Homeschooling for His Glory

French Essentials is an online downloadable French curriculum with online features. From their website you can read: " FE   targets the four language acquisition skills (reading, writing, listening comprehension & speaking) in a unique way using a multi-sensorial communicative approach that cannot be duplicated by programs that use the "audio only" approach. By using both high quality audio and video, students see   French in action   and interact in a fun and stimulating way with the language." I was first exposed to French Essentials through Schoolhouse Teachers a few months back, and really enjoyed using it with my then 4th grader. So, when it came for review I was excited to be able to use some more of it. We were given for the review a full year access to the whole program, which consists of 5 modules, each in turn consisting of 15 to 25 lessons. There are 5 other modules still in the works as well. It is written by a couple living in Quebec, ...

We are approaching the end of our crew run and one of our last two review products is truly a gem in the homeschool community. IXL is an online interactive program for kids in grade PreK - 12 offering Math and Language Arts practice. We were blessed to received both programs to use and review. We used both programs with both the boys, grade 3 and 5.  IXL is basically a practice program that allows for the student to practice and review concepts. IXL lets you practice concepts in each grades according to the standards of each different States in the USA, and in over 8 other countries. It is important to note that the Language Arts portion of the program is only available in the USA at the moment and only goes up to grade 4 so far. More grades are to come. As can be assumed the amount of skills practiced increases with each grade going from about 41 in Pre-K to 280 in grade 10. You can see all the topics covered here . IXL is mainly a practice and drill program,...

I love it wen I discover new great products and company through the crew. One of our latest review item is one of those. We were offered to review a biography put out by YWAM Publishing taken from their Heroes series. We chose Jim Elliot: A Great Purpose. YWAM (Youth With A Mission) is a company that puts out material that seeks to encourage Christians to make a difference in the world. They focus on evangelism, educational training, prayer, discipleship and mercy ministry.  One of their series is all about learning about some of the great heroes, their life and ministries and how they impacted our world. I have not done much biography studies with the boys so I was quite happy to get the book about the life of Jim Elliot - a missionary in Ecuador who lost his life serving God and seeking to reach tribes in the Jungle there - to read with them. These series come with a book (telling the story), and a  Curriculum Study Guide sold s...

School at the computer and through online resources is becoming more and more prevalent in our technological culture. What I think about this trend is a topic for a different post, but in the past month I got the privilege of reviewing a leader in this field. Time4Learning is an online educational curriculum which covers a variety of school subjects, such as Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science and, newly added, Art. It targets students from Preschools to grade 12. Time4Learning can be used as a complete curriculum, or as an after-school supplement. It requires a log in and you have a choice between lower or upper level. It is a subscription-based  program costing:  $19.95/month for Preschool through to grade 8 $30/month for High School (4 Courses) Time4Learning is very comprehensive in its scope and very interactive in its form. The student's attention is kept  focused on the topic at hand. Something to note about Time4Learning is the f...

This year's TOS crew run has been filled with great, interesting products to review. One of our latest product was an online music lessons.     MacPhail Center for Music is a community resource dedicated to providing quality Music instruction to all students of all background and abilities. This includes kids from K-12. MacPhail is one of the largest comminity music school in the USA and is a leader in the field of Early Childhood Program, Suzuki Talent Program and Music Therapy Program. Their staff is comprised of highly qualified and experienced music teachers and musicians. 85% of the teachers hold master degrees in their field of music and are accomplished musicians with ongoing professional development. The center operates out of Minneapolis but includes 5 locations in total in and around the area. They offer both online and in person lessons. MacPhail offers music education and learning in 35 instruments, including Piano, Violin, Guitar, Trombone, flute, and ...

Looking for something to spice up your science, this review is for you. If you like to add videos to your homeschool, or if your kids learn well with videos and visuals, BrainFood Learning  products are for you to check out. From the website: "BrainFood Learning was started by parents of two small children looking for stimulating and interesting content that educates as well as entertains. We didn't find what we were looking for and decided to make the "Fascinating World of..." video series." Indeed that is what Brainfood Learning videos are: stimulating and interesting, content-packed videos. The company offers, so far, Fascinating World of: Birds Mammals Insects The videos are full of content, using wide range of words and concepts, and showing animals in their habitats. The images are clear, inviting and attractive with nice close-up. There is no definite target age, as these videos can be watched by a child as young as two, overt...

In the past month we have enjoyed reviewing a exciting, interesting, and different product than your usual Math or Language curriculum namely  KidCoder . KidCoder Web Series is a beginning web design programming curriculum for kids. It is put out by Homeschool Programming who specializes in creating web design curricula. Their line up of products includes: KidCoder Visual Basic serie s: Windows Programming (semester 1) and Game Programming (semester 2) KidCoder Web series: Beginning Web Design (semester 1) and Advanced Web Design (semester 2) TeenCoder C# series Teen Coder Java Series These programs targets kids grade 4 and up for the KidCoder and 9th grade and up for the TeenCoder. From the Website: " HTML is the foundation of the World Wide Web. It's important for students interested in web design to begin with a solid grounding in good HTML techniques. Each chapter explains concepts step-by-step with sample code displayed throughout. Students will cre...

We recently got to review an unfamiliar and quite different product than what we are used to: a computer game. Dig-it Games!  is a company that specializes in educational computer games for kids. The founder, an archeologist and former school teacher, wishes to " promote creative thinking, independent learning and cultural understanding ."   " Dig-It Games is dedicated to encouraging kids to explore the world around them through historically accurate content that conforms to curriculum standards and seamlessly blends entertainment and learning." They seek to match together adventure, fun and history learning in one product. Dig-It Games currently have 2 products available: Roman Town and Mayan Mysteries . We were blessed to be able to try out Mayan Mysteries. Mayan Mysteries is a puzzle-based game whereby you help a professor and his niece and nephew solve the mystery of finding a mythical city and figuring out who...

Our latest review product in our homeschool has been Math Mammoth. Math Mammoth offers an array of Math curriculum for the homeschool community: Blue Series: Complete Curriculum Light Blue Series : Books by Topics Green Series : Worksheets by topics Yellow Series : Worksheets by grades Make It Real Learning : Real-Life Math Having reviewed the Blue Series in the past I decided to give a try to the Green Series this time. I figured I needed to have the boys practice some of the concepts we had been working on lately, so it would fit quite nicely in our schedule. These workbooks are collections of worksheets, each focusing on a topic and spanning several grade levels. The topics covered, each in a separate books, are: Measuring  (grades 3-6) Multiplication & Division  (grades 3-6) Numbers & Operations  (grades 3-6) Fractions  (grades 3-6) Decimals  (grades 3-7) Geometry Integers  (grades 6-7) Ratio, Pro...