Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set Review

My family had the privilege of trying the student guide, student workbook, and teacher's guide from the Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set produced by Hewitt Homeschooling Resources for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Hewitt Homeschooling was founded in 1963/64 by Carl Hewitt and Dr. Raymond Moore. Their primary function has shifted from working with public education to now focusing on home education. Because of Dr. Raymond Moore's publications and books about home education this foundation became at the forefront of the homeschooling movement. They produce high quality curriculum that follows a balanced, flexible approach to homeschooling. Some of their products include: Lightening Literature, Unit Programs/Studies, My First Reports, Hewitt Readers, "Best" Literature, Math-It, Winston Grammar, State Chronicles, etc. They serve parents with students from kindergarten through high school.

The Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set is what we received and it is composed of the Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Teacher's Guide, Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student's Guide and the Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student Workbook. You can instead purchase the Grade 7 Lightning Literature & Composition Pack that has all the books that you will need for your student to read as well as what is also in just the set. These books, short stories, and poems are all reasonably and affordably priced if you purchase them on your own. Some are classics and others are new to us.


Students read in the following order:

• “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Various poems from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
• "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” a short story by Stephen Crane from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
• Various poems from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Teacher's Guide is easy to follow, clear, and thorough. It includes an introduction of how to use the guide and a weekly lesson planner at the beginning. It contains answer keys to the comprehension questions and the workbook pages as well.

A page out of the Student Guide.

The Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student Guide is guide that contains for each chapter: an introduction for the student to read before starting, vocabulary, comprehension questions, a literary lesson, a mini-lesson, and writing exercises. If you follow this you will easily have a complete literature, grammar, and composition curriculum for the whole standard two semester, 36-week school year.

The Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student Workbook is a consumable workbook that has all of the workbook pages that should be done for each chapter before the writing exercises in the student guide. There are seven types of workbook pages: [L] exercises relating to the major literary lessons, [M] exercises relating to the mini-lessons, [C] activities that allow the student to practice composition skills, [T] thinking skills pages, [G] exercises the review grammar and mechanics, [P] puzzles, and [E] extra-challenge pages. The first five are mandatory for the student to complete. The last two are optional.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
 
I used the Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set with my daughter Teela who has just finished up fifth grade and is 11 years old. She is a strong reader and so these books are fairly easy reading and comprehension for her. She; however, is not as good with the grammar or composition so I got this for her to strengthen those. We also love to do summer reading programs and this has just fit into our summer reading quite well so far.

Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set with my dad's passed down The Adventures of Tom Sawyer book.

I found that the book selection was very appropriate. I remember reading some of these as a child myself and enjoying them. We started with "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and after that started The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I was happy to have had some of the books in our library at home. The others I found online or will be checking out from our city library. Teela had not read either of these before, but I had. We found the whole of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" online. My copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (and a copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) was actually given to my father at age 11 by his parents (It still has the inscription on the inside cover where it says this.) and passed down to me when I was young. I love that I get to share this part of my history with my daughter.

Part of the schedule of semester 1.

We worked on this 3 days a week instead of the 5 days a week that is recommended because it is summer. I had her read the short stories/books to herself. Then we followed the schedule that was given for doing the work. I really loved that the whole schedule was mapped out for us. This made it easier for us to know what we should be doing each week.

Teacher's Guide, Student Guide, Workbook Ch. 1 contents.

There was a lot of writing and other work though and frankly I think it was just too much for Teela especially since she was being distracted by summer things. Even though this is above her grade level I believe if she buckled down to do it, she could. Her favorite parts were the reading, discussion, crossword puzzles, and word searches.

Teela working on the Gr 7 Lightning Lit workbook pages.

Overall, I am pleased with the Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set. It is a great English homeschool curriculum that can be personalized and tailored to the student. We liked how it was laid out and the flow of the lessons. We will be reading the other books needed for this set at a later time when Teela isn't so distracted.

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BUY IT
The Lightning Literature & Composition Grade 3 Pack w Book of Poetry (comes with all the books, but one that is out of print) is $137.50. The Lightning Literature & Composition Grade 3 Set: Teachers Guide and Student Workbook is $71.01. Prices are accurate as of date of this post.

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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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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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The Crafty Classroom Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook & R.E.A.D. Review Pack Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook (36-week Curriculum) *and* R.E.A.D. Review Pack (28 Early Readers that Correspond with R.E.A.D. Notebook) from The Crafty Classroom 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.

