Wednesday, May 25, 2016

TOS Review~ Sunya- The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing

Math Game


Do your kids dread doing their math work? Do they think math has to be boring? Well, no one ever said math had to be dull and morning! Math can be fun and learned by playing a simple card came.
The past few weeks, the kids and I have been playing Sunya- The Magic of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing from Sunya Publishing.

Math and Science {Sunya Publishing Review}
Sunya Publishing is a relatively new company and is currently working on the final stages of this math product. For this review, we received the instruction game booklet, sixty multiplying and dividing playing cards, multiplying and dividing number line tool, and thirty math and science fact/riddle cards. The game is geared for children ages 9 and up. However, if a younger child has learned the multiplication or division facts, they could easily play this game.

Math and Science {Sunya Publishing Review}


Math and Science {Sunya Publishing Review}

The instruction game booklet was well made and coil bound with the plastic coils. It looks like it will hold up well. The pages and cover are fairly think. I would place it in a safe place though. I'm sure if it was left laying around, the pages may get torn. The game booklet had black and white pages with a few color pages thrown in. 

Math Game


I personally liked the colored pages. It helped break up the instructions and made the reading easier to do. The color pages were more visually appealing too.The game booklet is long (about 25 pages) and very wordy. The instructions are extremely detailed. They do provide a lot of  visual examples. It is a little overwhelming when you first start to read it. The instructions could be easily simplified for a quicker understanding of the game. I read the instruction 3 times before I understood what we were supposed to do. Once I figured out the goal of the game, I quickly realized that I was over thinking the rules of the game. We focused on the multiplying game since Therese is still learning her multiplication facts.

Math Review

The game itself is fairly easy to play. One player is the dealer. The dealer places the number sentence for the game on the table,  a x b =  ab. Each player is dealt four cards. On the players turn, they draw a card and try to make a new number sentence. If the player can not make a new number sentence they keep drawing cards until they can make a number sentence. 

Math Review


The first player to play all of their cards and says SUNYA before playing their last hand wins the game! The winning player than gets to draw a card from the fact & riddle card pile. They ask the other players the fact of riddle and see who can answer. This is the simplest version of this game. 

Math Fact Game


The instruction booklet offers suggestions for making the game more challenging for more advanced players. There are 4 more options on how to play the game included in the booklet. The more you play, the more you'll understand, and the more you will build in your knowledge of the game. Just an FYI, Sunya is a Sanskrit word meaning empty. Saying Sunya as you play your last hands, lets everyone know you have an empty hand!

HSreview




What we thought....

Therese, who is struggling with her multiplication tables, did extremely well with this game. Once I explained the rules, she quickly jumped and played her cards. She actually won the first 4 times we played. This is a great way to build her confidence in her math skills. I noticed that she was able to make a multiplication number sentence rather quickly. She didn't stop and doubt herself, like she does when working in math book.

Michael on the other hand found the game a little boring. We have only played the simple version of the game which he found too easy. I'm sure he would be more interested in a different variation of the game. Maybe once Therese gets stronger in her multiplication facts, we can challenge him a little. He did enjoy the riddle & fact cards. He loved trying to figure them out and did a good job at it too.
I thought the game was fun. I loved how it helped Therese build her confidence with her multiplication facts. She didn't stress and just played. My only complaint is I wish the game came in a small box or at the least a box to store the cards. I'm afraid that we may lose a few.

Want to learn more about about Sunya- The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing or the other game from Sunya Publishing, called Sunya- The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting. Click on the link below and see what the other members had to say.

Math and Science {Sunya Publishing Review}


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Wordless Wednesday~ Spring Flowers



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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Wordless Wednesday~ Bunny Rescue



While planting our garden this year, we stumbled across a few baby bunnies. Sadly, one died but we were able to rescue 2 little ones. 

Meet Thumper.


Meet Cadbury.



After taking care of them for a week, we released them back into the wild. A local animal rescue center said they were old enough to be on their own.



We were sad to see them go, but we know we'll see them around.
Good Luck little bunnies.

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Friday, May 13, 2016

TOS Review~ Sculpture Technique Construct from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.


