Reviews – Page 5 – Chicagoland Homeschool Network

TOS Crew Review — Big IQ Kids

As my kids get older it is easy to focus on their core texts and let other, but still important, subjects slip a little. Just when I was grappling with how to keep on top of those little areas, Big IQ Kids came to my rescue.

This online program allows kids to learn independently in four essential areas — spelling, vocabulary, US geography, and math. They can just go with the flow of the program or you can customize it to their needs or your current academic focus. I was so grateful to be able to set it up initially, and then let my 6th and 8th graders run with it. I required them to do a lesson in spelling, vocab, and geography each day and it freed me up to work with my other kids knowing that these areas were covered.

Here is an example of the different levels of membership and what they offer you in just one area of the website:

My kids have really enjoyed using this and it takes little oversight on my part. They get excited about advancing and it has really helped my daughter’s spelling in particular. It was a great review of state information as well and has overall been a great fit to teach and review in the four areas covered on their site.

Product: Big IQ Kids

Details: An online program geared to kids K-8, and even adults. The program offers quizzing and lesson helps in spelling, vocabulary, math, and US Geography.

Price: Pricing has a lot of different options, see their pricing page for all the details, but basically, you can get the whole program for $19.99 per month, $99.99 a year. You can also purchase just portions of it for a month or year if you want to target learning in a certain area. Their full program for a full year is really the best price available.

What we loved . . .

Lots of free quizzing. Big IQ Kids offers some great stuff on their site that everyone can enjoy. You can have your child spend time quizzing on spelling, geography, math, and vocabulary. However, you cannot save their work or check their progress without setting up a membership that costs money. I think that’s fair. You can play around for free, but if you really want to track the progress and see the program become more customized to the user, you need to put in some money. To see if the premium options would be a good fit for you, you can enjoy a free 7 day full access trial.
Game rewards. My kids always love the games. In Big IQ Kids they earn coins for each lesson that they complete. The coins can then be spent in the “arcade.” There are a variety of games, some better than others, but both my kids that used the program found something they enjoyed and would willingly work toward the reward at the end of the lesson.
Email updates. Every time they take a quiz, pass a level, or do noteworthy work, I would get an email. It told me the percentage score and in many cases gave me specifics about what they missed. This was great to remind me to check in with them, to follow up on areas of struggle, and to praise them for the great job they were doing in the program.
Focuses on success. While the email updates did include their percentage and what they got wrong, it also encourages you to praise your child. My kids did not get discouraged by low scores, because they could repeatedly redo quizzes until they achieved the 100%. This was great. They weren’t stuck somewhere with a poor score, but continued to work hard to get to the next level or master the new content.
Great for independent learning. Both my kids that used the program did so with little or no help from me. I checked in with them a couple times a week, read the emails the program sent to me, and answered questions as they came up. I loved the simplicity of use for this and did not need to remind my kids once to get on the site to get their work done. They would even do extra work during their free time because they wanted to get to the next level in certain areas. I love programs that motivate the child to learn even when they don’t have to. 😉

Some considerations . . .

The site does contain ads. It may just be in the free portions of the site, but there are ads geared toward kids on the site in various places. Most of the ones that I saw were for games or vacation locations. I didn’t see any offensive ads, but there were ads.
The voice on the site is very computerized. At times we did have difficulty understanding some of their words, but most of it you could also read along, so it was not a problem to fill in the blanks left by the occasionally unintelligible host. In general this did not cause a problem, but it is something to be aware of.
More drill than instruction. My son commented that no matter how many times they asked him the vocab word he wasn’t going to get it right, because they didn’t give him any help in remembering the definition. They do tell the kids to write the words they get wrong and they do let them know their mistakes, but they try to teach it through repeated drills, not really teaching for understanding. This will be fine for some kids, but my son always needs to know the “why” so he struggled with this method of “teaching.” I was impressed that my kids were good about writing the words three times when the program told them to. However, it is really on the honors’ system that they follow through with this.
Might want to check the accuracy of state info. We live in Illinois, obviously, and so we know a bit about this state we live in. And, in the little blurb about our state in the geography section there was some less than accurate information. Just outdated stuff about O’hare and the building formerly known as the Sears Tower. Facts do change over time, and with how much information they carry I’m sure it is difficult to make sure it is all up to date. Well, I emailed them and within the next business day they had changed the information to reflect current data. They also recognized the need to verify the other state’s information. I definitely appreciated their speedy response and their desire to make sure their product is top quality.