The Crafty Classroom is a website full of homeschool resources and printables that are produced by homeschooling mother of 4 kids, Valerie Mcclintick. These are designed to make homeschooling easier. The Crafty Classroom produces high quality homeschooling curriculum and educational resources, like: alphabet, geography, science, math, Bible, reading, and writing resources.

The Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook is a 4 day per week over 36 week curriculum that gives you everything needed to teach your child to read. R.E.A.D. is an acronym meaning: Ready, Eager, Able & Determined to READ! It comes as a downloadable and printable PDF eBook that has 785 pages filled with hands-on activities. This covers phonics, digraphs, blends, sight words, grammar, and writing. There are 30 word families, 64 sight words, and 24 blends & digraphs.

The R.E.A.D. Review Pack is a 92 page downloadable and printable PDF eBook that has 28 Early Readers which correspond with the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook. This can also be used as a stand-alone product, if you are not wanting a full curriculum. These cover 30 plus Word Families and 70 sight words. These are great to build fluency and be used as review. These early readers progressively build onto the learning as they go.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I used this with my youngest daughter who is 6 years old. She is still just getting the hang of reading. I wanted to boost her confidence and try out The Crafty Classroom Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook & R.E.A.D. Review Pack. Zari was excited because she wants to read like her sister Teela who is 9 years old and devours books.

I was disappointed though that my printer decided to act up for this review. Both of these files are large! The Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook is a full 785 pages long and the R.E.A.D. Review Pack is a full 92 pages. Printer ink is expensive and these pages have some that are supposed to be printed in full color as well. I just tried to print out as much as I could before my printer's ink ran out completely, but my pages didn't look at all as good as the pages in the PDF and all the printing really gave my printer a workout. It might be less expensive to have them printed out professionally so you don't eat up all your printer ink like I did.

Just some of the pages of the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook printed out with low ink.

The Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook is very thorough and is a complete curriculum for teaching students to learn to read. It is perfect for homeschool applications for a kindergarten reading curriculum with phonics and word families. We worked on this 4 days per week. At the beginning of the PDF file there is a curriculum overview which tells you the week and which word family, sight words, and language arts your student was going to be working on in that week. There is also a general overview, daily schedule, and blends & digraphs week schedule to follow.

The pages are placed inside a 3-ring binder. You are supposed to use two page protectors and a dry erase pen so that the pages can be reused. I didn't have any page protectors so I used a gallon sized zip lock bag. We also needed a composition book and a container or bag to hold the flash cards. We just used rubber bands to put the flashcards together.

There are some pre-assessment activities that we were told to start out with. These are reviewing letters (both uppercase and lowercase) and their letter sounds. Zari did fairly well with this and knew all the letters, but some of the sounds she had forgotten. So we reviewed these until she had them down.

You start out each day with a Daily Warmup. This consists of two pages that are placed in the page protectors and reused each day. This exercise has First & Last Name, Digital/Analog Time, Weather, Temperature, Count & Write Daily Number, Number Word, Ten Frame, Tally, Money, Days of Week, Months of Year, Number Word, and Number Line.

Zari doing some of the work for the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook.

Each day there are different activities to teach the student reading skills. Each activity and page is explained really well in the PDF. These pages and activities Zari had the most fun with. She loved the hands-on games like Spinner Winner and BINGO. She also loved the cutting and pasting activities and the draw and write pages. There was so many fun things to do to help her learn to read in the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook! She was really enjoying these lessons a lot.

R.E.A.D. Review Pack, first 4 books.

Along with the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook we received the R.E.A.D. Review Pack. This has 28 simple to put together printable early readers that go very well with the curriculum notebook. Zari had fun reading these once she knew word family and sight words. These had fun graphics and an easy to read font. The little phonics readers are super cute. Since they are put together in pages of threes they are also simple to assemble. Just stack the three pages of each book in order of printing (first on top, last on bottom) and cut out the books pages along the dotted lines. Put the first stack on top of the next pages cut out and so on until all pages are in correct order (they are numbered just in case you get them mixed up), then staple together There are 4 books per a five week period. I printed the first 4 books to use with the curriculum notebook and weeks 1-5.  We used these 3 days per week. The instructions suggest an empty tissue box to store them in.

