Showing posts sorted by relevance for query critical thinking. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query critical thinking. Sort by date Show all posts

June 5, 2018

Dive into CSI to Solve the Mystery at Lake Iwannafisha with The Critical Thinking Co.™ {Product Review}

The Critical Thinking Co {product review}
One of my most favorite companies for logic and critical thinking resources is the award winning The Critical Thinking Co.™. We have used several of their products in the past with great success (read my review of Sentence Diagramming or my review of The Basics of Critical Thinking), so when we had the opportunity to pick another book to review, I said yes to Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha, a Whodunit Forensic Mystery!

About The Critical Thinking Co.™ and the Product

The Critical Thinking Co.™ is an award winning company dedicate to providing quality materials throughout all the subjects which encourage critical thinking right from the early stages of learning. They are especially known for their award winning logic and critical thinking products, although they produce many materials for other subjects as well.

November 9, 2015

The Basics of Critical Thinking {Product Review}

Critical thinking is something that society in general needs to work on, and something that is high on my list of priorities in regards to teaching my children. One of the top manufactures of products to help teach critical thinking is The Critical Thinking Co. I am always trying to find ways to get Little Britches to slow down and think more clearly--thus I was very eager to review The Basics of Critical Thinking by The Critical Thinking Co. to see if it was all it was rated to be!
Basics of Critical Thinking ~ Product Review

Product Information

The Critical Thinking Co. is a top-selling product for educators everywhere offering up award-winning products to help students achieve better academic results, with exercises to sharpen the mind! Offering up resources for reading, writing, science, math, and history, the products are easy-to-use, fun, and are guaranteed to produce better grades and higher test scores! The materials are geared for ages Toddler to high school, so there is something for every age!

Here are a few of the products that they offer:
*Fun-Time Phonics!  (Gr. PreK-2)
*Surfing the Net: Science  (Gr. 3-6)
*The Basics of Critical Thinking  (Gr. 4-9)
*U. S. History Detective, Book 1  (Gr. 8-12+)
*Practical Critical Thinking and Teacher Manual (Gr. 9-12+)

We were given The Basics of Critical Thinking to use with Little Britches (age 9).

How Did We Use This Product?

We immediately jumped in with using our book when it arrived. It is a consumable workbook that is broken up into lessons—each roughly 3-5 pages long depending on the practice problems. The set up is definitely open and go—simply read the lesson and look at the sample problems, then work through the practice problems. Though Little Britches was definitely capable of working through this on his own, I really wanted to go through the concepts with him to make sure he understood them. I decided to incorporate it into what I call our non-core morning work.

Before we began each day, I took a minute to look through the lesson myself to see what was being asked, so I could be ready for any questions he might have. It was very straight forward and I never had any problems understanding what was being asked, which made it very easy for me to work through with him.

We chose to work through one lesson/practice problems set per day at about 3 days per week, though the lessons with more practice problems, we spread out over the week.

The topics covered include:
• What Is Critical Thinking?
• Conclusions and Decisions
• Beliefs and Claims
• Finding (Identifying) Evidence
• Evaluating Evidence
• Inferring and Inferences
• Facts and Opinions
• Facts and Probable Truths
• False and Probably False
• Facts, Probably True, and Probably False
• Venn Diagrams
• Logical Connectives
• Advertising
• Agreements and Contracts
• Common Errors in Reasoning
• Arguments
• Valid and Invalid Arguments
• Fallacies
• Analogy Argument

Here are some photos of our work in the book:
Evidence vs. Inference

Figuring out an answer, based on rating the strength of the evidence

Teaching about truth in advertising
Learning about the difference in evidence and STRONG evidence
Teaching about emotional words to show faulty reasoning
As of this post, we are on Lesson #15 Common Errors in Reasoning (pg 90) 

What Are Our Thoughts on This Product?

I love that this is an open and go product, and that it’s a simple workbook with short and very basic lessons that are easy to understand. I found that all the examples used in the lessons were “real life” which made it immediately applicable. I also greatly appreciated having the answer key in the back, where I could verify an answer if I wasn’t sure of it myself. I appreciated that the book broke down some very advanced concepts into bite sized pieces that could be understood by Little Britches.

