Homeschool Mothers Journal Weekly Review 11/11

 

                                                       The Homeschool Mother's Journal


In my life this week…

Not just this week, but the last few, I just haven't felt like blogging.  I have done several reviews which were due, but just didn't feel like doing any other posting.  Not like I have kept any regular schedule anyway..

It seems like I have hit a winter slump and its not winter yet.  Need to do something to break the routine and add some excitement to life.

In our homeschool this week…

We have just kept plugging along.  We've paid a little more attention to art as we are reviewing an art program right now.  Both of the kiddos have enjoyed this.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

Nothing different. Piano and the library.

Questions/thoughts I have…

I am thinking about focusing on just a couple things next week. I want to make some Ancient Egypt projects and go some geography study. (According to what I have seen it is geography week). I suppose I could drop most of the other things except for math and spelling.

Still trying to figure out exactly what I am going to do.

I’m cooking…

The only thing semi interesting was a pot of chilli the other night.

I’m grateful for…

My husband and children.

Thanks to Sue at the Homeschool Chick for hosting HSMJ.

Math Mammoth TOS Review

As part of the TOS Crew I recently had the opportunity to use and review Math Mammoth Grade 3 Complete Mathematics Curriculum(Light Blue Series).

A complete years worth of material comes in two books or downloads. ($34.00)These are labelled Grade level and A or B. There are also answer keys, tests, and reviews available. These are available in download format as either a complete year or just part of a grade. Part A or B for any grade level is available as a download($17.50). The curriculum is also available as printed books from several sources. This page at the Math Mammoth website explains the purchasing options for the 3rd grade level. These sets of 2 books per grade level are available for grades 1-6.

Math Mammoth is built on the principle of having a student master the topic before moving on. Thus few topics are presented over the course of a year, but done in a way which incorporates multiple visual models and encourages understanding of the concept behind the operation and focuses on mental math.

In addition to the complete curriculum, several combinations of supplemental math materials are also available form Math Mammoth. These materials are available either by grade or topic, suitable for grades 1-12.


Placements tests are available on the Math Mammoth website. There is also a question and answer following the placement tests which is very helpful. The supplemental materials could be useful in helping a child master one or two concepts in a level before moving on to the next grade level. Maria also invites parents/teachers to email her with test results if they are having difficulty determining which would be the appropriate level  for their child. When I needed assistance in determining which level would be best for my child I received a very prompt reply from Maria. I was very pleased with the response and reasoning for the particular placement. Maria is the author of the Math Mammoth curriculum and a homeschooling Mom.

Maria also offers multiple free samples of her products and a math teaching newsletter on her website. She also maintains a YouTube channel with teaching videos covering a variety of topics.

My Thoughts about Math Mammoth

The Math Mammoth website has a very detailed description of what is covered at each grade level in the complete curriculum. After reading through the description for several grade levels I easily determined at which level I needed to place my son. He had just about completed the second grade level of another series, but it is often hard to know if it is appropriate to move up to the next level when switching to a new program. After using the program I can confidently say that he is in the right place; he is challenged, yet not frustrated.

I used the Third Grade Complete Curriculum Math program mainly with my 7 year old son, but also some of the material with my 10 year old who has struggled with learning multiplication facts.

He said he would like color pictures on the pages, but has also commented that he likes to be able to pronounce the names of people and items which are used in story problems. These comments are in response to another program which we had been using which is not originally American.

My daughter has really liked the Math Mammoth multiplication exercises. I have given her one page of multiplication exercises per day in addition to her normal Math program. She has said that she is learning the facts because it teaches her in different ways. In some of the lessons I have not made her fill in the times chart, but I really think that doing so has been a huge factor in helping her get the facts into her head. As she has worked through these pages and we have drilled the facts from the sheets, I have seen her speed increasing. This tells me she really is learning them.

I really like this math program.The concepts are presented in a clear manner with lots of opportunities for practice, yet not too many which bog down the student who understands what is being taught. There is variety in the way the problems are presented, which not only prevents boredom, but helps the brain work in different ways. This variety also makes sure the student truly understands or masters the material.

I also like the flexibility inherent in the plan. While the 'teacher support materials' give suggestions as to how much should be completed in a day to complete a course in an entire year, the pages themselves are flexible enough to allow for taking a break as needed by the student.

