If you were me and lived in...

If you were me.. are a set of books by Carol P. Roman
  for young children introducing them to life in other countries. We were delighted to be able to review these books which are an excellent addition to our geography studies.The books are subtitled either A child's introduction to cultures around the world or An introduction to learning about other cultures and this is exactly what these books are about.






We received four books:

If you were me and lived in Mexico:A Child's introduction to cultures around the World

If you were me and lived in France:a Child's introduction to cultures around the World

 

If you were me and lived in South Korea: an Introduction to learning about other Cultures

 

and
If you were me and lived in Norway: an Introduction to learning about other Cultures

The books are 20-26 page paperbacks covering covering where the country is located in the world, the name and a little about the capital, typical boy/girl names, words for father and mother, shopping, an important tourist site, typical foods, sport and toys, a special national day and the name for school. I read If you were me with my children aged 4 and just 7.

We have several South Korean friends so I was particularly keen for the children to learn about South Korea. It also meant that I could ask a South Korean friend for her view about the accuracy of the book. She was pleased both about this and that someone had produced a children's book about South Korea as these seem very difficult to find.

We used the book about France as part of a week where we read children's picture books set in France and did some extension activities. 

The children remember visiting Paris so this was well received.

Norway lead to a fascination with the Snow Hotel. For children who love snow and spend time listing snow activities this had a great pull.

Mexico fitted in well with learning Spanish and having learnt before about the Mayan culture. 

I was pleased to see how the children learnt to locate countries on the globe.

The books are designed for children pre-K (4) to 10. This seems fairly accurate although if anything, they are better for the younger end of the age range. My 4 year old was more enthusiastic than my 7 year old and kept asking for rereadings. The font is large so the books are suitable for young readers.

What we thought

These books are a great addition to our home library and a useful way to introduce different nations and cultures. 

They are written from a US viewpoint so there were some I adapted "mommy" to "mummy" and talked about an "elevator" being a "lift". This didn't cause any difficulty. 

They also assume that the child is in school, again, this wasn't problematic. 

 I would recommend these books and hope that the series is enlarged further.

Cost

The books are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. The cost on Amazon.com is $1.24 for the Kindle version and $8.99 for the paperback except for the book on Norway which costs $2.07 for the Kindle version an $10.79 for the paperback.

On Amazon.co.uk the costs are £0.77 for the Kindle version and £7.50 in paperback for If you were me and lived in Mexico. There are slight variations in price for the paperbacks between £7.38 and £7.50 presumably due to exchange rate fluctuations. The Kindle version of If you were me and lived in Norway is £1.28.

To read more reviews of this series do visit the Schoolhouse Crew Review blog.

Family Kitchen Cookbook

Having a household of eight people plus frequent visitors means that we usually cook at least twice a day.  I enjoy cooking but sometimes, between people not liking things and special diets, need some inspiration. I was delighted to be able to review a new book from DK, Family Kitchen Cookbook by Carol Bretherton.

This is a beautifully presented hardback with almost 500 pages and over 700 recipes. Each recipe is illustrated, has clear instructions and a nutritional analysis. The book has six main sections

• babies and toddlers
• family meals
• easy entertaining
• food to go
• baking
• cooking with kids.

Each section is divided into subsections which are clearly marked at the top of the page, for example, family meals has fish, poultry, meat and many others. There are feature pages about different topics such as fussy eaters, unexpected visitors and using leftovers-all real practical stuff.

However, the only real way to test a recipe book is to cook so we've been trying this out-not all 700+ recipes but a selection.

The day the book arrived, we had some chicken left over from a roast. This went into mild chicken curry which was successful even with our fussy eaters.

Birthday season was upon us so we decided to test out the chocolate cake. The unpleasantly named devil's food cake turned out to be a delicious, moist cake.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! We also made the chocolate fudge cake which again was a yummy moist cake and went fast at our home education group meeting. Of the two recipes, I prefer the devil's food cake but both are worth repeating.

My daughter sieving for the chocolate cake.

The blueberry ripple cheesecake looked delicious but disappeared at a "bring and share" before I could try any: a reason to make this again!

We go through seasons when we eat loads of bananas and then for no apparent reason no one eats them and there is a glut. This was a time when everyone had given up on bananas. The excess were saved from waste by the tasty banana cake and the unusual, and really quite healthy banana icecream.

We ate the French onion soup and the chicken and bean stew. This again, needs to be made again.

Perhaps best of all was rosemary focaccia straight from the oven-yum!

So what did we think? The recipes have been a success. The pictures have meant that the children have spent ages looking at the book and making plans about what to cook.

