Thinkwell Review

Vendor: Thinkwell

Product: High School Math

Age: High School

About: Thinkwell is an online program that has given me the chance to review one of their High School Math courses, Geometry.  I used this with my 9th grader who has already completed Algebra and had been starting Geometry. The courses are all video based. The Geometry course that we did is priced at $125.  This is completely online. You watch a video of instruction then it gives you review and practice, which is automatically graded. This also gives you instant feedback too. You can also get printable worksheets with answer sheets for additional practice. You get access to printable notes, quizzes and those practice worksheets for you online subscription as well. These are all in color and ready to go format. 

My daughter that used this likes to do school on her own. She has preferred the online method over books for a couple years now. This one was different in the sense that instead of reading instructions for her work she was actually getting video instructions to watch and then on to doing her practice work. I liked that it automatically graded her stuff and that it gave her feedback so she could I turn correct herself or go back and review the instructional videos again. We also had the option to print the notes for her to follow along with or have handy while doing the work to go back and remember steps and rules. We really enjoyed this program all together and will continue using it to fulfill her Geometry credit for highschool. I also like that she can go at her own pace with it and go quicker when she wishes. She has always gotten bored at doing a slow pace program. If you want something to help take the lead for your kiddos you should check it out. They also have other age level programs you can use too.

Be sure to also check out what my other crew mates had to say about other classes as well. 

Skidaway Island Georgia Field-trip

Skidaway Island State Park

Each week I try to take the kids to a new place and explore or learn something.  This week we went to Skidaway Island State Park here in Georgia.  We decided to do the 3 mile hike and see what we could find.

The Spanish Moss was beautiful.  It hung from the trees helping create a nice shade over our trail.  We also learned that Spanish Moss is free growing.  It gets everything it needs from the air around it.  That means it can grow anywhere and it is not rooted into anything.

The trees that were along the stream have their roots exposed from the tide going out and taking the sand/dirt with it.  This tree was slowly starting to fall over while still being fully alive.  Such a breath taking image.  We plan to go back and get some family pictures done around this tree.

Seriously everything here was breath taking. Even the kids enjoyed every mile of it with no complaints which was a shock.

We also learned about a Giant Sloth that was found here in Savannah.  This thing was HUGE!  I mean when you think of the Sloths we have now you do not ever imagine one being this size.  How would you even react to seeing something of this size?

Even little Syler enjoyed the view and he hates the heat and usually fusses.  He passed out a couple times along the walk but never fussed.

Sound For Life Ltd Review

Vendor: Sound for Life Ltd

Product: Soundsory

Age: Minimum of 3 years old

About: Sound for Life Ltd gave me the great chance to review Soundsory. Soundsory can be used with any age from 3 and up. It is a multi-sensory program that comes with headphones. The program has specifically designed music that is processed with neuro-acoustic modifications that you add in movement based exercises to. It it meant to help those with delays such as; motor, balance, and coordination. It can also help those on the autism spectrum or with other developmental delays. Also with things like sensory and auditory processing disorders, ADD, and ADHD. This program is 30 minutes long and should be used each day for 40 days. The days are split into two parts with the first part being 25 minutes of rhythmic music listening and the second part of the day is 5 additional minutes of music to be added to the provided body movement exercises that you find on their website. You can do things like color, draw, dance, or play while listening to the music. They also recommend a 4 week break in between repeating of the program.

How we used: We used this with my son that has ADHD as well as being on the autism spectrum. the headphones fit him, but could be a bit smaller for his head at 5 years old. He liked how once he heard the music it actually helped block out background noise. This actually helped him be able to concentrate when drawing and stuff. Normally he hears anything he has to turn look and gets distracted so much longer than he actually participates in the activity he is doing. I will say he hasn't been to fond of the movements. He doesn't like people watch him do things so it was hard trying to show him without him being embarrassed.  Overall so far I really like it.  I like that it helps him be focused and pay attention to his work at hand and less all over the place.

I recommend that anyone with a kiddo that needs some help focusing really look into this.

Also be sure to check them out on social media.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soundsory/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soundforlifeofficial/

Crafty Classroom Review

Vendor: Crafty Classroom
Product: R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook K

I love trying out new ways to teach my kiddos to read. Crafty Classroom gave me the opportunity to try out their program, R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook K. Crafty Classroom makes many other fun learning subjects as well. Some of them include; alphabet, Bible, math, reading, geography, science, and writing. The R.E.A.D stands for Ready, Eager, Able, and Determined to READ! How awesome is that!! This curriculum is a 36 week course for use 4 days a week. There are daily warm ups/calendar work. Each week there is a word family, 2-3 sight words, writing prompts, grammar, early readers, and science sequencing. Every 5th week the beginning blends cycle, this is a review week.  There is also quarterly assessments and review games. Everything is set and ready for you to start teaching with very minimal prep work.  There is a daily and weekly schedule to follow to show what needs to be done and when. The pages are nice and colorful to grab your kiddos attention. This is a very large PDF file.  We printed out all of the reference pages and then I just printed enough for each week that we were in. 

