Category: Math

I've horrified my boy....

12/10/2015

I've spent the last week working hard cleaning what we call "the bookroom".   It's the room where we do most of our schooling and have the predominance of our massive collection of books stored.

Normally I just do a clean, shuffle, and toss of stuff I really don't need.   BUT this time I did a major overhaul for three of the four walls and didn't touch one (but that's coming down the pipe yet).     In the process I rediscovered all the different things I wanted to do with my boy this year but had gotten misplaced under all the clutter and overstocking of things we really didn't need.

My poor boy.. he was SO horrified when I told him. "BUT MOM!!!   You mean I'll have even more to do?!?!?!" I just grinned at him.

Today he learned what that meant... It means more time with mom reading books, which means a lad gets more time to be creative as I read. (he REALLY likes that). And I have to admit, I like it to (except on days when I lose my voice)... but I love to read and this way I get to indulge my favourite passion and delight a boy at the same time. It's a total win-win. We did start a couple other books but tossed them into our discard pile when we discovered one was thoroughly outdated and the other was just plain dumb. No sense wasting our reading time eh?

It means fun with words and small challenges rather than worksheets to learn grammar. Less writing is great in any child's book. Means mom can mix it up a bit more. :) The one minute challenge today was on homonyms. He did well and found it fun too! The funny fill-in we've done a few in the past and had totally misplaced, My son thoroughly enjoys this funny and non-threatening way to work on nouns, adjectives and such like. Makes him think too.

Alas not all worksheets are gone. One still needs to do math (which is mostly worksheets at this point). The delight? Finding a book that is simply different to do and getting to choose what to work on.

Let me think, what else did we do today that was part of our rediscovery... we found our recorder lessons book which means we can use the schoolhouseteachers.com recorder lessons ALONG WITH this paper book which means less printing for mom, and we can move ahead in lessons learning new cords. YEAH!!!!

I'd been looking for a while but couldn't find it until I did my clean..but grade five Canadian Curriculum has reentered our school room. We'll be working through this book one day and practice and learn another day. I find it exposes him to things that I might otherwise not think about doing and gives him practice in things that one needs practice in ... like basic maths. The delight? " MOM! they have a page on the respiratory system.. like what we read about last night! I know this mom!"

Tapestry Three...someone gave me this book ages ago and it has Canadian content in it. Last week we were studying Newfoundland/Labrador so our poem for this week came from the Tapestry book and we did some learning about Islands. We also did some thinking about what we would need to do if stranded on an island with no one to help. The lad asked the question: so when does an island get big enough to be a continent? We learned that the decision is all rather relative.

We made a change to our dictionary for our "word of the day" that we do. I discovered we had FIVE children's dictionaries (which we certainly didn't need). So I kept the best one of the lot and we switched. The lad was afraid we'd need to start from scratch and I showed him how we can just pick up where we left off. This was good and "look mom.. it has more words! How many do you think I will know?"

So, rediscovery went from horror to delight.

Do you ever get that in your household when you reorganize and tidy???

Books One Can Learn From, Reading non-fiction

11/12/2015

My son and I read a lot of non-fiction. People ask how I can do that so easily and I find it so incredibly easy that I don't understand the question.   I don't understand how it is so much harder to add non-fiction than it is to add fiction.     They are all books and worth talking about right?

Recently we read through three quite different books.   They are Ancient Greece, Brown Bears and Tree of Wonder.

Navigators: Ancient Greece
My son surprised me with Ancient Greece. Normally when we read a book he rarely looks at it again. But this one he picked up more than once just looking through the pictures, reading captions, picking up on the details I skimmed over the first time I read the book with him.     The book is filled with excellent images - some artistic, the others of actual images.     There are internet links provided throughout the book to help with additional learning...though I have to admit, we didn't take the time to do so. :)      Pages 24 -25 fit in really well with the archaeology unit we are doing right now, my lad was so intrigued it was neat to see.

Maps, sports, stories, hoplites, bravery, and yet a seen weakness in the people.
My lad didn't understand why weak children would be killed at birth. "What if they are really smart though mom? What if they are so smart they can figure out better ways to fight so people don't have to die? Why would they do that mom?"   Sometimes I wish I had answers to these questions the lad asks.

Title: Ancient Greece
Author: Philip Steele
Series: Search, link, learn, navigate
Publisher: Kingfisher
Pages: 48

Living Wild: Brown Bears.
My lad liked this book. It taught him a bit more about bears, even though it wasn't about the black bears we saw this summer. He was saddened to learn that they aren't known to live around here.

This book was filled with excellent images of brown bears: Syrian, Eurasian, Kamchatka, Ussuri and Grizzly from around the world. We learned the origin of them, some places where they are pictured, and a variety of interesting facts about them such as scientists thinking they hibernate because they can smell the changes in the air. We viewed images of bears painted in caves long ago, Ursa Major and scientists at work learning more about them. When he saw the picture of the bear with his head in the campers tent he just laughed.

Title: Brown Bears
Author: Melissa Gish
Publisher: Creative Paperbacks
Series: Living Wild
Pages: 48

Tree of Wonder: The many marvelous lives of a rainforest tree.
It's hard to know how to describe this book. I loved looking through it. On the first page I searched for many of the animals found in the rest of the book.   My son grabbed it from me and said "MOM.. there is no way I can find more than a 1000 ants in this picture!!!".    Once he realized he wasn't supposed to he had fun looking at the rest of the book making comments such as "ooh.. look at all the baby snakes" and "agoutis look a lot like big guinea pigs".

Each page of the book has some portion of the Almendro Tree in it.   All these different animals owe a good part of their lives due to this tree. There is ONE tree, Two parrots, 4 macaws and so forth all the way up to 1,024 leafcutters ants.   The book is all about how "life multiplies again and again in this One Almendro Tree".   As each animal multiplies a brief write up is given for it. Often times the picture for the animal includes some of the animals written about in the book, showing the inclusive community that they are part of because of the tree.

For fun at the end of the book, some rainforest math questions are given. They don't seem to be particularly easy questions but it's good to offer a challenge to folks now again isn't it? :)

Title: Tree of Wonder
Author: Kate Messner
Illustrator: Simona Mulazzani
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 29

I was given a chance to look at all these books by Raincoast Books. They've been a fine addition to our homeschooling.

Raincoast books can be found at the following links:
www.raincoast.com
https://twitter.com/raincoastbooks
https://www.facebook.com/raincoastbooks
https://instagram.com/raincoastbooks/
https://www.pinterest.com/raincoastbooks/
http://raincoastbooks.tumblr.com/
https://plus.google.com/+raincoastbooks/

October 1, our day today

10/1/2015

I like doing week or day experiences in our homeschool. Since the lad is busy working beside me, I thought I'd take an opportunity to talk about some of the things we are doing today.

We started off our day doing Veritas Press. This has pretty much become a standard thing in our household. The boy just loves this program so very very much. :)

We then started our work on our math journal. The lad has been REALLY skeptical about doing this, but by the time we had finished our sheet today he was starting to understand why I want him to make one.

I have to admit, I love how he used his drawings to demonstrate how the different math operations work. This is one of the reasons why I chose to do this math journal, the encouragement of creativity.

We took a break from doing sit down work to go read some books. We have just finished Poking Holes in the Darkness... it was kinda sad to say good-bye to Jaki and her family on the mission field. It was a good look at some of the things that folks have to deal with on the mission field.. being part of a different culture, with odd foods, weird customs, needing to deal with fear and suspicion and over time.. changing it all as people come to know the Lord and seeing what a huge difference it makes.