Zari reading one of the R.E.A.D. Review Pack books.

Zari is doing very well with this curriculum and I am very happy with it so far. It is just a lot to print out like I said. The activities keep her engaged and occupied learning. I highly recommend this curriculum and booklet pack for teaching Kindergartners that are beginning readers. It is perfect for a homeschool setting.

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BUY IT
The Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook is $25 and the R.E.A.D. Review Pack is $15.

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Hewitt Homeschooling Grade 3 Lightning Lit Set Review

My family had the privilege of trying the student workbook and teacher guide from the Grade 3 Lightning Lit Set produced by Hewitt Homeschooling 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.

Hewitt Homeschooling was founded in 1963/64 by by Carl Hewitt and Dr. Raymond Moore. Their primary function has shifted from working with public education to now focusing on home education. Because of Dr. Raymond Moore's publications and books about home education this foundation became at the forefront of the homeschooling movement. They produce high quality curriculum that follows a balanced, flexible approach to homeschooling. Some of their products include: Lightening Literature, Unit Programs/Studies, My First Reports, Hewitt Readers, "Best" Literature, Math-It, Winston Grammar, State Chronicles, etc. They serve parents with students from kindergarten through high school.

The Grade 3 Lightning Literature & Composition Set is composed of just the Lightning Lit: Grade 3 Teacher Guide and the Lightning Lit: Grade 3 Student Workbook. You can instead purchase the Grade 3 Lightning Literature & Composition Pack w Book of Poetry that has all the books that you will need for your student to read as well as what is also in just the set. The books you will need with the workbook and teacher guide are: Sarah, Plain and Tall; Rickshaw Girl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Random House Book of Poetry for Children, Ramona and Her Father, The Big Wave, Charlotte's Web, The Wheel on The School, and The Tale of Despereaux. These books are all reasonably and affordably priced. Some are classics and others are new to us. The Wheel on the School, is currently out of print and is not included in the pack; but it is easy to find a used copy.

The Lightning Lit: Grade 3 Teacher Guide is easy to follow, clear, and thorough. It includes an introduction of how to use the guide at the beginning. It contains answer keys as well as a schedule of what to do in what order. This guide helps you teach Literature: Reading and Comprehension Questions, Book Discussion, and Reading Journal (summary of the story, story theme, feelings about the book in own words, and one favorite sentence to copy from the book); Grammar and Mechanics (these are in the workbook and includes: grammar, punctuation, capitalization, parts of speech, sentence diagramming, and occasional literary concepts), and Composition (writing or dictation depending upon level of child, includes: creative writing, essays of all sorts, research papers, poems, etc.) Extension and related activities are not required, but suggested for further learning in such subjects like: science, geography, history, and art.

The Lightning Lit: Grade 3 Student Workbook is a consumable workbook that contains instruction on grammar (including sentence diagramming), workbook pages, a reading journal, dictionary pages, and sentence puzzles. It is printed in larger print and has colorful graphics. The lessons are short and to the point. There are four days worth of workbook pages per week. You can use the fifth day of the week for make-up or the extra related activities. If you follow this you will easily have a complete literature, grammar, and composition curriculum for the whole standard 36-week school year.

Teela doing the Hewitt Homeschooling Grade 3 Lightning Lit Student Workbook and reading.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I used the Hewitt Homeschooling Grade 3 Lightning Lit Set with my daughter Teela who has just finished up third grade and is 9 years old. She is a strong reader and so these books are fairly easy reading and comprehension for her. She; however, is not as good with the grammar or composition so I got this for her to strengthen those. We also love to do summer reading programs and this has just fit into our summer reading quite well so far.

I found that the book selection was very appropriate. I remember reading some of these as a child myself and enjoying them. We started with Sarah Plain and Tall, moved onto Rickshaw Girl, and after that started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was happy to have had some of the books in our library at home. The others I found online or will be checking out from our city library. Teela had not read Sarah Plain and Tall before, but I had. Both of us hadn't read Rickshaw Girl before and it was interesting learning about Bangladesh and their customs. Teela has read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory many times...it is one of her favorites.

We followed the 5 day a week schedule that was suggested. I had her read all these books to herself except Rickshaw Girl, which she read the chapters assigned and then I did after her. Then after the assigned reading she did the daily comprehension, assignments from the workbook, etc.

