Category: Education

1st Grade, 2nd Grade Curriculum, 3rd Grade Curriculum, Curriculum, Education, spelling, Writing

Reading Kingdom: Spelling Ninja Review !

Little Learner and Mom

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We were sent a 1 year subscription to Reading Kingdom Spelling Ninja for us to review as a supplement for some interactive spelling fun!

Spelling Ninja is an online spelling program that encourages students to use their phonics skills to help them decode words to spell. The program is for children ages 5-10 years and the program does have a prerequisite that students need to have completed Level 2 in Reading Kingdom or be able to read. There is a parent dashboard so you can make changes to your students settings. From the parent dashboard you can also print diplomas, progress reports and track your students progress.

How Spelling Ninja Works

Spelling Ninja gives students a sentence and picture for them to copy. The system reads the sentence to your student and then the students have to copy it. The sentence or parts of the sentence is still visible to the student as they type. Students have to make sure they are adding capital letters where needed and spaces between words and correct punctuation. The words, spaces and punctuation are colored coded as a helpful alert to the student that they are missing a letter or space as they type. The pictures matching the sentences feature diverse graphics, the screen isn’t very busy so it is not distracting to those students who are easily distracted. Before students start playing they can choose between and on screen or off screen keyboard.

Now my son wasn’t not really eager about Spelling Ninja because he didn’t like the timed response time and how it would ding him. He became quite discourage by this and didn’t want to continue the program. I was able to slow that timer down, but personally I wish it could have been turned off. Spelling Ninja also requires that your student has some knowledge of keyboard typing. I found this a little odd especially for a program targeted at students as young as 5yrs. Without a student having some basic knowledge of typing your student will be discourage.

The overall concept of using decoding and phonics is a great way strengthening spelling skills. We will use this program as a way to supplement spelling and give him some typing practice. The cost of Reading Kingdom Spelling Ninja at the time of this review is $19.99 for a years access. Be sure to check out the other crew’s of Reading Kingdom programs by clicking the banner below.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingkingdom
Twitter: https://twitter.com/readingkingdom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingkingdom/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/readingkingdom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ReadingKingdom

1st Grade, 2nd Grade Curriculum, 3rd Grade Curriculum, 4th Grade, Curriculum, Education, Homeschool, Language Arts, Math, Reviews, spelling, Writing

Reading Eggs and Mathseeds Review !

Little Learner and Mom

DISCLAIMER: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Reading Eggs and Mathseeds has been one of those programs that have been around for a very long time in our homeschool. Reading Eggs and Mathseeds were my son’s first online programs when he was 4 years old. The crew was given the opportunity to review Reading Eggs and Mathseeds I thought this would be a great time to revisit one of our old favorite online platforms.

Reading Eggs is online phonics, grammar, and spelling program. Recently the company introduced a new area called Fast Phonics and before this program, the company released Reading Eggs Jr for ages 2-4 years. The original Readings Eggs (ages 3-7) and Eggpress (ages 7-13) has been a frequent flyer in our home. Mathseeds is another great program that is on the platform it is for ages 3-9.

We have used Reading Eggs and Mathseeds in our home school for many years. Both of these programs provide a great foundation for literacy, grammar, and math skills. The lessons are fun, quick, and easy for the kids to maneuver with little parental assistance. Reading Eggs offers parents placement so the system can place your student in the best place on the map. Reading Eggs is a literacy program that will take your student from the very basics of lof letter recognition, sounds, blends, sight words, and reading. Students will have opportunities to earn golden eggs, students have tons of activities to keep them busy with learning and reading. One of the features I really liked about Reading Eggs is the driving test and story factory.

Mathseeds works very similarly to Reading Eggs the students can take a placement test or they can just start from the beginning and move through the path. Parents can also manually place their students in the lesson they think best for them from the detailed parent dashboard. Students will work on number recognition and mobe through topics covered up to 3rd grade.

Reading Eggs and Mathseeds is a wonderful introduction to online learning for younger students and there is something for everyone. We have really enjoyed using these programs over the years. The parent resources offer full curriculum printables and they also include a wonderful scope and sequence you can follow. The company has excellent customer service. Just when I thought my son had outgrown Reading Eggs he was able to use Reading Eggpress for higher-level grammar and spelling to review.