We also are continuing to work through our World War 2 book,a nature book (today we learned about the rainforest with FLYING FROGS!), and chapter from Story of the World. It was funny when I read that chapter. MOM! I know that man! That's Prince Henry the Navigator.. and then proceeded to tell me everything. Neat when things intertwine in a child's learning. Showed excellent recall on my lad's part as well.

For another review he read two chapters of Stone Fox in preparation for the book study part. He's not sure what he thinks of Stone Fox at this point.

We had lunch while reading a novel the lad is totally into about Dragonets of Prophecy. It's a fun read. :)

We finished up our day using Jump Math and doing the daily 1/2 hour reading. :) It was overall a good day.

Review: Stinky Kid Math

9/11/2015

When my hubby first heard the name of this on-line math program "Stinky Kid Math" he said "what in the world is STINKY KID MATH?!?!!" When I explained it was a math program suitable for grades 5 and up he said "AH, that makes sense then".

Anyways, my son surprised me. He moaned and groaned his way a lot through the videos and the course material, but in end, when I asked him what he thought.. he said "I liked it mom, I learned stuff about math. It's not so bad." HIGH PRAISE indeed. :)

So what did my son encounter as he worked through Stinky Kid.

1. Ease of Use; It's easy to find what you want. Lessons are easy to locate with big buttons. Those big buttons further break down into small buttons or into video clips.

2. Different explanations. One of the items I most particularly enjoyed was that the worksheets and the videos did not explain the concept exactly the same way.

For instance, when reviewing long division (which face it, is brand new to my boy and he STRUGGLED with the video). We opened up the workbook and suddenly it made sense! DMSB (divide, multiply, subtract and bring down). It made more sense to me! My son had an insight... if I learn my math (aka addition, subtraction and multiplication) better I can do division better right mom?

Yes, I smiled at him. (Why do these lessons sometimes work better when self taught)?

He particularly liked that each area was divided into bite size portions and made a suggestion to me. "Mom, can they put a line or something on the "I've watched this one already? Then I don't have to remember or ask you if you remember". I agreed with him that having a way to note which videos were already watched might prove to helpful. Breaking it down into small segments worked so well for my boy and gave him a boost in confidence. This video is vocabulary, this video explains what an exponent is and so forth. Once he got the gist of it... after the first four videos he no longer moaned and groaned so much but knew how to back up the videos, replay, ask questions, or gasp... ask to see the workbook to see if they explained it differently.

3. Clear labeling. At each step of the way, labels clearly indicate which section you are in. The sidebar is always visible so you know what areas are coming up.

4. Flexibility. You can do the lessons in whatever order you wish, so if you have a student that merely needs to brush up on a given area, you can go right to that section.   My son is fairly new at learning about algebra so he started at step one.

They do give you a list of the videos in their suggested order for those who find that helpful, but lessons and worksheets and workbooks can be done in whatever order you wish or ignored completely.

5. Games.   My attention to detail boy couldn't handle different elements of the games so he simply didn't play them. I happened to like the games for the most part.   What I liked with the games was this: they allowed you to play a game as you practiced math facts, they told you when an error was made, and I found most of them to be fun.

What areas are covered?
Foundational Algebra

areas such as order of operations, long division, exponents, multiples,fractions, notation etc.

Complex Algebra

lines, linear systems, polynomials etc.

Geometry

3-d and 2-d

Would I recommend it?
Yes.
My 10 year old son learned. He now understand long division! :)
They provide good instruction in a variety of formats.
It is a great online program that tutors students well.
My son LIKES this program. If a student likes it, they'll be more inclined to work with it. It's taught him important lessons about listening, paying attention, asking questions and back tracking.

Product Details:
Received: Six month membership for up to three children
Vendor: Stinky Kid Math
Product: Stinky Kid Math Lessons, can use the whole site.
Price: $9.99 per month. You can have a one month free trial.

Stinky Kid Math is not a complete curriculum, You could turn it into one if you desired with some judicious planning and use of other materials. It's primary role is that of a tutor or supplement to aid students in gaining a solid understanding of algebraic and geometric math. Quoted from Stinky Kid Math: The site is more of a help for parents and students. It will act as a full curriculum, but is not certified as one. There are also a few small gaps with the current common core standards.

Works with

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) or above
Mozilla Firefox 2 or above
Apple Safari 2 or above
Google Chrome 2 or above
Flash Player 9 or above

If you want to know more about how Stinky Kid Math works, please check out their facts page.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/stinky-kid-math
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/StinkyKidMath
Twitter- http://twitter.com/StinkyKidMath

Review: Max's Math

9/8/2015

Written by Kate Banks, Max's Math is a cute book about numbers. Max is a boy who wanted to build a car and needed to use math in order to do so.

Once the car was built.. Max and his brothers headed for a ride in the car. Max wanted to go look for problems and his brothers went along for the ride. And thus we begin a colourful, whimiscal ride learning about numbers.

As they drove they passed various numbers of other vehicles and discovered a number lying by itself by a bend in the road. They took it along with them. They stopped in a Shapeville that was suffering the effects of a terrible storm. Where they discovered the basics of mathematical shapes.    Their continued adventures led them an various mathematical journeys...leading them eventually to Count Town.

This book is filled in interesting pictures and numerous things to count, add, find, and numbers to look for.

Such a fun introduction to numbers. Even though my son was too old for this book, he still found it interesting.   It would be perfect for 4-6 year olds just learning how numbers, shapes and time works.   Learning how math is relevant to every day life.

You can find Max's Math at Raincoast books.

Product Information:
Received: Softcover picture book
Title: Max's Math
Author: Kate Banks
Illustrator: Boris Kulikov
Pages: 40
Price: $20.50
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

NOW.. for some freebies for you.
Apples4TheTeacher has all sorts of math games to reinforce or introduce math concepts.
FreeMath - games to help you learn. Teaching concepts.
Khan Academy. Learn the concept, watch videos, practice.   Solid program.
Sheppard Software: Lots of math here to learn.

For more math freebies: GO HERE,

Review; Sneaky Math

5/7/2015

Cy Tymony has come up with an interesting way to make math come alive for students. My son and I spent some good time looking through this book and completing some of the projects.

15 projects, 27 total chapters, Mr. Tymony introduces math students to a whole variety of topics, from basic math through to calculus. His goal is to help children to not despair of math in their lives but to see the fun of it and embrace it.

So get our your pens glue, staples, scissors and more. Gather a variety of household items and have fun showing your children a different way to do math.

Now I have to admit, some of the projects we struggled through. We just couldn't see the point of them, but others made us go.. wow...that's an easier way to do that, or NOW I get it. :) Good for students of a variety of ages, older students have more fun than those 9 or under. Regardless of how old your students are though, wouldn't it be fun to MAKE something in math rather than just doing paper work?

Indeed. That's what we thought too. If it happens to broaden your understanding, that's just icing on the cake. :)

Product Details:
Book: Sneaky Math
Author: Cy Tymony
Pages: 179
Publisher; Andrews McMeel Publishing
Reviewed for: Cy Tymony

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

Take one Owl + one Reluctant Math Student = Success, A Review

3/18/2015

I have to admit, I was shocked when I heard these words from my boy child "Mom, Can I do math with the owl yet?" My immediate response was "Sure, here, let me set him up for you." I tried hard not to show my shock but inwardly I was SO delighted. My Boy WANTS to do math!!!! This was a great review for us to do.

What can I say but that GPALOVEMATH has been a total success in our household. :) Doing this review has given my boy an appreciation, though not yet a fondness for math. GPA LEARN has put together a product that works well for my boy and I am impressed. It has become our main math program.

The Philosophy ofGPA LEARN is Learn, Engage and Motivate. GPA LEARN is the winner of the 2015 Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA) seal of approval for math help. Each grade level has it own teacher/helper to guide the student through their learning. 150 lessons, 10,000 questions.

For grade four students, their instructor is an owl. I have to admit, my boy likes the owl but he has been known to say "Mom, Hooty doesn't know very much." It makes him laugh, which I think is part of the appeal. Each grade has it own instructor.

Each lesson is divided into three sections. Learn, Practice, Quiz. Your student can access this from their dashboard by pressing on the Learn tab. Currently my son is working on three streams of learning. I allow him to pick which ever lesson he wishes to. If I wanted to as a parent I could go into my dashboard and open up lessons ahead of time for him, but I have chosen not to do that with my son. He likes being able to go through the lessons at his own speed. Sometimes he chooses to redo a lesson... quickly skipping through the parts he already knows so he can concentrate on what he is unsure of. I am so pleased that he is gaining confidence enough to know that it's okay to not know everything right away and just redoing things is the best way to learn. He is so NOT intimidated by this program which is why I think it works for him.

Each lesson is presented in a logical fashion. The student is told what the objective of the lesson is. As you can see at the bottom of the screen are red and green buttons. These arrows are how you progress through the lesson.

My son being the audio learner that he is loves that he can just click on the question and it will read it to him. Sometimes he does this simply because he doesn't want to do the reading. But mostly he does it because it makes more sense to him if he hears it read out loud. The lessons are presented on a step by step manner that makes it very clear for your student.

When you get to the practice session the student is given three lifelines. My lad was using these for a while until I told him it was cheating. He was shocked! "Mom, I thought they were just there to answer the question when I didn't want to.". (I smiled). Then told him they were there to help him if he simply didn't know the answer.

The practice session gives the student a chance to see if they have learned the facts well enough to be confident to take the quiz.

Correct answers will give you a green checkmark, and a congratulations comment. Incorrect answers give you a red try again button and a "try again" comment.

Once your student has gained confidence in their practicing of the new material they are move straight into the quiz. For the quiz section they are asked the questions without being told if they are right or wrong. They are shown their results when they complete the test and can see where they made errors. The brown tab at the top shows what number of question you are on and how many are left.

GPALOVEMATH created by GPA LEARN works hard to create an environment that makes learning a non-threatening environment. They encourage hard work by offering various motivational rewards for the children. These rewards run the gambit from TOYSRUS gift certificates that the student can order, to student specific rewards their parent might set up (for my son that means additional minecraft time). GPA LEARN sets up various other rewards that parents can choose from as well from staying up later, getting more TV time, to play dates with friends and more. They make it very easy to choose a variety of rewards that will help motivate your student to doing their work well.

This web-based program .. it is not a downloaded program, is highly transportable. My son did most of his work on my laptop, generally at home, but sometimes when we were out and about. All we needed was a WIFI connection and we were set. :) He preferred doing the work on the touch screen laptop, though sometimes struggled with colour differentiation for some of the answers, but it worked just as easily on my slower desktop. For the colour differentiation answers, it was really a matter of having to pay attention to what he was doing.

What I liked:
My son's increased confidence in doing math. It is still not his favourite subject but he actually ASKS to do math now as opposed to say "NO, do I HAVE TO???".

Step by Step Instruction. I really liked how they explained place value and you could see the lights going on with the step up way they showed it.   All the lessons were broken down like that, and with the option to here is all audibly, it really worked well for him.

Reward Delight. The look on my son's face the first time he earned extra minecraft time and when I had to do one of his chores. WOW.   "Mom, can I do more math?   When do I get another reward?"

Email Updates.   I loved geting emails from GPA LEARN when he was finished with the lesson. This came in very handy a few times when I set him to doing work with his gramma minding him, and this way I knew when he was getting his work done.   Gave me something to be able to chat with him about as well. :)

What my son liked:
"I like that I can skip forward in the lessons if I understand what they are talking about."
'I like that I can do it again if I want to."
"I think Hooty is silly sometimes Mom."
"I like that I can get mom to do my chores and get more time playing minecraft."

Product Details
Vendor: GPA LEARN
Product: GPALOVEMATH
Grade Range: K-5.
Cost: Special Introductory Price of $129 per year per child It is regularly $149
OR $12.99 per month per child

Supported on: Currently supported formats are Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac Computers, Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari 6 and 7.

I hope you will check out Great Parents Academy for yourself, but if you want to gain the perspective from other members of the crew, pleaseclick on this link or the banner below.

GPA LEARN can be found on social media:
www.facebook.com/gpalearn
www.twitter.com/gpalearn
www.pinterest.com/gpalearn

Using Math Analogies to Develop Critical Thinking, A Review.

3/15/2015

One of the things I wish had been emphasized for me as a child was the ability to put different facts together and use them to think critically about them. Ergo, as I am teaching my son I continually look for ways to help him learn to think critically about the things that he comes across.

Imagine my delight when I was given the opportunity to review Math Analogies Level Two for The Critical Thinking Company? It was great! I had another way to help my boy learn to think in a critical manner and become a better thinker which will help him well in the future.

Math analogies is a downloadable product, for Windows only. The goal of The Critical Thinking Co. is to develop better thinking students. In the product that I downloaded, they used math as the vehicle for doing so.

The start screen starts with the last person to use the program. One student can use it at a time and needs to complete it before the next student uses it as the program does not keep a record of more than one student at a time. The sign up is easy. It will ask for the student's name. As you can see it will show your first attempt and what percentage you are achieving. Where the white block is, is where the students name is located. You have four attempts to complete each question.

Each subsequent attempt will have it's own label. I have to tell you this, my son likes seeing his progress. He wants to see that percentage be above 70%. He was a bit bummed that he missed one on his second attempt as shown so far.

I have to say I like how they make it very clear if your answer is correct or incorrect. Do you see how for correct the words are in green and next analogy box is as well. For incorrect everything is in red.

One of the things we liked about math analogies was the sheer amount of variety in the questions. Fractions, pictorials, multiplication, clocks, money and more. I will suggest that before you actually start doing the questions that you actually take the time to read the instructions on how to play. As you'll notice from the picture below a system of dots is used. The dots that look like a colon stand for "is to" and the four dots together mean "as". It may take your student a bit of time to understand the system but once they understand it, doing the program will be quite easy for them. The question mark shows clearly what answer you are looking for.

It is an easy to use program in that there is a question with four possible answers given. Then it is just a matter of dragging the correct answer to where the question mark is.

Our thoughts
I have to admit, this program surprised me.
I thought my boy would take to it immediately.   He didn't. It did not intuitively make sense for him with how it worked.   I despaired having him willingly do it.

But I learned something... Time is important. My lad worked it out. He did!   He was happy and excited. "Mom!" He came to me. "I know how to do it now!"

We ended up using this critical thinking program 2-4 times a week.   We fit it in on a regular basis doing 5-10 questions at a time.

The initial dislike turned into a confidence booster. "Think we can beat it mom?   Think I can get better mom?    I know I can do it mom." I have to say how much I liked that boost in confidence he gained. Smiles and yeahs speak volumes to me.    His confidence in being able to figure out some "I don't know how to do this math" to "maybe I can figure it out math".   It's very good to see this.

When I asked my son what he liked he said:
"I liked that the questions are not all the same."
"I like that if I really don't know the answer I can guess."
"I like that some of the questions are really easy."
"The picture questions are really easy."
"I like that I can't cheat if I get the answer wrong. I have to wait until the next attempt to try to do it again."

What do I like?
The clear start up instructions.   I have to admit, I didn't make sure that my son had a really clear understanding of the dots before he started. I thought it would make sense intuitively to him as it did to me.   I was wrong. Reading over the instructions and letting him figure it out in his brain.    But what I have now is a boy who likes the program and willingly works at it.

