Tag Archives: language arts

Hake Saxon Grammar and Writing Review

If you are looking for a Grammar and Writing curriculum, then you might want to check out courses from Hake Publishing.

We were recently sent their Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 Language Arts curriculum set to review in our homeschool.

Hake Publishing has had great success helping students in both homeschools and public schools with their Grammar and Writing Language Arts curriculum series.

Grammar and Writing 3
Grammar and Writing 4
Grammar and Writing 5
Grammar and Writing 6
Grammar and Writing 7
Grammar and Writing 8

The Grammar and Writing curriculum series is written by Mary Hake (teacher, homeschool parent of 5, and grandparent) and Dr. Christie Curtis (teacher in public schools, private schools, and universities, parent of 3, and grandparent). Together Mrs. Hake and Mrs. Curtis have worked hand in hand with Stephan Hake who is the lead creator of the award winning Saxon Math textbooks. Mary Hake is Stephan Hake’s wife, and together they also homeschooled five kids. Stephan Hake is also the owner of Hake Publishing. Stephan has extensive experience writing and publishing curriculum. He began writing curriculum for the well known Saxon company in 1984. The Grammar and Writing curriculum is written in a similar format to Saxon Math.

Grammar and Writing is an award winning, proven curriculum series that has been used by elementary school, middle school, high school, and even college students. It is recommended for students to complete at least two years of the program to fully master skills and be ready for college level essay writing. This will ensure that a strong foundation of language mastery is developed which will serve students well during higher education endevours and adulthood. Grammar and Writing 3 is Hake Publishing’s newest level in this curriculum series to come to the educational market.

Grammar and Writing 3

Grammar and Writing 3

Consumable Textbook, Writing Workbook, Teacher’s Guide

English Language Arts Curriculum

Writing

Vocabulary Development

Spelling

Grammar

Retail: $87.80 on sale for $63.30

The Grammar and Writing 3 course is designed for students who are reading at a 3rd grade reading level and above. This is an easy to use Language Arts curriculum. This course emphasizes lots of practice to develop good writing skills, vocabulary development and mastery, rules of spelling, dictionary skills, correct word usage, and mastery of grammatical rules of the English language.

This course contains 111 lessons with daily reviews and 22 tests overall. A test is usually completed after every 5 lessons, except the first test begins after 10 lessons and the final test is after only 1 final lesson. Writing Workbook lessons are recommended on test days, however the Consumable Textbook grammar lessons are not suggested on test day, so this creates an opportunity to utilize all the different aspects of this curriculum. A suggested schedule for completing the lessons and daily reviews, tests, and writing assignments is listed in the Teacher Guide.

Grammar and Writing 3 meets and/or exceeds State Standards for English Language Arts. See the downloadable Scope and Sequence and the Faq page for more information. Versions of this product are sold both to public schools (Hardback cover) and to individual homeschools (Softback cover). Homeschools can purchase the Writing and Grammar 3 curriculum through the Hake Publishing Homeschool Orders page.

Consumable Textbook:

The 488 page Consumable Textbook contains 111 lessons with daily reviews. Each lesson and review is 2 to 5 pages long. Lessons and daily reviews are designed to take approximately 30 to 50 minutes to complete. The suggested schedule in the Teachers Guide recommends completing 1 lesson and review per day. However, you can go as fast or as slow as you like, but do not skip ahead in the order of the lessons.

Each lesson follows the same format and includes information that builds upon the learning skills of the previous lesson.

Each lesson begins with a brief “Grammar Meeting” to train student’s ears to listen (in the upper levels, this step is replaced with dictation); then a brief vocabulary exploration; then a lesson instruction, and finally a daily review.

Grammar Meeting: Speaking & Listening 2-3 minutes.
Vocabulary Words 2-3 minutes.
Lesson 10-15 minutes.
Review Set 20-25 minutes.

Teacher Guide:

The Teacher Guide is 391 perforated pages. It contains 111 complete lesson plans and a suggested schedule.

Lesson Plans include “Teacher Scripts” (what to say to the student during the Grammar Meeting) for each lesson, a format for the lesson including a timeline for each lesson, and specific teaching tips.

The Teacher Guide also includes answer keys, student test masters, and the test answer keys, and also “More Practice” masters.

Writing Workbook:

The 92 page Writing Workbook contains 21 lessons in addition to the Textbook lessons. These pages are perforated and hole punched for ease of use. The workbook contains assignments for further practice and mastery of good writing skills. Each writing assignment in the Writing Workbook is approximately 4 to 6 pages and consists of a combination of fill in the blank, write the sentence, write a paragraph, or write a summary types of assignments.

Writing lessons are recommended to be completed on test day, but you have the freedom to choose to teach the Writing Lessons on days other than tests days also, use them which ever way works best for your student. Writing Lessons should be completed in order, don’t skip ahead, and they build on skills progressively.

Video:

Check out this video to hear Stephan Hake and Dr. Christi Curtis explain the Grammar and Writing curriculum series:

Our Experience:

We received the 3 piece set of Grammar and Writing 3 to facilitate this review. The books are very well made and contain a lot of information. I like the way the books are laid out for both the student and parent, and the Teacher’s Guide makes this curriculum very easy for a parent to teach to their students.