We were quite pleased with Big IQ Kids in our home. It was a great fit for our current needs and I love the flexibility of pricing since you can just pay for what you want if you don’t want the complete package. It encouraged learning and really brought about improvement in the areas that it covered. Love finding products like these that really fill a need.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Big IQ Kids as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Reading Kingdom

Let me introduce you to a new friend of ours. My son named him Nate. This friendly owl is helping teach my kids to read and write, and doing a pretty good job of it, I might add.

Through Reading Kingdom, my 5, 7, and 9 year olds are interacting with letters and sounds in a brand new way. This program tackles more than just learning to read. It identifies six skills required for successful reading. The six skills are: sequencing, motor skills, sounds, meaning, grammar and comprehension. So, it doesn’t start with sounds, it starts with learning sequences. Kids also learn to type in the process since it is a computer based program and they must be able to type to interact with it.

After some time in the introductory levels, my son made it out of Letter Land. He was thrilled when he made it to the soccer field today:

Reading Kingdom focuses on whole word recognition and alternating between clicking correct words and then typing them out to reinforce the word. This is a great integration of learning styles and keeps the kids as active participants in the learning process. Great for active learners and for kids who might also struggle with reversals. The word-focus is clear and builds one step at a time.

Product: Reading Kingdom

Details: An online program that helps 4-10 year olds learn to read through a third grade level.

Price: $19.99 per month or $199.99 for a year. Additional children are $9.99 each per month

What we loved . . .

Game based, but solidly educational. While Reading Kingdom involves games and game type graphics, it is all about learning the skills needed to read. Children interact with helpful cartoon characters to begin building their reading vocabulary.
Rechecks learning. The program naturally includes quite a bit of review and retesting. This helps them to confirm mastery of the topics and skills. It is brief, so I did not find it boring to my kids, but it did make sure that they were ready to move on.
Teaches the little words. One of the foundational principles for Reading Kingdom is that much of our language is made up of those little words that hold the sentences together, but early readers often miss. So, they focus on them and drill them, and repeat them, and make sure that the kids notice them, read them, and understand them. I think this is a great component of the program.
Short sessions. Because reading does involve some tedious exercises, they break it down into very small lessons. If the kids are having fun and want to continue they can easily do more. But, they are not pressed to continue for 45 minutes or more on repetitive lessons that are helpful, but sometimes not very exciting. My son would do one lesson in a sitting, my daughter would sit for three or four. It was nice to have that flexibility and not feel like they were leaving in the middle of something.
Excellent program for kids that rush or struggle with letter order. My 9 year old has a tendency to rush. Although she can read, she likes to skip things, filling in the mental gaps as she goes. This program won’t allow that. She has to click what they tell her to. She has to type the letters they ask for. She has to spend the time to slowly make the progress and show what she knows. In order to do well she needs to make sure that she gets letters in the right order and at the right time to move on successfully.

Some considerations . . .

Program can be touchy at times. This is my biggest beef with a program that we really liked overall. My 7 year old daughter was getting really frustrated and bored stuck in the training part of the program (Letter Land and Sequences) and she is already a good beginner reader, so I figure I would help her out. **Ahem** I know, I should let them learn and not step in, but I knew she knew this stuff, she just kept making little mistakes in the way she entered the letters. So, I stepped in to save the day. Well, after a few minutes, I realized she was better off without me. 😉 On one screen I would type too fast and it would not register my typing. Another page I would try typing instead of clicking the letters and would get it wrong. I was taking her backwards instead of forwards. After a session of failure I did start to have it figured out and began to improve. A few more sessions and I got her out of Letter Land. She is now much more happily and successfully living in the land of Reading and Writing Level 1. And, we both learned a bit in the process.
Sometimes I didn’t know where they were going. They have some interesting exercises. They show a sequence of letters and then kids need to pick it out of a longer sequence of letters. They teach apostrophes and quotation marks. And, while I’m sure they have a purpose, sometimes they just seemed cumbersome to the kids. I understand why the sequences are important, but they just seem to need an awful lot of repetition to get their point across.
NOT phonics based. In fact, the author is quite clearly against phonics instruction. She makes some claims that I disagree with regarding phonics, but I guess she is entitled to her professional opinion. I can see the benefit to combing whole language and phonics, but I have worked with too many kids to discredit phonics based programs entirely. I do agree that there are bad phonics programs out there, and many of her criticisms would hold true in those, but there are also great phonics programs that her criticism would not hold up against. To hear all of the differences between this and other reading programs, check out this document.
Would be nice if it repeated words at times. This is just a personal preference I suppose. But, there were times when my child would be celebrating a right answer and miss the instructions for the next screen, or would not hear the word they were supposed to type. There was no way to go back and hear it again and so they were left to guess what they were supposed to do.

This was an interesting program, definitely different than other reading program that we have used in the past. Some things we loved, some things that left me sour. You can see for yourself if this program is a great fit for your kids with their free trial. It would definitely be worth giving it a try, and if you have a struggling reader in your home, this could be the key that unlocks the world of reading for them. I would definitely encourage a melding of this with a phonics program, but it can give kids a confidence boost to get them on their way.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Reading Kingdom as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — I See Sam

My early readers are always hungry for books at their level. Books that they can enjoy and not stumble through. Books a fitting length so they don’t get bored half way through. Books made for their little hands and big imaginations.

We had the wonderful opportunity to review a set of books made just for kids getting started on the reading trail and my kids devoured them.

Brooke and Nathan are in first grade and kindergarten and both are enjoying learning to read. Their progress has continued to soar this school year and I was excited to bring them some more books appropriate for their levels. In the few months we have had this, they actually both read through the entire four levels that we received, some with me and some independently. They both agreed that these were fun books to read.

Deluxe Read to Succeed Gift Set

Product:I See Sam by Academic Success for All Learners

Details: We received the little reader books for sets 1-4 (91 books total), flashcards to go along with the sets, a placement and assessment manual, an instructor guide, and some charts and certificates for tracking and rewarding progress.

Price: $160 for the four sets of books. They also sell for $30 each set. The flashcards are $15 for the set.

What we loved . . .

Starts from the beginning. The first book of the first level starts with introducing four sounds and creating a story from there. After 26 little readers the child should have reached roughly the beginning of a first grade reading level. This is definitely designed to use with kids first starting to learn to read. As my kids have mastered this early level, we flew through the first set.
Clear teacher guidance without being scripted. With an instructors’ guide book and lots of tips throughout the readers, parents can easily teach these books without a lot of prep work and without the dryness of a scripted reading program.
Praise based. Throughout the program there are adorable little smiley faces to remind you to praise your child. I know, we all want to praise them and brag on them, but sometimes we are rushing through a lesson or trying to get things done and we forget. I love that these little reminders were there to keep me showering my kids with the praise they deserved for the excellent job they did as we read through the books.
Steady progression. The books and stories within each book have a logical progression of sounds, and students easily flow from one to the other as their knowledge of reading grows with each turn of the page. Set one has one story per book with 20-100 words. In sets two and three the stories get a bit longer until in set four the students have two stories in each book and they are 200-400 words. But, by that point the kids are ready for it and reading roughly 60 words per minute. This is where the fluency criteria first appears. In the first sets they do not require speed, just mastery of the words.
Reasonable expectations of mastery. For a child to progress they must have mastery. The program gives clear criteria for mastery of each level and help you know when a child is really ready for the next step. They give accuracy and fluency standards. This was great because even though my kindergartner could read without errors, he was a little slower than their standard at one point. So, we took a little break, and reread a few books while his fluency caught up with his phonemic awareness. Before long he was back on track, and as I mentioned he did finish all the books through level four landing him at roughly a late first or early second grade reading level.

Some considerations . . .

Lots of pieces. Of course, since the books are so appropriately sized, there are lots of them. This program does have a lot of pieces to keep together. I would definitely recommend a basket or bin to keep the items together. This is the kind of product I love to use, but will not be able to find all the books a year from now unless they have a handy home.
Might need supplementation for the kinesthetic learner. Both my early readers are pretty easy to teach, but I have had others that were not that way. If you have a child that needs to wiggle more you might need to add some activities that keep them up and moving now and then to focus when they need to.

As my kids are both enjoying reading it did not require any leg pulling to get them to pick these books up and read. This program is well thought out and formulated for reading success. With pre-reading, post-reading, and periodic assessments, I see this being a great fit for most kids learning to read. It teaches various reading tips in a natural way within the context of stories, not meaningless exercises. Keeping kids reading, it definitely did that in our house.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Academic Success for All Learners as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Kid Scoop

We have read to our children since before they were born. We have books in pretty much every room of the house, with the exception of the laundry room (although with as much time as I spend in there, maybe I should change that). I love to read for fun and learning. So, it would follow naturally that my kids would all be voracious readers and share my love for books. Right?

Well, not so.

One of my kids just recently latched on to the Narnia series and has not stopped reading since. Aside from that, my first grader and kindergartner put the older kids to shame. The young ones do love to read. They are what I thought was supposed to happen in terms of reading success. When a product came along pledging to transform my reluctant readers I figured it was definitely worth a look.

Product:Kid Scoop

Details: A downloadable product with 365 pages. Each page contains activities and ideas for encouraging reluctant readers.

Price: $97 for the downnloadable product and 12 month access to their online newspaper that comes with even more ideas and activities each month.

What we loved . . .

Diversity of materials, activities, and topics. There is no true one size fits all product when it comes to reading, so they packed an incredibly diverse group of topics into this product. Everything from animals and the environment to baseball and optical illusions, bugs and budgeting to mini golf and just about every holiday on the calendar.
Shows us that reading is everywhere. Building off of the daily newspaper, Kid Scoop has created loads of activities to get kids reading, skimming, searching, researching, and in general digging in to reading material. I think the hook for us was that this wasn’t just reading to enjoy a story (which for some reason my oldest does not enjoy), it was reading for fun, for a game, for some friendly competition.
Free daily emails for a month. Anyone can sign up for their activity of the day email on their website and receive an activity email. We had lots of fun with these daily tasks. They will also give you a sample of some of the simpler ideas you will find in the Reluctant Reader Solution.
Free online sample. On the page with their activity packs you will find a free sample that you can download. You will probably have some fun with this, so be prepared to set aside some time to get distracted with learning.
Use it again, and again, and again. Since this is a download, after you get it, it’s yours. Print and reprint as much as you want. Print a copy for each of your kids. Print more copies of pages they want to do again. Print a page for you and your child and race to see who finishes first. When you aren’t just restricted to one copy of each page, the possibilities expand.
Time tested. Kid Scoop has been around for a number of years. Sections of it appear in newspapers world wide. Kids love it, parents love it, educators love it. It has been well received in a variety of homes and cultures.
Gets kids into the newspaper. Because many of the activities build off of the real newspaper, kids get into reading it. Some of my kids already have an interest in the paper, but this was a fun way to get them searching through it even more. I want them to be comfortable with this print medium that has been around for a long time and doesn’t look to be going away soon. One of the goals of Kid Scoop is that kids will get to know their daily paper, the terms used and the parts of it. They definitely work to intentionally reach that goal.

Some considerations . . .

I actually felt like it was light on the reading. While their focus is the reluctant reader so it makes sense that they keep reading unintimidating, I felt like kids could get through many of the activities without really reading much. Some of my kids are experts in figuring out how to complete a task without actually doing any reading. I had to keep on top of that.
Helpful if you subscribe to a print newspaper, but not essential. Many of the activities can best work with a printed newspaper in hand. They also include a wide variety of activities to use the newspaper before recycling it, so it will be put to good use. For many of these activities you could merely read a paper online, but a print one would be easier in some cases.
Some will flop. While the diversity of materials is quite a plus, some of it will not appeal to some kids. They will more than likely all find something they enjoy, but they will also more than likely find something you have to drag them through, which kind of defeats the purpose.
Secular. Just be aware that their holiday sections focus on the holidays, not any spiritual meaning behind them. So, Easter is all about bunnies and eggs. This is another reason that I would be more likely to pick and choose and buy activity packs rather than purchasing the whole set.
A bit pricey. Yeah, I could buy a lot of workbooks for $100. And, since there were topics in here that I know we would not likely use, I might be more inclined to buy their separate little ebooks or activity packs that they offer on their site for just a few bucks each.

This product did definitely fill a lull in our days and prompt reading where none existed before. When I needed a little something fun that would not require an hour of planning on my part, we could pull out a little unit and find multiple activities with something that appealed to almost everyone. In the process we learned. Not just playing around and having fun together, although that was part of it, but really learning something new. Learning how our eyes work, new vocabulary words, craft ideas, trivia and history, and other facts and data to keep stimulating my kids minds. And, whether they noticed or not, a lot of reading got snuck in in the process.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Kid Scoop as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — VocabAhead

Product:VocabAhead CD

Details: A CD with videos and MP3s of over 1000 vocabulary words taken from SAT level lists.

