CTC Math is an Excellent Program for Our Homeschooling Needs!

Thank you to CTC Math for providing a sample math curriculum membership for us to base this homeschooling review upon.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Since we started homeschooling, we have tried around 10 math programs. My oldest son finally found a program he liked, but it was only available for 6th grade and up. So, my quest has been on for a great program for my 7-year-old second grader, Quinn. I came across CTC Math one day after yet another program failed and I liked what I saw on their website. They were kind enough to provide us with a one year trial, which kept me from having to invest in yet another program after previous experience has made me skeptical as to whether any program would work out for our needs.

As soon as we got our trial, I got Quinn started. We looked around to see how the program was formatted and how to use it.  Then we jumped in. He’s had serious issues with math; he’s good at it but really, truly hates it. We’ve had many, many tears shed (by us both) over math in the past, so I was ready for the battle. Quinn was immediately happier with it simply because it’s compatible with the iPad, as he believes anything that can be done on the iPad is inherently fun. Immediately we liked the man who does the lessons. He has a smooth, natural voice that makes the math seem unstressful. Plus, he’s Australian, so that’s always more interesting. We did a couple of simple lessons with things he already knew to ease him into this new program.

Since the first lesson, math has been much easier on us both. Quinn really does like the program, even if it doesn’t necessarily make him love math itself. Each lesson is short, approximately 2-5 minutes, and has 10 accompanying questions to gauge progress. I set his “passing grade” as 80%, which means he needs to get 80% or higher right to move onto the next lesson. I love that it’s customizable and each parent can decide what is acceptable to them. I also love the layout of the parents' and kids' pages -- both are very easy to navigate. I do wish CTC had a “lesson plan”, of sorts, to keep him on track. I just ended up making my own so he could do his lessons on his own. Independence is good.

We’ve been using this program for over a month now and we’ve had a couple of minor speedbumps along the way with Quinn not wanting to do math, but our overall experience has been excellent. I like everything about the way CTC Math is run and think it’s an excellent program for homeschoolers or kids who just need some extra math practice.

You can learn more about the program, view sample lessons and demos, and find out pricing for your family at www.ctcmath.com.

The Bedtime Math Children's Book Incorporates Math into Your Child's Daily Routine

Thank you to Bedtime Math for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon. All opinions expressed are my own.

It is my wish that my children love to learn, and I do as much as I can to make sure they are having fun while they are learning. Math is one of our hardest subjects because “it’s boring”, they say. When I heard of the book, Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck, I was excited to give this method of incorporating math a try. Bedtime Math is a unique book that presents simple math problems along with a paragraph of information on a particular topic. Each math equation comes in 3 levels (Wee Ones, Little Kids, and Big Kids) so there is one for any age of child. Plus, the answers are discreetly placed on the bottom of the page so math-challenged parents like myself don’t have to hurt themselves figuring out the more complicated ones. The book is well written and colorfully illustrated so it makes learning fun.

To give an example: one page has a bit of information about frogs (they are amphibians, born as tadpoles, etc.) and then a math problem for 3 different levels of learners that relates to the frog theme. This simple way of putting math into our daily lives has been very effective! My kids love getting their evening math problems and I love that there are 3 different levels so there is a problem that suits each of them. We’ve had a lot of fun with this book and will continue to use it for a long time.

You can learn more about Bedtime Math  including where to purchase, on their website, www.bedtimemath.org. This book retails for $14.99, but is currently selling on Amazon for $9.37 with Free Super Saver Shipping.

"I Am A Smartie Pants!" Math-Themed Smarties Candy Favors (#CBias)

With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to share this easy tutorial for making math-themed treats using Smarties candy and some free printables I had made.  These little sweet treats will put some fun into practicing basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  The "I Am a Smartie Pants!" treats would be perfect for handing out to students in the classroom, to trick-or-treaters, or to use inside goodie bags.  Another great thing about these Halloween treats is that you can change the theme from Halloween to just about anything simply by using different stickers.  If you will be making these to hand out in the classroom, you will not have to worry because Smarties are gluten-free, peanut-free, vegan, and fat-free.