This curriculum is geared for students with a 3rd grade or higher reading level, however my fourth grader felt frustrated at times as she tried to understand some of the information. After working through the first three lessons with her, I found the curriculum to be more advanced than her reading level. She was not able to read it independently. She is currently using an online reading training program that is assisting her to be able to read proficiently at a third grade level, however she is not at this skill level yet.

After doing some research on the website, I found out this curriculum is meant for students who can read well at least at a third grade reading level or higher. The series numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 after the title, has more to do with the level of reading proficiency (understanding of language, comprehension, and use of vocabulary) and not actually a specific grade level. So it could be used by various grades as long as they are reading at that level or above.

According to the website, even highschool students as well as college students can benefit from these books and should choose a level based on their level of reading proficiency. The website also states that as long as you complete two years of either books 3 and 4, or 5 and 6, or 7 and 8 consecutively, that you will have covered enough grammar and writing material to benefit the student to write well.

So with that in mind, I asked my older boys if they would like to work with this curriculum. One of the boys agreed to work through a few lessons with me to see how he liked it.

It was a great fit for him. He felt he learned a lot in just a few lessons and stated it was just what he needed to help his grammar and writing. He will continue to work through the rest of this course on into the new school year. We will purchase the next level up for him as soon as he is finished with this one. He is also currently taking a composition course that he loves and it helps him write short stories, but it doesn’t break down the structure of sentences and the roots of vocabulary. So he is really glad to have Grammar and Writing 3 curriculum to help him understand even better.

I found the Teacher Guide to be essential for this course. It was easy to guide my child through each question in the practice and review sections. We did not use the optional “More Practice” worksheets, but we might at some point in the future. It was very easy to follow the suggested schedule and lesson plans. The lesson plan for each lesson and all of the information needed to teach that lesson fits into 1 page and is easy to view in one glance. The answers to the practice questions are listed on a corresponding page in the answer key section. The information in the Teacher’s Guide is well organized and written in a step by step method so that it is easy for a parent to implement the lessons.

Final Thoughts:

I believe it is important to practice good grammar skills and learn to write well. Writing is an important form of communication to convey information and ideas to others. It is beneficial to find a Language Arts curriculum that works well for your kids to help them improve in these skills.

I am putting a list together and will be getting curriculum ready for the upcoming school year soon. The Grammar and Writing curriculum is a good fit for our homeschool and I have decided to add it into our upcoming school year. I will purchase additional sets for all three older boys for this coming school year and I would also like all three of my younger students to work through this curriculum too in a few years when they are ready.

I would encourage other homeschool families to check into this curriculum and see if Grammar and Writing 3 from Hake Publishing is right for their family.

Homeschool Review Crew

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Memoria Press Classical Composition Review

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If you need a Composition course for your homeschool students, then you might want to check out the Classical Composition I: Fables Set and Classical Compostion II: Narrative Set from Memoria Press.

Memoria Press is a curriculum publishing company that focuses on the Classical Education method with a Christian worldview.

Classical Composition

Memoria Press has published 9 courses in Classical Composition. You can begin these courses as early as 4th grade and use them all the way through 12th grade if desired, or start when it best fits into your student’s homeschooling journey.

Fable
Narrative
Chreia/Maxim
Refutation/Confirmation
Common Topic
Encomium/Invective/Comparison
Characterization
Description
Thesis & Law

These Classical Composition courses are unique and highly successful. They were developed by Jim Selby, a teacher from Kansas. He found that all of his students were able to master the skills of composition with this curriculum. When his students take these Classical Composition courses, they have “a 100% qualification rate on the optional essay portion of the college entrance exams (ACT and SAT) versus the national average of 23%” and many have “gained college credits with successful completion of the English AP exams.” That is quite a record of achievement!

Classical Composition I: Fable Set

Student Book

Spiral Bound-Paper Back

101 pages

20 Lessons

Teacher Guide

Spiral Bound-Paper Back

Lesson Plans

Answer Key

101 Pages

Instructional DVDs

4 DVD’s covering 20 Lessons

Retails for $85

Classical Composition I: Fables is the first course in the Classical Composition series. Composition is learning how to write well. The premise is that as students learn about writing and begin to understand and imitate good writers, they will master the techniques of composition and become good writers themselves.

Classical Composition 1: Fables uses short fables to teach students to become good writers. A fable is a short story that uses animals for characters, has humor, and has a deeper message, a common truth that is wise to learn. This common truth is called a “common place” because it can apply to everyone.

In each lesson, students will read a fable, become familiar with the contents of the fable as they study the various words and learn the meanings and synomyms of those words, make an outline of the main parts of the fable, narrate the fable from memory, the rewrite the fable with variations or paraphrases using synonyms for the key words while still maintaining the overall meaning of the deeper message.

