I discovered a fun site today call Fraboom. It is an online Children’s Museum. One of the fun things that they offer is a live class in how to draw cartoons. The link is at the bottom left area of their homepage. It helps to have a pen and tablet in order to use the live classes on the site, but you can draw with a mouse or with pen and paper, too. The live presenter did a great job giving simple instructions to draw the ant shown above. She also made it a good lesson by giving the proper names for the different sections of the ant. This is definitely worth checking out!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

I have to admit, I was very excited when I saw my name on the TOS Homeschool Crew review list for the “Read, Write, Type” software from Talking Fingers. I had seen a bit about the software at an online homeschool conference and I wanted to learn more about it. We received an electronic version of the software. I had to set up a teacher (parent) account and a student account for Tornado Boy. I had some issues with the password on the student account. No matter what I tried, I could not reset it to allow Tornado Boy to start working. I emailed technical support and they were able to quickly reset it for me so that we could get to work.

My son is a proficient reader and very skilled with phonics, so my main goal with the software was that he learn how to type. He can write, but doesn’t really enjoy it. He does enjoy using the computer, so I figured that it would be helpful if he knew how to type since he might be more willing to create words, sentences and later stories on the computer. One of our biggest hurdles with this goal was that he didn’t know where the letters were on the keyboard and he would get frustrated while trying to “write” on the computer. He was translating the stories to me and I would type them. I wanted to be less of a middle man for him.

My initial reaction to the software was that the graphics were pretty rudimentary. The good news is that they didn’t bother Tornado Boy in the least. He really, really likes this program and asks to play it. There is an engaging storyline where the two hands (Lefty and Rightway) that you see above, engage the student to be their helper in defeating a villain named Vexor. Along the way, the student learns proper hand-positioning and then how to type different characters to progress in the story. Each letter is associated with a named character and the student learns where they “live” on the keyboard. They also participate in drills where the have to type the letter that corresponds with the sounds (phonics) that they are given. The student earns certificates every few letters. The children are also rewarded after each typing ‘victory’ with stories at the story tree.

The program grows in complexity as the children learn more letters and sounds. Eventually they’ll use their skills to create words and stories as part of the game. We haven’t gotten that far yet, though Tornado Boy is already learning to type some simple words like cat.

The Talking Fingers website has some reporting capabilities, so that you can see how your student is doing in the areas of typing, phonics and reading along the way. You can use the Talking Fingers website to see how Read, Write, Type correlates to your individual state’s standards. For our state, it matches up with many Kindergarten and First Grade standards. That seems to be about right. The website states that the program is for children 6-9; Tornado Boy is 5 and this program is a great fit for him. He is able to use the program with minimal guidance from me.

The Read, Write, Type Learning System costs $79 for the Home Edition on CD. It includes the lessons, games and challenges in the online game as well as a CD-ROM of additional challenges. You can print out 18 leveled stories from the website as well. I must note that the CD is NOT compatible with Windows 7 or MAC 10.6. Thankfully, there is the online program that we tested out and that can be used on Windows 7 without issue (that’s what I’m using). The licenses for the online product are per student and they start at $35. Each additional student up to 5 is discounted. You can check out a parent sample of the program, or a demo of the first 8 lessons for your child here. The program also contains aids for children who are learning English as a second language (ESL). If you have an older child, Talking Fingers also produces a reading and spelling program for 2nd and 3rd graders called Wordy Qwerty.

We really enjoyed being able to review this program and will definitely continue to use it. I’m very pleased with Tornado Boy’s typing progress and the phonics review has been good, too.

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

Thanks so much for reading!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

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.

I was asked to review the LanSchool Home software package as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew. LanSchool is a framework package that is widely used in traditional school environments and is now available for home use. The software has two components, a “teacher” package and a “student” package that must be installed on at least two different computers. The software allows the teacher to interact with, view and control the students’ learning environment. The teacher can interact with one or many students at the same time.

