Fundanoodle! A new writing program for us!

When the boys were in preschool, Handwriting Without Tears was the writing program that every Occupational Therapist was talking about. It has hands-on activities that help the kids learn to build letters, catchy little songs, and lots of repetition. We bought some portions of the kit, and when I decided to homeschool, we used this as our main handwriting program.

Handwriting Without Tears, however, does have some flaws. The first, and most important, is that it requires you to use their special lined paper. It does not transition well to primary paper and makes transitioning to regular lined paper confusing.  I really noticed this with Andrew. We have been using Handwriting Without Tears since he was 4. School doesn't use Handwriting Without Tears paper, but he had learned on that.  Thus, he was never writing on the correct lines at school. The letters were always written through the lines and he didn't quite understand why this was wrong. 

Another issue with Handwriting Without Tears is that the focus for the hands-on activities is really on the capital letters. Now that Andrew has moved beyond learning those, however, he is having difficulty learning to write the lowercase ones. The workbooks do have lowercase letters in them, but the focus thus far has really been on uppercase formation.

One day, while researching handwriting programs on the internet, I stumbled upon Fundanoodle. It looked AWESOME! At that time, the kits and books seemed to only be available on Amazon. I sometimes hate buying things online without being able to hold them in my hands and look through them. Since it was a new program, there weren't any available at the used homeschooling store to see, so I decided to just go ahead with the program I was using and then look at it again for Andrew for summer writing practice and potentially for Benjamin when he finishes the Handwriting Without Tears book on which he is currently working. 

A few months ago, I was walking down the aisles of my local Target store when the boys saw these workbooks up on the shelf. They immediately said, "Mom! Wow! Look at those handwriting books! Can we get those?" (BTW... the Handwriting Without Tears books are pretty bland in comparison to the brightly colored, kid-themed ones of Fundanoodle). I immediately recognized them as the ones I had researched. Target also had the hands-on kits. I told the boys that we would get them to try over the summer. Here is what we think of it so far:

Pros:

1. You can buy them at Target. I sometimes HATE having to wait for workbooks or activities to come in the mail and hate ordering things without seeing them first. I have been disappointed more than once after receiving an item in the mail.
2. They are colorful and engaging.
3. Every page has instructions on how to form the letter at the top. This is extremely helpful for my boys who sometimes need reminders on how to make them... especially the lowercase letters.
4. There are hands-on activity kits for both upper and lowercase letters.
5. It transitions MUCH easier to primary paper. It starts with the kids making the letters in the boxes like Handwriting Without Tears, but then gradually adds the lines and takes away the boxes so that at the end of that page, the kids are writing the letter on primary lined paper. I loved Andrew's AHA moment when he exclaimed, "Oh, THAT'S how you are supposed to do it!" Handwriting Without Tears was causing a lot of confusion on letter placement for him.
6. It comes with practice paper in the back of the workbook. I have already laminated them for Andrew so that he can do daily practice with the letters. I have found that doing daily practice with all letters and then working on just one individual letter is extremely helpful. With the Handwriting Without Tears program, I had to buy the practice paper separately. It comes with the Fundanoodle program.
7. The sticks used in the hands-on part of the program are magnetic. I have said over the last few years that I really wish the Handwriting Without Tears ones were magnetic and have thought about putting magnets on those ones for that purpose. 

Cons:

1. There is only one level at this time. Handwriting Without Tears has multiple levels to take the kids from prewriting all the way through cursive. I wish this program had the same, even though the level that they have is perfect for the skill level of my kids at this time.
2. You have to buy separate workbooks for upper and lower case letters. They are both included in Handwriting Without Tears program, starting at the Kindergarten book. The cost of the Fundanoodle workbooks is less though, so it basically evens out as far as cost goes.

Here are pictures of some of the work that Andrew has done in the workbooks so far. 

The lower-case letter "i" in the workbook.
See how it transitions from boxes all the way to primary lines.

I laminated this practice sheet found in the back of the workbook.
Andrew uses his dry-erase markers on it to practice daily.
One side has lowercase letters, one side has uppercase letters.

We will definitely be making the switch from Handwriting Without Tears to Fundanoodle. The good thing is that the transition should be fairly easy. It is similar to Handwriting Without Tears in many ways, but has some improvements that make it much more appealing. My boys seem to really enjoy working in these books, which is not always the case with Handwriting Without Tears. I'm lovin' the new program!

Reading for the Non-Fiction Lover

When the boys first started reading, I couldn't wait for them to experience some of my favorite fiction stories. Visions of them reading Charlotte's Web until 2 am danced in my head. I just KNEW that they would especially love fiction, since that is mostly what my husband and I like to read. WRONG! Yes, they have a love of reading and will read until 2 am if they can get away with it, which is great. But, both boys would much rather read non-fiction, especially books loaded with facts about a certain topic. I am amazed when I walk into my 7-year old's room and hear, "Mom, can we ride on the trans-siberian railroad sometime? Or how about going to Europe so that we can ride on a bullet train. Did you know that the Amtrak that we went on was a passenger train? But, it was different than this passenger train in this book." I simply stare at him and think, "Wow! I can't believe how much information he is picking up in these books... and HOW did he figure out how to read 'trans-siberian' anyway?" Benjamin can tell you all about all of the different airplanes and what makes one fighter jet different from another fighter jet. He can also tell you all about all of the different rescue vehicles and what their jobs are.

However, hand Benjamin a fiction book to read and he draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags his feet. Whereas a non-fiction book will get him enthusiastically reading, he will only read a sentence or a few words at a time in a fiction book and then stop and focus on something (anything) else. They simply don't keep his attention. I know it is important for him to read a variety of texts, so we do a "you pick one, I pick one" reading format. I am amazed at how much more motivated he is to read "nonsense" (as he calls it) when the reward is any book of his choice.

