Emily Lex Watercolor Package and Classes Review and May Flowers Giveaway #EmilyLex #Watercolors #WatercolorClass #MayFlowers #favoritethings #emilylexstudio

 

Disclaimer: I received complimentary product through FrontGate Media in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Emily Lex is an artist that makes pretty watercolor art and words of encouragement. Her work has been featured on HGTV, Better Homes & Gardens, Magnolia Journal and more. She also has a shop full of lovely things that she has created: watercolor workbooks, art prints, Truth for Today cards, Kids Truth for Today cards, Freely and Lightly book, Twirl children's book and stands for the cards. She also teaches online classes on how to paint with watercolor and do fancy penmanship.

 

Emily Lex package of products.

 

We received a very generous package for this review:

• A watercolor flowers workbook
• A watercolor animals workbook
  
• Truth for Today cards
• Kids Truth for Today cards
• A brass stand
• PLUS free registration for all 3 of her online, go at your own pace watercolor classes including one for kids! 

 

Emily Lex Watercolor Workbooks: Animal (above) and Flower (below).

 

There are two watercolor workbooks: Watercolor Workbook Flowers and Watercolor Workbook Animals. Each watercolor workbook has you create 10 watercolor pictures with the help of a reference page, instructions, and a faint sketch. They have forty-two 7" x 9" spiral bound lay flat pages professionally printed on slightly textured paper. Each workbook has original watercolor artwork + sketches by Emily Lex. The reference page has a picture of the completed art, paint palette of colors, and simple instructions to help you. The sketch page has a light sketch outline that gets you started with the art. This sketch page can be painted directly onto it because it is made of watercolor paper.

 

Examples of Emily Lex Truth for Today Cards (left) and Kids Truth for Today Cards (right)

 

There are two different packs of Truth for Today cards: one regular version and one for kids. Each card set has 31 cards with original watercolor artwork by Emily Lex and a scripture verse. These are 4" x 4" cards made out of 120lb cotton texture eggshell paper. There are also two different types of holders for the cards to sit in: brass and gold card stand. They are both sold separately from the cards. We received brass card holder. It is solid brass with a brushed finish. Emily Lex has three courses you can take: Simplified Penmanship, Simplified Watercolor, and Watercolor for Kids. These classes are online and you can watch them on any device. After purchase you get instant unlimited access to the video course chosen. You can work at your own pace and can pause and replay any lesson at your leisure. Each course has 8-10 video lessons. Supply lists, project templates, and guides are included. Simplified Penmanship is a course to learn better handwriting skills. You can use this to write notes, letters, address envelopes, create artwork, write on a chalkboard, and write legibly and beautifully. Simplified Watercolor is a course that teaches watercolor basics and then helps you create lovely watercolor paintings that you can be proud to display. Watercolor for Kids is a course for kids of all ages. These lessons will teach your young aspiring artist techniques for mixing paint, caring for a brush, and stroke-making, then practice making fun watercolor art cute enough to proudly display.

 

My Thoughts:

I have not done very much watercolor painting on my own, except for the "Paint With Water" books I did as a child. These were fun, but did not really teach me the fundamentals of how to paint with watercolor. I have always wanted to learn those basics, but never took the time or had the chance. When I received the opportunity of reviewing the Emily Lex Watercolor Package and Classes I jumped at the chance. 

I first received the package of watercolor goodies in the mail and opened it up. There were so many fantastic things inside. I cannot wait to thoroughly dive into everything offered.

I looked through the watercolor booklets and am very excited especially to do the whale in the animals workbook and the sunflower in the flowers workbook...2 of my favorite things! There are so many other pages that look like fun also! The instructions on the reference pages look fairly simple to follow and you can paint directly onto the page with the outlined sketch, so no need for buying a watercolor pad of paper. The sketch makes it very easy to know the outline of the painting and you do not need to know how to draw to do these. There are also blank pages to practice what you have learned with watercolor or just do your own thing. I also love that they are perfect for taking with you on trips or outdoors when the weather is nice and they don't need any screen time to do.

