The Beehive Reader 1, for the practically independent reader...

My first grader and I have been reviewing the Beehive Reader 1, a product from Takeaway Press that I'm reviewing as a member of the TOS Crew. Our homeschool is very eclectic in nature, and I have become familiar with the reading products from several companies. What is the Beehive Reader 1?

Well, it's a reader for those students who are just practically to the point of being able to read on their own. Or you could even use it as part of a guided reading experience for you and your child. It's a hardback book, but the quality of the inside pages is somewhat inferior. Each page has about 1-2 phrases or sentences with a large illustration in black and white. The illustration is very helpful for those young readers who benefit from the nonverbal clues an illustration can provide. There are ten stories, from about 10-20 pages apiece. My first grader can easily read one story in a sitting, and she liked the illustrations. The stories are just sweet, cute little stories about children and animals and silly fantasies. The language is simple and uncluttered. One benefit to this reader is that it correlates to the All About Spelling Level 1 program. It's always nice to have components of your homeschool that work together and reinforce each other.

While I do like this product, the price is $19.95. That seems a little much to me for what you get. This is a book that we can go all the way through in a little over a week. I do encourage you to go to the beehive readers website at http://www.beehivereaders.com/ to find out more for yourself, though. Check out the reviews of other TOS Crew members here, too!

Math Mammoth--reinforcing foundational math skills at an affordable price...

As a member of the TOS Crew, I have had the opportunity to review a few of the products offered from Math Mammoth. I chose the Addition 1 workbook for first grade, Measuring 1 workbook for elementary, and the Subtraction 1 for elementary.

Let me right from the start, I think these are an excellent value. I can't always say that, so it's nice to find a product that lines up with how much I would actually like to pay for it. These are very affordably priced. The Addition 1 download is just $3.75, the Subtraction 1 is $3.50, and the Measuring 1 is $4.50. You can purchase print versions, but the downloads are a much better deal, in my opinion. At approximately 65-80 pages apiece, the cost of paper and ink isn't that much, but you get quality practice material. I've noticed with some other practice materials from other companies that just as many pages are taken up by answer keys as by the actual practice material, and that irks me, but with the workbooks I've reviewed from Math Mammoth I appreciate that the keys are condensed, even though they do contain some supplemental and helpful information. That means more of the total number of pages are actually meant to be used by the student.

I really like the progression of the work as well. Maria Miller, the creator of the Math Mammoth products, starts at square one in the Addition 1 and Subtraction 1 workbooks, and progresses at a logical pace for young elementary students. I've worked with many different types of learners, and math is definitely a subject that needs multiple approaches for lots of kids. That's what these practice pages can help provide. And that's what early math learners need. While they work through different sets of exercises that incorporate lots of visualization of the concepts to practice basic addition and subtraction skills, that also helps them to memorize those addition and subtraction facts. Mrs. Miller uses several methods to help students understand what they're doing and to help make the information learned stick. You can see this in the sample pages. She also provides ideas for other more 3-dimensional learning activities, as well. And for those parents who are actually as uneasy about math as their kids, Mrs. Miller has you in mind. The lesson sections are written simply and abundantly illustrated.

The Measuring 1 workbook contains exercises dealing with all manner of measurements that early elementary students should become familiar and proficient with, including:

• customary and metric length measurements


• customary and metric weight/mass measurements


• measuring volume


• proficiency in using a ruler


• measurements and geometric figures


• measuring temperature

I really like how Mrs. Miller starts at the beginning, just as she does in the addition and subtraction workbooks. Beginning by leading the students in discovering the necessity of standard over nonstandard measurements, she then goes on to explain and demonstrate and provide practice in measuring using both customary and metric units. She progresses at an easy pace and includes opportunities for real world measurement and provides a number of word problem exercises throughout. You can find sample pages by clicking here and then looking to the far right.

These workbooks can be used to supplement your current curriculum, like we're doing with them, or you could use them to build your own. Mrs. Miller does actually offer a first grade math curriculum.

You can check out the Math Mammoth website here and read what other TOS Crew members have to say here. I really suggest checking out the Math Mammoth site. Mrs. Miller has a package of free worksheets to share, plus faq's about her products, and a series of placement tests to aid in choosing which products fit your students.