TOS Review: Hank the Cowdog

Earlier this summer I received a package from Maverick Books containing three Hank the Cowdog products to review: a book, a CD, and a board game.

The author of the Hank the Cowdog books, John Erickson, is a former ranch manager and cowboy from Texas. He draws from his life on a ranch to create his characters and stories.

Hank the Cowdog is head of ranch security on a West Texas ranch. He and his sidekick assistant Drover have all kinds of crazy adventures as they patrol the ranch. Hank takes his job very seriously, is a wee bit cocky, and tends to boss Drover around. Loper, the ranch manager, and Sally May are Hank's owners, and he often finds himself walking on thin ice with them, especially with Sally May. Pete the Barncat is Hank's sworn enemy who enjoys getting under Hank's skin.

I first let Superman listen to the CD, Tales and Tunes from Hank the Cowdog, which is a combination of excerpts from various titles in the series performed as a radio show along with some really fun songs. My son thought it was hilarious, and I have to admit that Hank makes me laugh too. However, I have a few issues with this cowdog, and I really should have previewed the CD first. It contains no foul language or violence, so you could consider it family friendly, but Hank does use words like "stupid" and "shut up". He also talks down to his cohort, Drover, and isn't always the most noble character.

Superman is eight years old, and we can talk through this sort of thing with him, helping him to understand that Hank may be funny to listen to, but he doesn't always make good choices.

Because of the tone of the stories and songs on the CD, which really are hilarious, I chose to just read the book myself. The Case of the One-Eyed Stud Horse brings Hank face to face with an intimidating, almost wild horse named Tuerto. In this story we do see Hank putting others ahead of himself, but we also see Hank's less desirable traits as well.

We all played the game, which is based on the book titled The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado. It's very similar to the games Headache and Trouble. Each person has three different game pieces, all of them characters from the stories. The object is to get your three pieces to the finish line first. Players can land on each other, and send each other back to the start, and landing on a tornado space can set you back as well. Included with the game is a thirty-minute cassette with excerpts from The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado. We don't have a cassette player handy in our house, so I did not listen to this.

The game is designed to fold up for travel, and as a result, is quite small. I also thought that the directions were somewhat confusing. My kids are fond of board games, so they stuck with this for awhile. I wouldn't say that it's become a family favorite though.

Hank the Cowdog books come in paperback ($4.24), hardback ($12.49), audio CD ($17.99), Read-Along Books and Cassettes ($17.99), and Read-Along Books and CD's ($19.99). The Hank Tales and Tunes CD that I mentioned above retails at $3.00. With the low price of the paperback and the Tales and Tunes CD, you could easily try Hank out for yourself, and see if these products are a good fit for your family.

If you want to learn more about Hank and his ranch friends, and see a list of books and other products, check out the official Hank the Cowdog website.

If you'd like to read reviews from other Crew members, please visit the Crew Blog.

We're Home!

We arrived home Friday night, and it was so nice to be back.
No matter where we go or how much we enjoy our travels (and we really did enjoy our time out west), there truly is no place like home. :)

Now, we're conquering the usual mountain of laundry and trying to get ourselves back into Eastern Standard Time. (You wouldn't think that traveling through two time zones would make a difference, but our body clocks are a bit off.)

This week I'm busy getting everything ready for the new school year. We'll begin on Labor Day, and I think that after the crazy summer we've had, we'll all be ready to return to our school routine.

Tomorrow night we will attend a meet and greet for Classical Conversations, which we're all excited about, and Superman and Giggly Girl have their first Upward Flag Football practices this week. Yes, my daughter has been wanting to play football ever since she saw her brother's first game two years ago. She's fast and determined, and I think she'll give those boys and other girls a run for their money! She's very excited too about the prospect of her Daddy being her coach. I think it will be a fun season for everyone.

Gotta run now, but will be back with another TOS Review for tomorrow.

Gearing Up for 2009-2010: Our Curriculum

This year has been quite a whirlwind for us, and it's really hard for me to believe that it's time to begin our "official" new schoolyear.

When we start back next Friday, Sept. 4th, Superman will be in 2nd grade, Giggly Girl will be in Kindergarten, and Sweet Pea will be doing Preschool.