The Truth for Today and Kids Truth for Today cards are just lovely. I love the illustrations from Emily Lex and bible verses on each one. These are gentle reminders of scripture truths. They are a wonderful way to start the morning with and would be great as gifts for someone that needs uplifting. Both sets of cards are great for anyone, regardless of age.

I love how the Truth for Today cards can be displayed in the brass holder that we also received. Make sure to place the cards in it the correct way so that the card angles slightly back not forward this way you can read the bible chapter and verse number. This sleek and stylish brass holder can also hold other things as well...like a recipe card.

Here are my finished art from some of the Emily Lex Simplified Watercolor lessons.

There were three different courses that we were also given: Simplified Penmanship, Simplified Watercolor, and Watercolor for Kids. I have been doing the Simplified Watercolor class. It is a great step-by-step watercolor class for a beginner like me or artists who would like the practice. You can go at your own pace watching the videos, pause at anytime, go back if you missed something, and skip over the parts you already know if you want. In this she begins describing the supplies. I only had a cheap set of crayola watercolors, a nice paintbrush set I got as a gift, and a watercolor pad from my kids using our watercolor crayon set. She said that using the cheap paints would be fine, but as you get better with the art then you might want to purchase a better set and she listed a few. She went over some techniques in the third and forth lessons and then we started painting actual pictures of things. There are also bonus lessons at the end as well. I loved how it also checked off the lessons I had done so that I would know where I was the next time I logged in. I could also still go back through the finished lessons if I needed to. I loved painting the Seascape the most so far, but the Dot Project was fun too. I know that my kids are going to enjoy the Watercolor for Kids class. I looked it over and I might even do the lessons right along with them. The Simplified Penmanship class is going to be very good for me. My penmanship is not too bad, but I would love to do better with my writing and learn some fancy lettering too. I cannot wait to get all the way through these. I have learned so much already and there is so much more to go.

I highly recommend all that Emily Lex has to offer. Her products and classes are so much fun and would make great gifts. I am very pleased with everything we received and want to thank her for being so generous so that we could try a bunch of things. Everything here is fabulous! I encourage you to check Emily Lex out for yourself.

 

 

WIN IT

• Prize: Win the May Flowers Giveaway
  
• Host: Emily Lex.
• Who Can Enter: Open to US and Canadian residents 13 years or older.
• Selection Process: 3 Winners will be selected on 05/30/2021.
  
• Where to Enter: Go to this link https://emilylex.com/may-flowers-ga and fill out the form to enter.

 

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Purchase products and classes from Emily Lex's Shop.

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Reading Eggs 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade Workbook Review

My family had the privilege of trying the 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade from the brand new workbooks 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.

Reading Eggs JR is an 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 math for kids ages 3 to 9. This program teaches early math skills. Great for beginners and young children in their first years of school.

Reading Eggs Workbooks

Reading Eggs has brand new workbooks that coincide with the teaching in the online games. These have fun full color pictures on the pages as well as lessons to learn. There are both reading and math workbooks. The reading workbooks start with kindergarten and go all the way to 5th grade. The math workbooks start with kindergarten and go to the second grade level so far. The reading workbook lessons coincide with the online Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress programs. The math workbook lessons coincide with the online Mathseeds program.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
We received an extension to our subscription to the online Reading Eggs suite for one student for three months. My daughter Zari is eight years old on October 19th and is just starting second grade this year. I thought she would like to do the Reading Eggs suite again since we hadn't had the subscription in a while. I picked the 2nd grade workbook that corresponded with her grade level she was going into. We also received a pdf copy and then later the physical copy of the 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade workbook.

With each online 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. Zari liked that she could change the look of her avatar, buy things in the shop with golden eggs she acquired through doing well in the lessons, and see her certificates in the My Awards section. I loved that I could see her progress at a glance.

Family Dashboard: Bonus material pull down menu.

Also, in the Family Dashboard (the home page after signing in) there is bonus material under the menu of the same name. You can find Program Guides under this pull down menu. These are free and downloadable once logged in. These colorful, detailed week-by-week overviews help 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. They also have free activity sheets that correspond to each lesson in both English and Spanish, a Parent User Guide for the suit, and The Eggsperts (a fun new series that your child can watch to hatch clues and solve problems by playing with letters and sounds).

