Category:

My birthday math giveaway

8/7/2015

Did you know that i turn 50 tomorrow?   I DO!

Imagine me.. half a century old.   :)

Vinod asked if I would do a giveaway for a math program that I reviewed a bit back and I said "Sure!   That'll work well to help me celebrate my birthday!".   :) Anyways, wasn't that sweet of him???   :)   I thought it was.   So you have GOT to check this out.   Just perfect for the beginning of the school year.

He is offering Adaptive Placement Test w/ Individualized Lesson Plan, and here is my review on it.

The adaptive placement test is an excellent tool to use to show you what your children know and if there are any gaps in their learning.

How does it work?

Student takes a "mini test" for each major concept to identify current skill level.
Program then creates an "individualized" lesson plan which includes everything you need.
Student follows an "individualized" lesson plan and you see various reports that measure progress as student masters various skills and closes learning gaps.

So as you start your school year and you want to ensure that you are starting off on the right foot, A+ has given you a very handy tool for doing so.

Use the rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: A+ Interactive Math

5/2/2015

Over the past few weeks my son and I have been reviewing the Adaptive Placement Test and Individualized Lesson Plan put together by A+ Interactive Math. Being as my son is in grade four and hasn't finished his year, we took the grade three just to see if we missed anything or if there is fine tuning that needs to be done.

We have a three month subscription to the placement testing program by A+ Math. And I have to admit, that it did the job that we got it for. :)

I wanted to know where my son might be lacking and what he already knew, if only to give him a boost in confidence as we achieved that end.

I regret that I am unable to provide you with a variety of screen shots. My desktop died, so I'm using my laptop with my lad and try as I might I can't take screen shots without my handy Fireshot Pro. BUT when you use this program it opens up into a new window where my program doesn't work on... so it's been a bit vexing. DO note, there are other TOS reviewers who were able to take good pictures of the program in action, so please do check them out. :)

So how did we use the program?
My lad would open it up using his own password, and get to a screen that had four options, take a test, do lessons, view reports or look at tutorials on how to get started. He generally would just go take a test.   He passed most with flying colours much to his delight. :)   BUT money was a problem, so we'll be doing more practical life experience with that.   AND rounding!   How could I have missed that!

He was filled with dismay.

BUT two lessons (out of a few offered) got him back on track and he was able to ace the test. YEAH!!!    "I know this stuff mom" was his happy response.

In case you wonder what the placement test is exactly it is:
A+ is an online math curriculum that uses engaging graphics and short interactive lessons to teach. Before the child begins his or her first lesson, they first complete a placement test. The results of the test then generates a personalized lesson plan at the level recommended for the child to begin based upon the placement test results. Essentially, the tests reveal where there are learning gaps, if any, and then creates a recommended set of lessons to get the child up to speed to continue learning their math skills well.

What did we think of the program?
Mixed reviews to be honest.
Did the program do what we wanted it to?   YES.
Is it interactive?   YES.
Did my son like it? NO.   My artistic minded boy took exception to the graphics and it just turned him off. He found reasons to complain about it every time he used it. It started with the graphics and just morphed into other reasons not to like it.
Was it difficult?   NO.   It provided just the right amount of challenge and variety in each of the categories testing.   Categories included: time, money, rounding, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry and more.
Did it explain lesson concepts well? YES.

Is this a program we would choose to get? No.   We have another math program option that my lad really likes and listening to complaints about graphics gets a little wearing. BUT if we got past that option and needed to quick method to test knowledge?   FOR SURE. In a heart beat.   It does exactly what it says it will do. Test the knowledge of your children so you know their strengths and weaknesses.

Additional Information you might wish to be aware of thatA+ Interactive Math would like you know. :)   It's very kind of them.

