Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronoomy, 2nd edition TOS Review

Exploring Creation

Apologia Educational Ministries has released their new Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition set and we got to review it!  I had already been through Apologia's previous Astronomy course with the bigger littles a few years ago.  I liked it very much and we had so much fun with the experiments and activities.  Unfortunately, the information had become outdated.  Many of the things we read *would* be happening had already occurred when we went through the textbook and Jr. Notebooking Journals.  It was, after all, written twelve years ago.

What we received.

• Student Text
• Notebooking Journal
• Jr. Notebooking Journal
• Audio CD

What's different?
I still have our old textbook and journals because I fully intended to go through Exploring Creation with Astronomy with Merrick for his first grade science next year.  I even purchased the previous version of the Jr. Notebooking Journal for him because I felt I couldn't justify the purchase of a new textbook for just one more kiddo.  How wrong I was!  Of course the information in the textbook is all updated, but the text and pictures are much more readable and attractive, too.

Student Text

Look at that spiffy new book!
Like the other titles in the Exploring Creation science series, the Student Text is a sturdy hardcover.  It is 216 pages long.  The corresponding Notebooking Journals, Science Kit, and Audio Book are each sold separately.  But the Super Secret Code to access online extras is included in the book introduction.  The course website has links to nearly 200 related websites, all listed with the lesson they relate to.

These are comparisons of the new (l) and old (r) text on corresponding pages.

Each of the 14 lessons is divided into several sections, activities, Wisdom from Above passages, Think About This boxes, and What Do You Remember? summaries.  You'll also find a symbol in the pages of the text which indicates an activity in the Science Kit.

The lesson topics include

• an overview of astronomy, 
• the sun, 
• each of the eight planets, 
• Earth's Moon, 
• space rocks, 
• the Kuiper belt and dwarf planets, 
• and stars, galaxies, and space travel.

The Jr. Notebooking Journal (grades K-2/3) and the Notebooking Journal (grades 3/4-6) are *huge* soft cover journals (336 pages each) for recording all of the information covered in each lesson.  They are spiral bound so they lay flat or can be folded over on themselves.  These make a wonderful keepsake to look back on all that's been learned and can be proudly shown to family members.  I still have both of the bigger littles' Jr. Notebooks, so I was able to compare them with the new Jr. Notebooks.  If you're familiar at all with notebooking or lapbooking, many of the projects will be recognizable to you.  Students will cut out and assemble mini books, complete crossword puzzles, write copywork, record what they learned from activities (dictation is completely acceptable), and even color pictures in the Jr. Notebooking Journal.

The regular Notebooking Journal does not have coloring pages, seems to go deeper into some of the lesson content, and has smaller lines to write upon.  This was actually my first look at the regular journal and I was pleased to see how closely the lessons and activities tended to run the same or very similar.  While my bigger boys won't be doing astronomy with Merrick, there will be other years that I'll be keeping them all on the same subject.

The photos above show a comparison of the new and old versions of the Jr. Notebooking Journals.  The sun lesson, in which Merrick also drew all of the planets, is shown next to the old sun mini book page.  Next to that is the new version of the solar eclipse booklet in the old page.  The last photo shows the difference between pages for a later lesson on space rocks.  The previous version had only been a page of boxes to write and draw in.  The difference is tremendous.

Here's Merrick showing off his newly developed cutting abilities to make his sun wheel mini book.

All journals are consumable, and each is intended to be used by a single student.  This is one of those times I have no qualms about providing one for each child.  They have so much fun using these.  In fact, Xavier volunteered to work on the regular notebook for me and has been thrilled to complete activities with Merrick even though he has already covered this material and has his own science lessons to complete!

The journal lists a suggested daily schedule that breaks each lesson into four to seven assignments.  Completing two assignments per week will give you a full year course.  We school year round and I tend to break those assignments down even a bit more, to keep the sitting parts to a minimum for the littles.  We generally will still complete one Apologia science in a calendar year.

Audio CD
The audio book is read by Jeannie Fulbright, the author.  She has the sweetest voice and the boys love listening to her.  You can pop the CD into a computer and listen to the MP3 tracks or load them onto your phone's music player.  Some CD players will work, but I couldn't change tracks on mine.  I didn't mind if we hear the CD intro a couple of times, but I wouldn't care to start at the beginning each time we used the CD with the text.  Using a laptop wasn't a great option, as the kids have several online school programs and that would tie up the computer that someone else could be using.  The text is read nearly word for word, so a decent reader could follow right along in the text.

