Inside the Tornado Mind…

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Pathfinder Mom

I am having so much fun with Tornado Boy lately. I truly never know what to expect from him. I feel exceptionally lucky because although he has boundless energy, his base disposition is incredibly cheerful. That goes a long way in helping me to weather the storm on days where he is such a whirling dervish.

I wanted to share this video, and I apologize in advance, because the quality is pretty horrendous. We were in a diner and it was loud and I’m definitely not cut out to be a cinematographer by any means. I just really feel that this shows so much of TB’s innate personality – outgoing, friendly and incredibly curious.

I’m getting more and more glimpses lately into how TB’s mind works. The wheels are always turning, from the moment he gets up until the time when he finally rests at night. He plays hard and he sleeps hard. He is getting more creative as the days go by. The other day he called Tornado Dad and I into the bathroom to show us his new “hat”. Besides the fact that he couldn’t see it from the vantage point that we could, I thought that this was pretty clever:

My final tidbit actually happened tonight. We were playing around with Dreambox Learning. It’s a K-3 Online Math program that I’d read several reviews of recently. Tornado Boy is totally loving it. He’s spent about 5 hours with it and is still doing their “assessment” exercises. So far their program has him in the early 2nd grade area. I’ve been sort of surprised at some of the things that he’s been able to speed through – like comparing 3 digit numbers. I’ve also been somewhat surprised at some of the things that have been more challenging – like working with a number line. It is interesting for me to watch. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with him from a math perspective. I’ve been pretty resistant to just drilling the facts with him because I don’t want him to get bored. He also seems to have a more natural grasp on multiplication than his does on addition. He seems to like to play with the mental math facts more with multiplication.

Anyway… the Dreambox trial has a countdown that it shows each time that you log in and it tells you how many days are left in your trial. It also is on display on the top of the play screen as well. This seems particularly troublesome to TB. I think that he’s worried that Dreambox will just disappear at the end of the trial. I told him that we’ll consider purchasing a membership if we like it enough. Tonight after we finished our work, he asked if he could play with our Math-U-See blocks and I said sure. About a minute later he asked me to come over, that he had something to show me and I found this:

Tornado Boy decided that he wanted to show me exactly when Dreambox was going to go away. We have ten days left in our trial, and he represented each day with a corresponding Math-U-See block. He told me that the blue 10 block was today, and after today, we would only have 9 days left, the day after tomorrow, we would have 8, then two days after tomorrow we would have 7 and so on. I was intrigued, so I asked him what today was, and he said “Monday”. I said if today is Monday, what day will our trial run out? He counted out the days by name, through next Wednesday and then announced dramatically that on next Thursday, there would be no more Dreambox. I told him not to worry about it just yet.

I was truly impressed by TB’s conceptual understanding of math and dates. He’s still using his fingers for most addition problems, but he clearly gets how it all works together. I love that he’s really enjoying and soaking in math, but I’m really wondering what to work on with him next. I’m going to link this post to the Hip Homeschool Hop. Please feel free to leave me any suggestions! Thanks!

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Times Alive – Product Review

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Pathfinder Mom


I was asked to review the Times Alive program as part of my participation in the TOS Homeschool Crew. The Times Alive program employs excellent usage of mnemonic device to help children to remember their times table facts. The program is based on the book “Times Tables the Fun Way” by City Creek Press. The program uses stories, songs and quizzes to teach and reinforce the times tables.

Here is a sample of one of the songs that the program has – this one is to help the child remember what 6X6 is:

You can see other sample lessons here.

I was a little bit concerned about how Tornado Boy would handle his exposure to the Times Alive program. He is definitely young compared to the target audience for the program. Typically the program would be used by 7-10 year olds. We spent our first session using the “Try it” feature so that Tornado Boy could play around without having his scores recorded. The program assumes that the child understands the basics of how multiplication works and that they just need to memorize the facts. I spent the next couple of weeks after we played with the program explaining how multiplication works conceptually. He has a pretty good grasp on addition, so he picked up on how multiplication works pretty quickly. The question for me really was could he grasp enough to be able to reliably learn the times tables.

The above picture is one of the “reward” sections of the program where the child gets to paint a scene from one of the lessons. In this one, the three blind mice each have three tails – giving them nine. The program states that “blind” and “nine” rhyme. I find that to be a bit of a stretch, but Tornado Boy certainly remembers the fact, which is what is important. He also had fun with this little painting scene.