As I thought would be the case, Teela didn't much care for the grammar and mechanics parts of the lessons. Begrudgingly, she got through it though with some encouragement, but I believe she learned the concepts well. The sentence diagramming was not something that I remember from school, so I had to have a refresher to help Teela out with it. We both were glad that the lessons were not too long so she was not overly bored or exhausted by them. Her favorite parts were the reading, discussion, and creative writing.

Overall, I am pleased with the Hewitt Homeschooling Grade 3 Lightning Lit Set. It is a great English homeschool curriculum that can be personalized and tailored to the student. We liked how it was laid out and the flow of the lessons. We will be excited to read the other books needed for this set during the summer.

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BUY IT
The Lightning Literature & Composition Grade 3 Pack w Book of Poetry (comes with all the books, but one that is out of print) is $137.50. The Lightning Literature & Composition Grade 3 Set: Teachers Guide and Student Workbook is $71.01. Prices are accurate as of date of this post.

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Hewitt Homeschooling...

jollyphonics4u.com and just2ducks LLC Can Do Cubes Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Can Do Cubes from jollyphonics4u.com and just2ducks 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.

jollyphonics4u.com provides products that help to teach literacy and reading. They have a product called Can Do Cubes as well as Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar. I just reviewed Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar on my blog here. The Can Do Cubes are wonderful to use by themselves or with a synthetic phonics and grammar program like Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar.

Can Do Cubes Stage 1 & 2.

Can Do Cubes is a multi-sensory way of teaching synthetic phonics, a simple to complex approach to teach and learn alphabetic code. They are small wooden cubes that you can hold in the palm of your hand. These are six sided and most have a phoneme laser engraved onto each side. These are very hands-on and tactile-kinesthetic. These can be used for teaching: spelling, letter recognition, letter sound awareness (phonemes), blending, digraphs, building words, and later building sentences. Each letter, blend, or digraph has a very faint line under them so the child knows how to position the letters even if they are not yet reading. Each block in Stage 1, which represents simple alphabetic code, has a small number in the lower right hand corner to signify where to put them back into the cardboard tray when they are done being used. Each block in Stage 2, which represents complex alphabetic code, is put back easily where they go in the cardboard tray by looking at each individual block and matching the code on the tray.

Can Do Cubes Starter Set

We Received The Can Do Cubes Starter Set Which Includes:

• 1 Tray of 27 Cubes in Stage 1 which represent the transparent (simple, basic) alphabetic code
• 1 Tray of 30 Cubes plus 2 cubes connected with a string to represent split digraph sounds in Stage 2 Cubes which represent the opaque (complex, extended, advanced) alphabetic code
• Handbook for Stage 1 and Stage 2
• DVD: Teaching, learning and 'sounding out' with Debbie Hepplewhite
• DVD: of PDF files for Teacher's Guide and Template Book
• Phonics Chart
• 2 At-a-Glance Word Charts

The cubes themselves come with all sorts of extras in the starter set we received. There is a spiral bound Handbook for Stage 1 and one for Stage 2. These help you teach synthetic (systematic) phonics at home with Can Do Cubes. One DVD goes through an introduction of Can Do Cubes, a demonstration for teaching with Can Do Cubes, Hepplewhite 'sounding out' the simple alphabetic code, an introduction to synthetic phonics, synthetic phonics for Can Do Cubes Stage 1 and Stage 2. It is all introduced in a British accent. The other DVD has PDFs of Teacher's Guides and Template Books. These have fun workbook pages for Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness & the Alphabetic Principle; Blending, Segmenting, Dictation, Handwriting & High Frequency Words. The Phonics Chart teaches a simple and complex alphabetic codes overview. There are also two At-a-Glance Word Charts showing a cumulative word chart for the Stage 1 Can Do Cubes: one for 1-5 and another for 6-8.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I have been using Can Do Cubes with my daughter Zari. She just going into Kindergarten next year, is not yet reading, and doesn't know her letters or letter sounds very well. We have been doing one lesson a day in the Jolly Phonics book and using Can Do Cubes along with it. We also tried some of the PDF worksheets in the Teacher's Guide and Template Book and some of the other activities they recommend with them.