Experiments and Activities
These are found throughout the text and are labeled by chapter and a number.  For example, 2.2 Using a Magnifying Glass to Focus Heat (aka melting chocolate and butter) means it is the second lesson and second activity.

This experiment was fun *and* yummy.  Who doesn't love that?  We wanted to see how chocolate and butter reacted to exposure to the sun. It was super hot and windy that day.  We had to place rocks on the plates to keep them from blowing away.  Don't worry, we didn't try to melt them.  Photo one shows things just melting naturally. The chocolate did not look melted, but the boys were surprised to discover it was.  In the center photo, we used the magnifying glass to really direct the sunlight into a very small area on the food.  We were shocked when the chocolate actually started to smoke!  We even burned a small black spot into this square of chocolate (and the porch) with this technique.  The final photo shows a large dot magnification.  This concentrates the sun a bit less, so it took longer and, once again, the chocolate barely looked melted until curious fingers poked it.

This was also a *great* lesson about not looking at the sun!

Be careful!  You really can set things on fire with a magnifying glass!  Oops!

We had this sundial in a space kit we own.  While studying lesson one's Clocks, Calendars, and Seasons, it felt like a good time to get it out.

Here's Merrick demonstrating Earth revolving around the sun.  The funny thing about this was that he acquired these important science tools at the fair!  I've found that we can often use everyday items to reinforce our lessons.  One thing the text regularly asks of students is to tell someone what they have learned.  It helps make the lesson stick.  And Merrick loves to tell and teach!

I've said this before and I'm sure I will say it again, I've never used an Apologia product I didn't really love.  There are so many other courses on my wishlist.  They're a favorite Christian homeschool publisher.  Go explore the farthest reaches of space with your little astronaut!

Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy is for grades K-6.
The Notebooking Journal is for grades 3-6.
The Jr. Notebooking Journal is for grades K-3.
If your student is somewhere in the transition age, I recommend checking the website for the journal samples to choose the right journal on an individual basis.


The Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy Science Kit has just been released and it's 15% off through midnight Friday night, September 9, 2016.  The kit contains the things you'll need for the 42 activities in the textbook plus an additional 21 activities.

Another recommended resource for Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy homeschool science curriculum is the Field Trip Journal.  Some of The Crew have reviewed it previously.


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Little bundles of joy... TEA!

I went to a baby shower last week and had so much fun.  Can't wait to hear all about Holly's little one when she arrives!  Dr. Seuss was the theme.  Kids were welcome for the Seuss-olympics, so I took Xav along.  He's my guy who is really outgoing and loves to be around other people.  Merrick is like that, too, but he also would need my supervision and I don't attend baby showers so I can watch my own kids.  :D

The hosts did a great job with games and fun gifts for Mama.

 and Seussical food

and I had the best time chatting with so many other mamas.  I also won a prize in the baby item pricing game.  I was less than a dollar off from the total.  (Don't tell anyone, but that's because I was under a dollar on a few items and I was over a few dollars on one item.  It all balanced out.)

Ceramic canister with silicone lid filled with tea!

I hope you're sharing and having fun with your friends.  And remember, you're *all* winners!

HomeSchool Scholastics TOS Review

 Building healthy families at home.

My decision this spring to get myself moving and healthy has been difficult for Xav.  He has been concerned that I've been "starving" myself.  Though I have been explaining nutrition, healthy eating, and sensible portions he seemed to really struggle with the idea of "denying" yourself food.  He seems to think if you eat a healthy meal, you can fill the time between meals with all the empty junk you want.  The WAY Comes Home Kit from HomeSchool Scholastics, an i4 Learning Company is helping me teach the boys more about the better choices I've been making and why it is important for all of us to look after the bodies God has given to us.

WAY stands for Wellness, Academics, & You.  Originally, developed in 2005 for use in schools, the new WAY Comes Home Kit was created especially for homeschoolers.  WAY combines physical activities, vocabulary, and learning activities about health, nutrition, and fitness. The WAY Comes Home Kit includes tons of items to help you teach your family a bit about all those topics.

