As a family on a budget, pricing is always a key point. Lightning Literature
provides a quality product for a reasonable price. It has been a well-loved
product (it is one of the first items completed each day), and I’m looking over
possible options for next year. You can
read the rest of the review here.
A great way to learn about a product is to see what others think about
it. Make time to stop by The Crew as
several different products from Hewitt
Homeschooling were reviewed here.
—Product review by Sharon Burroughs,
Schoolhouse Review Crew blogging at
Life in the Tribe
No-Nonsense Algebra
Math Essentials
www.mathessentials.net
866-444-MATH
Does the thought of your child taking
Algebra scare you? It shouldn’t! Although there are several good, solid,
Algebra curricula to choose from, before you buy one, I’d like to introduce
you to my new favorite. Math Essentials author Richard W. Fisher has released another winner in his
No-Nonsense Algebra.
Besides the well-written, concise
book (that includes “Tips” pages
throughout to encourage your student), this curriculum offers online
video lessons to go with each lesson
in the book. So, whether you’re a math
whiz or not, your student can learn algebra. (And you can learn along with
them if you want!)
One of the best parts? It sells for
only $27.95—including the videos!
That is an amazing price! Included in
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
the printed book is an extensive glos-
sary with terms, symbols, squares and
square roots, and a “Formulas” page;
then come the solutions. See—I told
you it was affordable, no need for a
separate Teacher’s book! I was actually
shocked at how low the price was be-
cause I didn’t look at that until Emily
had done several days’ worth of lessons
and we had both been impressed by the
videos. Emily said, “He makes it easy
to learn.” Each student will vary on the
amount of time he will need to master a
new concept, but I would say that most
would be able to complete a lesson in
35–45 minutes because the concepts
are presented so well.
Keyboarding for the Christian
School
Leanne Beitel
www.ChristianKeyboarding.com
800-559-2154
I took typing in high school, but ad-
mittedly, I did not do well in the class.
Partly because the material was outdat-
ed and the class was in a stuffy room
at 1 p.m. every afternoon, but mostly
because my best friend sat right behind
me. {grin}
Fast forward a few years and I was
in college writing my papers—hunt-
ing and pecking my way across the
keyboard. I was determined to get out
of college without taking a computer
course. I managed to avoid the com-
puter lab, but I still couldn’t type. Over
the years my typing has gotten better,
although it is not perfect. I am quite
adept at knowing where the backspace
and delete keys are!
As a new homeschool mom it never
occurred to me that I would need to
teach my girls typing until I started
looking through different curricula! I
was very pleased to be chosen to review
Keyboarding for the Christian School as
part of the TOS Crew. We were sent the
Elementary version to review in PDF
format. I chose to print out the book
( 87 pages) rather than try to split the
screen. The book is simple and concise.
The lessons are short, easy, and manageable. It was more like “old school”
learning with paper and a Word document rather than another educational
game on the computer.