Finances are tricky…  I think that if you weren’t taught how to properly handle money, then it’s incredibly difficult to teach it to your children.

Family Mint, Helping Kids appreciate money. I mean, honestly, what can be bad about that???  Know what else is great?  Wait…  do you really?  Do You wanna know?  come on, admit it, you totally do…

Okay, okay, it’s…

FREE.

I know, crazy, right?

So, this program, that is really like a virtual bank for yourself and your hooligans (but you are the banker), is completely and absolutely free.

• Family Mint is money management for kids where parents are the bank.
• Kids manage their own money by setting goals and entering transactions.
• Parents motivate kids through:
  ~ Interest rates they set themselves
  ~ Automated allowance
  ~ Matching deposits on important goals

Kids can:

• Set goals for items they want to save for,  and even allocate money to donate to a charity of their choice.
• Log into their own accounts to set goals, or request withdrawals which can be approved or denied by the parent when  he or she logs in.
• View plenty of graphics and visualize where their money came from, where it’s going and how to manage it.

Parents can:

• Log in and see all of their children’s accounts at one time.
• Make deposits and set up automatic deposits of allowance each week, if so desired.
• Set up a set amount of interest on savings, or match deposits made on important goals.

You can use your own hooligans real allowance and savings, or you could just assign them a virtual amount of money to play with.  Either way, what a GREAT learning tool.

This is a bit above my hooligans ability to use on their own, but with some guidance, it’s not too bad at all.

Go, check it out.  It’s Free, seriously, what do you have to lose?

SO, there’s a train coming from Amsterdam going 100 kms an hour, and it passes by a train coming from somewhere not Amsterdam going 150 kms an hour… at what town will they pass each other assuming that they both left the station at the same time?

Yah, I have no idea either.  HA!

Math Tutor DVD sent me two videos to review for them.  One for younger guys about counting, and one for older hooligans about solving word problems.

The one for the younger guys, Young Minds Numbers and Counting, is really very high quality.  Lots of nature pics, and lovely classical music as well (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms and Vivaldi).

It runs for 35 minutes, and the DVD also includes 15 minutes of bonus material counting puzzle pieces, connect the dots, and a guess the animal game.

You can view a sample excerpt  of the  Young Minds: Numbers and Counting DVD here.  The DVD can be purchased for $19.99 at the Math Tutor website, which is $5.00 off the list price.

My guys were a bit bored after the first little bit of this one.  Sure, it was cute… the numbers were nice, but frankly, I don’t really NEED a DVD to teach my hooligans to count.  HOWEVER, if you just need to catch a break, maybe take a shower for the first time in three or four days, then throw this one in!  You can be absolutely sure that there is no content here that would be inappropriate for wee eyes.

It covers topics such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers, decimals, and fractions; as well as covering percent, ratio, and proportion. You can learn more about this DVD, and see screenshots, at the website.

This is basically just a teacher writing on a white board…  My hooligans lost interest in about ten minutes, unfortunately.  The lessons were just a wee bit too long, and really, it’s something that we already do.  Simply not necessary for our family.

AGAIN tho, (there always seems to be a “however” doesn’t there) I can see how this may work for families who need a bit of extra encouragement with solving word problems, and want to use different mediums in order to do so.

This DVD sells for $26.99, and contains approximately 8 hours of teaching time.

Disclaimer: The only compensation that I received for this review was a free copy of the materials. I will give honest and truthful reviews, and where concern is warranted, it will be noted.

Remember the whining I did about grammar, spelling, etc, etc?  (Btw, it’s eTc, not eCt…. *shudder*)

No?  Well, click on over here!  I’ll wait!

I love books.  I love pretty much everything about books.  I especially love hardcover books, and books for the hooligans with great pictures.  This Beehive Reader from All About Spelling?  It absolutely measure up!

* It was created for the beginning reader.
* It is a collection of 10 short stories on 160 pages inside a high-quality hardcover book.
* Each page is printed on non-glare paper, making it easy on the eyes for children.
* The reader correlates 100% with All About Spelling Level 1.
* When one is using AAS Level 1, instructions are included in the corresponding lesson when it is time for the student to read a story in the reader, making it easy on the parent for scheduling reading time.
* The reader can also be used independently of the AAS program.
* It is written with natural phrasing and line breaks, making for smooth, enjoyable reading for the student.
* The subtle underlining helps with tracking if needed, but otherwise easily ignored if not needed.
* Beautiful illustrations throughout the book are included, and the stories use simple words and sentences.
* Natural language and real storylines, including some funny stories make reading enjoyable for both student and parent.
* Beehive Reader 1 was recently awarded a Silver Medal for The Moonbeam’s Children’s Book Awards.

“Your beginning reader will delight in finding out what happens when…
…a busy cat lives in a windmill
…a sleepy bear cub takes a nap
…a grumpy duck demands a snack
…a singing bat befriends a lonely king
…a curious boy shrinks from tall to small
…and much more!”

This reader is a fabulous size for little hands. The print is not crazy huge, but it’s not too small either. The stories are charming and, here’s the catcher… Eph WANTS to read it. He wants to read it A LOT. He chooses this book over any other reader we have hands down.

