WonderMaps

Many times while reading a book I’ve wished I had access to maps to illustrate exactly where things were occurring in the story. Other times I needed a map to help my children learn where certain cities, states, rivers etc. were located but did not have one that could be printed and labeled. Bright Ideas Press came out with a perfect solution to both of my problems---WonderMaps!

What is it?

WonderMaps is a computer program that contains over 350 maps that can be easily customized by turning off or on various features.

There are:

• historical or modern-day maps
• outline, reference, political, or topographical maps
• black-and-white or color maps

WonderMaps includes:

• 60+ maps of the world
• 60+ maps of the USA
• 125 historical maps, including 25 biblical maps
• The complete map sets from The Mystery of History vols. I–III and All American History vols. I & II

What We Thought:

This made me happy. Knowing that I could easily print multiple copies of  a map with just a click of a button.

This is the screen that greets you when you first open WonderMaps. Everything is neatly organized and laid-out. I found it easy to navigate and find what I needed.

Once you click to the map you want, you are brought to the individual map screen. On the left-hand side are boxes that you can either check or uncheck. For this map I only needed a black and white map of the world, so I clicked off all the other layers.

I did a little review with my middle daughter. We rolled a continent cube and whatever continent was face-up, she had to find on the map and color.

My son is reading about Lewis and Clark, so I pulled up some maps that would help him understand what he was reading. He was able to follow along on the map and see where Lewis and Clark went.

I love that I was able to use one program to do this. Being able to have so many maps at my fingertips will mean that I can save time searching for them on the internet. This is one resources that crosses into multiple subject-areas and I now consider WonderMaps one of my homeschool curriculum staples.

You can purchase WonderMaps at Timberdoodle and earn Doodle Dollars at the same time. Timberdoodle also has hands-on geography resources and geography puzzles to help students learn about the world.

Disclosure: As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this program in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Active Baby Ideas

The youngest member of the Spell household is almost 8 months old already! Goodness she’s growing up so fast! It’s exciting to see all the milestones being reached and to see her interested in her surroundings. Even at this young age I try to do some intentional play activities, but many times I draw a blank as what exactly to do. Just when I was needing a jump-start in our baby play time, Timberdoodle asked if I’d check out a component of their Baby Core Curriculum and I was sent the book Active Baby, Healthy Baby by Margaret Sasse for review.

Practicing creeping around a stationary object and reaching for a toy.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is a reference book of ideas. This made it easy to read and easy to fit into my busy schedule. One thing I learned was how important movement is in the development of pathways in a young child’s brain. I knew movement was important, but this book opened up my eyes to many more movement possibilities. It also explained why and gave clear examples of how to do the activity with my child.

Active Baby, Healthy Brain includes 135 exercises and activities to do with your child that help stimulate brain development in the following areas:

• balance
• cross-pattern movement
• visualization
• vestibular (inner ear) stimulation
• laterality
• fine and gross motor skills

I was very interested in learning more about vestibular activities and cross-pattern movement as I never would have come up with the idea to do those activities with my child on my own.

The other aspect I liked about this book is that it included activities for toddlers too. Each activity is listed on its own page and has clear examples and instructions for implementing the game or exercise. Most of the activities take very little prep and time to do.

In fact, I was able to use activities in this book for  three of my children--- ages 7 months to 4 years old.  I love it when I can use something for more than one kid or when it is useful for a long period of time. The book  is full of ideas for babies through 5.5 years old.

If you are looking for additional items and activities to do with your young children, check out Timberdoodle’s Baby Core Curriculum and Toddler Core Curriculum.  I like that they have chosen products that encourage learning in a child’s natural environment. Except for the toddler workbooks, everything is reusable in these kits. You can request a free homeschool catalog to check out the other goodies Timberdoodle has to offer.

Disclosure: As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Draw and Learn History at the Same Time

When I was in school, one thing I did in order to help me pay attention in class was to doodle all over my notebook. I got in trouble for that at times, but it really did help me pay attention.  I recently got to look over a book that combined history and drawing: A Kid’s Guide to Drawing the Presidents of the United States by Roderic Schmidt.

There are 42 books in this series—from Washington to George W. Bush. We got to look through a book on Zachary Taylor.

 
I was so pleased to see that this was a hard-back book and very sturdy. The book is a perfect resource for children doing a study or report on presidents. It would also be a nice supplement to an American History unit.

In the book on Zachary Taylor there were 10 “How to Draw” pages included. They were pretty detailed drawings. This did not discourage my children because they love to doodle and draw. It would have been helpful to have bigger drawing steps and some additional steps for some of the drawings though.

