Schoolhouse Review Crew: Mango Languages

When my girls were younger, they were interested in learning Spanish, and we found a plethora of products to teach Spanish to various ages, learning styles, budgets, etc. But then, last year, they decided they wanted to learn Hebrew, and I found it much harder to find affordable resources to teach Hebrew to children. So, when we were given the opportunity to review the Mango Homeschool Edition from Mango Languages, we were all SUPER EXCITED!!!

Mango Languages offers over 60 different languages. The Homeschool Edition is brand new! It was designed to give homeschool families affordable, unlimited access to all of these languages at the same time! That means that, while Lexie and Ashlyn were happily working on Hebrew, I could dabble in Biblical Hebrew, and one day when Little Bit was needing some distraction for a disappointment, she and I discovered that she could start learning PIRATE!! There is nothing cuter than hearing a 4 year old say "Blow me down!" in a "mean old pirate" voice LOL.

While my 4 year old loved playing with learning pirate, the program is designed for ages 6 through adult. The homeschool edition is a subscription and the introductory pricing is as follows:
     1 subscription - $18/month or $125/year
     2 subscriptions - $28/month or $175/year
     3 subscriptions - $38/month or $225/year
     4 subscriptions - $48/month or $275/year
     5 subscriptions - $ 58/month or $325/year
     Anything over 6 subscriptions is a special group rate, contact them for pricing.

As soon as we got our login information the girls and I dove right in. It's all online, so works on any computer with an internet connection. It's very easy to set up, and straight forward to use. The Hebrew (and I assume other languages) starts with things you are most likely to need to know, like how to greet people, and other simple "nice to meet you" type things. If the grammar or sentence structure is different from English, it clearly, concisely, and simply, explains those differences right after giving you a phrase that is an example of it. Each lesson introduces new words and phrases interspersed with reviewing already used words, so you don't forget them. It also includes cultural notes, such as the fact that people in Israel tend to be less reserved than Americans, so don't be surprised if someone you're just meeting greets you with a hug. These are interesting for us, and would be extremely helpful if we were using this program in preparation for a trip to another country. I was able to pretty much turn my 10 year olds loose with this, which is always nice.

At this point, for Hebrew, there is only the lessons, with review at the end of every 5 lessons. My understanding is that some of the other languages have quizzes and tests, and eventually all languages will have this. Because we're not really a "quiz" type family, that's no biggie for us, but might be an issue for some.  Each language also has a forum feature, but Hebrew doesn't have any discussion yet. There is not a way to disable this for a child, which would be a concern to me if I were considering this for a 6 or 7 year old. While Mango has some very good safeguards in place to safeguard the forum and chat features from "stalkers", which is important, I still wouldn't be comfortable with young children being able to access this feature without parental controls.

I wasn't able to find as much time to play with the Biblical  Hebrew as much as I'd hoped to . . . something that requires me to be able to hear the computer, and focus, doesn't work well in this house full of noise, and I can't go off in a room alone and shut the door like Lexie and Ashlyn did, to do their Hebrew lessons. What I saw, I LOVE though. It uses actual Bible verses, I'm still hoping to find time to at least get part way through it during the rest of our subscription, because I LOVE the idea of it!

I wasn't really able to see how my parent/teacher account differed from the student accounts, but it's my understanding that one of the things that is still "in process" is for the parent to be able to see what their children are working on and how they are doing. This, again, isn't something that I find necessary. My girls are excited to learn Hebrew, and share with me what they are learning, so I can easily keep track of what they're doing that way.

At first, Ashlyn, especially, felt like it was going too fast. Once I pointed out that she can re-do a lesson to review it, she has moved more slowly through them, but feels more confident that she has actually mastered what she is learning.

Overall, I think this is a great program, and I am soo thankful to have had the opportunity to review it. We are excited to continue using it as long as we have it!

There are a few areas that I hope they are able to improve on/add to in the future:

A big one for us, would be to be able to access it on the iPad and the girls' iPods. Because the lessons use Adobe Flash, they won't work on the iPad, which means using my laptop. I know some of Mango's other products do work on the iPad, so I am hopeful that they will soon find a way for the Homeschool Edition to also be available on iPad.

Also, this program only teaches how to speak a language for a language like Hebrew, I really wish it also taught reading/writing the language since Hebrew uses a different alphabet and is read right to left. It does show the Hebrew words, but because all of the review is the computer saying the English word, and asking the student to say the Hebrew equivalent, there's no way, that I've found, to "test" yourself on whether or not you can recognize the words in Hebrew. I've been thinking about going through the first few lessons and making flash cards that we can use to learn to read the Hebrew as well.

Overall, we are very thankful to have this opportunity, and look forward to exploring the additional features as they become available.  I think this could be a good option for a family wanting to learn several different languages. It seems like, if you're only planning to use one language, it would make sense to at least consider buying the individual language you want, especially since the individual languages include mobile access, which would be a big selling point for me. I would encourage anyone considering this to sign up for the free 30 day trial, and see what you think.

Mango Language, on social media:
Twitter - Mango Languages
Pinterest - Mango Languages
Facebook - Mango Languages


All prices and information are accurate at time of posting.

W is for We do What Works for us

After posting about unschooling recently, I realized that I've never fully explained what I mean when I say that we are Eclectic Homeschoolers.

To start the post, I thought I'd see what the dictionary actually says the word, eclectic means.

1. selecting or choosing from various sources. . . .
3. not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine, etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems.

WOW! No need to say anything else, that sums it up PERFECTLY! But of course, you know me, I WILL say lots more . . . it's what I do :)

There are so many great approaches to homeschooling. When the twins were preschool age, and asking to "do school", I discovered a fun, Waldorf preschool curriculum that focused on art and nature. PERFECT for little ones who want to "do school" but are still so little, and developmentally aren't ready for the logic and reasoning skills of academic work. We had great fun with it, and Little Bit has been enjoying that same curriculum now. In fact, the older girls often join us. Art and nature are awesome at any age!

As we got to the end of that curriculum, the twins were starting to be more ready for academic work, asking to learn to read, asking intelligent questions about the many historic sites we visited with their grandparents, etc. And so we stepped away from one specific approach and started just doing what works for us.

Over the years we've used "old fashion" things like McGuffy's Primer. We've pulled many ideas from Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, Classical education, Unit Studies, Notebooking, Lapbooking, etc. We also love using National Park Junior Ranger programs as a part of our school, and we happily set aside whatever else we might be doing if a field trip opportunity comes along!

I've found many things I've loved in each of these approaches, but also find that, in all of them, there are things that don't work for us. One major "flaw" in most approaches is that the approach dictates what is taught when. Children (and everyone) remember information much better if it's something they are interested in, and wanting to learn, so a key element that has threaded it's way through all of our homeschool journey has been focusing on things that the children are interested in.  When I noticed 5-year-old Ashlyn building a model solar system out of black walnuts on the patio, I suggested that we do a (preschool) science unit study on the solar system. When we wanted a chronological approach to world history, I discovered that a book typically used by classical homeschoolers would work well for this, but we chose to use Charlotte Mason's idea of "living books" to flesh out the classical spine.

Eclectic homeschooling has been, and continues to be, a great fit for our family, because it molds itself to what works for us. It also adapts to each of the children's interests.  Little Bit has, from the time she was 3, loved to do "workbooky things".  When she gets a new coloring book, she immediately goes through it, hunting for "activities" . . . circle the differences, mazes, trace the letters, dot-to-dots, those are all right up her alley. At her age, her sisters wanted NOTHING to do with such things (which works well, she's going through all her sisters' old coloring books and doing those pages they skipped LOL).  Ashlyn is my art-lover, so she often adds art projects into everything that we're studying, such as watching youtube videos to teach her how to paint an Egyptian mummy as a part of our study of Ancient Egypt.

Blogging through the Alphabet is hosted at BenandMe.com.

Schoolhouse Review Crew: ScienceandMath.com - Algebra I

A couple of years ago, we had the pleasure of reviewing a science video from ScienceandMath.com. We LOVED it! So I was excited to see the company on the list of vendors again this year. Since we'd already reviewed the science video, I began exploring the math videos they were offering. After watching the online samples, and looking at what each video included, I decided on Algebra 1: Volume 1.  In addition to the Algebra 1 physical DVD, we also received a digital download version of the Fractions Thru Algebra Companion Worksheet CD.

The Algebra 1: Volume 1 is a set of 3 DVDs that provide 7 hours of step-by-step instruction. This course is intended for students in grade 7 and above. The videos show Jason, the same host we met in the science video, explaining the concepts of algebra, starting with real numbers and their graphs and working lots of example problems. The companion worksheets are organized by track on the DVD, so it's easy to know which worksheet to print to go with each lesson. The worksheet file also includes and answer key with step-by-step solutions.  The DVD set is available for $26.99 or as a download for $23.99.  The companion CD is available for $24.99 or as a download for $21.99.

We don't use grade levels in our homeschooling, so I'm not sure what grade level Lexie and Ashlyn are at, but I could tell from the sample video clips on the website, that the beginning information wouldn't be above their heads, and that it moved systematically enough that they should do fine to move forward from that point. The video is designed, based on things Jason says on the video, to be used to reinforce what's being learned in school, however we found that it worked fine as a stand-alone product. I found each track of the DVD to be too long to watch in one setting, so we would watch part of a track and then stop for the day and I would print out the corresponding pages of the worksheets for the girls to do before moving on to the next section. This worked well, and because the worksheets present concepts in the same order as the DVD, it was easy to break things down into smaller sections.

We moved pretty slowly, to make sure the girls fully understood each concept. While Jason explains things in a very thorough, step-by-step way, Ashlyn wants to know WHY everything works, she won't take anyone's word for ANYTHING. So, for example, when Jason says that, when multiplying 1/5 x 5/8 (or something like that), the 5s cancel out, she wasn't about to take his word for that, and I got to spend the next couple of hours (literally) figuring out a way to help her see WHY that worked.  I had an excellent algebra teacher in high school, who found it very frustrating that I was good at math, but had no interest in doing anything beyond the minimum I was required to do. I would LOVE to get him and Ashlyn together for a couple hours, either he would adore her, and all her questions, or he would repent of his frustration with me LOL.

Needless to say, the fact that Jason doesn't going into the painfully detailed explanations that Ashlyn requires is not, at all, a bad thing, it just meant that WE moved slowly through the videos, and it challenged my memory of concepts LOL. For a more typical child, there would need to be very little parent involvement. Certainly by the suggested age of 7th grade and above, I would expect this to be something the child could do completely independently. With a motivated student, she could even check her own worksheets with the included answer key, and it would allow her to see where she had gone wrong on the problems she missed.

Despite it not being as detailed as Ashlyn would have liked, she did like the videos overall, and asks when we're going to do Algebra each day.  As we moved beyond real numbers and fractions, and into actual algebra, she commented " Algebra is kind of like Jeopardy, it gives you the answer, and you have to figure out the question." I thought that was a pretty good observation :)   Lexie isn't as thrilled with it, I think because it is challenging her, and she's used to things being easy, so she doesn't react well to challenges.

Overall, I am very impressed with this program. It is a great way to reinforce the concepts for a student who is struggling with algebra using a different curriculum (either homeschooled, or in school), but it also seems to do a good job all on it's own.  I highly recommend it!

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All prices and information are accurate at time of posting.

Weekly Wrap-up - March 9

We had a quiet week . . . I like quiet weeks, but they don't make for fascinating wrap-ups LOL.

We've been reading and watching quite abit about ancient Egypt for history. It's been fun to hear the girls express opinions about the varied theories . . . perhaps my favorite, was listening to them go OFF about a video we watched in which, one of the "experts" stated emphatically that this was HOW IT HAPPENED without any real evidence. Both Lexie and Ashlyn were soo annoyed . . . "you can't say it DID happen that way! You can't prove it! You should be saying it MIGHT have happened that way!!"  I love it when school makes them think :)

All our ancient history studies have also led to a renewed, expanded interest in creationism, and the proof for young earth creationism. Lexie and Ashlyn's birthday list has expanded with several books on the topic that they've heard mentioned in resources we're using, and now they want to dig more deeply into it (one that I found fascinating was that the ancient chinese pictograph for "boat" literally shows 8 mouths on a vessel . . . interesting, considering there were 8 people on Noah's ark).

While it's hard to tell, because most of the ground is still very much white, the snow IS slowly but surely melting . . .I suppose the slowness is a good thing, otherwise we'd have major flooding concerns, but it'll sure be nice when the kids can play outside again.

And that's pretty much been our week . . . we've been doing abit of spring cleaning and organizing, and just generally enjoying abit of calmness while we can grab it :)

Recipe: Potato Noodle Soup

I'm not sure how it is, that I've never posted this recipe, it's my husband's favorite soup, and one that my mom's made since I was a kid. I think my mom has a real recipe with actual quantities, but I usually just use whatever I have on hand, or looks good.

INGREDIENTS:
onions, chopped
potatoes, cubed
chicken broth (or water and broth powder)
egg noodles
eggs

Put the broth on to start boiling while you chop the onions and potatoes (this time I used 2 onions, but not all of the potatoes pictured). My mom always peels her potatoes, I don't, I'm lazy and the peels have nutrients in them, and my family doesn't mind. Add a couple handfuls of egg noodles (I probably used a scant half of the package).

While the soup simmers, scramble some eggs. I think I used 6 eggs. I scrambled them in butter,but didn't bother with any milk or salt since the eggs will be added to the soup.


Once the noodles and potatoes are cooked and the eggs are scrambled, add the eggs to the soup, and serve.

If you have leftovers, the noodles keep absorbing the liquid, so you may need to add extra water or broth when you reheat the leftovers.  By making this with vegetable broth, or a vegetarian chicken flavored broth powder, this is a great vegetarian alternative to chicken noodle soup.

 Visit Try a New Recipe Tuesday for more new recipes to try.

Homeschooling while Traveling.

I'm blogging today over at SDA Homeschool Families, about Homeschooling while Traveling.

Weekly Wrap-Up - March 2

We're having fun with school these days, and I actually remembered to take a few pictures of that fun.  As a part of learning about Ancient Egypt, we pulled out the legos and, while we listened to an audiobook about pyramids, Lexie and E, tried their hand at building lego pyramids. Ashlyn opted to draw pyramids with the help of Draw Through History, instead. We also had fun with an on-line virtual tour of the pyramids, and watching some videos about them.

Little Bit's favorite tv show these days, is a new Nick Jr show, "Paw Patrol". In a nutshell, a bunch of dogs go on missions and save people/animals. One of those dogs wears a square "pack" of some sort. With that as background information, one day Little Bit came with the tissue box that we made into a "harp" last week and asked me to use rubber bands to help her attach it to her back. I wasn't sure WHY, but whatever . . . Once she had the box in place, she turned into a "dog", the one, with the pack, from Paw Patrol.  Who says tv stifles creativity, around here, it just seems to give them ideas LOL. 

When we went to Reading Museum last week, I promised Little Bit that we would go again, so on Thursday, after music lessons, and setting up the Sabbath School Room, we headed back to the museum. This time she knew what to expect, and dove right into the Dora and Diego exhibit, and had a blast! She's still not tired of it, so I suspect we'll be back a few more times before it leaves in May.  The big girls, chose a different exhibit that they wanted to see, but then, when I noticed there is an electricity exhibit there right now, and I knew that this week's lesson in Chemistry, is all about electricity, I convinced them to let us check that exhibit out this week, and we'll go  to the paper one another time. I wanted to see what was there to see how well it would correlate with what we'll be learning in science.  I was THRILLED to find that it's all hands-on stuff, woo-hoo!! 

The girls happily spent quite awhile checking it all out. Little Bit enjoyed it for a little while, but then she and I moved into the next room,where there were taxidermied animals and such which kept her well entertained until her sisters were done in the electricity exhibit. 

Friday the girls went to Grandmom's house with Daddy, and I grabbed the chance to get birthday shopping done.

With a new month, the story in Sabbath school moved on from Noah to Abram. This whole month, the stories have someone dress up like Abram and tell or act out the story in various ways. I DID get fabric to make the girls a more authentic Bible-time costume, but we didn't get around to actually working on it this week, so Ashlyn used her colonial shift, and a woven baby wrap to approximate a Bible-time costume. The closet at church has the head-dresses, so she had the kids wear those as well, and be Abram's "family and servants" as they began their journey to wherever God leads. Aren't they all cute?