Variety.
Words. Clocks. Fractions. Pictorials.   Blocks.   Multiplication. Patterns. and more.   Means that you don't get stuck on one pattern, that you can see math in more than one way, that the program is interesting rather than repetitive.

Ease of Use.
I found it very easy to use and almost had the program done before my son wrapped his head around it well.   Once he understood the dot system he found it easy to use as well.

Tracking of achievement.
My son found this to be an encouragement to know how well he was doing overall.

Downloadable Product.
Once I have it is mine.   This means if I have more than one student I can have each of the children work their way through it.

Other products being reviewed by the Crew are:

Alphabet Song Game (Windows software download) (Gr. Toddler - 1)
Math Analogies Beginning (Windows software download) (Gr. K-1)
Math Analogies Level 1 (Windows software download) (Gr. 2-3)
Editor in Chief Level 1 (physical book) (Gr. 4-5)
Editor in Chief Level 2 (physical book) (Gr. 6-8)
Pattern Explorer (physical book) (Gr. 5-7)
World History Detective Book 1 (physical book) (Gr.6-12+)

To read what the crew members thought of these products, do clink on this link or on the banner below.

Product Details:
Vendor: The Critical Thinking Co.
Product:Math Analogies Level 2
Price: Pricing options can be found here.

The Critical Thinking Co. can be found at the following social media links:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCriticalThinkingCo
https://plus.google.com/114500823774999703181
https://twitter.com/criticalthinks
https://www.pinterest.com/source/criticalthinking.com/

Today's Efforts in Learning

2/4/2015

Wednesday's are different days for us.

We start our day usually rushing madly out the door to get to the Foodbank. Somedays we manage to have breakfast before we leave and other times we kinda scrounge for things at the Foodbank (which they are totally cool with).

This morning was one of those mornings of Granola bars, fruit and a juice box. :)

We had a good day at the Foodbank. We had numerous folks show up for assistance and they all left happy. We might have a back up person to help distribute food on Wednesday mornings. WOOT WOOT. We also had time to start organizing food by expiration date. My goodness.. we had lots of tuna that will be good until 2019! And the salmon until 2018. We had about 20 cans that man.. I wish the canning companies would put readable expiration dates on them!!!! It's hard to know what to do with those cans so I generally put them where they will be used up first.

When we got ack from the Foodbank it was time for a quick lunch.   We like to listen to Classics for Kids while we eat.   Today we learned about Benjamin Britten.   My lad didn't seem to be particularly interested in Britten's music but i thought it a run listen. :)

After Classics for Kids we turned our attention to GPA Learn and Standard Deviants for Science. GPA is a new math program that we are reviewing that my son was quite excited to try out.   So far he likes it, he particularly likes the reward aspect of it. Mom.. Will I get those all the time?   I responded with "I don't know, you know as much as I do at this point.".    :)   He does get frustrated when I don't have all the answers. :)     Standard Deviants is the program we used last year to learn earth sciences. My lad enjoyed it. The nutrition class that he's doing right now he is not as keen on.   It uses a lot of big words that are quite similar so he's having a hard time keeping it all straight.

For his one helpful task of the day, he chose to make my bed (as I neglected to do so this morning). He didn't know what to do with the top sheet so he simply took it off. :)   Made me laugh and he chortled with glee. :)

Since he didn't do his 20 minutes of reading yesterday he needed to do 40 minutes today.      he struggled with what to read and finally said "mom, do you have a minecraft book on the tablet I can read?" This led him to learn how to find the kindle app and to learn how to scroll through the books to find what he wanted.   He was quite pleased with his end selection. WOOT WOOT for free books for the kindle!!!!    :)

So we didn't do all our dailies.... but if we do so on Wednesday we aren't done our schooling until about 4 o'clock and that puts everything way behind. This way the lad is happy as he doesn't need to do his dailies, I'm happy since I can do other stuff and the lad is free to earn additional time for playing Minecraft.   No complaints and a smoother running household. :)

How did your homeschooling go today?