Zari working in the 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade workbook.

The 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade workbook looked fun, colorful, and very educational. It has a glossy cover with full-color pages. It has 200 pages plus answers in the back to check the work. It covers comprehension, spelling, grammar, and review of these topics. The first couple pages are for the parent/teacher to read. In the beginning there is a welcome describing the 36-week program. It lays out the 5 days and what will be taught roughly for 15 minutes per day, plus the reviews...

• Day 1: Comprehension lesson - Students read a text, annotate it, and answer questions about it.
• Day 2: Comprehension lesson - This is similar to day one, but more in depth with annotation and short answer questions this time.
• Day 3: Spelling lesson - Each lesson introduces spelling rules or patterns. Using a 20 word core list learners complete activities.
• Day 4: Spelling lesson - Builds on proof-reading skills with words from Day 3 and provides 10 challenge words to extend the learners skills.
• Day 5: Grammar lesson - Each lesson defines and explains a grammatical term in simple language with examples. This helps learners understand how the English language system works.
• Reviews - Comprehensive reviews happen every 9 weeks to reinforce learning.

It also has the Contents and a Year Planner detailing what the year lessons should look like. After the beginning portion of the book is the actual workbook portion and then the answers at the end.

After receiving and looking through the first few pages of the workbook; however, I didn't think that Zari was ready for the information they were teaching right away. The 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade workbook coincides with the Reading Eggspress lessons and Zari hadn't gotten there yet in the online program. So first we had to play catch up a little to get her where she needed to be to work out of the book. In retrospect I should have had her take the reading placement test/assessment again that they had so that I knew where she was at this time, but we had a pretty good gap in our subscription from the last time, so I just didn't know. It only will let your student take the placement test if you subscribe to the online lessons first. I would recommend that if you want to do the workbooks you have your child do the assessment first to see which part of the online series and book they actually are in before purchasing the workbooks. I wouldn't try to move ahead until the student is ready so they won't be frustrated.

Reading Eggspress Main Menu

We finally got caught up and now Zari is in Reading Eggspress. The workbook corresponds with the online activity, program, and lessons very nicely. It was wonderful having the physical workbook to review because I could see the quality of the book and pages myself and didn't have to print them out on my low quality printer. The first book pages that she did corresponded with a story called Go, Go Gecko within the Reading Eggspress iself. You can also find it in the "Library" in the Reading Eggspress main menu...just do a search for the book and you will be able to have your child read the full text of the eBook without going through the games if you want. The Covers of each eBook stories are found on day 2 of every week.

Reading Eggspress Library: Go, Go, Gecko eBook and quiz.

We loved this reading for kids duo. The Reading Eggs online suit is an excellent interactive game that teaches kids learning to read better and math skills. I definitely saw improvement in my daughter Zari's literacy skills. My daughter loves Reading Eggs interactive game for kids online. The workbooks are also an excellent resource in reinforcing the skills already learned in the online programs. I recommend both to anyone who homeschools or wants a reading supplement for their children or students aged 2-13 and a math supplement for their children aged 3-9. However, the online game and workbooks also work very well independently from one another.

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My readers get:

• 4 weeks FREE trial access to the program to try for themselves! This offer expires on October 11, 2018.
• A coupon for 10% off the purchase of the workbooks Coupon Code: WK10JGSU8JZ.

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Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults Review

My family had the privilege of trying Math Refresher for Adults from Math Essentials 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.

Math Essentials was created by Richard W. Fisher, a math instructor for the Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California, for over 31 years. This company creates award winning math materials to help teach and learn mathematics. These are easy to use and easy to understand. Rick creates books, DVD’s, and a world-class online instructional program.

The Math Refresher for Adults...The Perfect Solution is a physical, softcover book by Richard W. Fisher. It is part of the Mastering Essential Math Skills series. This book goes through and gives a refresher course for anyone that needs one. It covers: Basic General Math, Geometry, Problem Solving, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra. Each lesson is short, concise, and easy to understand. Each lesson has review exercises, two sample problems, and a small section to take notes. There is a corresponding video tutorial for each lesson in the book taught by Rick Fisher. This book is perfect for those that: have forgotten the math that they were taught, struggle with math, have been away from math too long, want to teach their homeschooled kids math, want to be able to help their kids with math homework, have a math placement/competency test coming up, or are English Language Learners learning math.

