Talking Fingers Word Qwerty

Talking Fingers was established in 1994 with the purpose of developing quality educational materials. Neuropsychologist Dr. Jeannine Herron and her staff has continued to work on new research and development to create programs to help engage children and their left side of the brain where skilled reading and writing are processed. Extensive research has been done using their program Read, Write and Type in California schools and formal research was done in 2006 in Dallas schools for their Word Qwerty program.

Word Qwerty: Foundations of Reading and Writing Fluency is designed to improve phonological and morphological sensitivity. To develop a deeper understanding of how words are constructed in English, create useful activities that provide helpful feedback. Word Qwerty has 20 lessons with 6 activities per lesson that provide the following:

1. Some sounds can be represented in several different ways.
2. Most words follow about 20 easy spelling rules.
3. There are many word families, (words that sound the same, or rhyme). By changing the first letter(s), you can make hundreds of words.
4. Some words are "outlaws". They don't follow the rules. They must be recognized quickly and automatically.
5. Writing to dictation develops vocabulary, comprehension and fluency as well as spelling skills.
6. Reading (and filling in missing words) develops vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency skills.

Wordy Qwerty is targeted at 7 to 10 year olds who have learned the basics of phonics and word identification and are poised to master more complex reading and writing skills in order to become enthusiastic and capable readers and writers.
The six different lessons each day are as follows:
Step 1: Patterns

Your child generates two lists of words by typing the names of pictures and sorting the words by a given characteristic. They are directed to notice the patterns," or spelling rules, by comparing the two lists. If they can't sound out the words or spell them correctly, the Helping Hands will assist them. Qwerty and Midi talk about the differences between the two lists and derive the 20 spelling rules which then are woven into the lyrics of delightful songs.

Step 2: Karaoke

Rhymes and songs are memorable and fun. There is a catchy song about each of the 20 spelling rules.

Step 3: Recycler

Lots of words that rhyme can be made just by changing the first letter or letters of the word. Some words sound the same, or rhyme, but use a different combination of letters to represent the same sound. In this game, chidren learn different vowel combinations that can make the long vowel sound. They watch the RECYCLER drum whirl as it changes the first letter(s) of two rhyming words. They learn to quickly distinguish real words from non-words. The non-words are vacuumed away.

Step 4: Pop-a-Word

"Outlaw" words are best memorized by learning to recognize them quickly. In this arcade-type game, children find words in a 4 word phrase as each word appears briefly, along with non-target words, in a cluster of colorful balloons. As children click on the correct balloons, they "pop". The faster they recognize the correct words, the more points they make.

Step 5: Write Stories

In these cleverly illustrated 8-line rhymes, children hear and see the first line, and have to type out the second line after it is dictated. They can see and hear the dictated line as often as they need, but get more points if they remember the sentence and try to spell the words correctly. These little stories are full of words that require using the spelling rule just presented.

Step 6: Read Stories

Here are some short, engaging stories that develop comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Every so often, there is a word missing, and children have to choose among three possible words, the word that best fits the meaning of the sentence. These stories also include words that utilize the spelling rule, or the "outlaw" words learned in that lesson.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I am very impressed with the technique and practice of the Word Qwerty program. The variety of methods adds interest and excitement while strengthening their reading and writing skills. I like that it is using multiple sensory learning. I saw a great improvement with Kaiden's spelling and sounding things out immediately. I am grateful that we were able to review and use this program. You will not regret giving this one your time!

To learn more about Word Qwerty go their website www.talkingfingers.com for a free online lesson.
The Word Qwerty Home Edition is $35 which includes 1 CD-ROM, 1 program guide in a 3-ring binder and 1 JingleSpells audio cd of the 20 songs contained in Word Qwerty.

I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for my thorough use and honest review of them. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.

Mad Dog Math

There has to be more than just flash cards right? I have heard many homeschool moms discuss how they like doing them but the kids do not. My youngest son can fall into that category where he would prefer to do anything over flash cards.

Mad Dog Math was created by Julie Kotoff, a veteran educator with 30 years of success in classrooms of both public and private schools. As a 3rd grade teacher she developed and perfected the Mad Dog Math program.

The purpose of Mad Dog Math is to be a fun, exciting, practice and consistency to gain and maintain math skills. We can all agree that learning the multiplication tables is important. The greater ease and less drudgery that they feel towards math helps their skills increase. Mad Dog Math is a pc application that provides an at-home practice experience just like the classroom drills.

