Author: Grace-Filled Writer

  If you’ve followed my blog at all you know math is the one area I feel the least confident in teaching. My own feelings of inadequacy stem from confusion during my grade-school years. When I’m looking for a math curriculum I want it to be simple to teach and simple to complete. 

My husband has been taking over the math teaching for the girls for most of this year. He was intending to become a math teacher before he felt God’s call into ministry. He has what one would call a mathematical mind. Things make sense to him with numbers where it somewhat mystifies me. My daughters also seem to be responding well to this change, but I wanted to give teaching
Understanding Pre-Algebra from The Critical Thinking Co.™a try for myself. 
The layout of the book is very simple The teaching portion is short and direct with practice after. Since Rose is already working through a Pre-Algebra course we started in Geometry, a section we have not yet covered this year. I was very pleased to find it easy to teach, even for someone who feels somewhat lost in the world of mathematics. I would review the material first and then sit with her while we worked through it. While we focused heavily in the geometry section this is one of the most comprehensive pre-algebra courses I have seen. It covers algebraic equations, graphing, and even basic number theory. It is definitely a full course and will more than prepare your student to be successful in an algebra I course.

I liked the step-by-step breakdowns and the fact that only a single topic was covered with connections to previous lessons when needed. The layout was appealing and organized, something very important for a math book! There was space lacking for working out some of the problems. Some kids will do this math in their heads, but Rose needs to put pencil to paper for accuracy. Here she is doing some of the steps on a separate page before transferring the answers to the paper.
This is available as both a digital and print edition. We received the print edition, and I greatly appreciated that there is permission given to make copies within your family. I reuse our materials as much as possible and love having this option. 
While I really loved the simplicity and structure of this course, Rose was not as big of a fan of the new book. She said she wanted to have more application to real life. While I see her point, I think the problem for her was simply a change from routine. She actually did quite well with the work and recalled concepts without any problems. As with most math books she expressed she felt there were too many practice problems. I strongly disagree. I thought there were just the right amount and I did not feel it was redundant or unnecessary in length. 

While I did appreciate the simplicity of teaching, I felt as if the book was written more to be done independently by a student rather than taught by the teacher. I find this fantastic, but it is not the best way for Rose to learn math. Beth, who will be coming up to Pre-Algebra in a year or so, is a completely different story. She excels when given work she can master without our input. She also loves mathematics and is generally able to complete her daily work with little help from either my husband or myself and with a high percentage of accuracy when I check it. After seeing how things are presented I’m intending to have Beth start this course next year as a 6th grader. I think she will be ready and it definitely lends itself more towards her learning style than Rose’s. 
There are so many options for mathematics and it can feel overwhelming. This is not a course I realized existed and if you are looking for a no-frills, just the facts type of core for pre-algebra, this is definitely a course worth exploring. 
We on the Crew reviewed quite a few other titles from The Critical Thinking Co.™. Make sure to take some time to check them all out! I’m very impressed with this company which is a new resource for our family and will be checking into some of these other titles myself! Make sure to check out the other reviews from my Crewmates!

 Last year we planed cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in these beds. We had hardly anything produce except cucumbers. It’s really too shaded for those particular plants, so this year I tried peas, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and corn. Wow! These plants LOVE this part of our yard! Behind Grace is the beginnings of my herb garden. It too is flourishing. 

In our giant clean-out I came across several things stuck on the shelf that were fun add-ons handed down to us by other families, but we had never gotten around to using! This is one of those. It teaching about map-making and reading in fun interactive way. On this page Grace learned about ocean currents and how ships have to navigate them to travel where they want. It was much harder before ships with engines! 

Beth is working through her Life of Fred here. The girls use Life of Fred several times a week as a fun supplement to our regular math lessons. It’s a great way to lighten up the tone while still teaching deep concepts. 

There is nothing quite like finding a science lesson in your own front yard! We watched as a mommy and daddy cardinal encouraged their three babies to leave the nest and then helped teach them how to fly. It was incredible! We sat on our front porch and watched for several hours. 

  I remember when I was in Middle School and we had internet for the first time. My mom worked at a local college and they gave us access at home. It was dial up, of course, and we had one e-mail address for the family, but boy did I have fun e-mailing! I didn’t e-mail my friends because I was the only who had an address. Besides that, we just had the one for the entire household! Things have changed dramatically over the years. I had my first e-mail address that was all my own when I was in high school and getting ready to go to college. We decided to let our girls have e-mail so ythey could stay in contact with family when they were much, much younger! We used a kid e-mail program that had some email filter options, but I was excited to try a one-year subscription to Kids Email Safe Email for Kids from Kids Email. I had heard great things about this company and I was not disappointed!     This is essentially a subscription based e-mail system for children which allows parents to have complete control over what they send and receive as well as prevent spam and ads from unintentionally crossing their paths. My husband and I realized we need to allow access to technology so our children can learn under our watchful eye how to navigate it all. It is a scary, dangerous world out there with numerous evils attempting to prey on our precious kids. It is difficult to know the best way to walk our children through this mine field of harmful material, but we must. I love the peace of mind Kids Email gives me as a part of this. 

I am able to have a copy sent of every email they send and receive directly to my inbox. I can personally allow or deny certain addresses from having access to their e-mail. I may allow or deny internet links, images, attachments, and even bad language. These filters give me complete control over their email usage which is perfect alongside frequent discussions about internet safety. The interface is super user-friendly and fast.

So you know as a parent this is fantastic! But what do the kids think about it? 

They love it! All of us love that it is available as an app they can use on their tablets. I like that they don’t have to access the internet to email. They also have the ability to stay in closer contact with their grandparents and cousins. We generally do not allow them to e-mail those who are not in our family, but we lift that rule in special circumstances. For instance, we had a wonderful family stay with us who are serving in ministry in Jordan. They have 4 daughters in the same age range as our girls and digital communication is really the only viable option for them to stay in touch. They don’t yet have e-mail, but I would be happy to give them our girls’ addresses because of the content control I have. We also have some other friends who are serving in other parts of the country in ministry and this is a great way to stay connected with them as well.We also have a dear friend in our church who is not able to be out of her home during the day due to a rare illness. My daughters adore her and she is a wonderful mentor to them. Email is a fantastic way for them to connect with her. 

Overall I’m very pleased and recommend this for anyone looking for a subscription based e-mail program for their kids. 
Check out what my Crewmates have to say!