Thursday, May 31, 2012

TOS CREW Review- Dive Into Your Imagination

The Dive Into Your Imagination series entertains and educates children about the amazing natural world in the oceans.  I received Dive Into Your Imagination's : What Makes a Fish a Fish.... an awesome DVD and PDF Teacher's guide from Annie Crawley.  Annie Crawley traveled the world as an underwater photographer, dive instructor and boat captain for more than 15 years.  Annie wants children and their parents to fall in love with all the animals of the sea, because we protect what we love.
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 Both K4 and Tot School were very excited to test out this fun DVD... and I incorporated it into our Sea Life Unit. (Which we concluded with a trip to the Aquarium)....
 
This DVD was so good- it was like being right up next to the fish...the children were immediately engaged with this series. I cannot wait to purchase the other DVD's in this series: Who Lives in the Sea and Dive into Diversity. 
What Makes a Fish a Fish? contains 8 different segments.
  1. What Makes a Fish a Fish
  2. Sea Anemones and Their Friends
  3. Hide and Seek on the Reef
  4. Frogfish are Funny Looking Fish
  5. Bath Time for Fishes
  6. Don’t Be Afraid of Sharks
  7. Dinner Time for Fish
  8. Fishes, Fishes, More and More Fishes
Direct from the DVD: What Makes a Fish a Fish?  "teaches children about astounding fish from around the world. How do fish take a bath? Learn the truth about sharks. Play hide and seek on the reef. The underwater realm provides boundless opportunities for parents to learn and laugh with their children. An upbeat original score celebrates the ocean and brings it to life."

The Educator PDF guides that we received were choc full of information.... our guide had 298 pages! 

The price of the DVD is $19.95 and the PDF form of the teacher’s guide is $69.95 For the months of May and June, shipping is FREE!!! 

PhotobucketBe sure to visit HomeschoolCrew.com to read more reviews of Dive into Your Imagination.
Disclosure: I received a DVD and corresponding  educators guides for free in order to write this review. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Ryleigh Turns 5!!

Ryleigh Turned 5 the end of April.... and we had a gymnastics party to celebrate the occasion..... here are a few pictures from the event.... 

 Standard Birthday Picture.... "I am now 5!"
Notice the adorable shirt and bow set.... Thank you Missy Prissy Bow Boutique!!
 Warm ups....
 Stretching....
 Some forward rolls...
 Braeden getting ready to do a forward roll...
 Most of the kids in the foam pit....
 Going down the obstacle course slide!
 Mid Air...
 Picking out the candles for her cake...
Happy Birthday Ryleigh Rae!!!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

TOS Crew Review - CAPJAXMATHFAX


I have done a lot of math work with my K4 class this year, so I was very excited to have CapJaxMathFax to review for Ryleigh as a member of the TOS Crew.  One thing that stood out, right from the beginning, was the outstanding customer service for this company. They are very helpful and will answer any question that you might have- from installing to using the program.

CapJaxMathFax™ Overview 

(From the website)
Reinforcement builds skills. Feedback rewards skill performance and maintains importance of program. CapJaxMathFax™ employs a patented rating system that uses reinforcement and feedback data to create a game-like feeling. Ratings allow learners to keep score and set personal achievement goals. Student ratings also constitute a measure telling teachers and parents precisely where a student is in his or her math fact development. 

Start at first level.
Beginning at the easiest level generates initial success and establishes keyboard skills useful at higher levels. Math types (+, -, x, /) may be practiced in any order and in combination. 

Play through each level.
Advancing through small levels of difficulty assures progress. Just a few minutes each day is all that’s needed. 

Watch score climb.
Visible progress encourages students. CapJaxMathFax™ has a proprietary rating system that produces obvious feedback about even small gains. Kids will say, This is fun! 

Master all facts.
CapJaxMathFax™ rating system assures structured practice through all sets of facts associated with each math type. Students achieve mastery at each level before advancing. 

Immediate Positive Reinforcement.
Immediate knowledge of results is vital to efficient skill development. Most efforts have some element of success. CapJaxMathFax™ captures these with instant feedback about accuracy and response time. 

Regular Positive Feedback.
Encouraging information about progress is critical. It underscores the importance of the effort and maintains learner involvement. CapJaxMathFax™ provides feedback about each session with a graphical bar chart, a running summary of session results, and a personalized session progress report. 

Achievement Certificates.
Tangible evidence of math achievement is available in the form of individual certificates showing student’s performance and current status. Certificates may be displayed and printed at any time. 

Detail Reports.
An Item Detail Report of each CapJaxMathFax™ performance session is available for teacher and parent diagnostic review. 

Unfortunately, Ryleigh wasn't so into this "game"/ program.... however she may grown into it as her math skills increase. I thought it was a fun program...and liked that you could put a timer on the questions to add an extra element to it. 

You can download the CapJaxMathFax™ Evaluation Program for free at any time. The Evaluation Program provides a good hands-on overview with explanatory notes.  If you decide to continue on, the program starts at $29.99.
You can see what fellow CREW members had to say about their experience with the programhere!

Disclaimer- I received a free subscription to CapJaxMathFax in exchange for my opinion of this program.  The comments above are my own views and were not influence by CapJaxMathFax :-)