REAL Homeschool Spanish

 Foreign Language, Homeschool  No Responses »
Jan 052012
 

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We’ve been in between-house limbo for several weeks now, and thankfully, it’s been over the holidays – a time of year we usually focus on unit studies, fun activities, and spending time together as a family.  It’s been a perfect time to explore a homeschool Spanish Curriculum created especially for use within families.

The REAL Homeschool Spanish bundle includes a 100-page text, a 170-page activity book, an answer book with easy-to-read answers for the activity pages, and audio files. It is available as either a digital download or in hardcopy form. In the download variation, all books are pdf, and audio files are mp3. The hardcopy version includes a printed text book, and cds with the audio files and ready-to-print files for the activity pages.

Audio for book and activity book are clearly marked with which page or section they pertain to – makes the audio easy to use. Pages that have audio also have an “audio” symbol marked on there – a useful reminder for those of us that might forget to use it otherwise!

REAL Homeschool Spanish is VERY flexible; it is set up in a manner to encourage you to incorporate Spanish into your daily family life. Though not everyone will want the optional Daily Curriculum Guide, I really appreciate it. I love curriculum that is easy to adapt to the way I want to use it, but sometimes, I get a bit overwhelmed with too much flexibility – where do I start? That’s what the Daily Curriculum Guide is perfect for. If you have a busy household like us, there’s something immensely satisfying about a guide that you can skim through, say, THIS is what we’re going to do today, and then, if you choose to, add in more from the ideas section.

REAL Homeschool Spanish is divided into ten units; each unit has two to four parts. The shorter sections help to keep it simple and controllable; no “there’s too many words to remember” here. Each of the sections haas a list of vocabulary words, a list of phrases to use, and a “tips to the home educator” sidebar. (I call it a sidebar, for lack of a better word, but often, it’s close to half the page – there’s plenty of guidance in REAL Homeschool Spanish, even if you’re new to the language.)

The activity book is wonderfully done. My kids are enjoying the puzzles, and pages are much more appealing than a fill-in-the-blanks, multiple-choice typical workbook. I appreciate that the activity books are in digital form – I can print as many pages as I need for my family, and not worry that I’m wasting money because I want to do the activities and learn alongside them.

It’s been easy for me to pick and and go with REAL Homeschool Spanish – much of the vocabulary here I’m already familiar with – but I think that this program, with the included audio files for help with pronunciation, would make it an excellent choice for a parent and family that is totally new to learning Spanish.

REAL Homeschool Spanish is intended for elementary and middle school ages, though my oldest students have enjoyed it as much and my younger ones. I’d heard that a high-school supplement is in the works, and I’m looking foward to seeing it.

One of the nice things about REAL Homeschool Spanish? If there is a topic that your family would like to learn vocabulary about, it would be relatively simple to use many of the same ideas (minus the activity book) to learn that material, once you’re familiar with pronunciation and feel comfortable doing so.

Samples are available on the REAL Homeschool Spanish website for you to view, and sample audio files may also be downloaded. REAL Homeschool Spanish could be incorporated into any homeschool (or family) that wants to learn Spanish together.

Pricing for REAL Homeschool Spanish varies depending on whether you choose the digital or hard copy version, and whether or not you wish to included the daily curriculum guide. (The daily curriculum guide may also be purchased separately.)

  • Hard copy: $99.95 with Daily Curriculum Guide, $89.95 without
  • Digital download: $59.95 with Daily Curriculum Guide, $59.95 without

To see what other crew members had to say, check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog post, REAL Homeschool Spanish.

**I received this product for free as a member of the 2011-12 The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew so that I could provide you with an honest review of it by our family.**

 Posted by Shawna at 10:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Kinderbach

 Electives, Homeschool, Homeschool Crew, Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 062011
 

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Have a pint-size piano maestro wannabe in the house? Want your preschooler to start piano lessons at an early age, but are hesitant to schedule lessons for your temperamental tot? Want to see if your preschooler is interested enough in music to stick with it for a while?

Here’s your piano for preschoolers solution:

Kinderbach: Piano Lessons for Young Children.