General Math Main Chapters include:

• Whole Numbers
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Percents
• Geometry
• Integers
• Charts and Graphs
• Word Problems

Pre-Algebra and Algebra Chapters include:

• sets
• integers
• positive and negative numbers
• exponents
• square roots
• order of operations
• properties of numbers
• scientific notation
• ratios and proportions
• percents
• number theory
• number lines
• coordinate systems
• slope
• graphing linear equations
• equations
• algebra word problems
• probability
• statistics

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I used Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults for myself as a refresher in math; primarily in Pre-Algebra and Algebra and as a math refresher for my kids. I also used this book with a neighbor child that I am tutoring this summer to get his math skills up to where his level should be. This book is very efficient in teaching the math skills we all need to know to succeed. Math is super important to learn and apply in our lives. Math is so easy to forget if we don't keep using what we learned. Unfortunately the overuse of calculators and other technology to do the math work for us is helping make people lazy and forgetful. This book is wonderful for not only adults that have forgotten math or were not taught it well, but children/teens that need this refresher as well.

Changing improper fractions to mixed number or whole number.

For now I focused on fractions with the kid that I am tutoring math to because that was where he was having the most trouble. This book has been a great help for both me and him. He is now grasping the concepts so much better. I liked how it recommends that you write the problem out in a notebook or on a separate sheet of paper along with your work so you don't have to write in the book.

The book also says it comes with video instruction, however; finding which videos went with this book was a bit difficult since they do not have this book listed under the video section yet. After some looking into, we did find that the videos for the other books still correspond with the information in this book. The videos are to the point and easy to understand without any bells and whistles. The book goes in a great sequential order that is wonderful for relearning basics, pre-algebra, and algebra.

Math Essentials Videos

I highly recommend this book for anyone needs a refresher on math. It is a great tool to help remember the math you learned years ago...or teach struggling math learners. It is also very affordable for anyone to purchase.

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You can purchase the Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults book for $28.95.

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The Critical Thinking Co.™ Understanding Pre-Algebra Review

My family had the privilege of trying Understanding Pre-Algebra from The Critical Thinking Co.™ 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 Critical Thinking Co. ™ has award winning products that help students of all abilities achieve higher academic results with lessons that develop and sharpen their critical thinking skills. They have fun and easy to use products with lessons in standards-based reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history that are guaranteed to produce better grades and higher test scores. Critical thinking is: identifying, analyzing, defining, evaluating, examining, reasoning, questioning, and challenging evidence to guide decision making and problem solving in a manner which is clear, rational, and open minded. A good acronym for the main keys of Critical Thinking are to think RED: Recognize Assumptions, Evaluate Information, Draw Conclusions.

Understanding Pre-Algebra by Terri Husted is a full mathematics curriculum intended for grades 6-8. This pre-algebra workbook teaches critical thinking skills and concepts that are prerequisites for Algebra 1. It stresses practice of these before moving onto the next concept. It is a physical softcover student workbook and textbook in one with 15 chapters and 448 perforated pages so you can tear them out cleanly, if needed. The charts, pictures, diagrams, graphs, etc. are in color for better representation. There is an introduction about the book before the lessons and a final examination, glossary, reference sheet, table of square roots 1-120, and answer key in the back of the book. This book has a reproducible license agreement. For a typical school year you would need your student to do about 2 pages per school day to get through it.

Chapters in the Book:

1. Family of Numbers
2. Working With Integers
3. Working With Rational Numbers
4. Ratio, Proportion, and Percent
5. Percent Applications
6. Algebraic Expressions
7. Equations and Solving Word Problems
8. Inequalities and Applications
9. Understanding Square Roots and Irrational Numbers
10. Two Dimensional Geometry
11. Understanding Volume and Surface Area
12. Graphing on the Coordinate Plane
13. Transformations and Congruency
14. Understanding Functions
15. Probability and Statistics

Teela working out of the Understanding Pre-Algebra workbook.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
We have used some of The Critical Thinking Co.™ books before and we love them so when asked to review Understanding Pre-Algebra we jumped at the chance. I used the Understanding Pre-Algebra math workbook with my daughter Teela, who is in 4th grade and is 10 years old. She is advanced in math so I thought this book would be a great introduction to Algebra for her. For this review we worked through the book and did approximately six pages a week starting from the very beginning of the book.