I have two Windows 7 machines that I used to install the LanSchool software. The actual installation took me only a few moments on each machine. The softare is compatible with both Windows and Mac computers. All computers must be on the same network in order to communicate with one another. LanSchool provides documentation on how to use the software. It took me a moment to “find” the software once I had it installed. Rather than just start up on your screen, you access the panel through the Windows system tray. This allows you to left click to start the teachers console, or right click for program options.

LanSchool Teacher Console:

What kinds of things can you do with LanSchool?

• Send a message to your student(s).
• View all or some students’ screens.
• Prevent student(s) access to things like certain drives, the Internet, specific applications or things like printing.
• Shut down student programs.
• Take a screen shot of a student’s screen.
• Have LanSchool alert you when certain keys (or words) are typed by a student.
• Share your screen with your student(s).
• Allow you to remotely control a student’s computer.
• Use microphones to communicate.
• Set up voting and/or testing scenarios for the student(s).
• A student can also send you a question via a message.

LanSchool seemed to be very easy to set-up and administer. The settings can easily be adjusted on the fly in response to situations as they happen. I can see it being very helpful in co-op class situations with older kids. It’s easy to see who is not on task and ask them to return to work, or to close out programs for them that aren’t part of their classwork. I couldn’t test out many of the multi-student type functions as I only have one child and I only had the program installed on two computers. This isn’t something I can see using in my home right now as my child is quite young (5) and he doesn’t work on the computer unsupervised while I’m in another room yet. We typically sit at the the comuter together while we’re doing schoolwork. I can see the control that the application allows to be useful as he gets older and could be easily distracted. It seems to be easy to block or allow access to certain websites. I’m sure I’ll be looking for that in the future. LanSchool recently implemented the ability to monitor iPods, iPads and iPhones as well. I’m sure that many parents would love to do that!

LanSchool Home is the same full-featured program used in schools, but only allows you to monitor 3 computers. The cost for the program is $99. You can download the LanSchool Home product brochure here. If you’d like to try out LanSchool for yourself, you can recieve a free 30-day trial here.

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

Thanks so much for reading!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

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.

We were recently given a trial membership for Time4Learning to review as part of my participation in the TOS Homeschool Crew. We already have a Time4Learning membership, but for review purposes, I was asked to take a look at the Pre-K to Kindergarten curriculum. I was curious how my son would react to it since he was already using some of the higher level Time4Learning modules. I was pleasantly surprised when he really enjoyed it. The Pre-K1 section – that my son calls “Time4Learning Bags” due to the look of the interface – is divided into topics such as “Feelings”, “Colors”, “Shapes” and Tornado Boy’s personal favorite “Vehicles”.

The Pre-K2 section (shown above) continues with more in-depth treatment of several of the PK1 themes, plus adds more advanced topics such as time and measurement. Each topic typically contains a story or interactive content such as a song along with activities such as matching, painting and making choices. Tornado Boy particularly enjoys the topics that have a music component, like the “Wheels on the Bus” song that’s part of the PK1 Vehicles activity.

The games in the PK1 and PK2 have minimal interface and instruction. This is typically good for a pre-reader, but I found it frustrating when TB wanted help doing something and there were no tool tips for me to work with. In general, a preschooler only needs basic mouse skills in order to use the Pre-K levels of time for learning. The content is fun, educational and easy to deal with.

The Kindergarten curriculum is significantly different from the Pre-K modules. There is a lot more walking the child through the modules and introductory instruction in understanding and using the interface that was absent at the Pre-K levels. The process can be quite tedious, especially if the child already has good mouse skills. One of the things that frustrated me is the “this (ring) means that you have assignments” on the launch page (see above graphic). I wanted to be able to assign certain modules to my son and send him on his way, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to use the feature. It took extensive digging in the background Parent area of the site to see that the feature is not currently in use. I really wish that it would not display. It’s confusing to both parents and students.