Designed for ages 3-7, these videos (and the accompanying worksheets and coloring books) are perfectly preschooler-friendly. Short, interactive, entertaining lessons keep them engaged and interested as they follow the adventures of Dodi and Frisco. What the kids don’t realize is the secret – these characters are perfect memory aids as they explore the piano landscape.

You’ll need a piano or keyboard so your child can follow along with the lessons, but with the online subscription, nothing else is needed. (Except for printing worksheets, if desired. The worksheets help with retention, and are mentioned in the videos, so it would be a good idea to prep them beforehand.)

Kinderbach is a huge resource, with sixty weeks of lessons (in 6 levels) currently available, and level 7 is in progress. With four short lessons per week, Kinderbach fits in easily to any schedule – it’s ready when you are. (For kids on the toddler end of the spectrum, consider moving a bit more slowly through the program and repeating videos once or twice.)

The instructor, Dodi, and Frisco are cute and engaging – think of your preschooler’s favorite TV, cross it with piano lessons, and you’ll be pretty close. The instructor is great with kids – my younger ones were responding to her questions, much like they used to yell at Swiper (of Dora fame).

Like any good preschooler program, it’s designed to attract, entertain, and teach younger kids. That means the repetition, songs, and cutesy factor will almost certainly drive the adults (and older kids) in the house absolutely bonkers. Solution, if necessary: have the child use headphones.

Kinderbach has a few lessons free to try online: check them out with your child. I’d totally recommend it for kids in the 3-7 range; much older, though, and the irritation factor may well interfere with learning.

Kinderbach is available in two formats: online subscription or DVD + books. A yearly subscription is just $95.88 – which works out to $7.99 a month. That’s a huge savings from the pay-each-month price of $19.99. If you have a slow internet connection, or simply desire to own the Kinderbach DVDs, various options are available, including special value bundles.

To see what other crew members had to say about this product, check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog post, Kinderbach.


**I received this product for free as a member of the 2010-11 The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew so that I could provide you with an honest review of it by our family.**

 Posted by Shawna at 8:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Latin for Children

 Electives, Foreign Language, Homeschool, Homeschool Crew, Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 302011
 

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Latin. When I think Latin and education, the first thing that pops into my head is the movie Dead Poets Society. Expensive private school students chanting in Latin.

Not something I’d be inclined to replicate in our home.

There ARE good reasons to learn Latin. Many of our English words have Latin roots, and it’s especially valuable for those that delve into science or medicine. For learning foreign languages, especially Spanish, French, Italian… there are enough similarities in grammar and vocabulary to give a HUGE jumpstart.

But… fancy private school, we are not.

Luckily, we have something even better available.

I’ve considered, but never implemented, the study of Latin in our homeschool. Core subjects come first in the budget, and it hasn’t been a high-priority elective, so I was very pleased to learn we would be reviewing Latin For Children by Classical Academic Press.

I expected this to be a tough sell to the kids. Imagined “Why do we have to do Latin? What’s it good for? Can’t we do Japanese (or something) instead?” And then resignation, tolerance, but little interest.

When will I learn that they almost always react differently then I anticipate?

The package arrived, the kids were curious, as always, to the contents. (It’s a bit like an archaelogical dig whenever we get interesting-looking mail or parcels. I open, uncover, spread out… and the natives come in and take it all away to examine.

“What is it?” came first.

“Latin,” I replied.

“Weird. Why Latin?’

‘Because that’s what they sent us.”

“Ooh, movies.”

“A CD!” Off those went with Chef.

“Books. Hey! There are puzzles in here! That looks like fun!” Off it went with Doodle.

“What’s the little book?”

A reader, to practice reading and understanding the words.” Off it went with Tiger, who read through the entire thing, some of it aloud, before returning it.

Princess was the only one left.

‘When do we start?”

Fast forward in time: we’re on our fifth week. Although Latin For Children is intended for grades 3 and up, I’d definitely recommend that for younger students who are not strong readers, the parent expect to spend a significant amount of time explaining concepts and helping them through the workbook. For the fluent readers, it’ll go a little more smoothly.