Today's Project:  "I Am a Smartie Pants!" Math-Themed Favors

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Smarties candy rolls

Free printable "I Am a Smartie Pants!" pages

Halloween-themed stickers (1-1/4"H or smaller)

8" satin or 12" curling ribbon per favor

single hole puncher

scissors

Step 1.  Print out the desired number of "I Am a Smartie Pants!" pages below.  (NOTE:  Each page contains 4 favor tags.)

TO PRINT:  Make sure your computer's printer is turned on and ready to print.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

Addition & Subtraction

Multiplication

Step 2.  Cut out each tag as instructed on the sheet.  Be sure to leave each column of 3 boxes intact.

Step 3.  Fold each tag into an accordion shape with the words "I Am a Smartie Pants!" facing out and the other two printed boxes facing each other.

Step 4.  Place a fun sticker in your theme of choice on the front of the tag right above the words "I Am a Smartie Pants!"  Be sure to leave enough room above the sticker to punch a hole.  (I trimmed my large rectangular stickers with scissors to fit my tags.)

Step 5.  Using your single hole puncher, punch a hole through all 3 layers above the sticker near the top of your tag, making sure it is centered horizontally.

Step 6.  Take an 8" to 9" piece of satin ribbon and fold it in half.  Then tie the halfway point of the ribbon around one end of a roll of Smarties candy.  (If you are using curling ribbon, please see the instructions below the Step 9 photos.)

Step 7.  Bring the two ends of your ribbon together and tie in a single knot close to the ends.  Trim the ribbon above the knot with scissors to make the ends even.

Step 8.  Next feed the knotted end of you ribbon through the back of your tag and out the front of the hole you had punched.

Step 9.  The last step is to put the end of the Smarties candy roll that is not tied to the ribbon through the ribbon loop on the front of your tag and pull it through.

The result should look like this , , ,

If using curling ribbon, follow the instructions below:

Feed the curling ribbon through the hole you had punched.  Make sure the ends are even.  Tie a knot about an inch above the top of the tag.  Then place a roll of Smarties candy above the knot you made and tie the end of the candy roll in place.  Use a double knot to make it secure.

Then use the blade of your scissors to curl the ribbon.  The result should look like this . . .

If you make these "I Am a Smartie Pants!" Treats, I would love to know what theme you used and what the children thought about them.  For more fun ideas, visit Smarties on Pinterest.

This treat is extremely inexpensive to make.  I bought a whole bag of Smarties for under $3 and the pack of 18 stickers for just $1 at Walgreens.  You can also find Smarties in the Halloween candy section at your local Walmart, Target, Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree stores.


I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Smarties. #CBias #SocialFabric #IAmASmartie.  The prize pack for this contest has been provided by Collective Bias™ on behalf of Smarties.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Our "I Am A Smartie" Prize Pack includes:

1 Theater box Smarties

1 small bag Original Smarties

1 small bag Tropical Smarties

1 small bag X-Treme Sour Smarties

1 small bag Smarties in a Pouch

1 small bag Seasonal Smarties

Finding Balance With Asperger's: Super Sorting Pie

Learning Resources is a leader in educational toys and supplies for children and they have been kind enough to allow me to review another of their amazing products. The Super Sorting Pie is an award-winning toy that teaches early math skills and helps children learn valuable sorting skills. This set comes with a plastic pie crust (both top and bottom crusts), 60 counting fruits, 2 plastic tweezers, 3 double-sided sorting cards, and an activity guide. All pieces are plastic, except the cards and guide, and are extremely durable and well-made. Just as with all Learning Resources products, these are made to last.

