Schoolhouse Review: If You Were Me And Lived In...

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My child and I got to review Carole P. Roman’s, Away We Go Media books, If You Were Me And Lived In series for children Pre-K to age 8.
The books consisted of:

If You Were Me and Lived in Norway: An Introduction to Learning About Other Cultures
If You Were Me and Lived in Mexico: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World 
If You Were Me and Lived in France: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World 
If You Were Me and Lived in South Korea: A Cchild's Introduction Cultures Around the World 

The books are available for $9 in paperback format.

Norway


Mexico
  
France
  
South Korea
  


I received for review 4 paperback books, an inflatable globe, passports and two pencils with pictures of flags on them. It was quite a fun package to open.

I sat down with my daughter and inflated the globe beach ball and sharpened the pencil. We filled out her passport.

I asked her to choose which country she wanted to go to first. She chose France.

We read about France and proceeded reading through the four books in the same way. She chose which country she wanted to visit next, and that’s the book we would read about.

We opened each book, one at a time, and I had her locate the country on the globe.

At first, I read to her, showing her the colorful pictures throughout each book. After we had read a couple books, she began reading along with me.




When we were done with each book, we would go to the passport booklet and write down the people we met (each book listed three boy names and three girl names that are common in that country).

Next, we would go to the passport page that lists places we visited, things we saw. On these pages, we chose to write down the landmarks mentioned in each story. For instance, France’s was the Eiffel Tower.

When we read about the ice hotel in Norway, I looked up real-life images of that hotel so she could learn even more about how fascinating this architectural sculpture hotel really is.

This was a really fun way to learn a bit about each country. I even learned a few things. For instance, for some reason I never realized why the Eiffel Tower was named, “Eiffel”.

The author is a former social studies teacher, so she knows geography and cultural studies well.  She did a fantastic job of taking information about each country and presenting it in a kid-friendly manner through really nice colorful illustrations and through presenting:

-Geography
-Hands-on learning
-Foreign Language
-Historical Landmarks
-Cultural Studies
-Common Foods from different Countries

The books also introduced some common words in each language. Each book mentioned the words for mom and dad, school, what form of money is used, and most mentioned the word for baby doll in that particular language. Each book mentioned common foods that children enjoy in each country.

My daughter giggled at the sound of some of the words. She also pointed out which names she thought sounded nice for the girls. She really liked the French and Mexican girl names.

One thing I found interesting as we read each book is how my daughter responded to the various schools and words for school. Each time, the pictures would show a school building in that particular country. Since she learns at home, this is probably one of the only parts presented that she didn't seem to relate to, but she did quickly recognize what the foreign words were referring to.

The other interesting moment was her reaction to the snow hotel in Norway. She had many questions wondering why someone would want to stay in a hotel like that, asking, "wouldn't they get cold?" and, "why would someone want to sleep there when they lay down to sleep and realize they're freezing."

Please read what other members of the Schoohouse Review Crew thought, here, or click on the picture below:

Schoolhouse Review: VocabularySpellingCity Premium Membership

I was asked to review VocabularySpellingCity Premium Membership The Premium Membership sells for $29.99 for families with up to 5 students and can be used with any aged student in elementary, middle or high school from Grades K-12.

Compare Basic to Premium:

There is a free version which offers a lot, but there is even so much more offered with the premium membership.  Check out the comparison here.

Summary:

Summed up, the program is a hands-on, fun and interactive way for students to learn while giving the teacher/parent full control of their word lists and assignments.

Learning Games:

Students learn through games like these:

 Letter Fall

 

Word-O-Rama Game

 

Flash Card

 

How Did We Use It?

I used it with my 7 year old and my 11 year old. My 7 year old is tackling third grade level reading, but is only technically in the first grade, if you go by her late September birthday and our public school district, though we are calling her our second grader. My 11 year old is in sixth grade and is an avid reader but has ironically always struggled with spelling.

My Daughter's Hearing Problems:

I think it’s largely because she had ear infections as an infant/toddler which led to her flat lining a hearing screening test when she was entering Kindergarten. We had no idea that she was not hearing until then as she was so good at accommodating for her hearing difficulty by reading lips, which we realized she was doing only after she flat lined the hearing test. After treating the fluid on her ears from the infections, she is now hearing well. But, has always had trouble with spelling words when given to her on oral tests, especially with letter blends that I think she could never really hear. Regardless, I was extremely interested in seeing whether or not VocabularySpellingCity could help her.