In my quest for age-appropriate, highly motivating, reading level appropriate texts, I came across Zoobooks' younger kids' magazine called Zootles. A big portion of our science this year has focused on various animals, so I figured this would give him a broader range of animals to learn about.  After seeing the samples online, I came to the conclusion that the reading level in the Zootles magazines would be independent reading for Benjamin, even though the target audience is actually a little younger. Since I want to use them for science and reading, I figured that this was the way to go. They have so far been fantastic and I am glad that I decided on Zootles instead of the classic Zoobooks.

Ben was VERY excited to get his very own mail. He was even more excited when he realized that these magazines are about animals. Today, we read the parrot Zootles together. He could read just about everything in the magazine, loved the format, and even read the poetry and fiction story in it. There is also a tear-out guide that gives more information on the animal in a more condensed form. Ben really liked that feature and wanted me to tear it out so he could easily carry it around. It took approximately 25 minutes to read the magazine together, which is PERFECT for a kid who can't and won't stay focused for longer. Overall, two thumbs up for fun and educational magazines for non-fiction loving kids.

Hot Dots are HOT!

One of the coolest little educational toys that I have seen is Hot Dots by Educational Insights. They have them for lots of different subjects, but we only have a few sets. I was able to get some phonics ones used and then I splurged and bought the reading comprehension ones for the boys on Black Friday when they were buy one, get one free at a local teaching store. Basically, it is this specialized electronic "pen" (it doesn't write at all) that rings if you touch the correct answer and buzzes if you touch the incorrect answer. The pen works with all Hot Dot cards. You can also buy the dots to create your own if there is something special that you are working on.

Benjamin blew through the phonics ones in one sitting. Even though they are aimed at K-1, Ben's phonics skills are exceptional, so he found them really easy. The reading comprehension cards are aimed at 2nd grade-4th grade, and even the beginning ones are a little difficult for Ben to do without help. I am planning on using them over the summer with Andrew and Benjamin as extra practice. I love that they are great for independent practice.

Since Kate is beginning to read and still learning phonics, I figured that the phonics Hot Dots, although challenging for her, would be good practice. I was actually surprised at how many she was able to get correct. I had her work on "Word Families," and she was able to pick the ending sound combination of multiple letters that went with the picture. She loves when she gets the answer right and if she gets it wrong, will keep working until she figures it out.

The only two drawbacks I have found with this nifty little pen is that 1) if you don't touch the correct answer perfectly, it will sometimes give a false negative. This is especially frustrating for Andrew since his fine motor skills aren't perfect, but he knows that the answer is correct; and 2) the kids can control the volume. It can get especially loud and annoying, especially if you have two little boys who think it is funny to push the wrong answer repeatedly or push the correct answer repeatedly to make silly noises. I don't know if I am the only one struggling with that or not. You can turn off the sound and just have a green or red light come one, but my boys can easily turn the sound back on, so that whole function almost seems pointless. I wish it had a switch somewhere that needed a tool of some sort so that I could turn off the sound, but still keep the pen functional with the red and green lights. I am always looking for used sets of these cards in any subject. I have had some luck with Ebay and some luck with consignment stores/sales.

Here's Kate using the Hot Dots pen and card. She is also dressed like a princess. Check out her beautiful dress, jewelry, and hair accessories. And, yes, she is also wearing two scarfs...all on top of a turtleneck and jeans.

Hmmm... what could it be?

Ah! Fan... ends with "an."

Balancing Bears

We are starting to learn about weight in our math curriculum. I was able to find a really neat weight kit at Smart Start that had bear counters of 3 different sizes (Papa, Mama, and Baby), a balance scale, and a book full of activities for grades K-3. It was PERFECT for learning about weight. I started by explaining how you can tell which side weighs more and how to tell if they weigh the same. We used the baby bears and put the same number on both sides, and then changed up how many on just one side. Then, I had Benjamin experiment with household objects. He held them in his hand and had to tell which one he thought was the heaviest and then use the scale to determine if he was correct.

After introducing the scale and talking about the terminology (heavier than, lighter than, and as heavy as or the same), I followed the lesson plan set forth in the book that came with the kit. The name of the book is Three Bear Family Math Activities: K-3 from Learning Resources. The name of the activity was "Bear Balance." What I liked about this activity is that we used the balancing learned earlier to fill out a chart (another math skill we have been working on) and then using the pattern set forth (using multiples of 2) to predict how many bears will balance out the other side. It's a real-world type comparison that involves more than one math skill. It also included a cute story that the kids had to listen to in order to complete the activity. Since listening comprehension is always something we need to work on with Ben, it was perfect.

We soon discovered that 2 Baby bears is the same weight as one Mama bear and that 3 Baby bears is the same weight at 1 Papa bear. By the time that we figured out the 3rd number on the chart, Benjamin realized that the pattern was skip counting by two's and was able to accurately predict how many bears we needed for the next number of Mama bears. He was so excited that he figured it out all on his own! Also new for today, Ben wrote the numbers on the chart by himself! He wanted to do it and now has enough confidence in his writing to do so! I am finally seeing an end in site to the number stamping we have been using for him to complete his math assignments.

The bears and scales are available on Learning Resources' website. I have never bought a set of counting manipulatives because I have found them to be expensive and I have been able to create or use everyday objects instead. However, I might just be convinced enough to buy these manipulatives or at the very least borrow them often. Having three sizes of manipulatives in lots of colors with the ratio between the weight and size being fixed makes them worth it in my mind. There were lots of good activities in the books, but I can already think of lots more that were not in there.