Math Shed/Spelling Shed Review #ComplimentaryProductReceived

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

My family had the privilege of trying a one-year subscription to both Math Shed and Spelling Shed by EdShed for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum at home. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Math Shed and Spelling Shed is an online subscription from EdShed a.k.a. Education Shed Inc.. Besides Math Shed and Spelling Shed they also have Literacy Shed and Literacy Shed Plus. These are programs for first through fifth graders. They teach in a interactive online game format so your little one stays engaged. The subscription gives you a whole year access to the Teacher Hub and Web Game for up to 5 students. The Teachers Hub allows simple management of student records, student groups called leagues, assignments and student achievement data, teachers and classes. The Web Game works on all current desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices. Each user/student gets to create their own individual login.

You can switch easily between Spelling Shed & Math Shed by clicking the three lines at the top.

Spelling Shed includes a whole-school spelling curriculum. This covers 100% of the Common Core and state ELA spelling standards. You can create your own unlimited spelling lists and also search for others' lists within the program. With subscription you have the ability to set and monitor homework assignments for example; weekly spelling lists. Besides the online game there is an iOS app for students to use to practise spelling at an additional cost. Whole-class Hive Games that allow all students to play alongside each other instead of doing a weekly spelling test. This can be used as a whole-school curriculum or as a supplement with other spelling programs.

Math Shed works in conjunction with Spelling Shed to help develop learners retention and recall of number facts. This includes mastery teaching slides that follow a whole-school approach and White Rose math without worksheets. Math Shed covers a broad set of math skills including number-bonds and times-tables. With subscription you have the ability to set and monitor homework assignments for example; weekly multiplication tables practice. Besides the online game there is an iOS app for students to use to practise math at an additional cost. Includes a Year 4 multiplication tables check simulator to help students practise for the assessment. Math Shed can be used with a small group to improve a specific skill or across an entire school with different number skills that are targeted across many year groups.


Who This Would Be a Good Fit For and Our Thoughts:

Spelling Shed and Math Shed are great online programs for 1st to fifth grader or kids that need to brush up on their spelling and/or math. My daughter Zari who is in 3rd grade and I tried these platforms out. She was right in the age bracket for these.

After I created an account for my daughter in the Teachers Hub and created my avatar, I logged out and she logged in. She had her own account with user name and password that I set up for her. The first thing my daughter Zari did was create her personalized avatar. We noticed that some of the things that they had to pick from were locked because she didn't have any points yet, so we went with the basic free stuff. We learned that to upgrade the avatar with some of the more costly accessories you would need to earn Honeypots by answering questions correctly within the game.

 My and Zari's Personalized Avatars.

If I log back in it will automatically go to the Account Home. From there you can find additional resources. The Quick Start Guide is very helpful and is a great starting point. You can also watch a Training video, but this is very long and is geared towards classrooms with larger numbers of students. The Teacher Hub and Web Game can be accessed from here. The Resources at the bottom are very helpful as well. For Spelling Shed there is Spelling Curriculum and Spelling Lists. We downloaded the Stage 3 spelling curriculum because Zari is in grade 3 and this pertained to her. These can be downloaded in PDF or PowerPoint format. Each curriculum has 36 weekly spelling lists based on state standards and is downloadable. For each spelling list, they include a 20-30 minute lesson plan, resources to aid in giving the lesson, one spelling practice sheet, and one homework sheet. Under Spelling Lists you can view the lists that pertain to your student's stage. I wish you could download and print these out within the program. For Math Shed there is teaching resources from reception (pre-k) to year 6 (grade 5). Each year has an Autumn term, a Spring term, and a Summer term. These terms further break up into different blocks (usually 4-5 of them) of narrowed math topics, like place value or addition & subtraction. When you pick a block it will give you a list of around 4-13 teaching slides for the subject to be narrowed down further. These slides are in PowerPoint for each concept in math that is taught for that term. Since Zari is in 3rd grade this would be the equivalent of year 4. There are also additional resources for Literacy Shed, but since that platform is something we didn't get I am not going to go into those.

Account Home page with Guides at the top and Resources at the bottom.

Spelling Shed Spelling Curriculum and Spelling Lists for Stage 3.

