Schoolhouse Review: ZooWhiz

Recently we were fortunate to be able to try out a Premium Zoologist Subscription. Normally the cost of a subscription is $59.95 but right now they have a special going on for $14.95 which I think is an awesome price for a year!  My 11 year old and 13 year old love doing some of the their school work on the computer so we were excited to try it out!



What exactly is ZooWhiz anyway? 

It is an interactive online learning program for children ages 5-15. It uses game like activities to improve math, reading and word skills. A bonus for any animal lover is that you can learn a lot of information about a wide variety of animals. You earn game coins for completing the learning activities and then are able to "buy" more animals for your collection or play arcade type games.



Here is some additional information about this fun program from their website:

• The 17,000 educational activities in ZooWhiz were developed by a team of highly experienced educationalists and teachers to provide meaningful and effective learning
• Each of the educational activities in ZooWhiz has been included to meet specific learning outcomes identified in the comprehensive, rigorous planning that preceded their creation
• Because each and every activity in ZooWhiz was designed with a particular outcome in mind, there is absolutely no time wasted on superfluous content. The resulting educational content closely follows the key curricula from around the world and has been rigorously tested by millions of users!
• ZooWhiz activities provide scaffolding for weaker students and enrichment activities that will engage and extend even the most enquiring minds
• Learning sequences are designed directly into the sequential, finely-incremented educational content.

 Your child is also able to customize their own zoo keeper character. My music loving son of course chose the kid with the headphones. 
 

The parent can customize each level for the child to make it appropriate for their individual learning level.  My son has developmental delays and being able to adjust the levels for him is a must to ensure he doesn't become too frustrated. There is also an area where you can check to see how your child is doing.

What do I think of the site?
I really like the colorful graphics and the fact that the kids have to earn tokens to either buy new animals for their zoo or to play arcade games. I also find it very beneficial that the parent is able to change the different levels based on what their child already knows.  The animal theme is a big plus for us as both A and Z love to learn more about different kinds of animals. I think it would be a great supplemental activity for homeschoolers as well as children that go to traditional school.

What I do not care for is that even though my son can read, (although at a much younger level) he cannot do the activities independent as I have to be here to help him with the instructions. I know they are rapidly expanding the site and I think it would be a plus if for the younger levels the instructions were read to them.  This goes for the Zoo too. He isn't overly thrilled with it as I have to read all of the information for him.  Hopefully they will also be adding some additional arcade games as there are only a handful to choose from.

Overall though I think there is a lot of great potential for this learning website and I look forward to the kids trying it out over the next year!



Disclaimer: I received a year Premium Zoologist Subscription to ZooWhiz free of charge in exchange for giving my honest opinion of this product. My opinions are completely my own.

Any guesses where we went this weekend?

This weekend we took a break from doing math and english practice worksheets and decided to have an early celebration of A~man's birthday that is coming up later this month. I will give you a few clues to one of the places that he has ALWAYS been fascinated with ever since he was a munchkin. (although this is OUR first time actually visiting!)

This is a strange sight we saw upon arriving.

We had to ride one of these to get there. Have I ever mentioned I am afraid of heights? It absolutely made my head spin!! On the way back down, because of where I was sitting, I got absolutely soaked to the bone!

Needless to say I got chilled and now feel very under the weather.

Plus, on the way home we took a wrong turn and got just a little lost.

 Honestly, it was pretty scary!

 We arrived home a lot later than we intended. So fill in the blank_______ if you think you know where our little adventure took us. I will post more details in a few days. All I can say is, there's no place like home!

Teaching spelling

I have to admit. I have never used a formal spelling curriculum in our homeschool. The first couple of years I tried...yes I tried to follow the curriculum. I'm not even going to say the two I chose as it wasn't the fault of the curriculum that we were unable to use them. Instead I found other ways to teach it using whatever curriculum we used for other subjects.

Math for example. When they were young and learning their numbers they also learned how to spell the numbers. When my daughter learned to tell time she also learned how to write the time. When she learned shapes she learned how to write the name of the shapes.

My son has learning challenges so most subjects do not come easy for him. I have tried teaching him to read using sight words and phonetically, and although it is a slow process, using both works for him. He knows how to read a majority of Dolch-sight words and now I am working on him learning how to spell them. While he is reading if he comes upon a word that cannot be sounded out (for example know) I write it on a 4x5 card and throughout the day I work on him reading it and spelling it for me.

With my daughter she has been a naturally good speller and when she does writing is when we work on trouble words. There are also a lot of free activities online to help with spelling. Last year I really liked trying out Big IQ Kids spelling program and this year we are using a different site that even includes online spelling tests. What's great about spellingcity is that you can make your own lists or use the ones that are already made. The learning is done through playing fun games.

Learning how to spell really doesn't require a lot of money or a formal spelling curriculum. It can be learned little by little while doing other kinds of  subjects. How do your children learn how to spell?

Wordless Wednesday

Prader-willi syndrome awareness

The last 5 or so days have been a nightmare for my husband and I. Seriously. It's been a complete blur. I'm not even sure where to start. I have felt so weary...but today, as every other time of feeling powerless, God showed he was right there beside us.

A month ago A~man had to have a psychological evaluation done as it has been a couple of years and because he receives services through the state, and his yearly plan of care was coming up we were getting things in order. For reasons I still do not understand we did not get the results until last week. I was dumbstruck when I saw them. During the testing he was so cooperative for the 2-3 hours of testing, polite, and as appropriate as it is possible for him. We had thought that we were meeting the psychologist for the behavior part (this was more of an IQ/developmental test) at a later date. So to give the psychologist a heads up on some of the behaviors we experienced in the last couple of years he wrote them down as we do not like talking about them with A~man there. He is always listening and it cannot be good to hear a review of his past misbehavior. Especially since with PWS...some of them just cannot be helped! Also we filled out some types of questionnaire like tests based on his needs and behaviors.

As I said, for whatever reason we got the results last week when my husband went to fill out some paperwork at our service provider. They sat him down and told him. They told him that the psychologist recommended A~an be put in an institution. I am not in the least bit kidding. I have a few readers of my blog that know A~man and my family in person. Hopefully they will chime in and agree how utterly ridiculous this would be. This is something they did with children/adults with disabilities up until 30 years ago. Right before I was married I worked in an institution for a short time with the youngest they had and they ranged from 5-35. They were well cared for where I worked but to put my son and lock him away?

What was the Dr's reasoning? He said that he was a danger to my family. He has NEVER hurt his sister besides normal kid bickering and that is mutual and very mild. I have hurt myself a few times when I have had to restrain him. (disclaimer I am very trained! please never restrain your child without training.) In the past he has also slapped at me. That is spread out over the last few years and it's been over 6 months since that has happened. As a team my hubby and I have learned better ways to deescalate his behavior before it ever hits seismic proportions. We both work from home and we both share in the homeschooling and when one is weary the other steps in. It works for us. Evidently this Dr. hearing what we experienced came to the conclusion that we were merely treading water. Hogwash.

I won't say one of the particular behaviors that disturbed the Dr and our service provider. (unless you are a pws parent and want to know) The thing is the behavior can be common with PWS. PWSAUSA (Prader-Willi Syndrome Association USA) lists the problem on their resource page. The page I have linked is the basic facts wouldn't you think a psychologist and a service provider would KNOW this basic information?? Instead I feel like my husband was interrogated as if we had done something wrong. Fortunately we had been to his pediatrician at least twice for this issue and to another specialist to help with the underlying physical problem that caused the behavior. My husband ended up walking out in the middle of his meeting that day.

How did this affect us? We felt sick..and we were worried that the provider would call DSS thinking that we had caused his problem. I cannot remember the last time I heard my hubby sob like he did that night. Yes he sobbed! I do not remember the last time I have cried so much. We felt so helpless. What did we do? We gathered all of the information we could find about his issue at the PWSUSA website...and I found things in online medical journals. We became proactive and called his GAL (guardian ad litem) from when he was a foster child as she knows us well.(she became our advocate once again through this) We called his pediatricians and explained and got letters from them to give to the psychologist and service provider today. We got letters from a local merchant that knows our family well and from our pastor. Heck, we even called and talked to his old social worker from DSS! Just telling what they have observed from the A~man and what they observed from us as a family.

I didn't go today as I had to watch the kids but hubby went and he went fully armed. That includes a massive amount of prayer warriors and God was obviously right there beside him. What was there reaction? The service provider admitted he did not know hardly anything about PWS. I'm guessing all he knew about was the weight issues which isn't the main issue with the A~man. The psychologist also did a whole lot of back pedaling even though he said he KNEW PWS. We will not be using his report (we will find a different psychologist) but in the meeting he said that he didn't mean that A~man should leave our home. It was written down. Hubby left the 2+ hour meeting in peace...and brought that peace home to me.

I REALLY want to somehow make sure this doesn't happen to another PWS parent. Thankfully I knew that the particular behavior my son was having was pretty common because I was able to talk to a few wonderful fellow PWS parents on Facebook. I shudder to think what could have happened if my husband and I were not fully educated on the other issues that go along with Prader-Willi Syndrome. We would not have been able to advocate for him!

 Have I mentioned I LOVE my A~man???!!!

Homeschool geography club

For several years our family has participated in a local home school geography club. Each month throughout the year every family chooses a country to study about, and then present to the rest of the group. We have gotten so much out of this as not only do we learn about the country we choose, but we also learn from the other countries that the other families have been studying about.

Last year we chose Denmark! I had recently discovered a cousin online that still lives in the country that my paternal great grandmother came from. I have had so much fun getting to know my cousin and she was so helpful in helping us learn about the country of Denmark. She sent us lots of goody packages of a book about the country, a cookbook, flags, and the most amazing licorice I have ever tasted! I also must add that they have the cutest greeting cards I have ever seen.  They are like little cut-outs in pop up book fashion! Below is an example of a card similar to what we have received.

I gave both children certain things to work on that they would present at our club meeting. This has been a great way to work on public speaking! Surprisingly A~man, who is normally very talkative, tends to get nervous like his mama when it comes to talking in front of a group. Z~girl on the other hand is pretty confident speaking. It is so good for both of them though! 

Here they are talking about how one of our favorite toys, Lego, which originated in Denmark.

We also often play games with our friends (that originate from the country) and make food to share. When we presented on Denmark I made some Danish meatballs and also a type of mashed potatoes.

Brændende Kærlighed

This fulfilling traditional Danish meal was a very popular amongst poor Danish farmers for the simple reason that it is cheap, quick to make and very satisfying. We recommend you try it.

Serves 4

• 1 pound potatoes
• 2 onions
• 2 teaspoons chives or parsley
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoons Danish butter
• ½ pound Danish Bacon
  
  

• Peal or scrub potatoes, and boil them for 20-25 minutes in unsalted water or until tender enough to mash
• Cut bacon in small cubes
• Fry bacon on frying pan, and place on platter with paper towel when done
• Chop onions, and fry them in the bacon grease
• Mash the potatoes and mix with butter and salt
• Serve the mashed potatoes with a mix of onions and bacon on top
• Sprinkle the dish with chives or parsley before serving

Tip: To make this Danish dish even better, serve with pickled beets on the side.

With today's technology there are so many different ways to learn about other countries without traveling. (although I would LOVE to go to Denmark one day!) Without technology I would most likely have never met my cousin from over seas. On the web you can learn through geography games , web searches, and we have found lots of useful information and videos at country specific travel sites.

There are so many different opportunities when you become involved in a home school group such as the geography club we belong to. Learning how to home school  goes way beyond sitting down at a table or desk. Becoming actively involved in the research about the country has really helped my kids retain it better.

Wordless Wednesday