STEM Activities: A Tied 2 Teaching Review

As a busy mom who can easily get stressed out, doing projects of any kind is something I have to work myself up for.  I know how fun they usually are for the kids and I also know how beneficial hands-on learning is, but interrupting the normal flow of things with something different is hard for me.  When we were given STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading from Tied 2 Teaching, I was both reluctant and convicted to try them out.  My kids love and need to dig their hands into things for optimum learning and to work on their problem-solving skills so I knew how valuable these activities could be despite my resistance.

What We Received:

The STEM activities come in the form of digital downloads that include monthly/seasonal activities designed for 3rd-6th grade level students that would last you at least a year doing 4 activities a month.  Within each PDF project file is a QR code and link for the close reading passage, various pages for close reading questions, project analysis, and some examples of other kids' completed projects for ideas.  Most projects required normal craft or household supplies that you likely have or could easily get at the store.

How It Works:

For every project or challenge, there is a themed passage for the student to read and then a close-reading worksheet to fill out that asks them questions about the passage that often requires a closer look at the passage.   Then the student is to focus on the project through a series of worksheets that facilitate planning, problem solving and evaluating how it went once they are finished.

Activities We Completed:

What We Thought:

The intended grade level is 3rd-6th grade so my 1st grader is a bit under the age range, but she was actually a great side-kick for my 'tends to give up when the answer isn't readily apparent' 3rd grader.  Due to the large amount of reading and writing involved, I wouldn't recommend this for a younger student without older ones to guide or heavy parental involvement.  

Overall, the kids really enjoyed these projects.  Like I alluded to before, my son had a tendency to give up after his first idea would fail, but luckily his sister is built to keep going no matter what some days so they were a great team.  The reading and writing aspect was sometimes resisted by my son, but once he got going it was clear that the work helped him dig in better to the problem-solving at hand. They were always very proud of their final product which was fun for me to watch.

Since this is a digital product, we would be able to do any of the projects again at a later date.  Considering the open-ended nature of many of these, I think it would interesting and potentially really beneficial to have students do them again weeks or months later to find alternative solutions they hadn't thought of the last time.  This is a great way to work on problem-solving skills.

I really appreciated how the design of these projects mimic real life and real job situations.  Since my husband works as an engineer, he could identify to the kids all the elements of his own work in what they were doing.  It seemed to be one of the first times they seemed to conceptualize what 'real work' could look like beyond a mailman or garbage trucker driver. 

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There are a ton of activities so we certainly haven't gotten to them all yet!  Follow the link below to see what different projects some of the other families' tried!

IXL Learning: An Adaptive Program Review

As every new teacher knows, the picture of educating those precious children in your head never seems to be the same in real life.  If every child had a perfect amount of patience, confidence and a desire to learn, then maybe, but real life brings all sorts of stumbling blocks when it comes to a successful school day. One of the many reasons I love about being a part of the Homeschool Review Crew is that we are regularly exposed to new educational programs.  Today, we are talking about IXL  from IXL Learning where they have made it their business to come up with new and effective ways to help kids learn and master educational skills.

What We Received:

IXL is an adaptive online practice program that continually evaluates your skill level through the practice of answering questions.  At all times there is a recommendation page where the program suggests what the student might be ready to work on.  However, you can also choose a skill through each grade/subject area to work on.  We received a full annual membership to IXL for two students that includes full access to all grades and subjects.

• Math and Language Arts  (K-12th grade) 
• Science and Social Studies  (2nd-8th grade) 
• Spanish Introduction (7 units)

One of the big hits of this program is the awards each user can collect.  Stickers, toys, medals, certificates, you name it - a user can earn it for everything from just answering questions to spending so much time on the program.  Often the award has to be revealed on the award page, something my kids thoroughly enjoy every time!

The Analytics portion of the program includes a full report on each student's usage, trouble spots, scores, questions, and progress.  This tool alone provides fantastic feedback for the parent to effectively teach and guide the student.  There is also a page where you can look up your state's educational standards, which could be very useful in preparing for any type of testing or to simply understand where your student is in comparison.  To make the program even more versatile than it already is, they offer the entire site in Spanish! 

What We Thought:

J (8) and miss Z (5 1/2) really enjoyed their time on this program.  They were always excited to tell each other when they earned awards.  In the diagnostic area, whenever they would get a question they didn't know, there was always an option to skip it that said 'I don't know this yet' which was helpful especially for miss Z.  

I especially enjoy the feedback I get on where each child is in each subject and skill.  Our homeschooling isn't a test or grades based approach at all so anytime I get confirmation from outside sources, it helps my confidence in meeting their educational needs.

While IXL is extensive in the subjects and skills you can practice, it is not a teaching program.  It provides hints along the way, but it couldn't stand on its own when introducing new information.  I'm a big advocate for plenty of offline learning so that wasn't a problem for us.  For those in the market for a program like this, I do think it is important to note simply because you can't expect this program to teach a new concept the way some programs do.  Our experience is that everything they do, they seem to be doing it really well, but teaching new information isn't something they are trying to do.

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Are your students older than mine?  Junior high and high school kids will likely have a different experience. Check out the 90 Homeschool Review Crew families that also tried out IXL!