Long story short, I really think it is becoming a great tool to boost her spelling skills.

What Did I Think?
I found that my lists were limitless, since I could either import an existing list or create my own.  I chose to use no more than 5 words at a time on the lists I created so my students could focus and really learn each word without becoming overwhelmed.  The premium membership level also allowed my girls to learn writing sentences and paragraph skills.  I got to read what they wrote, and the results were priceless keepsakes.

The Teacher Resource tab was amazing.  I was really excited to see that I could mix subjects with the spelling and vocabulary because the site offered Arithmetic terms, Geography terms, plus a whole host of language arts lessons.  I found a list of words specific to our state as well as a whole bunch of holiday-related words for every month of the year.

What Equipment Did I Need To Use It?

It required that we all had access to a computer or a mobile electronic device. We tried it on both a laptop and our idevices, which includes my iPhone and my older daughter’s iPod Touch. My laptop runs Windows 7, and both of my daughter’s laptops run Windows XP. It was easy to use on any of the devices, though not all of the games and activities are available for use on the mobile devices. The premium membership allows the parent/teacher to be in charge of assignments for the students. You can create your own spelling lists or import lists that are already on their website. I did both.

What I Liked:

I really liked being able to create my own, but I also liked the option of finding lists that were already created. I found the Dolch word lists to be useful with my second grader, and I was able to also import lists from local schools who had made their lists available, which is always interesting to see what the schools around us is requiring of students in the same grades as my daughters.




Additionally, you are not limited to sitting in front of a computer or iPod Touch to learn. The site also allows you to print off your lists. I chose to print some flash cards and some handwriting sheets, which you can also view online if you prefer.

 


I loved how I could choose printing, D'Nealian writing or cursive for the printed sheets.  Having the ability to print out the flash cards also makes it nice to actually have a piece of paper to hold in your hand while learning.

My girls really liked learning spelling and vocabulary words with VocabularySpellingCity. They would ask every day if I had assigned them new words.

Please Read More:

Please read what other Schoolhouse Review Crew Members thought, here, or click on the picture below:

Schoolhouse Review: Bridgeway Academy Marine Biology Online

I was asked to review Fun With Science - Marine Biology from Bridgeway Academy for Grades 5-8.

I will sum up my opinion of the course by saying we found it to be informative, enjoyable education and challenging enough to stretch our thinking while really learning from a quality course.

The course we took was designed for Grades 5-8. The courses were live video streams online. It required a computer that had an internet connection fast enough to stream the classes without lagging. They were streamed through a Jigsaw meeting site which required that I conduct a speed test with my laptop before the first meeting.

The class met one day a week for an hour and were taught by Carla Berg. At the time of the posting of this review, we have completed 7 weeks of lessons so have almost come to an end of the entire course. Each class explored the oceans. She covered information about fish, mammals, sea turtles, whales and other inhabitants of the oceans as well as ocean zones and coral reefs, the arctic and symbiotic relationships.

At the end of each class, she assigned homework which consisted of either taking a quiz online answering questions that were covered in class, designing a Marine Biology pamphlet, identifying species of marine life, writing a newspaper-style article about why we should save a marine mammal on the endangered species list, and making a food web. The homework was then uploaded to Bridgeway and graded.

My 6th grader and 8th grader watched and participated in the classes and worked on the homework assignments. I uploaded the homework on the Bridgeway Moogal site where the instructor assigned a grade to the homework.

These are some examples of our completed homeworks and a screenshot of the teacher's grade and comment on one of them:

I really liked the quality of the instruction. The teacher, Carla Berg, is extremely professional. It was clearly evident that she has experience in the classroom and online teaching students. She stayed on topic and engaged the students through either opening up the chat box or locking it when necessary, answering call-in “Talk” questions, and using whiteboards where students could type in their answers.

The classes were more than just sitting and watching a teacher lecture. She used interactive whiteboards, videos, colorful pictures, rubrics, PDF printouts which we printed out at home, and class discussions.