Math Shed Teaching Resources, Year 4 Autumn Term Block 3 (clockwise).

In the Teachers Hub you can make assignments for your student. You can pick what day the assignment is available from and when the assignment (game) expires. You can choose from Spelling or Math. Both spelling and math had where you can pick lists from the curriculum or make your own. For Spelling if you picked curriculum you could pick Spelling Shed, Dolch, Fry, UIL Grades 3-4, UIL Grades 5-6, and UIL Grades 7-8. From there you can select drop down menus to pick a stage or list to have them play in the game. For math you can pick from Number Bonds, Times Tables, Powers of 10, Add & Subtract, and More. From there you can select drop down menus to pick the game to have the student play.

Assignment creator for Spelling Shed (top) and Math Shed (bottom).

The Spelling Shed game has several different stages and difficulty levels that you can pick from within the game. Make sure your sound is on and working before your student plays. First you choose from Stages 1 and 2, Stage 3, and Stages 4 and 5. After you pick play it will ask you what difficulty you would like to play in. You can also choose from easy, medium, hard, or extreme levels within those stages. The easy level says a word out loud with an audio file and shows it to you with the part of speech and definition. When you click go you have to unscramble the letters to spell the word correctly. In the medium level you have to unscramble letters without word shown, but it does have the audio file. The hard level has a audio file of the word with extra letters that you don't use when you are unscrambling the word. The extreme version has all the letters and some punctuation in order of a keyboard to choose from with an audio file of the word. There are also Bonus Games: Bee Keeper (hangman with bees) and Missing Word (spell the missing word in the sentence).

In the Spelling Shed game pick your Stage, hit play, and pick your level.

Spelling Shed game Easy level (clockwise).

Spelling Shed game Medium level.

Spelling Shed game Hard level.

Spelling Shed game Extreme level.

The Math Shed game has several different sections and math practice that you can pick from within the game.  Make sure your sound is on and working before your student plays. First you choose from Number Bonds, Times Tables, Powers of 10, Add & Subtract, and More. After choosing one of these there will be different math topics to choose from within each of these. Most of the Math Shed games have the problem to solve at the top and multiple choice answers to pick from.You have 60 seconds to complete as many problems correctly as you can. The Math Shed games have a fun outer space theme.

Math Shed Game.

For using Spelling Shed with homeschooling I would suggest parents give their students weekly spelling lists and do the lesson in the curriculum that is provided for that week. After that students can play the games that relate to the lessons for that week.

For using Math Shed with homeschooling I would suggest parents have the student watch the PowerPoint lesson of the week and do the activities to practice the new skills. At the end of each lesson there is an assessment to see if the skills were learned. After this students can play the games that relate to the lessons for that week.

We liked both Spelling Shed and Math Shed. I like that there is a curriculum for roughly a whole school year for both spelling and math. This program is not only great for teachers in a public classroom setting, but also great for homeschooling or after schooling as well. I really liked the flexibility and how I can monitor the student's progress. Since we are going into our summer vacation I can see it helping Zari make sure she does not forget the spelling words, vocabulary, literacy, and math facts / problems that we have worked on all year.

Follow Them on Social Media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdShed-US-113476190342149/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdShedUS
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spellingshed/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJKXC4Rd29eQQWPbSdITLhw
• Hashtags: #hsreviews #Spelling, #Phonics, #Math, #MathFacts, #MathFluency #Homeschooling, #webgames, #iPadgames, #literacy, #vocabulary, #homeschool, #EdShed, #SpellingShed, #MathShed

BUY IT
You can try Spelling Shed or Math Shed free for 30 days - no credit card required! If you do want a subscription, it's only $24.95 for an entire year for each program. If you buy them both you get a 15% discount!

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Reading Eggs Online Learning Games Review

My family had the privilege of trying the online learning games from Reading Eggs 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.

Reading Eggs is an online program that helps kids learn better literacy through reading lessons, activities, and ebooks. Reading Eggs is made up of  5 different kids learning programs: Reading Eggs JR for ages 2-4, Reading Eggs for ages 4-5, Reading Eggs for ages 6-7, Reading Eggspress for ages 7-13, and Mathseeds for ages 3-9. These self-paced educational games are recommended for kids ages 2 to 13. They are created by a team of qualified teachers, educational writers, animators and web developers. These online reading programs will engage your child or student to keep learning.

Student Menu

Reading Eggs JR is a brand new online reading game that teaches toddlers ages 2 to 4 words, sounds, and letters. These pre-reading skills are the first step to literacy. This has games, videos, and e-books to help motivate the younger child.

Reading Eggs is an online reading game that teaches kids ages 3 to 7. There are two parts: the lessons for ages 3 to 5 and the lessons for ages 6 to 7. The first teaches phonics, sight words, and essential reading skills needed to get ready for school. The second part gives the child practice with bonus activities and lessons that teach spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

Reading Eggspress is an online reading game that teaches kids ages 7 to 13, grades 1 to 6. This game continues the online learning from previous Reading Eggs lessons. This teaches structured comprehension, vocabulary, spelling and grammar with live games, an online library, and more!

Mathseeds is an online math learning game that teaches kids ages 3 to 9. This program teaches early math skills. Great for beginners and young children in their first years of school.

Teela and Zari on Reading Eggs.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I have two young daughters. Teela is 9 years old and Zari will be 7 on October 19th. They are in 4th and 1st grades. My daughter Teela has done Reading Eggs before in 2013 because we got a free trial to try it out back then. Teela has grown to love reading and is doing so roughly at a 6th grade reading level now. My daughter Zari hadn't tried Reading Eggs at all and is just starting to read. We hadn't tried the other programs that came with our subscription.

Reading Eggs Navigation

We received a six month subscription to Reading Eggs this time around. This included access to Reading Eggs Junior, Reading Eggs, and Reading Eggspress. We also got a six month subscription to MathSeeds. Both Teela and Zari worked on this educational game an average of three days per week since we got signed up.

Both started with a reading assessment to see where they needed to be. Since Teela had already done one in 2013 she needed to redo hers to see where she was now. They both started with Reading Eggs. I believe Teela made some mistakes on her assessment because she was trying to plow through it...so she was put at a lower level than she should have been. When she went on to the games in Reading Eggs at lesson 111, map 12 they gave her she said the games were boring and that she already knew this stuff. I agreed with her that she already knew it and asked her if she wanted to redo the assessment for a second time and she didn't. So, she just did the rest of the Reading Eggs games and then moved onto Reading Eggspress. Zari was placed in the right place. She started on lesson 41, map 5. There are 120 lessons total in Reading Eggs with about 6-14 games per lesson.

Reading Eggs Lesson Maps

Reading Eggs Lesson Map

• Step 1 Starting Out in the Zoo (Lessons 1-40, Map 1-4): For children ages 4-6 that have little to no reading skills. Children will learn first reading skills, including: learning sounds and names of the alphabet letters, reading their first sight words, and phonetics to read three letter words. Includes simple stories to read featuring Sam the Ant.
• Step 2 Beginning to Read in The Playground (Lessons 41-80, Map 5-8): Builds on skills learned in step 1 focusing on short vowel words and constructing reading skills. Children will learn more high frequency sight words, make word families, and read 40 more books that build vocabulary.
• Step 3 Building Confidence at the Theme Park (Lessons 81-120, Map 5-12): These lessons cover long vowels words and focus on reading for meaning, comprehension, and understanding of longer words and sentences.

Reading Eggs Lesson Parts Examples

Reading Eggs Lesson Parts Example

• Parts 1 & 2 The Main Lesson: interactive animations that are led by a character modeling the concepts. Students need to get 7 correct responses to move on.
• Part 3 Dot to Dot: Students learn correct letter formation with dot to dot.
• Part 4 Letter Recognition: builds letter recognition of upper and lower case letters.
• Part 5 Vocabulary: activities that build vocabulary to be able to read the books.
• Part 6 The e-book: electronic book with audio support so kids can read along.
• Part 7 The Egg Hatches: students are rewarded with creatures that hatch to add to their online collection.