Here is our curriculum line-up (at least for now!):

Phonics/Reading
-Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye (Everybody)
-Letter of the Week activities pulled from a variety of resources (Giggly Girl and Sweet Pea)
-Before Five in a Row - not for phonics, but just to cuddle up and share some wonderful children's literature with my little ones.
-Reading Made Easy (Giggly Girl)
-Pathway Readers (Superman)
-Beginning readers from the library (Superman)

Math
-Living Math - literature and activities from the Living Math site and various other places (Everybody)
-Games for Math by Peggy Kaye (Sweet Pea and Giggly Girl)
-Rightstart Math (Superman)

Handwriting
-Handwriting Without Tears (Everybody)
-Other fun tactile stuff like rice, sand, shaving cream, etc. (Everybody)
-Copywork (Superman)

Writing (Composition)
-Journaling
-Narration
-Storystarters by Karen Andreola

Language Arts, Science, History, Geography
Unit Studies - including but not limited to:
-Before Five in a Row
-Five in a Row
-Homeschool Share
-NaturExplorers
-Amanda Bennett's Unit Studies

Specials (Things we aim to do once per week)
-Nature Study
-Composer Study
-Artist Study
-Art project (either to go along with our current unit study or with our current artist study)
-Science Experiment (We'll pull a lot of these from Real Science 4 Kids, Chemistry, Pre-Level 1)
-Read aloud or listen to some type of chronological history written in story form (i.e. Story of the World or Mystery of History)
-Read aloud poetry

And last but not least lots of living books!

Whew! That looks like a lot, but remember that we won't be using all of these resources at once. :)

Also, I'm very excited about something new we're trying this year - Classical Conversations. We'll meet once a week for a half day with other homeschoolers to do science experiments, art projects, nature study, and more. (And no, we're not really classical homeschoolers, but anyone can participate.) I'll post more about this after we've attended our first session. In the meantime, you can learn more at Classical Conversations.

I'd be interested to hear if any of you are part of a Classical Conversations Community. :)

TOS Review: Quarter Mile Math

Product Info.

Quarter Mile Math is a computer software program developed by Barnum Software. It provides a fun way for students to practice timed mental math problems. There are two versions of this product: deluxe and standard. I will be reviewing the deluxe version. For more information on the standard version, check out Barnum's website.

In the game students can choose to be either a wild riderless horse racing across a meadow or a racecar on a drag strip. Mental math problems are flashed onto the computer screen one at a time, and the student types in the answers as fast as possible. The faster the answer is typed, the faster the horse or car goes, and the better their race time. There are five other horses (or cars) in the race, which are the student's previous race times, so a player is only competing against himself. If you choose, you can race in real-time tournaments with other family members on multiple computers. Even grandparents out-of-state can participate.

The software contains over 70,000 problems covering Kindergarten through 9th grade level math topics. The program also automatically tracks student progress and shows which topics have been practiced.

Pricing

The deluxe version is a downloadable subscription product priced at:

-$2.95 per family each month. (You can subscribe for as few or as many months as you like.)

or

-$19.95 per family for one year

or

-$34.95 per family for two years
An internet connection is required for this version, but students never go to the web. (Scores are saved to the Quarter Mile Math servers.)

With each of these options you can choose to pay an additional $5.00 to have a copy of the software CD mailed to you. (You can also still download it.)

Pros

-My children thoroughly enjoyed racing their cars and horses and were motivated to try to answer as many problems as possible.

-This was a much more exciting way for them to practice mental math than flashcards or worksheets.

-Students are trying to better their own race times, so there is no competition or comparison with others (unless you opt to do a tournament).

-At $2.95 per month, you can try it out for just one month without straining your budget.

Cons

-Since we limit screen time in our home, I don't like to use the computer for math instruction or practice on a regular basis.

-Some students may not enjoy the pressure of a timed situation or may not be able to do their best work in a timed setting.

-The graphics are not cutting edge.

-There is no variety of race courses from which to choose. Each race always has six horses (or cars) racing in a straight line. My eight-year old son asked if there were any other courses he could race. (This was the only negative for him.)

For more information and demonstration videos, visit Quarter Mile Math. They also have a page just for homeschoolers.

If you would like to read more TOS Homeschool Crew Reviews about this product, you can visit the Crew Blog.

Greetings from North Dakota

Even though our road trip is nearing its end, we are still stopping to smell the roses along the way. North Dakota's golden fields of sunflowers and wheat make for a beautiful drive, and the people are so friendly here.

A good portion of our trip has followed the Lewis and Clark Trail, and yesterday and today we had the chance to visit some special landmarks of their journey. I'll be posting pictures of those and everything else we've seen after we're home, because our laptop (with all of my pictures on it) fritzed out this morning. :( It's just the monitor, so I'm hoping we can get it fixed. Until then, I'll be posting from hotel computers.