This set is amazing. We love the realistic looking fruits and the many different ways the set can be sorted. As an added bonus, the bottom crust removes from the attached “plate” and the activity cards slide in place, giving children various ways of sorting the fruits by color, type, quantity and more. This makes it easier to remember what children are doing and keep them on task, especially for younger children. Due to its bowl shape, the top crust makes a useful holder for the pieces as they’re being sorted, making this set to be even more convenient and well thought out.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Quinn has had a blast using this set. He really loves sorting activities and loves the pie theme of this one. The tweezers are amazing for strengthening his grasp and developing his lacking fine motor skills and they are the perfect size for his hands. Because Quinn has Asperger’s and a fine motor delay, such fine motor-strengthening activities are so important. He really struggles with thin plastic tweezers because of their “give” when squeezing and ones that are too small for his hands cause him to be frustrated, causing him to give up. The tweezers in this set are perfect. They are very thick, strong plastic so they are not easily bent and their large size and indented sides are ideal for small hands and fingers. They also have ridges on the tips, so the items don’t fall out easily and they are not too tough to squeeze. Of all the child’s tweezers we’ve used in the past, these are by far the best for him. The fruit pieces are also a great size because they fit into the tweezers perfectly, but are not too small which would cause them to fall out. They are also very vividly colored and easy to distinguish between them. This sorting pie is also great for introducing simple fractions and has even proven useful in practicing fractions with my 10 year old son.

The Super Sorting Pie is a really fantastic set that I would recommend to anyone with preschoolers or early elementary school children. It is reasonably priced at $27.99 and will last for many, many years of fun and learning. This would also be great for teachers. You can purchase this and all Learning Resources’ wonderful products on their website, www.learningresources.com.

Thank you to Learning Resources for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize.





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Play To Learn Diner Review: Break Schedule Time Activity (Free Printable)

Recently, we received the Guidecraft All in One Play Kitchen for our three children to experience. When I saw that this kitchen had a built-in clock with mobile hands, I knew it would be the perfect setting for the upcoming time addition activity I had planned. This activity is for children who already has the basics of telling time down and teaches them to work more comfortably with time (i.e. adding hours and minutes, translating what an analog clock says into digital time, etc . . . ).

To do this activity, you will need to print out the blank break schedule worksheet below and have a clock with hands that your child can move with his or her fingers. You can also have a dry erase board and dry erase markers or dry erase crayons on hand for an extra activity at the end, but this is optional.

TO PRINT: Click on image to enlarge. Then right-click on image and select print. Hit your browser's back button to return to this page.

After you have printed out the break schedule worksheet, fill in the 1st column with names of several people your child knows, including his or her own name. Then fill in the next four columns to create varying scenarios. The 2nd and 3rd columns are for when the employee is scheduled to arrive and leave work. The 4th column states how many hours the employee is scheduled to work. The 5th column states how long of a break that person should get that day. After 5 or 6 entries, you can start to leave the 5th column blank for your child to fill in. By the end of the activity, your child will likely be able to fill in all the columns.

Getting Started . . .

Explain to your child that he or she is the owner of the diner. In addition to cooking and serving food, the owner must make a break schedule that determines when each employee gets to take a break during their shift. To add a higher level of difficulty, you can tell your child that the breaks must not overlap with each other.

Examples of Questions I Asked . . .

If Jake works from 9am to 6pm, how many hours is he working? To help your child answer this, set the clock's hands to 9 o'clock. Then have your child count how many hours it takes to reach 6 0'clock and have your child verify that the number under the "Total Hours" column matches his or her answer.

If Jake gets a 1 hour break for working 9 hours, what time do you think he should take his break? Your child can choose any time within the shift for the most part. Have your child fill in the digital time in the column labeled "Begins".

If you want Jake to go on break at 12 o'clock and he gets a one hour break, what time should he come back from break? To help your child, set the clock's hands to 12 o'clock and ask your child to advance the hands one hour. Then have your child fill in the digital time in the column labeled "Ends".