With each reading program there are colorful graphics, characters, and designs to engage the student to keep going. There are fun games, videos, and e-books to also teach the concepts. The students are awarded golden eggs to be later used in the store to buy things for the house and avatar, etc. The navigation around the program is fairly simple. My daughters liked that they could change the look of their avatar, buy things in the shop with golden eggs they acquired through doing well in the lessons, and see their certificates in the My Awards section. I loved that I could see their progress at a glance.

Program Guides for Homeschoolers

Also, in the Parent Dashboard (the home page after signing in) under the menu that has "Bonus Material" you can find Program Guides for Homeschoolers. These are free and downloadable once logged in. These colorful, detailed week-by-week overviews help homeschooling parents to see learning outcomes for children in Kindergarten through 2nd Grade. Each guide contains a 36-week teaching and learning sequence for Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. These map out online lessons, books, quizzes, and assessments.

This is an excellent interactive game that teaches kids better reading skills. I definitely saw improvement in my daughter Zari's literacy skills. My girls loved Reading Eggs and I recommend it to anyone who homeschools or wants a reading supplement for their children or students.

Follow Them on Social Media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingeggsUSCA
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingeggs @readingeggs
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/readingeggs @readingeggs
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/readingeggs
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCReadingEggs
• Hashtags: #hsreviews #readingeggs #learntoread

BUY IT
My readers get 4 weeks FREE trial access to the program to try for themselves! This offer expires on November 30, 2017.

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Greek 'n' Stuff Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 Set Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 Set from Greek 'n' Stuff 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.

Greek 'n' Stuff is a company that was founded in 1996 by Karen Mohs. They provide educational materials for homeschool, Christian school, Classical school, and Sunday school environments. They have Greek, Latin, and Bible studies to pick from.

Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! teaches koiné  or "common" Greek. This is not spoken in Greece today, but was the language spoken and written during the time of Christ and used for the New Testament of the Bible. Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! is a curriculum used for learning this biblical Greek. It has 8 levels in total. They have student workbooks, answers only key, full text key, quizzes & exams, and flashcards on a ring for all levels. They also have pronunciation CD's, a reader, bible copywork, sheet music, bookmarks and different sets.

Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level  2 Set is a set of products that are for beginners to learn koiné Greek. This level is for early elementary grades and older. The target is 2nd-4th grade students. Level 2 begins with a detailed review of the Greek alphabet. This is taught in 4 lessons. Then it has alphabet practice for 3 lessons. After this the curriculum teaches eleven fundamental Greek vocabulary words which will then be used in Level 3 to introduce Greek grammar. Lastly there is a final review of what was taught.

We received a set of three Greek 'n' Stuff Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 products to review: workbook, answer key, and pronunciation CD. These are physical products. These teach the biblical Greek.

• Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 Workbook - 30 lessons, 148 pages long plus pages for making 36 flashcards, spiral bound. Flashcard tips, glossaries, and a summary of the Greek alphabet in chart format is found in the Appendix.
• Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 "Answers Only" Answer Key - A small booklet of answers to the workbook referencing page numbers and answers that go with them.
• Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 1&2 + Reader Pronunciation CD - This CD has the Alphabet song sung for all Greek letters, the Reader read, and pronunciations of all letters and words taught.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
My daughter Teela is nine years old and going into 4th grade this upcoming homeschool year. I was introduced to Greek 'n' Stuff and thought that it would be great to teach her Greek. I love that the Greek 'n' Stuff Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! is family friendly, biblical, and Christian based. I also love that this home education of the Greek language is geared towards children. Learning languages at such a young age comes more naturally. One of the other great things about this is that she would be learning Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes to better understand the English words derived from them.

FUN FACT:

"The word etymology (or study of the history of words) is derived from the Greek word ἐτυμολογία (etumología), itself from ἔτυμον (étumon), meaning "true sense", and the suffix -logia, denoting "the study of". In linguistics, the term etymon is used to refer to a word or morpheme (e.g. stem or root) from which a later word is derived." ~ Etymology - Wikipedia

Teela doing the Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 workbook.

The workbook starts out with a review of the Greek alphabet. Teela was to practice handwriting each letter across three lines, say the letter, and understand how to pronounce it. Then practice the flashcards with the letter cards from the back of the book. She could check a box at the end saying that she practiced her flashcards that day. There were two letters per day to learn. Then she would move onto the "More Practice" pages to: practice writing the letters in order that were learned, write/circle the correct names of the Greek letters, draw lines from the Greek letters to their sounds, find which Greek letter came next in the sequence, and color the correct letters a certain color, and practice flashcards again adding new cards as she went. These pages are great for making the curriculum deeply ingrained in the mind. After the alphabet we are introduced to words: 6 nouns, 4 verbs, and a conjunction.. There were activities for learning words as well: true or false/yes or no, matching, fill in the blanks, coloring, and writing. There is a great Appendix in the back with glossaries, charts of the Greek Alphabet and Vowels & Diphthongs, and flashcards. I followed along in the workbook to learn Greek myself as well. We got done about 4 weeks of lessons.

Samples of Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 workbook pages.

I am glad to have had the answer key and CD as well. The answer key helped me check her answers in the workbook. The CD helped in making sure we were pronouncing everything correctly. The Greek alphabet song on it..though a little babyish, was still helpful in knowing the sequence of the alphabet's 24 letters. The reader was a bit silly as well, but did get the point across.

I cannot wait for her to master Level 2 and move onto Level 3. Level 3 is a good place for older beginners (4th grade and up) to start. I am glad that I started with Level 2 though, because it has been a great learning experience for the both of us so far. I highly recommend this to those who want their children to learn Greek.

Follow Them on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreeknStuff/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/heyandrewteachmesomegreek/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreeknStuff  Tag: @GreeknStuff   
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kuriakos/greek-n-stuff/   
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenmohs/  Tag: @karenmohs  
Hashtags: #hsreviews #greek #greeknstuff

BUY IT
You can purchase the Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! - Level 2 workbook for $18.95, the answers only answer key for $4.00, and the pronunciation CD for the Reader and Workbooks 1 and 2 for $10.00 on the Greek 'n' Stuff website.

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Logic of English Essentials 2nd Edition Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Logic of English Essentials 2nd Edition along with the Optional Essentials Reader Set in PDF format 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.

Logic of English products are designed to help emerging readers, struggling readers, remedial readers, dyslexic students, poor spellers, gifted readers, ESL students, and learners of all ages to become proficient readers and spellers. These products have materials that use fun, multi-sensory methods with tips, games, and exercises that help teach phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle and systematic phonics, fluency and high frequency words, handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. This uses techniques that are by far better than just rote memory of sight words. Students that use this program learn the "why" behind English spelling. This is a great comprehensive, flexible, customizable and all encompassing reading and spelling curriculum for homeschoolers based on successful, evidence-based methods.

Logic of English Essentials is an evidence-based reading, spelling, and grammar program that covers a full semester for students age seven to adult. This helps students to read, spell, and write successfully by providing linguistically accurate phonics instruction, fluency practice, morphology and vocabulary development, grammar, and composition. The second edition has three levels of instruction in one curriculum, expanded vocabulary lessons, Greek and Latin roots, placement tests, ten pre-lessons, full-color teachers guide, clearer and easier to use layout, games, guide to teaching spelling analysis, new resources, new tables, and new teacher tips. The core content and the approach is the same as the first edition.

The Essentials 2nd Edition, Volume 1 Complete Set Includes:

• Essentials Teacher's Guide, 2nd Ed., Volume 1
• Essentials Student Workbook, 2nd Ed., Volume 1 (student consumable)
• Spelling Journal (student consumable)
• Basic Phonogram Flash Cards
• Spelling Rule Flash Cards
• Advanced Phonogram Flash Cards
• Grammar Flash Cards
• Morpheme Cards, Set 1
• Phonogram Game Cards: Bookface
• Phonogram Game Cards (your choice of either Manuscript or Cursive)
• Phonogram Game Tiles
• Phonogram and Spelling Rule Quick Reference
• Spelling Analysis Card

I also received the Essential Reader Set which are readings to accompany the Logic of English Essentials. There are 30 passages that go along with the phonics and language concepts that students learn in Essentials. These are to be used after the concepts are learned in Essentials so that the students can successfully sound out each word, with no sight words or guessing. Combined with the Essentials Reader Teacher's Guide and Student Activity Book, The Essentials Reader may be used as a complete reading comprehension program for upper elementary grades. The Essentials Reader Student Activity Book is a companion to the Essentials Reader and contains engaging pre-reading, comprehension, and composition activities. The Essentials Reader Teacher's Guide includes four sections of suggested activities: Pre-reading, Pre-reading, Handwriting and Composition, Extension & Cross-Curricular Activities; for each lesson in The Essentials Reader. These texts are designed with the older struggling student in mind and include high-interest topics to engage the student reader.

The Essential Reader Set Includes:

• Essentials Reader
• Essentials Reader Student Activity Book
• Essentials Reader Teacher's Guide  

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I used the Logic of English Essentials 2nd Edition, Volume 1 Set with my 7 year old daughter, Teela. She had been learning reading and spelling through sight words alone and had gotten stuck on some words because they could not just be sounded out or written exactly how they sounded. I thought that learning the "why" behind English spelling would help her tremendously with both her reading and spelling.

Teela Working out of the Essentials Student Workbook, 2nd Ed., Volume 1.

There are 3 levels of instruction in the book and the placement test we gave at the beginning tested Teela in level B. After I had her properly placed we went ahead with the lessons. She wanted to do Level A as well, so I let her do that as well. The levels built upon themselves and I thought that it was neat that the same Teela could use the workbook with the next level next year when she was done with this one this year. The 15 weekly lessons are each divided into 5 days, each taking about 30-45 minutes per lesson. The lessons cover dictation, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. The lessons are taught with a multi-sensory technique having parts that are listened to by the student, read aloud, and written. These are interspersed with games, flash card work, and a spelling journal you can have your student collect and organize commonly misspelled words in.

• Day One: Essential Concepts and Phonograms
• Day Two: Review and Spelling Analysis
• Day Three: Review and Grammar
• Day Four: Review and Vocabulary
• Day Five: Review and Check Your Understanding

The Essentials Teacher's Guide is fully scripted.

Since this is a fully scripted curriculum the teacher must read the provided script in consecutive order of the lessons to the student from the Teachers Guide. The Teacher's Guide is lengthy and involved. It has everything you need to teach the lesson to the student and references the Student Workbook very accurately so you can quickly find the correct section in the workbook that correlates with the lesson. I am not used to this type of instruction and I found this to be very time consuming. I had to read the lessons and prepare them ahead of time. I am used to workbooks that I can just have my kids sit in front of and the instructions are in the workbook for them to see or are self explanatory. Although this was a very thorough guide it involved more of my time and attention than I would have liked. I did learn a lot that I didn't know myself about English though.

I think that setting aside the correct amount of time for this curriculum would be best because you can't just jump into the lessons. They need a lot of preparation ahead of time, but I like how much my daughter and I are learning about the English language and the "why" behind it. I believe if you have the time to put in, this curriculum is wonderful! I highly recommend this set because it is very complete and teaches a great deal of information about reading, spelling, and grammar.

BUY IT

• Logic of English Essentials 2nd Edition Volume 1: Available Now! Complete Set: $221 $198.00. Upgrade Set: $110 $93.00.
• Essential Reader (PDF): $17.60, Essentials Reader Student Activity Book (PDF): $9.60, Essentials Reader Teacher's Guide (PDF): $16.00.
• Logic of English Essentials 2nd Edition Volume 2: January 2017. Complete Add-on Set: $109 $98.10 (Will include the Essentials Teacher’s Guide Volume 2, the Essentials Student Workbook Volume 2, and Morpheme Cards Set 2).

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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheLogicOfEnglish/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/logicofenglish @LogicOfEnglish
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/LogicofEnglish
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/logicofenglish/
Suggested Hashtags: #hsreviews #phonics #spelling #strugglingreaders

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WordsBright S is for Smiling Sunrise Book Review

My daughters Zari and Teela had the privilege of testing out WordsBright S is for Smiling Sunrise hardback book with audio CD, with MP3 available via download and Teacher's Guide to help me use this with my little ones. I received this free for this review to use in conjunction with my own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

WordsBright S is for Smiling Sunrise is a colorful hardback picture book that teaches the alphabet with rhyme, fun illustrations, and vocabulary words. This book isn't the typical "A is for Apple", "B is for Ball" ABC-book. It takes the learning one step further with a fair amount of complex and more interesting words to improve the English language and comprehension of the student while expanding their vocabulary. S is for Smiling Sunrise is perfect for a toddler, preschooler, kindergartner, and/or early reader. The bright eye-catching pictures and rhyme help hold the attention of the smaller children.

