Alphabet Alley Christian Toys Review

If you are looking for good quality games and toys for your preschooler, Alphabet Alley Christian Toys is the place to check out. They are a Christian company that produces high quality products for your early childhood aged children.

I was given the opportunity to review two of their products. The first was their Two By Two Matching Game. This is a Noah's Ark version of the traditional memory game. As I opened the box, right away I was impressed with the quality of the product. Each tile is made of a very thick and sturdy cardboard with a glossy finish. This is not something your preschooler can bend and they are a nice size for a child to hold on to. My daughter was immediately attracted to the adorable Noah's Ark themed images on each tile. While she is not old enough to play the game the way it should be, we modified it and it worked perfectly until she is able to. There are 12 tiles (not 24, which can be too much for a young child). We chose four mixed up pairs and used them face up instead of the traditional face down method. I asked her to find me a certain tile and then had her find it's match. We then discussed things like what sound the animal made, or practiced counting "one, two". She loves this game and is often bringing it to me wanting to play. My 8 year old son even got into it with her and was teaching her with it.

The second product I reviewed was the Noah's Ark Go Fish. This is just like the original Go Fish but again with the Noah's Ark theme. Have you ever bought a cheap Go Fish game from the dollar store and realized why they were a dollar? I have! They are so flimsy! Well the cards in this game are easily two to three times thicker! They are very sturdy. This company has really gone the extra mile and made sure their materials will really hold up with a preschooler using them. The size of the cards are nice and big and easy for little hands to hold. Each card has a big picture of something that is Noah's Ark themed on it. There are also numbers and a word telling what the picture is at the bottom. Not only can you play a game, but you can work on sight words, numbers recognition, counting, matching, and Bible all at the same time. This was fun for my entire family!

I would highly recommend these games if you are looking for some traditional games but with a Christian twist. They are definitely made well and will withstand the little hands of your toddler!

Visit Alphabet Alley is you are interested in either of these products for Christmas. They also carry other games, magnet toys, wooden toys, and stickers.

Right now, the Two By Two Matching Game is on sale for $9.35 (reg. $10.99).
Noah's Ark Go Fish is $5.99.

Heidi Miller-Ford

Spears Art Studio Review

I am not artistic at all! Teaching art has always been a challenge for me and I don't enjoy doing it. I don't want my son to feel that way though. Spears Art Studio Curriculum is a great way to incorporate art into your school day or week. I was a little leery at first about this curriculum because there was a lot of information. However, don't let this intimidate you or make you think this is going to be a difficult curriculum to use. If you take the time to look over the material and really get a feel for how it works, you will find that it is very flexible, organized, and done by a professional. It actually made teaching art easier for me and we had lots of fun!

This is a K-8 grade curriculum you could easily get 9 years worth of use out of. While each concept is revisited every year, it is done a little differently and builds on the previous year's skills that were taught. You could also use this with several different aged children at the same time and choose the activity that is appropriate for each of their levels. This program is set up with all the lessons divided up into months. You can just go right to a month and it is divided into 4 weeks with lessons for each grade level. There is also a yearly activity that you can do. It requires you setting up a bulletin board (or if space is a problem, a tri-fold display board) and creating Noah's Ark. This activity will take your child through the timeline of the Great Flood.

Before you get into the lesson plans, there are several pages containing different art techniques, which I found quite helpful. Every lesson contains a theme to focus on, vocabulary, recommendations for art history to study, scriptural references and biblical concepts, and an art evaluation tool. There were a few lessons (like the Noah's Ark yearly one) that required the teacher and/or children to draw the animals from scratch. This is not something my family is able to do. That was a little intimidating to me and I felt a little lost. If this is the case for your family, I would recommend printing out some animal clip art and having the children color them so you can still do the activity. I think it's a worthwhile lesson and this shouldn't hold parents back from doing it. It just needed a little adjustment. Many lessons had patterns provided for them and often times, the examples for each lesson were in color. I liked having a color example to look it. Again because I am art challenged!

I loved the way art appreciation was incorporated into each theme. This is something I have wanted to do with my son but have never found a curriculum I liked or the time to really delve into. It's already included in this. The only thing that requires a little work on your part is looking up (either in books from the library or on the internet) the art work that is suggested to view. I found that if you can find two or three good sites that contain pictures of art, you can find most of the suggested titles. I do wish however that the Spears Art Studio site would have a place where all of these prints were available to view for the lessons. This would save a lot of time on the parents part.

This program was on a CD and contained several different pdf files. This makes it a little easier if you are looking for a specific month. You can open just that pdf file instead of scrolling through the entire book. If you would rather have it at your fingertips though, you could print the whole thing and put it in a binder. This would probably make it easier to refer to different lessons and finding patterns.

This was a very nice program to use and definitely teaches specific art skills children should learn and is fun at the same time. The CD is $39.95 (which includes shipping- Priority or First Class). That is a good deal for 9 years of art or something every child in the family can use at once!

They also have a high school program which can be bundled with this for $69.90 (again including shipping). If you purchase both, they include a FREE CD called Beginning Calligraphy Workbook- Grades 5-Adult (a $14.95 value).

They also sell literature guides.

If you are interested in any of these products, be sure to go to their site: Spears Art Studio.

Heidi Miller-Ford

With permission from Diane, I also got a copy of the High School curriculum and had one of my co-op members (and business partner) use it with her high school aged son. Here is her review:

Homeschooling, high school, art, non-creative teens, and a parent/teacher who lacks the drive to teach something substantial enough yet needs to get the art credit honestly can cause a lot of trouble!

Finally, there is something that is going to work for us! Let me tell you why the Spears Art Studio High School Art Survey, A Study from a Christian Worldview is going to be the answer to our credit on the transcripts this year.

To understand how good this program is, you need to understand Jacob. Tell me what to do, keep the same format, declare the purpose, motivate me, challenge me, don’t confuse me with unimportant details, give me something that translates into purposeful adult activity. This is Jacob.

Spears Art explains why this project is good for the brain, how it will help problem solving, how the Creator designed and appreciates the elements of art, it is rhythmic with the design of every lesson, has separate PDF files so you aren’t scrolling through hundreds of pages, there are tests after every unit, it lists supplies needed, and it covers art history. I can’t even name all that this program encompasses.

Visual memory exercises are given in every lesson. Jacob struggled with this at first, but he is finding that the assignments are strengthening his memory. To be able to tie in art to such a practical life skill is wonderful. Scripture references are given for every lesson. Verses are to be copied and meditated on. The vocabulary section is very good. And, all of this work is done independently, which is a plus.

My favorite section is the Art History. An artist is given to study (you must use your own references) and guidance is given so that the artist reinforces the meaning of the lesson. I have tried many, many ways to accomplish a high school art program. For those with very artistic children, this may be easy but those students will still benefit greatly from this program as more than just projects are involved. But for those parents who understand that God has designed us in His image, and that God himself is the most incredible artist, we know it is important to teach our children about this subject. We want to teach it and teach it well, yet we don’t know how or what to use.

This program comes with high approval from me. As for Jacob, this is the first school subject of the day by choice. Anyone with teen boys should try this. The 36 lessons, 75 art activities, sketchbook assignments, and the 144 visual memorization exercises are worth the $29.95 for a CD. This gives you a years worth of art. I will add in Music Appreciation to give us the whole Fine Arts credit for high school.

Kudos to Diane Spears for making a very thorough, easy to follow program that will translate over into adulthood. Everything that is taught has value and because it is grounded with a Christian worldview, it gives art meaning. This program met a need for my family, and it will certainly do well in the homeschool community.

Shannon Coe

Time Tales and Clean 'n' Flip Charts

Trigger Memory Systems has some terrific products! Two of which I recently had the opportunity to review. The first product I reviewed was their Clean 'n' Flip Charts. These are a really neat concept. There are three different spiral bound flip charts. The first is for zone cleaning (which includes the kitchen, bathroom, and living room)the second is for the bedroom, and the third is for the laundry, .

The Zone Chart is probably the most popular because it contains the three big areas in the house where most chores occur. It is made of a nice durable card stock with a glossy finish. It comes with a black dry erase marker for the children to check off each chore as it is finished. The different areas are separated by colored pages in the book. This makes it easy to flip directly to the pages for the area they are working on. There are easy to follow pictures, as well as text for older children. Each area has a page with a specific chore assigned for each day of the week as well as a page where you can write in extra chores you want completed. There is also a "Time Zone" where you can write in the time you want each chore finished. This can be used with one child or several.

