Make a Simple Lent Chain to Promote Prayer, Fasting, and Giving and More

Are you looking for an easy way to encourage your children to pray, fast, and give each day during Lent this year while also counting down the days until Easter?

A simple Lent Chain might be the way to go!  It sure has been for us through the years. 

Every morning during Lent, my children take turns pulling down a link on our chain, reading it, and deciding if we will act on what it is written on it right away or later in the day.  Then, when we have completed whatever act of prayer, fasting, or giving was written on the link, the children put some seeds in our Pray-Fast-Give jars (another Lenten tradition of ours.) 

Better still, as the days unfold, the children find themselves putting more and more seeds in our jar, because, well, you know that old truth about a thing in motion?  Once the children begin their days with praying, fasting, and giving as prompted by our Lent Chain, they often are inspired to carry on with other acts of Lenten love throughout the day.  It's so awesome to experience.

Sacrifice and Service with Academics and Life Skills on the Side

Of course, the primary purpose of our Lent Chain is to promote sacrifice and service through living the three pillars of Lent daily.  Each time one of the children pulls a link, we come together in living Lent through prayer, fasting, or giving.  We also, however, end up with corollary learning and skill-practice as we make and use our Lent Chain.

Seriously!

In the days just prior to the beginning of Lent (or, some years, just after), the children and I sit down together and chat about the Lenten season: 

• what Lent is
• why we observe it
• what is its liturgical colors
• what are its pillars  

Then, I ask the children to dictate 46 ideas for praying, fasting and giving to me, which I type in a largish font on our computer.  (Why 46?  Because that way, we include the Sundays during Lent on our chain, too.) 

This brainstorming exercise ends up a bit different every year.  Always, turn-taking, reasoning, and thinking about others come into play during our Lent Chain brainstorming process, however, from year to year the mood and pace of our annual session changes. 

Some years, the children rattle off their ideas for our Lent Chain to me without hesitation or drama.  Other years, they ask me to pull up a prior year's list or to search for other people's lists to spark their own ideas.  Still other years (like this one) the children have no trouble suggesting ideas for how we might pray, fast, and give together throughout Lent, but, then, end up arguing a bit over which of their proposed ideas should actually go on our chain.  This leads to virtue/vice conversations, and, in the end, results in a list that is meaningful and mutually agreed upon.

Once our list is complete, I print it out and the children use it at their own pace as copywork.  (In the past - before the children could copy sentences well - they simply dictated ideas which I wrote on strips of paper that they had cut or glued strips of typed ideas to pre-cut strips of paper.)

One every link has a way to pray, fast, or give on it, the children help to staple or tape the strips into a chain with a white Easter link that gets hung in our living room.  (This year, we also chose to make each Sunday link white to help the children think in 7's as the chain for spontaneous math.  For, through Lent, I often find the children spontaneously adding, subtracting multiplying, dividing, and skip counting throughout Lent as the chain gets shorter and shorter and they independently figure out how many days until Easter.

The children also end up practicing life skills in relation to our Lent Chain.  For example, depending on the link they pull, they partake in:

• cooking (when making meals for others).
• money management (when deciding on donation amounts).
• housekeeping (when doing extra chores).
• virtues (when thinking and doing for others or avoiding habitual vice). 
• time management (as the children decide when they will act on what is written on the link)

Also, as I already mentioned, the children gt in some copywork/handwriting while making the chain, basic reading practice while reading the links, early math skills while computing how many links are left, etc.

So, as you can see, our seemingly simple Lent Chain ends up fulfilling its primary purpose of helping us to focus on praying, fasting, and giving throughout the Lenten season while also acing as a gentle learning tool.

Not bad for a simple tradition, huh?  Our Lent Chain acts as a constant reminder to pray, fast, and give in easy, every day ways,  and it also gently encourages us to practice skills and apply learning we live the Lenten season with love.

