The Shopping Duck » Education

K5 Learning is Looking for Review Bloggers for their Online Reading and Math Program

The Shopping Duck — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:05:17 +0000

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I’ve been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

DimensionU – Fun Learning Site for Children

The Shopping Duck — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:54:33 +0000

Are you looking for fun, online games that your child can play that are also educational? DimensionU offers a new twist on math educational games for your child. The games are free to play at any time for your child. However, if you want to track their progress and offer an Educational Allowance, then there is a yearly free of $9.94 (free if you invite 5 friends to DimensionU).

Gadget Works Screen Shot

Currently DimensionU offers two games that your child can play – Gadget Works and Meltdown. Each game gives you the option of choosing the child’s grade level and math skills that they want to work on. The more your child plays, the more that they can earn DimensionU credits to use for new avatars and powerups.

Another feature of DimensionU is the Educational Allowance. As a parent, you can choose goals for your child (for example answer 20 questions correctly for the week) and then you reward them with an Educational Allowance, an amount that you pledge to pay them each week if they accomplish their goals. You enter your credit card number and the amount that you pledge to your child is taken from that card when they which their goal. They can choose to get a gift card each week, or save up the money to purchase a higher amount. You can choose gift cards from Amazon.com, Best Buy or Game Stop.

Signing up for DimensionU is easy and fast. My son was able to start playing the games right away and was excited to see how many questions he could answer correctly. He knew that completing his goal each week will earn him money to buy Legos! The games are fun and engaging too! If found that this was a good way to get my son to play educational games. Because he knows that there is a reward, he loves to play the games and answer the questions.

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for DimensionU. I received a free trial of DimensionU to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.

Rock ‘N Learn: Sight Words Review

The Shopping Duck — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:12:46 +0000

UPDATE: You can use coupon code JQ7711 for 25% off at www.rocknlearn.com.

When my daughter attended Kindergarten, one of the focuses for learning was sight words. These are words that children should know how to read without sounding them out. The teacher had a wall in the back of the classroom with the sight words posted. Each week, new words were added to the wall. The children were so proud to have learned all of the words throughout the year! If you are looking for a product that will give your child a head start on sight words, Rock ’N Learn, a company that produces educational videos and music to encourage fun learning, has produced a DVD to help. Sight Words will help your child learn over 60 sight words. The DVD features fun songs, cute characters and repetition to engage your child’s mind. The words are presented in context, so that your child will not find them difficult to learn. Included are the pre-primer Dolch words, the top 20 from Fry’s plus more.

My favorite section of the DVD is the “Look, See, Find” activity. I love that it gets children up and moving as they perform a dance that helps them associate actions with words. In this clip from the DVD you will see how it uses songs, actions and repetition to help children learn new words.

You can purchase Sight Words, or any of the other Rock ‘N Learn educational DVDs at their website.

Rock N Learn: Music and Videos for Fun Learning

The Shopping Duck — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:08:25 +0000

Rock ’N Learn is a company that produces educational videos and music to encourage fun learning. The company have been around for 24 years and has won over 100 awards! The educational videos and music can help kids learn math, social studies, science and languages. These programs are highly recommended by teachers. Some of the popular titles include: Multiplication Rock, Multiplication Rap, Letter Sounds, Phonics Video, Getting Ready for Kindergarten, and Telling Time.

I received a copy of Letter Sounds to review. This DVD uses fun characters and music to help kids learn to read. Common letter sounds are introduced and the on-screen mouth shows kids how to form each sound. This is a great video for kids from ages 4 to 7 that want to start combining letters to read words and sentences. Here is a little preview of Letter Sounds:

After looking through the catalog, I am really interested in trying out Addition & Subtraction Rap for my 8 year old sun. Hip Hop Hamster and friends teach kids an easy way to master sums and differences. This is a great way for kids to learn their math facts!

Rock N Learn also offer packages that combine a number of DVDs together. For example, the Math Rap DVD collection includes Additional & Subtraction Rap, Multiplication Rap and Division Rap. Packaged together you save over $5.00.

To purchase these great products, visit Rock N Learn’s website for more information and to order.

Bing’s “Our School Needs” Contest

The Shopping Duck — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:51:40 +0000

This year, New Jersey got hit with major budget cuts. Education was one of the areas that received cuts. Parents, teachers, administrators and students are trying to come up with creative ways to stretch budget dollars while still advocating quality education.

Bing is hosting a contest to help your school. They want to hear from teachers and students about what their school needs the most. To enter, you need to snap a few pictures and submit a 500-800 word essay. If you want to shoot a video, that would be great too! Any student or teacher in a K-12 school can submit an entry (those under 18 need to get a parent, teacher, or legal guardian to submit the entry for them).

What can your school win? There will be four winners. Three runner up winners will win $50,000 for their schools and a grand prize winner will win $100,000! October 22nd is the last day to submit entries. Entries can also be rated and the top rated entries will automatically advance to the next round.

Watch this video to find out how to submit your entry:

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and received a DonorsChoose.org giving code and gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Northwestern College

The Shopping Duck — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:44:34 +0000

Another good education resource is Northwestern College. This college provides quality education with career-focused degrees. Northwestern College is accredited and offers online criminal justice degreeand health information technology.

Northwestern college also offers many services to help students. The financial aid staff will help prospective and current students find ways to finance their college courses. Plus, each student is assigned a Personal Student Services Coordinator to assist them. Once you graduate, you will also receive lifetime career assistance.

Courses at Northwestern College are taught by working professional who have a history of success in their field. Each student should be able to gain knowledge that is directly relevant to their chosen career path.

Another great option for helping survive the economic downturn.

Western Governors University

The Shopping Duck — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:31:48 +0000

I have many friends right now that are out of work. Some of them have decided that in order to improve their employment opportunities they want to look into taking courses. A good way to get into a new field is to take courses and get your degree. While this is difficult for most individuals, an online university is a good alternative.

Western Governors University (WGU) is an university that offers online courses. The university currently serves over 17,000 in 50 states. WGU was founded by 19 governors of U.S. States and if fully accredidated. Because WGU is a non-profit university it is an affordable university. Tuition is charged every six months at a flat rate – the faster you are able to progress, the more money you can save.

WGU offers online RN to BSN as well as degrees in teaching, business, information technology and other health professions. MSNBC recently reviewed WGU:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A good way to get better employment opportunities is to look into universities such as WGU.