Exploring Immersion Spanish with Excelerate SPANISH {Curriculum Review}

For the last several weeks we have been reviewing an immersion online Spanish curriculum from Excelerate SPANISH. The Excelerate SPANISH Streaming program offers Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. We aren't currently including a foreign language in our studies, so we decided to give Spanish 1 a try. Join me today as I share our review of the program designed to be a multi-sensory experience of learning a new language.

About the Program

Excelerate SPANISH offers engaging video lessons using skits, action sequences, hand gestures, and more to teach students of all ages! Designed to create a program that increases

Smartick~ A Math Program They Will Ask to Do {Product Review}

Math is one subject that I NEVER have to cajole my youngest son to do. He will EAGERLY grab his books when it's time for math. Yeah, he's a bit weird. LOL. He loves combining his regular curriculum with online math resources. When we had the chance to review a subscription of Smartick, he was ready and willing to get started! Today I'm going to share how our review of the online math program went--and why we will continue to use it throughout the rest of our subscription period!

About the Product

Smartick is an online math resource that instructs and reinforces mathematic principles, logic, and reasoning through interactive and engaging games and activities. The program is designed to address your child's individual needs--looking beyond their age and grade. The program adapts to your child's learning style and they will improve their skills in just 15 minutes a

Art History Comes Alive with HiGASFY! {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!".

Online Times Alive from City Creek Press {Product Review}

We first explored Online Times Alive by City Creek Press, Inc. back in 2017 when my youngest was just 6. He was only just starting his math adventures, yet picked up on it pretty quickly. Since then, however, he's gotten a little weak at some of his times-tables, especially the sixes. We recently had the chance to review the program for a second time and I wondered if we would be able to help him catch up and become stronger in those numbers.

About the Product

Online Times Alive is a program providing online lessons with animated songs and stories to learn times tables the fun way.

200 Essential Reading Skills for Fifth Grade by Reading Eggs {Product Review}

Last September, we were able to review the 200 Essential Reading Skills for Third Grade from Reading Eggs. My son's skills have boosted significantly over the last year, and when we had the chance to review the workbooks again, we chose to go up to the 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fifth Grade to match the work that he's been doing on the online Reading Eggs program. The program provides short lessons to review and provide mastery of the common skills of reading. Today I'd like to share with you my review and why this program will be a part of our 2019-2020 curriculum for my nine-year-old. You also will be able to snag free 4 weeks of the online program for your family!

About the Product

200 Essential Reading Skills for Fifth Grade is based on the multi-award winning reading program

Simply Music: Online Piano Lessons for All Ages {Product Review}

I have been playing the piano for 35 years. I taught piano for about 10 years. But in that time I haven't had "time" to teach my own children. I have one son who isn't interested at all, so I haven't pushed it. My youngest son, however, is more drawn to learning music. When we had the chance to review Simply Music and their Music & Creativity - Foundation Course, I decided it was the perfect time to get him started.

About the Program

Simply Music was created to offer students of all ages the ability to learn music and to love music without the traditional approach of music reading first. Designed to immediately immerse the

Solar System: Online Unit Study from Techie Homeschool Mom {Curriculum Review}

If you have been a follower of the blog for a while, you know by now that our family does really well with unit studies when it comes to homeschooling certain topics. We love being able to bring together different resources and dive down different rabbit trails as we explore a topic. One of the hardest parts about a unit study, however, is the gathering of materials. They tend to be much more intensive in their preparation--one of the reasons some homeschool parents just can't do them. I recently was introduced to a series of Online Unit Studies from Techie Homeschool Mom. An online unit study where all the "work" is done for me? That still lets us dive deep into topics with a variety of resources? Something that my kids can do independent of me? Could this even really be true? Join me today as I share our experiences with reviewing the Solar System Online Unit Study from Techie Homeschool Mom--is it really the answer to so many issues with unit studies?

About the Product

Techie Homeschool Mom is the brainchild of homeschooling mom Beth who loves cool web tools and online learning resources. One year she decided to start creating fully Internet-based unit studies for her own children and decided to start offering them the homeschool community. Each Online Unit Study is an eLearning course that focuses on a specific topic but integrates various subjects. The course allows students to access websites and videos in order to learn about a topic. Incorporated into this are hands-on and digital projects to apply what they've learned. Unlike other unit studies, there are NO downloads or paper activities. Everything is recorded ONLINE. 

There are several different online unit studies available including:
Ancient Egypt Online Unit Study
Ancient Greece Online Unit Study
Ancient Rome Online Unit Study
Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1)
Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol.2) 
Famous Inventors Online Unit Study
Solar System Online Unit Study

We have been reviewing the Solar System Online Unit Study. This course includes studies on the following areas:

Solar System Overview
The Sun
Planetary Orbits
Gravity
Planets
The Rocky Planets
The Gas Planets
Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors
Project: Solar System Model
As a bonus, along with hands-on projects, students will learn to use Google sheets to record and evaluate scientific data.