1.   We are offering 20% commission on our affiliate program and any crew member can join our affiliate program here: http://aplustutorsoft.com/partners/signup.php

2.   We will start 2-week 40% to 50% off sale on our “Family Math Packages” and “Adaptive Placement Testing w/ Lessons” program on Monday May 4th. Start Date: 5/4/2015 – End Date: 5/18/2015

3.   We offer lots of freebies for homeschool families to try to make sure our program is a good fit for them before they make purchase. Below are TWO of our most popular freebies. I would appreciate it if crew members can include these in their review post.

Free Math Placement Test: http://www.aplustutorsoft.com/get-free-homeschool-math-curriculum-placement-test-online.jsp

Free Family Math Packages: http://www.aplustutorsoft.com/get-free-homeschool-math-curriculum-program-package-online.jsp

Other Freebies people love are:

Free Software Download: http://www.aplustutorsoft.com/get-free-homeschool-math-curriculum-software.jsp

Free Single Grade Level: http://www.aplustutorsoft.com/get-free-homeschool-math-curriculum-program-online.jsp

Free eBook: http://www.aplustutorsoft.com/get-free-homeschool-math-curriculum-ebook.jsp

Additional Information:

Top 12 Reasons to use "Adaptive Placement Test & Lessons" program: http://www.aplushomeschool.com/2015/03/top-12-reasons-to-use-adaptive-math-placement-test.html

Top 12 Reasons to use "Family Math package" program: http://www.aplushomeschool.com/2015/03/top-12-reasons-to-use-family-math-packages.html

Product Details:
Product:Adaptive Placement Test and Individualized Lesson Plan. Three month subscription for up to 10 students.
Vendor: A+ Interactive Math
Price: Depending on the number of students (you can do up to 10 Students) price ranges from $29.99-$119.99
Grade Range: 1st grade and up.

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APlusTutorSoft
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aplustutorsoft
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/aplustutorsoft

Labour Day Activities

9/3/2013

What does one do on Labour Day? Well...around here when tend to relax, though we'll do some schooling as well if we're bored due to rain. :)

First we decided to go up the Pinery Provincial Park. They were doing a program in the afternoon on Smart Birds. And the lad wanted to hunt for ant lions.

He managed to catch 5 of them all together and has set them up in a nice tank at home and will be feeding them ants on a regular basis. If you don't know what ant lions are you can learn more about them here. I've attached a video below so you can see them in action.

He also discovered tent caterpillar nests... so off he went collecting some of them as well.

The smart birds program was about the crow family. We all learned (Dad came with) that crows use tools (using cars to crush hard nuts), know how to use ants to clean mites off their feathers (called anting), like to have fun (aka using plastic lids as sleds) and some of the crow family can mimic human speech. It was quite an interesting presentation though we got there five minutes late (we desperately needed to put gas in our car). After the presentation we took walk on one of the many trails the pinery has. Neither my son or my hubby understand why I like taking pictures of fungi, but I just find the variety in them fascinating. I mentioned to hubby I wouldn't mind have a book on identifying them (who knows, that might be a Christmas present this year). :)

aren't the rings on this one cool?

I'm fairly sure this picture has two varieties... one the looked like peeling bark, and the other more button shaped. I've not seen the peeling bark kind before.

We ended up doing some schooling later on in the day as I had a lad bored with the weather. We have continued to wander through "a child's geography". Stay tuned because a review is coming up soon for that. :) We also worked on A+ Math. We covered fractions today. We haven't done fractions in a while and it was amazing what the lad got hung up on. So we listened to the lesson and then are letting it sit for a bit.

Today we are going (I think) to the back to school picnic. We'll bring along an umbrella as it's supposed to rain and is rather damp now. It's usually fun regardless the weather. Dad needs to visit a rather sick parishoner in the hospital so he's providing us the ride down (we only have one vehicle at the moment so it makes travel a bit more difficult).

I just missed dad pointing up into a tree so the lad could see where a cicada was sitting. Through this area the cicada's were VERY loud. We have a couple in our backyard as well. They are are an interesting insect to observe.