We enjoy learning about different art techniques in our house and love doing art. My kids learned a lot from the ARTistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 Book 1 we reviewed last year, so we were excited to be chosen again to review a new book from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. This year, we were asked to review one of their new books, Sculpture Technique Construct. I was excited about this new book. As an art major in college, I never took classes in sculpture so I was eager to try something new and expose the kids to a new artistic technique. 


ARTistic Pursuits Inc. Review

If you've been homeschooling for awhile you have heard of ARTistic Pursuits Inc. They are a leader in the homeschooling art curriculum world. They offer students and families a variety of books that gets kids involved in art while teaching them how to observe the world around them. The textbooks teach students about observations skills, art history, art appreciation, art techniques, and how to be creative. The books teaches art techniques and art vocabulary while allowing the kids to have fun creating wonderful works of art. ARTistic Pursuits Inc. offers books for students in preschool to high school. This homeschool art curriculum is a great way to have students grow in their artistic skills and knowledge. Students will be able to grow each year as they progress through the books.

ARTistic Pursuits Inc. Review
For this review, we received a physical copy of Sculpture Technique Construct by Brenda Ellis. The book is 83 pages and is a comb binding style. The cover is very durable. We have had no issues with the cover or pages getting worn out. The books list price is $47.95. Prices are subject to change, so be sure to check the website for the latest information. Sculpture Technique Construct is geared for children ages 11-18. You do not need to have done any of the other books from ARTistic Pursuits to complete this book. You do not need any prior knowledge to complete this book. Students with a variety of skill levels can complete these projects.
Sculpture Technique Construct introduces young artists to three dimensional art. The book teaches students art construction methods using paper-mache, cardboard and wire, and paper making. The books is broken up into 4 units.
Unit 1: Creating Form in Papermaking
Unit 2: Creating Planes with Cardboard
Unit 3: Creating Motion with Paper-Mache
Unit 4: Creating Volume with Wire
While going through the different units, students will learn about form, planes, motion, and volume. With each unit, students will create a new art project while learning a different element and using a variety of materials. Student will get to work with wet and dry paper. They will get to work in 2-D and 3-D forms. They will get to see their 2-D works of art become 3-D models!
How we used Sculpture Technique Construct?

homeschool art

We added it to our weekly schedule. We worked on the various projects over the past few weeks. We did start with Unit 2 since we were waiting for the supplies I order online for Unit 1. I was able to find all the supplies for Unit 2 at a local craft store (or I already had them in or supply).

hands on learning

art curriculum


 The kids loved working with different papers. We worked on Unit 2 for a few weeks. We read and talked about a different section of the unit each week. The kids worked on a different art project each week. The first few projects the kids worked on lead up to a larger project for the end project. In Unit 2, the kids were able to see how a 2-D piece of artwork could be changed to become a 3-D model. They could see their own piece of artwork come to life!

Art Curriculum

Homeschool Curriculum

Art Curriculum

Art Lessons



What we thought of the book?
We loved it! We enjoyed the lessons. The kids loved creating a different type of artwork. They thought it was neat to work with a variety of materials. I liked how the kids were exposed to a new artistic style. My kids have plenty of opportunities to work with the traditional art supplies (paint, pastels, pencils), so this book was great at introducing them to a media that we have not worked with before or have used very little.
~Pros~ 
Book is very well organized
Lessons are clearly written and projects are explained well
Projects can be adapted to a variety of skill levels
Detailed pictures help students see what they are learning and creating
Colored pictures
Detailed supply list
~Con~ 
Material can be hard to find locally. We were unable to find some of the material for the first unit locally. I had to go online and search for them. Thankfully, all of the items were able to be found on online site. 
We would definitely recommend this book to other homeschoolers.  In fact, I plan on using this books to teach a homeschool art class with our local co-op next year. The kids were very excited about learning about sculptures, models, and 3-D forms!
Find out more about ARTistic Pursuits Inc. and all the great art curriculum books they have to offer.

ARTistic Pursuits Inc. Website
Facebook

Art Curriculum

Check out the other members reviews......


ARTistic Pursuits Inc. Review

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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Wordless Wednesday


~A Holy Kitty~


She realized that the Holy Water fonts in the house have water in them.





