Review: Considering God’s Creation

I have had the opportunity to review a wonderful natural science curriculum written from a biblical perspective.

Grade: Adaptable for grades 2nd – 7th

The program is set up with lots of fun learning through games, experiments, poems, songs, crafts and notebook pages.

 

Cost: Only  $29.95 – includes Teacher’s manual, student book and audio CD for a year’s worth of science (or more). 

For ease of use, buy an additional student book packed full of 272 pages for only $13.95.  You may copy the student book for each of your kids, but having the second book for such a cheap price is much easier than copying so many pages.

Topics:

• Universe
• Stars
• Solar System
• Earth
• Light
• Sound
• Wind
• Weather
• Clouds
• Rocks
• Plants
• Insects
• Mammals
• Reptiles
• Birds
• Fish
• Amphibians
• Food Chains
• Reproduction and Genetics
• Human
• Animal Anatomy
• Physiology

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed the hands-on approach to Considering God’s Creation.  It’s adaptable to multi-age children. The projects keep the family learning together.  I enjoyed the author’s biblical approach to science as well.  CGC is a very affordable, family-friendly, natural science program that takes a year to complete if you do one lesson per week.

My girls loved the songs and experiments best.  I enjoyed how the Christian author’s, Sue and Betty, did all the research for me and filled the program with lots of prepared notebook pages.  The projects are simple too - for both the kids and mom! 

What other supplies do you need besides the CGC books? A three-ring binder, student pages, scissors, glue, crayons and a few easy-to-find household items.

How do you teach the lessons?  There are 36 lessons.  Each lesson can be taught in one week for an entire school year.  If you children are younger,  you may take several weeks for some lessons and the program can take 2 or 3 years to complete.  I did several lessons that took two weeks each.

If you children are older, you can use the DIGGING DEEPER for ideas to keep them challenged.  There are also 12 crosswords for review or testing older children. 

More details about Eagle’s Wings curriculum Considering God’s Creation on their website here.

Eagle’s Wings also has other homeschool curriculum – Science, History, Bible, Phonics, Geography and Math.

Do you want to see how other mom’s use Considering God’s Creation? Check out Kattie’s blog - 2 Ladybugs and a Lizard – Tree Study and Flower/Plant Study and the TOS Crew’s Reviews.

 

Blog Makeover!

I am so excited to share with you that my blog Discover Their Gifts has just undergone a blog makeover!!! woo hooo!

I asked Jolanthe from Relevant Designs to redesign the look and feel of my blog.  Can I just say… I am so delighted and pleased with her work!

Since I primarily blog about my family and homeschooling, I wanted the blog theme to feature the look and style of each of my girls next to their pet buddies. 

My blog tag line is .. “homeschooling adventures in the country’.  I derive most of my blogging ideas from our adventures in the country around our own home. Our curriculum, My Father’s World, assigns nature walks each week. 

The girls spend a lot of time outdoors riding their 4-wheeler, jeep car, swinging with friends and chasing run away pets.  This is one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling: my kids get to spend a lot of time playing with their toys, enjoying their siblings and friends, and exercising outdoors in our wooded acreage.

Back to my blog header …

My oldest daughter, Arianna, is featured in pink. She stands along side her sweet dachshund, Lola.  Her puppy has been her best buddy and companion.  Lola loves to go on walks, chase the neighborhood cats and deer, and sit in the kid’s wagon and jeep car.

Arianna will soon be 8 years old.  She is shy, intelligent, discerning of people, nurturing, gifted in organization, and asks a million questions in any given hour!  She is a joyful gift from our Lord!

Check out her earrings.  She saved her own money to get them pierced.  I cringed but she’s been a trooper at caring for them!

 

 My youngest daughter, Marissa, will soon be 6 years old.  I told her we were not going to celebrate her birthday so she would remain 5.. not sure she agreed with me.

Marissa loves glitter, sparkle, high heal shoes, and dressing as a princess.  She is standing next to her rotten main coon cat, Gilbert.  His job is to catch moles from our yard, but instead he must just hang out with them. 

Marissa is free spirited, impulsive, single focused, charming with two big dimples, sensitive, intelligent and very confident.  Also, she can’t seem to keep her shoes on outdoors not matter what the weather conditions are for the day.

Well ~ that’s a little bit about why I chose the look and feel of my new blog!

 

Don’t forget to grab my button for your blog

 

<a href="http://discovertheirgifts.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g421/m_wharton/DiscoverTheirGiftsButtoncopy.jpg" alt="Discover Their Gifts" /></a>

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Drop by Jolanthe blog Relevant Designs blog                                

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Review: Mad Dog Math

Mad Dog Math was developed by a third grade teacher, Julie Kotoff, to help her students with multiplication and division facts.  The ‘pencil – paper’ program soon evolved into computer software enhanced with all four math facts, including addition and subtraction.
It is designed as a supplement for grade K – 5th and students older who struggle with their math facts.  Mad Dog Math has taken the basic math facts and broken them down into bite-size pieces for mastery.

1. All four math operations (- + x /) – just chose what your student needs
2. Bite-size pieces of facts for mastery – less frustrated kids!
3. Progress through a series of timed practice sheets at the child’s pace
4. Tracks the progress of multiple students through all levels
5. Allows students to earn ‘Student Club Stickers’ as they pass levels
6. Brief, timed lessons – only 5-10 minutes each day

Mad Dog Math levels: There are three levels and a challenge level.  The student can take the school year to progress through one level. 

My thoughts:  My girls used Level One which is broken down by ‘fact family’ – addition or subtraction. There are about 20 problems in each lesson.  The lessons are brief and fun for them.  I had them do 3 of the “2 Minute Club” lessons.  They enjoyed being timed and we motivated to try and beat their time next round.  Mad Dog Math is the first and only math drill program my girls have enjoyed.

1. Brief lessons that are fun
2. Simple program and easy for the kids to use
3. Easy key strokes – key the answer and the tab moves to the next fact
4. Super for kids who are competitive   

I enjoyed that I could check their progress by clicking the ‘progress’ button.

Mad Dog Math at Home – click here for more details
Watch a video about the program on their website here

• 1 year license download for ALL levels – $19.99
• 2 year license download for ALL levels – $29.99
• Perpetual license download for ALL levels – $39.99
• (available in both a 32-bit and 64-bit format)

Check out the Mad Dog Math website  - http://www.maddogmath.com/

Don’t forget to check out what others on the TOS Crew had to say about Mad Dog Math over here!