Can Do Cubes with Jolly Phonics

In the first Jolly Phonics Book Zari has been finding the cube phoneme that matches the phoneme being taught in the book. For example on the first page is has the letter "s". So I had her find the letter "s" in the tray and on the cubes and say the sound the letter makes as well as everything else it says to do in the book. When we got to page 4 in the book she found "t" and "s" and "a" and make those sounds. Then she would make the letters and words in the word bank with the Can Do Cubes, blend the sounds of the letters in the words together slowly...and then faster to make the word.

Can Do Cubes PDF worksheets in the Teacher's Guide and Template Book

We had some fun with these too. My eight year old daughter spelled some things and I spelled my nick name finamoon :) You can do all sorts of neat things with these cubes besides learning phonics. We liked that the Stage 2 tray had symbols for punctuation too so we could spell out whole sentences. We did wish these were laser-engraved darker, because some of the phonemes were very hard to read... especially since the letters were quite small already.

Fun with Can Do Cubes!

The Can Do Cubes are a fun multi-sensory, interactive way of learning phonics. We highly recommend them with any synthetic phonics curriculum. These are perfect for teaching literacy, phonics, and reading. Great for Pre-K and Kindergarten age students trying to master the English language.

Building words with Can Do Cubes

BUY IT (these are prices out of their current catalog as of this post)
You can purchase these from jollyphonics4u.com from their catalog. The Can Do Cubes for Synthetic Phonics STARTER SET is $95 + applicable tax & shipping costs.

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jollyliteracy.com and just2ducks LLC Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar from jollyphonics4u.com and just2ducks LLC 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.

jollyphonics4u.com makes Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar, a synthetic phonics and grammar program with interactive songs, stories and actions that go along with the student books and teacher's books. The Jolly Phonics program is multi-sensory, active, and perfect for younger children. It includes worksheets in three student books, and a teacher's guide. Jolly Grammar is to be used after the Jolly Phonics program. This is also multi-sensory and active. It includes worksheets in one book and a teacher's guide. There are also Jolly Songs on CD and printed so you can follow along that also go along with what is being taught.

Jolly Phonics, Jolly Grammar, and Jolly Songs.

Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar Included:

• Jolly Phonics Teacher's Book in print letters
• Jolly Phonics Student Book 1, 2 and 3
• Jolly Grammar 1 Teacher's Book in print letters
• Jolly Grammar 1 Student Book
• Jolly Songs in print letters

The Jolly Phonics Teacher's Book in print letters takes you through how to teach phonics to your student the Jolly Phonics way. The book is divided into two sections: a comprehensive introduction to Jolly Phonics and the teaching method with yellow page borders and structured lesson plans for use with the Student Books with red (Student Book 1), blue (Student Book 2), and green (Student Book 3) page borders. The first section is further divided into five basic skills that are taught: Learning the Letter Sounds, Learning Letter Formation, Reading (Blending), Identifying the Sounds in Words, and Tricky Words. The first four of these are taught simultaneously from the start and the last skill, tricky words, is taught after the first few weeks. The second section has lesson plans first using Student Book 1 explaining using flashcards, a story to tell, actions to do, formation of letters, blending of letters with sounds being taught in words, sounding of words to listen for the letter sound, word bank words, dictation of calling out sounds for students to write, and further ideas, etc. For Student Book 2 the lesson plans go into more detail with alternatives, handwriting, tricky words, and words & sentences. For Student Book 3 it has lesson plans which go over the alternatives, tricky words, short or long vowel?, and comprehension pages.

The Jolly Phonics Student Book 1, 2 and 3 introduces the student to 43 letter sounds (42 if you count that the sound of c and k make the same sound). These short lessons are easily introduced at a rate of a letter a day. These are introduced in a specific order, not alphabetically so that children can start building words as early as possible. In the Student Book 1 each page with a letter to learn has it in both uppercase and lowercase, the action to do with a picture and description, a black and white line drawing picture to color, how to form the lowercase letter on the line for writing, a word and letter bank, and a listening activity. After the main workbook pages there are tricky words and other activity pages. In Student Book 2 it goes into more detail to teach alternatives (for sounds), handwriting, tricky words (words that don't sound like they are spelled), and words & sentences. For Student Book 3 it has alternatives, tricky words, short or long vowel? (if it is a vowel), and comprehension pages (which gets them to write the story told to them in their own words and draw a picture).

