Elective & Supplement Reviews

Teaches your first through eighth graders the mapping skills they’ll need in everyday life! These colorful workbooks were great to use in our home. Incorporating aspects of social studies, economics, and geography, they foster advanced thinking skills, such as drawing conclusions, making inferences, and using directions. With all the interesting exercises, your kids will have so much fun, they won’t even know they’re doing schoolwork! A handy, inexpensive resource that works for all ages. Can be utilized independently or supplementally. Answer keys included. Approx. 45 to 90 pages each, softcovers.

-Cindy

Gathering all the classes your high school student needs to graduate can be an intimidating process. Although requirements vary from state to state, most include a high school-level health course.

Alpha Omega's LIFEPAC Electives kit offers a one-semester Health set. This program is extremely easy to implement. Everything comes in one box. There are five student workbooks with tests, a spiralbound teacher's guide with all the answer keys, and little to no planning required.

Most students will be able to do the daily reading, questions, and activities on their own. Once they have completed the daily assignments and self tests, they should be well-equipped to study for the end of the unit tests.

All lessons are taught from a Christian perspective. The course covers anatomy and physiology of the body, nutrition, exercise, spiritual health, mental health, social health, personal hygiene, safety, first aid, disease prevention, drugs, and the environment. We all want our kids to have a healthy future; this program will help reinforce good habits for a lifetime.

—Lynette, Winter 2014

Most kids know how to type fast these days, but accuracy, grammar, and correct spelling aren't things they generally care about. Using Typing Instructor, students can improve their typing skills while traveling around the world, through time, and through a photo safari.

Typing Instructor Platinum comes with 20+ lesson plans, but you also have the option to create customized lessons, complete with your own music! Using repetitive keystrokes to help build finger memory, you'll work through lessons and tests to achieve your words-per-minute and accuracy goals. The Dynamic Learning feature analyzes your work and creates specific lessons to help you improve on any weaknesses you may have. You'll be able to view the results of each lesson using graphs and charts that will show results for each finger, row, key, or hand.

In addition to the lessons and tests, you'll practice using various magazine articles. Whether you're interested in sports, classic literature, or history, you'll be able to find something interesting to learn about while practicing your typing skills.

And then there are the games. Racing games, adventure games, arcade games . . . all help create a fun and exciting learning experience. Use your spaceship to clean up space debris in "Flotsam Fighter," and explore ancient tombs to search for keys, coins, and jewels in "Tomb Typer." Type the words as fast as you can to stay away from the giant lobster in "Sea Creatures," and improve your accuracy as you race up the side of a mountain in "Cliffhanger."

This was the one of the first typing programs I used, and I loved it. Part of my job includes answering e-mails, so it's certainly helped my speed and efficiency at work. No matter your age, this program will give you the necessary means to improve your typing skills. 480MB RAM; Windows 00/XP/Vista/7, Macintosh OS X/10.4 or higher. From Individual Software.

-Rebekah, Winter 2014

Early elementary school is the best time to introduce facts that will become the foundation of future learning, because, until about fourth grade, kids have an amazing capacity for memorization! Early instruction filled with numbers, times tables, spelling words, letters, and sounds stays with them throughout their schooling.

Using music as a tool to memory learning is both easy and fun. Somehow putting information to quirky tunes really helps with recall. I used Grammar Songs with my kids to study parts of speech and punctuation rules. There are activities and exercises throughout the book to reinforce the concepts in each song.

From this same series, we used Geography Songs for continents, oceans, and countries, as well as the solar system. We had a blast learning about Africa, the most challenging continent, with 57 countries in one song! States and Capitals Songs covered all 50 states and their capitals.

The songs themselves won't win any music awards, but when information is put to music, the process of memorization becomes much easier. Vast amounts of knowledge can be accessed by recalling the tune to a song. My children still remember some of the songs we learned, and they are adults now!

Tip: We used the CD's in the car to make better use of our driving time.

Kit includes audio CD with 16 songs, 68-page student workbook featuring song lyrics and written exercises, teacher's guide with activity suggestions, and answer key.

—Lynette, Summer 2013