The Kindergarten content is divided into Language Arts, Math and a few introductory Science lessons that are actually intended to be part of the 1st grade curriculum. One of my favorite things about Time4Learning is that while there are suggested sequences of lessons, the children are not required to follow that sequence. In several instances, we started with the “test” section of a topic to see if the individual lessons were worth spending our time on, or if we should move on. Also available for the Kindergarten units are extensive lesson plans and worksheets in pdf form. They are in the parent login area of the Time4Learning site under the “additional resources” header. I like having this type of resource for the content because I can review the content in advance and select items that match things that I am teaching in our homeschool. The worksheets typically use the characters that are in the animated T4L sequences online, so they’re familiar to the student. These enrichment materials are not available at the PK1 and PK2 levels.

One of the things that I really like about Time4Learning is the score reporting system. I typically sit with my son as he completes lessons, but I do like that I can easily review what he’s completed and see if there are areas that require review. To access the reporting, you’ll need to click on the “bookbag” labeled “My Portfolio” on the assignments/”launch” screen. From there, you can select reporting by category and time range. The report is displayed on-screen, but can also be saved to a pdf file for printing or later review. Each lesson, quiz and test is shown in detail. You can link to the individual lesson to see the content that the student was shown. The quizzes and tests actually display the student’s answers on the quiz as well. The student can review any content at any time. I love the level of detail that the reporting affords. I feel confident that I can easily identify areas that my son needs more work on.

A parent can opt to allow their child to play on the “Playground” after their lessons are done. There are time settings in the Parent Login area that allow the parent to set the minimum lesson duration and the maximum playground time, either for today or for all sessions going forward. The Playground is the part of the site that I have the biggest beef with. Many of the activities are not at all educational. There is also access to commercial sites like PBS Kids that I want to control my child’s access to. I also don’t want him to waste a half hour playing “Asteriods”. It seems like this section needs to some work.

Some suggestions to improve Time4Learning:

• Offer “tool tips” (pop-up text) for lesson content in the parent areas and the reporting. There is an icon guide, but I can’t easily view it and the reports at the same time.
• Allow parents to constrain “Playground” activities by type, or perhaps select only specific games to access.
• I think that there are a lot of resources on the Time4Learning parent site that aren’t that easy to find. They really do add a lot of value, so it might help to do more to “feature” them.
• The science section doesn’t have the same feel and presentation as the other sections. The tests are harder to take and require more specific mouse skills as the answers require selecting a small radio button rather just touching the object beside it to automatically select the radio button. This can be problematic for small children. I also found several “resources” linked in the science area that were dead links to Internet content external to the Time4Learning site.

Overall, my son loves the site. He was just as happy playing around with the Pre-K content as he is learning in the 1st and 2nd grade areas. In my opinion, the content is typically well-developed (especially with the extra resources available at the Kindergarten level and beyond) and it seems to be a lot of fun for my child. I really appreciate the flexibility that Time4Learning offers. I like that you have access to 3 years of lessons at any time. I like that we can do the lessons in the sequence that we choose and repeat lessons as desired. I wouldn’t use Time4Learning as my entire curriculum, but it’s worthwhile as an enhancement, especially if I pick and choose the lessons in advance to coordinate with what we’re already working on. It also has helped me to “catch” a few things that I hadn’t thought to teach my son yet, so that was valuable as well.

Time4Learning has varying costs depending on the number of people in your family who want to use the program and typically offers introductory offers as well as lesson demos on their site. The program is entirely online, with no additional software needed. You can access your account from any computer with Internet access. If you need to adjust the grade level (PK-8th) for your child, it is easy to contact T4L and have them make the adjustment for you, keeping three grade levels of content available at all times. There is a great Hints & Helps page here that gives great insight into using the site.

If you’d like to see what other TOS Review Crew members think of this product, you can visit our Crew blog. Different crew members reviewed Time4Learning affiliated products such as Time4Writing and Spelling City, so you can check to see if any are of interest to you as well.

Thanks for reading!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

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.

