America’s Future Blog

This award winning collection of colored music tubes are used by educators, musicians, therapy and play.  Whacky Music’s Boomwhackers are so popular they have sold over 5 million Boomwhacker tubes worldwide. 

 The tube colors are based on the CHROMA-NOTES Colored Music System.  The music note-heads are colored to match the tubes, which is very popular in elementary education.  CHROMA-NOTES has become so popular that programmers have developed a software that converts music into the colored note-heads to be used with Boomwhacker tubes.  Finale 2008 will be released with the option to use the CHROMA-NOTES system in their software, along with a variety of other functions for your budding composer.  Have a favorite family song?  No problem!  Punch in the music, and print out sheets the whole family can use. 

Whacky Music offers six different sets of books for educating your children with sheet music, musical games and activities including;  Boom-A-Tunes, Totally Tubular, Tube Time, Tubular series, Bible Boomers and the Building Blocks series.  Utilizing the curriculum available, even musically inexperienced parents can help their student learn rhythm, melody and harmony. 

There are many fun ways to use the Boomwhackersfor individuals, families and even groups.  Does your family like to play games together?  Using a couple of sets of tubes and one of the curriculum books you can spend an afternoon learning a new song, and play it together for the evening entertainment.  Your group or co-op could form a tube choir, similar to a hand bell choir.  The possibilities are endless!

We gave our toddler niece the Boomwhackers XTS Whack Pack for her third birthday, and then spent the whole afternoon playing with the tubes.  The teenagers where on the floor right along with the little ones, reading music and just spontaneously making original scores.  If we would have know how much the whole family was going to enjoy the Boomwhackers tubes, we would have added an extra set of mallets, as there were not enough to go around. We quickly learned that the mallets were not necessary, as you can bang the tubes together to create music too.  They were definitely a hit (please pardon the pun…)!

One of the most teacher-friendly writing curriculums on the market today!  Veteran homeschool teachers love this text as much as new educators, as it provides a flexible writing program.  Suitable for individual students, classrooms or co-op situtations, students will master middle and high school writing skills and gain confidence throught the course

Step-by-step instruction guides the student, while the teacher benefits from the flexible, detailed lesson plans that WriteShop offers.  No need for supplemental material - WriteShop has many resources for teaching, editing, evaluating, and grading writing.  Includes individualized checklists, evaluation forms, writing examples and tips for objective grading

Lessons include creative writing, expository writing, narrative writing (including first and third person), descriptive and informative paragraphs, and also include lesson important lessons in self-editing and individual style.  Every lesson builds on the last, to give them time to practice their new skills and apply them to the writing project.  Students will then edit and revise their own work several times, and by the end, they will have a polished composition. 

The teacher edition is a vital component of this program, and it should be considered absolutely neccessary to finish the coursework.  Nicest part of stipulation is - you can use it for WriteShop I and WriteShop II, there is no need to purchase a second teacher edition. 

Another great addition to the WriteShop program is Copying and Dictation Exercises for WriteShop I, consisting of sixteen selections that are gathered from quality literature including such sources as a Civil War era newspaper, a turn-of-the-century boys handbook, and a modern cookbook.   The book is non-consumable, so members of the same family can easily share one copy if they are not working out of it during the same lesson time.  If you have more than one student working with the booklet at a time, you will need to purchase additional copies.

The most economical way to purchase WriteShop is to buy the Basic Set, which includes the teacher edition and the WriteShop I student workbook.  That way, in future years, you will only need to purchase the WriteShop II student workbook for high school students. 

While I think WriteShop is one the best writing programs on the market, don’t take my word for it.  This curriculum is one of Cathy Duffy’s Top 100 Picks for Homeschool Curriculum!

Have a child interested learning about electronics?  Do they take apart things to see how they work?  Is your child fascinated with electronic gadgets and games? 

Snap Circuits by Elenco make learning about electronics fun!  Kids (and adults) follow the easy instructions in the color instruction manual, complete with pictures, to complete a wide variety of experiments.  For a small sampling, you can create AM Radios, doorbells, burglar alarms, digital voice recorders, and play electronic games with your friends.  The larger kits also contain experiments in solar energy, electromagnetism, vibration experiments, and so much more!  No tools are required for assembly, and the kits power up on ‘AA’ batteries (use rechargeable batteries and save $$).

Snap Circuit kits are sold according to the number of experiments - 100, 300, 500, 750 with computer interface.  You can also purchase the 300 and 500 experiment kits with computer interface to improve the educational experience.  Already have the 300 or 500 kits?  The computer interface is available by special order for under $20.  Have a gift to buy for a creative kid?  Try the Snap Circuit mini kits:  Musical Records, FM Radio, Motion Detector, Music Box, Space Battle and a Flying Saucer

If your child already has a smaller Snap Circuits kit, and has completed all of the experiments, don’t worry - there are upgrade kits!  You can upgrade from SC-100 all the way to SC-750 with an upgrade kit and not have to purchase duplicate parts.  It’s just one more way to stretch your education budget!