There were also a couple hands-on experiments that she assigned. We particularly had fun with the blubber experiment.





We learned how the blubber in whales help keep them warm by using a plastic bag glove alongside a plastic glove filled with Vaseline and putting our hands into a bucket of ice. It was amazing how insulated our hands felt inside the Vaseline (blubber-like) glove.

The class required a commitment to be near a computer with an internet for one hour during class time, though in a pinch, the classes were all recorded with their videos made available online after class. We had to miss one class and caught it on the video after class. It was still very informative to simply watch the video, but it was so much more interactive and easy to follow along during the actual live, online class when other classmates participated as well.

The other requirement usually took us at least one more day, sometimes two or three, to complete the homework assignments. I thought that the homework was a very important part of the course. The homework was not easy peasy, but it was not super difficult either. While it was challenging for my children, I really liked that it stretched their thinking and required them to actually put some work into the course – Not just breeze by watching videos and saying they learned something.

The Marine Biology class costs $145 for a 9-week online Learning Lab.

Please read what other Schoolhouse Review Crew members thought of this and other classes, here, or click on the picture below:

Schoolhouse Review: 'Top Story' from 'God's World News'

 

 I was so excited to receive a one-year subscription to Top Story, which is God’s World News' monthly news magazine publication for middle school kids. With this subscription, I also received a large Map-It world map. The subscription also includes access to their online learning site.

Let me first tell you that my first reaction to all of this was, “Wow! This is so cool!” I get to present my kids current event news from an uplifting and Christian perspective. How cool is that?

I was happy enough to just receive the monthly printed publications, but then I discovered the accompanying learning site that is jam-packed with additional teaching materials, and I was thrilled!

On top of that, a package arrived that included two back issues of the Top Story magazine, plus a large Map-It world map.

With all these materials right at my fingertips, I was excited to share them with my son. The Top Story editions are intended for middle school age children, Grades 7-8, so my son fit right in at age 13 and in the eighth grade.

A yearly subscription of Top Story, consisting of ten issues, sells for $28 through GWN for individual issues. They also offer discounts when ordering in bulk for a homeschool group. The yearly subscriptions includes one issue every month except for May and December.



The magazine claims to emphasize “News, knowledge, and wisdom” while focusing on specific skill development for older students. It uses:

• News graphics
• Editorials
• Lessons, both in the magazine and online
• MAP-IT! Locator maps
• DEFINE LINE that teaches word meanings in context
• Quizzes
• Age-appropriate website content
• 32 pages per issue
• Weekly email newsletter
• Biographies and topical lessons to download and print with quizzes and answer keys 

I started off by presenting the magazine to my son and asking him if he wanted me to review individual stories with him or if he preferred reading it himself. He opted for the latter, and sat down to read. He found a couple stories that really captured his interest and discussed them with me.






I then found out about the plethora of additional information on the website. Online, they offer answers to quizzes, puzzles and activities from the printed magazine. Also online were extensions of news lessons in PDF format that provided a more in-depth look at the news of the day by adding information as to how the story relates to science, history, geography and other subjects along the way.

There is also a large collection of biographies. More than 120 biographies are available to weed through, read online or print out and learn.  These biographies were really well done and also on my child's level.





The online site was especially nice because there are two sites available, one designed specifically for younger kids and then one for the teens. I checked out both sites, even though my son is a teen and in the eighth grade. I did find that within these sites, material is broken down by grade level. I really like that the online information is easy to access from my son’s iPad as well as from my iPhone.

    







I also signed up for the free weekly email newsletter for parents and teachers.

In the meantime, I received another package in the mail that included a large Map-It world map. The map comes in the September issue every year and corresponds to points within some of the magazine articles where the student maps out the coordinates on the larger map.

I absolutely love Top Story from God’s World News. My son enjoyed learning this way as well. The articles were right at his level, informative and from a biblical worldview. Since this is the worldview I prefer to use in teaching my children, I felt comfortable allowing him to read the magazine on his own without feeling like I had to first edit it to make it age appropriate. The cartoons were also right up his alley and a lot of fun.

Please read what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of God’s World News and the other publications, here, or click on the picture below: