As part of The Old Homeschool Homeschool Crew, I received the Earth Book from AIMS Education Foundation to try with my kids. I had never used anything from AIMS before, and I was impressed with this book.

The Earth Book states that it’s for grades 6-9. I’ve been using it with my 5th and 7th graders. It has worked well for both of them. I do, however, have to spend more time helping the 5th grader by reading out loud most of the pages. He doesn’t mind, though, as he likes me to read all his work out loud. I think they do have the grade range right. Although, if you wanted to do earth science with your 10th or 11th grader, I don’t think it would be beneath them. In fact, I wanted to include my two 11th graders in our work with this book, but both of them already have full schedules.

The lessons are in depth, and varied, there’s always something new to do so the student doesn’t get bored. There are questions to answer, maps to fill out, activities & experiments, rubber band books to make and much more. You can see a 30 page preview of the book HERE. With 48 activities included in the 466 page book, I think The Earth Book is worth the $49.95 price. This includes permission to copy each page up to 200 times. That makes it an excellent book for large families or even to use in homeschool groups and co-ops.

What really has sold me on AIMS books, though, are the cd roms that come with some of them. The Earth Book is one of those that comes with a cd. The beauty of the cd is all the pages in the book are all on there. No more breaking the binding on a book to make a copy, or trying to hold the printer cover down over a thick book. Just put the cd in your computer, find the pages you want to print and print away. Such a time and sanity saver! I wish more publishers would add this feature.

The only thing I didn’t like about The Earth Book, is they didn’t have answer keys for all the questions. They do give some, but not all.  While that is a drawback, it is still an excellent book.

This is not a Christian based science book, therefore it offers plenty of opportunities for discussion. We started with the geosphere section, so we discussed the age of the earth, as well as what scientists really know and what they speculate on. We are going to continue with the book for the rest of the school year since the kids and I all like it.

The AIMS Education Foundation catalog has a huge selection of hands on math and science for grades k-9. You can visit their website, aimsedu.org, also to see what they offer. They have math manipulatives and science equipment, including lab packages. I see several books and supplies we need, and the kids would love. 🙂

 

To see more The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew reviews of AIMS Education Foundation products, visit the crew review list.

 

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services
mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I
only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255:
“Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My kids love computers. They really love doing their school work on the computer.  We’ve had a few educational games for the younger grades, but most computer school work is for the high schoolers in our house.

Which is why my 5 and 7th graders were so excited to try Big IQ Kids. And they have LOVED it!

Big IQ Kids is a really cool website where the kids can learning spelling, vocabulary, math and U.S. states. There is even a SAT Vocabulary Prep section. My two have learned a lot using it. They are always telling me something new they learned about one of the states.

from Zach – 5th grade – “It’s fun. I learned that Idaho produces more potatoes than any other state. The states are fun. Big IQ Kids is awesome!”

from Abby – 7th grade – “The math is hard.  The states are fun. The funniest part about it is the games.”

The spelling & vocabulary programs are free! There are even free versions of math and the states. They do have premium versions of math and the U.S. States with more options, you can see their Pricing page for more information.

All of the subjects can be customized. Since we started Big IQ Kids at the beginning of the year, I just went with their lists for spelling and vocabulary. But you can upload your own spelling lists.

In math, you choose how many problems are on a page, the difficulty of the problems, and you can match it to what they are learning in their math book. It’s a great way to re-enforce what they are learning. You can even customize the states, adding additional information for them to learn. They even get a State Master Certificate when the finish!

And as Abby mentioned, there are games to play. As the kids do their assignments, they earn coins. They can then spend the coins on games. No work, no play. lol My kids want to do extra work, so they can play more games. lol The coins can also be used to personalize their on-screen buddy.

I think the best feature of Big IQ Kids is that they send you email updates when your child completes an assignment. They are short, one or two sentence emails, letting your know your child’s progress.

For example:

“Zachary completed a lesson on BigIQkids.com Math Program and scored 24% .  The lesson had 50 problems and was completed in 1:55 minutes:seconds.  You may want to watch your student take a lesson to see if he/she needs help.” – Now clearly, if the boy can do 50 problems in under 2 minutes, he wasn’t really doing the problems. So we had a chat, lol, and now he is.  🙂

“Abigail successfully completed the State Abbreviations Lesson – LEVEL 1”

“Abigail did not answer the Illinois summary question correctly on the first try.  Please let Abigail know that the state summaries are an important aspect of……. and paying close attention to these summaries will help Abigail do well on the State Fun Facts Game.
Illinois’s question: The capital of Illinois is?  Answer: Springfield” – They even include the answer in the email!

 

Other educational programs and websites that we have tried didn’t have this feature. I find it very helpful, especially when you have more than one student.

 

Big IQ Kids is Winner of the 2011 The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Award. For more information about Big IQ Kids, visit their  How it Works and FAQ pages.

 

To read other reviews of Big IQ Kids, visit the Homeschool Crew Review List.

 

 

*Disclaimer – I received 2 free premium memberships in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. My opinions are my own. I also did not coerce positive reviews from my children. Their opinions are their own.

I received a copy of The Curiosity Files – The Dung Beetle e-book from The Old Schoolhouse Store to review. I had never used one of The Curiosity Files e-books before. I was pleasantly surprised.

The quality of this e-book is exceptional. 78 pages of fun and learning, all on the computer. Included along with all the information about the Dung Beetle are:


Bible study and memory verses
Math, history, and geography investigations
Literature and suggested book list
Writing, spelling, and vocabulary activities
Beautiful copywork pages (manuscript and cursive)
Science observations, projects, and experiments
Discussion questions
Art, crafts, drawing, and coloring pages
Lapbook and notebook pages
A physical education activity
Internet resources and video links
Complete answer key

The answer key even includes the answers for the puzzles. No trying to look through the word search to help your child find the word.

If you wanted to, you could print out the whole book. But the beauty of an e-book is you only print what you need. You can customize it to your needs. The Curiosity Files e-books say they are for ages 8-13. I used this one with my 10 and 12 year olds. I think it could also easily be adapted for the under 8 crowd. They wouldn’t be able to do all of the puzzles and activities, but they would certainly learn a lot. These e-books are great for families with multiple ages.

One of the activities that we did from the e-book involved labeling a drawing of the dung beetle. Instead of printing out the sheet, I had them draw the beetle, then label it.

Here’s what they came up with:

The 10 year olds drawing

The 12 year olds drawing – She wants me to say that she was rushing to finish so she could go play with her cousins!

The e-books even included links for websites about the subject. While I had the e-book open, I clicked on the video we wanted to watch, and it opened the webpage. No stopping what were we doing to type in the web address in the browser. We were able to watch a video of dung beetles rolling their dung balls back to their homes. Yes, dung beetles make balls out of dung. Your welcome for that little tidbit of information. In case you want to witness that activity up close, the e-book has directions for building a dung beetle farm in an old ant farm. My son wants to find an old ant farm so he can do that. Let’s just say I’m not as excited as he is to try it.

Did you know that the dung beetles roll the balls by pushing it with their back legs while crawling backwards? One of the activities included was for having the kids use a ball of some sort and roll it with their legs while crawling backwards. My son had fun trying that. He would not let me take any pictures of him doing it, however. lol

I really loved this The Curiosity File e-book. I think these e-books would make a great, fun supplement to your curriculum. These would be awesome for the summer months when you could take your time going through them. I would say there’s enough material and activities to last for 2-3 weeks (or more), depending on how much you do every day. And the best part? Everything is planned out for you! No lessons plans involved! Just pick want to do that day, and go for it.

Keeping the kids entertained and learning during the summer, with very little prep work on your part (just printing the activity pages) is a win-win situation!

You can purchase The Curiosity Files at The Old Schoolhouse Store. I counted 11 different titles at $6.95 each. As of this writing, there are several for $1. each. They are a bargain at $6.95 each. But a $1? What a deal!

Disclosure: I received this e-book for free for the purpose of reviewing it. I received no other compensation. My opinion is my own.