This week the kids each dyed a dozen hard boiled eggs. We used traditional dye and we bought an EggMazing that comes with non-toxic markers. The EggMazing basically spins your egg around while you press markers onto the egg, creating various designs. The kids had so much fun with it and we will definitely use it again.
We were blessed to receive the Educator's Spanish Collection (with ¡Buenos Días! and La Música) from Whistlefritz. Whistlefritz was founded in 2006 and is an award-winning producer of language-learning programs for children. Their music CDs, videos and lesson plans have won numerous awards. They offer high-quality immersion programs in both French and Spanish. These programs are not only geared to be playful and interactive with their animation and lively music, they also foster natural curiosity and learning.
We chose to receive the Educator's Spanish Collection. This collection contains Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids, Spanish for Kids videos on DVDs, and Spanish for Kids music on a CD and a DVD. We recently started using this program and I have been focusing on the younger kids as it is geared for ages 1-7.
I also downloaded the Home Educator's Guide that has 46 weeks of lessons. This is such a valuable resource with this program!
I absolutely love these weekly calendars that show you the schedule and activities. It incorporates the lessons, music, videos and other enrichment activities into one easy peasy schedule 💗.
G has been really enjoying the bonus activities.
The boys practicing the trilled sound by vrrrroming their cars!
Above you can see the Table of Contents for 31 of the 40 lessons inside our lesson plan book.
In Lesson 5, the boys learned about sorting and graphing fish as well as colors.
After sorting some of their fish.
This curriculum engages students to learn Spanish through participating
in projects, creating puppets, playing bingo, making pictures, etc.
rather than relying on drills and rote memorization.
In our Spanish for Kids videos, children are immediately immersed into the language. I love this! Children will hear, see, and speak Spanish as they learn from native speakers, while having fun. Check out a sample video below.
Our music CD features a compilation of 15 upbeat Spanish songs that the kids enjoy listening and singing to (sometimes dancing). You can see the song titles above. In our Spanish for Kids DVD La Música, children go on a musical adventure around the world learning about food, weather, days of the week, parts of the body and more!
Whistlefritz is lively and fun and I'm really looking forward to using it more with the boys.
Want to know more? Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the
Homeschool Review Crew blog to read even more reviews of Whistlefritz.
You can engage with Whistlefritz on social media @:
If you know us, then you know that I am a huge fan of the Institute for Excellence in Writing (often called IEW for short). We love both their grammar and writing programs so I was pleased as punch to receive their Fix It! Grammar Level 2 Town Mouse and Country Mouse to use with E. Level 1 and Level 2 comprise their elementary school grammar curriculum, Level 3 and Level 4 comprise their middle school grammar curriculum and Level 5 and 6 comprise their high school grammar curriculum.
We received the Teacher's Manual, Student Book, and the add-on Fix It! Grammar Cards.
I am using this program with E who is in 4th grade and it's perfect for her.
I want to note that IEW recommends that students with little or no grammar background begin in Level 1 regardless of their age. This will give students a foundation as well as familiarize them with the program. Level 1 introduces basic parts of speech, end-mark punctuation, phrases, clauses, homophones, etc. Our Level 2 Town Mouse and Country Mouse continues defining parts of speech, explains basic comma and capitalization rules, introduces complex sentence patterns and more! I love that Fix It! Grammar teaches grammar in as little as 15 minutes a day, 4 days a week. Level 2 is a 30 week grammar program.
Working on Week 1 Day 1
Above you can see the pages for Week 1 from E's student notebook.
This program is set up so that students hunt for and correct errors in
daily passages that will eventually tell a full story. Each day they
look up the definition for a bold word, these are their vocabulary words. They correct the daily passage
and then write the corrected sentence in their student notebook. They
learn how to annotate and fix mistakes. At the end of the program, they
will have the entire story written in their notebook!
Page 1 of the Scope and Sequence found in the Teacher's Manual. I love being able to have a quick glance and overview of concepts learned each week.
The Teacher Manual has everything you need for teaching this program. It lays
out the weeks nicely and walks you through all the instructions. It is amazing to see how much material is
covered in 30 weeks. IEW Fix It! Grammar really makes teaching grammar easy and my kids quite enjoy it.
I love the grammar glossary included in the back of the Teacher's Manual as well.
Grammar Cards
Our grammar cards are a fun addition. I love that they highlight key grammar concepts so students can use them for quick and easy reference. They can also be used to play a variety of fun and easy-to-learn games.
Want to know more? Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the
Homeschool Review Crew blog to read even more reviews of IEW's Fix It! Grammar, including other levels.
You can engage with the Institute for Excellence in Writing on social media @:
For the last few weeks, E has been using Educo Learning Center from Educo International Inc. for math lessons and math practice!
Educo Learning Center is a complete math program for grades 1-8, covering more than 8,000 math skills! In these online courses content is divided into chapters, sections and practice sheets. Each section contains tutorials and activities along with practice sheets. These practice sheets have two modes - practice mode which gives instant feedback and test mode which gives feedback after submission. Each section has a section test and every chapter contains a chapter test as well.
What's covered in this Math Grade 4 program? Above you can see there are eight sections within this program that include:
Number Sense
Addition and Subtraction of Whole Numbers
Multiplication, Division, Multiples, and Factors
Fractions
Decimal Fractions
Sequences and Patterns
Measurement
Geometry
Along with our online subscription, we were also given a physical workbook.
Completed Practice Sheet 1
E's workbook contains overs 3,000 different types of questions, concept tutorials and illustrations, several practice sheets on each concept, end of chapter review questions, critical thinking activities and more! More clearly, this workbook is a printed version of the programs tutorial and digital practice sheets. I think it's a great companion to have. Oh, and I should note that it contains an answer key for the problems in the back of the book.
Educo Learning Center can be used on any electronic gadget running with any browser, even smart phones! I appreciate the user friendliness of this program. Students can take breaks when needed and resume later where they left off. We also like the fun activities - puzzles and games that help solidify understanding. Kids will enjoy earning badges as they progress through the program. If you have students in grades 1-8 and are looking for a fun math program, we recommend checking out Educo Learning Center!
Want to know more? Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the
Homeschool Review Crew blog to read even more reviews of Educo International Inc.
You can engage with Educo International Inc. on social media @:
