Review: Spelling City

About a month ago I posted that we, Tru & I, would be reviewing SpellingCity.com.   So what is SpellingCity.com?  Basically it's an online spelling and vocabulary interactive tool for students and teachers, as well as parents and homeschooling families. I was given the opportunity to try out the premium package. Once I was set up  I could just put in Tru's spelling list for that week, then add assignments correlating the weeks spelling list.  I started him with a teaching assignment going over each word and it's spelling, then set him up to do a couple of their games, a practice test and a final test.  We used it with two sets of his spelling word lists last month.  Tru found most of the games fun and I think they were helpful. Every time we used it he enjoyed it and infact he completed his spelling without any complaining...always a plus!

 On the teacher/parent side of things it allows you to set up multiple students each with their own assignments as well as tracking their progress.  SpellingCity.com also offer multiple games with random lists using vocabulary with things like history and places, too.   All in all I was very pleased with everything SpellingCity.com had to offer.  As a homeschooling family I think it would be a great addition to any curriculum plan.  The premium package is 29.99 per year for a up to 5 students, but you can use their basic package for free.  I pulled this list from their site to show what you would have available to you with each package...

As you can see both options would be a helpful tool to any homeschooling family!  If you're interested check them out at SpellingCity.com and see all the great things they have to offer!

**I've been given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review.

VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Sentence Unscramble, Handwriting Practice, WordSearch, and FlashCards. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Synonyms and Figurative Language. Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience.

There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com.

 

Review in the Works...

I had the opportunity to review an online curriculum that Tru had been using a few months ago, you can check it out here, and through that another review opportunity opened up  just this week with VocabularySpellingCity.  Tru gets 30 days to try it out,  we"ll see how it works for us, and then give an honest review.  Just looking over their site I'm excited to have Tru give it a try.  I like finding ways for him to learn and have fun!  So stay tuned!

**I've been given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review.

VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Sentence Unscramble, Handwriting Practice, WordSearch, and FlashCards. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Synonyms and Figurative Language. Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience.

There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com.

Review: Time4Learning Online Curriculum

This past spring Tru and I hit a wall with his school. He was getting bored with the traditional book work curriculum and we were butting heads a bit when it was time sit down and get his work finished. So I did a little research and came across Time4Learning. It looked like it would be a good supplement to what we were already using. I also thought a we both would appreciate a change. So we signed him up and we've been using it about 2 1/2 months now and it has become our main curriculum that we use along with our more traditional workbook lessons.

Basically, Time4Learning offers 4 different subjects Language Arts, Math, Science, and Language Arts Extensions (which is like social studies) all in one online package. Once your signed up, your child can log in to their account, and get started. You can pick which subjects you want your child to work on and even build a lesson plan. We focus on the language arts and the math, but sometimes he will use the other subjects. When it comes to science and history I pull a lot from our local library. Both the language arts and math lessons do a great job of getting the material across to him while keeping it engaging and fun! The math lessons have pages you can print out to go with the lessons, too.

Within the first month his reading had improved and he was much more confident about reading on his own. I think he actually enjoys reading a little more now. Tru is in the first grade level, but Time4Learning gives us the option to go a level below or ahead anytime we want. Also, we can retake any lesson if he needs to. I can log in to my parent account and track his progress. It helps me see where he might need to review a lesson, how long he spent on each lesson, and records everything he's done. I can also set up how long his sessions are and use a variety of parent resources like spelling word lists, science supply lists, and reading lists. You can also put together your lesson plans which I found helpful. When it comes to price I think it's pretty reasonable for our family living on one income. It's 19.95 a month for one child and then 14.95 for each additional child after that. There isn't any kind of contract either, so we can cancel at any time if we need to.

Now when Tru is working on his lessons it doesn't give him the option to pause a lesson. So if he's in the middle of it and needs to use the restroom or gets distracted (it happens) he might miss something and can't go back over it with out retaking the whole lesson. It would be nice to have a way to pause the lessons or come back to one particular place in the lesson. It hasn't posed any major problems, but he's not always as enthusiastic about a lesson the second time around. It is not a Christian based curriculum so you wont find any bible lessons or anything like that. I'm with Tru while he's working on his lessons and we've never had any problems with the curriculum conflicting with our beliefs or anything like that. I think Time4Learning would work well with everyone's approach to schooling their children.

All in all as a homeschooling family we have had a great experience with Time4Learning and will continue to use it as Tru finishes first grade this summer. I hope this has been helpful to anyone who is thinking about using Time4Learning and I would be happy to answer any questions. I enjoy teaching my boys at home and using this curriculum with our first grader has helped make it a little more enjoyable for all of us!


***As a member of Time4Learning, I have been given the opportunity to review their program and share my experiences. While I was compensated, this review was not written or edited by Time4Learning and my opinion is entirely my own. For more information, check out their standards-based curriculum or learn how to write your own curriculum review.

