Review: Weigl Publishers

Weigl Publishers sent us three media enhanced books to review, and boy were we in for some fun!! Glaciers, A Lion's World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant were a ton of fun for my four children who range in age from 4-9. 

Guys, these books are just plain FUN. I want to take some time to look at each of these books. Let's start with: 

Here is a picture of my two daughters listening to the book. (You have an option to just read it yourself or listen to it read. If you listen to it read, there are all kinds of cool sound affects!)

There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant is simply a "basic" story. It is a fun book kids can listen or read online. This makes it great for kids as young as 3 and as old as, well, me! Here's a video demonstrating some of the fun sounds you can hear as you read along:

The "fun" however only starts with a book like the one mentioned above. Let's step it up a level, shall we? Glaciers was simply UH-MAZING! Seriously this book was sooooooo cool.

   

  I really debated how best to illustrate the amazing things within this book. I finally decided to take a short video to show just a few of the features. There are quizzes and links to other sites, and image galleries. The fun (and learning!) is intense and fun. Here's the video:

I love the idea that I can use this one book and have a whole unit of amazing study for my kiddos. This book is for slightly older children. (I put the age range at about 8 years old and up although younger kids could just surfacely read the book and get something out of it too!)

Lastly I want to touch on a book that I feel is a combo of the above two options. It is more simple, but very cool. It has live videos of lions and sounds and all the works. It was probably a favorite here for us because it wasn't too educational and included a really awesome animal and all the cool things it does:

   Folks you have to check out Weigl Publishers. These three books are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to amazing things they offer. There are, honestly, nearly a limitless number of books from a book on every state in the USA to books on nearly every sport you can imagine! Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Fiction, Spanish ... you name it, they probably have a digital book on it. As always, feel free to contact me to get more information and hear from me directly. What fun this review was! I am sure you will feel the same.  

Review: Starfall Education Foundation

I had the opportunity to review The Starfall Home Membership from Starfall Education Foundation with my two daughters ages four and six. Both girls gave the program two thumbs up and never complained when told it was "Starfall" time. (This is always a major sign of a good program for me!)

The Starfall Home Membership is designed for parents, teachers, or someone like me: a homeschooling parent (so both a parent and a teacher!) It is an early education website designed to support and expand on children's learning in the early. As they state on their website: "Our goal is to reach out to teachers, parents, guardians, babysitters, homeschooling families -- anyone involved in the early education -- and help you feel supported and excited about your children's early education."

 

Here is a picture of four-year-old Hannah having fun on the program. Hannah is very "picky" and will moan and complain when asked to do something that she isn't completely sold on. But she didn't complain at all with The Starfall Home Membership.

 

My six-year-old daughter Abigail was equally enthralled with the program. When I asked Abigail what she liked about Starfall she told me, "EVERYTHING!" Here she is working through some second grade math concepts on the iPAD version of the program:

The Starfall Home Membership is designed for children in grades pre-k to second grade. My Hannah is pre-k (and doing pre-k and kindergarten work), and my Abigail is kindergarten (but doing first and second grade work) so this was perfect for us. 

 

Here were some of the things I loved most about the The Starfall Home Membership from Starfall Education Foundation:

 

1. COST

This is an incredibly affordable program. For just $35, an entire family can use the program for one year. The membership can be used on Android, Kindle or iOS in addition to a desktop computer. We used it on our desktop computer and our iPAD. This works out to about $4 a month.

 

2. EASE

Firstly it is important to note that if you want to get the FULL aspect of the program you need to use it on a desktop computer. While the iPAD app is great, it has a lot less to offer than the desktop version. (Starfall is still working on enhancing their app and catching it up with everything the desktop offers.)

Here is the main screen you see when you log in on the desktop version of the program:

From here there are SO many fun things to do and a child can easily maneuver it by themselves. (I love programs that are EASY!) My daughter Abigail clicked on the arrow in the bottom right corner that says: "First Grade This Way." From there things are broken down as following:

• 1st Grade Math
• Operations & Algebraic Thinking
• Base Ten Number & Operations
• Measurement & Geometry

• 1st Grade Reading
• Reading: Literature & Informational Text
• Phonics 

Each of these categories offers a ton of different resources and options for learning. It would take me a ton of bullets to list everything that there is to do!