I highly recommend Reading Eggs and Mathseeds for homeschooling and for those students who attend traditional school. Be sure to check out the other crew’s reviews by clicking the banner below.

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingeggsUSCA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/readingeggs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingeggs/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ED-7e2xA3fxgrM7Wq2XGQ

Education, Family, Geography, Homeschool, Reviews, Spanish

Underdog Games Trekking The World Review!

Little Learner and Mom

Complimentary product received!

Have you ever wanted to travel around the world? Well, your family will get that opportunity while playing Underdog Games Trekking The World. It was a great honor to be able to try out this fabulous game and go on an exciting adventure right from the comforts of my own home. Trekking The World is for ages 10+, 30-60 mins gameplay, and for 2- 6 players.

Trekking The World

From the moment you unpack this game, you are captivated by its bold and vivid colors. Trekking The World comes with :

  • 1 World Map Board
  • 48 Oversized Destination Cards
  • 5 Trekker Meeples (wooden)
  • 48 Souvenir Cubes (wooden)
  • 1 Custom Bag
  • 5 Suitcase Mats
  • Most Souvenir Tiles
  • 12 Journey Cards
  • 75 Trek Cards
  • 10 Region Bonus Tokens
  • 5 player Aids
  • 1 Score Pad (several sheets)

All of the items for the game can neatly be stored in the convenient box and game piece sorter. The game board and the pieces are made from sturdy cardboard and wood. The games come with complete instructions on how to play. If you don’t want to read through the instructions and need more of a visual approach to gameplay the company provides a step-by-step video link in the box and on the Trekking The World product description on the Underdog Games website.

I am a visual person when learning how to play new games so before we played as a family I watched the video so I knew how to set the board up properly. The video was great because I could stop and play as I needed. After I learned how to set up the board and play the game we set down as a family and watched the video and played. My son loved just exploring the board on the initial set-up. I let him flip through the beautiful “48 Oversized Destination Cards”. I noticed that once we finish playing the game as we were cleaning the game he separated several of the cards and asked if we could look these places up.

Trekking The World gameplay was easy for us once we got the hang of it. We played 3 times over the course of a week. I really loved how we could start the game on any continent then trek across the world. Trekking The World is not just a game for entertainment this game teaches geography, history, and cooperative learning. The game also gives you a great adventure of traveling the world.

I highly recommend this game be added to your homeschool geography gameschooling. If you are new to the gameschooling trend this would be a great way to add a geography game for the entire family.

Be sure to check out the other squad member’s reviews of Trekking The National Parks and Trekking The National Parks Trivia by clicking the banner below.

Critical Thinking and Logic, Education, Family, Geography, Parenting, Reviews

World Watch Review!

Little Learner and Mom

DISCLAIMER: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

We have been watching WORLD Watch videos on Fridays as part of our current events. WORLD Watch was given to us to review with the crew. We received a six-month subscription for the whole family.

WORLD Watch is a online news program meant for families. WORLD Watch provides news coverage of current events. Events are updated throughout the week. You can watch video coverage of these events.

“WORLD Watch is a video current events program designed for students that develops critical thinking, biblical discernment, and news literacy.”

We watched videos about the Olympics and most recently we watched a video about hurricane Ida outage. It was nice to see a nice of variety of news coverage around the world. There are some political coverage in the videos. My son was intrigued by the triceratops coverage in Paris France and this is from a kiddo that isn’t a huge dinosaur fan.

WORLD Watch videos average about 5-10 mins and they cover single topics or variety of news coverage. We did see videos that offered viewpoints from christian prospective. I personally prefer not to see religion mixed with news. I would have also liked to have seen news reporters that were diverse especially those who are covering more ethnic regions.

WORLD Watch not only covers current events there are also topics that are historical. My son also found interesting the coverage of Nairobi, Kenya about the issues that the hearing and death community having issues with masking wearing that doesn’t allow them to read mouths.

WORLD Watch does have bloopers at the end of the videos that we found to be funny. If you are looking for a clean current events news outlet that allows for the entire family to watch this is a good option. The religious focus isn’t heavily present in the videos but you will hear and see some mentions.

Be sure to check out the other crew’s reviews of WORLD Watch by clicking the banner below.

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldwatchshow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worldwatchnews/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLhlnq_RLfpSdQ8Fm6VEEjw

Curriculum, Education, Language Arts

It’s NOT Greek to Me…Review!

Little Learner and Mom

 DISCLAIMER:  I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Have you ever struggled with the meaning of words or do you have student that is getting ready to prepare for college entrance exams. One of my most memorable lesson in high school was learning how to decode words using their roots, prefixes and suffixes. I have been reviewing over the summer vocabulary resources I would like to use with my son to get an early start on vocabulary building. One of the resources I was fortunate to be sent is It’s NOT Greek to Me! from Ready to Teach to review with the crew.

It’s NOT Greek to Me! is a vocabulary building curriculum that uses Greek morpheme. What is a morpheme “A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. We often call them roots, prefixes, and suffixes.” Students will work on the first set of 140 in It’s NOT Greek to Me! Students will embark on a fun-filled adventure of vocabulary building, with the use of historical background information. It’s NOT Greek to Me! includes stories, comics, coloring, flash cards and colored power point lessons for each lesson.

It’s NOT Greek to Me! curriculum comes with:

  • Instructor Manuel comes completed with 126 pages of 12 lessons, introduction, lesson plans, flash cards, answer key, lesson and review test.
  • Student Book with 12 lessons, colored blank flash cards, Greek morpheme index
  • Book binder ring
  • Paper hole puncher
  • Flash drive -Power Point Lessons

It’s NOT Greek to Me! appeals to all the different learning styles. The curriculum is meant for students in 7th -12 grade. My son is in 4th grade so we did the lessons together and because the curriculum is meant to be done at student own pace we can take our time. Students are able to learn a little historical information about they the Greek system. I did see mentions of Egyptian contributions it would have been nice to see more historical accurate information. The power point lesson were vibrant and my son enjoyed those they helped him better connect to the curriculum. I do like that there are review after every 2 lessons.

Students will work on :

  • Vocabulary building
  • Context clues
  • Creating words
  • Analyzing words

It’s NOT Greek to Me! is a nice curriculum if you are looking for an exciting way to teach roots, prefixes and suffixes. We found it enjoyable and we probably put this in our rotation as we continue to home school through out the years. Be sure to check out the other crew’s reviews on It’s NOT Greek to Me! from Ready to Teach by clicking the banner below.

4th Grade, Critical Thinking and Logic, Education, Family, Homeschool, Language Arts, Morning Basket, Uncategorized, Writing

The Fallacy Detective Review!

Little Learner and Mom

Disclaimer: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

My son is very inquisitive and we have make a point for him to always search for the truth of the world around him. We are also continuing to incorporate logical thinking skills in our home school lesson. One thing that has been helping us the last few weeks to help feed his need to search for the truth of events and improving his critical thinking skills/logic is the Fallacy Detective .

If you aren’t familiar with the term fallacy “A fallacy is an error in logic – a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking.” Fallacy Detective is meant to be used with students with students ages 12 and up (but can work with as young as 8 IMO). The books has 38 lessons that are divided up into 5 areas of study.

  • The Inquiring Mind
  • Avoiding the Question
  • Making Assumptions
  • Statistical Fallacies
  • Propaganda

Fallacy Detective starts with a brief introduction about the book and how to use it. Students are given a short passage about the topic of study for that section along with examples of the topic. Students move onto the 1st lesson in that unit and they are given short scenarios and then they have to decide which behavior best fits that scenario. The book have fun illustrations and some are comic strips.

How we used the book!

My son and I do the book together during our table time. I refresh his memory about the unit topic and then I proceed to the lesson with him. The answer key to all the lesson questions are located in the back of the book. What I like about this book is that it provides excellent conversations for him and I. There were times when he felt that the answer key was wrong and he defended his reason why he felt this way. To be honest with you I also found myself thinking the answer to a few of them didn’t fit well. On those days we felt that the answers could have went one way or another I put stars next to the suggested answer and our answers.

I love how this book really got my son to thinking and asking more questions. He also took a lot away from each lessons. I heard him one day tell Francine a character from the cartoon Arthur she wasn’t using an inquiring mind. Lesson 2 hit home for him and I it was about “Love to listen. Do we struggle in this area in our home absolutely….LISTENING IS A DAILY STRUGGLE FRIENDS…. We read the exercise and he said mom this kinda sorts sound a little like how I do things sometimes. I reassured him and that even adults struggle with listening and we all need to continue practicing this skill. I was very happy to see him make the connections to real life situation.