I was very happy to see that he “got” the concepts being taught, as displayed by a discussion we had while completing other work. In this example, he was working through a story and came to a point where the main character shot a man with his bow and arrow and ran away after hearing the man fall down with a cry after being hit. The main character reveals that he’s killed a man, however, Little Britches analyzed the story more and told me that the main character made an “inference” based on “evidence”. Little Britches then determined that really there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the character's inference as being true at this point. I was thoroughly impressed by the application of the lessons we had studied! 

As a side note, some of these lessons are concepts I struggled with in college Introduction to Logic. I wish my professor had broken down some of our lessons that well! I “re-learned” a few of them with this book, and understood them MUCH better this go around. I actually think that an adult could work through this book on their own and have a very good grasp of basic logic and critical thinking principles.

Little Britches didn’t object to the work—especially if it wasn’t going to involve a lot of writing (a few of them required a sentence or two), and he was very proud of himself when he got his problems correct (which he did 95% of the time).

I think one of my most favorite lessons we did was on advertising. I loved how the child had to analyze the claim of the advertisement, and then decide whether or not there was strong enough evidence to support the conclusion that was given. I think this is extremely valuable and possibly one of the most helpful lessons from the book in regards to future application.

Will we continue to use this product?
Absolutely! I plan on finishing the book, and then checking out what other books the company has to offer as I have been very impressed by this one.

Would I Recommend This Product?

Yes! This book was a great introduction to the basics of critical thinking and logic. The reading level was on par for the grade level (4th+) and believe the whole book was as well. If you want to start your child into simple and basic critical thinking exercises that are immediately applicable to their life, I highly recommend this book! 

Want to Know More?

We have been enjoying the results from using The Basics of Critical Thinking ($22.99) from The Critical Thinking Co. There were a few other products reviewed by our crew, so make sure you check out the rest of the team!
The Critical Thinking Company Review
Want to stay up on all the latest information and deals from The Critical Thinking Co.? Make sure you add them on these social media outlets!
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***
I am so thankful for this product and how it has helped me with getting Little Britches to think more carefully about the decisions he's making, and the information he is given. I look forward to exploring more of the products offered by The Critical Thinking Co. in the very near future!
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November 8, 2016

Sentence Diagramming from The Critical Thinking Co.™ {Product Review}

The Critical Thinking Co.™ continues to produce exceptional resources for the education community in subjects like Language Arts, Math/Science, and Logical Thinking. I’ve been able to review products from the company before, and my experience made me eager to have another chance for their product. I was fortunate to be able to have a chance to review Sentence Diagramming: Beginning with my son over these last few weeks.

About Sentence Diagramming and The Critical Thinking Co.™

Sentence Diagramming: Beginning from The Critical Thinking Co.™ is a 72-page workbook designed to teach students how to diagram sentences in order to be able to see how the structure of English grammar works. The diagramming provides a visual and logical method to learn grammar. Beginning with simple subject-verb sentences, the lessons continue to get more complicated as they diagram with complex sentences and dependent clauses. The book is a consumable workbook with 12 lessons and a review. Each lesson is four-pages long and encourages the student to identify errors in pre-written sentences based on their lessons, to diagram sentences correctly, and to create their own sentences to match their diagramming. Everything geared towards encouraging them to critical thinking in regards to the grammar structure.

Sentence Diagramming: Beginning is geared towards grades 3-12+ and retails for $12.99. The Sentence Diagramming products are available in print or eBook form. There is also a Level 1 and a Level 2 available. 

Our Thoughts About the Product

I was eager to get started on this workbook. I have always found The Critical Thinking Co.™ books to be very well done and to promote logic within whatever subject they were geared towards. Sentence Diagramming is something that I have always enjoyed doing, and my oldest son had done it for awhile back in the 2nd grade. I find that he struggles with matching up parts of a sentence in his grammar lessons, so I hoped going back to diagramming would help him with this issue. 

Initially, he did groan about doing this. But, once we got into it, he remembered that it's actually quite easy--especially with how much he knows about grammar now as a 5th grader. We discovered we could do 1-3 lessons a week depending on how our schedule went. We even took it with us to Florida for our trip, and he knocked out a few lessons there. I think his favorite part of the lesson is the section where he gets to create sentences to match the diagramming lines. I sometimes have to guide him through it, but he's been doing great on them for the most part, and really enjoys creating silly sentences.
Given the lines and they have to create a sentence to match.

The mini-lesson to explain how the diagramming is done for the new grammar portion

Answer keys in the back for the exercises
This actually works really really well for us. I had forgotten how well he does with it. I am strongly considering investing in the Level 1 and Level 2 books--but I am not 100% sure yet. They definitely have helped him visualize how the sentences all work together--and I think that when we are done, his "normal" grammar lessons will become easier for him to do.

This book works for us, because the lessons are short--taking up maybe just 15 minutes tops of our time. They provide great exercises--from finding errors, to diagramming sentences out, to having to apply the knowledge to create your own sentence following the structure provided. This way of making sure they can demonstrate their understanding of their lessons, though this kind of application is ideal!

I really don't have any cons to this product, because everything is self explanatory, even for someone who has never diagrammed a sentence before in their life! I highly recommend it for anyone who has a student struggling a little bit in grammar, or writing. The visual mapping of the sentences provides an additional help for the visual learner too--something you don't always get in grammar studies. 

We will absolutely be finishing this workbook, and like I said, I may decide to snag the next two in the series as well.

Want To Know More?

We have been reviewing the Sentence Diagramming: Beginning workbook from The Critical Thinking Co.™ over the last couple weeks. Several of the other crew members have been reviewing it too, as well as other products from The Critical Thinking Co.™, like software from their Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic Before Kindergarten!™ program (the Fun-Time Phonics!™ Software - 2-PCs Win Download, or the Vowel Sounds Song and Game™ Software - 2-PCs Win Download)! Make sure you go read their reviews as well!
Language Arts {The Critical Thinking Co.™}
You can always stay up with the latest in products and sales by following The Critical Thinking Co.™ on social media via Facebook, Google +, and Pinterest!  

I have reviewed other products by The Critical Thinking Co.™ like their The Basics of Critical Thinking book, and their Alphabet Song Game Software Program--so if you are curious in knowing more about what this company offers, make sure you check these out too!
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May 9, 2019

Critical Thinking Detective™ – Vocabulary Book 2 {Product Review}

We are big fans of The Critical Thinking Co. and the products they offer. I have reviewed several of their products before and always look forward to having more to explore. We recently were given Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 (Grades 5-12+) to review with my boys (ages 8 and 13) and I looked forward to seeing how this product would work for us--especially since expanding our vocabulary is one of the goals I had for this year.

About the Product

The Critical Thinking Co. is an award-winning company for a reason! Their materials continue to be top notch resources for all things--critical thinking! Offering full lines of choices over the traditional subjects and electives, there is something for every grade! A few of the selections include:

July 7, 2016

Evan-Moor Daily Geography and Critical Thinking Activity Books {Product Review}

My first experience with Evan-Moor educational books was back when we were working in first grade with Little Britches. We were told about how awesome their Beginning Geography book was by more than one friend, so we gave it a try and loved it. I then used one of their Daily Word Problems for math books with great success. When Timberdoodle offered me the chance to review the Daily Geography Grade 4 and Critical & Creative 4 books from Evan-Moor, I jumped at the chance to try two other branches of their activity books with our family.
Evan-Moor Daily Geography and Critical & Creative Books~ A Product Review

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links
Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

About the Product

The Daily Geography series picks up where the Beginning Geography ends. Because the Beginning Geography is for grades K/1, the Daily Geography starts with grade 1 and continues through grade 6. Each book is based on the eighteen National Geography Standards and is designed to support any geography and social studies curriculum that you might be using.

There are 36 weekly sections which contain a teacher page, map page, and question pages. 
The teacher page provides everything you need to know to work on the lesson for the week from the background information to introduce the skill, to vocabulary words, to the answer key. The map page illustrates the geography skills that have been introduced for the week and goes with the question pages. There are two geography questions for each day of the week and they increase in difficulty from Monday to Friday. There is also a challenge question at the end of the map which has them put to practice what they learned to the map page. Sometimes outside references are needed to complete it. 