We completed this review as a family with both boys working together on the assignments.

Our Thoughts on the Product

First off--I will just go ahead and tell you that this was possibly the EASIEST science course I have ever done. Why? Because I basically didn't have to do anything but pull the course up on my computer. Techie Homeschool Mom did everything else! And--NO BOOKS! Nothing. It truly is a "paper-free" unit study option.

Okay, so now that I have that out of the way, let me share what this program looks like and how we used it. First off, you will need to log in and just start the course. We easily completed all the assignments and videos with a Chrome browser. If you don't have good internet this course WILL have issues as it is 100% internet driven. There aren't any issues with navigation--simply login and get started!

These courses are designed for students who can read and navigate around the internet--so I would put this at starting with 2nd grade and up--unless this is being used by a family. We used it with a 3rd and 7th grader and it was perfect for each of them.

After each lesson is completed, the student simply clicks "complete and continue" and the next lesson or assignment opens up. If there are website images or hyperlinks, you just click them and they open up in new tabs (LOVE THIS!). If you see a video, you click it to get it started. If you get lost somewhere along the way or don't remember where you left off, simply go to the left side of the screen and look at your course menu. The lessons that are completed have check marks--so just click the next one in line.

Our unit study began with basic chitchat about scientific theory as well as introducing some of the free reading book club ideas to go with the topics. With the book club, there is a commenting box where the students can talk to each other about the books they are reading.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get any of them, so we just went to the library and found some other solar system themed books to work through.

Reading about the Solar System

Reading about the Hubble Telescope

There are eight modules and a final project in this unit study. Each module could easily be completed in a week as there are three to four lessons in a module--typically 2 lessons, a project, and a book club discussion. It would totally be possible to do multiple modules in a week if your students wanted to move quickly. But I think a week per module works best. At this point, we are finishing up our 6th module working through one per week.

Sample Page View of a Lesson

The lessons are mixed media collection of internet materials. Some are videos, some are slideshows, some are readings, some are diagrams/images. Most of the lessons have quizzes to check the comprehension--they are all multiple choice/true or false. Every module also has a project--this is where the experiments, data collection, or art projects happen.

Let me take a minute to talk about the data collection projects.

Entering Sunspot Data

Sunspot Data to Record--we chose to print it off

Graphing the data we collected in order to answer questions

These projects were amazing because they TEACH my sons how to insert data into excel like spreadsheets using the ONLINE resource Google Sheets. Not only do they learn how to enter the data, but they learn how to tweak their chart AND how to turn the data into a graph.

Side note: I had NO IDEA that Google Sheets was so amazing, nor had I ever used it before! I am well versed with excel, but having an ONLINE option for this was a serious bonus for me as a teacher! I even was able to upload the Google Sheets app to my phone!

My boys took turns recording the data--it worked well having one read the information off and the other to record it. We recorded the number of sunspots from 1960-2014, compared the data of average hi/low temps for our city in Kentucky with my sister-in-law in Arizona, recorded information from our Gallileo experiment, and recorded planet data to compare different aspects. 

Our art project kicked off the course and we all enjoyed using chalk pastels to create a solar system.

The Inspiration for the Art Projects

My Oldest's Rendition

My Version

My Youngest's Solar System

We enjoyed adding planet identification apps to my iPhone so we could observe the night skies more clearly.

And I look forward to the final project that we will be completing in 2 weeks--making a solar system model. The course offers different suggestions on how this can be completed and encourages the students to share their creations on social media.

Okay--so what about the boys? What did they think?

They loved it. They enjoyed varied videos and information. One of their most favorite activities was the Mars exploration activity where they got to completed a "realistic walk-through of a 3-D model of a Mars base for the first humans to land on Mars. Over 100 images representing a Mars habitat, a greenhouse, a Mars car, and robot rovers." I think they spent about 30 minutes looking at every single thing in that walk-through activity!

I think the boys will be really sad to finish this unit study. It's been so nice to let them have their independence working through the program. They worked together to answer all the quizzes helping one another remember the answers. 

This takes them to a video for them to watch--and then a comprehension quiz

One of the boys enjoyed the data collection activities more than the other--my youngest. He's my math guy, so those activities of entering numbers and making graphs were right up his alley. 

It seems like this unit study is about an 8 week study. Unfortunately, there isn't an entire year's worth of science unit studies available from this company yet. The online studies available cover a range of topics from science to history to holidays to fine arts. I think these would be excellent for someone who is getting started with homeschooling and just needs something to take some burden off the planning. They would also be useful for a family on the go--like an RV homeschooling family--who needs the option of schooling WITHOUT papers. And of course, for the unit study family who wants everything already laid out for them! 