The Code:

Once I had the code in place, I set out to create my first secret message for Tornado Boy. I wrote the message out in Tahoma so that I could read it, and then I changed the font to Carta so that it was all symbols. I then typed a row of underscores above it for TB to write his letters on. You may have to adjust the size of the font and underlines depending on how large your child is writing. You may want to consider large rectangles, one per letter rather than underscores. Here’s a small copy of our first puzzle:

A Puzzle to Solve:

I’d recommend breaking up sentences (or just using words depending on the child’s skill level) into multiple lines so that the child has enough room to write successfully. I printed out a large version of the code that I’m going to laminate so that we can re-use it.

Once the code is set, all you need to do is remember the fonts that you used to create it and then you can print out anything that you want in code – spelling words, quotes, facts, fun messages, etc. Have fun playing detectives!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

We’ve had our Math Mat for a few months and the better Tornado Boy’s math skills get, the more I like it. This is such a great learning tool for him. The games are short and active – darn near perfect for my little whirling dervish.

This is someone else's not so whirling dervish - I didn't get around to taking pictures this time. Besides, mine would be blurry since TB doesn't stop moving!

The mat is an electronic toy that has three math games, each with two levels. Here’s how they work:

• Numbers & Counting, level 1: The game calls out a number from zero to ten and the child has to step on the number as fast as they can.
• Numbers & Counting, level 2: The game calls out patterns, the child must step on the next number in the pattern. Example: 3,2 – they must step on 1.

• Addition, level 1: The game gives addition problems that add up to 10 or less, the child must step on the sum.
• Addition, level 2: The game calls out a problem with a missing addend, the child steps on the answer. Example: “1 + what = 3?” Child must step on 2.

• Subtraction, level 1: The game gives subtraction problems that equate to 10 or less, the child must step on the difference.
• Subtraction, level 2: Find the game calls out a problem with a missing term, the child steps on the answer. Example: “5 – what = 1?” Child must step on 4.

The game increases in speed as the child answers more questions. They can answer a maximum of 20 questions at each level of the game.

One drawback to the mat is that the child really can’t stand in the middle of the mat or they’ll hit the game function buttons. They need to run around the outside of it which seems a little less natural and takes a bit more time. We have definitely found that this is a great way to work on memorizing addition facts. It’s fun and can be used by more than one child if you want a little competition. It really seems much more like play than work.

As much as I like the Math Mat, it would be super easy to replicate the functionality (and even expand the capability) with some chalk in your own driveway. Just draw the numbers (as high as you’d like) as a grid. Then you can call out the problems as you like – any type, and with answers as high as the numbers that you draw. This definitely could be useful for things like multiplication as well. Add some music and a timer and you’ve got a fun, homemade learning game.

If you want more information about the Math Mat, here are the instructions for it.

To see what other kids are working on for math, check out Math Links at Joyful Learner.

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

Here are some of the things that I added during the course of the week:

• A calendar archive – you can find posts by date and pictures. This makes it easy to find all of the meme posts since that’s the thumbnail that will be displayed on the calendar. Click the link in the menu underneath the header graphic to see the calendar.
• New tags for my posts. You can now easily find posts by topic by using the rotating cloud in the sidebar to the right. If your browser doesn’t support Flash (bad Apple!) you can use the static version in the site footer.
• There’s a new link to the WorldCat in the sidebar. If you want to find out if your (participating) library carries a book that we’ve featured, just put in the title and WorldCat can tell you what libraries close to you carry the book. If you haven’t used that site before, you’ll be asked to input your zipcode.
• I’ve added more links to blogs that I enjoy and to great learning sites. Look for the blue box labeled “Some Favorite Things” in the sidebar and click the tab that you’re interested in.
• I’ve made it easier to subscribe to my feed. Just click the sidebar link and choose the reader that you’d like to use.
• I’ve made it easier for you to share or save any individual post. There’s a link at the end of each post that will allow you to bookmark, share, or email the post.

I was hoping to add a more attractive date to each post, but I kept stumbling on that piece of functionality. I couldn’t seem to cobble together the parts to make work AND look good. I guess I should do a bit of reading on how to use php. I’ve never been one to want to read the manual, though!