For the bedroom chart, it uses a system of walking around the perimeter of the room (starting at the door) to pick up all out of place items, which are then placed in the middle of the floor. Then the child is taught how to categorize those items and return them to their proper place. In this chart, there is also a weekly jobs page included where the parent can write in extra jobs that need done. There was even an easy tip on teaching when to empty the garbage can.

The laundry chart might have been my favorite because it was a chore we had not tried with my son. I have to say that he loved it! The directions were very well done and offered nice tips for specific things like how to tell what size the load is, which cycle to choose, and how to separate the clothes into whites, lights, and colors. This chart will take children through the entire process from dirty laundry basket to putting the clothes away. I did end up doing a few extra things like writing on the chart the name of the cycles on my machine and what color loads they matched up with. They do list this in the chart, but my machine was slightly different and I wanted my son to know exactly which one to choose and be able to do it independently. I also put two black lines around the outside of my laundry detergent cup so he could easily see how much to fill it for a small or large sized load. My son enjoyed this so much he did three loads of laundry within the first day and a half! Of course that will wear off but at least he now knows how to do laundry and I have added it to his weekly chore list.

These laundry and bedroom charts were not made to use the dry erase marker on. If you write on them and would want to change it, you need to do it in pencil. These were made with a different card stock and it doesn't have the same glossy finish. They were made this way to keep the cost down for the customer. They are still a wonderful tool!

If you are interested in purchasing these, here are the prices:
The Zone Chart: $17.95
Bedroom Char: $7.95
Laundry Chart: $7.95

Bundles:
Zone and Bedroom Chart: $22.95
Zone Chart, Bedroom Chart, and Laundry Chart: $29.95.

Just click here to order.

The second product was Times Tales. When they say "made easy" and "learn 'em fast", they aren't kidding! My son is dyslexic and struggles with remembering the addition and subtraction facts and I figured multiplication tables would be the same way. I have found out they don't need to be. When we started to use this program, I wondered if he was really remembering all the stories I was showing him. The next day we did a review and sure enough, he had them all. We continued through the rest of the stories in part one and we had the same results. The true test was going to be when we starting using the flash cards and if he transferred this information to them. He was able to remember all of them with the symbol flashcards. We have not moved on to the regular flash cards yet, but I don't think it will be long. I am amazed at how well and effortlessly he has been able to learn these times tables. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone. Especially those with children who struggle remembering math facts.

The system comes with a very nice spiral bound flip book that includes all the stories for the multiplication tables. A chart is given at the beginning showing the symbols that are used for each number in the facts. An example of this would be a chair is used to represent the number four because they are shaped similarly. The stories are short, simple, and easy to remember. Each story has a picture using the number symbols and includes the answer in the story. This is the part that makes it so effortless.

The child is first introduced to the story by listening to it several times and then discussing it. Then he is presented with just the picture and must retell the story in his own words, making sure it is in the correct order. Then a set of flashcards are used which have the symbols on them in place of the actual numbers. This helps to start to visualize the actual facts but still having the symbols to trigger his memory. When these facts can be recalled quickly, a regular set of flash cards are then used. Finally a practice test, test, and verbal test are all given to make sure the facts are known and have become automatic.

The teacher's manual is very easy to use and simple to follow. Be sure to follow it exactly though! There is a specific process you must follow. The manual contains all the directions for teaching the facts, pretests, and tests. In addition though, it has some helpful activities to use throughout the process. There are crossword puzzles and a Roll'Em Cube Game. You can copy the cube pages on card stock and cut out and assemble the cubes to use for a game. The cubes include the regular numbers as well as symbols on them. After they are rolled, the child multiplies the two numbers together. This is a fun way to review the facts. At the back of the manual, there is an answer key for all tests and puzzles.

The only thing I thought could have been done a little differently (but it was not a big deal) was the thickness of the paper the flashcards were on. They are perforated for you to tear apart, but are on a thinner paper that doesn't seem to me would last through several children over the years. You could just copy those pages onto sturdier paper instead of tearing out and using them from the book. That would be my advice rather than using the ones in the book. Then you would have them year after year and wouldn't have to worry if they got ripped or lost. Again, I believe the cards were made the way they were to keep the price affordable for the customer. This is something we all can appreciate and was not a big enough deal to me that I wouldn't purchase them. I just thought I'd mention it so that anyone with more than one child would be aware of it before tearing out the flashcard pages.

This seems like an excellent program and an answer to a lot of parents problems with getting their children to learn the multiplication facts. This one time buy, could be used with all of your children! The cost is only $29.95.

To order this click here.

Heidi Miller-Ford

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Subscription Sale!

The Old Schoolhouse^® Magazine is having an amazing sale on subscriptions during their annual Black Friday Sale November 26 – 30. For those 5 days only, they are drastically reducing their one-year subscription price to $7.95! That's the price you would usually pay for just one issue at a bookstore!

This is their lowest price ever on the magazine and they want all of you to take advantage of this offer and share the info with your friends.

Please don't miss out. Your one-year subscription will pay for itself time and time again as you receive practical tips and Biblical encouragement to keep going strong in your commitment to homeschooling and to the Lord. Since it's a quarterly magazine, they even have a monthly subscriber's only E-Newsletter called Teacher's Toolbox that will give you seasonal teaching ideas and a free E-Book download! It's like joining a unit study of the month club! The free E-Books alone are valued at almost $250/year. It's really perfect for people who are homeschooling on a shoestring or just wanting to add in some little extras to your teaching.

Plus during the Black Friday Sale, they have all kind of bonus gifts when you spend $50, $75, $100, or $150. Some are electronic downloads that you can download immediately, while other are physical products mailed from various vendors directly to your home.

AND, their Win Big contest is going on so if you just happen to be customer 67,000, you will receive a prize package valued at almost $500 which includes a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store! Who couldn't use that? And you can qualify to win it no matter how much or how little you spend!

Mark your calendars for November 26 - 30^th and do a little shopping from your seat, not your feet at the Schoolhouse Store's Black Friday Sale!

www.TheOldSchoolhouseStore.com

Wonderful Geography Book for Learning the 50 States!

I was very lucky to get the opportunity to review a wonderful geography book by Schoolside Press called The Little Man in the Map. E. Andrew Martonyi has come up with some really creative stories to help your child remember where all the 50 states are located. This book has won two awards and been a finalist for two others. Now I know why!

The book starts out in a classroom setting where the students are asked to look at the different shapes of the states and see what they remind them of. The students soon discover that the states right down the middle of the map (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana) create the shape of a little man. The little man (called MIM in the book) comes alive and takes over from there. With a little imagination, MIM goes through the entire 50 states telling a short story that will help your child remember them by. Each story then has a corresponding picture that is drawn on the state for a visual clue. Of course the author has tried to create stories and images that reflect the shape of each state. That's what makes this book so successful.

Some things I like about the book, in addition to the stories, are how the states are split into regions which helps to group them into smaller chunks to learn. These regions are displayed two different ways. One is an enlarged version which helps to see the disctinctive shape of each state and the second is highlighted in color on a full black and white U.S. map.

We have really enjoyed this book at our house! My son loves geography so this was sure to be a hit. However, he did not know the 50 states by heart. This has really helped in the short time we have had it. He has asked to read this book together at times when we are NOT doing school. He rarely asks to do something that could be considered educational when school is not going on. He has even been showing our relatives the different states on a map and telling them the different stories that go along with them. Out of the blue tonight he said he would love to have a puzzle of the United States (guess I know one of the things I'm getting him for Christmas!). I think it says a lot about a book when children want to read it on their own and are excited about learning from it. It also speaks volumes when they can easily recall the information they have read. My son does love geography so perhaps that's why this has come easily to him. But I can only think that this would be especially helpful to the child who does not like geography or it does not come easily to him. This is a much more fun approach to learning the location of the 50 states rather than the boring methods that are usually used.

On thing I thought I would mention that wasn't a big deal to me, but might be to others, is the fact that some of the characters included in the stories or pictures were elves or magical creatures. The book in no way teaches about elves or magic. It is written in a very whimsical fashion and meant to be the children using their imagination. I thought it would be fair to make some people aware of this in case it would be offensive to them.

To find out more about how you can get this book, please go to www.schoolsidepress.com. This is a nice hardcover book with a dust jacket. It's 9.75 x 11.25 inches and costs $19.95. Definitely worth the money if your child walks away effortlessly learning where the 50 states are. They also have a wall map with the 50 states and the pictures for the stories are drawn in each of the states. It's 38 x 22 inches and costs $21.95. In addition, they have free coloring pages you can print from the site. I would love to see this company create a U.S. puzzle with the picture clues on it. Schoolside press also has in the plans a book to learn the state capitals for all 50 states. Be on the lookout for that too! It looks like it will be good!

Heidi Miller-Ford