Horrible Histories, and much MUCH more!

Getting your child interested and engaged in learning a subject makes teaching and learning tremendously more effective and enjoyable. The "Horrible Histories" videos that were put out in the UK are a brilliant and fantastically comedic way to do just that - especially for one the most notoriously "boring" subjects ever. But be warned! The humor is crude and bluntly honest, and though there's no foul language or such, parents may want to preview these videos first to determine the level or appropriateness for their child (I recommend pre-teen and up). That being said, I reiterate, THEY ARE HILARIOUS!!! And full of interesting tidbits you never would have imagined. Here is a list of all the videos that were made, and they can all be found through a simple YouTube search such as this one.

There is also the related book series, which is equally comical, gruesome, and intellectually engaging.  My 10 year old boy is eating them up like candy!  Here is a complete list of the Horrible Histories books, which are available for purchase in many different combinations and formats.

And THEN there is the Horrible Science book series, which ds10 finds absolutely amazing!
And THEN there is the Murderous Maths book series, which ds10 finds utterly astounding!
And THEN there is the Horrible Geography book series, which ds10 finds incredibly intriguing!
And America's Funny But True History series, which we haven't read yet.
Oh, and we musn't forget the Boring Bible series - which makes learning about God's word anything BUT!  :)
...and several other minor book spinoffs that I don't have room to list.

There is also a Horrible Histories website, a Murderous Maths website, and a Horrible Science website, each with some fun games and bits of trivia on it, but IMHO they are utterly lacking compared to the books and videos, and not worth looking at except to preview the kind of material you are likely to find in the books.

Educational graphic novels for kids

Rosen Publishing has a huge series of Graphic Nonfiction books covering many historical, scientific, and educational topics, each in "graphic novel" story format.  This is a GREAT way to get your visually-oriented or easily-bored readers thoroughly engaged in a topic.  They're not to be used as primary source material, but as a supplement, but a great one!  Book sets in this series include:

• Grammar Ray: A Graphic Guide to Grammar – grade 2-5: Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns & Pronouns, Prepositions, Punctuation & Sentences, Verbs
• Graphic Battles of the Civil War – grade 4-5: Antietam, First Bull Run, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Wilderness, Monitor vs. Merrimac
• Graphic Battles of World War II – grade 5: D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Midway, The Bulge
• Graphic Dinosaurs – grade 4: 18 books, each profiling one dinosaur species in story format
• Graphic Discoveries – grade 5: Ancient Treasures, Fantastic Fossils, Incredible Space Missions, Medical Breakthroughs, Spectacular Shipwrecks, The History of Flight
• Graphic Forensic Science – grade 5: 6 books, each profiling one aspect of forensic science in story format
• Graphic Mythology – grade 4-5: 6 books exploring the mythology of ancient cultures
• Graphic Natural Disasters – grade 5: 6 books
• Graphic Nonfiction Biographies – grade 4-5: Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, Hernan Cortes, Sitting Bull, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, Julius Ceasar, Richard the Lionheart, Sartacus, Bob Marley, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks
• Jr. Graphic American Legends – grade 2-3: Casey Jones, Jim Bowie, Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, Daniel Boone
• Jr. Graphic Biographies – grade 2-3: Sitting Bull, Hernan Cortes, Harriet Tubman, George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln
• Jr. Graphic Colonial America – 6 books, grade 2-3, telling famous stories of America’s history
• Jr. Graphic Founding Fathers – grade 2-3: , each profiling one of America’s founding fathers in story format
• Jr. Graphic Mythologies – 5 books, grade 2-3, exploring the mythology of ancient cultures
• Mandrill Mountain Math Mysteries – 10 books, grade 2-3, solving adventurous mysteries through math and logic
• Superheroes on a Medical Mission – 12 books, grade 5-8, exploring medical conditions

You may also be interested in a similar series, the Interactive History Adventure books, which I reviewed in an earlier post.

Random memory trick

I needed a memory trick to help ds10 remember the number of feet in a mile (which I myself have never been able to remember either).  A simple Google search quickly got me exactly what I was looking for.  But I thought it was so creative and clever, I just had to share with you all!

Quoted from: http://www.frugal-cafe.com/homeschooling/articles/math-memory-tricks1.html

Here is a way to remember how many feet are in a mile. Say to yourself the phrase, "five tomatoes." There are 5,280 feet in a mile, and those numbers (5 - 2 - 8 - 0) sound very similarly to "five tomatoes." See the table below for a visual explanation.

FIVE	TO	MAT	OES
5	2	8	0

Multiplication MadGabs

At this point, ds9 has memorized the majority of his multiplication tables fairly well. But there are several problems that he repeatedly gets stuck on, and they're the same ones than many other people get stuck on as well. The dreaded 6's, 7's, and 8's. I spent some time this evening trying to find effective chants, rhymes, tricks, or songs to help him thoroughly master these multiplication problems on the WWW. But for one reason or another, ds9 were both unsatisfied with all the options that we found. (Note that he can count up by these numbers just fine, he just needed help memorizing the actual problems.) So, I started playing around with some rhymes of my own. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, ds9 & I had written a series of "MadGab"s (after the board game) for all of his troublesome problems. AND THEY ARE...

4 x 4 = 16
Fort eyes for his hicks team.

6 x 3 = 18
Seek sty miss free his ate team.

7 x 6 = 42
Save a time sick, she’s for tea, too.
Save van thyme sick seas fort heat hue.

7 x 7 = 49
Say vent I’m save hen is far teen hind.

8 x 4 = 32
Hay times fort his there’d eat who.

8 x 7 = 56
Hate Heinz heaven knees fit tease hicks.

8 x 8
Ate I'm say tis hick Steve oar.

We had a blast making these up, and I know we're going to have a blast memorizing them too!! Feel free to steal, or make requests for more! :)

Sylvan workbooks - vocab and spelling

I recently discovered Sylvan's line of workbooks, while looking for a new vocabulary workbook. The vocab workbook we had was super simple and streamlined - A Word A Day. I figured it would be easiest to cover vocab that way, since a) ds9 had a fairly good vocabulary to begin with, and b) we had so much else on our homeschool plate. But my theory backfired. Our vocab book was SO simple and SO streamlined, that ds9 found the new vocabulary words completely uninteresting, and thus had difficulty retaining what he had learned. Knowing my ds9, I should have known. :) Then I found Sylvan's vocabulary workbook. The word lessons are not only very well-organized by categories that obviously should be learned together, but the workbook is just CHOC FULL of games and puzzles and challenges that are interesting, exciting, and truly creative. Vocab has gone from one of ds9's best subjects, to one of his worst, to one of his most favorite subjects - and he no longer is having any trouble retaining the new words he's learning - AT ALL. And even though it's a regular workbook with pages for ds9 to complete, it's taking hardly any time out of our homeschool day - one page a day is all it takes (would only take a page every OTHER day had we started at the beginning of the year, even!), and he whips through them like they're CANDY. :D

This got me thinking... What ELSE does Sylvan have up its' sleeve? Turns out, they also have workbooks in their same very fun yet very logical approach, in the subjects of Math (K-5), Reading Skills for 2nd grade and below, Reading Comprehension for 3rd grade and up, and Spelling (1-4). While the math and reading books appear to be really neat, I think I'm still happier with the Math and English workbooks we're using by Bob Jones University Press. However, Sylvan's Spelling workbook has caught my eye, and I just might give that a try next year. It meets and masters all 3 of my criteria in a Spelling curriculum: 1) the words are sorted by similar spelling types or tactics - *check*, 2) there's emphasis on spelling rules and tips/tricks to make spelling easier - *check*, 3) there's fun (super fun!) games and puzzles and challenges to hold ds9's interest and aid in retention - *check*! I'm gonna have a hard time choosing between Sylvan's Spelling, BJU's Spelling, and Purposeful Design's Spelling next year. Ultimately, I'll probably let ds9 pick - whichever he thinks is "funnest" based on the sample pages. We'll see. :)

Online math games

Whenever possible, I like to substitute online games for repetitious math homework, such as multiplication drills and such. Following are the three best websites I could find for elementary level math games to play online. Each website is well organized, has a large collection of games, and has multiple levels of games so that you can tailor the activities for your little learner. And, of course, they're all free, with few or no ads cluttering up their site.

1st up - fun4thebrain.com. Page after page after page of truly entertaining and well-designed games, most with customizable levels. Website is divided up in sections for multiplication, addition, division, and subtraction. This is ds9's favorite math website.

2nd up - shppardsoftware.com. There are games on this website that cover the full spectrum of math, such as operations, money, geometry, time, and much more! While the website is extremely easy to navigate, I wished that some of the games were more customizable as far as their skill level is. But, as it is, most of the games are RIGHT at ds9's skill level, so I can't really complain. :) Also, this website has a LOT of other really well-made games in many other academic areas as well. I might have to explore the website further and give you a more extensive report on it another day.

3rd up - funbrain.com - math section. This section of their website has all their math games listed out according to possible grade level, which is really handy. You can also filter the games by a keyword search, such as multiplication or fractions, so you can find exactly what you're looking for. Fun, highly customizable games! There are also games covering a number of other subjects available from their home page, though not quite as academic as ShepardSoftware.

Know of a great math games website? Comment and let us all know about it!