Blue Ribbon Awards 2014~ Our Top 10 Favorite Products

It is hard to believe that it's been a year since I received the incredible news that I was chosen to participate with The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew team for 2014. The reviews are done for the year and I get time to reflect back over what we did and what we enjoyed. Our team voted on all the products we reviewed (from 58 companies!) to award the Blue Ribbon Awards for 2014 in 27 different categories. I thought it would be fun to share which of the 33 products we were blessed with to review were our Top 10 Favorite Products!

Here are the ten products we reviewed this year that we loved the most. These aren't in any particular order, and I have noted which ones won the Blue Ribbon Awards for the whole crew. All of my links will be taking you to the reviews I wrote on the products.
Drum-roll please...............
1. WriteShop (won Favorite Writing Curriculum)

We love Write Shop and even though the version we had was too easy for my writer, it was an excellent program and one that I recommend to anyone seeking a great beginning writing curriculum. We loved it so much we will be continuing to use the curriculum in the future as well. We have WriteShop C to use this year and I hope to use some of the advanced ones later.
2.  Science4Us.com

This was one voted by Little Britches as being one of his overall favorites for the whole year. It was enjoyable and fun. I also liked how easy it was for me to "teach" it and do up assignments for him. He wishes he still has access to it. 
3. CTCmath (won Favorite Math Program)

This is the one that we voted as our favorite math program AND the best resource we didn't know we needed. This program actually was like love at first sight for both boys. They both really enjoy the videos AND the program. We discovered that Little Britches did better with this program than he did with me teaching him a lot of the math. We ended up buying an 18-month subscription which will start once our free trial wears out. We highly recommend this and several friends have purchased subscriptions and have raved about it too!
4. ARTistic Pursuits (won Favorite Fine Arts Program/Curriculum)

This program was so much fun! Baby Britches just had a blast using it! It's a great program and so comprehensive for teaching and encouraging art. I can't wait to continue to use this. We will be considering using it as we continue homeschooling--just with higher levels.
5. Maestro Classics

Maestro Classics was a super fun product and the boys are STILL in love with their Mike Mulligan CD. It's a daily thing that they listen to while they get dressed and do their morning chores.
6. Veritas Press (biggest winner of 2014! Won Favorite History Program, Best Digital Resource AND All Around Crew Favorite)

Love love love. We LOVE this history program. Since the first day we did it, it has been a family favorite. This is one subject that I have no problems with getting Little Britches to work on. He asks if it's time to do it. The retention of the information is great and he just soaks it in like a sponge. I highly recommend this program (the only drawback is the price...the ONLY drawback) and we will be using it again in the future at some point.

7. Roman Roads (won Favorite High School Resource)

Roman Roads. I reviewed this history curriculum myself and it was AWESOME! I loved everything about it. It's definitely a great one for the middle school level at the very earliest--ideal for high school. I can't wait to bring this out again for the boys when they are old enough. I am still working my way through it just for pleasure because it is so well done.
8. My Student Logbook (won Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed)

This was a GREAT product. And I agree with the category it won in. It has made our routine so much easier since he is able to just look at what he has left to do and check it off. No more questions of "are we done yet?" or fights about how much is left. He can see it all right in front of him. I highly recommend this product and we will be continuing to use it.
9. Institute for Excellence in Writing: Fix It Grammar (won Favorite Grammar Curriculum)

I am so glad this product snagged a category win. It is excellent and so useful! We both agreed to keep it as part of our regular curriculum because it worked well and he loves it. No groaning on this product either. I look forward to continuing in the books as we progress.
10. Heirloom Audio Productions: Under Drakes Flag (won Favorite Book, Audio Book or Audio Drama)

Little Britches chimed in on this one. He really really loves this audio drama and asks for it every time we go anywhere of distance. It doesn't matter how many times he's listened to it. He loves it all the same. I am looking forward to purchasing the next one In Freedom's Cause which is available this month! ***

Well there are our 10 favorites for this year...there were more that we really enjoyed, but these 10 stand out as the best of the bunch. I hope you will check out my full reviews on each of them and consider making some of them a part of your own adventure! If you want to see what some of my fellow crew members chose as their favorites for the year, you can head on over and read about in the Blue Ribbon Awards 2014 post!

It's Time for a Homeschooling Progress Report! {Week #10}

It's been several weeks now since we started school. As I mentioned in my posts talking about what we were going to do for third grade and preschool, we had a lot of ambitions. So where are we now? How have we done so far? What changes have we made? 

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links. 

What's been going on in our third grade routine? 