Price: $24.99

What we loved . . .

Pop and go! No downloading or figuring out complicated software instructions. You pop the CD into the computer and click the word you want to view. It pulls it right up for you and your student to view
Goes beyond a word and definition. Often vocabulary means simply writing a word and definition, but VocabAhead uses each word in multiple sentences so students can get a good grasp of the definition and the appropriate context in which to use the word. They also include different usages to broaden their working knowledge of the word.
Word of the Day Anyone can sign up for their word of the day email on their website and have a word emailed to you. Painless vocabulary expansion. 😉
Lots and lots of words. With over 1000 words, this CD offers students a great way to prepare for SAT or other college entry exams.
Made for a variety of learners. With the simple video, the printed definition, and the audio of the definition and usage, all students can easily learn from this product.
Helpful online tools. On their website you can register for free and then create word lists, study your word lists, and get quizzed over the lists. You can also view many of their videos and check out the Apps they have available. Even if you do not think you are interested in their product, their website is worth looking over.

Some considerations . . .

Simple concept. While sometimes simplest is best, I felt the videos were a bit lacking. They were mostly just a printed definition and a picture visualizing the definition. The minute long explanation is beneficial, but better accompanying graphics would have enhanced its use.
Just definitions. Maybe I’m just weird, but when studying words I like to know their background. Not that I’m some expert in foreign languages, but knowing the roots that it came from and breaking the word apart helps me understand it and makes me more likely to remember it next time.
Maybe critical of parents? Maybe I’m just over reacting, but a few of the definitions seemed to paint parents in a less than positive light. They talked about parents who “abase” their children and being “captious” (overly critical). I would prefer if they left negative parenting examples out of their definitions. I don’t know if they were trying to appeal to their presumably teenaged audience, but I didn’t appreciate it.
One more . . . I was just about to wrap this up and was clicking through a few more definitions and have decided that I will not have my son using this tool afterall. For the word “debauch” it has a cartoon picture of a pole dancer and says that she debauched the morals of the virtuous men watching her. Seriously? Virtuous men at a strip club? That is an image I think I will keep out of my vocabulary lessons.

Well, I am disappointed that I cannot recommend this product any longer. After looking at more of the definitions it is clearly not presenting these words from a similar worldview to mine. Now I have a greater understanding of why people push the original Webster dictionary back when morals meant something. I know it is only a small percentage of the definitions that are in question, but I find it unnecessary to find any questionable content in material of this type. I am very discouraged at the path that this supposed vocabulary building tool went down.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through VocabAhead as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Bible Dictionary for kids

Product: Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids

Details: A Bible dictionary made just for kids to use on their own, or with an adult to help them, in understanding more about people, places, and things mentioned in the Bible.

Price: $14.99

What we loved . . .

Attention grabbing! As soon as this came out of the packaging, my kids were all over it. The cover catches your eye and page after page is full of colorful illustrations, maps, real photographs, and charts to help make clearer many different passages of Scripture.
Kids can explore on their own. Geared toward kids ages 5 through 10, this sturdy hard cover book rested comfortably in the hands of my 7 year old as she excitedly looked up various words that came to mind. Beatitudes, plagues, communion, Matthew, etc. Each one offered her an entry with information that complemented and cemented what we are learning during Bible times or what she has recently studied at church.
Easy searching. Each page has the letters of the alphabet along the edge with the first letter of those entries highlighted. So, from anywhere in the book you can easily get to a different section with the letter that you are looking for. Even my 5 year old was able to use this to find words that he wanted to look up.
Substantial number of entries. Maybe not abridged, but with 750 entries, this dictionary does have every word my kids have wanted to know more about since we received it, and roughly two thirds of the entries also have graphics to accompany them in addition to the written explanation.
Biblical references. Of course, what would a Bible dictionary be without actual references? This one includes at least one and often a few fitting references to go with each entry.
Great reference tool for kids learning to study on their own. Although the internet can probably give all this information and more, this book has it in a safe, easy to use format for younger children. I don’t let my under 10 kids just surf the web, even with filters in place. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary gives them a place to look up words they may want to know more about as I am encouraging them to start reading and studying the Bible on their own.

Some considerations . . .

