Song School Latin- TOS Homeschool Crew

Product: Song School Latin

Vendor Contact Information:

Classical Academic Press

www.ClassicalAcademicPress.com

3920 Market Street

Camp Hill, PA 17011

Phone: 1-866-730-0711

Age Appeal: Kindergarten through 2nd grade

Format: Song School Latin workbook with CD (one time use) and Song School Latin Teacher’s Edition, there is also a website www.HeadventureLand.com with games (free)

Price: both books are $22.95

Quid agis?  Sum optime!  Is your family interested in learning a foreign language that will help them in learning now and in older grades.

Song School Latin has

• 31 lessons including 7 review lessons
• Option of learning the Classical or Ecclesiastical dialects
• CD with the featured songs
• More than 100 vocabulary words for classroom, family, body parts, seasons and animals

Here is a direct link to more information about Song School Latin.

Our Experience:  We were very excited to review Song School Latin, because my sister is fluent in Latin.  And this was a wonderful way to help our family begin to learn the basics. 

We chose to do a lesson a week.

• Day 1- learn the vocab and songs
• Day 2- Work on coloring sheets and listen to songs
• Days 3 and 4- complete the workbook pages
• Day 5- review current and past lessons through the songs

This method has worked very well for us and the kids are enjoying learning new words and phrases that they can use in their every day world.

What I Liked:

• The songs were fun and it helped B and C to learn the vocabulary.
• I thought the teacher’s edition was helpful, because it had the answers and extra worksheets that could be copied.
• Each chapter had the perfect amount of vocabulary, songs and workbook activity to make it perfect for a week.
• Having a review section every couple of chapters, really helped to reinforce the vocabulary.

What I Disliked:

• It would have been nice to learn numbers and colors.
• The kids would have also enjoyed learning aunt, uncle, grandmother and grandfather.
• An e-book option of the workbook would be nice, so multiple copies can be easily made.

What B (boy, age seven and officially in first grade) Liked and Disliked:  Salve!  Quid est tuum praenomen?  Meum praenomen est B.  Quid agis?  Sum optime!

I like learning new languages.  Right now we are concentrating on Latin.  We are having fun doing Song School Latin.  My aunt knows Latin and we are going to have a secret club.  In our secret club we are only going to speak Latin.

We learn a few new phrases or words in each chapter.  There are coloring sheets you can download from the website, then color.  Here are some words we have learned; casa, porta, murus, fenestra, frater, soror and mater.  There are songs to go with each chapter.  I like the songs. 

I think this product is good for kids my age.  I can’t wait to learn more Latin! 

What C (girl, age five working on Kindergarten) Liked and Disliked:  It was fun!  I liked singing the songs and coloring the color pages.  I like learning new languages.  My aunt knows Latin, now I will be able to speak with her.  I liked all of things in Song School Latin.  It is good for kids my age.

What Dad Thought:  I liked that the Song School program used simple ideas to teach Latin to kids. It was fun and easy to do. B and C both enjoyed it and used what they had learned at various times of the day when talking with each other.

What could have been better was to teach manners, colors and numbers after learning basic greeting dialog.

Overall Song School Latin is a good program and we'll keep teaching it to B and C.

Other Products Available: Latin Monkey Match, Latin for Children (3rd grade and up), Latin Alive! (7th grade and up), there are also products for Greek and Spanish, and many other products

I would definitely recommend Song School Latin for young kids.  For more reviews go to The Homeschool Crew review page.

Disclaimer: I received this product for free for review purposes through The Homeschool Crew. All links were current when posted.

B’s Blogging- Under the Stars

One day I was driving through the country at night when I had a semi and C was my team-driver.  I saw these beautiful stars.  They were all different colors, shapes and sizes.  Some were yellow and some were blue.  One was even purple.  C was sleeping so she missed all the beautiful stars.  That was pretty sad because they were so beautiful.  The End.

C’s Blogging- Latin

c

I like LaLaLatin.  Fun, Fun, Fun.  Love Fun. 

B’s Blogging- I Love Otter!

My otter is 15 inches it is a stuffed animal.  A real otter can be three to four feet long.  My otter weighs 8.4 oz.  A real otter can weigh 11 to 30 lbs..

I love my otter.  I bought him with my own Christmas money.  The end.

C’s Blogging- Run, Run, Run

run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run,    

I love run.  Run, run, run.  fun, run, run, run, run,

 

 

 

TOS Blog Walk March 7-11, 2011

Hello everyone!  How are you doing this week?  We are excited to be a part of the blog walk this week.  
Here are the blogs we are visiting this week on our blog walk.  Enjoy your visits.
1. Homeschool Circus
2. Discover Their Gifts
3. The Joys of Homeschooling
4. Nicki Black A Mosaic in the Making
5. Ever After... My Way
6. Created 2B Creative
7. Wrightsboro Sonrise Center
8. Knee Deep in Grace
9. Indoor Garden Musings
10. Mom of Many Bentzs

Reading Kingdom

Product: Reading Kingdom

Vendor Contact Information:

www.readingkingdom.com

The Reading Kingdom

12405 Venice Bl., Suite 342

Los Angeles, CA 90066

Age Appeal: 4 to 10

Format: Online only program

Price: There is a 30 day free trial! After that it is $19.99/month or $199.99 for 12 months. For each additional child it is $9.99/month.  You can cancel at any time.  There is also a scholarship program available.

