3 P Learning/Mathletics (A Homeschool Crew Review)

My absolute favorite online math program thus far!

Yes. I know that that’s a bold statement but it’s true. Our family usually doesn’t like online curriculum or assignments, but Mathletics is the exception.

Austin, Our 6th grader is the one that we chose to do Mathletics. There are a total of 100 curriculum activities including: Decimals, Number Theory, Add and Subtract Fractions, Multiply and Divide Fractions, Ratio, Proportion and Percent, Geometry, Measurement, Data, Probability and Statistics, Pre-Algebra, and Integers.'

Check out the Home Schooling Brochure where you’re sure to find out what all the excitement is about!

I would like to direct you to the Student Centre Guide. From there you will read about Getting Started, Activities, Certificates and Points and much more.

Mathletics is accessible through subscription that is priced right at $59/year!! Everyone on the crew received a 45 day subscription to the Mathletics website.

Another neat thing that I found while browsing the subscriber’s pages are the downloadable eWorkbooks that help with even more with instruction.

See what my friends at TOS Homeschool Crew say about Mathletics.

Tektoma (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Tektoma Game Tutorials for Kids was foreign to me until we got the privilege to review the tutorial for TOS Homeschool Crew.

What Tektoma offers:

• Engaging video tutorials for ages 7-17
• Tutorials of varying skill levels and topics
• Learn at your own pace in the comfort of your home
• Natural progression helps develop technical skills
• Customize your learning experience
• Low monthly membership fee gives access to all our resources
• New curriculums available monthly

PRICE: Just $14.95 per month or $140 per year gets you access to all the tutorials as well as online help via the forums. Payable by credit card or Paypal. Monthly fee automatically renews until canceled.

FREE MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:

• Free 14-day Trial
• Earn Free Membership Time by Telling Your Friends: Use the Tell Your Friends link at the top to invite your friends to try out Tektoma, too. When they become paying members, you get 15 days free. There is no limit to the number of referral credits you can earn.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Currently, the tutorials are for computers running Windows XP or Vista only. Macintosh versions coming in the future.
• Broadband internet connection
• Any browser should work, but make sure it is a current version
  • For GameMaker tutorials, you need a copy of GameMaker installed and the GameMaker resources folder.
    Instructions for downloading these files can be found on the GameMaker Tutorials page.
    GameMaker requires 128mb of RAM, DirectX 8 with at least 32mb of video memory, and a screen resolution of at least 800×600.

The guys in my family are pretty much “gamers”. Lovers of fast-paced play (sports and racing games). Needless to say though, they were not turned on my Tektoma. I tried to sit through the tutorial and just didn’t want to sit through it. This product was not right for my family, but maybe yours will benefit from the reviews of other TOS Homeschool Crew Members.

All About Spelling (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Level One in the All About Spelling series brings together the three pathways to learning—auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), and kinesthetic (touching). This multisensory approach, combined with a built-in review system and reinforcement activities, ensures that students retain what they learn and understand how to apply it in practical situations.

In a practical, hands-on way, your student will learn:

• How to say and write the first 32 phonograms
• How to segment words into their individual sounds
• Short and long vowel sounds
• How to identify and count syllables in a word
• How to choose between c and k at the beginning of a word
• When to double f, l, and s
• How to spell /k/ at the end of a word
• How to form plural words by adding s or es
• Compound words
• Open and closed syllable types
• and more!

Level Two in the All About Spelling series continues to bring together the three pathways to learning—auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), and kinesthetic (touching). This multisensory approach, combined with a built-in review system and reinforcement activities, ensures that students retain what they learn and understand how to apply it in practical situations.
In a practical, hands-on way, your student will learn:

• The open and closed syllable types
• How to divide words into syllables
• How to spell multisyllable words
• When y can say /î/
• How Silent E can make a vowel long
• The vowel-consonant-e syllable type
• Two spellings for the sound of /z/
• The two sounds of long u
• The difference between hard and soft c and g
• Ways to spell long e
• That English words don’t end in i, j, u, or v
• The most common way to spell the sound of /er/
• When to use oi/oy, aw/au, and ow/ou
• and more!

WooHoo!! A spelling program. To make it sweeter, it’s one that I’ve been eye-balling since last year. Now we get to feel it and experience it all thanks to TOS Homeschool Crew!

I have nothing but good to say about All About Spelling. Its thorough, easy to use and understand, very rewarding, hands-on, caters to different learning styles, and is teachable. Another thing that made it appealing to me was the feel (from physically handling) of it. Yes, I know that may sound kooky, but I like texture. All the guess work is taken out of using All About Spelling.

There are so many purchasing options that I think, for the sake of space, that you’d be better benefited by visiting All About Spelling’s Products page. You can even watch a “what to order” tutorial.

It was great to see my 2nd grader embrace and grasp the concept of All About Spelling. To date, I think that this is her favorite curriculum of all subjects. I’m glad that we have the option to go further with All About Spelling.

I’m glad to say that I highly recommend All About Spelling!! Do yourself a favor and check out what other from TOS Homeschool Crew have to say about All About Spelling!

Professor in a Box – Financial Accounting (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Just the facts:

Financial Accounting by Michael P. Licata, Ph.D. is a first accounting course for homeschool high school students. Many high schools offer an accounting course as an elective for students interested in pursuing a career in business. Now homeschool high school students have such an elective available to them.

