Special Connection Homeschool

Each year the TOS Crew mates vote on which products they liked the best.  I have to tell you, this was my first time on the crew and I was amazed at how many products I actually liked and now use.  I was excited to participate in the voting and having a say in which companies get awarded. The winners of the 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Awards  are (drum roll please)...   Favorite Reading Instruction Product:  Reading Eggs* Favorite Writing Product:  Write Shop Favorite Language Arts Product: Progeny Press Favorite Social Studies Product: TruthQuest History Favorite Science Product: Amazing Science * Favorite Math Product: Math Mammoth * Favorite Online Math Product: Math Rider Favorite Foreign Language Product: Visual Latin Favorite Fine Arts Product: Artistic Pursuits Favorite Christian Education Product:  Apologia: Who Am I? * ~~~ Favorite Preschool Product: Before Five in a Row Favorite Elementary Product: All ...

I am a history buff and so I was glad to be able to review Heritage History , a curriculum that gets to the heart of history, or at least a little closer to it.  Heritage History is not your usual history curriculum.  Instead of text books, tests and memorization of dates and facts, the Heritage History program is based on the use of classical, age appropriate children's history books. The history books your child will read are actually history themselves.  No books used were printed after 1923.  While these books are usually without copyright and already in the public domain, Heritage History has compiled together a selection of the best works and sorted them by genre, subject and character.  All of these are in electronic form and can be accessed on the computer, Kindle, Ipad or other devices.  It also comes with Study Aids that includes supplemental materials such as images, maps, timelines and a teacher's guide for you to use to help your student in...

Go Science !  Yes, Gess' favorite subject is science so we were rather excited to get to review this product for the TOS Crew .  Go Science is a series from Library and Educational Services that gets kids excited about learning science by exploring motion, weather, electricity, air, the Solar System and much more!  There are 6 DVDS in the series which can be purchased as a set or individually.  We were able to choose 2 DVDs which was difficult because they all seemed very interesting.  Each DVD includes a series of 3 to 6 minute demonstrations that helps to explain certain science principles or phenomenon.  In each one Ben Roy, a fun and lively science educator, leads a group of kids through some sort of hands on science experiment or activity.  He generally has one or more of the kids in the group participate as he demonstrates and explains the science principle that he is focusing on. It should be obvious to my readers by now that Gess is a...

ScienceandMath.com says their goal is to bring the "very best Science and Math videos to tickle your curiousity and entice you to want to learn more about the world around you" and this month I was given a sample of what they have to offer. We recently received the Amazing Science Volume 1 DVD set for review which is a 2 DVD set that demonstrates how to do 23 different science experiments. This certainly is right up Gesserine's alley. There are few things she likes to watch more than science videos, especially ones where they do neat experiments. Well, being able to do the experiments right along with them makes this just about perfect! When the DVD arrived we were currently studying a unit on the weather and had just finished a lesson on clouds so the experiment titled Cloud in a Bottle (which seems to have been skipped on the list online but is included on the DVD) caught both of our eyes. We watched the demonstration which was very thorough. He not only explai...

Classical Academic Press has a wonderful Bible Course titled God's Great Covenant that we had the opportunity to review this past month. We reviewed God's Great Covenant, NT 1: A Bible Course for Children which "teaches the Gospels to students in fourth grade and up, using stories, worksheets, memory verses, devotional guides, quizzes, and a little boy named Simon." Now you know that my Gess has Down Syndrome and is only in what I consider the third grade, but she is an excellent reader and very knowledgeable in her bible lessons so I felt that this would be easily adaptable to her needs even though she is not yet in the fourth grade. For our review purposes we received the God’s Great Covenant New Testament One Bundle which included the student text, teachers' book and audio files. Before you get into the gospels there are a few sections that help set the stage. There is a Historical and Political Introduction, Chronological Introduction, Geographical In...

I have had the pleasure of reviewing a product from Bright Ideas Press this month and I can certainly understand why they say they are a curriculum that mom's love! As most of you know, Gess absolutely loves Science and so I was thrilled to get to choose one of their Christian Kids Explore Science Books. Because Gess has a fascination with the weather and it's a subject we choose to do each spring I chose to review Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space which consisted of the text book and the Student Activity Book Download . The curriculum is made so that you can use it with several different age groups at once and my special needs daughter was certainly able to read and comprehend the material rather well. I particularly loved the way the author wrote directly to the students and shared her own personal stories and experiences in the study. (Like how she used to be afraid of tornadoes.) She also integrated Scripture into each study and since it was written from such...

Amazing Animals By Design , written by Debra Haagen, is a very well illustrated and enjoyable children's book that we got to review for the TOS Crew this month. While we teach our children that God "created" the world and everything in it, it's not often that we explain to them how intelligent and intricate God's design is. The book Amazing Animals By Design is a great way to introduce that concept to children because in the story they learn that God not only created the animals but He "designed" each one of them in a very specific and unique way. This book starts off by introducing you to two young children, Sarah and John who are on their way to visit the zoo. During their tour the kids find out some amazing things about how animals were designed. For instance they saw a cat with strange tufts on it's ears and discovered that this cat is called a caracal. Gess was apparently fascinated with it's tufts too, here she is making some of her own...

This last month we were able to review the Action Alert Parental Control Software which was really exciting for me since Gess just recently got her own computer. Action Alert is an internet safety solution that provides a way of restricting and monitoring internet access for children. They offer a FREE Protection Package or you can upgrade to Maximum Protection for $29.99 a year (although apparently they will give you a $10 discount if you first try to install the free version). We had access to the entire program during our review. When you first install Action Alert it sets up their kid friendly search page as your default start page because it has Safe Search enabled. They explain that "Safe Search is a Google powered search engine that filters out unsafe and explicit content from search results." Here's what their page looks like although there a few different themes you can choose from. My husband was immediately turned off because of the add that is...

I have been really eager to tell you about the online reading and math program K-5 Learning ! This website has become this busy homeschooling mom's very best friend. K-5 Learning isn't actually a "homeschooling" program. It is for any kids from grades K through 5. It offers 4 reading and math programs that key in on 8 essential learning skills. It allows your child to learn independently at their own pace and at their own customized skill level. It also has very detailed and informative progress reports so that the parents can see exactly how their child is doing. I know, I know. If you are like me, you are thinking, haven't I heard all of those claims before only to find myself disappointed? Having a child with special needs, I am always hoping that the customization of skill level or parental reports offer more than I am provided. Well, K5 Learning was everything I hoped it would be and so much more! So let me just show you around and share with y...