After repeating the above exercises several times, if you feel your child is ready, try leaving the "Total Hours" column blank for your child to fill in. Then ask your child to fill in all the columns. He or she should be able to fill in the length of each break based on the previous entries in the break schedule. My son, who will be turning 7 in two months, very much enjoyed filling in the columns himself. This activity takes playing restaurant to a whole new level and helps him to see how math applies to real (and pretend) life situations. I also think he loved being "the boss".

For extra practice with writing words, numbers, and digital time . . .

Ask your child to write out the break schedule for all his or her employees to see on a dry erase board or on a blank piece of paper. You can vary what you ask your child to include. Since my son writes large, I only asked him to put the heading "Break Schedule", the employee name, and the time the employee should go on break. If your child writes smaller, you can also ask that he or she include the time the employee should come back from break or how long of a break that employee should receive.

**********************************************************************

More about the Guidecraft All in One Play Kitchen . . .

Although this kitchen has many parts, it probably only took an hour and a half for my husband to put together with a little help from me. If you are experienced with assembling RTA, then you should be able to build this alone aside from perhaps having someone hold the doors for you when attaching them. If you are not comfortable with assembling furniture, then having two people will help to speed things along. My husband was extremely impressed by how well the pieces were packed, as well as the sturdy construction. There were no problems with holes not lining up or doors not being square. The one thing that took us a long time was attaching all the hinges, since there were so many doors. The screws used to attach the hinges are tiny, so they are difficult to handle if you have larger hands.

Some of the features that I especially liked . . .

• The stove top is not just painted on, but rather it is a thick durable plastic that is screwed on.
• The faucet turns left and right just like on a real kitchen sink.
• The oven has a rack that pulls out just like in a real oven.
• This kitchen is attractive and the colors work for both girls and boys.
• The dry erase board is perfect for leaving messages for your children or for them to write out their pretend menus.
• This kitchen provides tons of hidden storage.
• This kitchen is large enough for all 3 children to play at once.
• This kitchen is tall, so it will provide many years of pretend play.

The only thing I would change about this kitchen is the size of the hooks on the back splash. They are very thick and none of our play utensils or pots and pans have holes large enough to hang properly on them.

One thing I want to point out is that, since we already had a kitchen in our play area, we ended up putting this kitchen in one of the bedrooms. Once I saw a toy kitchen online that was designed to also be a desk. This made me think, why not have this kitchen double as a dresser? I did not end up using it to house clothing, but I do have the right and middle bottom cabinets filled with toys. So, if you think you cannot find the room to add a toy kitchen such as this one, you could consider replacing an existing piece of furniture with the kitchen instead. The children are thrilled to have the kitchen to play with upstairs and I did not lose any storage space by adding it.

To learn more about this and other play kitchens, visit Guidecraft.com and Guidecraft on Facebook.

Thank you to Guidecraft for sending us a complimentary product sample to base this review upon.

Review: Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks

Anyone who has been a long time reader of my blog knows that I am an avid believer that children should engage in educational activities outside of school. I even started my Kindergartner-in-Training series last summer to make sure my son was well-prepared to start elementary school. This summer, I did not have a clear plan about what skills my son should be working on. I know he was already doing some 1st grade work in kindergarten, so I wanted him to continue on that path.

When I had the chance to try out the Summer Bridge Activities books, I was excited. I usually think up my own activities, so it would be nice to have some that are created by experts.

These workbooks are designed to be a "bridge" between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. It is set up so that your child does 2 pages per day for 60 days and it is estimated that it would take your child 15 minutes to complete those two pages.

Well, I have quickly come to the conclusion that these books are only a good fit for children who are a little behind or right where they should be in reading, writing, and math. If your child is a little ahead, then these books may be far too easy. In the Grade K-1 book, my son can do 8 pages in 10 minutes. He has not completed the entire workbook yet, but looking ahead, there is nothing in it that he will find challenging until the very last few days in the entire workbook.