Teela didn't really want to do math at first because this is supposed to be her summer vacation and we rarely do standards-based workbooks during the summer break, but I finally talked her into it. It was still very difficult with all the distractions of nice weather to get her to focus and stay on target. I think this will be best when it is worked on in an actual school year time frame.

Since this is a brand new publication from The Critical Thinking Co.™ there is always a chance to find errors in the text. I had tore out the answers in the back of the book, but let my daughter check her work when she was done with a lesson. She found that in the Chapter 1 review the answer to number seven was incorrect in the back of the book. The second 169 should read 225. Hopefully this is fixed in the later publications so that parents are not incorrectly making their children wrong. I haven't found any other errors so far, but that doesn't mean there isn't any.

I liked how this text/work book was set up. Each lesson first has instruction of the concepts, math vocabulary, critical thinking, and plenty of examples for learning how to actually do the practice problems that comprise the rest of the lesson. There are highlighted sections in the lessons in different colors that indicate math rules that the student really needs to know. There are also pictures, charts, and graphics that are in color so that emphasis of the concept gets internalized. In the back of the book are the final examination, glossary, reference sheet, table of square roots 1-120 and answers. The glossary has key words and vocabulary that were taught and their definitions. These would have been helpful to also include page numbers to where these concepts were taught. The reference sheet has a list of formulas that one needs to know like: Perimeter of Polygons, Circumference of Circles, Area, Volume, Surface Area, etc. The Table of Square Roots is also great to have. I do wish that the answer key in the back of the book had the problems being solved from start to finish instead of just the answers.

There are some great mnemonic devices in this book to help remember these concepts and master them. We especially liked the cowboy story that teaches rules for multiplying and dividing positive and negative integers. I had never been taught that one and the rules became so clear after learning it.

The Critical Thinking Co.™ Understanding Pre-Algebra is a great complete Pre-Algebra curriculum for grades 6-8 or earlier, if your student is advanced like mine. I liked how if we mastered a concept we could move on or skip around if we wanted to. You can also use this book as a supplement with another subject or if needed to make sure your student masters the concepts better before moving onto later math courses.

I am really glad we got this to help Teela out with learning Pre-Algebra. In my opinion the Understanding Pre-Algebra workbook has made it a lot easier for her to learn this math and for me to get much needed review of Pre-Algebra myself. Since math is not a strong subject of mine I am glad that this book has helped me understand better to assist in teaching my daughter and seems like a much simpler way to learn than I remember being taught in school. I highly recommend this to any homeschooler that is trying to learn Pre-Algebra or as a supplement to public school math or other subject.

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You can purchase the Understanding Pre-Algebra book for $42.99, as of this post. You can choose a physical paperback book or eBook.

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CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive Review

My family had the privilege of trying the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive from CursiveLogic 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.

Why use CursiveLogic? CursiveLogic varies from other handwriting and cursive teaching methods by emphasizing the structure of the cursive alphabet instead of rote memorization (repetition). Cursive letters are grouped by shape and written as a connected string, not individually. There are 4 types of these letter strings each with a differing shape group and color. This reinforces proper formation and makes sure students connect the letters correctly from the very beginning of the lessons. Since CursiveLogic uses the connected string of letters method, kids learn how to make real cursive words within the first week of lessons.

Additionally, CursiveLogic uses visual, auditory, verbal, and kinesthetic elements in teaching cursive letters. With color themes, mnemonic devices, verbal cues, and finger tracing it is truly a multi-sensory approach. The 5 steps of  the CursiveLogic method are: color, movement, catch phrases, logic, and real words. This approach helps students understand how to form the cursive letters better.

CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack is a webinar and workbook combo. The webinar is a 48 minute online seminar presented by Linda Shrewsbury. You get 6 months access to this when you subscribe. This helps the parent with teaching the CursiveLogic cursive curriculum. There are tips, tricks, and step-by-step instructions on how to use the program in this webinar. The newly redesigned consumable workbook is an introduction to the CursiveLogic method and teaches the student cursive using this, from the ground up. It has a total of 112 pages plus three dry erase pages. It is spiral bound at the top so the pages flip easily for both left and right handed students. The spiral coil will also never get in the way of wrists while writing. When using this workbook you first use the pages in numerical order that have the navy blue corners (pages 1-56), then you flip the whole book over and use the pages with the mauve corners (57-112) all the way to the end.

The Art of Cursive is an adult coloring book that targets the adult learner or one who has completed the CursiveLogic workbook. This workbook/coloring book doesn't go through as much detail in the teaching of the CursiveLogic method. It only has 4 short lessons in the front of the book and then 27 decorative images to color that have similar shapes as the lessons. Marker or fountain pens won't bleed through the thick pages either. This is a great book for use after completing the CursiveLogic workbook.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I believe that cursive is important for children to learn. It is sad that many public schools do not teach cursive anymore because Common Core State Standards do not think it vital to learn. They instead believe that cursive is antiquated and in our advancing computer-centric age typing is more important to learn. I am glad that with homeschooling we get to pick and choose what we want to teach our kids. If homeschooling wasn't done in my home I would still teach cursive myself to my children because the public schools probably wouldn't.

Researchers have found that writing and taking notes by hand benefits the brain and helps you understand, retain, remember, and recall those things better. Handwriting also creates better language and critical thinking skills. The benefits increase with cursive writing.

Cursive script handwriting is essential because...

• cursive activates and stimulates both hemispheres of the brain and encourages them to work together...thus increasing comprehension and participation (printing doesn't do this).
• it brings out the creative side and lets the student express their individuality.
• once your child learns to write in cursive they will be able to read cursive writing easier too.
• it makes you think more about your writing making it more legible, neat, and better composed.
• it helps your child have confidence and pride in their penmanship because they will write more legibly.
• it is fancier looking and more graceful looking.
• academics seem to improve when cursive is taught.
• with it you can sign your name.

I found the CursiveLogic webinar very informative and it helped me, as a parent, learn the process of the curriculum so that I could teach my daughter Teela who is 9 this method of cursive. The workbook is very well laid out and written. After I watched the webinar it was easy to teach Teela and she understood this method after only a few pages into the book.

Orange Oval shape and letter string.

For the first string of letters it has 6 letters that share the same color and shape. The shape is called "Orange Oval". The student practices the shape saying aloud, "over, back-trace" while tracing it with the finger first and then a pencil, and finally writing it. Then the letter string is introduced: a, c, d, g, q, o. The student practices the letter string with this oval shape saying aloud, "over, back-trace, [letter name]...dip" while tracing it with the finger first and then a pencil, and finally writing it. Each time the lessons build upon themselves adding another letter string and a fun shape, color, and chant to go with them. I liked the catch phrases and finger tracing because this added a bit more to the memory aids. My daughter thought the whole process was fun. It was very rewarding to see that she liked this method of learning cursive.

Teela Practicing the Oval Orange shape and letter string.

Here is Teela's before and after sample.

The Art of Cursive book I am going to save for Teela when she has completed the CursiveLogic workbook. I however had her complete a coloring page out of the book just to show you what they can look like colored. This is a great adult coloring book for those that have worked through the method and understand it thoroughly. I love the coloring pages and the way they use the letter strings, and shapes in the artwork to color. This is such a cool way to practice these and relax while coloring too. I also love that it includes quotes from famous people as well.

The Art of Cursive adult coloring page.

I recommend the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive to all parents, teachers, homeschoolers, parents/teachers with special needs students, and occupational therapists that would like their children/students to learn cursive.

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Using the code CREW2018, my readers can save 20% on the Quick-Start Pack, which is the webinar + workbook combo. The code will be active through the end of March.

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Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks Easy Peasy Cursive Review

My family had the privilege of trying Easy Peasy Cursive from Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks 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.

Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks was established in October of 2015 when Channie's son was struggling with handwriting. She could not find a product that fit her child's needs so she created her own handwriting workbooks with visual guides to help her child. After a few short months her son was excelling at handwriting and his attitude towards it also became better. Channie's LLC grew from there out of her wanting to help others with children who had similar difficulties. Now Channie's has over 15 new products and her workbooks are being sold at Walmart, Hobby Lobby and retail stores cross over 25 states! These products are proudly made in the USA in North Carolina.

Easy Peasy Cursive is a Channie's visual handwriting workbook that helps with both tracing and writing to reinforce letter formation in cursive. This consumable workbook covers the entire alphabet, A through Z, in cursive with both their uppercase and lowercase letter form. Each letter has two pages of tracing and one page of writing. At the end of the workbook it also has a few simple words to also trace and write in cursive. Easy Peasy Cursive not only shows the correct positioning of the letters in cursive and direction to trace them, it also has slanted or angled guide boxes for proper slant and letter size, green shading to show proper lower case letter position, and divider lines for proper spacing. This workbook is 40 sheets and 80 pages long. The pages are made of 60lb strong recycle paper and printed on both sides. The pad is an standard 8.5 x 11 inch / 21.59 cm x 27.94 cm with paper board backing. The block size is 1/4 x 1/4 inch / 0.64 cm x 0.64 cm. The skip space is 3/16 inch and the ruling is 3/4 inch. This is recommended for children in grades 1st to 3rd, but also works wonderfully for kids that haven't learned cursive before.

Teela working in the Easy Peasy Cursive Workbook.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
My daughter who is in 4th grade now has been working on learning cursive. It has been a slow, painful process teaching her cursive. Frankly, I wanted to find a better way than just the traditional method which only consists of a solid top and bottom line with a dotted center line to use as a guide where everything goes.

I believe that cursive is important for children to learn. It is sad that many public schools do not teach cursive anymore because Common Core State Standards do not think it vital to learn. I am glad that with homeschooling I get to pick and choose what I want to teach my kids. If homeschooling wasn't done in my home I would still teach cursive myself to my children because the public schools probably wouldn't. I feel that cursive is important because: it teaches how to sign one's name, cursive activates and stimulates both hemispheres of the brain and encourages them to work together...thus increasing comprehension and participation (printing doesn't do this), if your child doesn't learn how to write cursive they won't be able to read cursive writing easily, having legible handwriting is a must so that people can read the handwriting and learning cursive can actually help your child to have pride in their penmanship.

The Easy Peasy Cursive Workbook takes the traditional method a few steps further and makes learning handwriting and penmanship in cursive more visual. They use the top, bottom, and middle lines that the other handwriting workbooks do and have arrow guides for which direction to trace letters, but have instead individual slanted boxes with three uniform parts. The top and middle box is for the full upper case letter to fit in. The middle box (which is also shaded green) is used for the lower case letter to fit in except for b, d, f, h, k, l, and t which all go above into the top box as well as using the green space below that. The lower box is for the tales of letters like f, g, j, p, q, y, and z to reside in. There are also divider lines in between letters for proper spacing when writing cursive. These visual guidelines make it so that the child can auto-correct themselves quickly and accurately. It leaves very little room for error.

My daughter Teela has been working through this book and has made enormous progress. She likes this workbook a lot better than ones we have had her do in the past. Now I have my eye on the Easy Peasy Alphabet Workbook for my daughter, Zari, who is in 1st grade because I believe that this will help her handwriting as well. I recommend the Easy Peasy Cursive to all parents and teachers that would like their children/students to learn cursive, homeschoolers, parents/teachers with special needs students, and occupational therapists.


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BUY IT
Purchase Easy Peasy Cursive from Channie's Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks for $12.95 at the time of this post.

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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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Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Spanish Program, with the Starter Set 1 Review

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Spanish Program Starter Set 1.

My family had the privilege of trying the Spanish Program, with the Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids 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.

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids is a program founded by Kit Strauss. She created Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids because of the lack of quality foreign language programs geared towards children and she wanted something for her three sons. Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids is geared towards ages 3 and up. It teaches how to speak and understand practical words in Spanish for everyday use in a short amount of time. With immersion and visuals this program is great for the whole family combining real life situations with humor and fun.