I found the instructions clear and the results reliable. There are some particularly helpful ideas in the features section, particularly, around unexpected guests and leftovers.

My only criticism is that more recipes could be a little more flexible, for example, the chocolate cake recipes say that an electric whisk is needed but could say that a wooden spoon and elbow grease are an alternative! 

This is a recipe book that will be used again and again. There are certainly more recipes that I want to try. Definitely recommended!

The Family Kitchen Cookbook is available from DK at £25.

I received the Family Kitchen Cookbook  from DK in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions are all my own and those of my family.

Teaching very active little children

Little children are made active and busy but some are more active and busy than others.

This is about teaching the more active types! My only right to write about this is that I have one of these active children and one of my older children was also very busy as a young child. I am not talking about children with a medical diagnosis. 

These busy little people are lovely and lovable but tiring.

These are my assumptions:

• This is a phase of childhood. It will, to some extent, get better with time. It isn't fair to expect a four year old to spend as long writing as his brother who is almost a decade older.
• Active, wriggly children need to learn to sit still to work but this isn't going to happen very quickly.
• The very active, wriggly types tend to be little boys.

I love these busy little people but they are hard work. Not needing much sleep has been a feature of both of mine and that is tiring. 

Practically

• Loads of exercise. My busy child can't sleep without sufficient exercise. This usually means going outside every day. We don't worry too much about the weather provided there isn't a severe weather warning!

• Multi-sensory learning which doesn't require keeping still all the time. We chalk letters, make letters in the sand in the park, use a multi-sensory phonics programme, cook with geography, history and maths, do science experiments and so on. 

• Read aloud-this sounds strange but has been really, really important. Our very active children have been obvious from a very young age:weeks to months of age. This wasn't a surprise aged four. Reading aloud from babyhood has helped these children love some quieter time, improved their vocabularies and aided their attention spans. Both of these children have sat still and looked at picture books. I haven't allowed moving around while I read unless I'm reading to an older sibling. As their concentration increases, I increase the number of books read-this hasn't been difficult to achieve.

• Sufficient hands on activities at home. Home education does mean more free time. There isn't any travel time to and from school or nursery or collecting siblings. We have found that a wooden train set, puzzles, Duplo, Meccano and a model garage are helpful tools in keeping busy people happy and occupied. They also lead to many fascinating discussions and drawings.

Does this work? Hmm-sample size of two makes this difficult. If you see my current active child after a time of still concentration, you might wonder. 

There are other people with busy boys. These websites have many ideas for just this population!

• Frugal Fun for boys
• Making boys men

The book Homegrown preschooler has a positive attitude to teaching these children at home and many helpful ideas.

My Pinterest board, Home ed for little ones has pins with ideas for this type of child.

Do you have any very active children? Any helpful tips?

This is linked to a Schoohouse Crew blog cruise called Teaching the chatty wriggly child.

The Golden Years

As a carer for an older person and someone who practised for several years as a physician for older people,  I was interested to review Christopher Bogosh's book The Golden Years published by Good Samaritan Books.

Mr Bogosh writes about ageing from a Christian and US perspective. He covers the demographics of ageing in the US, effects of ageing and touches on the interesting topic of which changes are "normal" effects of ageing and which are part of disease. There is a chapter on healthy living which contains some general information on topics such as nutrition and sleep. The section on sleep usefully combines information about sleep with a Christian view on what to think about when sleep evades. However, I was a little unsure about the evidence base of some of the recommendations, for example, on the amount of water to be drunk per day and the advice on food supplements was rather vague.

The older adult eating a well-balanced diet will receive most of the necessary vitamins and minerals needed to live a healthy life, but some additional supplements may be helpful.

So, does this mean that an older adult does or does not need supplements?

The chapters on Preventative Healthcare and Healthcare Management are written in the US context and are, to a large extent, irrelevant in the United Kingdom. It is particularly important to note that the law on making decisions for someone who cannot make decisions for themselves is different in the UK. However, the chapter on Healthcare Management does include a section on carers. I feel that this is sufficiently important to have its own separate chapter but maybe that is because I am a carer.

The final two chapters cover medical conditions . The first of these chapters starts with a Biblical explanation of suffering but then attempts to be a mini-medical textbook for the lay person. Like any mini-textbook, there are features that are over simplistic or anachronistic, for example use of the term CVA for stroke. The statement that
People with dysphagia require a feeding tube to prevent aspiration and to maintain adequate nutrition.
This isn't always correct and the first step may be to modify the diet and the rate at which food is offered rather than consider a feeding tube or referral to hospice care as suggested by the book.

