English on a Roll English Grammar Teaching Method Review

My family had the privilege of trying the English Grammar Teaching Method from English on a Roll for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

English on a Roll is a hands-on way to teach English grammar created by Linda Hopkins Koran. This is based on principles of Multi-sensory Structured Language (MSL). It concurrently engages the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile parts of the brain. It is color-coded and cube-based. This is a great teaching method to educate any age or level student about the proper use of English grammar and syntax, including all verb forms. Students can build unlimited phrases and sentences with the set. Recommended for teaching English language learners ages 5 to adult. Perfect for English as a Second Language (ESL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English Language Learner (ELL), English as a Foreign Language (EFL), beginning reading (K-4), literacy, speech therapy, special education, learners with Autism and/or Dyslexia, homeschooling, and adult literacy education.

The English Grammar Teaching Method is a starter set to teach English grammar for up to 6 students. It includes one instructors' manual and a cube set. The instructors' manual has 150 pages and 36 lessons. The cube set comes with 40 word cubes in a plastic case for storage. You can use this set with up to six students. You can get an idea of how they can be used in this video demonstration.

The instructors' manual is called English on a Roll: Book One. It is a soft bound book that contains 150 pages and 36 lesson plans, a teaching guide, games and conversation ideas, reproducible teaching materials and worksheets. This helps you teach with the cubes.

The instructors' manual starts out with a Cube Guide chart and About English on a Roll, then goes into the lessons with review at the end. The lesson pages each have a grey box at the top with Prep (what is needed for the lesson), Note, and Vocabulary for teaching the lesson. After the first grey box the lesson instructions start. There is another grey box with Teaching Notes and after that are Conversion/Games and Written Exercises. This is written for classroom use, but is adaptable for homeschooling. If you have purchased this you are also allowed to copy pages for multiple students from the manual for your use in your homeschool or classroom.

The cube set is a set of 40 cubes of which 38 are engraved upon. These word cubes are color coded with different colors being different parts of speech or word groups. Pronouns are blue, question words are green; nouns, articles, & prepositions are dark blue, verbs are red, adverbs are orange, adjectives are purple, punctuation & conjunctions are black. Also comes with two blank cubes to make your own with. It comes with 30 self adhesive labels to add vocabulary to the blank cubes. They also recommend using Avery 5/8″ x 7/8″ Self-Adhesive Removable Labels #05424 that you can purchase at any office supply store, or online if you get more blank cubes (these are also available to be purchased separately. These dice like cubes are made of solid plastic and are 1 inch (25mm) per side. These come in a durable plastic case that neatly stores all of them snugly so you know that you are not missing any.

With a few cubes you can make many sentences.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts: 
My family loves learning doing hands-on activities. We love science with labs, experiments, and projects; history with lap-books, cosplay, and role-playing; and math with its many manipulatives. But up until recently we hadn't found any hands-on approach to teaching and learning grammar and English. It is just one of a handful of subjects that I was unaware could be taught using a manipulative of some sort. I was pleasantly surprised to be introduced to the English on a Roll English Grammar Teaching Method

Initially I thought I could work through the material and lessons with my youngest, Zari, who is 6 years old and starting 1st grade this year, but on closer inspection I found that most concepts would be too advanced for her because she is only reading a handful of words. However; I did use the cubes with her for reading/sounding out the words on them and trying to make simple sentences with them. Some of the conversion/games in the instructors' manual also were less advanced and I included her in this instruction as well.

Teela playing with sentences.

My daughter Teela who is 9 and going into 4th grade came to the rescue to help me with this review. The lessons are right in line with what she is already learning in English and grammar. There is mostly grammar review and some new grammar for her that the book taught. I liked that the instruction could be with one to 6 people. That made it easier for both Zari and Teela to sit in on the lesson if needed and Teela could work on a photocopied page out of the book while Zari and I worked on her reading the cubes.

I liked how these cubes worked. You could change verb tense, punctuation, and many of the words just by flipping, replacing, and rearranging one cube or more. There are some words that are not on any of the cubes, but you can add them with the included labels and blank cubes. There are so many sentences you can build with these. My daughters liked making humorous sentences with these together.

I think these are a great manipulative and lesson set to teach English grammar. These are indispensable if you have a student that learns best hands-on. I highly recommend the English on a Roll English Grammar Teaching Method.

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Website - http://www.englishonaroll.com
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BUY IT
You can purchase English on a Roll English Grammar Teaching Method for $75 and other options on their website. Order includes shipping if you buy directly from them with their "Order Form" by email, mail, or fax. Also, you only have to pay tax if you live in WA state. If you choose to "Buy Online" through Amazon please click the "More Buying Choices" and buy from English on a Roll directly. Just understand that you do not save on shipping unless you use their Order Form on their website.

