App Week - Teach Me: Toddler-2nd Grade

*NOTE* The apps I will be reviewing this week are mostly designed for iPhone & iPad.

When I purchased my iPhone a year or so ago, I ignorantly assumed that it would be my phone.  How simple I was!  After finding some great educations games & activities, I basically have to wait my turn for the phone! Which, is hard to argue with when they're learning things and I just want to check my Twitter-feed.

App of the Day:  Teach Me: Toddler, Teach Me: Kindergarten, Teach Me: 1st grade, Teach Me: 2nd grade
     Category: Education
     Seller: 24x7 digital LLC
     Awards:  Best App Ever - 2nd place in education (Teach Me! Kindergarten)
     Designed for:  iPhone & iPad
     Cost:  $.99/app

One of the first apps I got for the kids was Teach Me: Kindergarten.  The little mouse "tells" my daughter what she needs to do on each screen.  Math, spelling, & reading (sight words) are the subjects that she works on and whenever she gets something correct, she earns a coin.  After receiving a certain amount of coins, she gets to go "shopping."  She'll pick out a scene and buy various objects for it.  She's even made me an aquarium and brings it to me whenever she thinks I need to feed my fish!

After Gloria enjoying the activities so much, I found Teach Me: Toddler for Zane.  He works on number recognition, letters, shapes, colors, counting, and phonics.  He doesn't have to work as hard for rewards, so has quite a few of them.

Both apps are very easy for the children to learn and to use.  In fact, as I was going to be doing this review, I decided to see if 24x7digital LLC.,  had released any other grades in the Teach Me series.  Good news - they have!  They now have 1st and 2nd grade...still focusing on math, spelling, and reading sight words, but each grade level become more complex.  What I love about the 1st and 2nd grade is that they children actually get to "write" on "paper" using their index finger to spell words and do "fast math."  Very cool!

And, yes, I just downloaded those as well.  It was good to know that I was able to spell all of the words & do the math problems correctly.  Ok, well, except for one.  I made the age-old mistake of not looking at the sign and added instead of subtracted.  It happens to everyone.  *ahem*

Whether looking for something to begin your child in letter/number recognition, reviewing math facts, or needing to supplement your busy homeschool day, I highly recommend the Teach Me series.  Find it on iTunes or go directly to 24x7 digital's website!

Lesson Planning via Bento

*This is not a paid advertisement.  I just enjoy sharing with others things that have made my life easier!*

Just to give you an idea what my lesson planning looks like every week, click on the image below.

I use the Bento program w/ my iMac & absolutely love it. I used this template from the Template Exchange and just tweaked it according to my needs.  

As you can see, I enter all of the assignments required for the week for each child.  The oldest 3 students copy their assignments into their personal assignment pads and devise their own strategies for how they will finish the week's work.  No more writing detailed daily plans for 6 children!

On the far right, you will see just a part of the box labeled "goals/what happened this week."  At the end of each week, I write a short journal about the highs & lows of the week and what was accomplished.  The hope is that I will be able to read through these at the end of each quarter when I'm ready to write up my quarterly reports.  I don't know about you, but by the end of 10 weeks of school, I have often forgot what happened the first half of the quarter!

Syncing my desktop program w/ my iPhone is invaluable. Having my schedule in my phone allows me to always have assignments handy to help me figure out what each of the 3 younger students need to accomplish on any given day.  When any my kids take a test, I just enter the score into my phone and, when it's convenient, I will sync it w/ my desktop so I can have all the grades in one place for future reference.  This convenience is huge for a homeschool mom of more than 1 or 2 children!

I realize many are still Windows users, but in case you've come over to the brighter world of Mac, you might want to try the Bento program for your lesson plans.  It's saved me a ton of money on pre-made planning books, it's tailored to my personal needs, and it's been extremely easy to use.  I'm all about easy organization and this is it!