Today as we traveled across North Dakota, I read aloud P is for Peace Garden: A North Dakota Alphabet. It's part of the Discover America State by State Series. These are terrific books, and it was so fun to be driving by many of the places and things mentioned in the book as we were reading about them.

Most libraries carry at least some of these books, and others can be obtained through inter-library loan. Also, you can download free teacher guides for each book at their website. I'm tossing around the possibility of doing a "State of the Week" this year and having the children put together an "Our Fifty States" Notebook. If we do this, the Discover America series combined with the free teacher guides will serve as the spine curriculum for the study.

Signing off from North Dakota!

TOS Review: Web Design for Kids and Curious Adults

As we travel back home this week, I’ll be posting a few TOS Homeschool Crew Reviews.


This first one is for the DVD Web Design for Kids (...And Curious Grownups!). When I received this in the mail, I was excited because I enjoy fiddling around with the HTML code on my blog. I know just enough to be dangerous, and I’ve always wanted to learn more. Since I do not enjoy reading instruction manuals of any kind, I’ve never taken the time to read a book about web design. Watching a how-to video was right up my alley.

Brian Richardson, a middle school computer literacy teacher and technology expert, gives step-by-step instructions that help you to create your very own web page. Mr. Richardson’s demeanor is friendly and encouraging as he teaches you how to understand and use HTML, the mysterious language that you’ve probably encountered if you have a blog.

Here are just a few of the things that I learned how to do from watching the video:

*Understand the meaning and function of basic HTML code
*Make my own heading for a webpage
*Change font size
*Add/Change background and font colors
*Make font move across the page

One of my favorite things about this video is that two middle school students are included in the presentation. They follow Mr. Richardson's instruction right along with the viewer. Because he interacts with the students while they work at their computers, the format is conversational and interesting rather than being just a boring lecture.

Another great feature is that Mr. Richardson demonstrates each of his verbal instructions on his computer, and you, the viewer, can see screenshots of each action being carried out. For example, if he tells to you to click on something or to type a certain word, he does it on his computer, and you can see it on his monitor. This is wonderful for visual learners.

Here are a few other aspects of the video that I really liked:

*Mr. Richardson only uses three programs to make the webpage. All three are included for free on the majority of computers: Notepad, Paint, and Internet Explorer (or some other browser). It's great to know that you already have what you need to build your own page!

*The instructions are easy-to-understand.

*Information is broken down into bite-size pieces.

*New concepts are reinforced during short review segments.

*The format is well-organized and facilitates an enjoyable learning experience.

*Mr. Richardson's cheerful personality makes it a fun experience.

*It is interactive if you choose to carry out his instructions on your own computer while watching the video. This makes it enjoyable because you're learning by doing, and you can see the progress you're making, as your web page begins to take shape right before your eyes!

*Building a webpage is a useful and relevant skill to have in today's techno-savy world and in the current economy.

*Even though the information is presented in such a way that it would engage children, I felt it was entirely enjoyable and useful for grownups too!

If you or your child are interested in the basics of web page design, this DVD would be a fun, rainy day activity to do together.

For a limited time only, Web Design for Kids and Curious Grownups is on sale for $19.99 plus $3.99 for shipping and handling. It is regularly priced at $40.00. If the price seems a bit steep, I encourage you to keep in mind that a portion of all funds generated by the sale of this DVD will be distributed to the following five charities: The Smile Train, Ronald McDonald House, Childrens Miracle Network, Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and the American Foundation for the Blind.

You can learn more, read testimonials, and order the DVD at the Web Design for Kids site.

If you'd like to read more reviews of this product from other TOS Homeschool Crew members, check out the Crew Blog.

Mount Rushmore

Today we're leaving Jackson Hole, Wyoming, after spending two days in the majestic Grand Tetons. We'll drive up through Yellowstone to Emigrant, Montana. We'll stay there for three days and probably spend most of that time exploring Yellowstone. We're very excited because today we'll see Old Faithful on our drive through the park!

Meanwhile, I wanted to post pictures of our trip to Mount Rushmore...


We drove through three of these tunnels on our way to the monument. Each tunnel perfectly frames Mt. Rushmore, and you get a spectacular view as you travel through each one.


We spent several hours at the park. The kids did a series of activities to earn a Junior Park Ranger badge. They really got into it and learned a lot at the same time.