We had a few issues with the navigation while using the Times Alive quiz sections. If the child does one of the problems out of order during a quiz, the “enter” key on the keyboard will no longer work correctly to take them to the next problem.

One of the stated program objectives of Times Alive is that the “Student will develop a positive attitude towards math prompted by the success and entertainment value of the program design.” I was surprised at the 3X4 video clip (Cheers at Southgate) that starts out with a classroom of sullen kids with the heading above them “None of the kids at South School liked math.” I was a bit taken aback and I definitely didn’t want to give my son the idea that it’s okay to act in that way.

Even though I had a few reservations about the program, I can say that it really does work and it works well. Tornado Boy now knows his times tables for 0′s, 1′s, 2′s, 5′s, 10′s and some of the other facts based on our work since starting this program. For some of the facts, he will recall the answer to the problem if you remind him about the story that he saw. For example, if I ask him “what is 4 times 4″, and he gets stuck, I can ask him how old you have to be to drive a car and then he’ll say “it’s 16″. The program shows a teenaged boy driving a 4X4 truck, and says that he has to be 16 to not have to walk up the hill. Once that association is solid, TB is unlikely to forget the facts. We will definitely finish using ths program to completely TB’s times table facts.

The Times Alive learning game software is available for download for PC or MAC for $44.95 or via CD for $48.95. The CD will work on a PC or MAC. City Creek Press also offers a variety of kits that include multiple items at a discount.

If you’d like to see what other TOS Review Crew members think of Times Alive, you can visit our Crew blog.

Thanks so much for reading!

Disclaimer: I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for 2010-2011 and receive free products and services in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences with the products and services that I have received.

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Speekee – Product Review

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Pathfinder Mom


Speekee TV is a Spanish-language immersion program with 10 lessons from the company Lingua4 Ltd. The program was developed in the UK using native (European) Spanish speakers and puppets. It is intended for children ages 2-10. The U.S. pricing is $7.50 per month for online access. They offer the first two weeks for free.

Tornado Boy LOVES Speekee. We’ve watched all 10 lessons and he is always excited when I tell him that it is time for Speekee. The interface is easy to use and TB likes to watch the videos in full-screen with the closed captions on. This allows him to read what is being said in both Spanish and English. The music used in Speekee is very catchy and he will often sing along with several of the songs including the intro and closing that are used in all of the episodes. Clips of Spanish children are interspersed with the three puppets – Speekee (the little alien looking guy in the graphic at the top of this review), as well as Dino and Lupi, who are two sock puppets. There is an adult, Jim who also converses with Speekee in some of the scenes. The children do sometimes interact with Speekee. There are some scenes that were clearly filmed with a green screen, but a lot of them were filmed on location at places like a school, the park and the zoo to support the content of the lessons.

Since this is immersion-style program, there is no English spoken. The entire program, singing and speaking, is entirely in Spanish. The lessons use a spiral-style approach where words that are introduced in one lesson are repeated in subsequent lessons without the same amount of context. If your child is reading the subtitles, this is not a big deal. If your child is not a reader, or you are watching without the subtitles, it would be helpful to watch the 10 lessons in sequential order. Each lesson gives children the opportunity to respond to Speekee in Spanish. You can see a clip of how that is prompted here.

The child is given “awards” at certain points in the program. You can see the graphics at the bottom of the screen shot above. Tornado Boy really wanted to click them and having something happen, but they are just to look at.

Each lesson has companion worksheets that you can download and use with your children. My only real complaint with the Speekee program lies with those companion worksheets. They’re all named “worksheet”, so when you download them, you must remember to rename them something more meaningful or you’ll end up with a bunch of pdf files with the same name. Yes, that’s the voice of experience talking!

I really wish that there were more than 10 episodes of Speekee! I do not speak any Spanish, but Tornado Boy is definitely interested in learning the language. Speekee was a fun way for us to learn together. It does make me curious about some of the grammatical rules that Spanish uses. I’ll have to do some research to continue to use the program, especially if we want to do more of the written worksheets.

Speekee is also offered in DVD format, but it may not be compatible with all U.S. players. It uses the PAL video format. You can follow Speekee on Twitter for more information and offers.

If you’d like to see what other TOS Review Crew members think of Speekee, you can visit our Crew blog.

Thanks so much for reading!