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Whistlefritz Spanish Educator's Collection Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Spanish Educator's Collection from Whistlefritz for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Whistlefritz is a great foreign language curriculum with videos on DVD, music CDs, lesson plans, matching cards, etc. Whistlefritz’s award-winning French and Spanish products teach children these languages using the immersion method. This means the child is taught by the exclusive use of the language by hearing and speaking only that language without translation. This is one of the most effective ways to teach a language.

The Spanish Educator's Collection from Whistlefritz is a wonderful Spanish curriculum for ages 1-7. This collection includes a lesson plans book, Spanish videos for kids on 5 DVDs, 3 Spanish music CDs, and some Spanish matching cards. These work together to provide a complimentary program that appeals to all types of learners.

Whistlefritz Spanish Educator's Collection.

  
The Educator’s Spanish Collection comes with:

• Whistlefritz Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids book
• Whistlefritz Ultimate Collection Spanish for Kids DVDs & CDs
• Whistlefritz Spanish Matching Cards

Whistlefritz Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids is a 273 page book of 40 reproducible lesson plans. This manual doesn't rely on drills or memorization to learn Spanish. Instead, it uses a multi-sensory approach with projects and activities like: crafts, sorting, playing games, drawing pictures, coloring, etc. to go along with each lesson. This helps the child learn the language easier because they are actually learning by doing and making as well. The lesson plans start with the lesson number and title with: a short description of lesson, goals, objectives, vocabulary, materials needed, and time taken. Then it has activities and their: focus and review (if any), teacher input, guided practice, independent practice, closure, and extension activities. This lesson plan book also has over 50 flashcards and other pages to copy, print, and use for use with the lessons. This can be used as a stand alone lesson book to teach Spanish, but it does reference the other products in it as well for the some of the extension activities. These lessons build upon each other and come back to words and themes that were previously taught to reinforce the vocabulary. You can also find Translation Guides and extra Lesson Plans to download on the website.

Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids book and some pages. Zari with her puppet.

Whistlefritz Ultimate Collection Spanish for Kids is a compilation of 5 DVD videos and 3 music CDs. This educational and fun series is a blend of animation and live-action with Latin rhythms to get kids dancing and singing. These programs have fun characters: Maria, Jorge, Fritzi, and the rest of the gang that engage the learner with enjoyable themes, songs, and stories. It also features live, native-speaking adults and children so the child learning can hear the language spoken in complete sentences. This helps teach the structure and cadence of the language. The child learning the language learns the vocabulary by actually using it too. You can listen to a Spanish music sample here. The videos can be watched in any order, but recommended to be watched in order in which they were created if you have a child 3 and under and if you have a child older than 3, start with Adentro y Afuera, then circle back to the earlier videos. The videos were created in the following order from first to last: Los Animales, Vamos a Jugar, Adentro y Afuera, Las Estaciones, and La Fiesta de Fritzi. Each video focuses in depth on specific themes and vocabulary. All teach greetings, introductions, and numbers.

Some images from the Spanish DVD videos.

Whistlefritz Spanish Matching Cards are a set of 50 fun memory cards. These are made up of 25 cards with a match to themselves. These show a illustrated fox that has been drawn to be doing different commonly-used action words. At the bottom of each card is the action word or phrase in only Spanish. These cards introduce new vocabulary and reinforce words that are introduced in the DVDs, CDs, and Lesson Plans.

Zari found her first match!

  
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I used the Whistlefritz Spanish Educator's Collection with my daughter Zari who is 6 years old. She knew a bit of Spanish from me teaching her at home. I had taken 3 years of Spanish in high school and so I remembered how to pronounce the words well, but I was still not as fluent as I would have liked to be. I am glad we got this program to try together.

We started watching the videos first. We started with Adentro y Afuera like they suggested. Even though Zari can't read yet, I still thought it best to turn off the subtitles so that it could be viewed without translation. We found that this video was about directional terms, rooms in a home, and foods. The lady named Maria was trying to find the animated mouse named Fritzi with the help of children and audience. She also showed foods by asking a dog puppet what he liked to eat...then later she asked a mouse puppet, and in the credits a horse puppet. They are educational, fun, entertaining and Zari learned quite a bit while watching. I loved all of these. They are very pleasant and can be watched over and over for repetition without being irritating.

After we got done with the videos she did some lessons out of the lesson plan book. The first lesson she did had an activity to make a paper bag puppet and then make it say phrases in Spanish about personal identity and greetings that she learned in the lesson. Each lesson takes about 30-40 minutes depending upon if you do all the extension activities as well. These lessons had great hands-on activities and Zari liked the projects and playing the games and seemed to learn Spanish better when engaged with making and doing something with the vocabulary.