Borrow Our Pray, Fast, Give Ideas

If your children need some ideas for their own Lent Chain, feel free to let my children's ideas inspire them.  This year, they decided to:

• Pray for (a friend who is injured). 
• Pray for (a friend with cancer and her family. 
• Pray for (whose home burnt down) and her family. 
• Pray for Eddie’s soul. 
• Pray for Adrienne’s soul. 
• Pray for Nana’s soul. 
• Pray for (a friend who recently underwent surgery) and her family. 
• Pray for (a friend's) conversion. 
• Pray for (another friend's) conversion. 
• Pray for (a friend's informed grandfather) and his family. 
• Pray for all of our deceased family and friends. 
• Pray for vocations. 
• Pray for (a young child we know and love). 
• Pray for reparation of sins and for everyone in the world. 
• Pray for the will to be kind others, especially to others in our family. 
• Pray for (a local woman we are friends with). 
• Give up “fun” videos online (like Stampycat) and pray a decade instead. 
• Fast from interrupting; wait for another person to be finished speaking before speaking. Fast from bad attitudes and do an extra chore instead.
• Fast from snack and offer a prayer if we get hungry.
• Fast from yelling or using loud voices inside and speak with graciousness instead. 
• Fast from using sharp tones and smile with your voice as well as your face. 
• Fast from Minecraft for a day (and from extra time online for Mommy) and say prayers for 45 minutes instead (in 15 minute stretches). 
• Fast from fun and non-educational things on the computer and pray instead. 
• Do not make mean faces at people and smile eight extra times today. 
• Do not use your blanket for a night and pray for people who do not have blankets or beds. 
• Fast from having lights on and pray for those who have no electricity. 
• Fast from using whiteboards and prayer for those who don’t have learning supplies. 
• Fast from using our stove and oven for the day and pray for those who do not have such conveniences. 
• Fast from having the heat on all day – even the one in the bathroom – and pray for those who don’t have heat. 
• Fast from all carbohydrates and pray for those who cannot food. 
• Only have soups all day and pray for those with little food.
• When someone says something unkind or yells at you say nothing in return. 
• Don’t yell for someone in the house to come to you, but instead go find them to talk to them quietly. 
• Fast from part of your meal that you like and give it to someone else. 
• Take time to write and send a letter to someone. 
• Offer extra smiles to others. 
• Give some money to the St. Vincent de Paul box at the back of the church. 
• Give hugs to someone who looks like they need them. 
• Give the birds and squirrels seeds. 
• Give someone a secret gift or letter. 
• Make someone else’s bed for them. 
• Give some of your money to the poor box or the offering at church. 
• Give someone a meal. 
• Give a call to Papa. 
• Give a call to Grammy and Grampy. o Give a sibling or child a story they like.

In the past, our annual Lent Chain lists have tended to be similar to our Christmas Countdown ones, so, perhaps the lists found in the following posts will be helpful inspiration for you and yours, too:

• The Countdown Is On
• Countdown to Christmas with Works of Mercy
• Celebrating Christ the King Day with Stories, Symbolic Eats, and Starting Our Advent Chain 

Access Ready-Made Printables 

I love having my children come up with their own pray-fast-give ideas.  However, I know for some, the ease of having a free, quick, printables works best.  If that's what you need, you might pop over to:

• A Slice of Life's Lenten Love Links

• Look to Him and Be Radiant with Joy's FREE Pray, Fast, Give Printable for use with children

• the USCCB's FREE Lent Calendar for adults and families

• practical printable Pray-Fast-Give cards at Teach Mama.

• Team Whitaker's lovely Printable Lent Sacrifices cards for children.

Undoubtedly, there are many other free printable lists and cards out there with practical child-friendly ideas for the three pillars of Lent: praying, fasting, and giving.  Each has merit on its own, and, in my opinion, can be even more meaningful if used as inspiration for children to come up with their own personal pray, fast, and give ideas.  That is, if the children even need inspiration.  In my experience, some years, just an open-ended question or two sets off a stream of original and personal ideas and, other years, further prompting or inspiration is on order.