Course Contents:

Teaching Guidelines
Introduction to the Fable Stage
Definition of Terms

Lessons:
Lesson 1 – The Ant and the Chrysalis
Lesson 2 – The Ant and the Grasshopper
Lesson 3 – The Fox and the Grapes
Lesson 4 – The Hare and the Tortoise
Lesson 5 – The Fisherman Piping
Lesson 6 – The Flies and the Honey-Pot
Lesson 7 – The Bear and the Two Travelers
Lesson 8 – The Dove and the Ant
Lesson 9 – The Thirsty Pigeon
Lesson 10 – The Dog and the Shadow
Lesson 11 – The Dog in the Manger
Lesson 12 – The Mountain in Labor
Lesson 13 – The Sick Lion
Lesson 14 – The Ass and the Lapdog
Lesson 15 – The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Lesson 16 – The Ass and the Mule
Lesson 17 – The Frogs Asking for a King
Lesson 18 – The Mischievous Dog
Lesson 19 – The Old Woman & the Physician
Lesson 20 – The Fighting Cocks & the Eagle

Appendix:
Figures of Description With Examples
Introduction to the Progymnasmata by James A. Selby

The complete set includes the Student Book, Teacher Guide and a set of 4 DVDs. These items can be purchased separately or as a set. You will save money buying them together as a set.

The Student Book has the fable, plus room on 4 worksheets to complete each written exercise.

Student Book sample:

The Teacher Guide has the student’s worksheet, additional lesson helps such as vocabulary definitions and lesson structure (not a daily schedule plan), and the answers to the corresponding student worksheet included all on one page. It also has additional teaching tips scattered throughout, a grading rubric, and plenty of room to write extra notes if needed.

Teacher Guide sample:

The DVDs brings the fable to life with an audio visual component rather than just reading from the Student Book. The DVD set contains a set of 4 DVDs and each one contains 5 lessons from the Student Book and covers all 20 lessons of the course. Be sure to click the link below to see and hear a sample of Lesson 1 and how the instructor presents the fable and explains the tasks to be completed.

DVD Video Sample:

Classical Composition I: Fable DVD Sample from Lesson 1 on Vimeo.

Grading:

Course grades are based on:

Handwriting
Mechanics (spelling, punctuation, grammar)
Content (storyline)
Vocabulary/Diction (word choice)
Figures of Description

Classical Composition II: Narrative Set

Student Book

Spiral Bound-Paper Back

156 Pages

20 Lessons

Teacher Guide

Spiral Bound-Paper Back

156 Pages

Instructional DVDs

Retails for $85

This is the second course in the Classical Composition courses. Classical Composition II: Narrative Set uses narratives to teach students to become good writers. Each lesson in the Student Book begins by reading aloud a narrative. The narrative may contain a few difficult words, and the Teacher’s Guide contains lists with definitions to go over with the student. Through a process of writing an outline, and writing 2 rough drafts of paraphrasing and a final draft, the students will narrate the narrative in their own words to master the writing skills in this Composition course.

Course Contents:

Teaching Guidelines
Definition of Terms
Introduction to the Narrative Stage

Lessons:
Lesson 1 – The Rose
Lesson 2 – Chico and the Crane
Lesson 3 – Elijah and the Widow
Lesson 4 – Giufà—Eat, My Clothes!
Lesson 5 – The Song of the Vineyard
Lesson 6 – Giufà and the Judge
Lesson 7 – Elijah and the Prophets of Baal
Lesson 8 – Elijah and the Burning Sacrifice
Lesson 9 – Nathan and David
Lesson 10 -The Frog Prince
Lesson 11- Elisha and the Widow’s Jars
Lesson 12 – Conrad Von Tannenberg
Lesson 13 – Latona and the Rustics
Lesson 14 – A Vine Out of Egypt
Lesson 15 – The Sower
Lesson 16 – The Good Samaritan
Lesson 17 – Baucis and Philemon
Lesson 18 – The Foolish Rich Man
Lesson 19 – The King and Two Servants
Lesson 20 – The Pen and the Inkstand

Appendix:
Figures of Description With Examples
Figures of Speech With Examples

The Classical Composition II: Narrative Set includes a Student Book, Teacher Guide, and a set of 4 DVDs. These items can be purchased separately or as a set. However, you will save money when you buy these together as a complete set.

The Student Book has the narrative story, plus room on 6 worksheets to complete each written exercise.

Student Book sample:

Each page of the Teacher Guide has the student’s corresponding lesson page in a subset, lesson vocabulary and definitions, lesson structure (but not a daily lesson plan schedule), and the answer key included all on one page. Some pages within the book also contain teaching tips. The Teacher’s Guide also contains a grading Rubric, examples of figures of description, examples of figures of speech, and room to write extra notes too.

Teacher Guide sample:

The Classical Composition II: Narrative Set has a set of 4 DVD’s. Each DVD contains 5 lessons from the Student Book covering all 20 lessons. The addition of the DVD to this course brings the Narrative story to life with an audio visual component rather than just reading from the Student Book. Be sure to click the link below to hear the Narrative sample from Lesson 3 and see and hear how the instructor explains the narrative composition tasks to be completed.

DVD Video sample:

Classical Composition II: Narrative Sample DVD from Lesson 3 on Vimeo.

Grading:

Course grades are based on:

Handwriting
Mechanics (spelling, punctuation, grammar)
Content (storyline)
Vocabulary/Diction (word choice)
Amplification (figures of description, inverting in draft, etc)

Our Experience:

We were glad to receive Classical Composition I: Fables Set and Classical Compostion II: Narrative Set for the purpose of this review. The arrival of this course was perfect timing for my son’s English Composition course work. These courses count for a full credit on his highschool transcript.

We have loved the Classical Education products Memoria Press has sent us to review in our homeschool. Memoria Press has many wonderful curriculum products that can be used by homeschool families who use a variety of homeschool education methods (Classical, Traditional, Eclectic, Charlotte Mason, etc). Classical Composition is one of those great versatile products.

My son is doing an accelerated plan to get both of these Classical Composition courses done in his final year of highschool. That means working daily on Composition instead of spacing it out a few days a week. He has to be laser focused to work on it each day. Hopefully at the accelerated pace, he will accomplish each Composition course in about 18 weeks. These courses are flexible and can also be stretched out for a whole school year if you don’t need the accelerated pace. He needs to finish two courses, and perhaps even a third course, before he graduates. So this accelerated plan is a better option for him. Memoria Press also sent us their Classical Composition Accelerated I Lesson Plan (9 pages) for him to follow so he can complete both of these courses together in 1 year.

Though he is a strong reader, with excellent comprehension, he is not a strong essay writer. He really has had no desire to write stories or essays, until recently. However, this course has motivated him to want to write.

He starts each lesson out by reviewing the short lesson on video and reading it in the student book. Then he completes the activities in the student book through out the week. There are approximately 4 pages of activities to a lesson in Fables and 6 pages of activities to a lesson in Narrative (he has not begun the Narrative lessons yet).

The course instructor on the DVDs is Dr. Brett Vaden. He is very easy to understand and my son and I enjoy the sound of his voice and his explanations. Having these DVDs made a huge difference in my son’s motivation level to do the writing exercises. Though you could do the course with only the student book and teacher guide, I would encourage everyone to get this course as a set with the DVDs because they really do enrich the learning experience.

Though Memoria Press recommends students start learning Composition as early as possible (as early as 4th grade to get through all 9 levels of their courses), the everyday reality is that most students focus on Composition as a structured course during their highschool years. Given the research and success record of Memoria Press curriculum, it is obvious that the sooner you begin these courses, the more opportunity and more time you will have to master all the skill levels.

Memoria Press

In addition to their publishing company, Memoria Press also own a private Christian school called Highlands Latin School in Louisville Kentucky that uses their award winning curriculum. They have scored in the top 1% of schools in the country for 9 years in a row. The quality of the Memoria Press curriculum is top notch. Using this curriculum, their students score an average of 3 grades above their grade level.

Memoria Press curriculum products are available to the public and are well loved by many in the homeschool community.

They have every grade level available in both a complete subject grade package format and also as individual subject products. So you can choose what best fits your homeschool student’s needs, and search for products by subject area or by grade.

Special Offers

You can save $50 when you buy ANY TWO Classic Composition Sets (Student Book, Teacher Guide, DVDs)! Be sure to use the coupon code CCSET at checkout.

Social Media

Keep in touch with Memoria Press through their social media links for all the latest news, special offers, and product updates:

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Homeschool Review Crew

Memoria Press recently sent a variety of products to The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew:

New American Cursive 1
New American Cursive 2 (Scripture)
New American Cursive 2 (Famous Americans)
New American Cursive 3 (Famous Quotes)

Traditional Logic I Complete Set
Traditional Logic II Complete Set

Classical Composition I: Fable Set
Classical Composition II: Narrative Set

Be sure to check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using products from Memoria Press in their home.

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Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary Review

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Do you want to get smarter? Do you want your kids to improve their grades? Then you might want to check out the over 200+ Award Winning products from The Critical Thinking Co.™

Critical Thinking Detective

We recently checked out the Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary Book 1. Critical Thinking Detective is a whole series of books that helps you learn to think logically to solve dilemmas.

So far, the Critical Thinking Detective series includes:

Beginning
Book 1
Book 2
Math
Vocabulary Book 1
Vocabulary Book 2

Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary Book 1

Student Workbook

AnswerKey

12 Cases To Solve

Softcover

Colorful Illustrations

40 Pages

Retails $8.99 on sale for $7.99

Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary Book 1 is a 40 page softcover workbook for grades 5-12+ (would be fun and challenging to most adults too). This student workbook contains 12 mystery cases to solve. The student uses vocabulary, and critical thinking skills to logically solve the case. As the student evaluates the details of the case, understands the meanings of words and learns their meanings and synonyms, uses inductive and deductive reasoning, analyzes the information, they are then able to solve the case.

Table of Contents:

How To Solve These Cases
The Antique Double-Dealer
The Stray Accomplice
The Pilfering Today
The Ring Coveter
The Acrid Saboteur
The Contrary Instigator
The Brazen Biker
The Cogent Denigrator
The Disgruntled Defacer
The Unencumbered Employee
The Wandering Wayfarer
The Cunning Customer
Answer Key

So how do you solve the case? Well, first of all you need to CAREFULLY read the description of the case. Read the statements from one or more witnesses, and read the statement from 4 possible suspects who may or may not have committed the crime. Then look up the words given in the clues. These definitions will help you understand what really happened and who did it.

Here are the steps to solve each cases:

Read the clues.
Use a dictionary!
Understand the definition of each word.
Understand the synonyms and antonyms of each word.
Take notes.
Reason it out.
Solve the case.

Following each case, the student is introduced to 18 to 25 new vocabulary words to learn. There is also a worksheet full of fill in the blank sentences to complete to practice using the vocabulary correctly.

Author

Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary was written by Diane Hartsig. She is also the author of Vocabulary Riddles – A-Z Catastrophes, Books 1 and 2. She is a wife, the mother of 3 kids, and an elementary school teacher. She is passionate about kids acquiring and learning how to use language.

Our Experience:

We received Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary Book 1 in exchange for writing an honest review. The Critical Thinking company is also offering special savings for our readers. I think it is great when companies send products to be reviewed and also send discounts to those who want to try out the product because they read the review and were inspired to try it. So be sure to check out the special offers listed below for a discount code, and get the free Critical Thinking Puzzle too!

I gave this workbook to my 15 year old son to include in his schoolwork. My thoughts on giving it to him was that the mystery cases are short and he might be able to do them without adding a lot of additional work onto his schoolwork. I thought as he accomplished the cases, it would build more confidence for writing.

After reading the case, he tried to reason it out, but was not quite sure who did it. So I had him go ahead and work through vocabulary words and complete the sentences before trying to solve the crime. However, after working through the first handful of words, perhaps 10 or so, he was ready to quit before he had even accomplished the first case. He wanted to quit because he found the words unfamiliar and didn’t like looking them up to find what sentence they fit into.

These are hard words! I don’t even know most of them myself. They are not commonly used. Here are just a few examples:

congent
flummox
espy
sedulous
vacuous
superfluous
credulous
madras
tantamount
puce
tenable
senescent
foist
spurious

However, after a few days of setting the workbook aside (and I don’t blame him), he put his mind to it and persevered. To complete the task, he only needed the workbook, a pencil, and access a dictionary (he used an online dictionary on the internet). It’s portable, so he doesn’t have to sit in one place. He can take it with him and fill in the gaps in his time. He enjoys being outside and working on it if the weather is nice. Having the freedom to choose where and how to learn is one of the beautiful benefits of homeschooling. Just being outside seemed to help motivate him to work on it.

After he looked up the meaning of the new word, and learned it’s definition and other words that have the same meaning, then he would compare words and fill the words into the correct sentences. Each word can only be used once. Taking time to do the vocabulary words gave his brain time to ponder the details of the case. Finally, he was confident in various word meanings to reasonably solve the case.

After completing the first case, he was more confident in working through the rest of the workbook.

After completing the first few cases, he was well on his way to improving his use of vocabulary and logic.

He is motivated to finish and I have no doubt he will finish the workbook and raise his knowledge and skill level to be way smarter than me!

The Critical Thinking Co.™

Created in 1958 by John Brown, The Critical Thinking Co.™ helps students master skills needed to achieve high standards for education. They have extensive knowledge in math, logic, reading and writing, science, and social studies. They guarantee better grades and higher test scores when you practice your critical thinking skills with their books and software.

The Homeschool Review Crew is currently reviewing several products from The Critical Thinking Co.™

Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary

Understanding Pre-Algebra

Dare To Compare: Math Level 1

Critical Thinking Detective Book 1

Vocabulary Riddles Book 1

Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha

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A $75 Value! Delivered weekly to your inbox. Choose PreK – Grade 8. Sign Up Now!
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Be sure to connect with The Critical Thinking Co.™ on their social media links for all the latest news, sales, and product updates.

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Learn To Read With Reading Kingdom Review

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Are you looking to improve your child’s ability to read and write? Then you might want to check out Reading Kingdom online interactive curriculum.

Reading Kingdom offers a better strategy than what has traditionally been offered to help kids improve their reading and writing skills, reduce academic failure, and reach reading proficiency.

Reading Kingdom

Online Learning Program

Interactive Curriculum

Highly effective

Adapts To Each Child

Individualized Instruction

Research based

Ages 4-10

Retail $19.99 month ($9.99 additional child).

Reading Kingdom in an online learning program developed for students ages 4 to 10 to help them become proficient at reading and writing to a 3rd grade level. It is fun to use and kids can use the program on their own. Because it is filled with learning games and books, kids are motivated to use it each day. Reading Kingdom works as a standalone curriculum or as a supplement to your curriculum. Reading Kingdom works on any device with an internet connection (including Windows, Mac, iPad, Android, Chromebooks, etc.)

Reading Kingdom uses a patented strategy called the Phonics Plus decoding system created by Dr. Marion Blank, a developmental psychologist who is also one of the world experts on reading. Learning with Reading Kingdom has been made available in a fun online interactive program by her son Jonathan Blank, an expert in computer software development. Now families everywhere can have access to this award winning learning system to help kids learn to read and write.

The Phonics Plus decoding system is based on learning the meanings of words, the pattern sequencing of letters, and sounds that create meaning.

Sequencing: recognizing patterns from left to right.
Writing: understanding letter placement on keyboard and writing through out the program.
Sounds (Phonics): sounding letter blends,
Meaning: understanding the meaning of words and their context.
Grammar: grammatical rules
Comprehension: remembering and understanding what has been read.