Maria is also very generous in her copying policies.She allows the teacher/purchaser to make enough copies for their entire family. This would be especially great for larger families as they begin their homeschool math journey as they would only need to purchase one math curriculum for all the children in the family rather than a new book for each child.

Crew members had the opportunity to review different products from the Math Mammoth line, so make sure to see what other members of the TOS Crew had to say about the products they used at the Crew Blog.

Disclaimer: I received a free download of this product to use in order to allow me to write this review.I have not been compensated in any other manner and all opinions expressed her are totally my own.

Keyboard Town Pals TOS Review

Keyboard Town Pals

1-866-200-8881


$35.00  CD-ROM program
$30.00 WEB Based program
Bundle prices available for both web and CD programs. Supplemental materials also available.


Available in English, Spanish, and French

For students age 6 to 12 and those with learning differences


Keyboard Town Pals is a online program for elementary age students to learn typing skills and to type in one hour. The Keyboard Town Pals program is comprised of 8 lessons which build on each other.

The lessons are taught in front of a cut out of a town where the buildings are arranged in the shape of a keyboard. Each building is a home for letter character you would find on the corresponding key. Living in the buildings is a puppet character whose name begins with that letter. Each character has its own house, except when fingers move to other keys in the middle of the keyboard, then these two characters share a house.

Keyboard Town Pals

Each row of the keyboard is named.The row where fingers rest is called Home Street.The row above is "uptown", the row below is "downtown".

Sunny

Letters are taught in columns one finger at a time, moving up and down the keyboard to access the letters above and below the home row.Each finger has a separate lesson. All of the lessons follow the similar format where the letter is introduced and discussed by the puppet character and then an outline hand shows where these keys are on a picture of a keyboard.The student then practices typing these letters several times watching 'helper hand' typing the proper key. At this time the user is told which letters to type and if they need to go up or down from the home row. After this the user is given dictation of which letter to type while seeing a picture of the sun shining. In all of these steps the student is guided by 'Sunny'.

In addition to typing the letters they are also instructed to type simple words. What is typed shows up just below the 'instruction' screen so that the user is encouraged to watch what happens on the screen rather than where their fingers are.

In addition to the lessons,there is also supplemental material available under the heading 'virtual journal'. Here each lesson has an additional sheet which can be printed and the instructor can do with the child apart from Keyboard Town Pals. The virtual journal also gives the student the opportunity to email the Keyboard Town Pals character of their choice.

The Keyboard Town Pals website has a video describing the philosophy and methodology used in the program. Demos of the program are also featured on the site.

A brief assessment requiring the student to type the alphabet forwards and then backwards is also available.

Keyboard Town Pals does not use speed drills during the instruction and mistakes are not counted as well. Keyboard Town Pals offers a low pressure method of teaching keyboarding skills.

My thoughts about Keyboard Town Pals

Both of my children used the program. Neither of them was overly thrilled with it, but they did use it. My 7 year old did quite well and refreshed his typing skills. Keyboard Town Pals was the first typing instruction my 10 year old had. She was able to go through the lessons easily. She picked up some new skills, but did not spend a whole lot of time practicing, so I am not sure what she will take away from her experience with Keyboard Town Pals. I think my children would have been more interested in the program if they were younger.


Often the characters use words to help the user recognize the letters. When moving uptown from "K" to "I" the word "eyeglasses"is used. While this fits with the K character and is the appropriate sound for the word it is not proper for the spelling. Just as important as typing is being able to spell correctly when typing and if a child is lead to believe eyeglasses starts with "I" they may have difficulty with spelling this as well as other words with the same sound.

I reviewed the Web Based program and had difficulty receiving the necessary information to access Keyboard Town Pals.  The people at Keyboard Town Pals were very friendly and helpful, spending additional time and effort to help me access the program.

I like having the material available in the virtual journal. By printing out the page for each lesson I was able to give my children some practice in a different voice and manner than they were used to from the program.

I also like the low key approach presented in Keyboard Town Pals.  Timed tests add an element of pressure which increases anxiety and often causes the student to not do their best.  Here there is no pressure to complete as assignment in a specified amount of time which allows the student to use and practice at their own pace.

An additional benefit to Keyboard Town Pals is having the delete button disabled.  This eliminated the temptation to go back and fix mistakes instead of focusing on improving.

Learn what other members of the TOS Crew experienced while trying Keyboard Town Pals at the Crew Blog.

I received a free subscription to enable me to write this review.  I have not been compensated in any other manner. All opinions expressed here are solely my own.