Any which way you approach a Lent Chain, the simple tradition of making and using one can enrich your Lenten journey.  If you're looking for a simple and meaningful family tradition, I encourage you to try this!

This post was shared at the 40 Days of Seeking Him Link up

Enjoy a Simple Service Activity for the Start of Lent: Pretzel Prayer Pals (with FREE Printable!)

It's no secret that my children enjoy secret acts of service such as passing on the love of St. Nicholas in December, egging people before or after Easter, and, most recently, "Love Bucketing" others between St. Valentine's Day and Lent.  Thus, I suggested to a friend that we guide our children in a simple Pretzel Prayer Pals activity this Lent, where the children can pick a person to be a secret prayer pal for - or one to pray for openly - and can let the person know they are being prayed for through the gift of a bag of 40 pretzels and a card.

My friend loved the Pretzel Prayer Pals idea, so I said I would create a set of printables for us to use.  I did that, today, and am quite pleased with how they came out.


What's in the Free Printable Set?

For the FREE printable Pretzel Prayer Pals set, I wrote up a brief history of the story of pretzels called Pretzels, Prayer and the Lenten Season.  This one-page history describes how some people say that the word pretzel comes from a Latin word meaning "little arms" (folded in a prayer position) while others think it from a Latin word meaning "little reward" (because children were once said to be rewarded for prayers with pretzels.)  The history also encourages readers to recall the idea of pretzels as reminders to pray (as well as to fast and give).  It is meant to be given to the children's Pretzel Prayer Partners.

Also in the set is a poem I wrote that goes like this:

About 1500 years ago, it is said 

A monk made prayer arms out of bread. 

They were the first pretzels and still today 

Pretzels can serve as a reminder to pray. 

A reminder and, sometimes, a promise, too, 

As is the case with this gift for you. 

Indeed, each pretzel in this bag represents 

A prayer that I’ll offer for you this Lent.

This poem is meant to be attached to a bag of 40 pretzels that will be given to the person each child commits to praying for.

Then, as a nod to the idea of pretiola (little rewards), I wrote a shorter poem that goes like this:

Before I eat this pretzel 

I fold my arms to pray 

That my Lenten Prayer Pal 

May be blessed today. 

That way, children can fill a bag of pretzels for themselves, too, which will act as a reminder and an accounting tool for them as they pray 40 times for their Lenten Prayer Pal.  I also made a version of this poem with a blank line in the place of the words "my Lenten Prayer Pal" so that children who wish to write their pal's name down can.

Finally, I wrote another version of the "accounting" poem that goes like this:

For each of these pretzels

I fold my arms to pray 

That my Lenten Prayer Pal 

May be blessed today. 

My thought is that this poem does not mention eating and, so, children whose parents do not wish them to eat pretzels, can use it by crossing off pictured pretzels near the poem.

The simplest way to use these printables, of course, is simply to print the history and poems, cut them out, and tape them to bags filled with 40 pretzels each.  That is exactly what my daughter did when testing out our activity (whereupon I found errors in the printables and, promptly, fixed them before sharing with you and our friends.)

You could also get fancier by laminating the poems or gluing them to cardstock and then stringing pretzels on a purple ribbon.  Or, you could print out fine religious art (like that shared at Art & Theology) and let your children go to town with the poem, cardstock, pretzel art images, markers, glitter, or whatever you like to make cards to be gifted with pretzel bags. 

Recommended Reads 

{Disclosure:  Some links which follow are affiliate ones.}

 

My children and I will be enjoying three picture books this year in connection to our Pretzel Prayer Pal project, too.

Brother Giovanni's Little Reward tells the story of how children learned to pray with pretzel rewards.

Pretzels by the Dozen tells the history of pretzels in rhyming text, focuses children on the Trinity symbolism of the pretzel, and offers a recipe, too.

Walter the Baker is a popular Eric Carle book that has little to do with prayer but makes for a fun pretzel-related read.

Of course, while we read these books, the children will enjoy some gluten-free Gratify pretzels, too, as I have yet to try my hand a making homemade gluten-free pretzels.  (Your tried-and-true recipe suggestions for doing so are most welcome!)

You might also enjoy seeing prayer pretzel traditions and activities that others, like Tracy from A Slice of Smith Life have enjoyed.

I pray you and yours have a meaningful start to Lent and, if you wish, take on a Pretzel Prayer Pal or two as part of your efforts to pray, fast, and give.

This post was shared at the 40 Days of Seeking Him Link up

Pass Forward Love with Love Bucket {FREE Printable!}

Saint Valentine's Day has just passed and Lent is around the corner. Thus, many of us are thinking about love as well as praying, fasting, and giving.  That makes now a great time for gifting forward a little kindness and fun with a Love Bucket!

I found the idea of love buckets at Shauna and Co when I was planning activities for a local homeschool gathering in honor of Saint Valentine.  Right away, I knew I wanted to adapt the idea for our celebration. 

Since my children already love egging people and playing St. Nicholas for neighbors, I had no doubt that they'd delight in a new St. Valentine's Day-into-Lent tradition of "love bucketing" others.  So, it was I penned two poems so we could begin the tradition by making Love Buckets with friend so secretly gift to others.

{Disclosure: Some links which follow are affiliate ones.  Should you click through them and make any purchase we may receive compensation.  Anything we make goes straight back to training happy hearts and sharing about it here.}

Since I had already planned to take a picture walk through Saint Valentine (Tompert) at our party and to read Saint Valentine (Sabuda), I wrote one poem to harken back to those stories.

Since I also planned to share a perennial favorite, Somebody Love You, Mr. Hatch, I wrote a second poem related to that story.

This poem, especially, I think can be used as for anytime of year Love Bucket to share a random act of kindness, Work of Mercy, or Lenten giving mini-mission.

As you can see, I typed each poem up in a variety of fonts.  I, then, printed enough of the poems so that the children at our party could choose one version they liked, cut it out with fancy scissors, glue it to cardstock, and decorate it as a bucket tag to put on some inexpensive lidded buckets a friend found for us.

I meant to laminate the children's decorated tags so that the tags would be durable through much of love bucketing passed forward, but, unfortunately, when I had packed all the supplies for the party in my minivan, I had forgotten my laminator.  So, I simply had the children hole punch their cardstock tags and tie them with ribbon to their buckets.
 

The children then were encouraged to bring their buckets home, fill them with treats and decide who to "love bucket".

My children could not wait to do that and are so excited to add this random (and secretive) act of kindness to our annual traditions.  If yours would be, too, please  feel free to use a FREE PRINTABLE of the Love Bucket poems I wrote as you and yours  make your own love buckets to pass forward.

I'd be delighted to hear about your "love bucketing" fun!

Ninevah 90 - Are You In?

In less than an hour, the day the Nineveh 90 Challenge will be here, and 90 days hence, the challenge will end with a consecration on the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima.

If you'd like to grow in faith and spiritual strength over the next 90 days (or less, if you are reading this late), I'd encourage you join the challenge by heading on over to the Nineveh 90 page to read all the details about the challenge and to sign up for it.   First, though, you may want to watch the video below (which appears at the bottom of the Nineveh 90 informational page).  The video puts the challenge into perspective and helped temper the "I could never do this" naysayer  in me. 



Another thing that encouraged me to say "I can do this" was a blog post by Jamie, from Make Me a Saint, which had this helpful graphic in  it:

Credit: Make Me a Saint

Also, Nicole, from Just Like Mary was kind enough to start a support group on Facebook, which encourages wives and mothers to take the challenge, while adapting it to fit whatever stage we are in while still seeking spiritual renewal and preparation. 

All this worked (or rather, through all this, God worked) to make buoy up my courage to say "yes" to the challenge.

Won't you join me - in full or in part - to conquer vice and grow in virtue with the Nineveh 90?  The challenge is FREE and even if taken with modifications (as I am taking it) can offer spiritual strengthening (and a healthier body and mind).

My Personal Nineveh 90 Challenge Goals

For these 90 days, I resolve to:

1.  Let go of repetitive sin that I struggle with, which is between God and me.

2.  Find my Brown Scapular during the 90 days, get it blessed (as I am not sure it ever was) and begin wearing it.

3.  Make it to at least one daily Mass each week.

4. Get my children and I to the Sacrament of Reconciliation once a month, if not more often.

5.  Participate in online Support System groups at least three times weekly and maybe form a local in-person one.

6.  Build daily prayer habits to include:

• Continuing to pray a simple Morning Offering with my children and, when I am not rushed in the morning, adding a more formal one for myself.

• Praying the Angelus at least once a day, and, hopefully, building up to the traditional three-times-a-day at 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m.

• Continuing to pray a Rosary decade for the Living Rosary group I am in as well as at least one decade with my children daily, and, adding a full rosary (perhaps inclusive of the decade with my children) with efforts at the 54 Day Rosary Novena* (February 13 to April 7), a 33 Day Preparation for Consecration* (April 10 - Monday of Holy Week - to May 12), and a Marian Consecration* on May 13, 2017, the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima.

• Making a Holy Hour (or 20 minutes at least) once a week in front of the Blessed Sacrament and taking another 20 minutes or more a day for at-home "Holy Hour" time.

• Being more consistent with Bedtime Prayers and Blessings with my children (as they sometimes get rushed around here and should not be) and for myself.

7.  Strengthen my body and mind by:

• getting regular (and increasingly intense) exercise by moving my body for 30 consecutive minutes a day on some days (walking, shoveling, jogging, etc.) and actually starting some more intense and -ugh for me - strength-training work outs on others.

• getting seven hours of sleep a night (even if not always consecutive, although consecutive is a great goal and will mandate corollary goals of getting myself to bed at a decent hour more often and also getting the children off to bed at an earlier hour than we have been lately).

•  continuing to drink no alcohol, soda, or sweetened drinks.

• eating no desserts or sweets outside of feast days and Sundays.

• eating nothing between meals except fruits, seeds, or greens.

• watching no television or movies at home besides occasional news, faith-based programs with my children, and programs for my children's schooling.

• continuing to listen only to music that lifts the soul to God (or maybe I should stay starting to listen, as I listen to little music these days.) 

• limiting recreational use of the computer (which I tend to do anyway) and, more importantly for me,  being more cognoscente of actual time spent on computer for work, lesson planning, support and networking, etc. better balancing time online for work, lesson planning, networking, volunteering, blogging, etc. with the needs of my children, my body (sleep!), etc.

• and, since, watching no televised sports would not be a sacrifice for me at all as I do not care for televised sports, I will actually watch a televised sport with my family occasionally if they desire to watch one.

*These are listed as elements, 8, 9, and 10 of the whole-hog Nineveh 90 and, truly, are some of the most important elements, I know.  However, since I have never been good at formalized prayer habits like these I a committing to making an effort at these prayers and, if I fail to succeed with consistency, just picking up again with the knowledge that each attempt strengthens me for future success.

In addition, I am going to attempt fasting on Fridays and one other day a week using water, broth, and maybe some juice.  However, if my body does not take to this well, I will likely add other liquids (creamed soups, smoothies, etc.) in or simply fast as outlined by the USCCB.

I know this is NOT going to be easy for me - especially the formal prayer, bedtime/sleep hours, balancing computer usage, and intensifying exercise, but, the point is not to have it easy, it is to conquer vice, grow in virtue, do penance, and make reparation.  

If you, too, are taking the Nineveh 90 Challenge, I would love to hear about it!

Learn and Review Times Tables the Fun Way {A Times Alive Review}

My children have been enjoying some independent learning and review lately using Times Alive online lessons with animated songs and stories to learn times tables the fun way.  They also decided to help me write this review by dictating their thoughts to me.

What My Children Have to Say About Times Alive

My middle child, who is nine and has studied multiplication facts before (but who also struggles with memory), had this to say:

Times Tables the Fun Way is an online program that teaches you to do your times tables.  They tell you stories that have characters that look like numbers, such as 7 or 6.  Then, they sing a song that tells you what the numbers equal when they are multiplied.  Then, they have little tests and things, like having you write what a problem equals.

I used the program about 30 minutes at a time and it took me a few weeks to complete.  It helped me with a few of my times tables.  I knew some already and some are still hard for me, but it helped me some of the ones I could not remember before.

I liked the songs the best.  They made the stories make more sense.

I did not like how sometimes even when I finished a lesson, the circles did not fill.  I also did not like how the tests were timed, but the tests were okay otherwise.

I would recommend this program for others.  It is okay.

My youngest, at six, had this to say:

Times Alive is something that teaches you how to do times.  I used it by myself for 15 minutes or 30 each time.

I liked how it showed the answers for problems in every story, like the 4-fort and the sign that looked like a 9. 

I finished the program and it helped me learn times better, but I cannot remember all the stories and some don't have stories - like the 9's.  I still have to learn some times.

It was fun to use by myself.

My oldest, at 11, knew his times tables fairly well before Times Alive came into our home.  However, since he enjoys checking out anything online, he wanted to try the program, too. 

At first, I could not allow my oldest to check out Times Tables the Fun Way since he was on a four-week (forced) computer break.  However, as soon as my son received his computer privileges back, I told him he would give Times Alive a try, whereupon he happily began the program.

In just two sittings so far, my oldest it through 10 of the 18 lessons in the Times Alive program and has this to say:

Times Alive is a computer-based learning program that teaches the times tables.  I wanted to use it to see what it was like. 




I like that it has stories, but I do not like that it has songs.  (I don' like songs.)  I think the stories are clever and I like the animations.  I think they should be used, of course, to get kids interested in math, but not to totally teach it, because things like this would only work for addition and multiplication.  I liked using it as a review and would recommend it to others.  I would also recommend they take out the songs.

My Own Take - Both Pros and Cons




Seeing my middle child and my youngest solidify their multiplication facts is a goal of mine for the first quarter of this calendar.  Another goal has been having the children engage in more independent learning when possible - whether aided by on- or offline resources.  Thus, I was delighted with how easy Times Alive made it for us to make headway with these goals.

Once I logged into the program - which was as simple as entering an email address and password - it was easy for each of my child(ren) to login by typing in their names.  Then, they could easily begin (or carry on) with the program by clicking "next" or by clicking on whatever lesson had no little yellow circle filled in yet.

Unfortunately, though, the way the program saves each child's data, we found out, is not full proof across browsers, on different laptops, or even on the same laptop. 

When a browser on our main computer gave my children and I trouble one day (which was strictly a browser issue, not a  Times Alive one), we switched to another browser.  At that point, we found that all of our saved Times Alive  progress data was "missing".  Later, when we returned to the original browser, the data returned.  That is when we realized that however Times Alive  saves data seems to be browser-specific.Then, another time, when one of my children was on our "good" laptop and another child wanted to use Times Alive, I brought the program up on our older laptop only to discover the progress data was again missing.  A little playing around on both our computers helped me figure out that data is not only saved in a browser-specific way, but in a computer-specific way, too.  While not the most convenient, I could make that work by having the same child use the same browser on the same computer to do Times Alive  work.So it was my middle and youngest children progressed happily with Times Alive lessons on a single browser on a single computer, taking turns.  Luckily for me, I had two of them working the program, because more than once, one of them would ask, "What is the story for (insert problem) again?", but since I was having them work independently, I had no idea.  I simply answered, "Let's go back and find out," or, "Ask your brother/sister."  (They usually did the latter, and, with a reminder from a sibling moved on.)  This made me wish for a "cheat sheet" of sorts for parents or a printable story memory sheet with an image or a sentence to quickly use a a memory trigger. 

