggs as a little treasure to discover. These are quality stickers that are thick enough to not rip easily as you remove them from the backing.

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book- This is a paperback story book about a magical adventure that 3 kids and their dog go on together. They follow magical glowing eggs that send them around the world in search of a treasure. Each child learns a lesson through Scripture references about how to put others first, trust in God and listen to others. The illustrations in the book are excellent and vividly colorful. I would have preferred if this story had been a little more realistic personally. I think it's difficult for children to understand the Truth of Scripture when it's written into an imaginary adventure filled with things that couldn't really happen. But the story itself was fascinating to my children and they enjoyed the bright pictures and I found them flipping through the pages again and again. It also sparked a great discussion for us about how we could use the lessons learned in the included Scriptures in real-life situations.

The Egglo Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt Event Curriculum: This downloadable curriculum is a great resource for churches, schools or other big Easter events. It comes with several versions of invitation, wall decorations, and lots of ideas. There are crafts and Easter themed snacks to make. We enjoyed the coloring pages that were included. There's also some egg hunt discussion questions, additional game ideas and questions to discuss the book as well.

My kids had a great time with these products from Egglo Entertainment. And I know that the glow in the dark eggs will be a perennial favorite with them even after Easter is over. They have already been incorporating them into some of their other toys (they make great "dragon eggs" in a dark nest). Egglo actually has a whole pinterest page set up to come up with more ideas for using your glow in the dark eggs.