The book also contains glossary pages for your students to use as an easy reference throughout the year. 

Timberdoodle carries Daily Geography grade 2-6 and they retail for $26.99 each. The books are consumable, but they are designed and approved to be reproducible, making them GREAT for using with multiple students at one time. Daily Geography 4 is also part of the Timberdoodle Curriculum Kit for 4th grade

The Critical & Creative books are perfect for helping your students engage in a broad range of thinking skills. There are 46 themes, each with a three page unit. Pages one and two of the unit encourage students to use a variety of thinking skills over the topic. Page three contains different formats like logic puzzles, riddles, and secret codes in which they can use their knew thinking skills. 

There are Critical & Creative books for grades 1-6+ that are grade appropriate in their difficulty and activities. 

Timberdoodle carries Critical & Creative 1 through 6+ and they retail for $19.99 each. As with the Daily Geography, these books are also reproducible. A bonus for using with more than one student.

We were given the 4th grade level in each series to work through with Little Britches.

Our Thoughts


Little Britches definitely enjoyed the Daily Geography book more than the Critical & Creative book, simply because he didn't have to "think" as hard. LOL. He's always loved geography, so he eagerly pulled out his book for his daily lesson which he always quickly completed in 10 minutes or less. He was very independent on it once we had done the initial lesson for the week and needed little assistance. Critical & Creative however, required me to sit near him to help him work through the different activities. Some of them he was able to get right away, and some things he needed me to help him get started. I would say he successfully completed 80% of it independently.
Working out a logic puzzle

Finishing the week's challenge geography question.

I definitely love both of these books. We have morning work every day school day which is just a collection of workbook like materials to get our brain started. These two books fit perfectly into that slot. I am always seeking out critical thinking materials, and really appreciated how the Critical & Creative was put together. I think there was a good balance of low and high brain power activities to be completed. It was definitely grade appropriate and I didn't think it was every too hard. 

Would I Recommend This Product?


I happily recommend both of these products to any one for home or classroom use. They are the perfect supplement to what you are already doing. I think one of my favorite aspects is the ability to reproduce this so that I can use it for multiple students at one time. That makes the price of each book even more reasonable. 
***
I am so glad that Timberdoodle gave me the opportunity to review both of these books! It reminded me again how much I enjoy their books and I plan on continuing to add them into our morning work. I probably will continue to look into especially the Critical & Creative books to help with building critical thinking skills in a quick manner. 
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March 16, 2015

Alphabet Song Game by The Critical Thinking Co. {Product Review}

Baby Britches enjoys using the laptop. I try to steer him towards using it for educational games or activities, but sometimes it's hard to find something he can work on independently, or with just little help. When I heard about the Alphabet Song Game software from The Critical Thinking Co., I hoped that it would be something that would work for him and be something he would enjoy doing.
Alphabet Song Game by The Critical Thinking Co.: Product Review

Product Information

Critical Thinking Company Review
The Critical Thinking Co. is a name well known in the homeschooling world. They have been providing resources to help children of all ages go beyond the basics--to sharpen the mind to be able to dig deeper into the subjects they are learning. They hold an impressive collection of awards for their books and software!

Some of the books and downloadable software they offer include (noting grade levels):

Alphabet Song Game (Toddler - 1st)
Math Analogies Beginning  (K-1)
Math Analogies Level 1 (2-3)
Math Analogies Level 2 (4-5)
Editor in Chief Level 1 (4-5)
Editor in Chief Level 2 (6-8)
Pattern Explorer (5-7)
World History Detective Book 1 (6-12+)

I was picked to review the Alphabet Song Game software with my family. The Alphabet Song Game is teaching tool designed to teach the alphabet in a clever and fun way. With 22 games, it is designed to teach children how to recognize the shape and names of the lowercase and uppercase alphabet. As the games progress, students are challenged to find the correct letters amid reversed, mirrored, and upside down versions of the letters. The game was designed for students to play independently or with a teacher. 