Disclaimer: I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for 2010-2011 and receive free products and services in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences with the products and services that I have received.

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Maestro Classics – Product Review

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Pathfinder Mom

Tornado Boy and I were lucky enough to be selected to receive a copy of Maestro Classics’ “Peter and the Wolf” on CD as part of my participation in the TOS Homeschool Crew. The CD and booklet package is part of their Stories in Music™ series. The music on the CD is performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the story is narrated by Yadu (aka Dr. Konrad Czynski). Yadu narrates the other stories in this series as well.

This CD set is so much more than just the story of Peter and the Wolf. You also get an interesting look at the life of the composer (Prokofiev) and a great description of the music itself. The introduction gives the listener a bit of story background as well as the identity of the main characters of the story and lets them know which instrument and musical theme represents each of them. In addition to the narrated version of the story, there’s also an instrumental version and a couple of selections of Russian Folk Music. The companion booklet gives a quick bio of Trio Voronezh, the folk group and a more in depth look at the unusual instruments that they play – the balalaika, the bayan and the domra. The balalaika is the standing instrument with the triangular bottom in the picture below. The bayan is similar to an accordion, but without a keyboard. The domra is a Russian folk instrument, similar to a mandolin.

The booklet that comes with the CD combines the educational articles and biographies with puzzles and games that your child can do. It has a dot-to-dot, a code puzzle, a crossword, a matching activity (match the instrument to the character in the story that it sound represents), and a bit about Cyrillic script -the Russian language that the original score was written in. The Maestro Classics website has the puzzle answers posted. For the more adventurous, there is also sheet music for part of the Peter and the Wolf score. The music CD can really be enjoyed by anyone, but the booklet really requires reading and some puzzle skills, so I’d think 6 and up would probably a good age to enjoy the booklet part of the package.

Maestro Classics sells their base CD and booklet sets for $16.98. The Maestro Classics website allows you to sample some of the content of the Peter and the Wolf as well as pieces from the other stories in the series. We are seriously considering purchasing Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel for Tornado Boy as well. I loaded Peter and the Wolf to his iPod and I think that he’d enjoy having Mike Mulligan on there as well since I already know that he enjoys the story. If you don’t already have the Mike Mulligan storybook, they also offer a CD and book package for for $29.95. I love that the website already has a lesson plan for the Mike Mulligan disc available for download.

We really enjoyed this product!

If you’d like to see what other TOS Review Crew members think of Peter and the Wolf, you can visit our Crew blog.

Thanks so much for reading!

Disclaimer: I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for 2010-2011 and receive free products and services in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences with the products and services that I have received.

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What We’re Reading – January 2011

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Pathfinder Mom

It has been a long time since I’ve participated in Natalie’s weekly reading blog, and I wanted to take the time to share what we’re reading.

Three of our books this week – What the World Eats, The Little House and My Town were related to our Moving Beyond the Page “Communities” studies. I had seen a photo essay on What the World Eats some time ago. It really is an amazing book, and a great way to share how different things can be in other cultures with your children. Not only in the sense of how different foods are, but the families that are depicted are also very interesting. Tornado Boy and I only hit the highlights in the book as it is quite long, but this is one that I will definitely consider adding to our family library. The book is very thought-provoking and will really make you consider what you eat.

Tornado Boy noticed right away that “The Little House” used personification to share the experiences of the house in the book. “Houses don’t have feelings!” he said. The house starts off in the country then experiences many changes over time as a city grows up around it. We had never talked about personification, and the book was intended to depict the differences between rural and urban living, but we ended up with two lessons for one this time.

My Town is a very good book for both talking about maps and communities. It’s an Usborne book that we happened to catch used on Amazon. The book talks about a lot of the types of things you’d find in a community and also has fold out maps to use with it on the front and back covers. Ted and his friend, Josie share lots of information about their town and how it’s changed over time.

The Story of Ferdinand and the The Velveteen Rabbit were both selections that we saw performed as plays at a Children’s Theater. Both are classic storybooks. More than anything, this led Tornado Boy and I to talk about how adaptations (either to plays or films) don’t always follow the exact story of the original book. The Velveteen Rabbit book was nearly identical to the play, but Ferdinand was quite different. Since the copyright has expired on the Velveteen Rabbit and it’s now a public domain book, you can read it online here or download a digital copy of it here.

You can find out what other young children are reading this week over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

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