I had a grand third grade curriculum summary that I set out to do this year. As we dove into our year, we discovered that it wasn't really realistic for our routine. So we made some tweaks. 
*For the Bible lessons this year, I said we were going to be using God's Names/God's Promises and We Choose Virtues. Right now we are still using God's Names for our weekly lessons. We are following a "curriculum" that I created which includes a memory verse each week. This is very interesting for us both and we are enjoying it. At this time we aren't still working on We Choose Virtues. I will add them in at some point, but for now, the lessons we are doing for God's Names working very well.
*We are still on track for History as we continue our work in the online curriculum from Veritas Press. We work through one unit every two weeks doing it 3 days/2 days. We aren't even half way through the curriculum yet, which is fine by Little Britches. He loves it and asks for it. He's currently working on the unit about Westward Expansion. We made a covered wagon for this unit which was fun.
*Geography is going great. We are completing several pages of The Complete Book of Maps & Geography each week because it's so easy to put in. It's really something above and beyond because there is a lot of geography being covered in his history lessons.
*We made a few changes in our Math. While we are still working on and enjoying CTCmath.com, we have decided to use IXL (we reviewed it earlier this month) as our supplement. We haven't worked on Ubersmart much at all thus far. IXL is a great supplement because it reviews the skills he's learning in CTC. Both programs are online, but the IXL is also available on my Kindle as an app which makes it portable. 
*We are on track with Science as we work through Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day...but we are wishing we had more experiments. There are only one or two per chapter and they are "boring" (his words!) and sometimes we don't have any at all. I am considering adding something "extra" relating to what we are learning to make it a bit more exciting. We are enjoying everything else about the lesson though and find them very interesting.
*In Language Arts, I had planned on doing Pentime (Handwriting), WriteShop C (writing), Fix It Grammar (grammar), Logic of English (Spelling/Vocabulary), Lightning Lit 3 (Reading and reading comp) and free reading. As we went along as started Lightning Lit 3, I discovered it was more than I thought and included some grammar, and writing with the literature study. We've not had the need for Write Shop right now. We are continuing to use LOE for our spelling about 3 times a week and do the Fix It Grammar 4 days a week as it's laid out.  So the biggest change was throwing out Write Shop for right now. I have every intention of using it at some point but Lightning Lit is turning out to be a fabulous program and a pretty complete program so we are enjoying using it.
*It would be safe to say that Foreign Language studies is going great. Both boys are enjoying the lessons and absorbing them quickly. Song School Latin rocks! But we aren't stopping there! We are also learning Spanish with Middlebury Interactive Languages! We've discovered that both languages blend well together and use a lot of the same rules and even have similar bases. 
*Fine Arts...hahahahahhahahahah. Here is where we have strayed very much. At this point, I am incorporating art into our lessons and not as Art History as planned. I do want to get him back over to my MIL for lessons, but she has started subbing at the schools more often so she's not there often enough to count on her.  It's been the same thing for music. I really want to get back on track with lessons at some point...but am now thinking Little Britches might like to switch over to the recorder for a little while. I mean, don't all elementary kids learn how to play the recorder (to the despair and suffering of their parents!) 
*The extras...these ARE extras so I didn't have them as set in stone. We have been enjoying keyboarding, but took a break from it to get caught up in other areas. We will be putting it back in this week because he enjoys it. Essential Skills Advantage. This was another extra and we've let it slide. I might add it back for Friday work since we don't have major lessons on that day.
But wait...I've added something!
We have been taking advantage of morning work by adding in a daily math problem from a little book that I was given. It's called Figure It Out Book 2: Thinking Like a Math Problem Solver. This book is small--just about 31 pages. Each page provides a story problem and then walks the student through the process of solving a story problem. 

It's very simple and step by step and I love it--and the best thing is he enjoys it too.

We've also added a bit of creative writing too using the Snake Oil game like I talked about in my review from last week. These two things make our morning work more fun!

Okay--so we know where we are with Third Grade...but what about Preschool?

Preschool. Sigh. Well, the best laid plans just haven't...worked. As I mentioned in my post sharing our Pre-K curriculum,  the "core" of what we were going to do was going to be Before Five In A Row. Well...this has been put on the back burner. I've discovered that while he adores books and was doing very very well with the program, that he wants something "more". He gets restless and bored some days even when doing the B4FI♥AR work. So we changed up our routine. We now do three types of school: paper school, cabinet school, and computer school.  We start the day with him declaring which one he wants to do first. 
Paper school means he's in the mood to do things with worksheets and workbooks. Coloring, circling, cutting...workbook type activities. If he wants this, then I pull from the workbooks I have for him. We work on them together until he's "done". 

If he requests cabinet school, he wants to do activities from our cabinet--puzzles, beads, beans, games...manipulative style learning.

He's recently fallen in love with lacing and loves to spend time on lacing his animal cards.

 We have been doing a lot with his magnetic letters and pom-poms ("fuzzies"). Today we did something new. I flipped the back of a cheap $1 cookie sheet over and wrote two colors on the back with a line to separate using dry erase markers. Then he pulled off all the fuzzies and letters to match the colors and stuck them on. We did this with green and yellow too.

Write on the back of a cookie sheet with dry erase and have them match all the same colors.

Computer school is self explanatory. It's the online programs that I let him use to work on skills. Sometimes this means using my laptop, but usually he uses my Kindle Fire. I will be sharing a post of the apps that I use for each boy in the near future.  He likes to do CTCmath, IXL and Starfall.com on the laptop. He is working at Kindergarten level in each of those programs. He gets to spend 15 minutes doing this.  Sometimes I need to help him if the program doesn't have audio for him--or it's asking to do a bit more "mouse usage" than he is able to right now.

With this new way of doing school, we move at HIS pace doing what HE'S in the mood for. We regularly do all three types of school in one day--but some days we don't. We are still doubling up on the foreign language and he sits in on history and science. We DO sometimes do a unit of B4FI♥AR, but right now this other way is working much better for us. We've already met some of the goals we set at the beginning of the year!
So there is my progress report. We've branched out in some ways and just trimmed off others. It's working for us right now without anyone (myself included) getting overwhelmed. This is another thing I am really enjoying about being "out of the box" this year with our curriculum.
I will do another progress report at week #20 to see how we are doing then too! I think it's fun to see how our routines morph as the year continues.
If you homeschool, what changes have you made since you began this year?

Out of the Box Games: Snake Oil Party Potion {Product Review}

Game night is a big deal here at the house. Some of our favorites are John Deere Checkers, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, UNO, Go Fish and the reigning game of choice Farm-Opoly. I am always looking for new games to add to our collection and thought that Snake Oil-Party Potion from Out of the Box Games might be a hit.

Product Summary

Out of the Box Games is a company believing that games need to be fun. They also need to be easy to learn and play. The company specializes in games that can be learned in minutes, played in under an hour, are very colorful and very fun to play. Since 1998, they have become a prominent leader in American games and have won several of the most prestigious awards in the game world. 
Several of the games are lauded by the education industry for being aligned with Common Core standards, making the games a hot commodity in the classroom too. 
One of their newest games is Snake Oil-Party Potion.  Based on their original Snake Oil game, the newer version was designed for younger children to play (age 8-adult). The concept of the game is simple: One player is the "customer" and picks from a stack of customer cards. All the other players are dealt five word cards. They then pick any two of their cards to make a "product" to sell to the customer. One at a time they present their product to the customer-explaining what it is, what it does, and why the customer needs it. Once everyone has presented, the customer then decides who had the best product for them. The winner receives the customer card and a new customer is chosen and the game begins again.

In the Snake Oil-Party Potion, the words are simplified to basic nouns and verbs (rescue, scooter, dirt, shoe, foot, hop, etc) while the customers are everyday people and jobs (fire fighter, astronaut, grandma, toddler, etc) to make it easier for the younger ages to play.
The Snake Oil-Party Potion cards can be played separately or could be added to the Original Snake Oil game for greater play.
Snake Oil- Party Potion retails for $14.99 and is for ages 8+.
We received the game Snake Oil- Party Potion to review for our family.

How Did We Use This Product?

Snake Oil- Party Potion comes in a pretty and more sturdy box. The directions for playing the game are written right on the back of the box for easy start-up. Included in the box are the word cards (2 stacks), the customer cards (1 stack) both in a black plastic tray. There is also a small booklet with the directions written again, ideas for playing the game in a group and in a LARGE group setting, as well as a brief history about what snake oil was.
I actually put off the game because once I got it and really looked at it, I questioned whether or not we could even play it with our family. My husband wasn't hot on playing it, because he didn't like the name of it. When i explained how it was to be played, he said he didn't think it would work for us. 
We tried it, and he was right. My 8 year old (though in the range of age on the game) didn't really understand the concept of "selling" the product to a customer. He could come up with ideas for products from his cards, but initially had a hard time describing what it looked like or what it did. And then he was clueless on how it could be used by the customer, much less how to sell it to them. It took a lot of prompting. And since one of us had to help him, that only left one other player. The game is not meant for just two players (as it states on the box).
So we quit playing and instead just started grabbing random sets of cards to see what kinds of things we could come up with. MUCH hilarity ensued as we got combinations like "Snot Mist", "Butt Dust," and "Foot Pimple". Then we started talking about how fun it would be to play this game with my parents and some close friends. 
We put the game aside...
But the next day, I had an idea. I decided to maximize on the parts of the game that Little Britches COULD do and use it in our homeschool. I gave him a blank piece of paper. Then I dealt him 5 word cards and one customer card. His instructions were to create a product using 2 or 3 of the word cards for the customer. He needed to draw a picture of it and write at least 2 sentences describing what it was and did, and why his customer needed it.
It was a match made in heaven. He LOVED this assignment and eagerly went to work. Here are some photos of two of the ideas he came up with...