We also tried the matching cards out. First we set them all upside down on the table and she flipped two over trying to match them. Since there were 50 cards total it took a while for her to finish finding all the matches. She had fun anyway and as she matched up two cards together I would tell her the action on the cards reinforcing the learning from the videos and lesson plans.

I highly recommend this foreign language program. We love Whistlefritz! The Spanish Educator's Collection is great for teaching Spanish to children ages 1-7. These programs are a wonderful multicultural homeschool curriculum for a child to learn to be bilingual.

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whistlefritz @whistlefritz
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Hashtags: #hsreviews #spanish #secondlanguage

BUY IT
Now you can purchase Whistlefritz Spanish Educator's Collection for $165.00! Save more than 20% (regularly $202.90) by ordering the Educator’s Spanish Collection of Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids + 5 Videos + 3CDs + Matching Cards!
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MySchoolYear.com My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Annual Membership of the My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) from MySchoolYear.com for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

MySchoolYear.com is an online homeschool planner. It is great for record keeping, tracking, reporting, planning, and making lesson plans. This online database is wonderful for anyone that needs to totally organize their homeschool. It keeps grades, attendance, transcripts, report cards, awards, etc. for your students right at your fingertips. The My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) makes it easy to add, subtract, recreate, and save information. Since it is stored online you can access it anytime and anywhere you need to with internet.

Registration Wizard. If you click the need help buttons it will help you with all processes.

The My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) is very simple to use. You start out by picking what time frame for your school term you would like to use: traditional (September through May), quarters, or semesters. Then you can pick the name of your homeschool. If you have more than one place your student has instruction, for example, a music instructors home, you may also enter that.  Then you can begin entering all of your students and their subjects and classes. Under each class you are able to enter the curriculum that will be used for each student for that school year.

Teacher's Aid

The website is easily navigated as well. At the top left you will see a pull down menu you can click on under "My Homeschool". This shows many pages that you may go to within the website...

• Homeroom: This webpage lets you select a student a view an overview of everything with charts of their current homeschool status. This is a great place to see classes, attendance, events, awards, readings, extra curricular, and tests all on one screen for each student. You may also add, edit or view these as well from here. 
• Planbook: On this webpage you can update lessons, mark lessons as complete, reschedule as needed, and/or change them altogether. With this you can know exactly what is overdue, current, or upcoming. The Planbook also has a search, filter and sort options to easily find a lesson you are looking for. 
• Reports: This webpage gives you access to awards, course descriptions, events, extra curricular, instructional hours, lesson plan, materials - lesson plan, materials - reading log/list, reading log/list, report card, standardized tests, and transcript. You may sort these by: all reports, all-student based, all-term based, non-term based, and reference.
• Teacher's Aid: This webpage will alert, warn, and/or recommend what you should be doing next. This takes the guesswork out and reminds you when something needs done. There is also a orange circle up by the pull down menu that tells you how many alerts you need to fix or remove.
• Tools: Copy classes/lessons, copy reading log/list, create-a-plan, reschedule lessons, and track attendance with ease. Create-A-Plan lesson generator can create lessons in bulk. Use Rapid Repeat, a repeater tool for if your student is doing something more than once, and Quick Split, a tool to help you know how many pages to assign of a book if you want an equal amount per day, to help you too. 
• Setup: You can setup grading scales, materials, schools, students, subjects, terms (school years) with these pages.
• My Account: You can view your profile, settings, and password and update these if needed.

  
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

We received an annual membership of the My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping). I am not much of a planner and usually homeschool with the flow of the day, so at first this seemed like a daunting and overwhelming task to me. Oregon state law is fairly lenient on homeschoolers that live here. Oregonians do not have to send in lesson plans, curriculum, or a portfolio of the students work. We only have to let the Educational Service District (ESD) know we are homeschooling and have our students test at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. I know my homeschool needs a bit more structure and organization though, so I was happy to try out this planner to see if it would help me with this.

I placed my four children in the program and set their classes up for the upcoming school year (2016-2017). I made a curriculum of what they were going to study and when for each class. I love the Create-A-Plan lesson generator and the Rapid Repeat and Quick Split makes it so much easier to configure. I like that I can receive weekly and/or daily emails of the lessons that need done each day and my students can get sent one as well of their lessons needing accomplished. This is especially great for my sons in high school because I can create documents like transcripts and report cards and MySchoolYear.com shows me exactly how and gives me samples of each to pull from. I am happy to know that my homeschool information that I enter in is secure in the cloud as well. There is still a lot to add and fill in for next year, but I love this program because of how simple it is to use and set up.

BUY IT
You can try the free month trial to see how you might like this program. There are two Membership Plans: Monthly for $5 per month or Annual for $40 a year (save 33%!). Both plans also include a free month trial and the annual plan has a price lock guarantee.

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Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MySchoolYearWeb/
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Hashtags:  #hsreviews #recordkeeping #homeschoolorganization

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