I think the biggest selling points of this product are:

1. Completely online--no extra resources or paper needed

2. Complete planned out for you--just turn the kids loose

3. Kid-Friendly and engaging!

These three things set this product apart from all the other unit studies I have explored for my family. I would absolutely use this product again!

Want to Know More?

We have spent the last several weeks reviewing the Solar System Online Unit Study from Techie Homeschool Mom. I encourage you to visit other crew members on this review to see what unit studies they completed to get an idea of the range of options this product provides.

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*****

IXL Learning~ An Online Resource for Practicing K-12 Skills {Product Review}

We first used IXL Learning several years ago. When we had the chance to review the annual membership to IXL again, I was curious to see how the program had changed and if we would like it. Both the boys enjoy online learning opportunities, so I hoped that this would be something we could incorporate into our routine. 

About the Product

IXL Learning is a comprehensive online resource for grades K-12 to use as a supplemental program to check on skills in Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Spanish. While not a complete curriculum, it can be used as a practice or review resource to see how your children are doing in different areas within these subjects at their grade level.

An Introduction to Latin Vocabulary with Picta Dicta Natural World from Roman Roads Media {Product Review}

We recently had the chance to review the Picta Dicta Natural World, a beginning Latin program from Roman Roads Media. The program is designed to be an introduction to Latin that is interactive. It is ideal for elementary-age students. We have had some experience with different Latin programs in the past and I was curious to see how this one compared, and to give my youngest son a chance to try his hand at foreign language for the first time.

About the Product

Picta Dicta Natural World is one of the Latin instruction products from Roman Roads Media. Designed to be an interactive introduction to Latin, it is ideal for elementary-age students. It focuses on vocabulary specific to the natural world. The students will learn the Latin (and

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!

A+ Interactive Math: A Program that Identifies and Closes Learning Gaps in Math {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!
Math is one of the only subjects where I wouldn't mind if the boys had assessments every year for homeschool. Why? Because it would be nice to know how each year how they are doing in their respective grade level work based on a third party review. When I first learned about A+ Interactive Math (by A+ TutorSoft Inc.) and their Adaptive Math Curriculum Online and Individualized Lesson Plan program, I was very interested and eagerly asked to review this product. I used it with my oldest son at the time at the end of his third grade year--and it was very revealing to how he was doing in math based on a standard third grade math assessment. Now here we are again with a chance to review the same product--THIS time I am using it with my younger math loving child. We've been using three different math curriculum because he just loves math--but I'm always afraid that he's got a hole somewhere that I don't know about. Thus, having HIM work through the 2nd grade math assessment was just what I needed as we wrap up our 2017-2018 year! Would the test find any holes? This is what I hoped our review of this product would find--and I was curious to see if any of my cons from the previous review had been addressed.

Drive Thru History Adventures in Bible History {CurriculumReview}

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!
History. We love it. Video history. We love it. When we had the chance to review Drive Thru History Adventures--an online video history course--I hoped that it would be right up our alley and something the whole family would enjoy. We decided to explore their Bible History curriculum and learn more about the Gospels!

About Drive Thru History Adventures

Drive Thru History Adventures is an online homeschool video course designed to make history more relevant and fun through on location filming but also is Christ centered and fact filled.

Strengthen Reading Skills with Reading Eggs {Product Review}

If you have a child and have ever mentioned that your child struggles in reading, or that you would love a website to help boost reading skills, I'm sure that someone has mentioned Reading Eggs to you! This online learning resource is ranked high in the list of "must-have" reading programs--I had done the free trial when my youngest son was 6, but was curious to explore it more thoroughly. Over the past few weeks I have been able to review the full Reading Eggs website to see all the things they offer!

About Reading Eggs

Reading Eggs is an online reading resource designed to boost your child's skills in reading and reading comprehension. With the online reading games and activities, reading will be a FUN

Let's Go Geography: A World Geography Course for Elementary Grades {Curriculum Review}

I have always enjoyed studying geography and it is one of the classes I really enjoy teaching in our homeschool. There are many different programs out there for teaching geography, but most focus on just generic things relating to continents, oceans, rivers, and reading maps without a deeper look into the countries and cultures within the continents. This is especially true for the early elementary grades. We recently had the opportunity to review a world geography course with online and offline components called Let's Go Geography. Would this course teach geography more in the style I desire? Join me today as I share our review of this elementary geography course to find out more of what Let's Go Geography is all about!

About Let's Go Geography

Let's Go Geography is a program designed to teach geography to the younger ages by exploring the world continent by continent, country by country. Using videos and hands on activities to teach a lesson over books as the primary resource makes the program more appealing to the young learners and ideal for the age K-4th grade the program is geared for. There are nearly 30 countries taught withing a 36 week school year in weekly lessons. Each lesson is about an hour per week--perfect for the bite sized learning activities elementary kids enjoy the most.