The Department of Education reports that two out of three kids today are failing at reading and writing proficiency and Dr. Blank believes it is because they learned to read with phonics only. There are many reasons why learning with phonics only fails to help so many kids.

Screenshot (185)

However, rather than just learning phonics only, Reading Kingdom teaches the Phonic’s Plus decoding system as foundational for mastering reading and writing proficiency. This method brings reading, writing, and comprehension together. As students learn these skills, they will benefit both now and later in life as many of these skills overflow into other areas in a person’s life.

How It Works:

Reading Kingdom uses fun reading games, story books, and the Phonics Plus decoding strategy to boost each student’s skills and confidence in reading, writing, and comprehension. When kids finish the program, they will have mastered above a third grade reading level.

Reading Kingdom contains 5 Levels. Each level is adaptable for the skill level of the person using it, so it customizes itself per the child’s needs. Each level builds upon the skills learned in the previous level. Before moving forward it gets kids ready for the next level so both sets of skill levels flow smoothly together. A Progress Check (review quiz) is given after each level. More practice is given if needed, or if they have mastered everything, they are promoted to the next level.

Reading Kingdom is designed to be used 4 days per week. Each level is filled with several sessions and you complete one session each day. Each session takes about 10 to 20 minutes to complete. A child learns 1 new word or reads 1 new book during each session.

Below are a few examples of different skill levels. The first picture shows the level, the number of new words, new words plus word variants, total new words, and new books learned in that level. The second picture in each category below is an example of a learning game in that level.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

The entire Reading Kingdom online program starting at the lowest level and working your way through to completing the highest level, is designed to take about 12 to 15 months to complete all the levels and skills. However, an older child child who already has acquired some reading skills, takes the placement test and scores above the beginning level, etc. maybe able to complete the program quicker, perhaps in as little as 6+/- months. This program could also be used for review for older students and ESL and remedial learning. A child who is a struggling reader may take longer than average to complete. The program is flexible and adapts to the skills of each child. However if your student is on the Autism Spectrum or has other learning challenges, then you might want to check into another program Reading Kingdom has developed called ADS Reading.

Who is Dr. Blank?

Dr. Marion Blank is known around the world as a literacy expert. She developed and directed the Light on Literacy Program. She has served on the faculty of Columbia University. She lectures around the world, and has authored several peer-reviewed articles and books. Dr. Blank has developed award winning teaching programs. She is the author of the Reading Remedy and creator of the Reading Kingdom.

Video
Here is a short video about Reading Kingdom:

How We Used Reading Kingdom In Our Home

I was thrilled for my kids to have the opportunity to use Reading Kingdom. We were given a one year subscription in exchange for writing an honest review about our experience.

My kids have been using the Reading Kingdom program for about 6 weeks, and have practiced almost daily during our language arts study time since getting the program. I am using this program with my three youngest kids, ages 6, 8, and 10. The 8 year old is the most consistent user. He has averaged 4.3 days per week. The 10 year old has averaged 3 days per week. The 6 year old has an average of 2.3 days per week.

Sometimes the 6 year old isn’t as motivated as the 8 year old and 10 year old are to sit at the computer. I think he has stopped a few times before his lesson was completely finished for the day, and I am not sure if that reduces the average number of days counted. I think he will become more motivated to finish each lesson as he gains more skills.

This is our second time to use this program and I can see similarities in the ages in regards to skills and motivation. We had a subscription to Reading Kingdom three years ago and the kids learned a lot at that time and loved it. We were excited to see how much they have improved since then.

Each child has two options when starting the program. The first option is for those starting at the beginning level and are just learning to read. They can start at the very beginning with the very first lesson session. The second option is to take a placement test to find out what skills the child already knows and where they should be placed. The placement test has two parts, a keyboard typing test and a sequencing test.

Typing & Keyboard Test

These placement tests help the parent, and the Reading Kingdom program understand what skills the student already knows, and what skills they have yet to learn. Because Reading Kingdom is an adaptable reading program, it responds to the child’s skill level and their ongoing progress. It also recognizes what they don’t know because of the mistakes they are making, and provides extra support and training in those areas. This helps customize the program to their learning level.

Sequencing Test

Since he is a beginning reader, I had my 6 year old start at the beginning level without taking the placement tests. My 8 year old son and 10 year old daughter both took the placement test. They took the letter sequencing test and a keyboard typing test.

The placement test put the 8 year old a little above where I thought it would. He is a strong reader and quick learner and did well on the placement test. It placed him on Level 3. However the 10 year old struggled more while taking the test, as it is timed and she is slower to answer even if she knows the answer, and it started her in the middle of Level 1. Both she and I thought she would place on a higher level. It seem to us that because she struggled with speed on the placement test is the reason why she started at a lower level, and not because she didn’t know the answer. Though she was a bit disappointed at first, it has turned out to be good review for her to go back over many of the words and practice them, and the parent report is showing she is getting an “excellent” score on her lesson sessions.

After the tests, and placement, then each kid can begin their sessions. The program is set up to do 1 session a day, though you can do more. After they log in, each of my kids have a dash board that shows their progress.