I had two really fun things happen to me this week in the blogosphere. Natalie from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns surprised me with a fun blog award for best blog friends. I was tickled! Natalie has been a great supporter and avid commenter here for the past year and I always enjoy hearing her thoughts. I can always count on her for an intelligent, well thought out response and I really love that. She’s also incredibly good about blogging on a regular basis. I aspire to be more consistent in my posting like she is. Thanks so much, Natalie! Your support and encouragement has meant a ton to me over the past year.

I was also really excited (and more than a little shocked) to find myself on the “Raising Playful Tots” top 100 blogs list. I discovered it last week when I saw a link to my site from there. I really admire a lot of the listed sites on the list and I’ve found some great new sites to enjoy. Definitely check out the list. There may be some great blogs that you just haven’t found yet.

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

Since I decided to go ahead and overhaul the site, I’ve added the following things:

• A “cleaner” design, with hopefully a bit more readability.
• An import of my old blog. The “archives” link to the right now contains posts from 2006-2008 featuring a more itty-bitty Tornado Boy.
• A “top posts” area also to the right. These are my most commented posts as ranked by PostRank.
• Links to some of my favorite blogs.
• A listing of my favorite educational web sites.

I’m excited about being able to add more things that interest me to the blog. Hopefully the “growing pains” will be fairly minimal in the process!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

• Step 1 – I admitted that I am a digital packrat.
• Step 2 – I decided that it was time to do something about it.
• Step 3 – I realized that I’ve been “married to Microsoft” for far too long.

The time had come!  This weekend I decided that I’d had enough and I ditched Microsoft Outlook, Calendar, Internet Explorer and greatly pared down (read deleted 1000′s) my personal Hotmail account.  For some time now, Google has been taking over my life, one free app at a time.  It started innocently enough – trying out a gmail account, and then starting to use their calendar.  Then came their free 411 cell phone service to save some money when I needed a phone number.  Now, I’ve gone full circle, ditching IE for Chrome and a stellar custom iGoogle page.  It wasn’t painless, but I can’t believe how much easier it is to navigate all of my daily digital stuff now.

Bookmarks – goodness, did I have them in spades – over 1100.  Crazy, right?  The first thing I did was cull out all of the dead ones with AM-DeadLink – a freeware program that can do neat things like tell you which links are no good, plus allow you do clean-up, eliminate duplicates and organize them in bulk.  After I was done cleaning them up, I imported them into Chrome.   Thankfully that was a pretty seamless transition.

The iGoogle page allows me to create my own homepage and sub-pages with relative ease.  I can now read my emails, blogs, facebook feed, see my calendar and to-do list in the blink of an eye.  They’re all on the same page.  I have sub-pages for things that I’m interested in like Homeschooling, Cooking and Photogaphy that are a click away.  Each page displays it’s own bookmarks plus related “widgets” and feeds.  All of my blog related links are now at my fingertips – accessible and organized.  I LOVE it.

I discovered “Remember The Milk” today.  It is a wonderful free application that allows you to create to-do lists on steroids.  It’s awesome.   You can sort your items, add notes, prioritize the tasks, URL links or a location to a task.  You can set reminders (email, IM or text messages) for your tasks.  You can use the widget to embed your list on your iGoogle page or alongside your Google calendar.  You can email tasks to yourself, or if you’re a “JOTTer” – they’ll transcribe tasks to your list for you.   If you get the “pro” version, you can also sync the lists with your mobile phone.   I am a lister, but I’ve never found a to-do list program that really worked that well for me before; I think this is the one.

This was quite a time consuming endeavor, but I feel so good about the way things came together.  I hate wasting time trying to find things.  I think that this streamlining will really help me be more efficient with my online time.  It will also be a huge help with keeping my homeschooling resources more organized.  I already had around 200 bookmarks just for my homeschool stuff – in less than a year.   Yikes!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.