This software is only available for Windows Desktop, though there is an iPad version available. The software was also designed to be a single user product and won't save data for multiple users, though the data can be reset.

The Alphabet Song Game software is regularly $6.99 (for 2 PCs) but right now for a limited time only the download is FREE (as of the publishing of this post on 3/16/2015)! 

How Did We Use This Product?

We received this software via an email and were given a link to download to our computer. I downloaded it to our school computer. It was easy to install and didn't take very long.

The icon is an easily identifiable yellow square with ABC on it. Once I showed it to Baby Britches he knew where it was every time. When you click on the icon, it opens up the game.

Although we didn't discover it right away, there are a few different sections in the game. Each section focuses on a different thing. You can see the sections on the home page menu:
There are 9 games in the uppercase letters, 9 games in the lowercase letters and 4 games in the mixed case letters. Each of the levels of the game is a little bit more difficult.

We just began the game in order. Every game began the same with a singing of the Alphabet Song. The next step is to pick from the letters shown to list the letters in order of the song. This helps practice letter identification and memorization. It is this process that nearly all the games contain but with each level, get a little bit more difficult.

Once your child makes it to Z, the song is sung again and then a score is given. If the child did well (90%+) they have option of click on a green arrow to play a new game. If the child did not do well (less than 90%) the green arrow is not given. Instead, they are encouraged to try it again by clicking the "orange" arrow.

This same process continues at the end of each game. If your child does not get a high enough score to move on, you can "override" the system by clicking the blue Home icon in the upper right corner. This takes you to the main menu (the one I showed you up above) where you can manually click ANY level you want to complete. By doing it this way, your child doesn't have to pass a particular level to move on.

Lowercase letters consisted of the Alphabet Song game where your child was given a handful of lowercase letters to choose between to complete the song. In the first levels there are only 3 or 4 to choose from. As it continues, the quantity of lowercase levels increases AND there are more situation where the flipped letters will be shown. Letters like b and d will be in the same batch to choose from. This is how it works when you get to the uppercase levels. They operate the same way, only showing exclusively uppercase letters. As with the lowercase, the uppercase levels get increasingly difficult by adding more letters to choose from and more of the mirrored image letters. In mixed letters, you are asked to identify either lowercase or upper case letter shapes in alphabetical order, but there are mixed cases, reversed and mirrored letters that have to be sorted through.

Your child earns a "score" by how many times they get it right. If they click the correct letter all 26 times (once for each letter of the alphabet) they get a 100%. If they click letters that are not correct, it lowers the score. The problem with this it that it doesn't say "sorry, try again" or "oops, wrong one!" to guide them. This leads to RANDOM clicking on letters to find the right one, which leads to a failing score on the level.  You only get a "sound" if you click the CORRECT letter.

This frustrated Baby Britches especially since you can't naturally move on to the next game until you pass that level--unless you know about the menu shortcut. So if he kept failing he'd get mad and just quit. There were several days I had to cajole him to do the games.

I would say that we were able to work through this game 3-4 times a week depending on Baby Britches mood or desire to do it. But when he'd play he would usually do 2-3 games at one time.

He has gone through all the games--though not passing all of them. He can still click on any of these that he wants to, even thought they have been completed. The other day, I chose to click "reset user data" because it clears out all the scores and lets him begin again. With this method you can easily set it for another child, or just let your child have another run at everything.

I clicked "helpful information" and it just explains how the games work. It's a good read if you are curious as to what skills will be learned or how the grading process goes.

What Are Our Thoughts on This Product?

Baby Britches: He liked it when he wanted to like it. He enjoyed it at first, but got burnt out on it since it's basically the same thing over and over and over. He likes to play it about once a week now.

My Thoughts: Save me from the ABC song! LOL! Seriously though, I had to give Baby Britches headphones because I could only stand listening to that song so many times. And add to that the fact that he had to sing it himself with almost every letter to know what comes next--ey-yi-yi!

The program is simple enough that he can easily do it on his own. He liked being able to just log in and go. Once we figured out that he didn't have to just keep doing the same level over and over again if he kept getting it wrong, he liked that a lot better too. If it didn't give him a green arrow, he'd click the blue house icon to go back to his menu and pick something else. Sometimes he would do it again, but most of the time he didn't want to.