UN-boxing day was a blast!  The kit comes with an Instructor/Parent Guide, DVD with video clips and exercise segments, student journals (3 options based on age/grade level), a balance scale, plastic eggs, three small bins, a stethoscope, ink pad, WAY Comes Home to MyPlate booklet, vocabulary cards and activity pack, and glitter.

The Parent Guide and Journals (for K-1, grades 2-3, and grades 4-5) are all softcover books.  The journals vary in length from 40 to 64 pages.  The Parent Guide is 144 pages.  The boys loved that the journals have a blank cover for them to personalize any way they wanted.


There is also a consumable packet of WAY vocab cards and illustrations.  This pack includes the cards for all three levels.  Copyright allows for copying some of the pages for games like matching.

All of these cool pieces are included in the WAY Comes Home Kit.  There was just so much.  You can see why the boys were so excited to unpack the box when it arrived.

For ease of use, the Parent Guide is color coded by the three age levels.

• Health Safari - blue and green for K-1
• Me Mysteries - orange and red for 2nd-3rd
• Innerspace Adventure - purple and blue for 4th-5th or 6th

In this manner, parents can quickly locate the activities for each module and the appropriate grade.  The PG has all of the information needed to facilitate the modules for one or more children.

Each lesson begins with a synopsis for the parent, followed by a list of required and some optional items for that level, including on-topic library books.  Vocabulary words are listed and followed by activities that involve reading, demonstrations, and discussions.  These are followed by possible ways to include children in the household who are working at other levels.

Some of the activities in L to R Health Safari, Me Mysteries, and Innerspace Adventure.

There are plenty of blank pages in the journals for recording information and completing activities from the Include Me Too! sections, but the books aren't actually set up to do exactly the same thing across the age levels.  Part of this makes sense, as children at different levels understand the information differently and may need different instruction.  As the parent teaching three kiddos at different levels, it would have been more convenient if everyone was recording basically the same things.  For instance, in module three one book had a chart to record the student's resting, active, and recovering heart rate.  Another level has several blank, lined pages for recording all physical activity and related information for one week.  The third level has pages for drawing pictures.  I would have loved a simple chart in each book.  We all completed the activity and recorded the information, because heart and respiration rates are an excellent indicator of how we are working our bodies.  I think WAY works best for multiple kids at different levels if you chose a level to work on, then do the activities that incorporate other ages.

The journaling pages in the upper grades and K-1 books.

The lessons can be completed in a week or so or could take much longer with all of the other optional activities.  The topics remain the same for each module even though the journals do not cover them in the same way.  There are so many things to choose from and books to read, this could keep us busy for much of the school year.

Module 1: Getting Started - The importance of learning about health and wellness.
Module 2: Where Do You Begin - Students learn how to assess where they are now and document the information so they can review personal progress.
Module 3: Let's Get Active - Explore different types of physical activities.
Module 4: The Nutrition WAY - Learn about healthy eating using the MyPlate Guidelines.
Module 5: Health-It's Personal - Everyday health and hygiene practices are learned in this module.

You may know that technology is not my friend.  I've looked and looked for pictures from our germy/moldy bread experiment and cannot find them anywhere!

I do, however, have pics from the glitter experiment WHICH WE DID OUTDOORS!  Here, Xav was contaminated by glitter germs.  If you've ever worked with glitter you know it *is* just like a contamination.  He shook hands with Merrick and we examined the cross contamination that occurred.  After that, they went around touching the railing and other things around the yard, happily spreading their glittery germs everywhere they went.

Spreading germs.

The DVD in the WAY Comes Home Kit includes skits to introduce WAY and each module to the kiddos.  They're often humorous skits with similarly aged children in the upper two levels.  The Health Safari segments are more like watching book pages as the audio plays.  The exercise component is also included with the DVD lessons.  These fun, short aerobic workouts are available in a variety of musical genres.  You can also choose the length of time you want to exercise.  We tried a few out and while they're fun, they definitely got out hearts pumping!

There is also an online component available to purchasers.  We didn't receive access to it, but I understand new content is added every month and lessons in math, science, and technology are being planned.  This is a terrific Homeschool health and wellness curriculum.

As of right now, the entire WAY Comes Home Curriculum kit is $10 off the regular price of $49.95.  As a special offer to all Schoolhouse Review Crew readers there is an additional discount of $15 which will about cover shipping to most locations!  Simply use the code GC0737011 at checkout.
 
