Money and money management seemed to be a problem for everyone and the kids are a little young for the full Crown Financial program. So how do we teach our kids about it? Well, I recently received the KidsWealth Money Kit for my kiddos and I really like it. This isn’t a math based money program but a reality based one.

Basically you give your kids a portion of the money you already spend on them. Then you divide it into separate wallets (which really helps with the division in their minds) that each have their own spending areas: wealth, plan, learn fun and angel. The program encourages you to always take the fun wallet out with you and when your kids ask you to buy them something you simply put the ball back in their financial court. The wealth wallet is interesting because it is about growing their wealth. That can be savings, stocks or maybe something else (I am thinking a little business)

So the down sides (what can I say, I am a critical person). I don’t really spend a lot of extra money on my kids (you know the toys when you take them shopping for socks at Walmart). So that throws off the base idea of a monthly amount to give them out of what you already spend on extras. But it does help us decide what to do with the money from grandma or the pay for extra jobs they do. The other (slight) downside is that the fun wallet is so big. It won’t fit in my son’s pants pockets and my 5 year old doesn’t carry a purse. So it could be one more thing for mom to chase or just sub in a wallet of your choice for the fun wallet.

Over all we really liked it and will be employing it with all of the kids for years to come!

I recently received Peterson Directed Handwriting to evaluate with my kids and I have made some startling discoveries about myself;). The program is a good program. It has all the research that says how important handwriting is and that it is a learned reflex. I agree, the more you do it (the right way) the more natural it is. The problem for us lay in a couple of areas. First off you need to have the proper set up. It needs to be a straight edge table they work at (not a round kitchen table) with the chair height and desk height at a specific proportion. Also there is the right way to hold the pencil, place the paper etc. While I agree with all of this, it ends up being a lot like school at home.

I made the realization that I don’t like having everything so perfectly layed out for me to implement with out any leeway for me to customize. I also realized that I don’t care about handwriting as much as I thought. It is recommended that you try this for at least a month before you decide it doesn’t work. But in my house that still equals a lot of hours of fighting and for me it wasn’t worth it. Now I will be trying this again with different children (the joy of 4, always a new victim;) and maybe it will work better with a different personality. But I am not sure.

So my over all recommendation? It is a good program. It is obviously set up for either a classroom or some one who does school at home (verus our crazy method). It wasn’t a good fit here but it might work nicely for you.

I recently got the opportunity to review a couple products from Alphabet Alley. They are a company that Christian themed toys for kids. I liked the Christian themed toys. Now, I don’t believe my kids are going to learn the story of Noah by playing Go Fish with words and pictures of the story but I do believe that it is a great way to affirm them and their Biblical knowledge. On to the actual products…

We got the Noah’s Ark Go Fish game and we love it. The cards a thick and sturdy so they will last. That in and of itself is a huge plus. But I also liked the illustrations and the words with them. It helps the kids get a little word recognition in addition to the number recognition they get just from playing Go Fish.

We also got the Two by Two Matching Game. I will say up front that we have a lot of matching games and while the pictures were super cute there wasn’t any inherent game play improvement. But the quality was awesome! They are very thick and durable. Not only will it last longer than the rest, the toddlers can’t “mark” cards to know the matches without flipping them over.

These products were great and I would be very willing to purchase anything from Alphabet Alley for either us or a gift!

I recently got the opportunity to review the All About Spelling program and now I think I am in love. I will admit up front that I have kids that good at spelling. We have always made a game of knowing how to spell specific words starting as early as 3. Those games as great but someday your kids will see words they don’t know and will need to know how to spell. Because reading and spelling seem to be closely linked, we value it highly here in the NerdFamily.

This is a program to teach kids HOW to spell in life and not just a list of words. This program is based on learning the proper sounds for letters and blends along with the spelling rules. This isn’t workbook based and it does take a little time but it is worth it! This method uses all the senses by having word tiles that the kids can build words with or pick out with their hands and by you verbally teaching in addition to any writing they do.

They recommend that you start with the first book regardless of age but you can go through them at your own pace. So our second grader flew through the first book where as the kindergartner needs more time. This is also a product that isn’t just for homeschoolers. I can see it adapting fairly well in a classroom. Currently they have 4 levels out and a 5th one will be out in 2009.

Let me also give a shout out for their customer service. It is a small company and they will help you with any questions. It takes a lot to impress me and they have. So go check out their program and teach your kids All About Spelling.

Recently I got the opportunity to review a new e-book called Let’s Make a Web Page! I hate to say this and if I do I may never be asked to do another review but…. Don’t buy this! This e-book, put out by Motherboard books, is supposed to teach your 8-12 year old how to program a basic webpage. Unfortunately, this really just teaches you how to use and manipulate a specific html editor (she tells how to get it) with a wizard. This means you don’t actually learn any coding. You could get the same effect by taking a basic Word document and have it convert the document into a webpage.

I know this is harsh but I don’t feel this actually expands any computer science knowledge. As someone who has taken programming, and specifically web design classes, this e-book doesn’t really give you any skills to take away. Normally when a product is not my cup of tea I look for the person it would help. This time I don’t really see a good audience that it could help.

So that is my 2 cents, take it or leave it. I promise I won’t be offended.