My son received the Snap Circuits Jr. kit for Christmas a few years ago, and this year he wants the upgrade kit so he can complete the entire range of experiments.  He is also interested in the SC Rover kit to create his own Remote Control Car, which I’m sure he is thinking will drive the three canine members of our household crazy with by running it around the house erratically.  I can hear him chuckling now….

Prices range from $29.95 to $119.95 Retail for kits developed for home use and several packages for educators that include project books and student guides that range from $49.95 to $189.95 Retail.  Mini kits are available for $14.95 to $21.95 Retail.  America’s Future offers the majority of these products in our online store at discounted prices, and we will special order educator packages as requested.

There is no age limit for these fantastic learning toys, but the manufacturers suggest a minimum age of 5 due to some of the small parts contained in the kits. 

We just added a new product lineup to our online catalog - Apologia Educational Ministries! 

Some of you may remember that Apologia was one of our first publishers, but there was a sudden influx of competition after our first year, and the prices dramatically fell to a point resellers were retailing at prices under our wholesale cost.  We were not pleased to stop carrying the line, but felt we could not continue to inventory product when we could not offer a fair price.  That situation has resolved itself, and we are proud to offer the Exploring Creation series once again.

We are excited to announce that Exploring Creation with Physical Science is now in its second addition with the new textbook reflecting many changes including new high-quality illustrations that better explain processes, more experiments for hands-on learning, resources for online learning for more intensive optional study, and a new appendix that references the entire course.  Due to the changes made over the whole text, students working in a group setting must use the same addition as there are too many differences in the textbooks to use both.  You will also find the supplemental material, like Companion CD’s, Audio CD’s and the complete course on CD-ROM.  We will be adding the solution manuals to our inventory within the next month.

We use the Exploring Creation series in our own homeschool, and are pleased at the knowledge our son has gained since his first foray into homeschool science with Exploring Creation with General Science.  He has a grounded knowledge of Creation science, and has no problem pointing out the discrepancies of the worldy scientists and their theories when we supplement our studies with videos or tv documentaries.

 He recently finished Exploring Creation with Physical Science, and I’m happy to say he scored 90% average on the testing for the course.  The combination of the full course CD-ROM and the Audio CD has given him confidence in his studies and his abilities.  We will be continuing this combination into Exploring Creation with Biology due to the success he has already experienced.  Reading along while the Audio CD plays has allowed him to absorb the material at his own pace, and is now the only way this dyslexic student wants to study science.  He wishes all of his subjects had this option!

If you would like your high school students to study science from the Creation standpoint, you can not go wrong with the Exploring Creation series.  Their past success and continued improvements will continue to make these programs one of the most recommended titles on the homeschool market.

Adam’s Chart of History is a vintage reproduction of the famous illustrated timeline of earth history first published in 1871. The foldout chart features detailed, full-color drawings of various stages of history, from Adam and Eve to the late 19th century, with handwritten commentary throughout. Perfect for educational settings or Sunday School walls, it includes the descriptive booklet that was originally published with the chart. Follows James Ussher’s time-line from The Annals of the World, the inspiration for Adams’ monumental work.

This casebound chart set is 13″ x 28″ and consists of 21 panels in full color - which totals over 20 continuous feet of history.  The publishers have included for free the key to the original timeline is included and expands on the history of the different cultures and countries in the timeline, from Macedonia, to Egypt, to the United States.  This release includes a hardcover version for home use, and an unbound version for wall mounting in a classroom, both the same high quality printing on stiff paper.

This is one of the best references I have seen to be used as a reference for history, Bible studies or cultural studies.  The timeline compares side-by-side all the major rulers of their times and compares them to leaders of the same era.  Graphics and additional descriptions add to the value of the timeline, and give more educational material from that time.  The timeline also gives information on the major inventions, discoveries and events from the age.

Homeschooler’s will find this a wealth of knowledge, and even more valuable for those with visual learning style students.  This is the perfect addition to a study of Creation or the book of Genesis, a unit study on any war, inventors, politics, or cultural studies.  Bible scholars will love the visual reference for comparisions of the individuals chronicled in the bible to the inventions and major events that happened during their lifetimes.

Our family is thrilled that we will have access to such a fabulous refence in our history and Bible studies.  I can not think of a more comprehensive timeline on the market today, and am thrilled that this one has stood the test of time, as it was originally published in 1871.  This is a perfect reference for those of us who look for non-PC curriculum, as it starts from Creation, and has no ‘revisionist’ history included.  This will be one product our family will use not only for school - but for life!

You can find Adam’s Chart of History discounted off the retail price of $37.99 at America’s Future.