The DVDs are fun, and make the “lecture” relatively painless, though my children still think the chanting is a bit silly. I’ve been playing the CD during chore time and during various activities, in hopes that it will help make things STICK just a little bit better. There are three parts to the DVD lessons: instruction by the teacher, chanting by other kids, and occasionally, an amusing video series titled “How the West was Unus.”

Given how they actually cheered (!!!)  the last time they got a new West was Unus video, I’d say that portion is the favorite.

The 230-page, black and white, consumable worktext is well-written and easy enough for an adult or older student to mine for answers, but a younger student that hasn’t done a lot of text-heavy studying will find it a bit more of a challenge. We’re successfully using Primer A for grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. The concepts are simple enough for the youngest to grasp, yet the workbooks are challenging enough for my Latin-beginner high school student. I was actually very surprised and pleased at both the workbook and the activity book – just exactly the right difficulty level in the puzzles to be accessible to the 3rd grader, yet not bore the 9th grader. Impressively difficult balance to find.

The 160-page activity book includes many crossword puzzles, mazes, and a variety of other activitys, plus games! (Activity pages have always been a favorite of mine – perfect way to learn or drill, and yet make the process enjoyable, rather then routine.)

I don’t feel we’re really far enough along yet to make very effective use of the reader, though we’ve all looked through it. I imagine we’ll be using the reader as a refresher as we move along, staying a bit behind in it. My kids have varying amounts of Spanish knowledge, but little practice at actual translation, so that’s another skill that we’ve been having to focus on acquiring.

The DVDs are a neat feature. I’m a read-the=text, do-the-workbook-loving person, feed me the information, let me regurgitate it, and I’m happy, but lots of kids (and parents) don’t feel the same way. The DVDs add a much more visual and audible interpretation to the material. Those learners will want to plan adequate time to watch, listen, and re-watch and listen. As the mom, I really appreciate the audio CDs – it means that I don’t have to be the one lecturing and in charge , so it frees me to do other tasks while the kids are learning.

Any learning style, there’s a tool in Latin for Children that will work for you. Teaching style – hands on teacher, fluent in Latin? Go for it, lesson plans are all laid out. Never taken any language classes before? With Latin for Children, you don’t need to. Simply follow the 32-week lesson plan, and you’re good to go. No need to worry if your pronunciation is correct – it’s all prepared, in both pronunciations: Ecclesiatical and Classical.

The one challenge we’ve had has actually been a technical one: the volume level varies on the audio DVD. It’s more of an annoyance then anything, but when a new version is done, it would be *really* nice if something were done to make the audio a bit more even. In the meantime, keep the remote handy.

Classical Academic Press has free supplementary resources available here. Also, there are a huge variety of activities available to supplement your classical studies on Headadventure Land.

There are three levels in total for Latin for Children: A, B, and C. Younger students might enjoy Song School Latin, while older students (7th ad up) might appreciate a program that moves faster, Latin Alive. Classical Academic Press also offers quite a few other materials designed to make classical subjects fun.

Latin For Children may be purchased from Classical Academic Press. The Mastery Bundle of Primer A (the package we received) is $99.00, a great deal as it includes one copy of each of the Primer A( materials, the Primer A (textbook), the DVDs & Chant CD, the History Reader and the Activity Book!

To see what other crew members had to say about this product, check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog post, Classical Academic Press.

**I received this product for free as a member of the 2010-11 The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew so that I could provide you with an honest review of it by our family.**

 Posted by Shawna at 8:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Artistic Pursuits

 Homeschool, Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 232011
 

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Art: I have this love/hate relationship with art. Love the idea of creating art – hate that I’m terrible at it. And a couple of my kids are much, much better at it then I.

Definitely not something I have any teaching ability in whatsoever. Definitely a skill I want to encourage in the kids.

What to do? Hope and pray that the right curriculum finds us – one that, out of necessity, requires no more actual skill from me then providing the books and supplies.

Lo and behold, I think one found us.

We were thrilled to find out that we’d get to try out Artistic Pursuits – I’ve heard a lot of great things about their art curriculum. But AAAAGH! Decision time. I had to figure out which specific book to request. The kids range from 3rd to 9th – and I wanted each of them to be able to participate. That led to my choosing of the 4-6th book: just right for the younger two, and hopefully not too babyish for my older ones, who’ve had no formal art instruction since they were in public school, 2-4 years ago. (If it can be called “art instruction”, when it was of such dubious nature, random and infrequent.)