Kid's Craft: Leaf Project

I want to make a confession...I have not been very consistent with art projects in our daily homeschooling life. I'm going to have to start working more artsy things in. Tru and I really liked this project. It was super easy, inexpensive, and lots of fun! We were blessed to receive this book a couple of months ago.

The first few pages in the book have colorful examples of what you can make with a variety of leaves, mostly animals, and the supplies you'll need and the how to's. I liked that it talked about what to look for in the different seasons and it even had a little science lesson and field guide in the back. It did take a little preparation and patience. After we picked our leaves we had to prepare them and wait a week or so for them to dry.

We cleaned our leaves by soaking them in warm water for a few minutes. Then we gently dried them with a paper towel and placed them on newspaper.

Then we put another piece of newspaper on top and placed them in a thick book. We used a dictionary. After about a week they were ready to be used. When we pulled them out they were dry and perfectly flat. Tru thought it was pretty cool.

Once the leaves were dry Tru picked the animal he wanted to make and put it together. All by himself. He was so excited! It turned out pretty good...I know I'm probably partial...but it did. We just used a little construction paper, some glue(not glue sticks), and some cotton swabs to smudge and clean any excess glue. Walla! A fox made out of leaves from our front yard.

You could even use more leaves to make the landscape around the animal. We might do that with the extra leaves we have left. I know for sure that come this Fall we will be doing another leaf project. It would be a great family thing to do collecting leaves together once the leaves have turned different colors. Just thinking about it makes me want to fast forward through summer and skip right into fall!

Schooling at Home--Making it Work

This is our second year homeschooling. Since our move 5 months ago we wanted to be sure Tru connected with other kids who home school too. So we hooked up with a great homeschooling group in our area and what I found was that it wasn't just for Tru. Through different activities and functions I've had the opportunity to get know the other parents. It has been so helpful and encouraging for me. I've got to talk with people who've been home schooling for much longer than us and hearing what has worked for them through the years. I've picked up some new ideas and some fresh perspective on making homeschooling work for our family.

One thing I've struggled with in the past is trying make home schooling like the school I experienced growing up. I was a public school kid. Thankfully, while visiting with another parent at a Valentines Day party, I was reminded of this. Homeschooling is NOT school at home...it's in the car, at the park, in the library, at the grocery store, on the soccer field, at church, and at home. Even at home I've found that our best learning time happens in the living room reading a book or going over a lesson in the play room while the twins are playing. We do spend our focused math time at the table. I'll be honest with you I like the idea of just sitting at the table and plowing through subject after subject, but that hasn't worked for us. Tru is a six year old boy who is very active and he's not meant to sit at our table for hours at time.

Our family is unique. Every family has a differ dynamic to it. I am learning that I can not compare our homeschooling journey to other families journeys. I especially have to be careful not to compare everything with the "typical " school stuff. From what curriculum we use to how and when we school we differ from others, especially "typical" school, and that's okay. When it comes to the way we home school we are definitely more on the eclectic side of schooling. We use one curriculum for math and a couple different ones for phonics. And as for everything else I pull from our local library, the internet, and hand me down stuff that I've received along the way. The beauty of homeschooling is that I'm not forcing Tru to fit school. I can make school fit to Tru. If something isn't working we can find something that does. We can slow down or speed up according to how he's learning. We move at his pace.

Lastly, it's not always easy. We have hard days for sure. Just last week Tru and I were butting heads. We usually have reading lessons to start our school time off, but lately it's been like pulling teeth to get him to sit down for a lesson. So we switched the subjects around and started with his math first, something he enjoys, and it seemed to get him in the whole "work" ready mode. We had a few frustrating days until we switched some things around, but homeschooling gives us the opportunity to find what works for Tru and make it happen.

But what makes the not so easy days more bearable are the good days in between. It encourages me and stirs my passion for teaching our children at home when I see Tru catch onto something that he's been working on. Those are our small rewards and much appreciated blessings!

~"Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6 Amplified Bible)

Raining Change

Well it finally rained! It has been a very long hot dry summer with out any rain. There were a few spits of it here and there, but finally on Friday evening it came pouring down and then again early Saturday morning and carried on till lunch. Saturday was a wonderfully rainy day. It was nice to play with boys and watch it rain from our front door.



With August coming quickly to an end Tru and I are working on him finishing kindergarten and starting 1st grade next month. We used My Father's World kindergarten curriculum and it worked out great for us. I supplemented a little more math than it had, but all in all it was great. I think for first grade we are going to piece together different curriculum. I'm looking forward to this new season and school year. I've put together a schedule for all of us during the week and I'm setting myself some goals for the house. I've had my challenges keeping house and staying ahead of the laundry for as long as I can remember. But bad habits can change and I'm excited for change.
Speaking of change, the twins are doing something new every week! Liam is working on standing up on his own...



and Levi has two more teeth coming through on the top. I know my days are numbered until they are walking. They are already into everything. They are serious movers and when they are going it's not always in the same direction. So I've made their bedroom a "baby free zone" where they can play and move however they want and I can watch them much better that way. Like I said every week brings something different and I'm just learning to adapt quickly. It's good times here in our house!