TOS

MaxScholar, a crew review

July 8, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

MaxScholar, using the MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software, is a complete reading program, helping YOUR students read and write better. A reading intervention, that also includes phonics, reading comprehension, and spelling words. This multi-media, online program provides encouragement to your student in the way of games and other interactive elements. Come see what I am talking about won’t you?

What I am Reviewing

MaxScholar is a reading and phonics program that will help students learn how words are put together, letter sounds, and how to read a story or essay. They use a systemic approach starting with Kindergarten level and working their way up.

When you start the program you need to take a test to help place you at the appropriate level. I had my son take the test to see where a typical ninth-grade student would place, and that was level seven. My review will be based upon what he would see.

Teacher Dashboard

Parent/Teacher and Student each have their own login and password. The teacher dashboard looks like this. From it you can look at your class/students, see their reports, check out the scope and sequence and much more.

In the teacher dashboard everything is readily at your fingertips.

You can monitor student progress. Also you can pull up class reports, reading reports or phonics reports. You can also look specifically at a particular student.

It takes a bit of time to set multiple students, but it’s not onerous. If you change something and don’t like it, you can go back and change it again.

Read through the scope and sequence for each section. This way you can see what is coming next and be able to help your student where needed.

Make backend changes to the student’s workload, like removing the need to highlight text, getting rid of all kindergarten material (like practicing letters), and remove access to games if needful. This is where you fine-tune the program to meet the individual needs of your students.

Student Dashboard

Students have a dashboard of their own. They can choose where they want to start. If they start with three main areas, they will find it helps with the games they can play.

With MaxWords: helping you build words from roots, prefixes, suffixes, and spelling rules. Delve into the Latin and Greek roots.

Then MaxPhonics: four sections helping you understand the sounds of the English language. PreK, Alphabet, Blends and Digraphs.

Along with MaxReading: Choose from four chapters, that open into different books. Practice your reading comprehension.

There are three main areas to focus on. MaxPhonics, MaxReading and MaxWords. Each area allows to you choose what you want to do. You might want to in MaxPhonics work on blends, in MaxReading take up inventions or reading about places, and MaxWords lets you learn a list of new words, choosing the category you want to learn from. The sheer variety of options means that a child isn’t forced to read something that they aren’t at all interested in.

From there you can branch off to MaxMusic, MaxBios, MaxPlaces and MaxVocab. Each of these areas assesses different parts of learning to read. For instance you will be understanding verbs in MaxMusic, comprehension with MaxBios and MaxPlaces, and focusing in on words with MaxVocab.

Each new section you enter presents you with a tutorial explaining what you need to do. Read a passage, highlight words, drag definitions etc.

Take your time, responsive grading

One of the things I love is that you can take your time. I found no timers or countdown clocks for any marked work. The only timer I found was for the challenges where you are encouraged to read through a list of words. I never found meeting the timeline difficult, but for students who might read slowly, or who lack confidence, this might prove to be more of a challenge then they want. Those students can also choose to have the word list read for them.

You will find that each area covers somewhat different things. For instance MaxMusic let’s you read the lyrics of various songs, and then focuses on finding the verbs hidden within. Later on, it will see what nouns, adjectives and adverbs you remember.

Everything that is graded gives you immediate feedback.

Refinement through Change

I noticed a change to the system with one game. Hangman changed! They reinvented it maintaining the name but better focusing on enabling students to learn new vocabulary. The change made playing hangman a great deal less frustrating to play while maintaining it’s intent – testing new vocabulary! I rather like seeing how programs refine themselves.

Recommendation

A MaxGuru Pack subscription gives one child twelve months of access and includes all the different Max programs for $279/year. They even have a free trial program for 15 days. Try it out!

MaxScholar has been specifically created to help students with a variety of learning disabilities. MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software addresses various issues by teaching the grapheme/phoneme connection through visual, audio and kinesthetic step-by-step instruction. The creators very much want your students to succeed with their early intervention program. Their programs are systematic, explicit and multi-sensory. They have the best of various research-based methods to help your students learn.

Fully accessible on any computer or tablet. If you use it on your phone you’ll find yourself scrolling around the screen a bit, but it is still fully usable.

As I played around with the various programs I found that overall they worked well. I occasionally ran into glitches (the drag and drop word definitions) but overall everything worked well. The responsive feedback and the ability to see where you went wrong was fantastic.

If you are looking for an online program, that will support your student through kindergarten up through highschool, you’ll find MaxScholar a helpful, highly researched and well-executed program

Links and Invitation

Social Media Links for MaxScholar are:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxScholarLLC/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxScholarLLC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxscholarsoftware/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MaxScholarLLC/pins/

60 People from the Homeschool Review Crew took the time to check out MaxScholar on your behalf. I invite you to check out their reviews.

MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software {MaxScholar Reviews}

Review: Beyond the Stick Figure Art School

May 13, 2020 By Annette1 4 Comments

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

For the past few weeks I have been reviewing Beyond the Stick Figure Art School. I have been working my way through Sally’s Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses. As I told my bosses at the Homeschool Review Crew… if she can teach ME to draw, she’ll have done good! Let me say this… I just might surprise you! Come along as I walk you through this review.

Beyond the Stick Figure Art School Review

What I am Reviewing

Beyond the Stick Figure will provide you with 55 drawing lessons, 15 pen and ink lessons, 52 lessons in watercolour and 24 lessons in Acrylic. On top of all these lessons you will receive 30 lessons in 3D Design.

This course is for the entire family from 5-95!

Each lesson includes video, often at least one worksheet and lots of practice time.

Included is a list of materials to help you make purchasing decisions. For some of the classes having top quality materials will help your work come out better. For other classes, just use what you have a hand and make accommodations for your expectations.

About the Designer

Sally, the designer for this course, is a homeschooling parent! She received a degree in art from the Loughborough College of Art and Design in England. You can hear her English accent in the videos. 🙂

The Details for Beyond the Stick Figure Art School

There are four parts to the Beyond the Stick Figure Art School. The main part is the drawing course. Then the three bonus courses.

The drawing course has three parts to it. Part one (17 lessons) Part two (33 Lessons) and Part three (5 lessons). The set up is the same for each lesson. A video (sometimes two) along with a worksheet to print off.

Then there are the three bonus courses.

The Pen & Ink along with the Watercolour Course. Pen & Ink has two parts with 15 topics total. The Watercolour course has part 1 (10 lessons), part 2 (19 lessons) and part 3 (23 lessons).

The Acrylic course follows with 24 Lessons divided over three days. The 3D course gives us 30 Lessons divided over three days.

The three days can be a bit of a misnomer since some of the lessons are quite quick, other lessons require practice time, and yet other lessons need time for the previous lesson to dry. Completing multiple lessons in one day is quite possible.

Step by incremental step, Sally walks you through the world of art. Each lesson contains at least one video where Sally explains each step and often includes hints. These hints are there to help you develop better habits as an artist. Sally works hard to ensure the success of her students.

The worksheets open as printable PDF’s. Same window unless you ask it to open in a new window. Everyone that I opened was one page in length, and they did not each need to be printed off.

One of the aspect of the Art School that it took a while for me to adjust to was the need to mark each lesson, and then each day as complete. If you failed to do so you would get this warning reminding you to do so.

I loved that as I watched each lesson I could see clearly where I was in each days work. It gave me a goal to work toward.

How Did I use it?

The drawing course wasn’t quite what I expected. I expect lessons where I would learn shading, perspective, and a variety of other aspects of drawing. What I received were numerous lessons in how to draw specific lines, and then how to colour them in. I understand it was a very incremental process that as an adult reviewer I found myself chafing at. I do like that even I managed to create art! 🙂

Water Colour

I looked at the Pen & Ink course and thought “OH COOL”, but then decided that I’d rather move on to the Watercolour portion. I’ve done a bit of watercolour in the past but have never really received lessons. I really liked that I learned new skills, how to make grasses, and use the side of a paintbrush, and more skills. Rather neat! I look forward to completing the rest of the lessons.

Acrylics

My favourite part of the course? ACRYLICS. I was shocked! Seriously. I admittedly didn’t have the materials that would have served me best. Living in Canada, and dealing with Covid-19 restrictions and the um… rather LARGE prices for items on Amazon had me making do with the products that I had in the house. Afterall.. what if I hated acrylics.. what a waste of dollars that would have been. But I LIKE IT! I plan to do more. Just look at what I created!

I do need to explain the bottom painting. It was supposed to be a cloud painting and that was it. I felt so… UNFINISHED when I was done so I went on to complete the lesson with the one above. Then I thought, I wonder if I can do with acrylics what you do with watercolour and tried to make grass. My goal was to create a swampy region with trees in the background. Was it stellar piece of work? No. Hubby and son like the top one the best, but I was delighted that I decided to be creative and take a lesson from one part of the course and apply it to another.

lesson hint — Lesson hint for finding the horizon

3 D Design

The 3D Design Course was more difficult than I thought it would be. ADMITTEDLY I made an oops. I honestly thought I had the right kind of clay on hand, and didn’t. Therefore I needed to make do with the air dry clay I had on hand. The lad mentioned, “OH, I used it up mom!” “Gah!”