The essentials of Mad Dog Math:
*Enables children to master their +, -, x, and ÷ facts in a fun challenging, exciting, and motivating way
*Math supplement for any math curriculum
*For grades K through 5th; remedial middle school and high school
*Standard, daily 10 minute time commitment from start to finish
*Huge body of math facts broken down into bite-sized pieces any child can master

Here is the creator Julie to introduce and share some insight about her program:


The exciting part of Mad Dog Math is that it takes 5-10 minutes daily. This is for the most part an easy timeframe to fit into your homeschool day and get accomplished. The student can do it independently and many find their kids enjoy the timer to race against their best time.

This portion of the website grabbed my attention in a BIG way:
Please don’t assume the teaching of the basic facts is happening in your child’s classroom. America is in an educational crisis. Twenty years ago we were ranked number one in education in the world. Today we are ranked 24th in the world in math. We must take a serious look at WHAT is being taught and HOW math is being taught, especially in our elementary school classrooms! There is no math curriculum to my knowledge with a math facts mastery component to it. For some reason, math facts are not considered important anymore and are almost completely ignored, to our shame and to our detriment.

While I am a homeschooling parent it still applies that I need to take a good look at how serious I am about practicing facts and getting them memorized for ease for my kids once they are grown. I appreciated the reminder! Originally I liked this program and found it useful but now I believe that I will be adding this to our collection as my son who hates flash cards found a love for his timed practice online! I am thrilled to add our family as yet another successful user of this well thought out program.

Mad Dog Math is available for your home with a few options. One year subscription for $19.99, add a year for $10 more, or get a Perpetual License for $39.99. Mastery Binder and CD-ROM options are also available. I enjoyed the ease of downloading the Mad Dog Math program from the internet and being able to use it quickly and easily.
Check out Mad Dog Math on their website for a free trial: www.maddogmath.com

I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for my thorough use and honest review of them. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.

The Institute for Excellence in Writing Review

Whether you are brand new to homeschooling or you have been doing it for years I guarantee you have heard of (IEW) Institute for Excellence in Writing. Before I had even learned about the program I knew the name well. I became excited about seeing if this gem of a curriculum could be the answer to my reluctant writer. You will soon find out the answer.

The Institute for Excellence in Writing is a well laid out, easy preparation writing program. We used Student Writing Intensive Level C (for grade levels 9-12).

This packet contains
• Four DVDs
• A binder with dividers
• A packet with the teacher’s notes, handouts and checklists (about 100 pages in all)
The Student Writing Intensive now comes with lesson plans and reinforcement exercises built right in. Written by Jill Pike, these lesson plans specify what portion of the disc to watch in one session and what to do in between video sessions.

Recorded live, this DVD writing course for students by Andrew Pudewa is comprised of four writing sessions on DVD. Each session presents structural models and stylistic techniques from our TWSS Syllabus. Included with the student handouts are complete teacher notes, source texts, and checklists providing fifteen comprehensive lessons to ensure your student masters each unit before moving on to the next. Since each lesson can take one to two weeks to complete, the entire package can provide 15–30 weeks of writing instruction.

I was delighted at the real approach to writing while watching the DVD with my son. Andrew Pudewa truly seems to understand the mind of a discouraged writer, the frustration in not knowing how to begin and the blank screen that seems to appear when you are told to be creative and "just write". He honestly took me back to those times in my school years when I felt that very same way and helped me relate better to my stumped son. Thankfully, his instruction helped me see how to navigate myself and my children out of that mental block and baby step into the main ideas. This approach was simple, understandable and entertaining! My son actually did 3 lessons one day on the DVD because he was enjoying seeing how well he could put things together with breaking out the main idea out of sentences and his confidence was becoming very visual at this point!



The IEW Student Writing Intensive Level C is available on their website http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/sid-c for $99.


The IEW Portable Walls was included with our review package to use as well. This is a nice addition that costs $7.00 on their website. You can hear Andrew explain how this is helpful with the curriculum by clicking through this LINK. You can find it on their website here.

I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for my thorough use and honest review of them. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.

GoTrybe Review

Have you ever tried to duplicate PE at home with your kids? It can be difficult to play dodgeball if you only have two kids! Creativity is a must but it can be difficult to come up with something that works for various ages, interests and strength level.

Introducing GoTrybe! An innovative website that is reaching out to all school age kids from K - 12th. GoTrybe’s mission is to share fun, exciting workouts and activities, helping kids and parents to learn about healthy living. They are doing it in a great way I must add! It starts with choosing your avatar...every kids favorite part of a new website! Then you can go to a workout for your age group based on your user information. There are daily routines or you can mark your favorites and do them again in the future. The workouts are instructor lead videos with the same age kids in the video doing the workout as well. They include a warm-up, cardio, strength and flexibility. (We were reviewing Trybe180 age group so that is what we had available, this may be different for the younger age groups.)