So that was how we spent out Labour Day. How did you spend yours?

A+Tutorsoft one day sale

9/2/2013

A while back I did a review on A+ Interactive Math program.   As you may recall, this is an on-line program for doing math. We enjoyed using this program.

ANYWAYS... today they are having a one day sale.

This Labor Day, A+ Interactive Math wants to honor you for all the work you do in educating your children! They are providing Their online comprehensive math curriculum for 50% off the original price. (Regularly $124.99 – Now only $62.50).

Not only that... if you go here you can get an additional 20% off! Pretty cool eh!   If you do so, you can get your entire math year for $50.   That's a pretty good deal I think.

It comes with animated on-line teaching/practice. Tests, quizzes, sheets you can print off and so much more.

Sale begins at Midnight on Labor Day and goes through the following Midnight – 12 a.m. Monday on Sept 2 through 12 a.m. Sept 3.   It's a good day to get your math program for the year. Snatch it up now while the deal lasts.

A+Tutorsoft Kindle Giveaway and New Site Launch

8/14/2013

A+ Interactive Math is giving away a Kindle Fire to celebrate the launch of the brand new website.

The Kindle Fire will be loaded with 8 different A+ Interactive Math eBooks for a value of almost $300 total.

Kindle Fire is also compatible with the hundreds of A+ worksheets, so you can take math on the go.

The new website promises a whole new look and feel offering a brand new A+ math experience.

The site launch is only a portion of the exciting new changes coming from A+ Interactive Math.

Anyways, if you want to know more, go check it out here. :)

Scaredy Cat and Outdoor Learning

4/17/2013

Our day started out with working in the gardens, planning out our course for the day and then having breakfast. Reading the paper was cause for good discussion over why people do bad things (the boston marathon bombing). The lad finds (as do I) such badness disturbing and it's good to talk about why people do bad things (they want their own thing more than they want God).

Language Arts

Today we started a new review for Joyce Herzog, called the Scaredy Cat reading system. I have to admit, I find this system a bit ' intimidating". The lessons are long, it has a different approach than what I am used to, but I think we'll make it work. I firmly suspect each lesson will take us a good week to go through. When the lad saw me leafing through lesson one he got scared that I was going to make him do it all in one shot so I needed to reassure him.

In the above picture he's working on alphabetizing some words and then I had him read them out loud. He was a bit confounded that not every letter in the alphabet was to be found, so needed to be reminded to just skip those letters. He LOVED playing the word game though. This surprised as I was positive in my head (I wasn't foolish enough to show that hesitation) that he'd not be at all interested in doing them. But his competitive nature kicked in and he loved it. Loved trying to figure out how to say a word. We each played an angry bird as our character and had the angry birds learn how to say the words presented. :) Just fun that.

History

We did some more work on Home School in the Woods. We spray painted our coins today. The lad would like to make more coins so I'll see if I can squeeze that into our day tomorrow. :)

one of the lad's coins

one of my coins.

Math

We did a math lesson through tutorsoft. Still working on multiplication, we are mostly just doing ground work and not doing actual multiplication at this point. He continues to memorize his basic addition facts yet. The lad still quirks his eyes and scrunches his face up as he listens so I just need to give him more time to absorb the facts a bit yet. Soon we'll start memorizing the multiplication tables as well.

Nature Study

The lad has continued his learning into the ways and patterns of toads. This little fellow was rediscovered today and much to-do made over him. A house was built.

A prison area was developed that the lad was certain that toad couldn't get out of, but toad proved to be a very good climber. :)

We decided based on patterning on toad that he is probably a bigger version of the toads we found at the Pinery last year and released into our backyard. He would have course grown larger but we know he isn't one-eye or "big toad" that kept the lad well amused last summer.