We worked on this following the provided schedule.  The daily warm ups were nice to help practice writing his name.  We also went over the time and weather. Each sight word is in a pretty colorful page with example words. Next we move on to learning the sounds of its letters and reading it.  There is pages to practice writing the word as well as other words that contain that sight word as well as other activities. Like week one we learned AM. The sight words to go with it were I, am, and a.  In language arts we learned what nouns were. We had writing practice as well as the reader, Yam Jam. Every fifth week there were blends to work on.  This week is only learning and reviewing the blends and reading several early readers to get your practice in. 

I used this with my new Kindergarten child.  We liked that it followed our 4 day work week, we usually do field trips on Fridays.  The lessons were short and sweet.  There was the added review that I enjoyed.  I also like that there were assessments, this is really great for those of you in states that require them to be kept for record keeping.  It is also great to be able to see where your child is at, if they grasp the lessons they have learned or if there needs to be more practice on them. I really think this is a great program to start your child in to learn to read.  It also gives you some more subjects to touch on as well through it.  

Also be sure to check out what my other crew members had to say about Crafty Classroom and some of their other curriculum that they were able to review. 

Learning Dynamics Review

Vendor: Learning Dynamics
Product: Learning Dynamics Reading Program

Learning Dynamics gave me the great opportunity to try out their Learning Dynamics Reading Program to review. We used this about 3-4 days a week approximately 20 minutes per day. The company is geared at a 4 week program that you spend 15 minutes a day, 3 times a week, that your child will learn to read the books.  They also offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Included in the curriculum is a teaching manual, online training videos, over 50 books, flash cards, workbooks, activities, and a music CD. This is suitable for readers that have no letter knowledge to those that are just struggling readers. The reader books included start very basic blending words and work up to being more advanced. This program starts out teaching letters and them moves on to full reading of the books included.  Lesson one is starting out with learning the letter M. The teachers manual gives the lesson and what needs to be taught and how. There is a work book that gives practice based on the lesson.  Each lesson also has some suggested activities to go with each lesson as well. The music CD gives songs to go with each letter and then there is a matching animal. These are on cardboard cutouts. This helps your child remember the sound of the letter learned.  The reader books are introduced around lesson twelve. If you already know letters you can start further into the program to start working on blends and reading. The books only use the sounds and blends that are introduced in the lessons.

I really love this program. It is short simple lessons that keep attentions of little ones.  Different things to keep them interested. In the lesson book they can color the pictures after working on their writing. I really love that the words in the books only use those sounds and blends learned.  We find a lot of times we get readers and the other words added in that we didn't go over seem to frustrate my kiddo. I have been working with my son that is 5 and is autistic.  He was good to go with going over things because 15-20 minutes every other day or so is not to much for him to stay focused.  We did have to go over each lesson a couple days in a row for him to catch on. I think this is more from his special needs versus any issue with the program.  I am really happy the lessons are all laid out for you. So there is minimal prep to get started each day.  Also having all the books there and ready is great.  They can also be used for free reading practice to continue getting better at reading. 

As always, do not forget to check them out on other social media places.  Also click below to see what my other crew mates have to say about the program with their kiddos.  Some had struggling readers and were able to start further into the lessons rather than starting from the beginning.


Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4weekstoread/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdum6PdUjxTu78qWPza6O_Q
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4weekstoread/?hl=en

Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner for 2019/20 Year

Vendor: The Old Schoolhouse®

Product: Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner for 2019/20 Year

About: I just love  The Old Schoolhouse® so I was super excited to get the chance to review their new planner, Hey, Mama! Print Homeschool Planner. I mean who doesn't need need a good planner to keep them organized these days? Our very own Gena Suarez is the author of this planner. Hey, Mama! They got you covered if you order quick. We have already sold out of 98% of our print run. Hey Mama Planner is 188 pages long. It is 9"x11" and spiral bound as well. Gena also adds in some wonderful devotional into the planner. They are very encouraging. 

Hey Mama Planner has weekly planning pages, monthly goals, semester goals, yearly goals, attendance chart, curriculum planning, reading log, transcript planning and more. The attendance chart is the greatest for here in GA to help track our days completed. I am also in love with the face that there is room for 5 kids. Most large families end up having to buy several planners just to fit all their kids in. 