Reading Kingdom has been developed by Dr. Marion Blank and two others.  Reading Kingdom is different from other programs as it does not focus on phonics. 

Your child will be learning sequencing, motor skills, sounds, meaning, grammar and comprehension.

Since Reading Kingdom customizes itself to your child they will never have anything too challenging or not challenging enough and each session lasts 15-30 minutes.  There are five levels, which will take the average child 12-15 months to complete.  If your child can already read it may take less time for your child to read and write at a third grade level.

Please go to the website where there is a lot of helpful information, which will help you decide if Reading Kingdom is for your family.

Our Experience:

Since B is seven and C is five I knew we did not need to practice using the mouse and keyboard, so the first thing they did was take the “Skills Survey” to learn where they were going to be placed.  C was placed in both “Seeing Sequences” and “Letter Land.”  B was placed in “Letter Land” where he was going to be practicing keyboarding skills.  C was going to practice sequencing and keyboarding skills.

It took B about a week to finish “Letter Land” and it took C about two weeks to finish both of her activities.  After that they took another “Skills Survey” that placed them both in level 1.  They are learning words such as kids, eat, fly, can, and fly.  As they learn and master new words they are given books to read.  In level 1 there are six books to be read.

 

Both B and C are working hard on Level 1 and I think B will be moving on to Level 2 soon.

What I Like:

• I receive e-mails telling me the progress the kids have made.
• I am not to help the kids.  That is helpful, because then I can work with B on math while C does Reading Kingdom and vice versa.
• (checking on progress)
• B can read well, but this helps him learn how to spell.

What I Dislike:

• Sometimes it seems as if C is not really learning, because the program can read the words to her.
• Picking more than one of the extra activities at the end of the lesson made it very long for both of the kids.
• I think it would be helpful if they were learning proper keyboarding techniques, so they wouldn’t hunt and peck.

What B (age seven, officially in first grade) thinks:  I think Reading Kingdom is very fun.  The first part of the lesson, in the section that I am doing, I can do one of three things; read a book, type a new word or write in a book.  And the books are short, so on those days I do two lessons.  There is also a section that has two parts learning new words in a notebook or typing new words with no help.  The second part of the lesson is a part where you click on a word that has missing letters then you type in those missing letters.  I think Reading Kingdom is great for kids my age, because you learn new words and how to spell them.

What C (age five, working on kindergarten) thinks:  It is fun.  I like doing it every single day.  I like reading the stories.  I like the part where I have to find specific words in order.  And the space part where I clicked on the words that I was supposed to type.  I liked everything and it is good for kids my age.

What Dad Thought:  As I observed B & C doing their Reading Kingdom lessons I was impressed with the content and the timing. It’s kept simple by focusing on one subject for the entire lesson. The amount of time given is enough for B & C to complete each task without being rushed or bored by waiting for the lesson to move on. Each lesson is about 5 – 10 minutes long and that works really well for the kids. Reading Kingdom is a great program.

Other Products Available: Reading Kingdom Story Smarts (books to complement the online program), The Reading Remedy by Dr. Blank, and Letter Land by Hand (learning handwriting within a few weeks)

I would recommend Reading Kingdom. For more reviews please go to The Homeschool Crew review page.

Disclaimer: I received Reading Kingdom for free for review purposes through The Homeschool Crew. All links were current when posted.

 

 

C’s Blogging- Rainy Day

 

Rainy Day was fun. And the spider crawled in the house, up Mama’s special chair and up Momma. The spider crawled on Momma’s nose and made a web right on her nose. And C picked it off and set it outside the door. She took the web off of Momma’s nose. C took care of the web. The end.

Top Ten Tuesday- Animals

 

My top ten favorite animals

10.  Domestic Cats- cuddly, but know what they want

9.  Zebras- make an interesting sound

8.  musk oxen- protect their young

7.  Tigers- biggest in the cat family

6.  Dogs- loyal companions

5.  Grizzly Bears- powerful 

4.  lions- loud

3.  American bison- American icon

2.  Wolves- makes my hair stand on end

1.  Elk- majestic

 

B’s Blogging- About My Transformer Sideswipe

One day Sideswipe, Optimus Prime, Skyburst, and Battle Blade Bumblebee were going out on a drive. Then suddenly Starscream appeared in front of them and Megatron too. Smolder with Chopster showed up. Then there was a battle and Megatron won the battle. Optimus Prime and the others lost, but then in the night Optimus Prime and the others snuck out and had a battle in the night with Megatron. And that time Optimus Prime won. The end.

Play Dough Clay Creations

Who knew play dough clay could be so fun?   

We needed to make play dough clay for a science experiment, so I decided to make enough so B and C could have some fun too.  Here are some of the results.                                          

 

 

Our recipe

 

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 tsp. cream of tartar

2 T. oil

2 cups water

1 tsp. food coloring (optional)

 

1.  Combine all ingredients and stir constantly over medium heat until the dough doesn’t stick to the sides of the pan.

 

2.  Take it out of the pan and when it is cool to the touch, knead it for a few minutes .

 

3.  Have lots and lots of fun!!