All About Spelling: What Am I ? Reader

Earlier this year I reviewed  the wonderful spelling program All about Spelling and the Beehive Reader 1.
We have also received for review the second reader Who Am I?

This reader follows Beehive Reader 1 (which, by the way, is getting a new title -- Cobweb the Cat -- same great book, different title), and coordinates with the first 14 steps in All About Spelling Level 2.  It can be used whether or not you use All About Spelling.  This book includes longer stories, but similar wonderful illustrations of endearing characters.

 Like the first reader this one is wonderful! it is available from All About Spelling for $19.95

Tales From Terrestria by Ed Dunlap

As part of the TOS homeschool crew I received two books from Ed Dunlap Ministries, The Tales From Terrestria book 1:  Quest For Thunder Mountain and book 4: The Isle of Dragons  to review.

Ed Dunlap is an evangelist, who has written many books to reach out to children.

His latest set of books are fast paced, exciting and entertaining. They contain no magic or wizardry, making them an excellent alternative to popular, secular books of today. Yet, they also contain an important message.

 

Here is what the web site says:

Book One – The Quest for Thunder Mountain  (203 pages)

A dangerous quest to a mysterious mountain—but how will it end?...When Gavin’s career comes to an  

abrupt end, the talented young minstrel learns that King Emmanuel has plans for him—plans that promise life and purpose. But Gavin must make a difficult journey to a mysterious mountain.

The young minstrel eagerly starts on his quest with three companions, but the travelers are warned that Thunder Mountain is a place of terror and treachery. Will Gavin and his friends find Emmanuel’s will on the mountain, or are they walking into a trap?

The Quest for Thunder Mountain, written to show the wonder of doing the will of God, is the first book in the new young adult allegory series Tales from Terrestria, a companion series to the Terrestria Chronicles.

 

Book Four – The Isle of Dragons    (201 pages)

The Dragon Tournament—a mysterious event that draws young people by the thousands. Admission is free, but what price do the... 

participants really pay?

When sixteen-year-old Joel of Seawell, the son of a peasant fisherman, receives an invitation to the Tournament he is thrilled beyond words. Too late he learns the terrifying secret of the Isle of Dragons.

Captive in a hostile land, Joel gives up all hope, certain he will never again see his home or experience the happy life he once knew. 
In his despair, he has overlooked a powerful force—the unconditional love of his father

 Peer pressure—a powerful force for evil. Parental love—a powerful force for good. The Isle of Dragons—a powerful book to encourage young people to listen to the right voices.

We really enjoyed these books as our read a loud!  The kids would beg me to keep reading! I highly recommend these books.

There are 3 books out in this series (you do NOT have to read them in order) of the seven planned.  Each book is $7.99 or 3 for $19.99

  

If you would like to see what other crew members have to say , please click HERE.

ally enjoyed these

The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World

The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks, a massive online virtual world for kids aged 7-14, has been the buzz around our home for the last month As part of the TOS crew we received a membership to review this sight..

According to the website, WW promises:

“…an experience in which players will be able to travel to places around the world, through time and space, meet famous historical people, play dozens of fun enriching games, make new friends, buy exotic islands, build culture-inspired houses, wear clothes from different countries, explore secret locations, solve mysteries and become a legendary traveler!”

My kids have been following the plot by traveling around the world to help locate a group of historical people who have lost their memory from traveling through a time warp. Their goal is to help them regain their lost memory. Your child will meet characters like Buffalo Bill, Galileo, Albert Einstein, Beethoven, and Emperor Qin in their travels.

I would have to warn parents that at this sight your children may encounter some things that you may wish to watch out for!
Your child may be exposed to evolutionary content through characters like Charles Darwin and objectionable material like the false gods. Your child may also be exposed to foul language.  because of the chat feature.
children are able to chat live with other children from all over the world. WW has a strict policy on safety and children are taught to report any offending or illegal behavior – and trust me they do! But, my children have still been exposed to inappropriate language. 
WW does have a set of proprietary rules and safety featureshttp://parents.wiglingtonandwenks.com/safetyfeatures.html:

• No numbers (designed to filter out phone numbers and addresses)
• No URL links (prevents the sharing of inappropriate websites)
• No vulgarities (language is censored and repeat offenders are banned)
• No private messaging (no unsupervised conversations)
• Reporting feature (Players report and moderators investigate inappropriate behavior)
• Chat logs (parents can request children's chat logs as far back as 90 days)
• Parent/Admin panel (parents can monitor playing habits)

However, there are ways around these safety features and children do find these ways!

The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks, a product of Wiglington and Wenks Worldwide Pte Ltd, is free for a basic membership, but to gain access to all of the features, special areas and extra privileges, you will need to purchase a WW Membership.
Membership Price:

• Monthly: $5.99
• 3-Month Ticket: $16.99
• 6-Month Ticket: $29.99
• 1-Year Ticket: $59.99

Though it is touted as educational, I didn't see that much education on the actual WW site that my older kids did not already know.  It was easy to click and not read the educational info given.

Critical Thinking Company

We have used some of the Critical thinking Co. products before, so I was very happy to receive from them for review as part of the TOS crew  the book:  Balance Benders Beginnings

Here is what the Critical thinking company says:

Description & Features

Move over Sudoku, here come Balance Benders™! You can use these books as quick, fun logic problems or as stepping stones to success in algebra. Children develop deductive thinking and pre-algebra skills as they solve balance puzzles that are more fun and addictive than Sudoku puzzles! Children must analyze each balance to identify the clues, and then synthesize the information to solve the puzzle. Try one—and then try to stop!

