The Fairy Chronicles Book Review

I received a free copy of The Fairy Chronicles: Marigold and the Feather of Hope,the Journey Begins by J.H. Sweet from Sourcebooks Inc. to review.

I was excited to read and review this book. As many know Rhiannon loves fairies and all things fairy related. So to find another fairy series geared towards her age group was interesting to me. I liked the concept of young girls turning into fairies by transforming into things that looked like ordinary objects such as a flowers, insects,and bugs. So with great anticipation I began my reading of the book.

Overall my review is positive. I recommend them to young girls who love fairies or want to take a journey into fairy land. They are short and simply written and, while not challenging to an advanced reader in the target age group, are very accessible to all levels. As the first of a series though I anticipate they will develop more depth over time as the writer settles into the storyline and world. They would be very good reads for those who also love the Disney Fairies series and Gail Carson Levine's Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg. As a parent you can feel comfortable with the underlying morals and messages promoted in this book.

Rhiannon will continue to read the series and love it. I will post her reviews here as well, as sometimes the review of a child is more effective at pinpointing what is enjoyable to a child. It is a series that I hope to see continue and growth in depth as the writer gains more experience with the characters and the plots develop with more detail and depth.

The book opens with simple characters to which a young girl can easily relate and will draw a her into the world. The first chapter ends by moving right into the heart of the story that this young lady is indeed a fairy. The story picks up here and the creativity of the author begins to shine. Beth's reaction to her aunt's revelation is believable and well written. The transition into the interesting world of fairies is seamless, well written and interesting to the reader.

Some real ingenuity on the part of the author comes through in these next few chapters as we enter the realm of fairies with a first time fairy as she learns it herself. The changing Fairy Handbook, the disguise of fairies as butterflies, flowers and bugs, the reasons for meeting under particular trees, brownies and a variety of other interesting elements draw the reader into the fairy land and make you want to keep reading. I can see that as a child my daughter will feel like she is entering this world herself, an excellent standard to judge any book by.

These middle chapters are well written and easily read. They are peppered with beautiful illustrations and some interesting variation in the text using italics and different fonts for the Fairy Handbook sections. These enhance the story and the overall experience of reading the book. In my opinion these are the best chapters of the book (Chapters 2-5) as they draw you into the world, introduce you to the variety of characters and provide the feel of an on going experience that Beth is just joining for the first time (just like you the reader).

The book moves into the climax of the book, Chapter 6, the rescue of the Feather of Hope. In my opinion this is the weakest part of the storyline. The plot is thin and not well developed. It moves quickly and without much tension or conflict. The fairies are seen working together and the teaching of teamwork is apparent but rushed and underdeveloped. It is nice to see the girls using different talents and abilities to resolve the conflict but there is little character or story development here and it is resolved just as quickly as it begins. For a book targeting 6-8 year olds this might be sufficient but to keep the interest of any older girls, including some of the mature readers in the 7-8 year old range the story needs more development. Alternately if there was no conflict but just the introduction to the fairy world this would have been better. Either to just introduce the world and concepts of fairies or to develop the book more to have more details and depth in the conflict and its resolution would have made it a stronger book. It almost feels as if the Feather of Hope chapters were thrown in as an afterthought rather than as a central part of the book.

The book concludes with the promise of more adventures to come between Beth/Marigold and her new found friends (each of which will have their own book coming out soon). The nut messages are clever and fun and again leave you with the magic and beauty and uniqueness of the fairy world that Sweet has begun creating in this book. The author leaves you with a taste of fairy land, and a desire to go back and experience the next adventures with these young fairies.

The subtle messages about the importance of hope, friendship, teamwork, being comfortable with our own uniqueness, not judging others by their appearances, and the inner strength within us are demonstrated throughout the book. The overt message stated at one point is:
"Life. In our search for meaning there are two important things to consider: how we treat other people, and what we teach to children."