The book arrived – and wow, bright, intriguing cover, chock full of instructions and sample art. Approximately 90 pages, spread over 16 units, with four lessons per unit. My only disappointment was in the binding – it’s comb-bound. Comb-binding just doesn’t hold up well in our house, so there’s a good chance it will end up dismantled, put in sheet protectors and ensconced in a binder for longevity.

Then it was time for a material hunt. Supply packs are available from Artistic Pursuits, plus they’ve done the kindness of setting up easy-to-order bundles with a couple of online companies, but I wanted to look over the book, and check supplies on hand, before I decided what – and where – to purchase.

Most of what we needed we already had, with the exception of the Ebony pencils, so it was off to our local art and bead store I went. (They offer teachers a 15% discount for class materials – and homeschoolers count. Puts the price that much closer to the discount online places – and supports a local business while we’re at it, definitely a good thing. Besides, it gave me an excuse to check out their neat new location.)

Materials needed vary from book to book, but lists (and info for the bundles) can easily be viewed on Artistic Pursuit’s website. The book itself is text/reference, and reusable – supplies, though, will need to be restocked with regular use. If your kids are anything like mine, you’re not going to get just one project per lesson.

Since we’re on eclectic-leaning-toward-relaxed mode, I wanted to know, right from the get-go, if it would work well with a work-at-your-own-pace-individually situation. Pleased to report that it has, quite well, in fact. My input has consisted of: providing materials, asking if they’d worked on it this week, and admiring the end results. As far as I’m concerned, that’s as independent-friendly as a curriculum can get!

The recommended pace is 2 hour-long lessons per week, which would fill 32 weeks. Lessons will likely require more time to complete as the year wears on, because more skills will likely translate into spending more time working on each project. Also, the parent is advised to schedule lessons when they can be completed without interruption, as a break in the middle can derail enthusiasm and energy.

Artistic Pursuits would be a great addition to any core curriculum, with or without high teacher involvement. It would be easy for a knowledgeable parent to spend more time or go into more details on desired topics, but it’s not necessary. This book is definitely accessible for middle grades, and with a complete set on the shelf, would be a great resource even for unschoolers who enjoy art.

Each unit has four lessons. The first is focused on the topic presented in that lesson, giving ways to observe that detail in the world around them, and create art from what they see. The second lesson gives examples of the skill in other works of art, and relates that art to the history and culture of the artist. The third lesson centers around technique and helping the student to apply their new knowledge to their own art.

We didn’t schedule in two specific times per week – instead, I just added it to their schedule as something that they could work on when they had time – lately we’ve had too many projects going on at once keeping things disorganized, so it fit into our schedule better that way.

I was very excited to learn we’d get to check out Artistic Pursuits; I had high hopes for this product, and this book has met and exceeded my expectations. My biggest surprise? It’s actually the quality of results that I’m surprised at. I’m no artist, but I can appreciate when something is well drawn. Two of mine seem to be gifted artistically, while the other two do not – but what really got my attention that my less-naturally-skilled kids have produced drawings that are far better then I anticipated.

Artistic Pursuits is going on our must-buy list. There are two books for 4th-6th grade, two for junior high, and two for senior high. I’m actually considering, in addition, purchasing the 1st-3rd grade books, also – not sure how well they’d adapt for older kids, but we might just have to try them out and see.

The kids were curious at first look, and anything artsy or crafty, they tend to dive into wholeheartedly. Artistic Pursuits has joined the “wish we’d tried it sooner” collection. It’s going to be interesting to see, as time goes by, how things improve – and I think I’m going to try it out, too. Supposedly, anyone can learn to draw.

ARTistic Pursuits (Grades 4-6) Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition may be purchased from Artistic Pursuits for $42.95. This is just one book in a series that encompasses all grades from preschool through high school – all books are currently the same price.

To see what other crew members had to say about this product, check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog post, Artistic Pursuits.

**I received this product for free as a member of the 2010-11 The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew so that I could provide you with an honest review of it by our family.**

 Posted by Shawna at 8:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , , ,
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