The pictures are gorgeous, simple, yet help tell the story.  The stories are very cute, and even Zi will read them with Eph, although the reader is waaaay under her reading level.

Beehive Reader 1 is available for purchase for $19.95 (American Funds) at the All About Spelling Website.

And really, look at these pics… how can you NOT buy it when you see these?

Ah books.  How do I love thee… I love the way you smell, I love to flip through your pages… I love to get lost in you!

Books are my BIGGEST weakness.  If our house ever caught on fire, it would go up awfully quickly because of all that nice dry paper!  I simply cannot get enough of books!

Which is precisely why I love this motto…

Do you see that?  “Fill Your Bookshelves without Emptying Your Wallet.”

*snicker*  I am totally going to show that to Ja… maybe he’ll let me buy more books then?

Homeschool Library Builder is a service created by 2 homeschooling moms.  Their goal is to provide fellow homeschoolers (and others) with a place to find affordable literature for their educational needs.

Here is a list of services that are offered on the website:

· Books. We offer new and gently used books for all ages at affordable prices, giving others an opportunity to build their own home library. We stock titles used in literature-based curricula (Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside, Five in a Row, Beautiful Feet, and others), as well as those useful for unit studies for all interests and grade levels.

· Book Search. If a customer needs an out-of-stock book or a title we’ve not previously carried, we are happy to search for it.

· Fundraising. We know from experience how tiresome and time consuming fundraisers can be. Our fundraising program is designed for ease so that neither money nor orders are taken by the organization itself. We provide everything needed for a successful fundraiser, including marketing materials.

· Product Marketing. Wow! Marketing is expensive! For a small company like HSLB or others who want to launch a newly-created product or service, purchasing ad space in magazines or on the internet oftentimes just isn’t an option. The HSLB Market Place offers the opportunity to get the word out about a “homegrown” product or service through our website as well as our monthly online newsletter. This is a free service offered to our HSLB members.

· Spotlight on the Season. We preview and select sites for the current season or holiday, so our customers can eliminate searching and filtering, and enjoy that special time of year with their children. We also provide links to some of our favorite homeschool resources.

· Helping Hand. Through the Helping Hand program we have had the opportunity to raise money for those in need, such as a young autistic boy living near the Alaskan wilderness who needed a service dog, or the victims from the Chinese earthquakes or the Gulf hurricanes. We have a specially designated category of books whereby all money goes to helping others. Oftentimes HSLB matches the amount raised for a particular cause.

· Frequent Buyer Program. When a customer becomes an HSLB member (free of charge, of course!) we offer incentive programs through our book points program. Fifteen book points equals one dollar for use toward future purchases. These points never expire. Points can be earned a number of ways:

I mean seriously, earning POINTS by buying books, which frankly, I’m probably going to do anyway, and then using the points to get MORE books?  Totally all over that one!

Now, the biggest problem that I can see here is twofold, actually… first, I only have so many bookshelves.  Second, even tho shipping from the states to Canada is usually quite inexpensive, I see that the shipping rate schedule is quite high for us poor sad Canadians.  Up to $25 worth of product will cost $13.75 to ship, and then from $25.01-$50 is $20.12 to ship.  It really is unfortunate that they do not charge for shipping using actual shipping costs.

Homeschool Library Builder has a very special promotion going on this month.  How does 20% off the entire store sound to you?  Good books at great prices PLUS a discount?!  Sounds good to me!

See what my fellow crew mate had to say here.

Disclaimer: The only compensation that I received for this review was a free copy of the materials. I will give honest and truthful reviews, and where concern is warranted, it will be noted.

Ah Math.  How we love to hate you.  *ahem*

I always joke and say that I should have been taught math the “old” way…  not that new fangled way I was taught!  The way my dad talks about his math classes, and how things were related to real life?  A far cry from the way it was for me.

You know what Dollar Homeschool does?  It brings us back ALL those old math texts and teaching tools of all kinds!  Right into your hands, well after you print it out, of course.

It can actually be a little bit overwhelming, the sheer amount of information contained in this file.  The Ecclectic Education Series was used almost exclusively in American classrooms from roughly 1865 to 1915.  Included in this series are Ray’s Arithmetic and the McGuffey Readers along with books for History, Science and Grammar.

The Crew was sent Ray’s Arithmetic to review.  Ray’s Arithmetic series is a collection of 38 books that have been scanned {textbooks, answer keys, and teacher’s editions} and are intended to use as ‘printing’ curriculum. As you need materials, you print what you need.

Really, if you liked these old texts (which I do, they are often written much much more reader friendly than a lot of modern texts are), then after purchasing Ray’s cd, you probably wouldn’t need much else in the way of curriculum.

While I personally probably won’t be using the series exclusively, I have already gleaned some great nuggets of wisdom.

Check out the list of books included in the EES here.

Ray’s Arithmetic is a curriculum that goes from Kindergarten to Grade 12 for a mere $59 in American funds!

See what my fellow crew members had to say here.

Disclaimer: The only compensation that I received for this review was a free copy of the materials. I will give honest and truthful reviews, and where concern is warranted, it will be noted.