I got the opportunity to try out the KinderBach program with my kids and I LOVE it! For $86 you get a year’s access to over 300 lesson aimed at teaching music to kids 2-7! For us this came at a perfect time because we had just gotten a piano. I was contemplating getting the 7 year old into piano lessons and then planned on trying to use that information with the rest of the kids. So when I priced out lessons I was looking at $40-$50 a month and everyone said the other kids were to young to learn yet. Well, this program is so entertaining and engaging that all the kids really plugged in. KinderBach uses games, songs and even coloring sheets to really draw kids into music and what composes it. This maybe the group birthday present for the NerdFamily kids this year, I loved it that much!
Cute story: After just the first set of lessons we took the 3 year old into the church service that Sunday. A friend of the family was playing the piano during the offeratory and Nerdling started getting so excited. I wispered in his ear asking him if he was excited to see Aaron the stage. He said, “No mom, Aaron is playing notes on that piano to make up the song”. That is when I knew he was getting it!
. It dealt with simple fractions in real life situations. It dealt with groups and life. Then we read 
. This was a great book that dealt with simple subtractions, chain subtraction (10-5-3) and borrowing. The stories and illustrations are quite entertaining and engaging. There are more books by this author that I will be checking out soon. These are books we can read again and I will be using for ever kid!
for NerdBug. He absolutely loved it. This book was a entertaining and wonderful as we remembered. The part I loved seeing in my son was his logic development. NerdBug could start at the beginning of a case and would slowly start trying to figure them out. While he hasn’t quite gotten to the point of solving any cases before Encyclopedia Brown it is adorable to watch him try. We will be checking out more of these for this and all of our kids!
and they loved it. It starts with a list of words to look out for and later defines them in the glossary. We used the list as a built in list of review questions. It does have some difficult and unfamiliar words (such as thorax and larva) so while most words are simple enough for a first grader, I would have them read it close so you can help with those words. We just read is aloud with the 6, 4, and 2 year old. It has great pictures and diagrams. We will be requesting the rest of the books in this series from the library.
as an additional historical read for Chapter one in Story of the World (Nomads) and it was very good. While it seems a book of modest page count, the information (and words) was astronomical. It focused on what used to be eaten, what is eaten other places, and what we eat that others find gross. All of my kids loved it. In addition to the typical paragraphs there was also a variety of poems and rhymes. The illustrations were also entertaining all on their own. This is something that I would like to have on my bookshelf for my kids. The drawback…. I go this book from the library as a read to go with the history lesson but due to it length we read it separate. I had alloted about 45 minutes in the morning to read it and it took considerably longer. This isn’t a flaw with the book but something to be considered when working it in with other material for a history unit. I think we might have this book to just read for edification not just for a history chapter. We will be using this again!
by Byrd Baylor for Chapter one in Story of the World (Nomads). It was really good. It focuses on a young boy in a group of nomads and his wondering about other people being out there. It is written in a very poetic form and and the illustrations were beautiful. It seemed communicate just how separate the nomadic groups were from each other. My kids related to the boy and could empathize with his wondering. This was an easy pre-bed read for us due to its calming effects. We will definitely be using this again!
in relation to his chapter on Nomads in 
. This is a great literature book and was recommended in my