Teela and Zari enjoying the S is for Smiling Sunrise book together.

The S is for Smiling Sunrise book comes with an audio CD that takes the words in the book and makes them into sing-along rhymes to help follow along in the book and make it even more fun with song. Along with the book, this music CD is great to take on-the-go in the car, to Grandma's house, or left with a sitter. I wish; however, that the CD was actually a DVD...with the whole concept and song animated like they do with the first part of the preview on YouTube...



There are also parent and teacher guides that go above and beyond the book and CD to help you teach the child values and virtues that are very crucial in life. These values and virtues are interwoven within the book's pages to amplify essential moral and ethical principals. I love that they incorporate these important concepts in S is for Smiling Sunrise. In the guide it starts off with some general pre- or post-reading questions. Then for each letter of the alphabet it goes through and explains the concepts manifested in the book and CD in greater detail. It also poses questions to ask your child or student so it will become a more interactive thought process. Then it lays down the vocabulary words used and further activities you can do to enhance the learning experience.

My daughters love this book and CD. Teela, who is in first grade, enjoyed reading this to Zari, who is in preschool. My girls also liked singing along with the music CD. The new associations for the alphabet makes this book even more engaging. It isn't the boring repetitious ABC associations that we are used to. For example, B is for Breathe instead of for Ball and P is for Park and Playground instead of Pig, Parrot, or Pizza. This is a very refreshing change from the norm. The words virtue, patience, gratitude, wonder, etc. are also sprinkled throughout the text. These words encourage positive thoughts and behaviors to be learned for character development. S is for Smiling Sunrise is a great book and CD to teach growing minds beyond what is considered conventional learning. It is wonderful for parenting, preschool, and homeschool.  

TRY IT
To get a sneak peek you can look inside S is for Smiling Sunrise on the WordsBright website. You can also download the parent/teacher guides, a words poster, and a mp3 alphabet song for free.

BUY IT
S is for Smiling Sunrise hardcover book is around $14 to $17 depending upon where you purchase it. The WordsBright website has a list of places to buy the book.

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Star Toaster Orphs of the Woodlands Review

My children and I had the privilege of testing out Orphs of the Woodlands for Star Toaster free for this review to use in conjunction with my own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

The Orphs of the Woodlands is a fun online adventure game for 4th through 7th graders with over 300 lessons. Within this game is an interactive online book called The Treasure of HighTower. This game teaches lessons in math, science, reading, language, grammar, vocabulary, character values, thinking skills, life skills, the arts, etc. There are fun links, popups, recipes, rollovers, memory games, videos, flash cards, and more throughout the online education to further the learning in an interactive way. After each chapter there is a review to help remember skills learned. Then jobs can be completed as fun tasks to get "paid" rewards of gold stars to help orphaned woodland creatures (Orphs of the Woodlands).

I really wanted my boys to enjoy this game because it sounded fun to me and I thought they might learn a lot of new things from it. I should have known that it would be too easy for them though because both my boys are advanced for their grade and age. Because of that they didn't feel challenged enough to keep playing after a few lessons. I tried it out first with my 8th grader, but since he was older than the age group for this he got bored with the game fairly easily. My 7th grader, Jaedan, was next to try the game out. Jaedan is a very fast reader and loves reading. He seemed like he was enjoying the game once he got started, but burnt out fast like his older brother further into the game. I think it had something to do with the fact that Jaedan doesn't read a lot of books online. We do not own a tablet yet, so he really hasn't had much chance to do so. He has told me though, that he likes reading physical books better.

It became very clear to me early out that I was going to have to test this with another child. My daughter Teela had been pleading with me to play the game ever since she saw her brothers play. So because I had no other willing testers, I helped her along with the game.

