Category Archives for Review

When we started, we didn’t call it gameschooling -- we just called it “fun.”

I think we gravitated to games because I didn’t have traditional learners in my homeschool.

They didn’t want to sit and do worksheets. They didn’t want to fill out lapbooks. 

And several couldn’t read until much later -- so I needed something that didn’t require them to read independently.

They also wanted to jump and run and move. I had kinesthetic, dyslexic, ADHD kids ...

So we played games. Lots and lots of games.

And Blokus has always been one of our favorites.

I think it’s one of the first games we ever bought soon after we decided to homeschool.

I remember standing in the store, trying to decide if it was worth the cost. (This was before Amazon made it easy to sit on my couch and deliberate the same question!

I almost didn’t buy it … but I’m SOOOO glad that I did.

Because my kids have played Blokus for years. 

I love how it is great for spatial learning, for problem solving. I love how it works for visual learners and you can play with all ages.

I love how it keeps working for my family year after year after year.

Seriously -- it will be a great add for your homeschool.

Click HERE to check out Blokus for your homeschool.

Transcript

Hello, this is ToriAnn Perkey and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to talk about a game that we've had in my family for years. There are so many different ways to play with this game. And no matter how you play, it's going to enhance and increase spatial learning in your kids. So it's a fabulous game for your homeschool.

The game is called the Blokus, and you may or may not have heard of this game. It's been around for a long time. There's variations. I absolutely love this game. This game is really good because if you remember playing Tetris as a kid, it takes Tetris-type shapes and the kids are physically manipulating them. So it's everything that the video game did with Tetris with it's the ability to see shapes fitting in different places, but they're doing it with their hands, which means there's that whole kinesthetic element.

So what is a part of this game? Well, you start with a blank gray board. And I don't know if you can see this, but you see how it's got a texture to it. So there's a grid board, and it's up to four players in the classic version of the game. And the pieces come in different shapes, and they're all these different - I don't know if you can see that - but you see how they have ridges?

And so this is five squares. It's one-by-one squares attached in different ways. So you have different shapes and depending on the shape determines how it fits on the board. The traditional way that you play is up to four people start in a corner ... one person starts in each corner. So there's four corners, and you start placing pieces, and the rule is that you have to touch the pieces corner to corner, like so, and they're not allowed to overlap.

And the goal strategically is to see who can get the most pieces on the board before all the spaces are gone. So there's a lot of strategy involved.

What I love is that, one, there's no words in this game, which means that your kids who are not readers yet, they can totally play. And you can play big kids against little kids. The whole family can play.

Second, I love the fact that there just is so much geometry and spatial reasoning and mathematical thinking and problem solving going on as you're trying to figure out how to place these blocks.

But what I also love is that the number of ways to play with the game when you're not playing the game is huge. The reason this game has been a favorite in our homeschool for years is not because of the actual game, although we do like playing it. It is because there are so many ways to play with these pieces on this board.

So I've had kids who will create patterns. I've had them create a grid -- see if they can put all the colors together and how they can make squares. I've also had them figure out how they can create multicolored patterns because there's blue, green, yellow and red. I've had them line up all the pieces along the floor. I've had them look at -- because there's different sizes of pieces -- you know, there's some that are really tiny like this and then there's big ones like this. I've had them stacked pieces on top of each other too.

It's amazing to me how many ways they figured out to play with these very simple pieces. That's what I love about it. I'm going to invest in a game that can be a family game, but the kids can get out and they can play with it any time, even if they're all by themselves, and my kids did.

All of my kids played with this game and continue to play with this game. The one caveat I will give you is there are, of course, lots of actual pieces. So if you have little babies, you'll want to figure out a way to keep it out of that. And we were really good about taking the pieces and putting them in Ziploc bags and storing them in the game so that we could keep track of everything. Because this is a tiny little piece you can't play without it, and it would be really easy to lose. So we were really careful about that.

But other than that, man, this is an amazing game. I strongly recommend it for your family and your homeschool. If it sounds like something you'd be interested in, then click on the link up above or down below, you know, wherever you're watching this video and check it out. Because anytime you can have a game that has so many different purposes and so many different ways to play, it's going to be a win for your family. I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.

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(And there’s nothing like a science experiment that flops to shift the energy in your homeschool for the day!)

That’s why I LOVE the books I’m reviewing today.

The experiments work every time. The kids love them. And I get SUPER excited because they really are SO MUCH FUN.

These experiments will work with kids as young as preschool and kindergarten -- but they also have the wow factor (think money on fire!) that is going to appeal to middle school and high school aged students.

Many can be done in 10 minutes -- although some take 20 minutes or longer. And all your supplies can be found in the grocery store or dollar store.

CLICK HERE to check it out for your homeschool:
Fire Bubbles and Exploding Toothpaste
Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes

(UPDATE: I recently became aware there is also a ​Steven Spangler Science Club​ -- which is a box subscription with monthly science experiments shipped to your door. I personally haven't tried it, but it looks pretty awesome!)

Transcript

Hello, this is ToriAnn Perkey from my homeschool to your homeschool, does your homeschool have naked eggs and exploding toothpaste? Well, if it doesn't, then it should. And today I'm going to tell you how to make that happen. Why? Because I have two very, very, very special science books that are all about that.

The first one is called Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes. And the second one is Fire Bubbles and Exploding Toothpaste. These are both science books put out by Steven Spangler. He is a fun, fun, fun science guy who was seen on the Ellen DeGeneres show several years ago.

And these are science experiment books, right? Which as a homeschool mom, they're kind of a dime a dozen. I feel like I cannot move two inches through a curriculum fair or even a bookstore without coming across some kind of science book. So why would I take the time to recommend these?

Well, I just really liked them. And let me show you why. So first of all, I love how they are designed. I think that it's a book designed for moms and kids. You know, this is a book that you could give to your kid and they would enjoy. But I also think that for moms, how a book is designed, it makes a huge difference. And these are slick. The pictures are fun.

So here's a really great example. The photography is really powerful. I feel like the instructions are well laid out, and then I really like how the visually it's a really strong visual book. There's no hand-- it's not hand drawn, it's not about-- it's not black and white. It's very colorful. The other thing I really like about this particular science book is there's the whole instructions and then there's a What's Going on Here section, and inside the section you are going to that's where you're going to get the actual science.

So as a mom you can be doing the science experiment with your kids or give the book to them, and they can do the science experiment. But then over here you're then able to kind of be looking on the side and do the teaching piece and fill in the teaching as you're doing the science experiments.

I also like it because every experiment I've done actually works, which is saying a lot. We didn't do a ton of science experiments throughout the years just because the mess was really hard for me. But when we did science experiments, and I tried lots of different books, this was the book I kept coming back to-- these two books. And I will tell you at the back of this book Fire Bubbles, there is a section of experiments that are only for people who have access to chemicals and ingredients that a science teacher has access to.

All of the other experiments, including some about setting money on fire, and there's another one about glacial gac, and there's one about soap exploding in your microwave. Those are all done with things that you can find around your house or easily buy in the grocery store.

But there is a section in that Fire Bubbles book does require having access to some additional materials. So know that if you're only going to pick up one, I would start with this one because you'll be able to do every single science experiment. I loved it so much. We got both. But you know, that's me.

So just wanted to tell you about those. I love it. I think it's fun to do experiments. I think it's a way to just expand and make your homeschooling more than just sitting and doing books. It's an easy way for the kids to do hands on.

And these are really fun for all ages. I will tell you that as a mom, when the soap is exploding in the microwave, I'm getting excited. I'm like, yeah, that's so cool.

When we're setting money on fire. Yeah, that's pretty fun too. So it didn't actually burn, but you have to do the experiment to see how that works. So I highly recommend these books.

If you want to check them out, you can check out the links up above or down below. You know how this works, and you can go take a look at those for your own homeschool. I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.

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Transcript

Hello, my name's ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to talk about what happens when you take math, add it to murder and you get some kind of magical mathematical learning. It is all because of a series of math books that are a real hit in my family.

They are called Murderous Maths, and yes, it is not a typo. It's maths because they come from Great Britain, which is where they say maths instead of math. Now why do I love these books? Well first of all, there's a lot of them. I'm just going to show you some of the covers --Guaranteed to Bend Your Brain and Guaranteed to Mash Your Mind are the first two. These are general books.

These books are kind of a combination of comic book with a really funny sense of humor. Think Monty Python combined with some really excellent deep math learning. Not a curriculum, but for any kid, whether they love math or not, this is going to be a fun read. We've actually sat down and read them as part of our morning reading time and my kids love them.

Okay, so let me show you a little bit in here what they look like ... give you a good idea. These first couple are just general math, and they cover a lot of different topics. When the author Poskit started to make them, he didn't know he was going to make as many. So he just covered some topics.

And let me give you-- let me give you an idea of how this book is put together. You can see that it's got lots of pictures and texts. This part is how our 10 system works in the invention of nothing, which of course is going to be about the invention of zero. You've got funny characters that are saying things throughout the book. Here's an example of talking about time actually in comic book format and then moving along.

There's definitely some excellent math diagrams. Here's about right angles. I love it because it's written at a middle ... middle grade -- so sixth, seventh, eighth grade reading level. And it's got humor that's just a little bit quirky. It's gross, but it's not yucky gross. It's just kind of like "Ooh, gross" sort of things. So Guaranteed to Mash Your Mind and Guaranteed to Bend Your Brain are the first two.

And then they get into more subject specific. So for example, here's one on Savage Shapes. This one's going to be all about geometry. Here's another one on Do You Feel Lucky? This one is about probability. Here's one called The Phantom X. Phantom X is going to be about algebra. And again, all of these are books where they talk about tricks and tips and how to think about math in new and different ways.

And I would love to show you the rest of the series. There's actually a whole bunch more, but my son loves them so much. They are kind of scattered and hidden around the house, and I couldn't track them all down. So if this sounds like a book that you'd be interested in, go ahead and check up the link up above or down below. You can see what the whole series is. You can read all about them.

I'm here to tell you that these books have been in our homeschool for a really long time. We've read them for years. Like I said, my one son is actually reading them multiple times on his own. Really appeals to that ... to his sense of humor with ...while it's still the kind of clean, smart, funny humor that I love to put in his brain. Plus it's math. He's laughing about math. What gets better than that?

So this is a series that you think would be interested, go ahead and check out the link up above, down below. It's gonna really work out well for you I think. I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.

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Poetry has always been a HUGE part of our homeschool because I’ve seen how it makes better writers and stronger readers. (I talk all about that it my post about creating great writers.)

And Carolyn Kennedy’s poetry anthologies -- oh, I love them!

Not only is it beautiful to read but it’s also beautiful to look at, which means it works for multiple ages as you’re all trying to homeschool together.

CLICK HERE to check it out for your homeschool:

A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children
https://amzn.to/2BQn2QX

Poems to Learn by Heart
https://amzn.to/2DZ4eRk

Hello, my name's ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to tell you about a resource that is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the ears. It's a poetry resource that my kids and I have loved for years. We've loved reading it, we've loved looking at it, and we've loved memorizing the poems. It is Caroline Kennedy's "A Family of Poems," and then her second volume "Poems to Learn by Heart."

You guys, these are amazing. Now in previous videos I've talked about the value of poetry. I've talked about how poetry makes great writers. And I can tell the difference between writers -- kids who have read poetry and kids who haven't, who've heard it because that feast of the words, the way the rhythm and the language and the cadence, all of that comes together. It starts to show up in their writing.

So I believe that poetry is something that should be included in every homeschool in some way or another. That's just part of how I see it. So we've done poetry for years and I've looked at a lot of different poetry resources. But this is one of my favorites. And let me show you why. So first of all, Caroline Kennedy, if you don't know, is ... she's actually JFK son. Son? She's JFK's daughter. And this is kind of her own lasting legacy. One of the things that she's done.

And in these books, let me just find an example, the pictures are watercolors. Do you see that? Can you see how beautiful those pictures are? Let me find another example. You know, some are more landscapes like that. Let me see if I can get that to show to you. Others are going to be a little bit more ... oh this is a really great example. See that knight there? And that's a poem called "A Fairy and Armor." And then here's one. The poem is called "This Is the Key." And then it's a window and a dog and a little boy here with the key. These pictures are just so delightful. Just, oh they're so good.

But if it was just the pictures, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book because there's lots of books and lots of poetry books that have beautiful pictures. It is also the poems that are selected. So like I said, I have read a lot of children's poetry anthologies and frankly, sometimes you start to feel like you're seeing all the same poems over and over and over again. And yes, some of the favorites are in these, but there are also deliciously wonderful poems that I had never read before in all of my years of homeschooling, in all of my education.

I also love ...so I love the fact that she's made that kind of selection. I also love the fact that she's included some Bible verses that are also poetry, like the ecclesiastical section ... the Ecclesiastes section that talks about there's a time for sowing, there's a time for reaping. You remember that ...you know. So her poems span the range from very, very old to brand new. They're very modern, contemporary, scripture as well as funny.

She has them in categories as well. So you have seasonal poems, and you have poems about the city, and you have poems about childhood, and you have funny poems. I really, really find these to be two of my favorite anthology books for children, which is why I am recommending them today.

So if it's something that you think would be great for your homeschool, be sure to check it out. I'll leave a link up up above or down below, you know, wherever you're watching this video. And you can go check it out on Amazon and see if it's something right for you.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.

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But regardless of the age they learned, the moment when things really click and they could independently read was magical.

And each time they made the big transition from simple-sentence books to chapter books -- this series is the one that I used. (I wrote about our simple-sentence readers here.)

Today I’m going to tell you why.

My guess is when I’m done -- you’ll want a copy of the series in your home library as well. 🙂

CLICK HERE to check out Moongobble and Me for your homeschool.

Video

Transcript

Hello. My name's ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to tell you about the first chapter book readers I always start my kids out.

These are the books that every single one of my four children made the transition from reading kind of just struggling and figuring it out to, you know, sight reading and working so hard into the chapter book phase. Every single one of my children.  And I just stumbled across these books one day. I don't remember how I found them, but I am so glad I did.

It's a series called “Moongobble and Me” by Bruce Coville, and you guys, there are five books in the series. There's the Dragon of Doom. And then there's the Weeping Werewolf, The Evil Elves, The Mischief Monster, and the Naughty Nork.

Let me tell you why I love these books as the first chapter books for kids who are learning how to read.

Well, first of all, it is the content. The content is just at that perfect level. It isn't too hard, but it isn't too easy. The content is a really good story. It's about a boy who gets connected with a wizard who's kind of a bumbling wizard, and he's always turning himself ... his spells are always getting messed up, and he's always turning himself into cheese. And there’s kind of a snarky toad that goes along. So it does have that element. And I will put the caution in here -- If you're a family that doesn't like magic, you won't like these books. But that's the only caution I have to put here.

The second ... so that's the first thing is I just find the story compelling with the characters. The second is the character is just a few years older than the age group of most of the kids who are reading. He's about 10 or 11, which makes it a very appealing book for kids who are often trying to learn how to read the stage.

The next thing that I like about the book is that the chapters … so first of all, the print is actually fairly big -- if you can see that -- and so the kids have a little bit … and the spacing in between the lines is also fairly large. They call that leading. And so because of that, it's easier for the kids to read.

Another thing that I really like is it has these delightful, delightful pictures. Do you see that? And they are spaced fairly evenly throughout the chapters, which makes the kids a little more excited when they have to read because they have those pictures to look forward to.

The chapters are only a few pages long, and so those early reading times when the kids are working through a chapter and they feel that sense of accomplishment, they don't have to go too far. And each chapter is that perfect bite size piece.

Okay, so that's why I love these books. And so far I could probably be describing a lot of books. So let me tell you a couple other reasons why these are always my go to favorites.

First of all, they are funny. They're really funny, and they're clean. Funny.

I like to describe there's a difference between clean funny and dumb funny and mean funny. And dumb funny is all the crass humor, the bathroom humor that you often see in books this age, particularly books targeted for boys. And mean funny is where the characters are mean to each other or snarky, and you don't see any of that in this. It's clean funny. It's smart funny. The kids laugh.

And more importantly, I'm laughing, too, even the second and the third time through the book, which is saying a lot, right? Because once you've read a book once, and you're reading with a kid who's struggling … ok, it takes a lot of patience. And this was actually something I enjoyed coming back, too, and reading again and again.

Furthermore, you have a situation where this kid is going to go off on adventures with a with a wizard. But the wizard insists that he go ask his mother first, and she gives her permission. The family unit is respected, and that mother figure is not only just, you know, in the background. But she's actually a respected figure that is treated as you would want a mother to be treated inside a subject material that often doesn't do that. And so I felt like I was also getting a little bit of that character development.

The last thing that I love about these books is that the peril is just right. There's enough peril that the kid actually is engaged in the story. But the peril isn't scary enough, and the endings are never scary enough, that even the most tender children are going to be bothered. There's moments where there's, for example, in this first one where they're scared they're going to go to this dragon. They're a little worried about it, and then within half a page they come across the dragon. It's this large, scary figure, and then it turns out to be this little itty bitty dragon that becomes their friend. And that's kind of the pattern throughout these books is that … it's not always the same plot, but it's this idea that the characters are really supporting one another. And when you get to the end, the characters that were the problem have actually helped support the story and helped the main characters.

And throughout the book, more family-centered values show up. I don't want to give too much away to take away from some of the fun. But let me just say that throughout these books, what I have found is that our kids and my kids enjoy them. I enjoy them. They feel like they strongly support all the things that I'm trying to teach my kids that are really important.

So if you are in the market for a really great series that's going to help jumpstart your kids reading, I strongly recommend Moongobble and Me. That's right. So if this is something that you think you'd be interested in, check the link up above or down below. You know, wherever you're watching this video, and yeah, I hope you enjoy it.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.

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Transcript

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Whether you're planning for your first year of kindergarten OR you're planning to start with high school, this book has everything you need.

Cathy Duffy’s book has been around forever -- for good reason.

If you don’t have it, by the end of my video -- you’ll want it.

Promise!

CLICK HERE to check it out for your homeschool.

Transcript

Hello! My name is ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, I want to tell you today about the very first book I always recommend every new homeschooler grab. Before they ever look at a specific curriculum, before they ever look at a specific way to set up their home, this is the book. Because if you get this book, then everything else gets easier. It is the "102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum" by Cathy Duffy and if you have not heard about this book, your life is about to change.

Here's what I love about this book. Cathy Duffy started as a curriculum reviewer. She would go through and review different curriculum. She would talk about why they worked and why they didn't, and she would only pick the best. So, she didn't include everything she looked at. Over time, her book that she put out became kind of the bible for how to figure out how to pick a curriculum for your kid or what are the other things that you could pick up that would be interesting for your kid. I have found some of my amazing resources in her stuff.

Then she became so -- I don't know -- famous, popular at what she was doing -- that she then built a website. Because if you only do 102, you really can't fit everything that's out there. So her website which is also -- the way I always find it is I just do homeschool reviews Cathy Duffy and it's Cathy with a C. But when you find her website, then there's so much more you can look at. But here's why I trust her reviews.

The beginning of the book -- and this is why I think it's the first book you buy is -- the beginning of the book starts with talking about what is the style of homeschooling you want to do. And then it goes on, and it says what is the personality of your children. And she has her own way of describing them that very much aligns with how I like to kind of break things into different categories. Then she goes into thinking about when are we going to learn things and what is important for us to learn, and she doesn't tell you one way. She gives you some basic foundational principles that work to figure out what works best for you, and I subscribe to those ideas 100 percent.

If you've watched my homeschooling 101 whether it's been online or whether you've been to one of my classes, this is the model that I choose to follow whenever I'm inviting a new homeschooler to kind of really think about what they're doing because this is going to set you up in the right way. Then once you've gone through that the rest of the book -- you see all of that? So, like that much is what I just described.

The rest of the book is curriculum reviews, and it's not just a couple of sentences. It is paragraphs and paragraphs about why it works, who it works for, which type of personality it's going to be best for, what kind of style it's going to be best for. This is one-stop shopping. One-stop shopping, and I know that when you're a homeschool mom and you're feeling overwhelmed and there's a lot to try to figure out, this is the place to start.

So, if you're going to buy one thing for your homeschool, this is the one. This is where you begin. This is what you get. After you've gotten this, you'll know what else to get if you're going to get anything at all. It's where you need to start.

Alright. If it's something that you think would be helpful for your homeschool, check the link up above or down below. I leave it wherever it is, but it kind of depends on what you're watching this particular video on.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.