I was also interested by the dismissal of  concerns:
Some Christians translate Paul’s warning to care for family members (1 Tim. 5:8) as a mandate to provide twenty-four-hour hands-on nursing care for spouses or parents, even when they do not know how to provide it.
I don't believe that this necessarily means having to provide 24 hour care but for those who do, this needs more explanation to be helpful.

Overall, this is an interesting book but probably more relevant in the US than in the UK. It is useful to look at ageing from a Biblical perspective and of course, the Biblical aspects are relevant to everyone and will remain relevant when Obama care is a memory.

The Golden Years is available for Amazon.co.uk at £11.11 and from Good Samaritan books at $10.99.

I reviewed the Golden Years  from Good Samaritan Books via Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions are all my own.

Autumn break

We are taking a two week autumn half term break from formal work.  The term is long and this is such a colourful time of year. We've been outside as much as possible.

Middle Son has had to do some work. He studies German and history with Northstar who were working as usual this week so he knuckled down and did the work without needing to be reminded.

We all took sometime off though, for a trip into Kent, stopping at the lovely Knole Park for a picnic and walk. If you live in the South East of England, Knole is a must visit place. The house has some fantastic Tudor portraits, not that we saw them this week, and the deer park is an amazing place for children to run. It was so good to be together and for my husband to manage a rare day off.

When we take a break, it is always interesting to see how the children spend their time. Younger Daughter loves art and spent an afternoon painting whereas Younger Son spends hours with Duplo. Of course, there were the parks and walks.

 Den building is something that the two younger children wanted to do this week.

Younger Daughter's passport from the Children's University arrived this week. The Children's University is a way of recording learning outside the classroom which seems ideal for home educators. In reality, the learning counted tends to be organised "extra curricular" activities like art, science award or nature conservation awards. Still, it looks fun and covers things that Younger Daughter finds particularly interesting.

This week, we've had a Church Thanksgiving so it has been a time to think about the many, many things for which we are grateful.

Books we are reading:
I'm reading the Golden Years by Christopher Bogosh.
 Eldest Daughter and I decided that we needed some light reading, so Christmas with Miss Read came this week. Life is a bit busy at present so I'm trying not to read too much!
Recently, I reviewed the Witness Men by Rebecca Davis. Younger Daughter loved this book so now we are reading The Good News must go out by the same author. This is about missionary work in the Central African Republic and is gripping reading. Younger Daughter keeps asking for "one more chapter".
Youngest Son is ready for me to read him early chapter books. Some of my favourite early chapter books appeal more to girls and we really don't like the Horrid Henry type genre. I put a request on a Christian home education Facebook page and had many suggestions. I'm planning and looking through these. Do add some more!
A review copy of Seasons of the heart by Donna Kelderman arrived yesterday. I found the quote below in it.

To think about
From Frances Ridley Havergal about God's guidance
In perplexities—when we cannot understand what is going on around us; cannot tell whither events are tending; cannot tell what to do because we cannot see into or through the matter before us—let us be calmed and steadied and made patient by the thought that what is hidden from us is not hidden from Him. If He chooses to guide us blindfold, let Him do it! It will not make the least difference to the reality and righteousness of the guidance.

VocabularySpellingCity-a review

I still remember the embarrassment of coming last in the spelling test. It didn't help that the English teacher's idea of a spelling test was a set of random words. My children aren't intuitive spellers either. Many people have reassured me that children who read widely can spell but this didn't stop one of my children finishing Pride and Prejudice whilst quite unable to spell prejudice.

In view of this is was useful to have an opportunity to review VocabularySpellingCity with Younger Daughter, aged 7.

VocabularySpellingCity Premium Membership is a programme which can be used with children throughout their years of formal education, from year 1 to year 13 (US K-12) The  It allows the teacher to enter spelling lists for that child or to use lists on the site. A major bonus for us is that those spelling lists can be in UK English.

The programme has many videos explaining how it works and how, for example, to add a spelling list. 

I used the programme to add weekly lists. Younger Daughter then used the programme to play spelling games,

 take practice tests and at the end of the week, her actual spelling test.  Younger Daughter had her own account and we also set up an account for Youngest Son. Youngest Son, aged 4, didn't actually use the programme as it seemed a little complex for a four year old learning to sound out CVC( consonant vowel consonant) words.  We used the programme on four days a week, using the first day for work introducing the spelling words. One set of spellings caused some difficulty so we took a second week working on these. 

The games can be used in two ways either the teacher can set specific games as an assignment or the child can choose their games. I let my daughter do the latter-I wanted her to learn the words but wasn't too concerned how she learned them. If a child chooses their own games, the programme does not appear on the recording screen. This wasn't an issue for us as I was in the room while my daughter did her work but might be more important if the child was unsupervised.

