TOS Crew Review: ACT Inc.: Discover Online Career Planning Program

What did you dream of being when you grew up?  I bee-bopped around in my choices, depending on my mood at the time.  A teacher, a mommy (well, I certainly have grown up to fulfill those two jobs), a secretary, an artist, an explorer and more.  My barbie dolls bore the burden of emulating all sorts of careers and adventures, until I packed them away for my future children.  But at that point in my tender life, I still had no clear idea of what I was good at, what jobs interested me more than others; and well-I was sort of drifting like a leaf in the wind, with no real direction at all.

I had hoped to avoid having my children waste time trying to figure it all out. My husband and I made an effort to help our older two seek ways to find out what they enjoyed, what talents and skills the Lord has blessed them with, and what careers peaked their interest.  Not an easy task- but thankfully, by the time our darlings were 18-they knew what they wanted to pursue for their college degrees.  When they signed up to take the ACT test in high school, they did have a section to fill out regarding their interests, and that helped a lot.  But boy, do I wish we had been aware of the Discover  (Internet Version) ACT Advantage program at that time.  At least our two youngest children can benefit from this neat program.

The ACT Discover is designed to walk a person through a series of Q and A, in order to determine areas that match their personality and skills.  Their overview page can better explain all the goodies included in your membership, so please take a moment to explore this important information.

After the initial fact finding questions, we began to wonder what we could do with this data. There are options for printing results, which is always helpful. The "tests" narrowed some fields down for her, and offered up some that she may not have even thought of before. She was able to maintain her Portfolio with said results, go through listings of Majors, Occupations, School and Jobs that are available as well.  But was there more? My daughter had worked through the site fairly quickly and she too, wondered if there was more to this. Thankfully, there is. The company sent us information to gain access to their High School Curriculum Guide. That offered so much more tangible ways to really delve into, and get the most use out of this service! I see that it is written for your typical PS setting...which is no big deal. I simply either skipped those lessons that required more of a group atmosphere to accomplish it; or weeded through it to get to main point of the lesson. As an example:  the Subject Matter section of the Guide offers Math, Science, Social Studies and English activities-all designed to have the student "think" through questions and do some activities which highlight these areas. The Career Planning section had a really neat project we both enjoyed.  The student mapped their family tree of careers (what did Grandpa Harry do, and Grandma Peg?) to see if there is something in their heritage that may spark an interest! They also have activities where they are using the site to find statistics and information-again, to give them some ideas to help narrow down their choices, and to see what the job market's current status is.  There is also a section titled  Job Search, and another with Educational Planning activities for the student to progress through.  There certainly is enough in this Guide to keep your student working through the site and material during your subscription period.  The end result?  Well, I know for us-we'll have a more informed high school student, who will have a much better idea of what she wants to focus her studies and experiences on, and she'll have lots of test taking opportunities as well!  That (I am sure) is not one of her favorite aspects, but definitely a necessary one for college.

So where does that leave me when it comes to recommending this service?  I say, that for those families with Jr/Sr high students, this is an invaluable source for figuring out your student's game plan.  I know of way too many folks who spent thousands of dollars, and too many years, switching out their majors in college; only to graduate with a degree that perhaps wasn't even best for their skills/talents and personality.  I feel the fee is quite fair for all the help and online guidance you receive.  So, if your student hasn't a clue as to what they should be when they grow up-this program may very well offer enough help to get them focused on a few careers before they ever step onto a college campus. And for those students who have a pretty good idea of their dream job-this can certainly add additional scholarship, college and career information [since not all careers require a college degree, this will be most helpful in giving them alternative options to meet the requirements] that they may not even have been aware of. 








actually it requires very little of your effort-you will need to print and assign the activities and offer some initial guidance-but the student will be able to do most of it unassisted

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Discover Career Planning Program

$19.95 for 3 month, and $24.95 for a 6 month license to use, with access to the Teacher's Guide as well.
*they also offer a monthly e-Newsletter, Homeschool Resource information and more.

Be sure to visit our TOS Review Crew Homepage to see what my TOS mates have to say about this and many other fine homeschool products.

**ACT, Inc. provided me with a free 3 month license for the Discover Career Planning Online Program, in order to test and use this with my family, so I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: ABCteach Online Resource for Children's Education

With the deluge of products on the market-both physical and online-it can be rather overwhelming for most to decide what are "necessities",  and what qualifies as "nice to have but can live without"  items for their homeschooling needs.  Depending on your educational method and approach, the answer to that may come more easily than others. I tend to be an eclectic, Charlotte Mason based, hands-on Workboxing/Lapbooking type of instructor. The children also lean toward that learning style; and so for us, a mixture of different styles of curriculum help to accomplish this method. Tossing in a few worksheet related activities is not unheard of around these parts; and now that we are a Workboxing family, projects and games, file folders and lapbooks which reinforce our current study material, show up often in our boxes. The problem is, that one can quickly run out of stuff to put in there-things that are not so complex they would take days to accomplish; yet serve as positive tools to refresh and invigorate the children's brain cells.

One way I accomplish the task, is to have some online memberships to varying sites which provide ideas, worksheets, flash cards, clip art, coloring sheets and so forth. There are several nice companies out there-including ABCteach. I had actually come across their site before, and have accessed a lot of the free worksheets prior to this review opportunity-but decided on a different one because of the cost. It all came down to the almighty dollar. Sad, but true-as of late, our belts have had to be pulled pretty darn tight, and so I had to make a fiscally responsible choice for our family. The problem is, I missed out on so much because that the other site simply doesn't offer what ABCteach does. I found the section for creating personalized worksheets, crossword puzzles and other search and find activities, to be such an awesome way to customize and really highlight what we were covering in our studies. I love that feature.  I also quickly noticed that their graphics, clip art and overall look to their material is very high quality.  That means a lot to a person who really prefers her "works" [that is any activity I put together like a lapbook or game] and projects to be classy and professional. 

To get an idea of what you can do with this site-check out the post I have showing the projects I put together using some of the downloads from ABCteach. I am not a big fan of using an over abundance of worksheets, so I tend to avoid getting drawn into that way of teaching. But what I did find, was that I could take a particular download, and change the way to use it or pull parts to create an activity that is reusable, fun and does not resemble your typical idea of a the "just keep 'em busy" through worksheets, way of teaching.

I also have been receiving newsletters from ABCteach which notify us of all the new updates and goodies they have added to their site-which is quite often!  So they certainly stay on top of things, and provide the members with a sleu of materials to keep you from hitting that proverbial wall of "nothing new here".  Plus, they have a blog, have won the Teacher's Choice Award in 2007, and have a pretty easy to navigate website. I actually like the layout a lot-it is linear and organized fairly well, in my opinion.  I have heard others say it confused them, so maybe it is just that I have been scrolling through similar layouts for some time and find it rather easy to work through.  I am not sure, but again-for me, it was easy to use.   It is quite obvious the folks at ABCteach really care about the quality and care they put into their company, and I really appreciate that!

You can access their site to try out several different downloads, since they offer thousands of free worksheets to everyone. It is a great way to see if the material suits your needs and teaching style. For me, it is a must have for our family due to the very nature of the way I teach, and  the way the kids learn.  By visiting the site, you should be able to glean enough examples to see if it fits your family.  I am thinking most of the material is geared for pre-K through late elementary; with a few things (like the foreign language stuff) that can easily be used with older students.  Depending on where your child is in their studies, and how they learn-this could be a great tool to add to your homeschool resources.






if creating projects and activities for the workboxes or lapbooks or works


if simply copying off a worksheet and including in your student's work load

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ABCteach
$40 per year/individual, other price reductions for group membership.

I have seen the subscription price discounted at times, through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op for example-so search for specials to see if you can save on the cost. Another option is to see if you can get folks from your homeschool group or co-op together and purchase a group discounted membership.
For more details regarding their prices, visit their Membership information page.

Be sure to check out what my team mates had to say about this and many other fine homeschooling products, on our TOS Review Crew Homepage.

**ABCteach provided me with a free one-month subscription membership to their site, in order to test and use this with my family, so that I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: Virginia Soaps and Scents

I bet you are wondering what a soap review is doing on a "curriculum" review blog, and if you are not-pretend for a second, if you will. Actually this one is here not by mistake, nor because I jumped ship.  No, it is here because it is a lovely little diversion from the usual academic reviews we normally receive, whilst on the TOS Crewze ship.  After all, it cannot always be chatter about curricula, and products with which to  educate the children.  At some point we need  a break from the routine [still holding out for Chocolate vendors] and thankfully, this one made its way into our line-up. The Virginia Soaps and Scents company is  very familiar with the homeschool world, as they too educate their brood ( I am not sure if their chickens attend or not-but I am referring to their children here] at home. In fact, this company sprang from a project that snowballed into a cottage industry for them!  I love when things like that happen.  It starts innocently enough, and poof!  One is knee-deep in soap suds and soap molds, label making and product design.  It is what American is known for, and so I present to you the product descriptions of what we received for review. 

I am sure that most of my readers have watched those TV shows (say Little House on the Prairie) that depict early American life-the settler years. Well, I instantly thought of those, when I heard we'd be receiving something called a Shampoo Bar. I was picturing those pioneers rubbing their hair with a brick-looking bar made from lard; and perhaps some drops of glycerin and an oily scent thrown in for good measure. How could that be good for the ole strands and  follicles? How would one withstand the critters that would eventually come sniffing around, as the effervescent scent of rendered pig swirled about their heads? Well, have no fear, the critters will leave you be. These are made out of an olive and coconut oil blend, mixed with caster oil (now don't liquefy and drink this puppy-or you are sure to have squeaky clean intestines to match that shiny head of hair) jazzed up with 4 varieties of scents to choose from. The one we had (sampler size) was the Ginger Lime-but I could barely smell a scent from it. These come in a 5.5 oz sized bar-which is pretty darn big. That compares to a 24-30 oz bottle of the liquid shampoo one finds cluttering up the health and beauty isles of the grocery store. I am especially interested in the one made with Tangerine Grapefruit for my daughter, whose hair tends to be oily. For me personally, it didn't work. It made my fine, recently highlighted hair feel like the straw from the innards of a scarecrow, and somewhat "heavy" feeling as the day went along. I have very particular hairs, so this is a frequent occurrence with many commercial hair care products, as well. But for my other family members (with thickly haired noggins)-it worked beautifully. My son thought it was a hoot to rub the bar on his head. It lathered nicely for him whilst making his hair all shiny, smooth and clean. Most of my family members have that luscious thick hair, folks like me can only dream of-so perhaps this is just a better fit for that type. Like I mentioned above, I already have the Shampoo Bar on the list for my daughter, and I am sure my son will want his own too! So yes, this is a product I can recommend.

If you are going to have clean hair, you best have a squeaky clean body to match. So lathering up with one of their handmade soaps,  was a delightful way to round out the experience. We received three different soaps to try out. Out of the Fresh Orange, Oatmeal, Milk and Honey and the Coconut Lemongrass-the last one was by far-both my husband's and my favorite. My daughter swiped the Oatmeal one for herself, and reports that (like all of the soaps) it left her skin nice and smooth, and not itchy at all. As for the Fresh Orange bar, it was OK, but not necessarily one I would buy. Actually, I have their Victorian Rose and Violets and Lace on my "must get" list. I tend to like smelling of a slight scent of garden flowers (kind of like the Victorian ladies of yesteryear), and so this is a great way to do that-without throwing my allergies into hyper drive. My hubby is curious about their more manly-man scents-so I believe we can add that to our list too. Since they offer a multi-bar discount, we'll actually save by buying more. What is so nice about these particular soaps, is that they are made with natural ingredients that are not harsh (at least to our skin-and we have a lot of sensitive-skinned members in our family) and come in a large selection (including a line of fragrance free) of Scent-a-liscious choices. I felt like I was at a spa or something with these fanciful soaps. It was a lovely product to review-and we certainly can and do recommend these as well.

Last but not least, included in our goody box was a little sampler of their Laundry Soap Kit. I have been wanting to make my own-but alas-never quite got to that on my "To Do" list. So this sort of forced my hand. Before you ask-no, we didn't need to drag out a big old black kettle and stoke a roaring fire out back somewhere, in order to create this. In fact, I chronicled this endeavor to highlight how simple it is.  I have used up about 1/2 of the mixture so far, and it seems to be cleaning our clothes nicely.  I am not seeing any dinginess or inability to get them clean.  Because it is October, asking the boy to go out and dirty himself is not in the equation-so I really cannot do a super dirty outfit test.  But from the socks, and food spills that have decorated our shirts; it seems to be compatible with the commercial stuff-and all without the chemicals that plague those brands.  I haven't quite decided yet if I am a "make your own" laundry soap laundress, but if I do decided to go that route-I know where to go to get the soap.  The Sampler packet is $4.95; and the cleaning bar $3.95 (you will need to supply your own washing soda and Borax powder to pull it all together). All in all these products are wonderful good, and we were very pleased to be able to try them out!






after all-how can a soap be religious? (see the comment below-I guess it can be! WOW, this one is taking on a life of its own!  Read what the makers of the Virginia Soaps and Scents is up to [in the comments section] regrading this very question-what an awesome way to be a testimony to the healing and "cleansing" power of GOD)
and

as you will need to handle the stove steps to avoid sudsy disasters or serious burns.

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Virginia Soaps and Scents Homepage

The regular sized soap comes in a nice 4.5 oz bar size and sells for $4.50 each. The samplers (1.75 oz bars) are perfect because they give you a great opportunity to test the Virginia Soaps and Scents out first. You can select the Bed and Breakfast Sampler for $18 (and hey-why not give a few away as gifts?) or the
Virginia Sampler or the Trio Gift Crates.

The Laundry Soap bar comes in either a 9 oz or 2 of the 4.5 oz bars.

Shampoo bar comes in a 5.5 oz bar. $5.50 each or 2 for $10.

They have multi-purchase discounts for the bath soaps:  3 bars for $12, buy 4 bars get  the 5th free or 10 bars for $35.

Be sure to check out what my fellow TOS Mates have to say about this and many other fine homeschool products, at our TOS Crew Review Homepage.

**Virginia Soaps and Scents provided me with a free Sampler Pack containing 3 small bars of soap, one Laundry Kit and one small Shampoo Bar, in order to test and use this with my family-so that I could write the review.

TOS Crew Review: American Heritage Education Foundation-American's Heritage CD Rom

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

Thomas Jefferson

If ever there were a time in our history, where that very thought [the ignorant and free part] is our country's unspoken mantra, it would be now.  Due to  the decline of the majority of our nation's schools lack of  focus, and desire to truly teach the up and coming citizens of this country, about the very foundation in which is was built; and the general overall lack of knowledge about the very creeds that made this country unique and free-we are now waist deep in several generations where this ignorance has opened the door to our freedom's ultimate demise.

This lack of knowledge can be thwarted [albeit  with consistency and through perseverance] by using programs designed to adequately inform our future generations,  with the utilization of actual documents, and correct historical knowledge.  When citizens [such as you and I] and grass roots efforts through those at The American Heritage Education Foundation, we may be able to save this nation from losing what thousands of American citizens have fought and died for-since our humble beginnings.  It truly is imperative that we (parents) teach our children good citizenship and how to preserve our rights as Americans.  One way to go about this, is to use the free America's Heritage CD Rom, provided by AHEF.

The CD contains all levels-so basically-grades 1-12.  Broken down into the three sections, (and also with an Elementary Spanish guide) you can pull up the necessary lessons for your particular grade levels.  This was originally a project that was written for the Houston Independent School District, but is easily adaptable for all, including the homeschooling family.  Each guide contains several activities which tie into the lessons.  To better aid the instructor,  each unit has a listing covering its purpose, objective, theme, time allotment, needed materials, focus, listing of activities, the assessment criteria and concepts. For a complete list, visit the site for the :
Elementary School Lessons
Middle School Lessons
High School Lessons.
Please note, you do not need to order the CD if you have the capability to download, as these are available right from the site, in PDF form.

In my opinion, I would say this is not a complete program, but it is a great supplement or mini-theme series [the high school level will need less additons if you do all of the noted lessons] with which you can build a unit study on our heritage quite nicely.  Some of the elementary activity pages would look nice on a notebook or lapbook page too.  By adding in good literature [age appropriate] that discuss the topic at hand, you could build a really in-depth Citizen/Heritage Study.  If time is of the essence, then what is contained in the CD should suffice.  I found that some of the activities were a bit too much for my second grader-or simply were difficult to do because it was originally designed for several students to work on together.  If I had a bundle of kiddies, I could have pulled it off-but not with one at that age.  I do recognize though, that in the future I can pull them when needed, to add to our studies-so it is a nice reference to have available.  I plan on doing a unit on the foundation of our nation with my high school daughter next year, and so again-these materials will add a nice touch to emphasis the study. Outside of a couple activities that struck me as silly (the Preamble signing activity-I am not dissing Sign Language here-just that it is kind of corny to us and felt a bit like they were trying to hard to come up with an activity for the Middle and High School levels-this may have been a better one for the Elementary level only) , and a few fuzzy or less-than professional graphics [because there are so many resources available on line for free; or as a part of a subscription  to a company that specializes in teacher resources, this isn't a big deal-but I wanted to point that out]- I really liked the majority of what is included, and can recommend it to anyone who is looking for additional ideas and activities to enhance their children's knowledge of our country's unique and freedom giving laws, and the need for preserving it.






the material does discuss our Christian heritage, but it doesn't scream it-so I gave the product a globe-it is useful for anyone who wishes to gain a better knowledge of this country's beginning regardless of their religious affiliation


for the Elementary-High School Levels you will need to be involved with discussion and leading some activities

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The American Heritage Education Foundation Homepage
Free CD available upon request (a $150 value) or you can download them from their site.
or printed guide: $19.50 per level

You can also donate to help continue their mission. See the order page for more details.

Be sure to visit our TOS Review Crew Homepage to read more reviews on this, and many other fine homeschool products.

**The American Heritage Education Foundation provided me with a free CD Rom titled, American's Heritage, in order to test and use it with my family, so I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: Amazing Bible History Timeline

Where does one start with a review such as this? I have decided to switch this one up a bit from my normal layout and style, due to some issues that I feel surpass the review of the item in of itself.

Be assured that I try my best to research any product that uses the Bible as its foundation. I want to be sure I understand where the company is coming from. I want to see what documentation they use to reference and create their product with. That is not always an easy task. Thankfully, most will boldly list their Statement of Faith, so that after reading it-I can decide if it aligns ours. I strongly believe this is an extremely personal, God-given right to which every individual is given. So, please do not misunderstand this review as my stating that one particular religion is better than the next. I am not. This review is penned out of our experience with this product and reflects the views of our family-and ours only. I have my own personal beliefs on such matters, but this is not the time nor the place with which to discuss them. I am simply stating what we discovered and how we feel it does or does not fit our family.

That said, I will introduce the product and discuss what the intention of this item is.  I will then note a few things about it that I found did not mesh with our faith, and then leave it at that.  So let's start with the upside of things.  This is a huge, Biblical historical timeline.  It is designed to try to cover most of the world's history from the beginning to present day.  It is laid out in a fashion with with the notations are squeezed into a large square, so that it can fit on your wall or table.  The intention was to try to show how certain people lived during the same time frame of other "famous" people.  How world history is actually intertwined and interconnected-not separate happenings that occurred somewhere "along the same time period".  This is a one look version of your typical linear timelines.  Not a bad concept actually.  It is nice to glance down, follow a line of history and see (by simply raising or lowering your eyes) what else was "going on" then.  It is coated on the print side with varnish-to make it more durable and yet not be hard to ship or roll/store.  It is brightly colored with 4 colors, and "fairly" easy to follow along.  The chart itself has a disclaimer that  states that they understand that it is hard to pinpoint the exact date of certain events; due to things simply not being recorded way back then, or because some dates conflict with other various sources. It is the nature of the beast.  This is one area that most scholars will agree on-you simply cannot state the exact date and time for some events.  I am fine with that, and am pleased they admit that for all to be made aware of.

That is the good stuff.  Now comes the parts that were hard to use, or simply do not mesh with our personal belief or religious training.  We found (at times) the color choices were a bit much -somehow it made our eyes bug out, and the print in some areas was hard to read.  We also felt like we were craning our necks more than we care to.  We are also a family that prefers to have our history all nice and neatly laid out in a pull-out linear timeline design.  I personally do not do good with circle charts, such as this.  I did cross referenced a lot of the early Biblical information, and it was close to or at the same time frame as the notable resources state.  That was encouraging.  Then, as I made my way through the chart, I started to see some things that didn't line up with our religious teachings.   Then I noticed that there seemed to be a gaps in histories of some nations and cultures; while there was a heavier concentration on others. Now, I do realize that if this chart had every detail from all of the major historical events, since the beginning of time, that it would need to be the size of the Indian Ocean. So yes, I get that they had to tone it down a bit-but I kept thinking things were missing. Then I saw a few familiar names, and I knew.  The folks behind the Amazing Bible History Timeline appear to be Mormon, and that is their prerogative, but the absence of notation regarding it was a bit annoying.

What really bothered me-was that the company was not upfront and open about where they were coming from.  I felt a bit mislead and that really left a bad taste in my mouth.  I would have appreciated knowing right from the start what I had before me-and that would have at least given me the ability to approach it with foreknowledge of the company's faith.

With a wee bit of research (because remember, I want to know what they used for their references-and believe you me-I checked out the major ones here)this is the site I found which is also theirs too-
LDS Amazing Bible History Timeline homepage
Here is their background page on their LDS site-now notice the the sources they use.
Background Page
So, there you are-this Bible Timeline has a Mormon bias to it.  If you are a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints-this can be a great resource for you and your family...it has several references to materials that should be familiar to you.  In fact, I am giving my chart to my friend who is Mormon-and she will absolutely love it!

It comes down to how something fits your beliefs and tastes.  We are not members of the LDS church, and so this Amazing Bible History Timeline is not something we will use. I prefer our timelines from sources that agree with our theology, and so we will stick to the ones that do. I cannot be more blunt or plain about it.  It is not a good fit for our family at all.  As for you dear readers, you will have to do your research and make a decision on whether or not the ABHT is a good fit for you- based on your family's religious preference.






I am noting one ring here because for some families it can be a nice addition to their study material



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Amazing Bible History Timeline Homepage
Non-LDS link

$29.97 for Bible Chart (includes free download of Interactive Maps of the Holy Land, a the Digital Timeline)

Comes with a 60 Day money back guarantee. See details on their website. 

To see what my TOS mates had to say about this and many other great homeschooling products, head to our TOS Review Crew Homepage for more reviews.

**Bible Charts and Maps, LLC, provided me with a free Amazing Bible History Timeline in order to test and use it with my family, so that I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: Educaching

Living in today's high tech world, most are familiar with the wonders of a Global Positioning System-better known as GPS.  So using it to find your buddy's house or that location for the office picnic is great-but what else can one do with it,?  Well, there is Geocaching.  If you are a Boy Scout (or parent of one), or are lucky enough to have stumbled across this info-then Geocaching (sounds like geo cashing) may be a familiar term to you.  Basically, it involves using your hand held GPS device to locate a hidden cache (sounds like "cash") or treasure, that has had its location noted online in a data base for you to find.  It is a world-wide activity that has really become popular in recent years.  That sounds interesting you say, but how about something more "educational" in nature?  Is that out there?

Actually, there is just such a product.  It is called Educaching though-as well as it should be, since you are following a curricula that has several areas covered (educationally speaking) using a GPS, with your students.  So what you have is a program that teaches (the good "not in your face" approach that is "fun" and not "boring") while the children are searching for the cache that is relevant to the lesson.  Talk about a neat way of modernizing the old  (using clues on paper to denote the next location)  approach to a treasure hunt.




The Educaching curricula is designed to meet the national and state education standards (I am not that concerned with such things-but alas, some of you may need that info in order to meet your state's requirements),  which are duly noted in the 20 different lessons contained within the guide.  There are also sections covering how to use your GPS, definitions of the terms used, and helpful insight on how to purchase a device that is best for your situation.  Everything you need for the lesson is noted, and when possible- provided within it.  I found the Teacher Training section to be quite useful, as I have had limited exposure to our GPS unit, due to it being gone with my husband (he needs it for his work) when he is traveling,  more than it is here at home.

Keep in mind, this program was written for a classroom setting, so it may be difficult for some lessons to work as intended, or they simply may have more activities than a typical homeschooler would need to complete-or want to, depending what educational method you prefer. I just picked out the sections that would work for us, and left the rest.  It didn't deplete from the goal of the lesson, and the kids certainly didn't notice.  That said-I started out with the beginner level lessons for our kids, because they had never used the hand-held GPS, prior to this review.  I read through each lesson to determine if it would suit the varying age levels of my children [it states that it is for grades 4-8; being that I have a highschooler and an early elementary student-we were "out" of the suggested age range. I wasn't deterred, as I wasn't expecting my teenager to do this for anything other than for fun, and my boy will grow into the more difficult ones soon enough], I then decided on the activities that would interest them.  After doing the introductory lesson (which offers the students the chance to work through the GPS's buttons/gizmos, and how to properly find the designated cache location-we were ready to try the others.

This was our first test run.  Daddy (the dude with the GPS experience) assisted with the entire lesson-which is wonderful, as he usually doesn't get the opportunity to do so very often.  The kids figured it out pretty quickly-so we were ready to move along to another lesson later that week. I did laminate (no surprise there) the teacher's and student's map (so as not to go through reams of paper) to get more use out of them, and just provided the kids with a wet-erase marker and a clipboard for the excursions. The children seemed to enjoy these activities (mostly the boy) but I did find some things that could (and did) curtail its use, at times. Please note what the boy is wearing-as this will be discussed shortly (no pun intended).

What you have here is our Dinosaur Bone Hunt.  This lesson required the teacher (that would be me) to first copy off the sheet with the various bones of this mystery dino,  then strategically hide them,  set their waypoints into the GPS and mark their location on the master map. The students were to then search for the "bones" (which I put into 5 baggies with varying sections in each), using their newly learned GPS skills.  When all of the bones were collected, they  then were to come back to "class" to create a dinosaur that they felt best fit the bones they found.   For us, seeing that we only have 2 "students" in our wee little homeschool-the suggested  4-5 person team had to be reworked a bit.  So our two ended up switching back and forth with the recording [the Scribe] of the waypoint coordinates, and serving as the official Navigator; while I took on the role of the Photographer, and Daddy served as the Reader.  It was very helpful to have at least one child or an adult handy, who could accurately read the info off of the GPS, so the excursion does not take forever to complete.  At first my teen was a bit unimpressed, but after one find, she quickly became engrossed in the activity-so we found it truly can be used with all ages successfully. I  was impressed with what the kids came up with for their mystery dinosaurs-and their names were pretty funny too.  I built the Partiasaurus after watching their attempts-I simply couldn't resist the urge not to-it was a really fun activity. 

What are the "pitfalls" of this product you ask?  Obviously, with such a program, there is going to be a shelling out of greenbacks in order to have the necessary equipment to complete the lessons.  For the Educaching, program, that would be the GPS device-which can run about a hundred dollars (or more) each. We have one available to us, because as noted-my husband has to have one for his work, so we didn't need to invest anything. But for the families who do not have one already (check your mobile phones, as I have heard that certain systems have that built into them), I recommend that you see if you can borrow a GPS unit first, copy off one of the free downloadable sample lessons, and give it a test run-before buying. The folks at Educaching also have a couple different Classroom Kits which include the Guide and a GPS device(s), to help get you started.

Furthermore, a  few unfortunate situations presented themselves as we worked through the activities. First off, living in a state (such as mine) where the clouds can be thicker than a metropolitan phone book-there is potential to experience lost satellite reception. **[additional note here-I was made aware that there is a "high sensitivity feature" which is basic on most, if not all, manufactured newer [GPS] units.  It provides users excellent reception under heavy tree canopy, or on a cloudy day.  In fact, Garmin (they run about $135) now only produces hand held receivers with this feature. Well how cool is that?  I have to go check out our GPS unit to see if this is there or not-again, if you are looking into purchasing a unit-this would be one feature to check for.  We personally cannot expend the money to buy one of our own right now-so we are stuck with what we have. I actually think our batteries were a bit oldish-which would explain some of the moments of lost reception, so be sure to have fresh ones in there before you head out to do your Educaching. ] In fact, we had so many cloudy, rainy (another problem because this has to be done outdoors) days during the review period, that I started to give up hope that we'd ever have a chance to get out and try it. And since our area can boast about being one of the windiest places (seriously) around-we were stymied by gusts that could have swept up the kids (along with the caches), and planted them in the land of Oz, all  in a blink of the eye! At least we knew they would have been able to figure out their longitude and latitude coordinates with their GPS device!  Seriously though, it simply has not been a great fall with which to give this project a whirl. So weather can be a great deterrent to using this curricula.

Secondly-and here is where I need you to recall the boy's outfit of shorts and flip flops, it is a seasonal type of activity. If you live in mild weathered states, no problem-but for those of us in the polar region (well it feels like it lately) you can have very few days were you can get out and actually "enjoy" (I say enjoy because I am sure you could do this during mild winter days-but that opens up a whole new can of worms that frankly, I simply do not want to bother with) the process. If you look closely at the pictures of the kids doing their Dino Hunt-you will see quite a drastic change in their attire-we froze our tender vittles off that day [but we had to do it because it was going to be one of the only "nice" days for a while, and I was running out time to get these done!)-it was 35 degrees, and blustery. That is just another example of how one's plans can be waylaid due to the weather. So thinking about the area where you live, is an important factor in whether or not it is feasible.

Lastly, I did find that it felt like a lot of work for one or two students.  I think this would better suit a family with a lot of munchkins or work in a co-op/group setting much better.  I was having a hard time justifying the preparation VS the outcome.  I had to go through the lesson, collect the items, get a moment to go out and "hide" them (and because we do not have a ton of areas in our yard that can successfully cloak the caches, I had to venture out into the neighborhood-which was risky, as I had to work around sprinkler systems, hope that curious folks wouldn't tamper with the caches and so forth) and then return to do get the lesson started.  I definitely think it would work better with more participants, and have suggested it as a possible class for our homeschool group.  One of the main ideas (at least in my opinion) with this type of curricula, is to get the children to work in groups, as a team-so with 2 (and sometimes it was just my son) that simply was difficult to accomplish.  So,  figuring your student count into the equation is important, as well.  It can, and does work for smaller "class" sizes-it just involves adjusting and tweaking  to get over a few extra hurdles in order to complete the assignment. We did enjoy the actual search part of it (once we were able to get out and do it), and my son has requested to do several more-which will now have to wait until spring-so for us, it was a pretty decent experience.  If your children enjoy such activities, and you need more guidance and/or lessons plans, the Educaching Curriculum is a great choice.







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$32.00 eBook Version
$32.00 Book with CD, with additional $6.95 shipping fee. **I have to say that unless you live overseas, have dial-up, or in an area where the mail is super slow-go this route-as it is only $7 (plus tax)  more to have the printed copy and CD ready to go.

*I also wanted to note here:  their website is one of the nicest designs I have come across in some time.  It is very professional -a very nice cache to explore, indeed. 


Be sure to visit our TOS Crew Review Homepage to read more posts on this product and many other homeschooling products.

**Educaching provided me with the free copy of Educaching Guide eBook, in order to test and use it with my family, so I could write this review.