Schleich Toys (Review)

I was not familiar with the figurines from Schleich until I received a few of their animals to review. This company has been around since 1935, with the first figurines being produced in the 1950's. Schleich now offers over 500 toys & accessories. At Schleich, you can find an eclectic mix of realistic figurines, including farm animals, wild life, forest animals, sea animals, dinosaurs, elves, knights, and historically accurate figures from the American Frontier...just to name a few!

At our house, we were so happy to open our box from Schleich to find that we had received the following animals:

Swabian-Hall Boar


Duck


Haflinger Horse


Bald Eagle


African Elephant (Male)


White Tiger Cub


Aren't they incredible? The detail on each animal is amazing. All of the figurines from Schleich are hand painted! These models are very sturdy - though the tiger is small, you don't feel like the tail will tear off, for example. Ella has thoroughly enjoyed playing with all of these animals, but she is especially fond of the horse, whom she named "Thumper". We found several Schleich figurines at Target recently and just had to buy the Frisian Foal to add to Ella's growing collection of horses. Her horse obsession is going to cost me, I can tell! But, thankfully, most of the Schleich toys are very affordable! :) (By the way, it looks like many of the figures offered at Target are on sale right now!)

I strongly encourage you to visit the online catalog for Schleich, found HERE! You will most likely need a few hours to look over all of their wonderful products! :) These toys are sure to stir the imaginations of your children and inspire them to create many new worlds in which to play!

As always, please be sure to check out all the other reviews from the TOS Crew - HERE!

Invisible Woman

This video really speaks to me - this is exactly where I am in life right now. I will share more on this topic later.

One2Believe - Noah's Ark

You may remember that I reviewed a Nativity set from One2Believe back in November. Since we loved that set so much, I was thrilled to find out that we would also receive the Noah's Ark set from the same company! Like the Nativity set, this set is also from the Tales of Glory series of figurines from One2Believe.


Ella loves to use figurines and dolls in imaginative play. I will often hear the sound of all sorts of "voices" coming from her room as she creates her own little make-believe world. She was so excited to add the characters of Noah's Ark to her collection! As each animal came out of the box, she "oohed" and "ahhed", but the ark was truly the most celebrated item! It is HUGE and it actually opens up so that you can store your animals inside! There is even a ramp so that the animals can "walk" up to the ark. Once Ella added this group of animals to the others from the Nativity set, she had a whole parade lined up in the living room. :) We haven't tried it out in the bath yet, but I have heard that the ark actually floats. That is an added bonus!

As I said about the Nativity set, these figurines are so durable and well-made, I know they will last a very long time in our house. I have been so impressed with One2Believe and will continue to shop with them for quality, Bible-based toys.

The Noah's Ark set includes 14 animals (7 sets of 2), Noah, the ark, and a ramp. You can find it at the One2Believe website for $29.99.

Please remember to check out the other TOS Crew reviews for this product by clicking HERE!

SpellQuizzer

SpellQuizzer is a unique way for your child to practice their spelling words. This spelling software is easy to use and makes spelling fun!

When you buy this spelling program, all you have to do is download and install it. The program basically walks you through the simple process of adding your child's spelling list. You click a button to create a new list, then input the words you want your child to practice. The neat thing about this program is that it allows you to make a recording of each word. You can also put in a sentence or reminder phrase to help with the word (or if you just don't want to record it). Once you've added and recorded your words, your child can select the list to work on without assistance. The program will prompt your child to click "Play Word", which plays your recording of the word. Your child then types the word into the box provided and clicks "Check Spelling". If the word was spelled correctly, the next word is given. If the word is spelled incorrectly, a box pops up that alerts the child of the correct spelling. When the quiz is complete, your child has the opportunity to go back and be quizzed again on the ones he missed. If all the words are entered correctly, your child gets a big round of applause!

I really like how easy SpellQuizzer is to use. I also love how customizable it is to your needs. You can enter any spelling list from any curriculum. You could get other family members to record the list in order to mix things up a bit. You can record the spelling words in funny voices and accents (Ella loves English accents at the moment, so this would be fun for her). Your child can even record the words if he/she speaks clearly enough. Most kids love hearing their voice played back! Another advantage to SpellQuizzer is that you could also use it for vocabulary words, sight words, math terms...the possibilities are endless!

There are a few other notable features of SpellQuizzer. You have the ability to change the sound effects for correct/incorrect words (go crazy...make it fun!). You can import or export lists, which is useful when you know other people who have the spelling software. For example, the leader of a homeschooling co-op group of kids who are working on the same words could send out the list to each student!

The SpellQuizzer website is very helpful. It includes video demonstrations that guide you through each step of setting up your spelling list. If you aren't sure if the program will work for you, you can download a FREE 30-day trial! There are also free spelling lists you can download for the holidays and sample lists for each grade level. SpellQuizzer is a great bargain at $29.95! Go to the SpellQuizzer site to order it now!

If you are interested in hearing what other members of the TOS Crew had to say about this software, click HERE!

Artistic Pursuits

I am so excited to tell you about the book from Artistic Pursuits that I was privileged to review! I was able to choose the level I needed and selected Grades K-3 Book One, An Introduction to the Visual Arts.