Limited age range. Although I could see the appeal of a Bible dictionary for a wider range, early readers would have a hard time using it on their own, and kids in their preteen years might find the graphics babyish. The publisher did well giving the appropriate age range, and it would likely not find as receptive an audience outside of those ages.
Not a Bible study book. Bible dictionaries are great tools when studying the Bible, but they are not a Bible study in and of themselves. I think this is an important book to have on your shelves if you want your kids to begin exploring Scripture for themselves, but they will need some direction to learn how to make the most of it.

Studying the Bible accurately is one of my primary goals for my children. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary is a great asset toward reaching that goal and we look forward to making the most of it for years to come.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Lifeway Christian Stores as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Speekee

“Adios . . . Adios . . . Adios, my amigo, adios.”

Brooke started it, and soon Nathan and Faith joined in. Blake (13 years old) groaned a bit and tolerated their jubilant singing on the way to gym and swim. Paige couldn’t help singing along even though she hasn’t really watched the videos with them.

And so, Speekee has infiltrated our home. The irresistible jingles and repetitive dialogue are really teaching my kids some basic Spanish, and they are liking it.

Product: Speekee Spanish online learning videos

Details: An online Spanish learning program that includes videos, activity suggestions, and printable worksheets. Ten lessons in all to introduce a child to conversational Spanish.

Price: $7.50 per month

What we loved . . .

Foreign language without tears. We’ve tried so many foreign language program I could almost cry. Each one we either don’t learn from, get tired of, or just plain don’t like. Speekee has brought something new to our home — foreign language learning that kids love, and I do, too.
Full access. With the monthly fee you can watch and rewatch each video as much as you please. Your kids can watch on their own or as a group, with you or without. My kids did a little of all those arrangements. The printable worksheets can be printed out for as many of your kids as needed and you can even reprint their favorites to do more than once.
Likable characters. My kids enjoyed the mix of puppets and real people. The kids spoke clearly and didn’t seem overly scripted or fake. The puppets entertained while educating.
Immersion method. Speekee drops you right into the situations with Spanish speakers all around. There is the option of English subtitles which can be beneficial to some kids.
Nice accent. The actors all spoke Spanish well with a very natural pronunciation. It was easy to understand them and imitate their words.
Enjoyable pace. Not too fast, like some other adult immersion programs I have seen. And, not too slow or mundane like some that don’t seem to really help kids learn to converse. Speekee has a good balance of real life conversation and repetition to help a child learn new words without getting bored in the process.

Some considerations . . .

More for young kids.While anyone from preschool through adulthood could benefit from using Speekee, in our home it was more appreciated by the younger group. My 9 year old was okay with it, but it was the biggest hit with my 7 and 5 year olds.
Spain Spanish. Most of us in the United States would come in contact with Latin American Spanish rather than Spain Spanish. The accent varies slightly and some words and expressions are a bit different. You could think of it as the difference between our English and British English. We can definitely communicate together, but there will be a few differences. Most of the differences in Spanish I don’t think would make a big difference at the beginner level.
Needs repetition. Spanish will never be learned overnight. Kids will not likely watch the videos and instantly remember all the new phrases and songs taught in it. However, my kids did not mind watching the same videos more than once to cement the new vocabulary in their minds.
Helpful if parent watches along. While I was kind of hoping I could play the video and then go work with the older students on something I found that my younger kids absorbed and interacted the most with me right there. For example, Speekee would say, “Y tu?” and expect the kids to repeat the previous phrase. My kids didn’t understand that and were just sitting watching. Of course, they still picked it up and sang the songs with gusto throughout the day, but for them to get the most out of the video it is best to watch along with them.

Learning another language cannot start too young, and Speekee can be a great tool in drawing and keeping the attention of children as they learn Spanish.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Speekee as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Maestro Classics

The perfect cure for cabin fever — something new that won’t let you sit still.

Recently I had just my three youngest at home and we needed something. School goes much more quickly when you aren’t wrestling through Algebra, spelling lists, and creative writing assignments. So, we got to have some extra fun. We built a fort and put this wonderful CD in to listen to. The kids quickly came out of the fort as the music made them fly like birds and then hobble like Grandfather and then skip like a young boy and even prowl like a wolf.

Sergei Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf 75 years ago to introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra. Generations have enjoyed this piece and his masterful creation that uses instruments to truly bring the characters to life. This incredible teaching tool took over in our house and my kids were enchanted with the instruments, the music and the story.

