Zephyr Hill

A Family Blog

Looking for a Fun and Effective Typing Program for Your Homeschoolers?

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We added Typing Instructor Gold to our homeschool in 2021 so that our older children can get an essential 21st century skill in hand, and have fun doing it. This Windows program includes a simple but engaging interface, practice, drills and games. Customize your lessons and your themes. You can take a quick assessment at the beginning if you’re not sure about skill level.

I’ve got our program set up for multiple children, and multiple skill levels. My younger children are “getting their feet wet” at this point; big brother Joseph at 19 is working to seriously improve his ability and speed for the workforce.

Typing Instructor Gold has several advantages over other available programs:

  • It’s a one time purchase; no need to subscribe.
  • Accommodates multiple users
  • It walks you through the set up process and guides you through the different levels.
  • It motivates and rewards.
  • It’s available for Mac or Windows
  • Requires no internet connection.

I mentioned motivation above. Everything about this program is designed to move you forward. After signing on, you begin your typing journey in the Travel Port, where you’ll select a themed adventure (Prehistoric? Australia? Antarctica?). After that it’s on to the lessons, tests, challenges and games. Everything builds on what you’ve learned, and you earn digital passports along the way. Fun!

Typists who want to take a break from lessons can hang out in the Practice Terminal where there’s an arcade of games and the ability to create custom lessons. My favorite part is typing to dictation, with a wide range of materials available to choose from.

We are using Typing Instructor Gold on our Windows 10 laptop and it required about 500 mb of storage.

Here’s a screenshot showing how you can personalize the program to each “passenger” in the family.

Typing Instructor Gold is available for purchase at Timberdoodle for $29.75. If your child is enrolled in Timberdoodle’s 6th grade curriculum, Typing Instructor Gold is already included in the kit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Timberdoodle for offering a discounted product for us to review!

A Game for Cat Fans and Crime Solvers

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Thinkfun has created a clever little logic game called Cat Crimes that challenges your child to solve mysteries like “Who broke the flower pot?” and “Who ruined the shoes?” The guilty party, of course, is one of the six sneaky cat characters. Using clues, self-standing cardboard cats, and a colorful board to guide them, children can sniff out the culprit using logic and spatial concepts.

We received a complimentary copy of the Cat Crimes game from our homeschooling partners at Timberdoodle to share with you!

Our children ages 6 to 13 have enjoyed this little game so much, and learned to play it very quickly because the set-up is so easy. Put the board in front of you, assemble the cat characters and choose one puzzle card to solve. Put your thinking cap on and use your logic skills to find the culprit; check your answer by turning the card over. That’s about it!

The cat graphics are whimsical and appealing, and the “crime profiles” in the rule book will elicit some definite chuckles. Like this description of the Persian, Duchess:

“Duchess lives a luxurious life and has a taste for the finer things. Of all
her expensive tastes, her taste for crime may be the strongest.”

I like that there are different levels of puzzles to solve – Beginner, Intermediate, Advance and Expert. My only suggestion is that with 10 puzzles for each level, children who love this game as much as mind do can blow through the first two levels pretty quickly. Expansion packs are needed!

One side of the card contains the clues; solutions are on the reverse.

Cat Crimes teaches and reinforces these skills:

  • Logic
  • Problem-Solving
  • Deduction
  • Spacial concepts (left, right, beside, across, between, etc.)

Product details:

  • 1 Game board
  • 6 self-standing cat characters
  • 6 evidence tokens
  • 40 challenge cards
  • Rules/Solutions booklet

It’s available separately for $13.99 or included in Timberdoodle’s 5th Grade Curriculum Kit. Cat Crimes was a 2018 National Parenting Product Awards Winner and gets 5 stars from our family!

 

 

Having Fun with First Grade Geography

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When I was very young, my grandmother gave me a wonderful book called It’s Fun Finding Out About People and Places. Boy, is that title true! I still have this book and my family treasures it.

Little ones are naturally attracted to maps and globes and places all around the world, so it’s a shame that more attention isn’t given to the study of geography, especially in the early grades. As a longtime homeschooling mother, I can attest that geography workbooks are something my young learners always look forward to.

After trying different versions over the years, we were given a chance to review Skill Sharpeners Geography by our friends at Timberdoodle homeschooling.

Teaches the Basics + Bonuses!

With this series, your child explores the world while learning key map skills and geography concepts. First grade starts out close to home, with maps of rooms and parks and neighborhoods. It branches out towards the end to US state and country snapshots. There are also lessons which cover basic map skills like symbols, terms and demographics.

There are lots of hands-on activities, too, if your child likes working with crayons and scissors and glue. There’s a removable answer key in the back which you or your child can use to check work.

I love that Skill Sharpeners includes both lessons and activities, all in a compact and colorful workbook. There are teaching pages that you can read and study together and then one or two work pages after that to reinforce the concepts.

Example of lesson pages:

Example of activity pages:

The scope of Skill Sharpeners Grade 1 covers:

  • Map skills
  • Places and regions
  • Continents and oceans
  • Habitats

Book details:

  • Softcover, 144 pages
  • Available separately for $8.99 or included in Timberdoodle’s First-Grade Curriculum Kit
  • Available in grades Pre-K through 6

Speaking of fostering a love of geography, I always recommend that every homeschooling family invest early on in a good atlas of the world. If your children are at different grade levels, you can purchase one for young children and a more advanced version for teens and adults to reference. And don’t forget an attractive tabletop globe (Juvale has a classic one for under $20)!