A mountain goat grazing at the base of the mountain

I don't have time to write all that I want to about our visit to Rushmore and all of the other amazing places in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This might be my last chance to post before we return home next Friday, so I'll post more after we're back home.

Have a great weekend!

Corn Palace and Wall Drug

The day after our Lewis and Clark keelboat surprise, we hit two very cool places in South Dakota.

First, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota…




The first Corn Palace was built in the 1890’s. The building that stands on the site today was the third one and was built in the early 1900’s. From the beginning the façade of the building was decorated each year in a different theme using corn kernels, husks, silks, and cobs. The décor has to be changed annually because, well, corn just won’t hold up for more than a year, I guess. J This was a neat stop - not the sort of thing you see everyday, that’s for sure!

Our next stop was in Wall, South Dakota, home of the famous Wall Drugstore, where you can always find free ice water. We began seeing signs for Wall Drug hundreds of miles before we got to it. We learned that there is even a sign for it somewhere in Africa!


What began as a drugstore back in the 1930’s has grown into a plethora of shops, unique western relics, and amusements for children. We spent a couple of hours there poking around and letting the kids play in a water spray-park type area. They had a ball while Kurt and I relaxed on a bench!

If you’re ever driving through South Dakota on I-90, these would be great places for a pit stop!

We’ve said goodbye to Yellowstone, and tomorrow we pack up and begin to work our way home through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and finally Ohio. We’re going to take our time and see a couple of things along the way, and we should be home by Saturday.

Happy Trails!

Windmills and a Keelboat

We’ve crossed Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and are now in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We’ve had gorgeous weather so far. On Tuesday we saw our first crop duster in western Illinois, buzzing low as it crossed back and forth over our highway from one corn field to another. As we made our way across Iowa, it became a common sight to see the planes crisscrossing over the interstate. At one point we literally appeared to be playing a game of chicken with one of them, as he swooped low over the road’s shoulder and pulled up just as he neared our van. A little too close for my comfort, but everyone else thought it was great fun.

Another highlight of the Iowa plains were the gigantic windmills standing like sentinels over the corn and soybean fields. I’d never seen anything like them, and they made an impressive sight.



The absolute high point of our day came when we made an unplanned exit at the Lewis and Clark State Park in Onawa, Iowa. I had accidentally discovered this site on our GPS and learned that we would find a replica there of the keelboat that the Corps of Discovery traveled in. This was our first chance to make a stop on the Expedition’s trail, and we never anticipated how special it would be.

We pulled into a pretty park area beside a lake, and saw the boat replica docked up and open for visitors to climb aboard. We jumped on and began exploring and taking pictures. A little sign giving the history of the replica gave the name of the boatwright and mentioned that he had traveled with it to several points on the Lewis and Clark Trail giving educational talks about the Expedition.



The children were enjoying playing on the boats, so Kurt and I took a seat to relax and watch them for a few minutes. After awhile a man pulled up in a pickup truck and introduced himself. It was Mr. Bouvier, the builder of the boat! He was so friendly, and when we told him we were homeschoolers on vacation, and that we were trying to make a few stops on the Lewis and Clark trail, he gave us a good portion of the educational program that he does for school field trips. He took us into the locked portion of the boat and showed us around, and then gave us a beautiful print of the original boat. We took pictures with him and the Lewis and Clark Flag, a blunder buster gun, and a buffalo skull he had on hand. At the end of our visit, he even fired the boat’s cannon, which was quite a treat!



What a delightful surprise God blessed us with on our trip today! It serves as a reminder to me that He does care about the details of our lives.

Westward Ho!

Yesterday we set out on a trip that we had no idea we would be taking until a few weeks ago.

We’re bound for Yellowstone National Park and many other places along the way. This trip was sort of spontaneous for us, so it’s hard for me to believe we’re really on the road. We’re so excited and thankful that God has blessed us with this opportunity.

Other than flying to Colorado and Arizona, the children and I have never been out West. Kurt made several road trips out here with his family when he was a boy. In fact, his family traveled to all of the lower forty-eight states over a period of several years. I just think that is so neat, and we’ve decided it would be a fun goal for our family too! Let’s see, I’ve been to twenty-five of them, Superman has been to fourteen, and both of the girls have been to twelve. We’ve got a ways to go, but this trip will chalk up a few more for us.

Here is our itinerary…

8/11 - Hit the road and spend the night in Coralville, Iowa.