Younger Daughter found that there were particular games that she preferred: Wordsearch, LetterFall, HangMouse and Missing Letter. Some of the games might have been more suited to older children. We found that it was useful to take practice tests most days and the actually spelling test at the end of the week. Using the programme to give the spelling test, freed up valuable time for me to spend with my other two students.

There are numerous other features available: flashcards,

printable worksheets, handwriting practice, language arts lessons covering topics such as synonymns, antonymns and possessive nouns, useful word lists and educational articles related to spelling.

As a Premium Member, I had a toolbox on the page from which I could manage lists, set assignments and see test results.

What we thought

This is a useful programme particularly for a child who doesn't find spelling intuitive. Having games to play was helpful and made learning spellings more fun. It was also helpful to be able to take practice tests and have these results and those of formal tests stored for me.

I was pleased that we could customise the programme to use UK spelling: no writing of color, check for cheque or empathize!

I did find the programme slightly complex to use. I had to log in and then my daughter. There are numerous videos to explain the working of the site but I would have preferred written explanations which can be quicker.

We plan to continue to use VocabularySpellingCity on about four days per week. It is a helpful programme particularly for children who have to work hard at spelling.

Cost

Premium membership of VocabularySpellingCity costs $29.99 (about £18.51) for up to five children in a family.

Some of the functions of the programme (Basic membership) are free on line: importing and sharing lists, some of the games, the worksheet creator and spelling tests. However, the record keeping function, the language arts, many of the games, the flashcards and the games and activity logs are not available on the Basic function but are available as part of Premium membership. This page has a table with the differences between the two types of membership.

To read other reviews of VocabularySpellingCity visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Applying for review opportunity

I wrote recently about the opportunity to apply for the Schoolhouse Review Crew for 2014. The application form is now up! I've been a member of the Crew for a year now and it has allowed us to try new curricular materials including on-line programmes, books for me and the children, a physical maths programme, lapbooks, unit studies, historical fiction, a cook book and more. Other Crew members have reviewed different items. Reading their reviews has been helpful and we are now using a writing curriculum which I learnt about from other Crew members' reviews.

The Schoolhouse Review Crew will be taking applications for the 2014 Review year from October 24 - November 8!

Are you a homeschool blogger?
Do you enjoy writing reviews?

Then you might be perfect for the Crew! 

Some requirements for being a part of the Crew include the following: 

• First of all you must be a homeschool mum or dad. You don’t have to home educate all of your children, but you must home educate at least one. 

• You must be willing to use the review products for about six weeks in your home, before writing your review. Review periods have deadlines and requirements for the reviews. You must be willing to follow these requirements. No, that doesn’t mean you must write a positive review. But it does mean that there are certain elements that are required. And the deadlines are firm. If you are often late for deadlines, the Crew is probably not for you. 

• You must have a blog on which to publish your reviews. Your blog needs to be active with a following. By active blog, I mean that you should be blogging regularly, at least weekly, about your family and homeschool (in addition to your reviews). Your blog should have followers — RSS feed or email subscribers, as well as in social media. The Crew does not accept brand new bloggers who just set up their blogs for the purposes of applying to the team. 

• Are you using social media to promote your blog? Activity on at least one social media platform is a requirement to serve on the Crew. Which one is up to you — Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Google Plus are the options. You will need to be willing to promote your reviews there and post a widget or plug-in publicly on your blog, indicating how many followers you have in social media. 

• You must be willing to check into the Crew's Review Management forum. This is where information is disseminated to the team. The leadership does everything possible to make things easy for us, outside of writing the actual review, but you need to be willing to participate by checking in almost daily. 

• Sample reviews are helpful. If you’ve never written a review on your blog, go ahead and write one for curriculum you are currently using in your homeschool. This will help the leaders see how you approach writing reviews. 

Why should you want to be a part? 
The Crew has over 250 review bloggers and has been running for over five years.
It takes the job of reviewing seriously but the leadership team are supportive and provide guidance on writing reviews in a professional way as well as clear deadlines and reminders about this. There is a mentoring programme for new members provided by established members of the Crew,a social media networking group, many blog and social media tutorials, and lots of incredible opportunities for our team, including blog carnivals, the opportunity to guest post on the Crew blog, and the blessing of some incredible friendships.


How can you apply? 
After making sure you meet all of the requirements, if you believe you would to an asset to the Schoolhouse Review Crew and wish to join us, please click over to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to apply.

Come be a part of The Old Schoolhouse family!

The Crew isn't just for bloggers in the US. It would be good if other UK home education bloggers applied!