Fishing was the name of the game in the afternoon. We met an older fellow who let the lad take a good look at the black crappie that he caught, and told us stories about snapping turtles and how they took his catch off the holding line. Told the lad to leave snapping turtles well enough alone (the lad was well enough impressed) and if he really wanted to catch a fish, to come back the last week of April and catch a trout or two. That way he wouldn't need to pay to be part of the derby on the weekend. :)

Inspiration from a Homeschooling Conference

4/9/2013

This past Saturday I went to the homeschooling conference put on by KWCHEA. it's the biggest quite local homeschool conference and reasonable in price so attending is something I do once a year.

While there I attend seminars. Went to two, plus attempted a third. One of the ones I went to was called math and art. It was fascinating. I really enjoyed it came away with good ideas about how to do art with my seven year old and math at the same time.

As I was browsing the books (as that's a big part of the day) I came away with two thoughts.

1. Some companies seem determined to nickel and dime you for everything. They charge you the teachers text, the student text, the additional worksheet text, then the exams text, and then separately from that... the answer code.   Makes me NOT want to do business with those companies. I'm sure there are good reasons for it, but I find it incredibly irritating....as you need to figure out exactly what you need with the hold over your head of "just what if you need it" or ACK...what if I forget something important.

2. some books are VERY good for inspiration.

I saw a book called speed math or some such. It was for drilling math facts. The book well, cost more than what I'm willing to pay but it gave me the idea for helping the lad learn his math facts. he doesn't want to do flashcards, so I'll get him to practice his math by doing a worksheet everyday.     I went to Softschools.com for some help in printing off sheets. I was able to put an upper and lower limit on the numbers I want used and then I printed off the sheet.   Gave the lad two minutes to get the sheet done. Once he's getting a whole sheet done in two minutes then I'll give him 1 minutes 45 seconds to get it done. And eventually get it down to 1.5 minutes which would be 3 seconds per question which is what every program I've seen uses as a goal.

Other work done today

We did some reading - George Brown class clown, a bird book and our devotional time. We didn't have time to read the paper together today.

We did adventus - he continues to improve in his musical understanding, today he learned more about how notes are different lengths and they are introducing what those notes are called, target the question - today's challenge really made him have to play attention and think his way through the problems. and Tutorsoft math -. The lad was working on learning shortcuts in multiplication today. He found it a bit of a challenge but we'll continue to work on it.

Today was better...learning, exercise and fun

4/4/2013

we have graduated from CMJ1 and have moved onto CMJ2. (this in adventus)

Today was a MUCH easier day than yesterday.

We did our adventus, looked through an offer from Educents ....regarding Samson's Classroom (we did the demo and that worked well for our reading, phonics, and sight words). Looks like it will be a good fit for the lad and progressive so that will help I think. With my coupon turns it into a $20 purchase for the year.   So that makes it worthwhile to me.

Did a little bit of review of what we learned yesterday with Great Empires.   Did our Target the Question....good practice today for rounding up to 10 and figuring out how

I wanted to do some math with the lad but he was VERY much not interested in doing A+Tutorsoft today so I said okay... we can do math from our upstairs book.... We worked on Area and Perimeter today. That lead to fun ...oh my.. we had FUN with this.   Doing the work was boring (said the lad) but learning what it actually met... My son is into angry birds so putting into angry bird speak.....The bad piggies set up their area that they want to hide in. The birds are wanting to breach their perimeter in order to get into the area that the pigs are hiding in.

using geometric shapes to build bad piggies.

the helmeted pigs have chosen an area to defend and have marked off their perimeter...can headband pig outsmart them???

Later on we went for a walk, on our walk we looked for places that it would be easy to set up a defense area. One of our balloon pigs came along for the walk as well and she kept on pointing out....see...I could hide there and see where I could form a perimeter?? SEE??? (she was VERY talkative). :) It's just very nice to have fun and learn at the same time. Sometime I'll have to set up a capture the flag game with the lad. :) It will be just another way to help reinforce how math concepts work in real life situations. :)

Magnets are Fun (and other things)

4/2/2013

Before I get to our magnets are fun aspect of learning today, let me talk about some of the other things we did today first.