Ah well, it was still fun to make what I call a foxling. A mammal that lays eggs and guards them. 🙂 He’s not quite done in the image below.

Should you get it?

I loved parts of this course, and other parts I chafed at, but at all stages I learned something. In the drawing course I learned the importance of using guidelines to help me achieve the curve I wanted in a line, in watercolour to practice new skills. Acrylics was simply fun, playing with paint, building on skills learned in watercolour. 3D design was simply a nice break to test out working with clay again. I’ve worked with clay a lot with my lad and have built a number of items. Creating my egg-laying foxling was great, bringing an imaginative creature to life was a hoot. Now to write the story to go with him. 🙂

Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses is an interesting set of courses. Worth taking the time to look at, give it a look-see, you may find that it suits the artistic needs of your family.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondthestickfigure/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britladyinamerica/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/beyondthestickfigureart/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCROy5BkqT_cZvQu1dTPRYzw

I urge you to check out the 80 reviewers for the Beyond the Stick Figure. Delve into the world of artistic expression and see how you too might surprise yourself with your ability to be an artist.

Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course {Beyond the Stick Figure Art School}

Boredom Busters for Teens

May 11, 2020 By Annette1 6 Comments

So, we have a lad living with us who normally doesn’t. He’s a lad who very much NEEDS to be kept busy so his mama has been looking for ways to meet that need. Some boredom busters she’s come up with for teens are in today’s post.

Continuing Education

My son continues with his homeschooling, and her lad is in need of finishing his high school diploma… so learning will be at hand for two lads in this quiet household.

I told mama about SchoolhouseTeachers.com so hopefully she’ll use my subscription to help her lad as it’s a cost-effective way for her to do so.

This message from The Old Schoolhouse: We are again teaming up with over a dozen homeschooling and family-friendly companies to provide NEW SchoolhouseTeachers.com members with 19 gifts (available while supplies last) when they purchase the Ultimate (PreK–12) Annual Membership this May with code: 19GIFTS to lock in the annual price of only $139 (reg. $224.97). (This is a non-refundable rate and available in the US only.)

Seems a pretty good deal eh?

Helping the Missus

One of the things she has added to the list is “helping the missus”… that being me. A lot of people have a hard time pronouncing my last name and her son is one of them. To him, I’m the missus. And he’s been relegated as a personal servant. If I have a project to do, guess who gets to help me? 🙂

It’s rather odd actually. I’m used to telling my son “I need you for this task, should take x amount of time”. My son happily helps me complete whatever task, but I’m reluctant to pull him away from his studies. This young man though… he does exactly what I ask without asking questions about how long, and offers opinions on how to do the job better, or differently etc. I think it’s a difference in age and boredom levels. 🙂

Our most recent project was making an isolation cage for a new to me rabbit. It’s very nice to have an extra pair of hands when I need them.

Games

What young person doesn’t like playing games, whether on-line or a table game. My son loves playing a variety of card games and board games. It’s a great way to kill 15 minutes to an hour, provides time for laughter and connection, and sometimes you can even squeeze in some learning.

Mr. J loves to play on-line games or on his phone, but like me, his mom wants him off once in a while. Having a whole shelf of board games is a boon to us all.

Animal Companions

Sometimes, just sometimes, having an animal around is the best way to break the boredom. Gregory (pictured below) is the newest rabbit addition to my rabbitry. He’s used to getting attention from people so I’ve told our new young man (Mr. J) to spend all the time he wants with Gregory.

Today it was funny. Gregory came in the house and managed to scare himself badly as he was exploring. He dashed into the safety of Mr. J’s lap. The biggest smile burst forth! So cool to see! Then he promptly peed….the smile disappeared and emergency scooping, laundry etc happened. It was SO good to share a good laugh, oh my, I chuckle just remembering.

Household Chores

Did you know that a certain young man has never swept a floor or loaded a dishwasher? That same young man also happens be an excellent cook, and likes taking the time to craft a well-made meal. So he’s learning new skills which takes a fair bit of time to do for a highly distractable young man. It’s rather fun to watch.

The benefit is that with each new skill learned, comes confidence. His long-term goal…to have his own apartment, and a job he can hold down. Baggage or no baggage, long-term goals will slowly be met!

Side-benefit: As Mr. J learns new skills, my son occasionally steps in to help. Giving the opportunity for both lads to learn. Learning to work side-by-side and to share the tasks at hand.

picture of broom, text learning new skills

Physical Exercise

Get outside for a walk morning and afternoon… get out get out get out. Enjoy the sunshine, pump muscles, walk, run, jump.. I don’t care. Just get out and get your body moving. It’s good for your body and your mind to get busy. Even for just 15 minutes, getting exercise changes what your body is doing. It helps medications to do their job, reduces headaches from eye strain, and guarantees a better nights sleep.

I do hope you will join in on our linky. The homeschool review crew has put together a social media challenge. This week the topic is Boredom Busters. What boredom busters for teens, children or even yourself do you have to share?

Review: The Unbreakable Faith Course

February 26, 2020 By Annette1 5 Comments

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

Conversation, it’s one of the things I love best as my lad grows older. Conversations about God, life, purpose, people and whatever else he (or I) am learning about. It is absolutely fantastic. Recently we’ve been reviewing an apologetics program called The Unbreakable Faith Course. It’s been put out by Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC… and it is causing lots of conversation in our household and I love that. I can’t wait to tell you all about in this review for the Homeschool Review Crew.

What I am Reviewing

Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC is the designer of the The Unbreakable Faith Course. With this course you’ll receive online information as well as two books. These books are called God the Reason and The Box. I received these books as PDF’s but there is an option to get the physical books as well. This is a credited Christian apologetics course. Their goal is to help teens, young adults and families take on a biblical worldview so we can show and talk about God’s infinite excellence to those around us.

How we used it

Our goal was to do The Unbreakable Faith Course with the whole family. My son wanted dad to be involved. My husband works long hours into the early morning hours, which made working out the logistics a bit of a challenge. 🙂 What we ended up planning was two-three days a week we would read “The Box” together, and watch one video. We ended up missing watching videos since life sometimes get complicated with later than normal shifts and a need for sleep! 🙂

The first thing I did was connect with Staples and get them to print off the PDF’s. These are fairly large books and I didn’t want to print them all off at home. My son and I read hard-copies of books easier than using e-readers.

How far did we get? We’ve watched three videos, and I’ve read the first two chapters of “God the Reason”, and have finished “The Box”. My son has been steadily reading one chapter a week. The Box is mostly finished, and he’s about to start on God the Reason.

The Box

The Box, written by Craig Biehl, is covered in the first lesson. 17 chapters, much of which is a conversation between Mr. A and Mr. C. It is broken up into three sections.

Answering the Faith of the Atheist (9 chapters)
Answering the Faith of the Agnostic (5 chapters)
Concluding Remarks (3 chapters)

The book closes with acknowledgements, about the author and resources for parents. The Box demonstrates how to have a conversation with non-believers. The conversation is at times stilted but that’s to be expected when you are “setting the scene”. I did find it to be a bit repetitive at times. My son sometimes struggled with the authors not taking everything thought into account. Many of his questions were about “what if this” and “what about that”. He’s a bit of a perfectionist so wording matters to him.

Presuppositional apologetics are a big part of The Box. If we get to the root of a person’s thought process, the better we are able to ask questions to help them see truth and deception.

God the Reason

God the Reason is the larger of the two books. It has 15 chapters with distinct sections.

God is Eternal (6 sections)
God Needs Nothing (5 sections)
God Cannot be Known unless he reveals himself (five sections)
God is Boundless perfection (7 sections)
God Does not Change (2 sections)
God is Undivided (3 sections)
God is Spirit (3 sections)
God knows everything (4 sections)
God is Wise (3 sections)
God is True and Truthful (3 sections)
God is Good and Love (4 sections)
God is Holy (4 sections)
God is righteous (4 sections)
God is infinitely powerful (6 sections)
God Rules over all (8 sections)

There is a conclusion, two appendices, acknowledgements, works cited, and two indexes.

This book was very much appreciated. Easy to read and understand. I love the short sections contained within each chapter with the clear headings of what they were about. This book was also written by Craig Biehl and really helps people understand the nature and majesty of God.

The more we understand the nature of God, the more we are enabled to import worldview truths to those around us.

Course Set Up

This is a self-paced course. Take it at your own speed, but if doing it for a credit needs to be finished within 36 weeks of start.

One of the many helpful aspects of Pilgrim’s Rock is they give you a tour of your dashboard. Helping you to understand the many different parts in this presuppositional apologetics course.

Your lesson work is set up in such a way that you need to complete each section before heading into the next one. This ensures that you can’t jump ahead, though… if you really want to.. it is possible. 🙂

We haven’t gotten to the point of taking a test yet. It is important to note that these tests are timed. You have 36 weeks to complete the course from the time that you start it.

The structure of the course is to read chapters of God the Reason and The Box. These readings and chapters are followed up by a quiz. These quizzes can only be taken once. I loved the questions that my son came up with, they showed he was understanding the chapters he read. I do regret that the course itself asks no questions to help you understand what you are reading or how it all fits together into a cohesive unit.

Watching videos is a great way for my lad to learn. He’s generally audio-oriented so having video just adds. He did mention that he would like to have a transcript of the videos as well. His intention is to watch the videos again, and if he had the transcript he could circle the parts of the transcript he wanted to remember for the quiz.

pilgrim's rock - unbreakable faith course

They have different pricing options depending if you need credit or not. The course is designed for individuals 15 years or older. As I read through it and listened to my 14 year old, I think the age range is pretty good. My son didn’t seem to struggle with it at all, but it’s definitely not geared for elementary students.

So What Did we Think?

My thoughts: “I really like how God the Reason is done. Short chapters with smaller sections that reinforce the main topic. The videos do a good job of supporting this book. I would really like if the test could be printed out and wasn’t timed. I absolutely adore the fact that my son asks great questions with this course. That in and of itself makes this an excellent course.”

My son’s thoughts: “It’s okay. I don’t like the conversations in The Box, I like just straight-forward writing. I like the videos. I like when mom can read God the Reason to me and I can listen and ask questions.“

Dad’s thoughts: “They approach apologetics from a different perspective then I would, but they don’t do a bad job. It would be good if it came with questions, or at least conversation starters.”

35 members of the Homeschool Review Crew have taken a look at Pilgrim’s Rock, The Unbreakable Faith Course. You can check out their reviews at this link or by clicking on the image below.

The Unbreakable Faith Course {Pilgrim's Rock, LLC Reviews}

Pilgrim Rock is on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PilgrimsRockLLC/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PilgrimsRockLLC
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pilgrimsrock/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWwPS9K7Roo-TdegNHP_Pzg?view_as=subscriber

Review: Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership

January 9, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

Are you looking for a complete curriculum, all in one place, where one price meets the needs of your entire family? Let me introduce you to SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It is my pleasure to once again review their Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership. In this membership you will find a variety of video-based, printable text-based, and/or interactive courses.

Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership, image for review

What I am Reviewing

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a premier homeschooling site, particularly if you use their Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership. It is host to a complete PreK-12 education. Loaded with resources for child, youth, teen and their parents you will find it a treasure trove of information. Many of these courses are video-based, others are PDF’s, and yet others are interactive lessons. You get parent resources and access to World Book Online (a fascinating resource).

You can find SchoolhouseTeachers.com on facebook, twitter, and pinterest. Normal price is $179 for the Ultimate Membership, or $19.95 monthly. Stayed tuned for the current sale later in this post!

Learn more about SchoolhouseTeachers.com

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has so much potential to explore. There is quite literally something for everyone.

I would like to show you two of the programs we are actively using. My son is a high school student, and this past semester he is using French.

My son loves that he gets to hear the French spoken, and has easy to print off PDF’s. He saves them to his laptop and then prints off what is needful. This class is just PDF’s to download and listen to, standard worksheets to fill out and learn from. I would love to show you some of his work, but my 14 year is becoming quite private in his studies (at least in an online format).

I’ve been investing some time in learning the Inkscape program. This is a video series that walks you through the different aspects of using a graphic design course. I started it back in October but then hit a spell of bad health and am just picking it up again. Learning how to make rectangles and ovals all over again. 🙂

Future Plans

Next semester I will pick up a bible class called foundations for teens. Videos from RightNow Media along with worksheets makes a class that sounds appealing to my lad.

schoolhouseteachers - foundation for teens banner

We will also be doing a daily grammar, working through the world war materials in the World Book Encyclopedia Online and Dr.D’s geometry course over the next semester. Plans are in the works to take Latin down the road as well.

Doing the courses is easy, you can do a couple of things depending on the class. Go straight to the class lessons, or open the lesson plan.

Most of the courses have a lesson plan which is a suggested plan of action for completing the course. Just like with anything homeschooling though, tweak as needed. Most of the time you’ll find an overview, and then a daily activity list. Some courses will have both, others will just have the overview, it all depends on the needs of the course.

My son gains access to these courses easily by using the bookmarks feature. This feature is found through the member dashboard. You can make a new section for every member of your household. My son has a desire to take Latin down the road, will be taking geometry with Dr. D in semester two and is currently studying WW2. We’ll be adding the foundations for teens to his collection.

Focused Learning Centres

One of the interesting parts of SchoolhouseTeachers.com that many people are not aware of is the focused learning centres. These focused centres narrow in on one topic such as math, reading, science, highschool, careers and seasonal just to name a few.

Opening up the highschool centre led me to discover the mirade of help for highschool like making transcripts, exploring careers, and figuring out the scope and sequence of each grade level.

Flexible and Customizable

One of my favourite things about SchoolhouseTeachers.com is how you can make it your own. You can make a curriculum for your children just by letting them pick what they want to learn (with your guidance). Alternatively you can use the scope and sequence to choose.