My children found this book on the table and started in on these fun problems before I even introduced them! The problems gets harder as you progress and this just made them try to be "the first" to get the answers!!!  
To give you an idea as to how the problems look here is a sample page..

As you can see a balance is set up and the student has to figure out which of the "equations" below are true based on the top balance. My kids really enjoyed this book. 




There are several levels of Balance Bender books:

Beginning: Grades 2-6

Level 1: Grades 4-12

Level 2: Grades 6-12

Level 3: Grades  8-12

Each book retails for $9.99 and has 48 pages.

If you would like to see what my CREW members have to say please click HERE

Family Mint

We were asked to review Family Mint as a part of the TOS crew.  Family Mint is currently a free program that you can use to keep track of your child's allowance, spending, savings, and money goals.  It can be a teaching tool to show your child how to manage money. It is also a tracking system for your child's money. parents are the bank and your children manage their money by setting goals and entering transactions. Essentially, it works like this:  The kids give you their money -- allowances, payment for work done for others, gift money, etc. -- then, mark their "deposit" in their Family Mint account.  No actual money transactions take place online.  As far as anyone else is concerned, the funds on the Family Mint site are virtual money.  When the kids want to make a withdrawal, they enter the transaction, which you have to approve or deny.  If approved, you give the kids their money.

 This did not work for us as we do not give our children allowances, and at this time my youngest have no way they "get" money.

That being said, there are some nice features to Family Mint, Some of the fun things you can do with Family Mint are:

• Set up a savings plan for a specific goal.  You or your child can enter the dollar amount of the goal along with the deadline and receive a breakdown of how much the child needs to save each week to reach the goal.
• Set interest rates to reward saving.  
• Fund matching.  If your child is saving toward a certain goal and you've agreed to match funds, you can set the program up to reflect this.

I think that this is a great concept to help your kids manage their money!  It is all in one place, and you as the parent can keep track of what they are saving and what they are spending their money on. I found the system easy to use, everything is pretty self-explanatory. To learn more about this program and to sign up, click here.

If you would like to see what my CREW members have to say please click HERE

Math Galaxy

As part of the TOS crew I recieved  from Galaxy of Education Math Galaxy for review.

"Galaxy of Education strives to produce supplementary materials starting at the beginning with addition, focusing on multi-step problem solving.  Their premise is that teachers and computers are both important in teaching math, with the computer's main strength being the ability to review specific skills without getting frustrated or tired.  From their website, "Our goal is to provide students a foundation for analytical thinking in the modern world and for higher-level math and science."

 The main product type is a computer program (that works on both PCs and Macs) that gives you a choice of topics, and within each topic you can be guided step by step through the problem, or just give the final answer. 

There are several levels of programs here they are with topics in each level:

The second product type is a worksheet generator.  It is a computer program that will create riddle worksheets.   The third product type is an e-book with already created riddle worksheets.

E-Books are available for Whole Numbers and Fractions.

We are enjoying these the kids love solving the riddles and there is so much here for years to come!


The best way to see Math Galaxy’s programs is from their home page. They offer free limited use or examples of nearly everything. Simply scroll down the page and click on what you want to try. If you like what you see, you can purchase the full version of any of the programs on CD for $29.95 per level

If you would like to see what my CREW members have to say please click HERE.

Children's Bible Hour Ministries

In our house we know of Children's Bible Hour Ministries (CBH)  because of  Key's For kids Devotionals, Which the children use for their quiet time. CBH sent us as part of the TOS crew The Seasons Of Faith Illustrated Books for review.

" The Seasons of Faith illustrated books encourage children to learn about their faith in God. Based on CBH Ministries’ treasure trove of radio scripts, these stories teach core truths of the Bible so that kids can easily apply them to their lives. Each book focuses on a season of faith-developing topics." 

My children enjoy story books whether I read them aloud or we listen to the audio book version. When the Seasons of Faith Series came in the mail from CBH they got the best of both worlds.The four books in this series are really nicely illustrated picture books that include a CD in the back to listen along with.

The 4 books are:

Seventy Times Seven: Brad and Doug a good friends, but Brad is upset about a few things Doug as done to him. One day, while the boys are playing baseball, Brad accidentally hits a ball through Mr. Jeffries' ice cream shop window. Mr. Jeffries forgives Brad. Can Brad do the same and forgive Doug?

Braving the Storm: Things have been pretty tough for Thomas and his family lately. Thomas is feeling pretty down, so his Grandpa tries to help him get through the tough times by depending on God. Will Thomas learn the lesson his Grandpa is trying to teach him? 

Race with Midnight: Becky is off to spend spring break in Montana at her cousin Sarah's ranch. She's looking forward to learning how to ride a horse and doing lots of horseback riding. She is also praying that she will have the opportunity to share the gospel with her unsaved family members. Will Becky have the opportunity to share the gospel with Sarah and her family? Will they listen?

'

You Can't Come In: Zack and Adam are new best buds who decide to build a fort together. During the process, Zack ends up getting completely muddy. This leads to some interesting conversations between Zack and Adam as well as Zack's parents later on in the evening. Will Adam be able to share the gospel message with Zack? Will Zack understand what Adam is telling him?


Each of these books are well-written and teach spiritual truths like salvation, forgiveness, and trust in God. At the end of each book is an explanation on how to receive Jesus as your Savior. There are discussion questions available for each book HERE.

You can buy the Seasons Of Faith set for $40.00
Individual books are $10.00
At CHB.

If you would like to see what other members of the CREW have to say please click HERE