The Treasure of HighTower has a total of 15 chapters. This is the first book in the series and later on there are going to be other books available. Each chapter has roughly 20-30ish pages to read. While reading there is a convenient page counter to count down the number of pages there are left in the chapter you are in until you get to Ivythwaite. At Ivythwaite your student can pick and accomplish tasks in the Help Wanted section that solidify what they have learned in the chapter so they can earn gold stars from the Star Toaster that creates them. After earning these they can help the Orphs build a place to live out of harms way from the evil villains, the Night Creatures.

Orph Settlement your student can help build and maintain to eventually save as many Orphs as possible.

Teela is in 1st grade so this game was of course above her level. I sat down with her and helped her through it each chance we got. I am glad I got the chance to sit through it with her because I came to understand the game better myself. When she first logged on the game asked her to fill out a Spy Application which she got to pick out her spy alias or character name. She told me that she wanted to be female pony in the story, but they only had one choice for the character, male (gender) and gray squirrel (critter) so she picked a boy name for the alias. She was able to pick a favorite color which she picked purple (pink was not an option) from a list of colors and was told to check off qualifications that the character had. She checked off all of them. Then it asked are you willing to learn, and she picked yes, then hit apply.

Vocabulary rollovers that popup

Recipe for Nutty Nut Bread

The chapters of the online book are a bit long winded, but do set the stage for the game. The first chapter in The Treasure of HighTower is called Boar's Head and it tells the story of the gray squirrel, his home, how he became a spy, and why he started helping other Orphs. Teela did very well reading it and only needed help with a few of the larger words which I had her sound out before helping her with them. Since the first chapter was 27 pages it took a while to get through especially when she wanted to mouse over all the rollovers that popped up vocabulary definitions and quotes, as well. We also could click audio sounds to listen to and spy letters to open and read along the way. Above the reading there is a timeline that she could click and go backwards in the story if needed. It also showed where she was in the book chapter-wise and all the chapter titles how they where laid out. The subsequent chapters introduce you to more of the story, characters, and skills. They also include more of the popups, rollovers, videos, and links to enhance the learning.

Timeline to show you where you are.

At the end of the first chapter we came to Ivythwaite and the Help Wanted page in which Teela did tasks, learned skills, and earned gold stars. The only tasks to complete for the first chapter was answering 11 multiple choice questions about vocabulary she learned in the chapter. Each task/question had training on the subject before the she could answer so she knew the material covered even if she hadn't moused over everything in the chapter previously. Subjects covered in the chapters following include: math, science, language, vocabulary, thinking skills, life skills and the arts. There is a lot of ground covered with each subject. Teela loved the life skills section the best because of the recipes you could actually make that went along with the story. We saved a number of them to try later. After each question she answered correct she would get a certain amount of goldstars to put towards helping the Orphs later on.

Jaedan looking at vocabulary flashcards in the lesson review.

Help Wanted job section

In the Orph Care section Teela could purchase food, water, clothing, medicine, protection and energy with your gold stars. These resources help sustain more Orphs. Teela could also purchase buildings and crops for the Orph settlement. If she placed them well the settlement would thrive.

As a parent, I could log into the parent section with my own password and check Teela's progress and status. I was also emailed a progress report after each chapter when tasks were completed so I knew how she was doing in each section. This tells me the number of lessons completed correctly, how many pages read, and what can be expected in chapters following.

I feel that even though my boys didn't warm up to Orphs of the Woodlands that it is still a wonderful supplement to our homeschool. I think that if I had a 4th or 5th grader then they would enjoy this a whole lot better. Teela, although only in first grade, loved the story and learning along the way. I kind of wish this game was geared to kids in the younger set. If your child loves reading and doesn't mind spending time in front of a tablet or computer to do so then this game might be a great fit. I think it would also be great for a summer reading program.

TRY IT
Star Toaster is offering a FREE TRIAL for a limited time. Get access to the first 100 pages, over 50 lessons/games for FREE!

BUY IT
A 60-day subscription of Orphs of the Woodlands for up to 3 children is regularly $19.99. You can also purchase 30 day extensions for $6.99.

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