Final word!

The Fallacy Detective in my opinion is a book best done along side a small group and family. The lessons are great conversation starters and I feel like they can lead to further deep discussions. The unit topics can be applied to everyday life happenings. The book really encourages the student to us their critical thinking skills. It also teaches student to look at situations from a different prospective.

I really like Fallacy Detective it will be in rotation for our table time activities. The cost of the book at the time of this review is $9.99 plus taxes/shipping. Be sure to check out the other crew’s reviews by clicking the banner below.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fallacydetective
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hansbluedorn/

1st Grade, 2nd Grade Curriculum, 3rd Grade Curriculum, 4th Grade, Education, Math

Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills! : Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication Wheels

Little Learner and Mom

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Math fact fluency is one of those skills students need practice on a regular so they continue to be proficient. I was super excited about the crew reviewing the Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills!

Can I just say my son loves speed wheel drills. This year we had to make a change in his math curriculum and one of the things he loved was the speed wheels. When the Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills arrived and he flipped through the books he was super excited. I dont know what it is about math facts being in a wheel makes him love fluency work but he loves them.

We were sent the Addition, Multiplication and Division Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills! Each books comes with 1,440 speed wheel drills. The book also gives parent 21 tips math tips, instructions on how to use the books. Parents can time students or they can be not be times. I am personally noticed that my son has anxiety when things are timed so I dont time him. Each page has 12 speed wheels we did 1 row a day for 4 days a week. We used the Multiplication Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills but as we move into our home school year I plan to assign a different book for a day of the week because I want him practice all 3 books.

The Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills can be done in any direction the student wants to start in. The layout is simple the fact family number is in the middle of wheel and the student goes around the wheel preforming the correct operation. My son said he likes the Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills because they aren’t boring. He said he doesn’t like the fluency sheets that are rows after rows of facts. The speed wheels aren’t in order so they kids will practice random fact families each wheel.

So now that we have found Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills Addition, Multiplication and Division my son’s favorite way to practice his fact fluency, we are happily spreading the word about these books to friends and family. Be sure to check out the other crew’s reviews on Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills by clicking the banner below.

4th Grade, Education, Family, Math, Reviews

CTCMath Review!

Little Learner and Mom

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

This one of my favorite reviews to write every year with the Crew. My son has been using CTCMath for the last 4 years and couldn’t be happier with this online full online math curriculum for grades K-12 including Calculus. We received a 12 month online subscription that we are going to full take a advantage of this school year.

CTCMath is a complete math curriculum right at your child’s finger tips. There is no extra textbook to purchase or tutor to hire. Students will get the benefit of working at their own pace and knocking out their math requirements. The program is easy to use and the parent dashboard gives you detailed reports on your students progress and areas of weakness to help you plan and adjust your lessons plans. The program is not just for homeschoolers, if traditional students need extra practice in math or more rigor they can use this program.

The CTCMath gives you access to all grade levels, no more being locked in a specific grade, parents can have their students practice lower grade levels or higher grade levels as they may need. The online per-recorded instructional videos prepares your student for the concept they will be working on. If a student needs some 1:1 help you can customize worksheets using the Questions Bank Wizard.

Now that I have given you a little insight into CTCMath let me tell you how we have been using it and what my plans are for the rest of the year. We have math curriculum that is our spine but CTCMath has been included into that spine as well. CTCMath will be used to help introduce new upcoming concepts to my son on the weekends. I know what you are thinking she really has him doing school on weekend, um YES ! CTCMath exercises are quick and take maybe at the most 10-15 mins to complete so at some point over the weekend I ask my son to hop on and do the area I have assigned for him. That brings me to another great capability you can assign areas you want your student work. Why do I do this because it lets me know exactly how much he already knows and where I need to focus my attention on.

What I like about CTCMath is their philosophy about math “We believe in the importance of teaching Math the traditional way, so we are not aligned with common core.” This philosophy alone is what makes this company stand out they are committed to meeting students where they are at and letting them learn math the traditional way.

