CrossTimber Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

 

We tried out a fun product from CrossTimber  that would make a great stocking stuffer. CrossTimber is a company that offers Name Meaning products. They do book marks, plaques, activity sets etc. We received and 8x10 plaque print and a printable activity sets.  You can take a look at some of the different products they offer here:

www.NameCards.work

www.Bookmarks.Name

http://www.amazing.name/ACTIVITY/

www.Meaning.Name

The first thing I did was go to the website and browse around a little. They have several fun and beautiful things to offer. I loved the book marks and the name cards but ultimately I decided on the 8x10 plaque print with 2 names. I chose the Celtic design that you can find here http://www.meaning.name/NG/8x10/Celtic1.html. I really just loved the cross design and thought it would go well in my home. I choose to do each of the girls first names on the plaque. Then I used my oldest name for the activity set because she likes that sort of thing. Ordering was very simple and only took a few minutes once I settled on a design. From the time I placed my ordered it only took about 10 days for my to arrive at my home. It came packaged in a heavy envelope that had two sheets of cardboard on each side to be sure nothing got bent in shipping. I did not order a frame with mine because well I have a stock pile of frames that I have just waiting to have a use for. 

This is what ours looks like across the top it has both of the girls names, then below that it has each names origin and then what the actual name means. Alyssa means highborn, regal, noble woman: Joy and boldness for Christ. Savannah means From the Treeless plain, cherished: One of an Open Heart. Down below that you see two bible verses. Both of these choses versus were beautifully chosen. The printing quality of the plaque is very crisp and clean. The one we received has an aged look which reminded me of an old bible page. 

Next we have the activity set we were sent. This is a great product for younger kids learning to write and use a pencil. This set was packed full of mazes, copy work, coloring pages, matching games etc. The activity sheets we received were printed in color and that was really nice. It gave them a good quality feel. The pages are Bible themed and most have a scripture quote. I would say the age range for these would be kindergarten to about 3rd grade or so. My oldest is in 8th grade and while she said they were neat they did not hold her attention for long. My youngest enjoyed the color pages and the mazes even thought they had her sisters name on them. 

CrossTimber products would make a beautiful Christmas gift for a loved one this Christmas Season. Click the link below to take a look at some of the other beautiful product options that CrossTimber has to offer. 

Happy Veterans Day!

 

 

MathandAlgebra.com review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We were given the chance to try our MathandAlgebra.com which can be found at https://mathandalgebra.com/.  This is an online math program that Covers Basic Math, Advanced Math,  Pre-Algebra, and Algebra.  We were offered the Annual Plan which is good for a year.  It offers you 4 full courses to choose from, program console, student reports, course transcripts, chapter quizzes, and Awards and Certificates. For roughly $99 a year. 

To get started I created my account and logged in. Once logged in you go to the my students tab and ad your student enrolling them into the course that you want them to take. It will have you create a user name and log in. From there you will assign your student and they are off and running with the program once they log in. From the parent dashboard you can do things like enroll your student, purchase another course, view your students progress report etc. I feel like it is simple and easy to navigate. The only issue we ran into was that there is no print button on the student report. To get around that I have been able to highlight right click and hit print selection to get a printable copy of the report. As the parent you can also use the dashboard to view the lessons incase you need to help your student with anything. I would like the option to switch my child to a higher or lower level if necessary. Because some times a child just needs to take a step back or forwards. 

My kiddo is currently working her way through Pre-Algebra. Each level offers video tutorials, and lessons to better help them understand how to work through the problems. Each video is some where in the ball park of 6-10 minutes. So not incredibly long but not super short either. My daughter watches the videos then prints a work sheet that she then uses to practice the skill taught in the lesson. They will download both the work sheet as well as an answer key for each lesson. My daughter reports that the method of explaining how to do the problems is a bit different from other instructors. She likes that the instructor does the problem as they are explaining it. The quizzes will be scored and recorded for the parents records. To help keep your student motivated they can earn badges as they work through the program. How ever my 13 year old does not seem to care much about receiving the badges. Each chapter seems to have approximately 2-9 lessons per section. Some of the other grade levels have a few more lessons per chapter.  Pre-Algebra covers the following chapters: 

• sets
• integers
• fractions & decimals 
• exponents and square roots
•  operations properties and scientific notation
•  ratios and proportions
•  percents
•  number theory
•  number lines and coordinate systems
• equations 
• probability and statistics. 

These topics are standard pre-algebra and I am pleased with the selection of lessons. Depending on how fast your student picks up new math concepts this course may or may not last your student a full year. I like the work sheets although I do wish there was a way to enter the worksheet scores into the reporting system. As far as I can tell only the quiz grades get recorded. This might possibly be an issue for a student that has text anxiety. The scoring is only taking into account the quiz score and not an overall assessment of the students completed work.

You can take a look at some of the attached pictures and screen shots to see what lessons might look like and the type of worksheets your student might encounter in the program. To get a look at some of the other grade levels offered by MathandAlgebra.com you can click the banner below and see how some of the other homeschool review crew families used the program.