There is plenty of room in all of the sections to be able to write out things in. This is always a problem for me in other planners. I have room for all of my kids lessons as well as being able to have all the record keeping we need to do in one place. The calendar offers plenty of room to write appointments as well as room to write other activities in as well.
Since our new homeschool year has not started yet we have focused on some of the other parts of the planner. Hey Mama! Don't let that make you think I don't have a list of things I am planning on putting down in it. I really like the calendar the best I think. I've never had a planner than had a calendar big enough for me to write in. I usually always print one for each month to write our appointments, homeschool park days and activities in. Now I can have it in the same place as my planner so I don't have to go back and forth with my planner and my binder when planning to see what days are busy. I also am in love with the Hey Mama Planner's devotions and inspiring scripture. I am a Christian and though I strive everyday I know I still fail too. I need and love to see those to uplift me and to remind me there is a brighter day and I am forgiven. The weekly agenda I will use to put what I will be working on weekly with the kids. Since I don't personally have a lot of planning for myself I will use it for their school work lesson planning. Then the space to put the book lists will help us keep track of what we have read for the year.

My kids are not old enough to need to start a transcript but this will come in handy for those that have high schoolers. Also this will make me want to continue to use this planner so when the time comes I can be familiar with it and use it to make my transcripts for the kids. I really think this planner "has it all". It has more writing space than most planners, which I write big so is helpful for me.

I am also a full time college student. I can see this being helpful to me as a mom and student to keep me organized if I had wanted to use it for more me than just my kids studies. It seems like it would be pretty versatile. Hey Mama go check it out!

Be sure to check The Old Schoolhouse out on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoldschoolhouse/?fref=ts
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/tosmagazine/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TOSMag
Google+:https://plus.google.com/+Theoldschoolhouse1

Also click the banner below and see what my fellow crew mates have to say about how they used the planner. You know everyone has different needs so it may give you different ideas on how this may benifit you in a different way.

Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum Review

Vendor: Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum
Product: Pathway to Liberty's US History Level 1
Age: Level one is for K5- 3rd grade

We recently started using Pathway to Liberty's US History, part of Pathway to Liberty's History Curriculum, from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum. We started out with the physical copy of Level 1. This is a Christian based curriculum. There are several different levels to this set but they all are at the same stage of learning. Like you can have multiple age kids working on this together learning the same thing. The early levels will just be easier work load. The student guide is 371 pages long. This also comes with a teachers guide, which is 299 pages long.  This curriculum uses immersion based learning. This helps really dig into the topics you are learning about. It also offers book suggestions to help further get into the subject you are learning. 

Each lesson is scheduled out to be taught 4 a week. So we did Monday through Thursday. Each of the daily lessons took 30 minutes or so. Sometimes more but my kids tend to have more special needs in learning than others. Each week starts with a weekly overview. This helps you see what’s going to be gone over for the week, also shows for the older children as well. There is also a scripture for each week to go along with it. The projects in the book has the directions for them in the teachers guide. This is also only a 26 week study. With the last two weeks being Review. So it won’t get you through all of the year but close. 

We did find this to be a bit advanced for our kindergarten child. We aren’t to the point of being able to read or write so there was a lot of oral dictation which I than wrote in the answers for him. There was coloring pages that he did enjoy though. This is more fit for a third grader for sure. But it is workable, just have to make adjustments to suite your child. Which we are used to with most curriculum. I also figure that since it’s a little more rigorous we can extend the work load out to fill up the full year if need be. I over all believe this is a really good in depth history class. I think the older grade would be just as good. Adding in the additional books helps really get a feel for the stories taught at hand and gives a little break from the pen and paper work. I think of you are wanting to have some good really informative history in your school, than this is where you want to look for it. 

Be sure to check out what my other crew members said about it and some of the other levels. They also offer a digital version which allows you access to all of the levels for all of your children. Also check out their social media pages. This helps you stay updated on new things as well as sometimes discounts. 