Brenda Ellis has done a fantastic job putting together this complete art curriculum! Each lesson contains an introduction that explains the concept your child is to learn, a reading selection about a work of art by one of the masters that shows the concept in practice, and a project to be completed by your child. With this curriculum, you & your child will learn about what artists do (things such as imagining and observing), what artists see (shape, form & color), and you will explore other forms of ancient art (learning that art is more than just a painting on a wall!).

I love the clean layout and beautiful, full-color illustrations in the book! It is so nice to not only read about a painting, but see it right there in print after a concept has been introduced. The instruction is so well-suited to the book's audience of kindergarten to 3rd graders. Ms. Ellis uses a conversational style of writing that is so appealing to younger children, yet her curriculum never "talks down" to them (nor does it go over their heads!).

Art is one of my passions, but I absolutely hated my art humanities class in college because it was so dull & boring. I firmly believe that the Artistic Pursuits curriculum will teach children how to love beautiful works of art as well as how to produce them on their own! Now, you can't say that of too many other books out there!

Ella was hesitant when I first brought out the Artistic Pursuits book. She normally shuns my reading of anything that sounds like a lecture, so she was pleasantly surprised when she listened to the first lesson because it didn't lecture her...it lured her in! As I've said before, she wants to be an artist when she grows up, so this book absolutely speaks to her on that level. I have tried to get her to look at paintings online before, but there is something about seeing the painting by itself on the page that draws her to it. She has really studied the pieces of art we have looked at in this book, instead of just giving them passing glances. My girl is always up for an art project, so this book hits the spot in that area, too! She loves being able to do something new and she has thoroughly enjoyed the different mediums she's been introduced to through Artistic Pursuits. We've learned that Ella especially likes watercolor pencils!

So, if you are looking for a great way to teach your child not only about various art forms, artists, and mediums, but also about techniques she can actually use, this is the art curriculum for you! The K-3 books (there are 3 in this series) are $42.95 each. The books are non-consumable, so you can use them over & over again with each child you homeschool! Artistic Pursuits has books for every grade level, so if K-3 is not what you're looking for, go over to their website to look over their extensive catalog! There are plenty of sample pages of each book on the website so you can get a closer look before you buy.

As always, please stop by the TOS Crew blog to view the other Crew member reviews, HERE!

Math Mammoth

Math Mammoth is a company that was started by Maria Miller, who has been offering her math curriculum at affordable prices since 2003. Her Blue Series e-books cost between $2.00 and $5.50 each so that you can buy the exact practice pages that you need for a very low price!

Since Ella is on a 1st grade math level, I decided to review the Lightblue Series in e-book format from Math Mammoth. This series is a complete curriculum for each grade level (grades 1-5). This curriculum includes 2 workbooks (with answer keys), tests & reviews, and a worksheet maker so that you can make extra practice sheets when needed. The 2 student books cover addition & subtraction (0-10), place value (tens & ones), and basic geometry, measurement, and clock skills. These books are mastery oriented, which means that each book focuses on a few skills, spending long amounts of time on those skills in order to produce mastery. This is a great way to learn something like math where each new skill builds on the one before it. So many math programs out there give the student just a little time to understand a topic before skipping ahead to the next thing. This aspect of the program is a huge selling point in my mind!

I have to tell you that I have not yet purchased a complete math curriculum for Ella. I have mainly been using workbooks found at local stores. When we've come to a topic where we've needed to spend more time, I have searched online and found supplemental material or just come up with my own way of reinforcing that topic. This has worked well for us so far, but as she gets older, she may need more structure to her math program (and I may need more help!). I was so excited about the Math Mammoth books because I hoped they would be the solution for us. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Because Ella was used to big, colorful printed workbooks, she had a very hard time adjusting to the style of the Math Mammoth sheets I printed off. I have discovered that she gets overwhelmed with too much print on the page and these sheets just simply have too much for her eye at this time. One glance at one of the worksheets, and she would shut down. It just "looked" too hard...not that it was too hard. In fact, most of the concepts introduced in the 1st workbook were things that Ella already knew how to do. She just could not get over the different format. Not to say that she won't be able to use them in the future - I really hope she will! She may just not be developmentally ready for this kind of workbook. Keep in mind, though, that Ms. Miller designed her books for first grade and up, so it makes sense that they would not work as well for younger children (for instance, one of the problems we had was that there was not enough space in the blanks for Ella to write her answers because she still writes things fairly large!).

Though we did not have the best experience with the Math Mammoth Lightblue Series, I have to say that I truly believe that Ms. Miller's curriculum will be very useful for most students. I am so glad that I have the e-book so that I can print off sheets as we need them (and hope Ella gets more used to them!). I would like to try the Blue Series in the future.

You cannot beat the value of this product! The complete Lightblue Series downloads can be purchased for $29.70, or you can get each workbook separately for $15.50 each. You can also buy the printed versions of these books. Math Mammoth offers the Blue Series I mentioned earlier, as well as 2 other series intended for grades 3-8, and a new series for grades 7-12. You can check out samples of each of the Math Mammoth workbooks and sign up for a free newsletter (that includes over 280 free worksheets) at the Math Mammoth website.

Please, please go check out the other review from my fellow TOS Crew members, HERE! Most of the Crew had a very positive experience with Math Mammoth, so I hope you'll check out their opinions!