Product: Peter and the Wolf

Details: A CD of Prokofiev’s well known musical piece Peter and the Wolf including background information on the music and the composer. Disc also includes narration and two tracks of the whole work. In the package you also receive a small booklet with some information and activities for children to do during or after they hear the CD. It also includes information on Russian folk songs and stories and other related items.

Price: $16.98

What we loved . . .

Great music. Peter and the Wolf has long been a favorite of mine, ever since listening to it as a child on one of those “big black CDs” as my kids call them.
Fun supplements.. The little booklet has some fun goodies in it, and on their site you can even print some simple piano music (and other instruments) to go along with the study.
Memorable. Of course the piece itself is always a crowd pleaser, but the arrangement with the narrator was wonderful. My kids talked about it for days and continue to ask to hear it again and act it out as we listen.
Gets you moving. While it is perfectly okay to sit and enjoy the piece, my kids just can’t. They have to walk around and “scold” Peter along with Grandfather’s lumbering music. They get down on the ground and prowl as the wolf enters the scene. They walk along as the hunters come in and they listen for the big “guns.” They absolutely loved it.
Covers topics we sometimes miss. As homeschoolers we make sure we cover the basics and we also try to throw in lots of extras for fun and good measure. This product helps introduce and create an appreciation for orchestral music. We read, talked about Russian folk songs, did some impromptu acting, and reveled in a high quality musical production.
A great teacher. This could also be a great CD to put in for the kids to listen to when you have something else to take care of, or need to work with one child while keep others productively engaged. Without any effort on your part they cannot help but learn where this piece came from, some of the instruments in the orchestra, and enjoy some orchestral music.

Some considerations . . .

Only one booklet.My kids weren’t too concerned about the booklet, but they did take a look through it. If you have a child that likes to have something in his hands while listening that could be an issue.
That’s it. I can’t tell you much else that I think you would need to consider before purchasing. This is a great product that can be enjoyed repeatedly by a wide range of kids.

Peter and the Wolf is a treasure that kids should not make it through childhood without experiencing. It has so much to teach in a fun way. Listening to it again was like spending the morning with a childhood friend. Such a great addition to our home listening library.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Maestro Classics as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Easy Classical

The demands on homeschool mother’s schedule are many and I enjoy finding products that make our life a little easier. The company Easy Classical has worked to put together a number of schedules to help homeschoolers incorporate more great materials into their school days.

They offer schedules for specific grades, subjects, and topics. Their schedules are thorough and offer abundant information. They do require additional purchases as they do not include the books you actually read, but merely provide book lists that their schedules incorporates. Most of the books you could either view online, order through CBD, or borrow from your library or Interlibrary loan.

Product: Early Modern History Schedule

Details: A thorough year-long schedule including book lists of history texts and read alouds, quizzes, activities, and tips to get the most out of this year of study

Price: $29.95 for downloadable product. Or, $35.95 if you would prefer a physical product shipped to you.

What we loved . . .

Loads of resources. This is far more than just a couple page schedule to get you through the information in a year. They have gathered some great titles and put them into bite sized pieces for an educationally rich year of history study.
Favorite titles. Although I don’t recognize every book that they recommend I do see many familiar favorites and others that I have heard others rave about.
Classical approach. Well, I don’t know if I should say we love this, but I know many others would. I lean more toward Charlotte Mason if anything, but I do see some of the benefits from a classical approach. So, that said, this schedule does build on a Classical educational philosophy (hence the company name — Easy “Classical”), which is a time proven method.
Permission to adapt. One problem I have run into with schedules is my self-imposed need to do it all. This schedule says at the outset that you should not attempt to complete everything that they recommend. They just want to offer enough variety for the many different students and teachers that they are serving. And, they also acknowledge that life will sometimes get in the way and we won’t accomplish all that we had hoped in a given week. That is of course okay, and they reassure you that they expect that in the formulating of these materials.
Age range. It is sometimes challenging to teach a wide age range of students on a daily basis, but Easy Classical is designed to teach kids in grades K-6 and I felt that some of it could be adapted to older kids as well. I would have no trouble using this for all of my learners, pre-K through 8th grade.
Look before you buy. By looking through their website and downloading the samples you can get a good feel for this product and see if it is right for you and your family before purchasing it. Sample schedules could be used to give it a trial run in your homeschool and you just might find this product a great fit for your homeschool.

Some considerations . . .