I wish that it was possible to set up the "passing" percentage myself. I feel like an 90% is rather high for a passing of a level. Especially since you are constantly reviewing and can go back and redo any level at any time. I think it would help in those early runs as the child gets used to how the program works. I also like the idea because as Baby Britches gets better, I could increase the passing percentage based on his skill. So I would desire the ability to determine the passing percentage score.

As I mentioned earlier, I think it would be nice if the software included some kind of sound that lets the child know that they are clicking a wrong letter. Baby Britches would complain "Mommy it's not working!" when he would click and click on a letter that was incorrect. If he knew that a sound meant it was the wrong one, I think he'd have figured it out on his own a lot easier.

We did experience a few glitches where a screen froze, or the program didn't come up properly, but each time we just closed it out and opened it again and it always seemed to work. It wasn't something that happened all the time either. Just randomly.

Would I Recommend This Product?

Hmmm. As a free download yes. For $6.99--hmmm. I guess if you are looking for something to allow your toddler, preschooler or kindergartner some independent learning, yes. I just found that it's a short time use product. I highly doubt we will use it more than just for a few more months as it's just for review. Baby Britches already knows his ABC's. He's just learning more about Alphabetical order. I would put the age for this product at no HIGHER than Kindergarten and ideally for preschool. I think I would prefer to be able to use it on my Kindle. I think it's much more geared to a touch screen with the way that it works.

Will be keep using it? Sure. I will probably work it in at least once a week for good review.

Want to Know More?

We reviewed the Alphabet Song Game software from The Critical Thinking Co. We reviewed just one of the eight different products that our crew was given--so I hope you will go check out what the rest of my team explored!
Critical Thinking Company Review

Are you looking to find out more information about The Critical Thinking Co.? You can follow them on these social media networks:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCriticalThinkingCo
Google +: http://plus.google.com/114500823774999703181
Twitter: http://twitter.com/criticalthinks
Pineterest: http://www.pinterest.com/source/criticalthinking.com/

Crew Disclaimer

*****
We have found a program that can be used independently by my preschooler--and you can try it too, as it is a FREE DOWNLOAD for a limited time. As of 3/17/2015 it is still available, so I hope you will give it a try with your little one...just make sure you give them headphones and are able to leave the room. Or you will be singing the ABC song...all...day...long...LOL!
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March 31, 2019

Upcoming Reviews for April/May 2019: What Are We Working On?

My, oh my! We have definitely gotten into the heart of our product review season! After a slower start, I now have TEN upcoming reviews for April and May 2019! One of the things that I really like, is that the products are all over the board in their type and topic. I've got some history products, book reviews, science curriculum, critical thinking items, and more! Today I'm going to give you a rundown of the 10 Upcoming Reviews we've got in the house for April/May 2019!

UPCOMING REVIEWS FOR APRIL 2019


1. Heroes of History- Ronald Reagan, YWAM Publishing
We are thrilled to have another Heroes of History literature-based unit study back in the house again! Our newest (the fifth one we've done) is going to be a biography of Ronald Reagan. My oldest picked him because of something we're doing in our history curriculum, and he really wanted to learn more about him. This review will go LIVE on April 8, 2019.

November 16, 2015

2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards ~ Who Won?

It is hard to believe that I have finished my final review for the 2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew! All in all, I shared THIRTY-SIX product or curriculum reviews this year as part of the team! It was a great experience and our family found many favorites (and some we didn't like) in the products. As is the annual tradition, the entire review crew of over 100 bloggers and their families, voted in 34 different categories to name what their favorite products were in order to award the winning companies a much coveted Blue Ribbon Award. Who won? Did any of my favorite's win? Here is the complete list for you to check out--and I've made side notes regarding the ones that I voted for!

Let's kick it off with LANGUAGE ARTS! 

Most of the ones I voted for won in each category, which tells you how we all thought the products were! If I used it, I linked you to MY review so you can get more information!