These are messages I would guess will be themes throughout the series of books and good messages to share with young girls. Overall the author's messaging is positive. This is a fairy series that as a parent I feel comfortable with. It does not cross any lines or introduce children to real magic or new age concepts as many others in this genre can. It has nice moral messages, does not put children above adults, does not promote moral relativism, or encourage children to become older than they are. The book has clear mentor/student relationships, clear boundaries for young fairies, and restrictions on how much knowledge a person can and should have at any given age. These are morals and concepts that need to be promoted in children's literature at a time when so many are writing the exact opposite.

I applaud J.H. Sweet for writing with such underlying morals and outward behaviors in young girls. Encouraging them to be who they are but when the timing is right. The books do not rush girls but give them the freedom to explore and test what they can really accomplish in safe, guided and directed ways. As all children should experience growth and learning. I look forward to reading more from this series and more work that this author puts forward. Recommended.

Explode the Code

We have done Explode the Code book 3 and 4 this year for second grade. We also did Book 1 and part of Book 2 for Grade K with Ciaran. We chose to skip the 1/2 books and move right into the next level as theyhad no difficulty at all with level 3 and were ready to move onto the next levels.

We will begin next year with level 5 for Rhiannon and pick up Level 2 where we left off for Ciaran. Both children really enjoyed these books. We typically did a lesson a week and they were very independent in this subject. I would introduce the topic Rhia would be studying and then she worked through the lesson at her pace. Most frequently she would do the whole lesson on Monday because she enjoyed this text and found it pretty easy. The only topic she struggled with even remotely was syllables and even those were pretty easy for her once we reviewed the concept.

As for Ciaran I read the directions to him each day and he typically did 1-3 pages at a time depending how much handwriting was involved on the particular pages. In the beginning we worked on them together but by the end he was reading more independently and was working on them at his pace and on his own.

I recommend these resources as they are pretty cheap 5.00 a book and easy to do. Easy to give the child freedom with to do at their own pace. They are workbook format though so if your child or you hates workbook style they may not be the resource for you.

We find them useful mostly because Rhiannon did not continue with a formal phonics program once she was reading well and these books review some of the phonics concepts that we want to be sure she has a foundation in. As for Ciaran they are a nice review of concepts we are doing and provide simple worksheets that let him work on phonics rules, reading and handwriting all in one place.

The books are simple and easy enough that both my kids enjoy them at their level. They also like the feeling that they finish school quickly as each worksheet does not take much time to do. The writing starts gently and increases at the higher levels but there is still quite a few circle or x pages. A simple easy to use foundational book. We will continue with the series next year for both kids.

Customer Service

I just finished a post about my great experience with T-Mobile Customer Service and it inspired me to share a post about my favorite places for customer service. Places that have earned my loyalty and my kudos and recommendation and the list is short.

1. LL Bean
Their products are superior, reasonably priced and they stand behind them, period. WE have only had to make one exchange and the new one was on its way to me before the old one was sent back, I received it within days - which was great since it was a winter coat for one of my children in the middle of a Minnesota January! They stand by their products without question, are wonderful on the phone and the quality can't be beat.

2. Lands End
Ditto on just about everything I said above. I am partial to LL beans products but Lands End is a very close second in my book and their customer service is also great.

3. Hammacher Schlemmer
This is the company we purchased Roomba from and I would not purchase a Roomba from anyone else. Their customer service, and return policy is not to be beaten. Because of this they have earned my loyalty when I need an item they have. They typically sell higher end and unusual items and they can be a bit overpriced but in my experience while the price tag may seem initially high the overall service and support you receive make those extra dollars much more valuable then what you can save elsewhere.

4. T-Mobile
Clearly commited to customer service. A joy to talk to and this is saying a lot in current telecommunications and computer trends who are outsourcing all help desk and customer service and frustrating many customers in the process. You can read about my experience with T-Mobile here.

5. Netflix
They almost did not make my list because we have received many scratched movies from them and that frustrates me. However, this is more the customers than the company, as individuals do not take care of the DVD's. Netflix will send an immediate replacement DVD and it does not take an extra slot in your queue. Also the brilliance of no late fees and all shipping paid is worth more than I can say. I have only ever dealt with email and online customer service but have been please with it.