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PunchBug Simon!

Every week when I head to my Weight Watchers meeting, I play a solo game.  Micah and I decided we could save PunchBugs for the kids, *if* we were in the car alone.  We didn't ask for input from the kids, so they have mixed feelings about the game.

No matter which of the two possible ways I head in, I am almost guaranteed to see two PunchBuggies before I get to the meeting.  If I head to the grocery store, there's often one there, plus the random drive by.

I need to remember all the Buggy colors or I can't use them.  Hence my Simon skills.  I keep track of them by repeating the colors periodically to myself as I drive.  Red, red.  Red, red, yellow, green.  Red, red, yellow, green, red, blue, white.  It's a fun way to spend the driving time and torment the boys when I get home.*

*Don't worry.  It's all in good fun.  No one is injured and my brain gets some exercise.

Can Do Cubes TOS Review

Not your Grandma's ABC blocks!

Earlier this week, I told you about just2ducks LLC's Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar.  I plan to continue using those with Merrick for the foreseeable future.  I was so excited to receive jollyliteracy.com's companion product, Can Do Cubes.  While the Can Do Cubes complement Jolly Phonics nicely, we've found that they can be used alongside any phonics, spelling, or reading program you have.

Can Do Cubes come in a box with labeled dividers, making it easy to find exactly the cubes you are looking for.  Well, provided your four year old isn't putting them away!  There are two levels included, beginning with the Stage One: Simple Alphabetic Code cubes.  This level has 27 six-sided blocks with letters that represent the 44 basic phonemes of the English language.  Stage Two covers the Complex Alphabetic Code, which includes spelling variations for the 44 sounds.  Also introduced in the Stage Two cubes are split vowels (in a funky connected-but-not pair of cubes), capital letters, punctuation, and double letters  There are 32 cubes in this level.

There is a faint line below each letter for orientation.  You'll have no confusing p/d q/b issue with Can Do Cubes.  Each cube is made of hardwood and is laser engraved.  I find them quite beautiful, actually.

In the box, you'll also find

• Can Do Cubes instructional handbooks for Stage One and Stage Two
• Teaching, Learning, and "Sounding Out" with Debbie Hepplewhite DVD
• The four part Teacher's Guide and Template Book by Laurie Fyke on CDRom
• Phonics Chart
• Word Charts that list all the words that can be spelled using the cubes in Stage One.

Every one of the boys has been using the Can Do Cubes.  Merrick uses them alongside his Jolly Phonics lessons.  We also play a game he just LOVES.  He rolls the "dice" and tries to spell words with the face up letters.  This doesn't always work out just right (he has had a Yahtzee of letter I before!), but it has been a fun challenge for him as he grows and develops his understanding of phonics.

Ready to Roll and Sounding Out.

I also found some worksheets on the CDRom.  And I know my boys, so I laminated them.  It's a fun activity to match the cubes with the letters on display on the templates.  We look at even the ones he has not necessarily learned yet and Merrick gets a sneak peek at the different ways some sounds can be spelled.

Merrick also likes a game we call The Squish Game.  He lines up the sounds of a word with a space between the cubes.  After saying the sounds, he "squishes" the cubes together and reads the whole word.

As I said, all the boys have been using Can Do Cubes for spelling.  Mostly, they've been playing with them and spelling some of their favorite words.  These cubes will be *great* when we start our new spelling program this fall.  (I can't believe it's almost time!)  I've been looking into ways to "cement" spelling words into Mal and Xav's heads.  They really do well with a physical component added to learning when ever possible.  We are going to be adding finger spelling with ASL.  The Can Do Cubes will add just another fun dimension to their spelling curriculum.  Anything concrete like that, which adds another dimension to spelling is so cool.

I'm looking forward to keeping Can Do Cubes close at hand for *many* years to come.  With the high quality of the cubes, I expect to be able to use them for a long time.



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Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar A TOS Review

Giving Children a Flying Start

I recently was invited to review jollyliteracy.com's phonics and grammar programs with Merrick.  Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar are components of a comprehensive six year program, beginning with the phonics books in Kindergarten and continuing from Grammar 1 through Grammar 5.  just2ducks LLC kindly sent us the Jolly Phonics series, Jolly Grammar 1, and Jolly Songs for our review.