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PathwaytoLiberty/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pathway2Liberty
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pathwaytoliberty/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClVQD1kM1KnthMBWFTQ_AbQ/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pathwaytoliberty/

Memoria Press Review

Vendor: Memoria Press
Product: Classical Phonics with the First Start Reading Program. 
Age: Kindergarten

I was very excited to get to try out Memoria Press with their First Start Reading Program. This program has five workbooks, teachers guide, and a reader. This is made for the kindergarten age range to work on reading as well as writing. This program is a complete phonics course that focuses on sounds, blending, and long-vowel patterns. The teacher book has lots of helpful tips. There is ways to help train your ears to hear the sounds. It also has everything planned out for you. This is a open and go kind of curriculum. That is always nice for those that don't have the time to piece together things. I really like that it shows a mini picture of the page the child is on. I always hated having to move their book around trying to find the spot and all.  So this way I have my own to look at. There is also more posters and teaching aids in the back as well. The workbooks are consumable one student workbooks. Book A starts with pictures then the matching letter to work on writing.  Since this curriculum works on correct formation and grip you don't need a writing curriculum to go with it. As you go through the books they start getting harder. You go from letters to writing words then eventually short sentences. With 26 lessons in each book, then a word review at the end, this curriculum can be used for a full years worth of lessons.

We worked on the lessons daily. we would go over the sounds and then work on coloring the pictures that start with the sound we are learning. Next we would try to guess a new word that started with that sound and draw it. we only made it a little more than a 4th of a way through book A. My son is ADHD and autistic so we had to go a bit slower.  But he has enjoyed it and wanted to work on it everyday. This is something we will continue on doing through the rest of the curriculum. I think all of homeschool moms will enjoy this ready to go curriculum. I hope that if you try it you will love it as much as we did, and still do.






Be sure to check out Memoria Press on their social media links below.  Also below that click to read review from my fellow crew members that also reviewed this curriculum.  Also some of them reviewed other topics and curriculum from Memoria Press as well.  Be sure to show them some love and learn something from them as well.


Social Media Links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/memoriapress/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MemoriaPress    Tag: @MemoriaPress   
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/memoriapress/       
Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/memoriapress/    Tag: @memoriapress   
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/memoriapress/ 

Homeschool Complete Review

I always love trying out new curriculum.  Homeschool Complete gave me the chance to review their Kindergarten Complete curriculum. It was a pdf download of the set. It is everything included for a full year of teaching the Kindergarten level. It includes Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Physical Development, Fitness, Character Development, and Bible. There is. Teacher Guide and all lessons are planned out step by step. The Student PDF has all the pro tables together and then an appendix that hold lots of extras.

We used this daily with my new kindergarten kiddo. Each lesson gives you a list of the skills you will learn as well as the materials needed in order to complete the lesson. These are usually simple things around the house. Even things like  yummy M&M’s. Then each subject is broke down and the task for that subject. This is great for the busy mom that needs everything laid out for her. There is minimal prep work. Just making sure your pages are printed out and gathering the materials needed for the lesson. The appendix helps give extras. Like the pledges that you can teach to say each day before you start your school day. There is also calendar time each day. This helps kids start learning their months, days of the week and so on.  Math tries to used manipulatives that you can have around the house, like building blocks and food.  In Language Arts you read a story to your child and then they start learning a letter, like a starting letter to a word in the book. There is always some kind of fun to go along with it. One lesson had us to draw a family portrait. My kindergarten child is Autistic so his family only included himself. :)  The lessons have a suggestion of maybe a couple hours to complete. We only did a little at once then had a good break and then came back to do a little more. That helps keep us more focused and not getting burnt out to quickly. This curriculum did a great job of giving fun hands on activities though to make it play learning too.

In Autism land we are hit and miss on being able to take pictures of things.  Since he is also in therapy and has to take homework to his OT he doesn't like me snapping pictures of him.  I will try to add some done work later when he allows me to without a fight. But these are some examples of the work that comes a long with it.  You get to make activities as well as doing fun ways of counting with stickers.

The Math and Language Arts lessons have activities and such that combine in the Science and Social Studies with it. Each week there is a Bible lesson that ties in with the theme you are learning in the lesson. Art, PE, and music rotate through the week, so you aren’t doing each one each day. This is good because to much structured learning for a child can make them get burnt out fast. Some kids don’t like to have their attention held that long either.

You can purchase additional manipulatives to go along with the curriculum. They have some flash cards as well as some hands on manipulatives. We did not get these though. We just used basic things we had around the house. Other than that and needing some books from the library this is a complete curriculum just like if states. It is so easy to adjust to your child’s learning preferences too. Making learning fun and not just sit down and book work things. I think this would work great for little ones preparing to go into kindergarten and parents what to give them a jump start. This is also great for a complete curriculum for homeschoolers like myself. Having it all laid out and ready for you is a blessing for this mom of many. The less prep work I have to do for a kiddo the easier time we have through the day.