GoTrybe has programs available for different age groups:

ZooDoos is for the elementary ages, K-5th grade
Trybe180 is for middle school ages, 6th-8th grade
NexTrybe is for high school ages, 9th-12th grade


My son LOVED gotrybe! I definitely plan on signing him for a year membership! He enjoyed getting up each morning and doing his workout first thing. I liked knowing that he was getting exercise every single day regardless of the weather outside or our schedule.

Go to www.gotrybe.com and look for Fit Fozzie to sign up for a 1-day free trial, after that a one-year subscription is $19.95.


I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for my thorough use and honest review of them. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.

Kinderbach Review

Welcome to the delightful land of music instruction! We recently logged onto to Kinderbach for a review trial. Kinderbach is an online program that teaches piano and music patterns for ages 3-7. It breaks down the various tasks and techniques of playing the keyboard and separates them into child portions. For example: Before playing a song, rhythm, note identification and note placement are presented as different items through discussion and games. Learning is gradual and child-paced.



As my son went through lesson after lesson I started hearing about everyone's favorite donkey, Dodi, his house, his friend Frisco and more. My youngest excitedly cut up cardboard boxes and glue pieces of the worksheet for that lesson together. Then I found him working on the songs with his cardboard key placements sticking out on top of the keyboard. The fact that Kinderbach utilizes songs, characters, visuals and instruction makes for a great part of time of day. My sons were both engaged in learning together from lesson to lesson. They found pot lids, chop sticks and even drumsticks one day to use for their lesson to tap out to a song. They laughed and completely enjoyed being taught music!

Kinderbach has a fresh, new approach that you simply do not find in many subjects, not to mention teaching piano! There are two options for teaching. One is the DVD for $40.45 plus shipping and handling. The other is online membership. The Year Membership gives access to 6 Levels of entertaining music education for 3 to 7 year old children through about 22 hours of video and interactive coloring pages. The cost of $95.88 for a one year subscription breaks down to be $7.99/mo! The online option is also available monthly for $19.99. Go to the website for a free trial amd more information www.kinderbach.com
In my opinion this is a great way to teach a child piano and get them engaged, excited and inspired to do it daily.

I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for my thorough use and honest review of them. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.

Zeezok Z-Guide Review

Welcome to homeschooling in the digital age! Zeezok Publishing has created an answer to my consistent search through their product called z-guides to the movies. I would often think about how certain movies had an impact on me but how could I use it to teach my children? Z-guides is the fabulous answer to that question!


What are z-guides?
They are a digital e-book that you download the pdf, print and utilize. The guide contains a topic overview, movie synopsis, and ten learning activities for fourth through eighth-grade students.

There are many reasons to enjoy using z-guides for your homeschool addition. First, you get to watch a movie and from the list I have seen these are GREAT, classic movies! Secondly, the kids pay attention more throughout the film because they are answering questions and planning to absorb it for the week of activities. Meanwhile, you get to enjoy watching a movie with your kids and seeing things you may have not noticed before as well. Lastly, all of these movies are easily accessible through the library, netflix or possibly something you already own.

For our review we chose Johnnny Tremain, I was very excited to try out their z-guides and see if this would be the solution to my longterm question on how to use a movie to teach. I requested the movie from the library immediately. Once it was ready to be picked up two days later we watched it that afternoon and my older son sat down with his z-guide sheets. He had almost every question answered that day and enjoyed the movie. I had never seen the movie before and greatly enjoyed it! We watched it again the next day together to clarify some questions from our z-guide, but this isn't usually necessary. We worked on the whole packet for the 5 days that week. My son was able to learn more about the Boston Tea Party and continue to do more thinking and research on his own. I found the z-guide to be thorough, with great questions, engaging and a lot of fun for all of us to use! (Perfect for this time of year where it can be hard to keep hold of the kids as snow is melted and the birds are chirping, the kids don't seem as intent on doing their schoolwork as before...you know what I mean?)

I am so overjoyed to discover this product exists! I am planning to do more of the z-guides in the future with both of my sons. I have been telling many of my homeschooling friends about this resource as many of them utilize netflix for educational purposes and this ties right along with that!

Check out the website at www.zeezok.com you will enjoy the numerous resources they offer and the testimonials on the website confirm it. The z-guides sell for $12.99 and they have instant download available. The list of z-guides continues to grow with excellent titles like Ben Hur, Amazing Grace, The Tale of Two Cities and more.
Finally, a chance to say Family Movie Night and get to count it towards school/education at the same time and feel good about everyone learning together!

I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2010-2011 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for my thorough use and honest review of them. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.