Jolly Phonics Student Books (1-3) and Teacher's Book is for children in preschool and kindergarten.  The Jolly Phonics Teacher's Book covers all three of the Student Books.  The softcover Teacher's Book is 184 pages long.  Nearly thirty pages are devoted to the Jolly Phonics teaching method.  As with most TMs, I highly recommend taking the time to read this section.  Honestly, I rarely used to read these, but I've often found the information invaluable.  Sometimes, I've struggled with using a product only to find out the information is in the Teacher's Manual!

The balance of the Teacher's Book covers lesson plans for each page of the Student Books.  Each Student Book has a different color page border, so it's easy to locate the proper section of the Teacher's Book.  Students are taught all of the main letter sounds - 42 of them - and how they are written.  One new sound is introduced each day.

The Jolly Phonics program uses this progression.

1. Learning Letter Sounds (letter names are introduced in Student Book 2)
2. Learning Letter Formation (including proper pencil grip)
3. Reading (also known as decoding or blending)
4. Identifying Sounds in Words (independent writing begins in Student Book 2)
5. Tricky Words (irregular spelling or advanced phonics)

The softcover Jolly Phonics Student Books are 48 pages each.  I like that lowercase letters are used almost exclusively in the first Student Book.  The uppercase are shown with the lowercase letters, but only the lowercase are written by the child.  Uppercase letters are written in book 2 along with plenty of lowercase practice.

Merrick is plugging along, learning new was to spell sounds and reading unfamiliar forms, like when e says /ee/, not /e/.  It's fun and challenging for him.

Phonemes are such an integral part of spelling and reading, when speech is unclear or a child struggles to pronounce words properly, there can be a real disconnect there.  I remember when Merrick worked on one of the earliest lessons, /s/.  He was supposed to circle the pictures with the /s/ sound.  He determined that "pider" does not start with /s/.  I think that was the first time I realized his speech would effect his other language work.

Jolly Grammar 1 Student Book and Teacher's Book is for first graders.  The Student Book has 73 pages of spelling and grammar activities as well as space in the back for 36 weeks of spelling tests. The Teacher's Book is 104 pages. Colors used to identify the parts of speech in these lessons are the same as those used in Montessori schools.  Parts of speech which are introduced in Jolly Grammar 1 are

• nouns,
• pronouns,
• verbs,
• adjectives,
• and adverbs.

Students learn about making their writing easier to understand by using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and neat writing.  It's a pleasure to read stories incorporating those tools and making use of interesting words.  They will learn how to accomplish this in Jolly Grammar.

The Teacher's Book contains detailed lesson plans and teaching guidance for each activity page of the student book.  Jolly Grammar 1 is thirty-six weeks of learning in two, one-hour lessons each week.  That leaves three days each week to work on other areas of literacy on your own, covering comprehension, reading, and writing.  It's recommended that you try to incorporate learning that relates to what is being taught at that time in Jolly Grammar.  It looks like fun, you know, for grammar.  I'm really looking forward to using it with Merrick.

Jolly Songs is a book and music CD used to reinforce the phonemes as taught in the Jolly Phonics lessons.  The CD slips into a clear pocket on the outside of the book, making it terrific for car trips.  The songs reinforce the sounds, while the read along book reinforces the spelling.  The short songs are written to familiar tunes like Old McDonald and Skip to My Lou.  The hand motions from the Jolly Phonics program are included along with a colorful picture, all helping to make remembering easier.  The songs are sung by children and accompanied by music.  It's over 23 minutes long.  Some games and activities are in the back of the book.


jollyliteracy.com offers many complimentary products for use with Jolly Phonics.

• readers
• flashcards 
• posters
• CDs/DVDs
• puppets and more!

One of those complimentary items is the Can Do Cubes for synthetic phonics.  I'll be reviewing those as well this week, but here's a sneak peek.  Bee-you-tee-ful...

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My Comedian

It's time again to start going through everyone's dressers and pulling out too short pants and ratty shirts.  It's time for the boys to moan and groan as I hand them clothing to try on to check for fit.  They have it pretty easy.  They only need to try a few items to give me "templates" for comparing with all the clothes in the drawers.

I asked Mal to look through his socks and put all the ones with holes in them *here* and all the others back in the drawer.  When I checked on his progress later, all of his socks were placed *here*.  Then I asked him why.

"Mom, all of my socks have holes in them."

Mr. Literal