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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

TOS Review~ Music Appreciation: Book 1 for Elementary Grades from Zeezok Publishing LLC


Learning about music and the great composers has always been important to me. Sadly, we often don't get arounsd to learning about the composers. We just listen to their wonderful works of art in the car, when we are cleaning, or when we are creating our own works of art. Well, today I get to tell you about a wonderful music program called Music Appreciation: Book 1 for the Elementary Grades from Zeezok Publishing LLC. We have been using this fantastic program for the past few weeks. It's amazing! It has everything!



Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades {Zeezok Publishing LLC Review}
Zeezok Publishing LLC is a company that focuses on offering quality homeschool curriculum for families. The company started back in 1993 and has continued to grow over the years. There goal is to offer products that will complement the curriculum that families have already chosen. They offer a variety of items ranging from music, great composers, history, great literature, government and economics. They offer products for the well rounded student.

Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades {Zeezok Publishing LLC Review}

For this review, we received the Music Appreciation Book 1 for Elementary Grades Collection. This collection of materials is amazing. We received the following items.....
One Student Activity Book
Music Discs
Lapbook CD
Seven Composer Biographies
Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, and Schubert

The set comes with everything you need to study for the entire year! For a 35 week school year, you'd spend about 5 weeks learning about each talented composer. The Music Appreciation Collection costs $169.99. The price is subject to change, so be sure to check the website for the latest information. The Music Appreciation set is geared for children in Kindergarten to 6th Grade.
With this music curriculum, students will learn about 7 different composers from 1685- 1828. If you buy the complete set, you will get 7 books based on the biographies of the composers. The stories are well done and introduce the students to the composer's childhood and adult life. 
A collection of music CD's helps introduce the students to works of each composer. 
To help the students learn more about the composers, a student workbook is included.
The composers are placed in the student book in chronological order. The student book is filled with lessons and activities that help the students learn about the composer and his time period. The students will learn about geography, history, instruments, music vocabulary, character traits, and of course the composer. The student book is filled with a variety of hands-on activities like recipes, map work, hand writing practice, and timelines. 
The set also comes with a wonderful Lapbook CD. The CD contains printable pages to make a lapbook for all the composer. Each composer will get his own lapook. At the end of the year, students will have created 7 lapbooks for the seven extraordinary composer. The lapbook provides a wonderful collection of projects for the end of the year.


So How Did We Use the Music Appreciation Set?

There was no way we could get through all 7 in a few weeks, so we focused on Handel. 

George Frideric Handel
1685-1759

We read a chapter (or two) a week about the life of Handel. We had no idea he was such an amazing composer at such a young age. He was a talented young boy and extremely dedicated to learning all he could about music. He would practice in a cold, drafty attic. We listened to the suggested music tracks while enjoying this charming tale. The kids even listened to the CD when they were working on their science biome boxes and artwork for the week. We worked through the student workbook together. Since the program is geared for the elementary grades, I had Therese work through the book. We did most of questions verbally so Michael could join in. Michael just listened and answered questions when we discussed a topic from the book. Therese would work on filling in the answers in the book. Along with the student workbook, the set comes with a lapbook Cd.
Both, Michael and Therese worked on the lapbook. They have enjoyed making lapbooks in the past, so this was nothing new to them.


The lapbook Cd has a lapbook fro each composer. The lapbook is very easy to do. It's really just cutting and pasting. It would be great for children in the lower elementary grades. M kids found  the lapbook rather easy. It was a little young for them. 

What we thought of Music Appreciation Book 1?

We really enjoyed the Handel story we read and reviewed. The story was interesting and the kids learned a lot of information about Handel. The chapters are a little long for younger kids, so I would recommend breaking the chapters up into a few different sessions. We can't wait to read the remaining books. The student workbook is great.  It has so much in it. For younger kids, you could easily build an entire homeschool curriculum around the different composers and the student workbook. You could have language arts, geography, history, music, and more all wrapped up in one curriculum. We felt the lapbook was a little young for us. I have a 5th and 6th grader, so they were on the top age range of the program. It would be great if they could offer a more detailed lapbook for the older elementary aged kids. Having them write some of the information into the booklets would make it a little more interesting for them. The lapbook as it is, is a great visual tool for younger kids. 

Overall the program is great. Zeezok Publishing LLC is already working on a program geared for older kids. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

Learn more about Music Appreciation.....



Stop by and see what the other crew review team members are saying!

Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades {Zeezok Publishing LLC Review}



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Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Classically Catholic Memory~ Delta Year Week 4



Geography~ South America


Source~ Wikipedia

We labeled the CCM map with the wonderful stickers they provide. We located the countries on our wall map. Over the next few days, the kids colored their map and flag coloring pages for each country. They colored in the country on their South America map as they learned about each country.



Blank Map of South America

Maps & Coloring Pages for the Following South American Countries

French Guiana
French Guiana Flag
Suriname
Suriname Flag 
Guyana
Guyana Flag
Venezuela
Venezuela's Flag 
Columbia & Bogota
Columbia's Flag 
Ecuador
Ecuador's Flag


Latin~
Please see my general post about how we teach Latin.


Religion~ The Holy Eucharist




We read the Catechism Lesson on the Holy Eucharist.

Holy Eucharist Lesson Ideas

Younger Children Worksheets
Worksheet #1
Worksheet #2
Worksheet #3

For Older Children
Lesson Plans and Questions

The kids completed this Eucharist Worksheet from The Catholic Toolbox.

Michael and Therese both created a Monstrance.



We used basic supplies we found at Walmart

Supplies needed.....

Gold Foil Dollies (I found these at a local craft/hobby store)
Gold Ribbon
White Paper
Colored Pencils
Picture of Jesus to go under the Eucharist



Simple and easy to do!



Great Words~

Source~Wikipedia


This week the kids starting working on The Gettysburg Address. I read the entire poem to them at first. We then read the poem together. After reading the poem together, I had the kids read the first two lines. They read it a few times. When they were done reading it a few times, I had them write the section into their writing notebook. This helps with memorization and I get to see their handwriting!
I encourage them to read the section we are learning daily. I find this helps with the memorization.
To further our knowledge of The Gettysburg Address, I picked out a few books from the library to read together and separately.


   

To fun but short reads for the kids to discover are......


                         

All of these books will come in handy when we get to the Civil War later on this year!

For younger kids, you could have them create Abraham Lincoln's hat! My kiddos are a little too old for that now, but I remember doing that with them around his birthday. It was a fun activity.


Science~ Vascular Plants
This week, the kids went on an adventure outside to find three types of vascular plants! Living in the woods made this rather easy.


They searched for ferns, angiosperms, and gymnosperms. They found all three!





I found a wonderful lesson online that went over the differences. It included a worksheet for the kids to do. You can find it here.


 

We did a fun experiment to show how vascular plants receive their nutrients and food. We used colored food dye and celery. The purple showed up better than the blue. The kids thought it was pretty neat to see the dye move up the celery stalks.


This project does need to stay out for a few days to see it. I word of caution if you cats be prepared for them to have funny colored tongues. Our mama cat liked the blue water. Her tongue was blue for a few days.


History~ Native Americans

This was an important week for us. Since we have Native American ancestry I wanted the kids to know what they Native Americans had to endure during this time period.
A few years ago while visiting The Great Smoky Mountain, we visited Cherokee, North Carolina. We spent the day on the Cherokee Indian Reservation. While there, we visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. It's a beautiful museum that tells the story of the Cherokee people. 
After out tour of the museum, we spent the afternoon picnicking along one of the creeks that runs through reservation. We enjoyed a wonderful hike to a very tall waterfall called Mingus Falls.

To learn more about the Cherokee Indians and their sad journey, The Trail of Tears, we checked out a few books from the library.

We worked on a unit study called Trail of Tears Unit Study from Tina's Dynamic Homeschool

I found this lesson online about The Battle at Little Big Horn.

Lessons on Wounded Knee
Lesson #1
Lesson #2 with a worksheet

HomeschoolShare.com has a variety of lessons, unit studies, and lapbooks to learn all about the Native Americans. They have options for all ages.
Some are favorites are....
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush for younger kids
Sign of the Beaver for older kids

I did find a wonderful lapbook all about the Plains Native Americans and for older students I found some great writing prompts for them all about the Plains Native Americans

Another cute lapbook I found was the Native Americans lapbook. It's FREE!

And if you have a daughter, who loves American Girl dolls, you have to do a lapbook or unit study on Kaya! Homeschoolshare.com has a free template to use!


Need a few more ideas to learn about the Native Americans, check out The Homeschool Mom website. There are tons of fun ideas suggested for all ages, preschool to highschool!



Till next time, 

~Monique


Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. 

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