Favorite Reading Curriculum: Reading Kingdom

Favorite Writing Curriculum: Institute for Excellence in Writing
**Yep. No brainer here. This writing curriculum was incredible and we absolutely loved using it and continue to use it in our classroom.

Favorite Vocabulary Program: Dynamic Literacy
**Ding ding ding! Another one that I voted for and one we continue to use!

**See? I told you it was a great program...and most of the crew agreed with me!

**This one was a no brainer for everyone. It is just a fabulous program--and this is the second year in a row it won in this category! One of the few products that I actually bought more of after we finished our review product. You can read my more detailed Fix-It! Grammar review from 2014 too.

Favorite Penmanship Program: CursiveLogic
**This was exciting as this is a very new company--so to win the first year is a great accolade! We enjoyed using it.

Favorite Literature Curriculum: Progeny Press
**While I didn't love love this program, I definitely felt it was very well done. I personally voted for YWAM Publishing in this category, because I felt is was even better than Progeny Press for our family.

What about the favorites for HISTORY, SCIENCE, AND MATH? 

We reviewed quite a bit in these categories...who won?

Favorite History Curriculum: Home School in the Woods
**We didn't use the winning curriculum, but I voted for YWAM Publishing again in this category, as I felt the depth of history it provided was phenomenal!

**Yep--We used this one! It was so hard to vote because both of the Heirloom Audio Productions audiodramas were up for nomination! I personally picked With Lee In Virginia as my choice, but only because I couldn't pick them both--and because Little Britches helped me with that one.

Favorite Science Curriculum: Visual Learning Systems
**Woot! This was the one I voted for because it was MY favorite of all we used this year. We are still using this one in our school year.

Favorite Science Supplement: Ann McCallum Books: Eat Your Science Homework

Favorite Math Curriculum: CTC Math
**We did not use CTC Math this year...but we reviewed it last year and we LOVED IT! It was another product that I actually purchased after our review subscription was over. We are using it as our math core. This is the second year in a row that CTC Math claimed this award for this category!

Favorite Math Supplement: SimplyFun

What about the extras? The products for BIBLE, FINE ARTS, and FOREIGN LANGUAGE?


Favorite Christian Education Curriculum: Grapevine Studies
**Ding ding ding! Here was another one that I voted for and we are continuing to use!

Favorite Christian Education Supplement: Brinkman Adventures

Favorite Foreign Language Curriculum: Middlebury Interactive Language
**We did not use this program this year, but we had experience with it last year

Favorite Fine Arts ProductMaestro Classics
**I voted for ARTistic Pursuits because I just love their art books...but Maestro Classics is a definitely close second!

Favorite Elective Curriculum: Apologia Educational Ministries: Field Trip Journal

Favorite Audio Drama: Brinkman Adventures

Favorite Video: FishFlix.com
**Absolutely! No contest here...they were fantastic! We reviewed Metamorphosis/Flight and Living Waters and loved them all!

The winners of the generic GRADE LEVEL products:


Favorite Preschool Product: La La Logic
**Totally deserving of this! My youngest adores being able to do La La Logic and I love having a critical thinking program for his age level for him to work on!

Favorite Elementary Product: Star Toaster
**While not the one I voted for (I can't remember what I DID vote for. LOL) this was a program that a lot of the crew's children enjoyed!

Favorite Middle School Product: The Critical Thinking Co
**Not a surprise. I love our The Critical Thinking Co. product!

Favorite High School Product: Writing with Sharon Watson

Favorite College or College-Prep Product: Freedom Project Education

Favorite Parent Product: Koru Naturals
**Totally deserving! I reviewed their products twice: A shampoo/conditioner set, and a skin care cream, cleanser and toner set!

**Totally!!! I love love love love this product!

These are the ABSOLUTE BEST OF EVERYTHING winners! 

They were so hard to vote on! I changed my mind several times!

Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: Homeschool Planet
**I picked something else--I think I picked The Critical Thinking Co. because I was just blown away by how great this product was and how it helped us.

Best Online Resource: Super Teacher Worksheets
**I think I picked this one as well. I just know that it was fabulous and I loved it.