I can honestly say in my experience that is it. But I am a tough sell. Anyone else have companies they think provide exceptional and noteworthy customer service? I am always looking for someone else to be loyal to who will treat us well.

Kudos T-Mobile!

I do not work for them or in any way (other than being a customer) am I affiliated with them. I just am actually pleased with them as they did something nice for me. For almost a year now I have been using a Blackberry 7105 and have enjoyed it. A few months ago I started having some problems with the trackball jamming up - I called customer service prepared to have the rep not understand me or not be very helpful. I was pleasantly suprised.

Not only was my rep extremely useful but offered to replace my phone free of charge because it was within the year warranty. However, they no longer carry the model of my phone so instead they sent me a Blackberry Pearl free of charge. This is a sweet phone and truly a wonderful upgrade! The people at T-Mobile made my day.

The new phone arrived today and I was having a hard time moving all my data from one phone to the next. I called customer service and again I had a wonderful representative who took 40 minutes to walk me through everything and make sure it worked the way I needed it to. She was patient with my questions and with the choas of small children who were annoyed mom was on the phone for 40 minutes in the middle of the day.

This evening I realized the browser function was not on my phone. I called back and spoke with another helpful representative who took time, was very pleasant and got my problem solved quickly and asked to help with any other questions he could.

I must say I am impressed with T-Mobile's customer service and return/warranty policy. They scored some loyalty points with me today, unlike Verizon who had terrible customer service and has lost me as a customer forever because of it.

Customer Service is essential and important to me and today I was very pleased. We live in a world where customer service and support and less and less valued and the consumer is more and more frustrated. I made sure to take the time to speak with supervisors after my phone calls with support to complement the individual, those who train them and the company as a whole for what is an apparent effort in the area of customer service. T-Mobile is doing something right, and not just because they upgraded my phone but more importantly because they hire good reps, train them well and put a focus on pleasing the customer. I have spoken with enough reps in the past few weeks to know it is a trend within the company and not just the individual rep I spoke with at the time (though they were all excellent).

Now I get to enjoy a wonderful new phone with camera, music, email and everything all together. I will let you know how it is after I have been using it for awhile, so far it simply appears fantastic. I love the voice command function and the track ball is really nice, while I keep trying to use my side track wheel I think in no time I will transition to enjoy the ball more. The phone is slim and light and more powerful than the other. I am glad Serona turned me to Blackberry - I was at first resistant but I am no longer. I like having all my contacts, calendar, email, web browser right there I must admit. Better yet it is all for personal use as I do not have any job sending me emails on it - so when I get mail I actually want to read it, unlike so many who use it for work. YAY! Off to play...

Handwriting Without Tears Review

Rhiannon was interested in learning cursive this year so I agreed. Having read and heard wonderful reviews of Handwriting without Tears we purchased the Grade 3 Cursive books. I purchased the teachers edition which I would not do again as it really is unneccesary and not very useful other than for a few word lists which you could easily create on your own.

Two things about this program as described that we found inaccurate. First the name lies, there are still tears, at least for us there were. The first few times there were tears and general unhappiness. I pulled back for awhile and then started again and still the tears - I was ready to throw in the towel and then I tried a different approach. I stopped doing what they recommended - I stopped trying to teach it on a board and with all the steps and showed her once in her book and then left her alone to do it herself (which they recommend to not do), reviewed it with her and then she stopped crying and started enjoying it - go figure.

So all in all it was a great program for us once we adapted it to fit Rhia's learning style better. The structure of the letters is different than a traditional cursive program and that takes getting used to and you still need to help your child understand the letters in traditional cursive even if they do not write it so they can read it. This adds in an extra step I suppose but it is worth it. I like the style of HWT and the letters are easier to understand and look more like their print counterparts, they are also easier to write.

Nearly the whole program focuses on lower case letters with just the last few lessons bringing in capitol letters. We did this program thorugh the whole year but at a pretty slow pace and I would recommend it. Rhia misses the curly and prettiness of the traditional letters but likes the way she writes these.