They present their material in a variety of formats. You can look under subject matter, grade level, or see all the courses in the grade level chart.

Below you can see a comparison of the various math courses (just part of the list).

schoolhouseteachers.com - grade level chart

Whatever method works best for you, use it. The process of choosing curriculum is made as user friendly as possible.

Video Library

If you can think of a topic, the chances are high that it will be covered somewhere in SchoolhouseTeachers.com video library. Art, bible, history, math and so much more. Watch for fun, watch to learn.

Do I Recommend?

I’ve been using The Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership by SchoolhouseTeachers.com for much of my son’s educational needs. We don’t use it for everything as we are Canadian, therefore we need more Canadian content in our learning. 🙂

I could easily have my son do most of his schooling through SchoolhouseTeachers.com even without the wanted Canadian content. Perhaps, I should help create more Canadian focused content on SchoolhouseTeachers.com just to make it even better. What do you think? 🙂

Promotion

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is currently running a promotion. The Fresh Start sale where you can get the year for $99 (only99 is the code you’d use). Or monthly for $12 (need code only12). My affiliate link for this deal.

Calvert Homeschool Review

October 30, 2019 By Annette1 4 Comments

Calvert Homeschool is a place where your students in grades 3-12 can meet all their schooling needs. Can you imagine the ease of life that creates? I do need to tell you though, their high school courses are just as intriguing for their parents (at least this parent!) I have got to tell you all about it. I’ve have, for the past few weeks been able to make good use of their mobile on-line program

What I am Reviewing.

Calvert Homeschool.
Calvert Homeschool Online.
Grades 3-12
Online homeschool, homeschool online
Individual and Family Subscriptions.

Providing quality education using multi-media lessons, hands-on experiences, customizable lesson plans, and easy to access dashboards for parent/teacher and student.

Giving you full online access to 45 courses, this online homeschooling option also provides numerous features such as interactive lessons, automatic grading, and monthly payments.

Details of Calvert Homeschool

It does take some getting used to, the system that Calvert uses as their base. You don’t go to the main site to do your learning, but to the online Calvert Homeschool site. This caused me no end of frustration until I figured that part out. 🙂 Learn from me… connect with their help department!

How we Used It

My original goal, was to have my son use the world history course. He’s currently working through material for world war 2 and I noted it had a few days on this topic. I struggled initially figuring out how to get him to this section and the amazingly helpful staff at Calvert helped me learn how to assign them and close off the rest of the course. WOOT WOOT!

He started, and he admittedly tried. But Calvert wasn’t a good fit for him. He is predominately an audio learner, and Calvert suits other learning styles better. Since Calvert DOES work for me, I stepped into the gap. I’ve been brushing up on my physics and engaging in a biology course.

Details of Calvert Homeschool On Line

Two sections to Calvert

There are two distinct sections to Calvert, the first is the parental section where you can choose lessons, customize how they will work, and grade assignments. The second section is where the student will find their assignments and complete their course work. Each requires their own login information.

Parental Dashboard

In the teacher or parental dashboard you can set up your courses, school, and students quite easily. As a parent you control how your child is able to complete their course. What constitutes an A, how they answer questions, and other important details. With the 3-12 package you can assign ANY course to your student. You will find them under each grade level. These are the options I had for grade nine.

I ended up choosing two courses from grade 10 and just one from grade nine. Grade 10 was Biology and World History, and grade nine was physics/chemistry. Adding another class later isn’t an issue, just go into the curriculum set up area and you are on the way.

If you ever get lost or don’t know what you are doing they have put together helpful manuals to assist you.

My desire is to walk you through EVERYTHING but that would make this review FAR too long, so let me just walk you through the sections I used the most.

Everything is easily right at hand. Everything that is clickable is in blue. I used the assigned work and grading tasks the most.

I absolutely loved how easy they made it for me to grade the assignments. Just click on the link and grade.

One thing that I couldn’t figure was how to know what mark to assign a given assignment. Should I give it a five out six, or a 2 out of 3? It wasn’t, at least for me, always an intuitive decision. How to fix that, I haven’t a clue. But we muddled through and grades were assigned.

Student Dashboard

Like the parent/teacher board, the student dashboard is easy to navigate.

You can see at a glance what you have to work on (a report, experiment or project) and what lesson is up next. A list of items needed for assignments can be found so it’s easy enough to have supplies at hand. One of the assignment (about needing to closely observe for experiments) called for a bowl of peanuts, my son and I (cause I told him about this one and he thought it sounded fun) used a bowl of dried fruit instead. We choose to not get lost on the details and peanuts we would have had to purchase. 🙂

Lesson Set up

One of the beauties of Calvert is that you aren’t tied down to working at home on a specified device. As long as you have the internet, you can work off your laptop, tablet or phone.