On the parent dashboard, I can go in to a tab and choose to review reports, change the level or speed for responses, or even set it to retake the test if needed. For now, I have left everything at the default speed and mainly use my dashboard to review the reports. Reports can also be downloaded and sent by email too. I like the parent dashboard because it gives me a basic summary of how each child is progressing, what words they are learning and what words they are struggling with.

As a parent, I know each of my kids learn differently, some are fast and some are slow at picking up certain skills. It is nice to have a curriculum that can adapt to their learning styles.

When my kids complete a level (or test out of a level) they have the option to print a diploma certificate for that level.

I would encourage other homeschool families to check out Reading Kingdom. You can help your child achieve reading proficiency when you team up with Reading Kingdom for the Phonics Plus solution to help your child succeed.

FREE

Try before you buy with FREE Sample Lessons. Reading Kingdom also offers a FREE Trial Offer, free worksheets, and many other free resources too. They also have special discount offers to choose from when you subscribe.

Social Media

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IEW Teacher and Student Writing Package Review

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If you haven’t yet heard of the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) curriculum company, I would encourage you to check them out. We were sent their Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, Student Writing Intensive Level A Package for review. This would be a great curriculum to add to your schedule this coming school year.

Teaching Writing / Student Writing Package Level A

Package Combo Retails for $249 (Save $49.00!)

Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVD seminar

Student Writing Intensive Level A

For Elementary Grades 3-5.

What We Received

Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVD Package Level A:

12 Seminar DVDs

Nine DVDs with instruction on the nine structural models and multiple stylistic techniques (14 hours total viewing time).
Three DVDs of sample Student Workshops at four different grade levels.

TWSS Seminar and Practicum Workbook

3 ring binder with dividers and printouts. The binder serves as the syllabus and workbook for the seminar and contains charts, word lists, sample lesson plans, and more.

1 year Online Subscription

Streaming video of the entire Teaching Writing: Structure and Style teacher training course, providing instruction on the nine structural models and multiple stylistic techniques (14 hours total viewing time—may be watched all at once, or viewed one disc at a time throughout the school year)
Streaming video of sample Student Workshops at four different grade levels to help you with the first lesson
Free access to our monthly training webinars, August through May
Audio MP3 downloads of Andrew Pudewa’s most popular conference talks
Several PDF downloads

Student Writing Intensive Level A
5 DVDs
SWI Level A Student Notebook with student handouts, a student 3 ring binder with dividers, and daily lesson suggestions for the teacher/parent

Here is the author Dr. Pudewa, explaining more about the program.

How We Used IEW Writing Curriculum

We did a trial run for a few weeks at the end of our school year to see if we want to include this curriculum in our studies this fall. I was really impressed with the quality of the materials we recieved. The 3 ring binders are heavy duty and we were sent over 100 pages plus nice dividers to put into each of them and help us stay organized and on plan. The case that holds the Teachers Seminar DVD’s is really nice too.

I found the Level A Package to be a wonderful writing program and useful for teaching English to Elementary 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. This curriculum fits right into our life right now as we have several in this grade range, and some older ones who can sharpen their skills too. This program is helping improve my skills as a teacher so really all of my children will benefit from this.

For this review, I used this program with my 12 year old to help him get a better understanding and improve his writing skills. This program will work great for older students who might not like writing. My 12 year old does not enjoy writing and would much rather do math. This curriculum would also be useful for teaching English as a Second Language, and also for remedial learning for older students who need more practice with writing skills.

IEW has put so much together for the parent teacher. The Teacher Seminar gives you the tools you need to confidently teach your students to write well, think and express themselves clearly. It helps parent teachers learn how to effectively teach their kids to:

Outline and summarize
Write paragraphs
Create stories
Write critiques and reports
Develop essays
Communicate their thoughts and ideas into writing
Change sentence structure
Use vocabulary in interesting ways

When we first received the materials, I put the binder notebooks together. Then I viewed the lesson on the corresponding disk in the Teacher’s Seminar DVD’s before having my son watch it with me. Then we watched the lesson together, and followed the teacher notes and presented the lesson to my son.

The lessons are designed to do one a week, but some students will take two weeks to do a lesson. The teacher’s portion of teaching the lesson and use of the DVD takes about 1 hour at the start of the week. Then he can work on the daily practice assignments the rest of the week. We did not need to watch the Student version of Structure and Style overview as it is basically the same as the teachers DVD.

After watching the Lesson on the DVD, we used the checklists to complete the lesson assignment. The workbook has sample assignments and ideas to help, and there are also student workshop videos to watch that can help give more ideas on implementing the lesson. I found these to be very helpful. In a nut shell so to speak, my son is learning how to create an outline from a paragraph using key words. Then learning how to use his outline to write and add adverbs and verbs to make it more interesting. He is learning to be more creative in writing stories.