FIND HOMESCHOOL COMPLETE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeschoolcomplete/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/HomeschoolCmpltTag: @homeschoolcmplt
Instagram:https://instagram.com/homeschoolcomplete
Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/kcomplete/
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5aqEg8dpPHxHSr_p-x5u7w

Also be sure to check out what my fellow crew members had to say about it as well. They were able to review other grade levels as well as reviewing some unit studies by Homeschool Complete.

Singapore Math Inc. Review

Singapore Math Inc. was an exciting review to be able to get. I received level 3A of Dimensions Math PK-5. The curriculum is for PK-5th grade. Included in this curriculum their are three books; a teachers guide, textbook, and a workbook.  Also included is access to some online resources; videos of songs, lesson material lists, and blackline masters. Each level is divided into A and B. So I only received half of the books that it would take to complete a full year of this curriculum. Since you may know most curricula have different standards for each levels. So Singapore Math Inc. makes it easy for you to pick the level that would suit your child best by offering placement tests. Some kids may need to start with a level B which would be the second semester of the grade.  This is better than having to do a whole grade level when you are starting a new curriculum and may already know some of the stuff at the start of the curriculum.  It also helps to make sure your child gets into a level they need by doing the placement test first. 

The teachers guide starts out with notes that introduce the topic being taught in the lesson. There is also key points to help with teaching as well as some activities.  The guide also offers the answers to all the problems in both the textbook and workbook. The textbook uses short lessons that focus on using pictures instead of text to teach the lesson.  Then the workbook offers practice for the new topic learned.

Each day I would go over the teacher guide and introduce the lesson for the day.  We would start in the text book going over the problems with the colorful pictures.  The visual learning like this is so much easier for my dyslexic child. It is much easier to see it from pictures versus black and white text.  We would move on to the workbook once we felt like he had it.  The workbook was good to practice the learning but it wasn't as fun since it wasn't colorful like the textbook.  However it was a good addition to get more practice in on what we have learned. I really liked the teacher guide.  I like to have them give something more than just answers. I like how this explained the problems so it gave another way for me to explain it to my kiddo so maybe he would understand it better. Sometimes I don't always know the best way to state things so that helps.  Overall I think this is a great curriculum. Lessons can be short and sweet when your kid gets the lesson well.  You can also take more practice out using the workbook for things that aren't clicking so quickly.  

Be sure to check them out on social media as well as checking out what my other crew members had to say about the curriculum as well.  Many of them reviewed different levels from the one I reviewed.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SingaporeMath/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/singaporemath
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/SingaporeK8/

IXL Learning Review

Vendor: IXL Learning

Product: IXL Full Annual Membership

Price: $159 for one child for the core subjects

Age: Pre-K through 12th

About: IXL Learning is an online comprehensive K-12 learning. IXL full annual membership is $159 for one child.  This includes the core subjects of; Math, Language, Science, and Social Studies. When you get access you get access to all the grade levels as well as subjects.  This is really great for those that have kids that may be in different levels for each subject that are in.  I used this for my 5 year old.  He is just getting into school and learning.  He is also ADHD and Autistic.  This means he doesn't hold his attention well for many things. The best part is you can download this as an app on your iPhone/iPad or your Android for them to play. I also have a touch screen computer so it was very easy for him to navigate the lessons himself. 

So we used this about every other day for 15-30 minutes, depending on how well we could get him interested.  It is easy for a kiddo to navigate the work but does need help getting into each topic. For a little kid like him it reads out the questions and answers so they know which one they want to pick. I think it is much easier on a mobile device or touch screen for him. So glad they had the option of an app. Plus makes a great busy time while in the car. I looked over the older levels too and they are all self explanatory.  I just found these are to practice skills already known, there is no teaching of the skill.  You get "rewards" for doing well as you progress through each topic. I think this is great for public school or homeschool kids to get some extra practice in areas they are working on in their everyday lessons.  It is also a good starting program for the pre-k age kids to be able to learn letters, shapes and etc. The platform is colorful and inviting and the lessons are quick so you don't get burnt out easily.

Below is a video of him doing shapes. Excuse any background noise :) but this can give you an idea how one of the lessons work. Each lesson after builds up to being harder or more information so they keep progressing. I like how it reads him the question then he can push each answer to see what it says before he submits the one he thinks is correct. The lessons keep him interested and then he likes when they give him an award. He likes to keep track off how well he has done on each thing. The wards fill a box up with several and he wants to get the entire thing filled with his awards.  This helps keep him motivated to continue going.

Be sure to check them out on social media...

Facebook: facebook.com/IXL
Twitter: twitter.com/IXLLearning
Pinterest: pinterest.com/IXL
YouTube: youtube.com/IXL

Also check out what my other crew members had to say about the program as well.