1. read the paper. No...didn't read the whole paper with a seven year lad but I read headlines and the comics and then we talked about them.   Whatever grabbed his interest or mine.   This leads to some interesting discussions at times.

Garfield's comic this morning had Jon reading from the paper
"If space aliens were to invade earth, they could take the form of animals"
Jon stares at Garfield
"do you come in peace"
Garfield
"take me to your refrigerator".

I asked the lad....(after he finished laughing)... why was that funny?
BECAUSE mom... Garfield didn't say Take me to your leader...He likes food too much!

Then I asked....do you see what Jon did with the paper?
(that drew a blank)
...he read it!
yes, he read it...but what else did he do?
He believed it mom.

Ah...he believed it.   Do you think he should have?
No...he's being silly mom.

Exactly. :)

It's good to read the paper, but one always needs to be aware that it's not always telling the truth.

We read a bit from his current breakfast book "Ghosts don't eat potato Chips".
Then did Adventus (at lesson 12 now I think?), A-Tutorsoft Math (continuing our work on multiplication), and Target the Question.

We took a side trail to do some air pressure experiments with balloons.

The lad's been making balloon pigs and said MOM....do you think we can make a pig inside another balloon. I told him TRY. He tried, he failed and so he asked his mom to help. I blew and blew and about gave myself a heartattack (not really)....but that was tough going. BUT finally we got the balloon to expand...and it popped out of the other balloon mostly...can you see how we have a covered expansion? Fascinated the lad but we couldn't get it to duplicate with another balloon (and I ran out of breath).

Magnets

We decided to take a break from learning about motion to learn about magnets this morning. We are doing this for our review for SuperCharged Science.

To that end we made magnet dance, we made a snake that could wag it's tail, learned we have some super strong magnets that will pinch your skin if you aren't careful, had fun with iron filings - scaring them and calming them down, and just generally were well amused by how magnets work. We are hoping to see how to do electomagnets works as well...but not today. :)

Do forgive the blurriness that lad tried mightily.

magnets work even through a seven year olds hand

This was an unexpected result. The lad wanted to see if he could make the paperclips move the iron filings when the magnets literally jumped out of his hands and grabbed the iron filings through the paper.

Very tired household today

2/27/2013

We started off our actual homsechooling day doing language arts. The lad had already spent a good portion of the morning learning about making his own film. He's seven and is just starting to learn about not showing EVERYTHING, that you can stop, set up the shot and then go on from there.   He's learning to be aware of back ground noise.   To zoom and out and such like. It's a work in progress.

Language arts: We read a story from our reader and then I asked the lad a variety of questions.   What would you do in that situation?   What do you think of what the boys did?   Are you glad they figured out how to get help?   Do you think what they did could really have worked?

Then we went to Adventus.   The lad LOVED this lesson (did it three times) and wanted to go on to another lesson but I said let's do our question from Target the Question first as well as our Essentials in Writing lesson.    That of course led to our doing our first DO IT multiplication question through A+Tutorsoft interactive math.   He did well with this once he figured out exactly what they were asking from him. It's hard to focus on things today.

So once we were done all that I said... GO PLAY for while. We both need to let our brains chill out. :)

We're going to make some indian bread this afternoon and do some more picture making for our First Nations work. Also we plan to build a paper castle. We're using these plans from My Little House.

<<Previous

My birthday math giveaway

Review: A+ Interactive Math

Labour Day Activities

A+Tutorsoft one day sale

A+Tutorsoft Kindle Giveaway and New Site Launch

Scaredy Cat and Outdoor Learning

Language Arts

History

Math

Nature Study

Inspiration from a Homeschooling Conference

Other work done today

Today was better...learning, exercise and fun

Magnets are Fun (and other things)

Magnets

Very tired household today

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