 Customer: Snowman
Product: Rescue Scooter
Description: When the snowman is melting he can take a rescue scooter. The rescue scooter will always rescue him to the mountains so he won't die.

Customer: Chef Product: Pimple Mist Plunger (ahem. Yes. I know. Nasty) Description: The plunger squirts mist at the pimple and the plunger pulls the pimple off. (I am still not sure why a chef needs this...but the vision that pops in my head is hilarious)
Today he came up with a Trumpet Kitten Tickle(er) for "Grandma". When you blow it, a hand comes out and tickles the kitten.  I think he enjoys drawing the pictures more than anything else. LOL!
If his word cards were "boring" I let him trade in one or two of them and get a new one. We only had to do this once or twice. This assignment has worked so well and he enjoys it so much, I will keep it in our daily work for awhile. I think that by doing it he will gain skills for playing the actual game the next time we do.

What are Our Thoughts on This Product?

Little Britches: "I think the cards are really funny. I like how you get to come up with something silly by putting words together. I really like using it in school too. I wish I could get the cards like "butt" or "snot" more often because they are funny."
Love-Of-My-Life: "The game is fun. But I really don't like the name of it (Snake Oil) because it brings to mind something sneaky or negative. I also don't think this is something that's really intended for anyone under 13. The concept of trying to sell the product you have come up with just goes over their heads at that age. They are doing good to even put words together to make something up...we won't be able to play it as a family right now without a lot of assistance--since we only have 3 of us even older than 8 years old. But I think it would be really hilarious to play in a group of adults. That would be fun."
Me: I basically agree with Love-Of-My-Life. I'm not incredibly fond of the name either, but I did like that they included a small information sheet explaining where the term came from. That there really was indeed SNAKE OIL at one point.
We ended up taking out two of the customer cards and two of the word cards because they were "occupations" and words that we don't use in our household-but since the offending "customers" were on different cards we just taped them together to make a "new" card. 
The cards are high quality like a normal deck of cards. The font on the cards is large and very easy to read. I found that the words on the word cards were fairly basic and easy to understand and the customer cards included roles and careers that the boys could recognize--this is what supposedly makes the Party Portion version of Snake Oil better for younger players.
The game was VERY easy to explain and to put into practice...but with our household of a 4 year old and an 8 year old, it's not an easy game to play with just us.  Now, I think a group of 8, 9 or 10 year olds could easily play it together because they would just be silly and not care about the details of how it's really supposed to work. LOL!

In the role of a new creative writing assignment for our homeschool, I love it. LOL!  He looks forward to it every morning and I have no trouble getting him to do it.  
With the price of $14.99...I don't think I would purchase this on my own. It IS just cards. I think if it was in the $10 range it would be more reasonable for what I would be prepared to pay for it.

Would We Recommend This Product?

The pros far outweigh the cons on this product. It's got the makings of a hilarious game that would be so much fun for a group of people to play. We laughed just playing around with the cards and coming up with random combinations. 
The Party Potion version is intended for age 8+ and contains easier to read and understand words and customer cards, but we still don't think it's something that could really be played (without assistance anyways) by someone less than age 10 very easily. The challenge was not in coming up with the product, but describing what it did and why it's useful for the "customer" and then selling it as something someone would want to buy. It would be hard to play in a mixed group with children under about a teenage level for this purpose.
Will we keep playing this game?  Well, right now we are going to continue to use it as a creative writing tool, but we have plans to play it the next time we get a group of friends together. We really think it will be fun to play...just maybe not as a family right now.

Want to Know more?

We reviewed Snake Oil- Party Potion ($14.99) by Out of the Box Games. We didn't quite use it as it was designed, but there were a lot of other reviewers who did! Why not head on over to see what some of my fellow crew members thought of this game and the other version of Snake Oil that our team reviewed! Want to see more from Out of the Box Games? You can find them on these social media outlets.
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/OutoftheBoxGames

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/OTBgames

You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYAQiV5S9ZQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUTEAg1uDVwq0LNxFAwM7N5Q
***

While this game didn't end up working for us in it's intended form at this time, we are enjoying using it to enhance our homeschooling studies. The vocabulary being learned from all the word cards is an extra bonus! But, I am dying to try it out in a group setting to see how it REALLY gets played...my brother is coming in for Thanksgiving...we might have to give it a go then!

Well, this ends my 2014 review for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew...but fear not! I just received my acceptance for the new 2015 year and I've heard that we are booked solid with vendors and I'm dying to see what is going to be available!

Stay tuned because next week, I'm going to do a "Best Of 2014" post, where I share with you what my top 5 favorite things I reviewed for the crew was this year. To see a full list of what I've reviewed, you can visit my Curriculum and Product Review Page!