This is a college level course similar in content to the first accounting course taken by all students in university and college schools of business across the country.

• Complete financial accounting course
• Featuring content coverage for the new CLEP Financial Accounting Exam
• Will help current and future business owners
• No textbook, no 40 page chapters to read
• 30-day money back guarantee

Course Objectives
The objective of Financial Accounting by Michael P. Licata, Ph.D. is to introduce students to the study of accounting which is known as the language of business. The main purpose of financial accounting is to measure and report the performance of a business to interested parties both outside and inside of the business. These interested parties use accounting information to make a variety of decisions such as:

• Investors - Deciding whether to purchase or sell a company’s stock.
• Bankers - Deciding whether to lend money to a business.
• Managers – Making day-to-day business decisions such as whether to increase inventory levels, or to spend more on advertising.
• Students will learn to prepare and interpret the four basic financial statements - income statement, balance sheet, statement of owners’ equity and statement of cash flows. See below for detailed Learning Objectives by Chapter.
• Any homeschool high school student interested in a career in business or in someday owning their own business will benefit from this course.

Things I Like about Professor in a Box:

• Lesson Plans (I really don’t like when a curriculum/study is thrown at me with no clear direction)
• Course Syllabus. Each chapter and Part are clearly defined.

Other thoughts about Professor in a Box:

Accounting! Where to start? When I was in high school, my idea of that was to let my future husband handle all of that! Money and numbers was not my thing. I just wanted to spend it. I did not take into account that my husband may one day hand the check book over to me to keep up with the balance. I know that accounting is a little more involved than just managing a checkbook.

Professor in a Box is one math curriculum that I will be keeping in the wings for our high school junior or senior; when I know that they will better grasp all concepts of financial accounting.

Check out what my friends at TOS Homeschool Crew have to say about Professor in a Box Financial Accounting curriculum.

TOS 4th Annual Black Friday Sale

I know that its difficult to pass up a great deal; especially when it comes from a most wonderful company like The Old Schoolhouse Store!

TOS presents its Black Friday sale with unbeatable prices.

I always rave about their magazine. When the price of the subscriptions are drastically reduced I’m ecstatic about it. ONLY $7.95 for a year’s PRINT subscription. Now you can receive free gifts with your paid subscription.

Hurry!!! Go!!! Shop!!!

Exploramania GyMathtics (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Get up! Move! Learn! with the Exploramania GyMathtics DVD. A complete 30 minute workout while learning math facts. It gets the cardio going while enriching young ones with a cool way of gaining knowledge. It’s fun for all ages but targeted for 2nd to 5th graders.

What GyMathtics has to say about itself:

The Award Winning Exploracise Gymathtics program is the Ultimate Brain and Body workout teaching math and healthy lifestyle concepts during a complete 30-minute exercise routine.

Gymathtics is a fun fitness learning experience that kids will want to do again and again. The exercise program is great for kids of all ages. The math facts target the 2nd to 5th grade levels.

The complete 30 minute program includes:

• Shape Stretches Warm Up: Stretch your mind and body with line, circle, and polygon stretches.
• Counting Calisthenics: Aerobic movements work your heart as fun counting concepts work your brain.
• Pattern Power: Growing and repeating pattern exercise combinations challenge minds and strengthen muscles.
• Well-Being Wind Down: Relaxing stretches cool down the body and open the mind to think about healthy lifestyle choices including the Nice Wave Stretch and Big Dream Stretch.

Math facts detail:

The math education details in the program are incorporated through three senses: Kinesthetic/Movement (M), Auditory (A), and Visual (V).

My children (ages 4 years old, 2nd and 4th grade) really enjoyed this DVD. The participants in the DVD were engaging and friendly. The instructor was very pleasant and easy to understand.

Gymathtics can be purchased through the Exploramania website for $24.99. Order now and you qualify for FREE SHIPPING!!

Check out what my peeps have to say about GyMathtics at TOS Homeschool Crew blog!

AVKO (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Such rich resources are found within the pages of AVKO
TOS Homeschool Crew members received a one year membership valued at $25.00

A little history about AVKO:

AVKO is a non-profit organization that specializes in teaching dyslexics how to read, write, spell and type. AVKO develops books and materials utilizing the multi-sensory approach (Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, Oral) that can be used with anyone and by anyone. AVKO materials and methods are all common-sense and effective with those we have worked with: young and old, dyslexic and non-dyslexic.

AVKO's Mission Statement:

The AVKO Educational Research Foundation, founded in 1974, has as its mission the following:

1. To determine what makes the learning of reading and spelling so difficult for some and so easy for others.
2. To determine what it is about our language that good readers learn without being taught that poor readers don't.
3. To determine whether or not that which poor readers don't learn is ever systematically taught and if it isn't, if it can be.
4. To devise techniques and materials to enable teachers (or parents) to systematically teach poor readers and/or poor spellers that which schools presently are not teaching.
5. To widely disseminate its discoveries of techniques and materials that enable dyslexics to learn to read and to spell.

With membership, AVKO offers several PDF eBooks that supplement their established programs; Sequential Spelling and If It's To Be, Its Up to Me to Do It.

AVKO has several links that I've found very helpful for my oldest daughters in taking the ACT and SAT in the future.
I'm still browsing through AVKO to learn more about their site and offerings.
To learn more, please visit TOS Homeschool Crew Blog for more information and for other reviewers' opinions and advice.