8/12 - Head for Mitchell, South Dakota where we’ll see the Corn Palace.
8/13 - Drive to Wall, South Dakota, stop in at the famous Wall Drugstore, and begin exploring Badlands National Park.

8/14 - See a bit more of the Badlands and head on up the road to Custer State Park. We’ll stay here for a couple of days and see Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Bear Country, and possibly Jewel Cave or Wind Cave National Park if we have time.

8/17 - Hit the road once again and head for Cody, Wyoming. There is a huge Buffalo Bill Museum here that we’ll take in, as well as a rodeo and a gunfight right on Main St.!

8/18 - Today we’ll drive through the southwest corner of Yellowstone Park on our way to the Grand Tetons, where we’ll stay for three days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
8/21 - We’ll take our time driving up through Yellowstone again to Emigrant, Montana, which will be our base for touring the park.

8/24 - Say goodbye to Yellowstone and head for home.

We haven‘t decided on our exact route home yet. (I told you we were being spontaneous!) We’ll definitely head out across Montana, and then through North Dakota, and maybe Minnesota and Wisconsin. We’d like to make a couple of stops along the Lewis and Clark Trail and see one of the Laura Ingalls homesites on our way home. If any of you live in any of these places or have made this trip, I’d love to hear your opinions on things we don’t want to miss as we head back east!

Also, we’ll be in the Yellowstone area on Giggly Girl’s birthday, so if any of you westerners have any suggestions for a fun place to celebrate a six year old‘s birthday, please let me hear your ideas. :)

I’ll try to post pictures and updates when I can!

Up Close and Personal With Sea Turtles

Since my last post, we have once again been to Georgia and returned home for a whirlwind week of unpacking, doing laundry, completing our home school assessment,re-packing, and generally hustling and bustling to get ready for the family vacation/field trip that I mentioned in my last post. In fact, we set out on our big adventure just today, and I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. In the meantime, I want to finally finish up my St. Simons Island posts, so that I’ll be caught up and ready to blog about our current trip.

On Saturday, our last day on St. Simons, we drove over to Jekyll Island to see some very special creatures, endangered loggerheads at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. As it turns out, the center was having its annual “Nest Fest” on the beach with crafts, games, and exhibits all aimed at educating children (and adults) about the various species of endangered sea turtles. The festival would culminate with the release of two loggerhead turtles who had been rehabilitated at the Center. We were incredibly excited when we found out that we would be able to see this somewhat rare event.

This is Superman at the SeaFest booths trying on a shark's mouth for size...


After doing lots of fun crafts and games and learning about different species of ocean life, it was time to see Simone and Duffy returned to their ocean home...


One of the turtles did not want to leave, while the other headed out to sea so fast that she left a huge wake behind her.


It was truly exciting to be able to see something this special. We also found out that both turtles had a tracking device attached to them, so we can go online and see their progress.

After the release, we left the beach and drove over to the Rehabilitation Center. Of course the Sea Turtle Center had a gift shop, and being the dedicated home schooling mother (read bibliophile) that I am, I picked up a couple of good children’s books about sea turtles.

Carolina’s Story - This is the true story of Carolina, a loggerhead turtle who was rescued off the coast of South Carolina and who was dying with turtle flu. The book describes how doctors and staff at the South Carolina Aquarium treated and cared for Carolina and then after several months released her back into the Atlantic Ocean. The photographs are wonderful and the storyline captivated everyone from the 3 year old to the 8 year old. In the back are some loggerhead turtle facts and activities. Because we had just seen two of these amazing animals released back into the wild, this story held special meaning for us.

Turtle Tide: The Ways of Sea Turtles - This book describes the life cycle of the sea turtle, from nesting and laying eggs, through incubation, hatching, and swimming out to survive (or not) in the open sea, and finally once again returning to the beach where she hatched to lay her own eggs.

Here are a few more books and resources I've found...

Turtle in the Sea by Jim Arnosky

HSS has a terrific free Sea Turtle Lapbook .

HSS also has a wonderful unit on the book Turtle Bay. We used part of this unit last year while studying the ocean.

More lesson ideas and sea turtle links at Education World.

There is lots of information at www.seaturtle.org. We will track Duffy and Simone’s whereabouts from this site. (Update: We have been checking in on Simone and Duffy, and it’s so amazing to be able to see where they are now. In the fifty-something days since their release, neither one has strayed terribly far from Jekyll. It will be interesting to see if they return there when they are ready to nest.)

O.K., it's late, but hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to let you in on our whereabouts. ;)