The Jolly Grammar 1 Teacher's Book in print letters takes you through how to teach grammar to your student the Jolly Grammar way. Jolly Grammar is to be used after the Jolly Phonics program. The book is divided into two sections: a comprehensive introduction to Jolly Grammar and the teaching method and structured lesson plan for each day of teaching with the Jolly Grammar 1 Student Book. Jolly Grammar teaches: parts of speech, plurals, punctuation, and the tenses past, present, and future. It also teaches spelling rules including: vowel digraphs, alternative spellings of vowel sounds, plural endings, short vowels and consonant doubling, tricky words, and consonant blends. In Jolly Grammar colors and actions are used to help children identify parts of speech in sentences, for example verbs are red and nouns are black. This makes it easier to remember and more fun to learn.

The Jolly Songs in print letters is a music CD with a book of the words of each song in print. There are 40 CD tracks that teach phonemes: s, a, t, i, p, n, c/k, e, h, r, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, ai, j, oa, ie, ee or, z, w, ng, v, oo oo, y, x, ch, sh, th th, qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar, & vowels. All of these songs are sung to well known tunes and the book that accompanies the CD also has games and activities that are ideal for car trips.

Zari working out of the Jolly Phonics Student Book 1.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I have been using Jolly Phonics with my daughter Zari. She just going into Kindergarten next year, is not yet reading, and doesn't know her letters or letter sounds very well. We have been doing one lesson a day and she seems to be enjoying it. She is not yet ready for the Jolly Grammar and so I will be doing that with her after she finishes and masters the Jolly Phonics Student Books.

The first Jolly Phonics Student Book is very thorough so far. Zari and I have liked the stories, Jolly Songs, and actions the most. Since she is still mastering knowing her letters and letter sounds and printing them, she needed help on these things. I am glad that Jolly Phonics seems to be helping her learn her phonics and letters. She likes that it is fun and interactive.

We love this curriculum and recommend it to homeschoolers needing to teach phonics or grammar. These are great for beginning literacy and reading. We have also been using jollyphonics4u.com Can Do Cubes in addition to the Jolly Phonics...so look for that review soon.

BUY IT (these are prices out of their current catalog as of this post)

You can purchase these from jollyphonics4u.com from their catalog. The Jolly Phonics Student Books are $4.50 a piece and the Teacher's Book is $12.95. The Jolly Songs book and CD is $17.50. The Jolly Grammar 1 Student Book in print is $7.50 and the Teacher's Book is $8.50.

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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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Reading Kingdom Online Review

My daughters had the privilege of trying Reading Kingdom Online from Reading Kingdom 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.

Reading Kingdom Online is a program that teaches early readers, accelerated readers, and struggling readers (ages 4-10) how to read to a third grade level by teaching them the six areas of reading: Phonics/Phonology (Sounds), Sequencing (Order), Writing, Semantics (Meaning), Syntax (Grammar), and Comprehension. This successful, research based program is more complete than just teaching phonics for learning to read and write. This educational reading program will feel like a game to the student because of the fun graphics and sounds. It works online with any device (preferably with a mouse) that has an internet connection. Reading Kingdom adapts to every child as they "play the game" so that they will actually learn the content as they progress through the program.

Reading Kingdom Seeing Sequences

Reading Kingdom Online is made up of different parts to teach the six areas of reading:

• Seeing Sequences - an area of Reading Kingdom that teaches sequencing or letter order in words. The program shows the student a word and has them go from left to right on the screen (as they would if they were reading) to pick out letters out of a group of more letters by clicking on them with the mouse in the order seen in the word on the screen. Once the child gets more proficient in this the word will only stay for a few seconds on the screen and then disappear to challenge the child to memorize the letters in the proper order. The placement test will see if your child is ready to skip this section totally.
• Letter Land - an area of Reading Kingdom that teaches the student how to recognize and select letters (upper & lowercase letters and some punctuation) they are told to find and produce to enhance spelling and writing. This also effectively teaches them the layout of keys on the keyboard so they can have better typing/keyboarding skills later.
• Bit Blends - an area of Reading Kingdom that teaches the student phonology or sounds by providing a portion of the sound blend and requiring the student to finish the rest of the word.
• Orthographic Phonemics - an area of Reading Kingdom that teaches the student the system of our written language in which written symbols (graphemes: in this case letters) of words correspond to the phonology or sounds of letters. This is done by providing a portion of the letters in the words of whole sentences for the student to complete so that students learn sound patterns for words that might be difficult.
• Semantics - Semantics or meaning is taught in Reading Kingdom to emphasize that words are linked together on the basis of meaning, not sound and to show that context makes how you read and write the word, clear. This is taught by having the student look at the context of a sentence with missing words and pick the correct word for the ones missing out of a group of words to show the correct placement and meaning.
• Intensive High frequency Syntax System - Syntax or grammar is taught in Reading Kingdom by teaching non-content words which are 100 commonly used words and make up the majority of our written language. In Reading Kingdom the student will not only memorize these words, but gain the meaning of them because they are paired with graphics that illustrate the meaning. Students will be given: a non-content word, a sentence with context to type either the word into or all of the words with proper punctuation, and finally a graphic that illustrates the meaning of the word. This helps them be able read these words and understand the relationship between all the words they are reading.
• Intensive Word Teaching Method - Reading Kingdom uses this method to teach students words before reading books with four formats: spelling, pronunciation, meaning, and usage in context. After a student masters these they can successfully read and comprehend the program's 30 custom books.
• Comprehension Modeling Method - Reading Kingdom uses this method to teach comprehension by teaching the student how to create "main idea" summaries after they have read a story book from Reading Kingdom. They will be able to do this on their own when they master this skill.

Reading Kingdom Letter Land

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

We got to use Reading Kingdom for a full year with 2 students. I used it about 3-4 times a week with my 4 year old daughter, Zari, and her 7 year old sister, Teela. Zari is not reading yet and doesn't know her letters very well. Teela is reading chapter books.

When we started the program with both girls it had them take an evaluation to see where they should be placed. Reading Kingdom is totally hands off except for the initial log in for the student. The program tells you to let them do it on their own and not to help them. This makes the assessment and adaption of the program more accurate. Teela was able to skip seeing sequences totally after the initial placement test and Zari was not, as I was expecting. The evaluation was spot on with assessing their skills.

In the beginning, I did notice some small things that my girls got frustrated with while they were doing the program. Early out there was a section where they were typing a string of letters and symbols on the keyboard that the program told them to type and when they had trouble finding some of them quick enough it would pop up a keyboard to show them where the keys were. When it popped up, it erased previous letters or symbols they had typed so they had to retype them. I was told that, "Unlike other reading programs, Reading Kingdom requires a more advanced degree of diligence." I know that both my daughters needed more keyboard practice so that they could understand where each key was. With more practice both of my daughters got better at this. In Letter Land there is a symbol, some kind of dash, that we didn't know which key it was supposed to be. They pressed the key above the p with the dash and the minus key by the numbers, but it didn't register as the correct key. We asked about this and were told the correct key to hit for this symbol was the space bar and that apparently my girls had missed the part before where the section talks about which keys would be used before the session. So, now you know if you get as confused as we were. My youngest daughter, Zari, had trouble with Reading Kingdom where it has her type lowercase letters and our keyboard only shows uppercase. She is just learning the correlation between uppercase and lowercase letters and doesn't have it down yet. I know this is a weak area for her and that I need to work with her more on this. Reading Kingdom does have an option before you start where you can choose to have the keyboard show on the screen for touch screens, so possibly that would help this problem. All in all, each of these, I believe, can be fixed by more practice or slight adjustment.

Reading Kingdom - Other Areas

Keeping track of progress in Reading Kingdom is easy. After log in I can view my daughters' progress. Reading Kingdom also sends me progress reports by email as well for each of my daughters. I love that it shows me exactly where they are in the program and how they are doing.

I am very pleased with how Reading Kingdom presents itself to my daughters. The fun graphics and sounds along with the learning makes it even more enjoyable. At first we hit a few bumps in the beginning when my daughters were first learning their way around the keyboard, but now they seem to have gotten past that. They love learning with this program and ask me every morning if they can "play" on Reading Kingdom.

Reading Kingdom Online is an excellent program to help children to learn to read. It is a more well rounded program than just teaching your child phonics. Both of my daughters seem to be learning a lot and advancing in reading and keyboarding skills. I highly recommend Reading Kingdom Online!

BUY IT
After your 30 day free trial, subscriptions to Reading Kingdom are $19.99/month , or $199.99 per year. Additional children in your family get 50% off ($9.99/month). You can cancel your subscription at any time. And if you sign up for a no-risk subscription right now, you can save 25%!

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