Would still require some advanced planning. While the schedule is made out, you would need to round up the books and have other supplies on hand. They make it as simple as possible without selling you hundreds of dollars of books to go with it, but you will need to track them down. They do have a wonderful page on their site that links to all of the books and resources that they recommend.
Might not work for everyone. Any time that you find a great product, it will not fit every family. Some kids won’t enjoy the books, some won’t like the writing (which I felt this schedule was a bit heavy on, especially for younger kids). But, you can try it before you commit, so that is definitely not something to hold you back.

I have used schedules in the past from various sources and always get away from them. I prefer book based programs because I get so bogged down and “check-box” driven when I use a schedule. I end up using them more as a book list than an actual schedule. I also prefer oral narration to quizzes, but that comes from my Charlotte Mason bent. That said, I think this is a great resource. It looks easy to use, fits a wide range of ages, and uses top-notch books as its spine. This would be a great asset to any homeschool looking for a quality history program.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Easy Classical as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

TOS Crew Review — Math Facts Now

Speed drills are seen by some as a necessary evil in teaching and motivating kids to learn their basic facts. Not so in this day and age. Now, they do still need to practice and memorize, but it doesn’t need to be the palm sweating”upside down paper on the desk until the signal” event of yesteryear.

Math Facts Now has created a program to help kids learn their facts through repetition and review on the computer. Parents can set up the program according to their own expectation and with the specific target areas needed. All that’s left is for the kids to get on their regularly and see their skills improve.

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Product: Math Facts Now

Details: A customizable, computer based program to help students learn their basic math facts

Price: $15.95 for download product. An additional $3.95 if you would prefer a physical product shipped to you.

What we loved . . .

Focus on math not entertainment. Kids can sometimes be distracted by the “extras” that are included in many educational programs. Math Facts Now recognized this and offers a program that allows students to focus on the work they need to do and master their basic facts as efficiently as possible.
Requires them to review their mistakes. They program requires that students who make an error must retype the one that they got wrong at least twice (you can choose to make it more) before going on. This does take some time, but was a great way for kids to review what they missed. When I showed my son that feature he said, “I’m never gonna get one wrong!” Yep, it did motivate him to be extra careful in his work.
Warns them when they are on a tricky one. If they previously missed an answer the next time that some question comes up it will warn them to “be careful.” This could be a bad thing, because for my daughter she just remembered the one she got wrong had an answer of 18, so she didn’t look at the problem itself, just the warning. However, most other time they had multiple ones they had missed, so it was not an issue.
Customizable. I loved that we could set up whatever we wanted the quizzes to be. They could drill them on just “1+” or 1 through 4 or 1through 12 or whatever we were covering at the time. It automatically does 0-12 with whatever numbers you set, so it might not work well for really young kids, but all of my kids are past those early facts so we did not have to deal with that challenge.
Easy to set up. I took the time initially to set up multiple quizzes. I set up each drill set (1; 1-2; 1-3; 1-4; etc.) for each basic operation. Then I set up individual ones as well (just 2, just 3, just 4, etc.) That is a lot of quizzes, but it gave them a lot of options and had all the work from my end done. I also set the time higher on the ones I knew my younger kids were doing so they would not keep getting them wrong just because they type a little slower. If my older ones decided to do the early addition tests I could still see their average time although they would not get it wrong if they answered slow. This kept me from having to set up multiple versions of each test for older and younger kids.

Some considerations . . .

No lock for the changes you make. Technically students could enter the quiz set up area and change the amount of time, questions, or other content. None of mine messed with this, but it is possible.
Can’t pause in the middle of a goal. If you set it for your child to get 50 correct before mastering a test and he takes a break after 35, he has to start again at the beginning the next time. This was a challenge when I made the goals longer, but as long as you keep the tests a reasonable length it should not be an issue
Takes some time to set up. Because this is fully customizable, it does not come with preloaded tests. You will need to take the time to set them up how you want them. It is very quick to do, and I went ahead and set up numerous ones when we first received it so i did not have to continually create new ones. A few minutes at the beginning and they had quizzes to last them for weeks. When you set up one quiz multiples students can use it, so you don’t need to recreate the same quiz for multiple students.

We really enjoyed the simplicity of use with this program and how versatile it was for a wide range of students. The price seemed quite reasonable for the length of time you could benefit from the product, and it did its job in helping my kids improve the speed and mastery of their math facts.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Math Facts Now as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.