Best e-Product: Home School in the Woods
**I think I picked Grapevine Studies for this one. It was one of the main ones that we continued to do in our curriculum of all the e-Products we reviewed.

Just for Fun: USAopoly
**The boys sure loved these games!

Kids' Choice: La La Logic
**I let Little Britches vote for this one...He picked Standard Deviants Accelerate as his personal favorite.

Teens' Choice: YWAM Publishing

All Around Crew Favorite: Institute for Excellence in Writing
**This was the most difficult to vote on. I had to pick from ALL the companies for the whole year!! So I just tried to think which company scored more of my votes than any other, as well as what company had the biggest impact on our curriculum for the year. Institute for Excellence in Writing was my pick hands down. They revolutionized our Language Arts in Spelling, Writing AND Grammar!

***

So there you have it! Have you experienced all the winners in your home yet? Do you see any new companies that you need to check out? It's always fun to explore these lists because they are being voted on by over 100 different families!

Later this week, I'm going to do a post where I share my top 10 most favorite products I reviewed this year as part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew--It will be fun to check them out again!

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June 3, 2018

Upcoming Reviews for June/July 2018: What Are We Working On?

Upcoming Reviews for Summer 2018
The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate linksPlease see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

Happy June! May was our last month of "regular" school for us, so we are officially on SUMMER BREAK, but we are going to still be using review products through the summer a few hours a day! It's time for another check in on what we've got in house for review products over these summer months. Since my last check in, I've added our reviews for Reading Kingdom, books from Kayla Jarmon, Kids Email, and Home School Navigator. Have you checked those out yet? In house we have an elementary art curriculum, some consumable workbooks, a high school art history curriculum, a bible study guide for kids, and some unit studies. Let's see what's coming up!

UPCOMING REVIEWS FOR JUNE 2018


1. Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha (The Critical Thinking Co.)
The Critical Thinking Co. is a best selling publisher for workbooks and products that promote...critical thinking! LOL. We've reviewed some of their excellent material in the past, and we are doing it again. This time we are reviewing a detective style book. My son will work as a police detective to solve this fun and engaging crime mystery. The book and activities teaches basic forensic information and how it is used to solve crimes. Using the lessons and his brain, my son will then have to work through the mystery to determine who committed the crimes. This is a great workbook for us heading into our summer break! My review will be going LIVE the week of June 4th, 2018.

April 28, 2019

Upcoming Reviews for May/June 2019: What Are We Working On?

It's the last Sunday for April (woah!) which means that it is time for me to share what we have got in house for reviews! We've got some books, some history, some vocabulary, and more! We are really enjoying some of these and are looking forward to getting started with a couple we are waiting to arrive. In case you missed them, make sure you check out the April reviews of products from YWAM Publishing, CrossWired Science, Techie Homeschool Mom, Everyday Education, and Stopmotion Explosion.



UPCOMING REVIEWS FOR MAY 2019

1. The Hamelin Stoop Series12 Gates Publishing
I'm adding this one because it is a review that carries into May. The Hamelin Stoop series is a new fantasy series for the middle grade/Young adult age range. Designed to help the middle-grade readers bridge that gap to the young adult books, this series has content at a higher reading level,

September 25, 2019

Art History Comes Alive with HiGASFY! {Curriculum Review}

HiGASFY~ An Art History Video Series {Curriculum Review}I love art. I love history. I don't necessarily love art history. We have found that most art history is either too teacher dependent, or it's rather boring. We've tried a variety of programs and books. Some of the top named curriculums. Yet we've never "loved" it enough to keep doing it. Enter the HiGASFY Art History Video Series and their online art history lessons and curriculum bundles. For the last several weeks, we've been reviewing a 3-month subscription to the HiGASFY Art History Video Series and the boys are eager to share their thoughts on the new (to us) program.

About The Product

HiGASFY is an art history program with a “real” teacher via video lessons, hands-on activities, and much more that is designed to introduce students to the world of art history. The teacher (Mrs. Beth) and her assistant (a drop of paint named Gasfy), help the students explore the world of art through personable and interesting lectures that are shared like stories--hence the name "Have I Got A Story For You!".