Home School Navigator: Reading and Language Arts Program {a review}

I am always on the lookout for a good language arts program. We are huge into having literature based studies in our schooling, and English is an area where I really am picky. I want quality children's literature mixed with excellent reading comprehension activities. Some programs don't include adequate grammar or writing which can be frustrating. When I had the chance to review the one year subscription of the Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum from Home School Navigator I was excited to also learn about their interactive notebooks. Would this be a language arts program that could work for my soon-to-be third grader?

About the Product

Home School Navigator was created by two former public school teachers with masters degrees in education with

Wordless Wednesday ~ Fluffy

Another Wordless Wednesday...

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Adventures in Crochet~ Pattern Testing, WIP, and FibreShare (Take 2)

It's more than time for another crochet update. I actually sort of stopped crocheting for a bit when the weather got warmer and we started kicking our gardening in gear. But I'm back at it as I try to finish a WIP (work-in-progress) and am working on testing a pattern for someone. Oh, and did I mention I'm giving another round of the FibreShare a go? I hope you enjoy this little bit of catching up with my Adventures in Crochet!
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!

Kids Email~ Ad Free, Spam Free, and Totally Safe for Kids {a Review}

A couple years ago, my boys were able to have their own email with Kids Email. They thoroughly enjoyed their year subscription, but we opted to not continue it at the time. My oldest (now age 12) has asked me quite often in the recent months if he could have his own email to send messages to his friends. Because of my personal experiences with so many email providers, I did not want to sign him up with any that I have used myself. Needless to say, when I learned that we had a chance to review the annual subscription for Kids Email Safe Email for Kids again, I knew the boys would be thrilled. I was curious to see if anything had changed.

About Kids Email

Kids Email is a safe and powerful email resource for your children.

Exploring Hard Topics with Sweet Books by Kayla Jarmon {Product Review}

As parents there are times we going to have to deal with tough topics--like the idea of where babies come from, and what happens after death. It can be hard to find the right words to talk about these topics when our children are young. There are lot of "how to" books for us as parents to read, but there really aren't a lot of options out there for us to read as a more casual discussion. Especially in the form of picture books or books to read aloud as a family. Needless to say I was interested to review three books by Kayla Jarmon, including two which are from her Discussion Book Series--tackling hard topics in a read aloud form.

About the Books

Kayla Jarmon is Christian mother, wife, and homeschooler. She loves storytelling, which has blossomed into her authoring a increasing collection of books for families! Her collection is starting with three lovely books:

Taking Time for Wordless Wednesday

I haven't done one in a long time...but I figured today was a good day to join Wordless Wednesday! 

Reading Kingdom: Online Reading Program Teaching Phonics-PLUS! {Product Review}

I have discovered that using online reading programs have helped boost my younger son's reading skills. We've used several different programs before, and have been using one we LOVE for almost a year now. When we were given the opportunity to review another reading program--one which is supposed to be more unique and better in its reading and writing instruction, I was eager to try Reading Kingdom and see what it was like. Would we like it even more than the beloved one we use now?

About Reading Kingdom

Reading Kingdom is an online K-3 grade reading program which uses the new Phonics-PLUS system, making it different from any other reading program out there! The art of reading consists of six skills: sequencing, writing, sounds, meaning, and comprehension. Teaching phonics in reading teaches just ONE of these skills. Most programs teach via phonics, but Reading Kingdom teaches with all six skills!

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

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Happy May! May is our last month of "regular" school for us, so we only have a few weeks left of our core curriculum, but we are going to still be using review products through the month and summer! It's time for another check in on what we've got in house for review products. Since my last check in, I've added our reviews for Music Appreciation 1, Princess Cut (a movie), Exploring Human Anatomy/Physiology, A+ Interactive Math, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life Unit Study, Media Enhanced Books from Weigl Publishers, and Online Computer Programming Class from CodeWizardsHQ--did you check them out yet? In house, we have art curriculum, books, workbooks, unit studies, and more! Let's see what's coming up!

UPCOMING REVIEWS FOR MAY 2018

1. Reading Kingdom
Are you looking for a comprehensive online reading program? One that assesses your child's skills and places them in the right level for reading, typing, spelling, and writing? Then keep your eyes out for my upcoming review of Reading Kingdom. This program teaches kids 4-10 how to read and write with comprehension at a

Learn How to Code with LIVE Online Classes from CodeWizardsHQ {Curriculum Review}

It would be safe for me to say that we are NOT a technologically focused family. Other than using social media and a smart phone, we just aren't into the usual things like video or computer games. My boys are clueless when their friends at summer camp talk Minecraft or the like. We don't even OWN a video game console of any type. My husband can't code to save his life. I only code for my blogging and that's with LOTS of help. Needless to say we have little to no interest in computer programming--BUT, we recently had a chance to take a class in beginning code from one of the computer programming courses from CodeWizardsHQ (they also offer classes specifically for homeschoolers as well). How would my son--a hard core farming, non-video game playing, no need for computer programming kid--do with this out-of-his-box course?

Bear with me...I'm a bit behind!

As you probably have guessed I'm a bit behind in my blogging! I still owe two more posts for last week's blog hop to share! I am definitely going to be working on those and sharing them soon. This week however, I have THREE reviews that I have to get up over the next 3 days. So once I get those done, I will promise to catch up and finish my blog hop series AND finally conclude my Nature Series!
All I can say is that it's the end of the year...we will be done at the end of this month. So things are beginning to get super busy with the weather nicer too. BUT. I WILL be blogging this week. I will be posting A LOT this week. So stay tuned!

Exploring Media Enhanced books with Weigl Publishers {Product Review}

We are a house that loves reading and books are big part of our lives--not only during school, but outside of school time too. While printed materials are our favorite, every now and then we like to explore digital copies of books. For the last few weeks, we've been reviewing three media enhanced books, Glaciers, A Lion's World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant from Weigl Publishers.

About Weigl Publishers

Weigl Publishers carries a line of over 400 titles of media enhanced books, books that have media content associated with it to help make the book come alive for your children. With books covering the topics of science, social studies, language arts, visual arts, and sports, they are the perfect resource for any of your studies!

There are several different lines within the AV2 family from Weigl:

Exploring a Storybook Life with Laura Ingalls Wilder and YWAM Publishing {Curriculum Review}

We have settled into the fact that our family is a literature based learning school style. We love to read read read! History is one of the areas where literature based products are the most useful to get away from boring textbooks. YWAM Publishing has a GREAT line of historical biographies on men and women throughout history who have contributed to the Christian cause, or were key parts of world history in general. We previously have worked through Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Orville Wright (you can read the previous reviews of YWAM Publishing on my blog), but this time, we picked the Heroes of History- Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life to review! My son was curious to see whether or not all those Little House on the Prairie stories were really true or not...

About YWAM Publishing

YWAM Publishing is a company determined to produce quality biographies and unit studies on men and women who are considered heroes—either to the Christian Faith, or to history itself. With that in mind, they have created two series Christian Heroes: Then and Now and Heroes of History offering an extensive collection of biographies of men and women throughout the ages, who need to be recognized for their accomplishments.

Here is a sampling of the titles included in each series: