Review: Salem Ridge Press

 

"Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read."
— John Wooden

 

I don't know about you, but a lot of books on the market today would lead my Schnickelfritz down a path I don't want him to go.  It seems in order to generate any interest, each author must push the envelope a little further with horror, titillation,  or rebellion to authority.   I no longer visit the standard bookstore carrying newly published titles and instead hit  book fairs to rescue treasures that have been discarded from lack of interest by the general public. The folks at Salem Ridge Press are kindred spirits in that regard.  They find children's  fare from the 1800's and early 1900's and republish them for a new audience.   I received three samples of the kind of books they are trying to save.

 

 

 

Young Robin Hood  --   This title is from Salem's Younger Reader series--younger perhaps but certainly not beginning readers.    The sentences were extremely long with complicated punctuation, archaic words like "jerkin" and some characters spoken words were written with a cockney accent.   I have a chart for estimating readability and it puts the book at a seventh grade reading level.  I chose to read this book aloud to Schnickelfritz.   I was pleased with his listening comprehension.  I read the first two pages two him and then asked him to draw a picture of what was occurring before letting him see the illustration on page three.  He understood that the boy was riding behind someone on a horse even though the text never says so directly.   He also displayed a great deal of indignation at the way the swineherd treated young Robin so I know the book was engaging his imagination. 

Down the Snow Stairs  --This book is the only title in the web-site's Allegory category, but I assume others will be added.   The most famous allegory is  Pilgrim's Progress.  Rather than traveling to the Celestial City or going through the Slough of Despond, our heroine visits Naughty Children Land.   In 1887, when the book was written, people must have had a much different view of Christmas.  There is no mention of the holy birth or Santa Claus, instead Christmas is a time when elves and goblins roam about.   It may be tougher for children to determine if these unusual characters and destinations or real or part of a dream so I also suggest this type of book be done as a read aloud.

Soldier Fritz  --  One of the biggest categories for Salem Ridge Press is historical fiction.   Subtopics include church history, American history and world history.  Soldier Fritz  is one of twelve titles published so far from Emma Leslie's church history series and is set during the Reformation period.    This book could provide good context on  daily life  during Martin Luther's lifetime--a feudal castle,  peddler merchants carrying news,  and charcoal burners.  The book  never explains how Luther's views differ from Catholic doctrine (except perhaps mentioning the characters no longer pray to the saints) so other material would be needed if you were truly studying church history.    Catholic readers may also be offended by the way the priests are portrayed as "bad guys":  driving a mother and her children out of their home or risk imprisonment while the father is away at war. 

 

All in all,  I was quite please with the offerings of Salem Ridge Press.  If my son were old enough to read these titles on his own I know I could hand the books over and not have to worry about offensive language,   immodesty, or rebellious actions and attitudes shown without devastating consequences.   Since all the books promote family values, perhaps they are best as read alouds--the whole family gathered together to share in the tale.   You can look up titles on their website by time period and location if you're building a unit study.  Most titles are available in softcover and hardcover and range from $10.95 to $24.95.   You may click here to see what others on the Homeschool Crew think about the offerings of Salem Ridge Press.

 

Disclaimer: I received one free softback and two free ebooks from Salem Ridge Press for the purposes of completing this review.  I received no other compentation for this honest opinion.

Attention Missouri Train Fans

If you've got a little one who loves the I Love Toy Trains or I Love Big Trains videos, there's a once in a lifetime opportunity coming up in October.  The largest steam train ever built, the Challenger, will be passing through our state on a multi-day tour.  Arriving in Kansas City on Oct.   2nd, it will cross the state, turn around in Illinois, and eventually return to K.C. on Oct. 10-11.  There will be overnight stops or whistlestops in Jeff City, Washington, St. Louis, Pacific, and Sedalia.   A complete schedule can be found at the Union Pacific site.

Orienteering at night

If you follow my blog, you may recall that Schnickelfritz and I learned about orienteering a few weeks ago.  Tonight we had the chance to "kick it up a notch" with a Night-O, or nighttime race.   The event was held in a city park and there were hundreds in attendence.  It wouldn't surprise me if nearly half were under the age of 12.   A fair number of controls were to be found on the parks baseball diamonds or public buildings so kids of all ages could join in the fun.   Through the dark you could see bouncing lights and  hear squeals of delight as young ones found the orange and white windsocks. 

Other markers proved to be a challenge.  One was hanging from underneath a bridge.  I tried to hop on the rocks across and ended up slipping and soaking by backside.  Fritz found a more stable and shallower path a few feet away, but enjoyed laughing at my expense.  

In the woods,  the controls were only 4 inch squares on stakes.   You try to find a four inch target with a flashlight while your huffing and puffing and see how hard it is.   I'll confess at least once we ran right past a control and then heard a voice behind us yell "Here it is!"  A storm was approaching so the organizers shortened the amount of time we had to search.  We managed to find 11 controls in 45 minutes.  Sorry there aren't any pictures but I didn't want to risk the camera by stumbling in the dark.

Review: I See Cards

 

One of the first products the Homeschool Crew received this year to review was the Pyramath  by I See Cards.   While playing the game, the student will be practicing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts to build a pyramid of cards.  I'll confess right up front that math is my Schnickelfritz's favorite subject.  In fact, I will often dangle it as the carrot to get him to complete his spelling or reading assignment.  I'll also say that if I wasn't already calling him Schnickelfritz (a German endearment), the next most appropriate pseudonym for him would be "Young Mr. Competitive."    Pyramath was an instant hit at our house.  We play it for fun outside school hours (although we homeschoolers realize that learning never ends), but I will try to review this product for the parent trying to find a fun way for a struggling student to drill math facts.

 

The playing cards display both roman and arabic numerals and their names written in five languages.   The game begins by laying 5-7 cards side by side.  Taking turns, each player  draws a card and tries to place it over two adjoining cards.  In order to do so, it must be the answer to an equation made by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing the two original cards.  I've created an example using 3 and 5 as my base cards.

In cases where the equation creates a two digit answer (3 x 5 above)  we only focus on the units or ones digit.    The weak link in Pyramath comes from practicing division facts.  Besides dividing a number by itself or by one, there are a very limited opportunities to divide a one digit number by another.  Since division is our focus in math this year we had to come up with a new rule for Pyramath.  We chose to treat any adjoining cards as a two-digit number.  Then we could place a connecting card over them if it was a factor of that number.

The website includes rules for variations on the game.  You can also play 5-card and 7-card solitaire versions online.  (WARNING: These games are addictive.  Do not play if you have dinner on the stove or other reviews to complete).   If I were playing this to reenforce math facts I would stick to the basic game and require both players to vebalize the equation they're using as they palce their cards.   This will help you as the teacher  catch any math errors right away.  You may also see that the students areoverlooking opportunities to play cards because they choose to avoid the harder facts and just stick with addition or subtraction.   It may be necessary to give gentle nudges--"Do you see any numbers you can multipy that will end in 8?" 

In addition to Pyramath, I See Cards carries Fractazmic (fractions) and Prime Bomb (prime numbers) for math card games.  Each deck retails for $6.95.    I see these games as inexpensive tools and you can customomize the rules to grow as they improve in math.    To see what others on the homeschool crew think about Pyramath click here.

Disclaimer: I received a free deck of Pyramath cards for the purposes of completing this review.  I received no other compensation for my honest opinion.

Insect Collection

This year we are using the Apologia text Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.  After completing the introductory chapter, we jumped ahead to Chapter 9 on insects to take advantage of  outdoor observations while the insects are still around.

At one point

Royal Rangers Day Camp

Schnickelfritz and I attended day camp today.  It had been postponed due to storms last spring (and it certainly looked like we might get soaked again, but their was a gymnasium for back-up).   The turnout was certainly lighter, I assume because most outposts are just gearing up for the new year.  This year's theme was knighthood.  The events included jousting, throwing knives and hatchets, decorating shields, and pummeling each other with "swords" made with pool noodles.   Commander Bob's obstacle course drew the largest lines and repeat participants.  It began with a rope bridge constructed that very morning.

A miscalculation in the number of medals purchased meant that rather than award gold, silver and bronze awards for each age level there would only be medals for over-all winners.  Fritz managed to earn a bronze and gold.  We never did hear what the bronze was for, but the gold was for the Court of Honor--where boys recited pledges to the flags, ranger codes, and Bible verses.    In this case, they were actually the verses they learned last year (since the event was post-poned).  I was so pleased and proud to see Fritz was actually hiding God's word in his heart.

Pear Butter

For the past two days I've run into a fellow homeschooling mom and both times she's been loaded down with pears.  We had a big storm blow through last night and this lady's mother was picking pears off her tree like crazy before the branches broke in the storm. 

I've never been one to turn down free food, but I just didn't know what to do with pears--neither Schnickelfritz nor the Toolman had requested pears to eat before.   It turns out you can use pears almost any way you can use apples--pies, sauce, butter.  We are awfully fond of apple butter on biscuits and cornbread so that's what I decided to try.

Fritz was quite excited to see the Squeezo food strainer I had assembled in the kitchen; it was a recent ebay find.  "That's some machine!" he said.  I promised he could not only look at it but make it work before the day was done.  The pears went into a large stockpot on the stove while we started our schoolwork.    When they were sufficiently softened we started to load them into the Squeezo.   Fritz, who is destined to be an engineer some day,  interrupted the work several times so that he could look from a different angle.   When his curiosity was satisfied he was more than happy to turn the crank or push down the pears.  He was also close at hand when I disassembled the strainer to clean it.

At this point what we had was pear sauce and we both agreed that it would be fine to leave it in that form--the taste was delicious, but we had pear butter as our goal.  We loaded it all into the crockpot and added nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice.  We left the lid off to allow steam to escape.  The boiling down took  the rest of the day.  In fact, I finally filled 4 pint jars at about 10:30 at night; long after Fritz had gone to bed.  He didn't get to taste the results till this morning on cornbread.  The whole family agreed it was a hit.