Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service is offered in print or as an ebook. We are reviewing the ebook, I downloaded it as a PDF and printed it on standard 8.5x11” paper, it’s 117 pages long. The book is geared for 4-12 grade but we enjoyed it as a family read aloud for all ages. Rebecca Locklear is the great grand daughter of a Skipper (highest ranking surf man at a station) and was able to use the knowledge she gained from him along with a lot of research and photo gathering to produce this book. Rebecca Locklear did a fantastic job writing this book, she wrote in a way that keeps everyone engaged and craving more. The book is set up in units, there are four units, each unit has a few workshops. The book has 17 total workshops. Throughout each workshop there are numerous activities, there’s 120 activities total. Throughout these different interactive activities you learn more about the U.S. Life-Saving Service. The activities include:

• Games
• Art
• Cooking
• Drama/Dance
• Music/Rhythm
• Stories/Poetry
• Video/Internet
• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Group Work

Here’s us playing out one of the activities called “Surfmen Line Up”:

My kids really loved that nearly every page has at least one picture on it, most have two. The boys asked lots of questions along the way which were often answered in the book but sometimes sent us off searching for more! I love when they are hungry for more research. Click here to join the Rebecca Locklear’s mailing list to stay up-to-date on the latest news and books. It was awesome having been to a Life-Saving Service Station to use as a reference while reading this book, but now going through this book we are really looking forward to finding and visiting more of these historic U.S. Life-Saving Service stations.

We have enjoyed this ebook by Rebecca Locklear, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it and other ebooks as well so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

The library of worksheets is very easy to browse through, you can select a grade and then look through them by subject.  You can also just type in the search bar keywords to see what comes up. The orange unlock symbols show you the ones that are accessible through the Pro Subscription, the rest are available to everyone!  I especially love that there is something for everyone in here. 

HelpTeaching Pro Subscription also has a generator to custom make math worksheets, batches of bingo cards and word searches.  This is great for spelling words/ vocabulary!

On top of all the pre-made tests that are in the library you create your own tests as well.  To make it even more awesome you can use questions from other tests for your custom test.  Karter is learning how to mow, so I made him a test to see how much information he retained and tied in some time and money word problems related to mowing.

After you're done making your test you can print the test and answer key, save it as a PDF, send it via e-mail to be printed or send a link for the test to be taken virtually.  You can check out the mowing the grass test I made virtual here.

We have enjoyed this subscription by HelpTeaching.com, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

Critical thinking is what helps lead to logic.  What is Logic? The course of action or line of reasoning suggested or made necessary according to strict principles of validity.  Logic is critically thinking through problems.  Logic is often taught as a middle school course but it really starts as early as toddler years.  Imagination is a driving force that helps children create solutions that may not even exist. Logic is taught naturally through in-depth discussions, puzzles, and board games at all ages but for a more structured approach recently we have been using Creative Problem Solving Level 1 from The Critical Thinking Co.™ 

Creative Problem Solving Level 1 is an 8.5x11" paperback book with 212 pages. The book is available in both print and ebook form. It is suggested for preschool through second grade. The book is broken down into 11 categories which include:

• The Magic Pencil -use creative thinking to draw a way to fix a solution
• The Creature Factory - Draw a creature with the best survival features to survive in unique habitats
• Superheroes & Super Powers - Choose special powers to help in emergencies
• Alien Designer - draw a design to fit the needs of an alien
• The Inventor - Create solutions to solve problems
• The Crisis Specialist - Decide the order of steps to take to help in an emergency
• The Best Tool - Choose the best tool to help in a situation
• The Enigma - Use imagination to discover the enigmas
• The Mind Ride - Shut your eyes and imagine you are a character in a story.
• 2-D and 3-D Figures and Shading - playing with figures and dimensions 
• Play With Mechanisms - explore with the system of parts that work together in a machine.

You can probably tell just by the different categories that this is definitely going to be a hit with the boys.  Krissy, my 7 year old son, really enjoyed it.  The Superheroes and Super Powers challenges were his favorite.  The Superhroes and Super Powers section has multiple choice, that sort of helps spark the creativity.  Not always did I get the most creative drawings for the problems but we almost always had some really creative discussions.  I noticed even outside of doing this book work Krissy's story telling became more unique, imaginitive and descriptive.

We have enjoyed this book by The Critical Thinking Co.™, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it and other other great titles as well so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

Schools out for summer...I bet everyone's jumping up and down right now  that they made it through the year!  Things are starting to somewhat roll into summer mode, but that doesn't mean you should put a halt to educating those growing minds!!  Throughout the summer months my main requirements for my kids are journaling and reading. I love to tie in other fun educational activities, to keep their minds sharp and moving but without feeling to schooly.  We received 12 months of access to both Math Shed and Spelling Shed to try out by Ed Shed and I firmly believe it will be a keeper in this house!!

Each student and the teacher have individual logins to Ed Shed.  The main homepage, as you can see from the pictured above, is a clean simple user friendly launchpad to go into playing Spelling Shed, playing Math Shed, logging into the teacher hub or clicking on the avatar for customizable options. Teachers can play the games too and their points show on the "top spellers" and "top mathstranauts" lists as well!

Math Shed includes numerous math facts games and activities.  You chose the game and then can earn points for speed and accuracy.  This program is great for mastering math facts!  Similar to flashcard drills but being a game and having incentives makes it way more exciting!!

Spelling Shed works similarly but you guessed it with spelling words.  They will see it, hear it, spell it, unscramble it, identify proper spelling vs improper spelling, see it in sentences and have challenges that progressively get harder with incentives for speed and accuracy.  We loved Spelling Shed so much that we ditched our spelling curriculum during this review period.  My kids were getting some words that were far more challenging than their current curriculum and were mastering them faster and with ease.  Karters new favorite word lately is "accommodate" he tries to incorporate it in letters he's writing, when he first spelled it for me I won't lie I asked Alexa to verify spelling because I wasn't even positive! This has horkled as a spelling curriculum by itself but can also work as a companion with your spelling curriculum because you have the freedom to make the words lists as well.

There's also a Hive option, which is like a spelling bee for a grouop of children, it requires each student and teacher to have a computer.  The teacher has the hub and controls the pace of the game while the students use their computer to spell the words as quickly as they can.  We tried this out on with computers but it is available as an apple app which would be great for ipads, the app has an additional charge.

The points and honeypots from both games are combined the points continue to grow but the honeypots are used as currency.  With those honey pots they can buy add ons for their avatar, my kids really shopping the store, setting goals and crushing them in the games to customizing their avatars!

As queenbees us teachers have a teachers hub on backside of this program that has a ton of options without getting overwhelmed.  In the hub you can make spelling lists or you can assign the premade spelling lists that are available. When you assign the lists you can set start and end dates for those lists.  I liked that I could pre-plan for the future spelling words, I went ahead and prepped a month at a time.  You can also see incorrect spellings and progress. I used the pre-made lists and they definitely were challenging, I liked being able to see my kids prgressively get better throughout the week.  I did find that dips to 0% accuracy were often from a younger sibling hijaking the wrong account.

We have enjoyed this Subscription by Math Shed/Spelling Shed, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.