Finally, I also would like to see upgraded editions of Times Alive  have better progress reports, for the current ones simply show when/if children complete lessons and what scores they get on tests.  I would like to see WHICH problems my children have trouble with.  Knowing that would be far more useful than what an overall scores.

Now, of course, I know that, looking at the tests from different lessons would help me suss out where my children most need help/additional review with specific multiplication facts.  However,  my plan to do that was foiled within days of when both my middle and youngest children completed all 18 lessons within
Times Alive .  It was then that I went to pull their progress reports up only to find them all gone.  Completely gone.

I was chagrined quite chagrined by the loss of my children's progress data, since I had been careful to have them work on one computer on one browser and had seen their progress circles fill in as I glanced over at them working (while doing 1:1's with their siblings.) I had planned to review the children's scores to decide what to ask them to review or to see which sets of facts might be good for me to play some hands-on multiplication games with them during 1:1 or 2:1 lesson time with Mom, but that option was negated by an inexplicable loss of data.

I am not sure if the loss of progress data was due to a cookies/cache thing after regular automated computer maintenance or something else, but it frustrated me and made me wish even more that the Times Alive program had more reliable progress report options.

Luckily, it had only been a few weeks since my middle and youngest children had taken the pretest in the program and I remembered their approximate scores, so when I discovered all their progress and test scores missing, I simply asked the, to redo the final test.  They complied and I discovered that their final scores were, indeed, higher than their initial ones, however, they were not as high as I had hoped for... and I had no ability to see which problems they struggled with without having them do the the tests get again.

That is when I decided that until such time when Times Alive may changes its progress reports and its way of keeping data for them, I would advise anyone using the program to either use the print option in the program to print out tests or to keep written notes on progress.  

After several weeks of using Times Alive  - and "finishing" the program (i.e. doing all of the activities within it), both my middle and youngest children made progress with their times tables, but still have more work to do before instant and accurate recall of all of their facts.Since my children like Times Alive  well enough, we may revisit some of the stories and songs within it -repeating portions of the lessons - before our three-month subscription runs out.  The children enjoy the program enough that they won't balk at doing so and I see enough value in the fact that the program did help them to learn some multiplication facts to have them spend some more time with the program.

Such glitches and inconveniences aside, I would still recommend
Times Alive as a fun, supplementary program to strengthen multiplication facts.  My children found the program engaging, worked independently on it , and improved their multiplication facts using it (or had fun reviewing their facts in my oldest's case.) 

My middle and youngest child however, have not yet reached multiplication facts mastery.  My middle child, who has memory issues, gained some confidence and increased her success with some facts.  My youngest who had only minimal prior multiplication exposure, got to about an 80% success rate.  Thus, in closing, I would say that Times Alive:

• draws children in with clever stories, fun animations, and helpful songs;
• encourages practice and assessment through quizzes;
• and offers an engaging way for children to improve their ability to recall multiplication facts.

A parental "cheat sheet" of stories/song lyrics/visual triggers, test results that show which problems are not mastered or intuitive programming that repeats problems children miss, and more reliable saving of progress reports would serve to make the program even more user-friendly.

Discover what over 75 Homeschool Review Crew families tested thought about Times Tables the Fun Way.


You can find Times Alive by Times Tables the Fun Way / City Creek Press on Facebook and YouTube.

Currently, a Times Alive monthly subscription is $9.95/month with a $6.95 set up fee.