The Spanish Program Starter Set 1 Includes:

• Spanish DVD, Vol. 1 with videos Levels 1-3 - Flight 101: Basketballs Aren't for Breakfast, Flight 102: The Little Magic House Part 1, and Flight 103: The Little Magic House Part 2. These are stories of kids speaking Spanish in funny realistic situations.
• Three Parent-Teacher Guides (one for each level) - includes video summary, vocabulary list in both Spanish and English, geography, suggested lesson plans with activities to do, extended learning activities, course completion award and picture of Squisher (the international inchworm) to cut out.
• Flashcards and Go Squish Card Game for Levels 1 to 3 - Set of 150 flashcards that have the student match cards with memorable scenes in the videos to words or phrases in Spanish. These flashcards are in three distinct colors (blue, green, and pink to go with orange books) to similarly match the teachers guides and workbooks that this set comes with. The bonus Go Squish! card game is similar to Go Fish, but all in Spanish and the object is to get Squisher flyer miles enough for an airline ticket to get him to his destination.
• Workbooks for Levels 1-3 - These workbooks have activities, culture, Squisher says (which is a comic with the inchworm in it), and an answer key. 
• Stickers Set for Flight 101: Basketballs Aren't for Breakfast - Place these around the house or classroom to reinforce Spanish vocabulary that was taught in the first video.

Teela and Zari watching the Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Spanish DVD.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

All of us enjoyed the DVD. These episodes are an essential and mandatory part of the program. We liked how each episode started as an in-flight-movie on FLK Airlines. It was fun watching the three main characters, which were brothers, go about their daily lives speaking Spanish. There were some funny parts and things that kept it interesting and engaging. My kids loved this way of learning Spanish, not by reading or writing, but through context and clues. To keep it an immersive experience we as teachers and parents are told not to tell the students the word translations or the video summaries. It seemed like the Spanish was sinking in better than previous programs we have tried and the videos made us feel a part of this Spanish speaking household. I thought the "Rapid Review" of each part was very nice at summing up the vocabulary learned and helped my kids remember what was taught and helping me to know if they are ready to move on or repeat the session.

I was instructed to read the first three pages of the first Teacher's Guide which was "How To Get Started". It went over an overview of the program, program goals, about the guide, and who/where to contact if you have questions. These Parent-Teacher Guides are very helpful with giving different lesson plans so you can pick the one that suits your learner the best or pick multiple ones so that your learner can experience more than one. These activities are an extension of the learning from the DVDs. I liked how they had all sorts of learning activities that coordinated with different subjects; for example: geography, grammar, and vocabulary. They also have games, workbook pages, flashcard games, review, etc. in the lesson plans.

I was expecting the flashcards to have the picture and name of the object in Spanish on the front and the English word equivalent on the back or the picture with the English word and the Spanish word on the other side. Instead I found that because of the immersive qualities of this program the flashcards were pictures from the DVDs along with other cards with Spanish words and phrases they matched up to. Each were placed on one side of the card only with the Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids logo on the back. These cards are printed on glossy card-stock so as to preserve the quality longer. The Go Squish! Card Game instructions were a bonus that came with our set and for a limited time it is included in the sets and some of the products.

Teela working in the Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Spanish Program workbook.

Since there is only one set of workbooks that we received with this set I picked my 8 year old daughter to do them. These are best for grades 3 and up, but Teela is a strong reader and just going into 3rd. These helped expand her knowledge of the words and phrases with fun crosswords, word searches, geography information, facts, idioms, comics, etc. Teela loved doing these workbooks.

The stickers we will be placing around our home to help us learn Spanish. These are 9 pages of large print Spanish words and phrases in full color. These will help me reinforce the concepts learned in the DVD. These also help my kids see the actual word in written format.

This Spanish for kids is a wonderful program! We love this for learning homeschool Spanish. We recommend it as a Spanish curriculum for all homeschoolers. We hope to be able to partake of more of the Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Spanish Program soon because we really enjoyed the Starter Set 1.



BUY IT
The Starter Set 1 is regularly $165.00, but it's on sale now through August 31st for just $140.25! That's a savings of 15%! For a limited time the Go Squish! Card Game instructions are included.

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