3. FUN Like I said, whenever I find a program that gets rave reviews from everyone in the family (or in this case, both of the children at the correct age to do the program), I am sold. There was no complaining. The girls liked doing the program and asked if they could do it again. The fact that they were learning while doing it? All the more reason for you to give this program a try.

4. BONUS ITEMS!

In the Parent-Teacher Center there are tons of extras like:

• ELA Worksheet Generators
• Math Worksheet Generators
• Custom Printables
• Projectable Books & Posters
• Printable Downloads

You can find more about the The Starfall Home Membership from Starfall Education Foundation by visiting them on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Instagram

   

Review: Heirloom Audio Productions

I can't believe we were LUCKY enough to get to review WULF THE SAXON from Heirloom Audio Productions. I have reviewed for this amazing production team before. In fact, this is our fifth time getting to listen and share about one of their audio productions. We love them so much that we jump up and down with our hand high in the air anytime an opportunity to listen to one of these comes up!

You can read my past reviews here for Heirloom Audio Productions here.

• Captain Bayley's Heir
• In the Reign of Terror
• Cat of Bubastes
• Beric the Briton

This time WULF THE SAXON my husband actually loves these audio productions best of all so he always asks to listen on the way to or from somewhere with the kiddos. And this time was no different. So the "details" about what this production were about will come straight from his mouth below. While I was home on a "Mom Break", my husband took a short day trip with the kids and listened to the production on the way there and back.

The story is about Wulf who is a young thane (landowner) in 1065 England. It follows his adventures and rise to trusted confident to the King of England. There were shipwrecks and battles and arrests and dungeons and escapes and sword fights and injuries -- everything our nine-year-old boys loved -- but there were also more than one romantic story to follow as well which intrigued our younger girls. The story culminates in the Battle of Hastings -- one of the most famous events in Western Civilization/History. 

G.A. Henty was masterfully able to take a seemingly inconsequential character in history, while fictional, and provide a backstory which culminated in this well-known historic event. However, in typical Henty style, he gives an amazingly personal and human story to this historical event. It is definitely a story of faith and devotion and honor and duty. While Wulf is technically a fictional character, he is an excellent example of a role model for our children.

While the audio shares the necessities of battles and war, it doesn't glamorize them. And it shows that events can lead to disfigurement and death even for main characters. (We don't want to ruin anything so we won't say more than that.) It clearly shows the realities of war. And even though they are necessary, they aren't good.

As is the case with history, there are a lot of bad things that happen and this story shares double-crossing, deception, assassination attempts, families turning on each other, and love that cannot be acted upon. And it gave our family a lot of opportunities to talk about these topics in a way that seemed natural because they were questions during the story. They weren't forced conversations. 

G.A. Henty does a great job in taking events that have a lot of negative aspects and bringing out happy endings and finding the good in these seemingly bleak events. Personally, it made me want to go back and read some of the history behind the story to find out more of th people that lead to these events -- contributed to these events.

P.S. Oh, did I mention there are secret passageways too?!


I can't give a review from Heirloom Audio Productions without mentioning the Live the Adventure Club. This club provides subscribers with:

• Three 2-CD sets shipped to you each year
• Stream over 500 old-time radio shows
• Hundreds of fun activities and games
• Listen and learn read-along program
• Daily inspiration and devotionals
• Education treasures and teaching resources
• Full access to "Live the Adventure Radio"
• Community forum to exchange ideas and tips

You can find out more about Heirloom Audio Productions by visiting them on the following social media sites:

• Facebook
• Twitter (Tag @HeirloomStories)
• Pinterest (Tag @heirloomaudio)
• Instagram (Tag @ HeirloomAudioOfficial
• Google+
• YouTube

 

Review: Paddington 2

I wasn't sure I could love a movie more than I loved Paddington, but I definitely loved Paddington 2 even more than I loved the first one. It was simply delightful. I LOVED this movie. We went for Sidge's birthday and took Grampa and Grama too, and they loved it as well. (Thanks Uncle Rob and Aunt Sherrie for this GREAT birthday present!) We had a BLAST!!! I recommend this movie whole-heartedly!!!

Lovin' this beanbag

As with most parents of young children, stuffed animals procreate in your home. With us trying to empty our upstairs and begin renovations, the problem is even more fierce.

For Christmas I bought one of these bean bags for the girls and one for the boys. While Isaac had some issues with sitting on his beloved animals, generally it's been incredibly well received!

I know these are available in a lot of places, but I ordered mine off Amazon. Remember to use: www.shopforadoption.com.