 
The book has a ton of information. There are photos, drawings, a timeline of key events plus other presidential details. The book uses a large font which makes it easy to read.  There is even a glossary included. My 12 yr. old daughter and my 9yr. old daughter read the first pages together and then worked on their drawings.

Timberdoodle was able to get this series for a special price, and is passing on the savings to their customers. So if you are studying American History this year, you just might want to check  out A Kids Guide to Drawing the Presidents. Timberdoodle also has other  history curriculum resources available as well. You can always request a free homeschool catalog to easily see everything in the store.

We enjoyed this book and I found that it was another way to get my kids interested in history.

Disclosure: As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Daily Word Problems

When I was in 4th grade, I remember my teacher giving us a word problem booklet that had to be completed each week. I would break out in a sweat just looking at the book. It caused me a lot of stress. I don’t want my kids to feel that way about word problems. More importantly, I want my kids to see how word problems relate to every day life and have the confidence to solve them (without sweating). So I happily agreed to look over Daily Word Problems Grade 3 by Evan Moor.

 
I used this book with my 9yr. old and also did some problems each week with the 11yr. old for review.

The book is made up of printable daily word problems that span 36 weeks. Each week is organized around a theme (you can see we were working on the cat theme page below.)

At the beginning of the week, most of the problems require one or two steps. On Friday, the challenge problem often has multiple steps or requires other math skills such as reading a graph or discovering patterns.

Math skills practiced include:

• addition and subtraction facts
• multiplication and division facts
• multidigit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping
• multiplication with and without regrouping
• division with and without remainders
• telling time
• money
• fractions
• reading and interpreting graphs and charts
• geometry logic problems

A preview of the book is available to help you get a better idea of what this book contains.

What We Thought:

This fit in perfectly with our math needs this year. Having just a problem a day to do did not overwhelm my 9yr. old. Many times I would read the problem  and my daughter would work it on the dry-erase board. She was free to draw or use math manipulatives to help figure out the problem.  Sometimes my 11yr. old would join us and it was interesting to see the different ways both kids worked the problem. This gave me the opportunity to show how there are different ways to approach a problem and still get the same answer. We will continue using this book alongside our current math program.

If you are looking for this math series or other homeschool curriculum ideas, check out the free catalog from Timberdoodle.

 

Disclosure:  As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received the products listed above for free in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Critical Thinking Resources

Critical thinking---that’s a skill I want my children to possess. When I was asked by Timberdoodle to review a couple of books from Critical Thinking Press, I had a hard time deciding which ones, as we probably could  benefit from many on the list. I decided that it would be a good idea to start working on critical thinking skills with my preschooler. I was sent Can You Find Me? 


This is a non-consumable thinking skills book geared toward preschoolers. When my daughter and I opened the book we were pleasantly surprised. Each page contained a riddle and pictures. My daughter was interested right away and wanted to look through the whole book. After looking, I sat down and went through a couple riddles with her. She had so much fun trying to answer the riddles. When we would get to one that was too hard, we’d skip it and come back to it later. Some days she could only handle doing one riddle, and other days she wanted to do a slew of them. When we hit a bunch in a row that were just a tad hard, I set the book aside for a week. We are still moving through the book and it has become a wonderful addition to her preschool work.

What I liked:

* It is non-consumable, so I can use it for the upcoming girls :)

* It makes a child think and reason. The child has to use the clues in the riddle and pictures to find the answer.

 
Well my older kids weren’t left out!  I was also sent Editor-In-Chief B1 to review.

Editor in Chief improves your child's grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and attention to detail using a standards-based thinking approach rather than drill and practice. This effective method teaches students to carefully analyze and edit stories that contain errors in writing mechanics and story details.

This series is geared toward middle-schoolers (12-14 yrs.) I had my 11yr. old son and 12 yr. old daughter work through this workbook. It was challenging work for them at times, mainly do to the fact that we hadn’t covered some of the grammar/mechanics, but it was something that challenged them in a good way. My kids used a highlighter and highlighted things they thought were wrong in the text. Then they rewrote the text so that the mistakes were corrected. We would then go over it together. When I saw that they missed things etc. we did a mini-lesson right then (Not all corrections were grammar-related. Some were punctuation, spelling, & mechanics). We will continue using this book and plan on adding Editor In Chief B2 to our homeschool curriculum next year.

What I liked:

*My kids enjoyed the challenge of trying to find all the errors on the page. It was a great way to see what they knew and what I needed to teach.

*Complete scope-and sequence of skills used are listed in the book, so that you can easily see if that particular piece will need skills taught beforehand.

You can view a sample of Editor In Chief  here.

I highly recommend checking out what Critical Thinking Press has to offer.

Disclosure:  As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received the products listed above for free in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.