So as long as you don't expect this to be a magic pill, of handwriting without any tears, and don't mind the different style of lettering this is a great program. We will continue using the next level for her next year and bringing Ciaran into this program in 1st grade. We have heard it is especially useful for lefties which he is, so we will look forward to evaluating that.

Miquon Math Review

We began the year with Miquon Blue book for the start of second grade math. Rhiannon really enjoyed the orange and red book last year but this year was a different story. We were moving along just fine and suddenly she started to hate math. Now math has truthfully never been her favorite subject even though she does fine in it. Soon it became a fight and tears and all the things homeschool is not supposed to be. So we switched programs and moved over to Singapore math in the middle of the first semester - she did about 3/4 of the blue book before abandoning it.

Strengths of Miquon: It introduces multiple skills in logical ways. Multiplication and Division do not seem so hard because they are logical flows out of other concepts. Fractions are especially easy to understand with the cuisennaire rods. The amount of work on each concept is just right, not too few problems not too much busy work. Lessons are cyclical so you will come back quickly to other topics you already covered. The connections between math concepts is very easily understood with this program.

Weaknesses of Miquon: The program introduces older and more difficult math concepts pretty early on. The final breaking straw for us when we she was faced with multiplying and dividing fractions in second grade. While we could have just skipped that section because it was too advanced and continued with the other elements in the program we chose not to. She felt discouraged and bad about her abilities when faced with this math book. The book is also less visually stimulating then some others. When asked to describe what she did not like about the program Rhiannon will respond with "Everything. It was boring and too hard!" So there you have it.

The other weakness that moved us away from this math program is the lack of word problems. There are none until you get until the very end of third grade. After using Singapore which is heavy with word problems I really see the strength and importance of word problems as we are most often faced with real life math in a word problem format even when we work the answers out in equation format.

Overall Opinion: I still like Miquon math and have started Ciaran using it with the orange book in kindergarten this past year. I think the program is strong and logical and a good foundation for math.

However, it is not right for Rhiannon who needs success in between her challenges. She has a bit more of a perfectionist tendency and Miquon I do not feel is good for this kind of child as it pushes them farther and farther until they reach their point or past their point and then moves back to an easier concept.

I love the rods and the way Miquon introduces concepts and is not afraid to present more challenging things in a simplified and natural way. For the right child (maybe a gifted math child or one who loves challenges and being pushed) this math program can make the challenges fun. It will be interesting to see how Ciaran approaches this when he gets to this level in the series. I recommend the red and orange book with no hesitation at all. While the blue book was not a good fit for us I believe in the program and given the right child I think this a good advanced math second grade book - though you would likely need to supplement with word problems if you value those in math education at this level.

First Language Lessons Review

We have spent the past two years using First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise. We used this for first and second grade English. We loved it for first grade and lost interest in second grade. We skipped a lot of sections and found it too repetitive in second grade.

The strengths of the book are the poetry memorization, the gentleness with which the concepts are introduced and the narrative style of lessons. The lessons are short and interesting to young children and there is little to no prep work. The material is classical styled and a good beginning for the English language. It is easy to modify the work as needed for the level of the child doing the work and you could teach more than one child at a time. It is a non-consumable which is always nice and we enjoyed the picture studies as well. Rhia was very excited for this book her first grade year and by the end of second grade really did not care for it at all.

The weaknesses of the book are the repitition. In the beginning it is good but then it goes on and on in second grade. We found many of the lessons unneccesary and simply skipped them once she got the concept. Perhaps for some children the repition is neccessary, but for Rhia it became tedious. By the end we simply worked on definition memorization and once she had the concept down and definition memorized we moved on. The poems were not as interesting to memorize for second grade and the book spends A LOT of time on prepositions.

Overall I am glad we used the book and I will use it with future children. I am not sure there is enough to make this into a complete two year program and may not do that again. The book is a great style for first grade but a bit tedious and young for second grade. I think I will keep it for first grade in the future and use parts of it for second grade along with another program.

All in all it is worth the price and a useful tool for teaching young children the English language in a classical style.