Paddington Bear: A Branch Out World Review

My son (age 7) always gets extra chatty at bedtime.  So much so that I had to limit him to 2 or 3 questions so good night didn't last 30 minutes.  Lately, his questions have been a lot of 'How is this made?' or "What makes that work?' and honestly I don't know the answers without googling it or asking their dad.  The result is we both learn a lot together.  As they state on their website, my latest review, Paddington Bear from Branch Out World is designed For Families That Love Learning Together.  It is so easy to get caught up in the typical school paradigm where a teacher teaches the information they have already learned, but sooner or later real homeschooling involves learning with each other and from each other.  Curiosity breeds new questions and new questions bring new perspectives to consider and before you know it your adventure is quite different than you expected.  I am not an expert in all subjects that my children will learn so some days we will all learn who invented baseball or what a hydrapult is together. 

Branch Out World is a company based in the UK that was started by a homeschool family looking to share great literature with other families.  Not having any experience with a UK company, this curriculum was enjoyable and educational.  There were a few differences in the language that I had to explain, but nothing hindered us in any way.  Paddington Bear is a literature-based unit study from the Picture Book Explorers series that Branch Out World puts out.   It comes in digital format and includes instructions for over 30 activities, with 45 pages of printables like notebook pages, flags, maps, and minibooks.   There are also extra resources listed that could complement the study like various books on Peru and Paddington videos.  With so many possible activities, the study includes a lot of different subjects, including:

• History & Geography
• Creative Writing
• Art
• Science (Migration!)
• Grammar & Vocabulary
• Architecture & Design
• Math

The significant thing about reading stories together is that often there are multiple layers and several details that go unnoticed at first.  Upon the first reading of Paddington, no one remembered that the country of Peru was even mentioned!  This was a great opportunity to dive into places (England & Peru) we weren't very familiar with.  The study is divided into 5 sections:

• Day 1 – Exploring the Setting (History and Geography)
• Day 2 – Exploring the Words (Grammar & Writing) 
• Day 3 – Exploring the Pictures 
• Day 4 – Exploring Science (Animals & Experiments)
• Day 5 – Exploring Maths, Crafts and More

All activities are left open to exploring further if you choose and also stand alone for when you want to pick and choose certain ones and not others.  You are encouraged to record notes on your adventure in some way, like making a lap book or keeping a journal. It's a very flexible plan with multiple variations possible.  The intended age for this study is 5-10 years old.

When everything a child is learning reinforces or connects back together in some way, it really does stick with them much longer.  Branch Out World has done for us what many of us dream about doing, but don't get around to - beautifully weave subjects and lessons together where everyone is learning.  One of my favorite topics brought out in this study was migration and push/pull factors.  It was a subject we hadn't discussed together yet and taught me a few things I had never considered before.

Branch Out World did a great job with this study and we found it to be a perfect change of pace that proved to be very fruitful!  Check out all they have to offer by following them on social media.

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Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology: An Apologia Review

One of the most faith affirming concepts I've ever considered is the precision and complexity of the human body.  How anyone can believe that our body fell together by accident is beyond me.  Still, it is hard to find high quality curriculum that acknowledges the obvious creator our body must have had.  Last month we were given the opportunity to review Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology from Apologia that does a beautiful job of teaching all about the human body from a Biblical Worldview and highlights the amazing nature of God throughout the text.  

What We Received:

• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Text
• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking Journal
• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Notebooking Journal
• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD

The textbook is a hardback book divided into 14 lessons that are full of different experiments and activities to try.  Every so often the text will break and have the student discuss what they have learned, giving another chance for the student to interact with the information.  In addition to scripture sprinkled throughout the text, lesson 14, Growth and Development, talks plainly about God's design for us in relation to Him.   The paper and layout are well done and reminds me of an improved version of a college textbook. 

The first big project we did was make an edible cell out of jello and various candies.  With each item we placed in the jello we reminded each other what it's job was in the cell.  They were giddy with excitement and it was an excellent teaching tool!  Most of the projects only require household objects or things easily obtained.  For this curriculum I did purchase a kit that contained all of the necessary items for all of the projects.  I loved this especially because they were organized and labeled by lesson so there was not hunting for things.  It has made me more consistent with completing the activities part of the program and thus definitely worth it, but not necessary at all.

The MP3 Audio CD is a full reading of the text that fills out the auditory needs of learners.  Because my students are 7 and 4, this curriculum isn't something I just assign a reading.  Some of the time we would sit down together to read and discuss the text, but other times they would listen to the CD and complete pages out of the Notebooking Journal. Not only did this reinforce things we would talk about together, but it also allowed me to be free to do other things for a while.  With a 1 year old cruising around, that is a big plus!  The one challenge with this CD is that is an MP3 and not necessarily compatible with all CD players, but we were able to get it to work on our laptop just fine.

The Notebooking Journal and the Junior Notebooking Journal contain a suggested schedule of activities and the corresponding writing activities like vocabulary lift the flap, copywork in print and cursive, coloring pages, crossword puzzles, note-taking pages, fill-in-the-blank, matching, full color printings of various projects like the mini-books  and the personal person that showcases all the systems, and more.  The Junior Journal is what my 7 year old used because the regular journal is geared more towards 3rd/4th grade and older students with more difficult crossword puzzles and review questions, though both contained all of the fun cutout activities.

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This curriculum is extremely dense with information and activities.  My 7 and 4 year old certainly gained from it, but I can see it being revisited a few years later for even more value.  Between the glimpses of God woven throughout the text, the multi-sensory approach in the program and the generosity of Apologia by including so many elements in this set, we were so very blessed by this review.

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Field Trip to the National Weather Center

When you live in the land of severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches, it is a pretty neat thing to visit where it all comes from!  Last week we had the opportunity to visit The National Weather Center in Norman, OK for free with a group of friends.  We had a good time and the kids LOVED it!

Jude was extra prepared with a book from home about weather!