Each lesson follows a predictable format. Overview, lesson pages, questions based on the lesson. Each lesson can easily be completed in a day. Stopping and starting again is not a problem either, because we all know that things happen and sometimes lessons started have to wait.

Vocabulary Arcade

On the overview page the student is introduced to the vocabulary words used throughout. With these words comes the vocab arcade.

While I think it’s great to have a way to help students practice their vocabulary, I had to wonder why they chose to have animated characters that would clap for a correct answer. It makes sense for elementary school students, but not for high school. Neither I or my 14 year old were impressed with the arcade.

I found the flash cards to be helpful. It’s a simple platform that simply helps you learn new words.

What a lesson looks like

The overview pages introduces the lesson, showing the highlights, and giving needed vocabulary words to understand the lesson.

One of the things I really enjoyed was that videos come with transcripts! So for someone like me who would rather watch a video than listen to it. I can avoid the video and read my way through. Using this option of course is not mandatory, but it’s a lovely aid for those who have English as a second language, or other comprehension issues.

I do have a bone to pick though. Growing up in Canada, I am well used to the metric system. Using a centimeter/millimeter rule in a lesson for accuracy and then not actually being accurate. It’s just wrong. Accuracy is not guessing. If you are measuring something you DO need to be accurate but you can’t on a centimeter ruler be accurate to a 100th place value if they don’t have a 100th place value on the ruler. Anything else is just guessing.

Other than that particular math question, overall I found this secular, online homeschool option to be a good program.

Should You Use Calvert Homeschool?

There are mixed feelings in this household toward Calvert Homeschool. Read all the way through to understand why. 🙂

Normally I would have my son speak his mind, but his mind is not disposed kindly toward Calvert. He doesn’t like it. Would he adapt if I told him to, yes, but relationship is always before schooling. There are a myriad of things that he doesn’t like, but most of it comes down to personal preference and he has other avenues he’d rather pursue.

Therefore I ended up signing up the lad for two additional courses. These courses are Science300 and Integrated Physics and Chemistry. I did this so that I could review the program well. Calvert was kind enough to let us have six months, so they deserve someone reviewing their program well. The end result being: that although, like the lad, I dislike certain aspects, I do overall like the rest of the program.

What I think:

I love that if I know the material already I can skip ahead to the questions.

I love the the first page of each new section is an overview of what I will be learning about. It sets my brain in the right direction.

I dislike that for essay questions that it comes up in a F for the final grade (when you click on complete lesson). Like my lad I find that rather demotivating. I would rather it would say something like “awaiting marking by teacher”, or something, anything else than F.

I like that each page is focused. You can jump back and forth from one page to the next. You can rush through, or take your time. This aspect gives it a feel of a self-paced course. I love that the main page spells out what the next assignments are and that they are clickable.

Would it be useful for high school students?

In a nutshell yes, even though it is not a good fit for my lad, but I think I would have liked it at his age. The difference being in our learning styles. I like being able to jump back and forth, reading and re-reading and he likes to simply move straight-forward. He is an auditory learner and I’m a reader.

Calvert, I think, works best for students who like to read and who pick up on details quickly while reading. My son, reads, but when he doesn’t get something, falls back to searching for videos that will explain it better. He does not feel confident doing that with the world history course from Calvert as the questions are based directly on the lesson rather than on an overall concept.

The fact that there are a good variety of projects, it is highly customizable, and the excellent customer service makes Calvert an option you should explore further. Use the free trial period. See if it’s a good fit for your student, and give it a go. 🙂

45 members of the crew took part in reviewing Calvert. You should check out what they have to say! 🙂

Social Media Links

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CalvertHomeschool
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CalvertEdu
Instagram: www.instagram.com/calverthomeschool
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/CalvertHomeschool/

Review: College-Ready Writing Essentials™

September 9, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

Are you looking for a program to help your students get ready for college level writing? Look no further! BetterRhetor has come out with a college writing course for your high school students. Help your students succeed with College-Ready Writing Essentials™ (CRWE)! 25 lessons to teach your children, your students what is expected of them in a college level assignment. This review is of the full package of CRWE.

College ready writing essentials BetterRhetor

What I am Reviewing

BetterRhetor.
College-Ready Writing Essentials™.
William Bryant, PhD.
I reviewed the full package.
Reviewed for: Homeschool Review Crew
Age: highschool (junior/seniors), graduated highschool, early college.

Writing, college, writing essentials, college readiness, student success, academic writing

You can learn more about Mr. Bryant at his website.