CTCMath is a one stop math online math curriculum, it also offer placement test, fluency practice and detailed PDF reporting. With weekly revision sets that help identify learning gaps and great customer service CTCMath is all you need to start your journey of math lessons or just to supplement. CTCMath is reasonably priced and they offer monthly and annual rates, there is even a homeschool family discount. Be sure to check out the other Crews reviews on CTCMath by clicking the banner below!

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctcmathofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ctcmath
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/ctcmath/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWn5e6974bpIEAe46VnovZw

3rd Grade Curriculum, Curriculum, Education

Home School in the Woods: Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World Review!

Little Learner and Mom

Disclaimer: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

I am always looking for a way to make out homeschool more interesting and hands on. The crew was giving the opportunity to review several of the wonderful resources from Home School in the Woods for this review I choose to review Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World a digital pdf.

Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World is a wonderful resource that allows students to explore the worlds wonders right in their home. Students will focus on the worlds wonders from 4 time period Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Natural. What I like about the Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World is that students can use these wonders to cover history and science. Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World is meant to be put together as lapbook, but because I know my track record with lap books I decided to use the Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World as interactive notebook.

I separated the wonders according to their academic topic. So we have one notebook for science and one for history. We currently studying the ocean and geology so I pulled out the Great Barrier Reef and Grand Canyon for my son. I decided to put the Great Barrier Reef in the science notebook and Grand Canyon in the history. Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World added historical information in to the Grand Canyon such as about the Indigenous People. Can I just say I was very happy that Home School in the Woods used the correct term Indigenous People and showed them proper respect in history.

Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World includes activities timeline of the Wonders of the World as well as all the Ancient Wonders. I love the mix of combining all the time periods in the Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World . I decided against putting them all together rather than building our interactive notebook as we studied them so my son can use the extra pages in the notebook to add to the wonders we study. Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World provides all you need to put together a great lapbook, there is plenty of coloring, information, creative writing and templates for the kids explore the 23 projects. Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World is east to put together with the easy instructions provided. Students can put the Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World together on their own or with assistance from their parents.

Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World is a great resource for homeschoolers or non-homeschoolers, it provides a great supplement to history and science education. At the time of this review the cost for Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World is $18.95. Home School in the Woods offers several other fun filled Lap-Paks and resources be sure to check out the Crew reviews of these resources by clicking the banner below.

Until The Next Time

Mom!

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeschoolinthewoods/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HSintheWoods
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeschoolinthewoods/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hsinthewoods/_saved/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrKq6iLty2fpB6R6ZpcUb8A/videos

Education, Homeschool, Language Arts, Reviews, spelling

EdAlive: Words Rock Online Review!!

Little Learner and Mom

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We finished off our language arts curriculum in early May and the crew was offered an opportunity to review EdAlive Words Rock Online and I thought this would be a fun way to prevent the summer slide with this online program.

Words Rock Online is an online vocabulary and language arts digital platform game. Students are given games to play similar to battleship and they can earn rewards. While Words Rock Online is set up like a video game for the students to capture interest the meat of the program works on the following skills:

  • Spelling
  • Grammar
  • Vocabulary
  • Punctuation and Literacy

My son who is a moderate gamer wasn’t very much interested in the games, I suspect it may have been just his willingness to learn how to play the slug game. He decided to work on the academics parts instead to my surprise.

Words Rock Online is designed for students ages 5-15 and it adapts to the students the students progress. We saw a lot grammar that my son has covered over this school year and previous years. The program isn’t a teaching program in my opinion it really is more so of a review. I think if students haven’t had a lot of exposure to grammar concepts they may find this program a little difficult to maneuver, but for those students who have a had a strong grammar foundations this program is wonderful for reviewing and keeping those skills sharp. Students are giving to chances to get theirs answers correct, before they move on. I wish that there was a explanation for the correct answers. Parents can check out their students progress and achievements in the parent dashboard, which is nice and can help you with your planning. We will continue to use Words Rock Online for our 4th grade year to help review

At the time of this review the cost of EdAlive Words Rock Online is $90/year with a monthly options for each child. EdAlive also has two more online programs be sure to check out those the reviews by clicking the banner below.

Social Media Connections

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdAlive
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edalive
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edalive_onlinelearning/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/edalive/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/EdAliveTube