KinderBach Review

I took several years of piano lessons when I was young.  Every week my mom took me and my brothers to our piano lesson and then we would practice all week at home to go back to our lesson the next week.  I can still play the piano a little bit, but I never had that natural talent I wished that I had.  Anyway, last fall Hailey started showing an interest in taking piano lessons, so I asked some friends on Facebook for some recommendations of a good piano teacher.  There were a few that I thought might work out, until I started looking over our schedule.  We had somewhere to be every afternoon or evening of the week.  I knew it would just be too much to add another activity that took us out of the house, so I decided not to have her take lessons this year.

As you may know, I was recently selected to be a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, where I am able to review a variety of homeschool materials.  Last month I was given the chance to review KinderBach– online piano lessons.  So, of course I jumped at the chance!  I was excited at the thought that Hailey could learn to play the piano and we would not have to leave for another activity outside of the house. I was able to check out The KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner.  This membership normally costs $130 per year.  If you sign up now you can get a special limited time offer of $95.88 for the year, which works out to $7.99 per month. Since I looked into piano lessons last fall, I tell you that is considerably cheaper than what you would expect to pay.

This is a picture of what Teacher Corner looks like.  There are 6 different levels in the Teacher Corner, although all of the levels are not yet complete.  Basically, you will get all of the printables you need for the lessons in one easy place.  You can get the teacher plan book, the teacher aid book, teacher guide, audio MP3s and the student book.  Right now there are over $400 worth of books in the Teacher Corner, with more being added.

This next picture shows you what the learning center looks like.  This is where you would go to do the actual lessons with your child.  In this picture, you can see what the first level looks like for the teacher.  There are 6 different levels and each level has 10 weeks worth of lessons, with 4 lessons in each week.  You can start from the very beginning, or if your child has a little bit of knowledge about the piano already, you can peek around and find the right place for your family to start.

Once you decide where to start there will be videos to watch, papers to color, dancing to be done, and so much more.

This is a screen shot of a video from week 5, just to give you a little idea of what the videos look like.

A few more details about KinderBach- it is geared for children ages 3-7.  You will need access to a computer, iPad, Android tablet, Kindle Fire or Nook since the lessons are online.  There are PDFs to download for the coloring sheets, story books and song books, so access to a printer is also something you will want to have available.

So, what did we think of KinderBach?

I used KinderBach with Hailey, age 7.  Hunter (age 2) likes to do everything Hailey does, so he participated too.  At first when I showed Hailey what we were going to be doing she said it seemed a little babyish.  I told her she had to give it a chance before making a decision like that and before she knew it, she was loving it.

Hailey and Hunter doing one of the activities from level 1.  They had to stand up high when they heard high music played and then they had to get down low when the music was low.  They both loved it and wanted to do it several times.

Hailey loves to color, so she really enjoyed the coloring activities that go along with the program.  Here, Hailey and Hunter are coloring Dodi’s house.  Dodi is a donkey and he is one of the characters your child will meet during this program.

Of course, there was actual piano playing involved too, which Hailey really loved!

KinderBach was really easy for me as the teacher.  Other than printing out the papers ahead of time that went with the lessons, there wasn’t much for me to do.  You do not need any experience in playing the piano to be able to implement KinderBach.  Everything was very clearly laid out from week to week, with no planning involved on my part.

So, here is what it boils down to for me:

Pros
Very easy for me to implement.
Hailey and Hunter both really enjoyed it and didn’t want to stop the lessons.

Cons:
If you print all of the materials in Teacher Corner, it could become rather expensive.
The lessons could be a little longer- some were only a few minutes long and Hailey and Hunter both wanted more.

Want to see some more of KinderBach? Check them out here:

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/kinderbach
Facebook for Teachers:  www.facebook.com/classroomkinderbach
Twitter: @KinderBach
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/KinderBach/
YouTube: KinderBach Preschool Piano

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

I am super excited to announce to everyone that I have been selected to be part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew!  Just in case you are not sure what that is, it is a group of homeschooling families who get to check out a variety of homeschooling products, use the products with their families and then share with their readers their thoughts about the products.  So, I am super excited to get to be a part of this group!!  And guess what- today I am going to share with you the first product I was able to review!

I have been able to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com and see what it has to offer to homeschoolers.  I was given the Yearly Membership Option and I have spent quite a bit of time looking around the site.  So, what exactly is SchoolhouseTeacher.com?  You might be familiar with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine– well, SchoolhouseTeacher.com is a division of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, so you know you are in good hands 🙂  Basically, it’s a site that is full of lesson plans and fun activities for all of your children.  There are things you can do with your toddlers right up through your high school aged students.  There are so many activities and lesson plans that you can even use it as your core curriculum.  Or, if you’re like us, and you already have a core curriculum, you can use the lesson plans on SchoolhouseTeacher.com to supplement what you are already using.  In addition to the lesson plans you will also find great planning help as well as ebooks.

We had a great time using some of the ideas I found on the site!

I think my absolute favorite part of the site is the Homegrown Preschool section.  There are amazing ideas for preschoolers!  I know I am going to be using this section a lot with Hunter (he’s a toddler, so a lot of the ideas can be used with toddlers too).  Plus, Hailey wanted to join in on the activities we did, so it’s fun for school aged kids too.  We decided to make the Glittery Peppermint Playdough!  We didn’t have any green playdough, but that was no problem, we just made our own.  Then I couldn’t find any peppermint oil to make it peppermint, so that was a bit of an issue.  I decided to just put some cinnamon in it instead and it smells super good!!  So, obviously you can modify the plans as needed.

Hunter worked on cutting up his glittery green playdough.

Hailey made hers into a Christmas tree.

Then we used the pegs from our Lite Bright game and added some decorations to the tree.

Hunter loved it!!  This kept him occupied for a very long time.

Hunter’s finished tree.

Hailey’s finished tree.

The next section I explored was Nature/Outdoors.  For the month of December there was a 4 week study about winter weather in cold climates or winter weather in warm climates, so no matter where you live there is content you can use.  The timing was perfect and we had a nice big snow storm on Saturday, so I did one of the activities with Hailey.  Don’t tell her that she was learning, she thought we were just having fun 🙂

We took a piece of black construction paper and put it in the freezer for about an hour.

Then we brought it outside so we could catch some snowflakes.

We took some pictures of the snowflakes we caught.  I wish I could take pictures like these absolutely amazing Wilson Bentley Snowflakes, but I think I have a bit of practicing to do before that ever happens.

So- what do I think about SchoolhouseTeachers.com?  I love it!!  There is a wealth of information and activities on their site.  I think it is well worth the price- SchoolhouseTeachers.com will let you try out their site for $3 for the first month.  If you like it, you can continue at a monthly rate of $12.95.  Or, once you see how totally amazing this site is, you will probably want to pay for a yearly subscription which is $139 which saves you 10% rather than paying the monthly amount.  Plus, if you sign up before the end of December- you will get a free 1 year membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com to share with a friend!  The only negative I found was that it is a bit hard to navigate at first.  I was kind of overwhelmed with everything available on the site.  But, after spending a lot of time looking around, I really love it!

Want to check out the reviews from the other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew?  Click below:

History Rocks! Part 1 Curriculum Review and Giveaway

I was recently given the chance to check out a history curriculum from Jill at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.  Jill has a Member’s Only website where she has 250+ printables- there are unit studies, activity packs and printable curriculum like History Rocks!  I was super excited to get to check out her history curriculum!

History Rocks! Part 1 uses “Boys Who Rocked the World: Heroes from King Tut to Bruce Lee” by Michelle Roehm McCann as its text.

Here is a description of the book from Amazon:

“This engaging and thought-provoking collection of influential stories provides forty-six illustrated examples of strong, independent male role models, all of whom first impacted the world as teenagers or younger. This updated and expanded edition of Boys Who Rocked the World encompases a variety of achievements, interests, and backgrounds, from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Steve Jobs to Crazy Horse and Stephen King—each with his own incredible story of how he created life-changing opportunities for himself and the world. Personal aspirations from today’s young men are interspersed throughout the book, which also includes profiles of teenagers who are rocking the world right now—boys like John Collinson, the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, and Alec Loorz, who founded the nonprofit organization Kids vs. Global Warming.”

The History Rocks! curriculum is geared for 1st-5th grade, is over 400 pages and has 46 units- one for each of the male role models from the book.  Some units contain more activities than others, but all have plenty of fun things to do.  You will find mapping skills, reading, writing and fun projects covered throughout the curriculum and so much more!

Each unit starts out with a page of questions to answer after reading the chapter from the book.  Then the students write about why this person was important in history and what could have been different if that person did not do what he did.  It’s great way to get the students thinking after reading each chapter.  After that the units vary in what they contain- one might have a lesson in using an encyclopedia, some physics, a movie about the person, etc.  There are also links to other activities, coloring pages and more so you don’t have to go searching for anything extra to supplement.

The units do not have to completed in any particular order, you can just pick someone who is interesting to your child and start there.

Since Hailey wants to be an artist, we decided to look at the unit about Pablo Picasso.  First we read the chapter in “Boys Who Rocked the World: Heroes from King Tut to Bruce Lee” by Michelle Roehm McCann all about Picasso.  The book is very interesting- we all found it very easy to read and it kept our attention.

Hailey colored a paper about what kinds of colors she thought Picasso would have had on his pallet during the various periods in his life (Blue Period, Rose Period and Cubism).  Then she had to color what colors she would have on her pallet right now… she picked some happy colors because we’re going to Disney World soon and some sad colors because she saw a puppy at the store that she wanted and I wouldn’t get it for her 🙂

Hailey and Hunter made paper dolls of Pablo Picasso.

Hailey created her own masterpiece after looking at Three Musicians by Pablo Picasso.

We really enjoyed this history curriculum!  I think it makes a great supplement or fun add on, and I would definitely recommend it.  History Rocks! Part 2 is coming soon and will feature the girls who rocked history.  I can’t wait to see it!!

If you would like a chance to win a copy of History Rocks! Part 1, you can enter below for a chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

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