The Details of College-Ready Writing Essentials™

25 lessons are presented to the student in this online writing program. It specifically targets the skill of writing a college level paper. These 25 lessons are divided into five sections.

Overview (one lesson)
Planning (lessons 2-11)
Drafting (lessons 12-19)
Revising (lessons 20-23)
Finalizing (lessons 23-25)

Two additional resources are provided. A PDF of Key Terms, and bonus guide to the culture of college. Using the students knowledge, skills, behaviors, and awareness to form a piece of writing to inform and persuade their readers.

Since my lad has a love of writing research papers I thought this course would be a good fit for him advancing into highschool. He’s just in grade nine so I wasn’t sure if it would be too advanced for him. He likes it so that’s a good thing eh? 🙂

I love that this online course is so nicely laid out. The lesson order provided on the left side of the screen, the made text on the right. Part of me wished there was a video component, but my son wisely pointed out that having it all written down meant he could reread easily instead of having to hunt down the specific portion he didn’t understand.

When it came to doing the lessons, my ninth-grade son said “It wasn’t hard to read, but it also wasn’t extremely easy.” He took his time doing the lessons, I expected one lesson completed each week. In three weeks he easily got four lessons done before heading off to camp.

Easy to read

Sometimes when working on a on-line program it is difficult to maintain your progress. This academic writing program allows you to save your progress, helping you to easily move forward from lesson to lesson.

CRWE is meant to be completed over the course of five weeks. At 25 lessons that would be one lesson daily. Go at the speed of your student. Some may need longer to complete each lesson. My son commented “Younger students will want to read the lesson one day, and then do the assignment the next day. Older students would have no problem doing it all in one day.“

The assignments for each lesson are found at the close of the lesson. These files open as PDF’s that you can either print off or store on your computer.

PDF’s mean options

The advantage of a PDF file is the option to print or not. Your student can easily do all their work in a notebook, or you can print off each worksheet for your student to write directly on it. They are done in black/white making it easy on the printer. Since it’s a PDF there is no time limit on completing the work other than what you arbitrarily set.

CRWE is a self-paced course. It is meant to be done over five weeks but you can easily stretch that out as needed. It is an online program and you are granted life-time access so you can use it with all family members. Their goal is to help your students be better prepared for college level writing, utilizing all their skills in persuasion and information gathering.

Don’t let your students be part of the 75% of young people not prepared for college. Learn more about this gap and how to address it at The Writing Gap. Help them learn the skills necessary to succeed pursuing their dreams. Let them write, and write well in the subjects of their choosing.

Thoughts/Recommendations

I asked my son what he thought of College-Ready Writing Essentials™. “It has a lot of reading and I couldn’t do it as fast as I wanted to. I liked it though and want to finish doing it“.

I loved the responsiveness of customer service. My son does his work on his own laptop and for whatever reason I couldn’t transfer over to him. I wrote and asked customer service what to do and they happily set my son up with his own account. My lad loved this! His own account, mom can’t mess things up by checking future lessons and messing up bookmarks or whatever. It was excellent in his mind, and for me as a parent, it was just the answer I needed.

One of the benefits of the BetterRhetor program is they offer two levels, the full and the premium. I can totally see the advantage of doing this program twice. Once in grades 9/10 doing the full program then doing the premium package in grade 12. Read the reviews, come to your own conclusions. 🙂

Read Other Reviews

Did you know that 31 other members of the crew reviewed BetterRhetor? Some of us reviewed the full package, others the premium. I know you don’t want to miss reading those reviews. You can check them out over at the Homeschool Review Crew Blog.

You can find BetterRhetor on the following social media accounts.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/collegereadywriting
Twitter: https://twitter.com/collreadywrite
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/collegereadywriting
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collegereadywriting

TOS

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

What I am Reviewing

Teacher Dashboard

Student Dashboard

Take your time, responsive grading

Refinement through Change

Recommendation

Links and Invitation

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

What I am Reviewing

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DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

What I am Reviewing

How we used it

The Box

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Course Set Up

So What Did we Think?

DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

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Learn more about SchoolhouseTeachers.com

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Flexible and Customizable

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What I am Reviewing.

Details of Calvert Homeschool

How we Used It

Details of Calvert Homeschool On Line

Two sections to Calvert

Parental Dashboard

Student Dashboard

Lesson Set up

Vocabulary Arcade

What a lesson looks like

Should You Use Calvert Homeschool?

What I think:

Would it be useful for high school students?

Social Media Links

What I am Reviewing

The Details of College-Ready Writing Essentials™

Easy to read

PDF’s mean options

Thoughts/Recommendations

Read Other Reviews

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