Since not all children are the same, I want you to be able to judge whether this book would be right for your child. This book covers the following:

• Single digit addition and subtraction
• Writing upper and lowercase alphabet
• Sounding out parts of words (beginning sounds, vowel sounds, etc . . .)
• Telling time
• Sequences
• Counting by 2s, 5s, etc . . .
• Counting money
• Counting to 100
• Reading comprehension
• Following instructions
• Rhyming

There are probably a few more things, but this list should give you the general idea. There is something unexpected and fun I found in this workbook, which is the "Fitness Flash". At intervals, there are instructions for your child to do something physical. It could be something as simple as 10 shoulder shrugs or something like imagining you are an animal stretching, acting it out, and asking your parent to guess what animal you are pretending to be.

Overall, I think these workbooks would be useful as long as they match your child's skill levels.

You can find Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks on SummerBridgeActivities.org and other retailers of educational books, such as CarsonDellosa.com .

Thank you to Summer Bridge Activities for sending us a sample workbook free of charge to base this review upon.

Play To Learn Diner Review: Pizza Parlor Math Problems (Free Printables)

Welcome to our first Play To Learn Diner activity, where my 6yr old son demonstrated to me how much he actually knows about basic multiplication, division, and fractions by playing pizza parlor. I was reluctant to start off with this topic, but he proved my concerns to be unfounded.

To aid us in this learning activity, Discount School Supply sent us a Cut & Play Pizza set, which comes with a 6-slice pizza held together with Velcro, a pizza pan, a spatula, a pizza cutter, plus cheese and red pepper shakers. This play food pizza was the perfect prop for this activity because there were no loose toppings or small parts to worry about, which made it much easier to focus on the lesson at hand.

Although using the Cut & Play Pizza Set would make this math lesson much more enjoyable, I have provided some free printables below, which can be used to demonstrate these math problems. The first page is a pizza that can be decorated with your child's favorite toppings and colored in before cutting out the pizza slices. The second page is a pizza platter that should be cut out in a complete circle.

(To print, click on each image to enlarge. Then right-click to select print.)

Pizza Parlor Math Problems:

1. There are two people at the pizza parlor sharing one pizza. IF one person ate 3 slices of pizza and the other person could only eat 2 slices of pizza, THEN how many slices of pizza are leftover? (6-3)-2=1
2. IF 6 people want to share 1 pizza equally, THEN how many slices does each person get? 6 divided by 6 = 1
3. IF 2 people want to share 1 pizza equally, THEN how many slices does each person get? 6 divided by 2 = 3
4. IF 2 people want to share 1 pizza equally, but also would like to bring 2 slices to their friend who is sick at home, THEN how many slices does each of the 3 friends get? (6-2)/2=2
5. There are two people at the pizza parlor sharing one pizza, but they cannot agree on what kind of pizza to order. One person wants plain cheese, while the other wants pepperoni. IF they order one cheese pizza with pepperoni on half the pizza, THEN how many slices will have pepperoni on it? 6 divided by 2 = 3
6. There are two people at the pizza parlor sharing one pizza. IF the first person can only eat 1 slice of pizza and the second person can eat twice as many as the first person, THEN how many slices will be leftover? 1 + (2x1)=3, 6-3=3
7. There are 12 people at a pizza party. IF each person can eat 1 slice of pizza, THEN how many pizzas would they need? (12x1)/6=2
8. There are 9 people at a pizza party. IF each person can eat 1 slice of pizza, THEN how many pizzas would they need exactly? (9x1)/6=1.5

I was in awe that my 6yr old son did not get even mildly stumped until the very last question. Even then, he figured out the correct answer after 3 attempts. I completely under-estimated him.

I cannot tell you how much fun all three of my children are having with this pizza set. Pizza is a universal language, whether you are 3 or 6 years old. So far, this set has provided hours of play daily. My 6yr old used his imagination and built a makeshift pizza oven. They even learned to take turns with their favorite part . . . cutting and serving the pizza.

You can find this and the full line of Angeles Baseline Table and Chairs at DiscountSchoolSupply.com

Thank you to Discount School Supply for providing a sample pizza set free of charge for us to base this article upon.