Our first few weeks of lessons:

Teacher’s Notes: Lesson 1

“Sea Snakes”

Key Word Outline,

Composition Checklist

Key Word Sentence: 1 word

Key Word Sentence: 2-5 words

Key Word Sentence: 6 words

“Desert Tarantula” Optional Resource

Repeat steps learned

“Pillbug” and Composition Checklist

Repeat steps learned

Teacher’s Notes: Lesson 2

“The Boy and the Nuts”

“The Cocks and the Eagle”

Once we complete the first lesson in the teacher’s seminar (or student set), we can move ahead and master the material in the next one. Not all of the lessons use the disk system, some can be completed without it. For example, Lesson 1 used the disk, but Lesson 2 did not. You can easily keep track of what’s what as everything is layed out very nice and easy to follow. I am saving the rest of the work to begin in the Fall at the start of our school year.

IEW

IEW Review

Before we start our next school year, I hope to get a couple of my boys set up with this curriculum too so they can work through it together. You are allowed to make copies of the student workbook for use within the same family, so this will be really nice to have the boys working on this together and strengthen their writing skills.

There are some additional items available through IEW to help with this curriculum. I hope to purchase the Portable Word Walls and A Word Write Now before our Fall school year begins too. IEW also has a clearance section and you can find a lot of discontinued items there. Many of these are previous versions that have now been updated. For example, I found some Word Walls and Bible Based Writing Lessons workbook on clearance for 4th-12th grades. Kids learn to outline bible passages, diagram them, and write paragraphs retelling the story. There are also US History Writing Lessons too. How cool is that?

I can really see how this curriculum is going to help my kids learn how to write with excellence and help me learn how to better help them too. I am thrilled to schedule this material for their daily writing curriculum for the coming school year.

I hope you will check it out IEW, and all of their various writing curriculum products and see if their curriculum would be a good fit for your family too.

Social Media

Be sure to follow IEW on social media for all the latest news and product updates.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/iewriting
Vimeo http://vimeo.com/iewtv
Twitter https://twitter.com/iew
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv
Google+ https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/
Blog http://iew.com/help-support/blog

Be sure to check out what other homeschool families on the Schoolhouse Review Crew had to say about using IEW writing products with their families.

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Fix It Grammar Review

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Grammar (the process of learning and using correct grammatical rules in language) is in my opinion, one of those subjects that can be either difficult to learn or fun to learn depending on the method being used to teach it. How do you motivate students to learn grammatical rules?

IEW

Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) is a company that specializes in teaching grammatical rules in fun and creative ways to students of all ages. We reviewed IEW’s Fix It Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) Teacher’s Manual and Fix It Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) Student Workbook curriculum.

IEW has a large body of curriculum options to fit many different levels of learning. The grade / skill levels IEW curriculum options include:

Level Primary (Grades K–2)
Level A (Grades 3-5)
Level B (Grades 6-8)
Level C (Grades 9–12)
Special Needs
English Language Learners
College Students
Teacher Helps

There is no way I could tell you about all of the various creative curriculum options at IEW, so I encourage you to stop over to their website and take a look around.

FIX IT GRAMMAR

We were recently sent IEW’s Fix It Grammar curriculum for grades 3 through 12 to review.

Fix It Grammar teaches a grammar mastery method that includes six progressive levels of learning grammatical skills. Each level has its own spiral bound student workbook and spiral bound teaching manual. Each level builds upon the skills learned and practiced in the previous level.

It is recommended to spend 15 minutes a day and complete 1 lesson a week, for 33 weeks, to complete a year’s worth of lessons. The great thing about homeschooling is that it is a personal approach to education and you can work through lessons faster or slower depending on what you and your student needs. You can take a free placement test to see what Fix It Grammar level your student should begin at.

We received Fix It Grammar:The Nose Tree (Book 1) Teacher Manual 229 pages spiral bound, retails $19.00; and also Fix It Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) Student Manual 126 pages spiral bound, retails for $15.00.

Inside the student workbook, each lesson is progressive builds on the skills learned in the previous lesson. The student workbook is a complete year of grammar curriculum divided into 33 lessons, 132 vocabulary words, glossary of grammar, and flash cards. My son is working on one lesson per week.

At the top of each page in the workbook it is labeled as week 1, week 2, week 3 and so on. Every two pages that face each other comprise a weeks worth of lessons. For each lesson, there is a Learn It section, and a Fix It section, Discuss It section, and Copy It section. In the Learn It section you learn a grammatical rule that you will put into practice during the week. There are corresponding punch out flashcards in the back of the book that contain each grammatical rule and your student is encouraged to use them to help remember what rules they have learned. In the Fix It section, there is reading of a few sentences, Vocabulary words to look up, and sentences that are to be fixed in the workbook. In the Copy It section your student will re-write the corrected sentences in their own notebook.

I had my son work in his student workbook for 15 to 20 minutes a day. He could have easily done more work on this curriculum some days, because he actually liked learing with it and he was motivated to complete the writing exercises. This totally surprised me because the only time he likes to use written words seems to be when he is typing on the computer. He states “I don’t like learning grammar rules because they are a bottomless pit with no end. ENGLISH is nuts! Why do I have to learn this?” Now, he says “I like this, it isn’t hard to do, and makes sense. I like that I am accomplishing something instead of just random facts or rules.” I know he is not alone in feeling this way. I think it becomes more boring to learn grammatical rules as kids get a little older. I am not sure why, but I just bet that you could stroll through almost any American middle school, highschool, or college Language and Arts / English classroom, and most of those students in class are bored to tears or are struggling to write and re-write their essays! So this is very positive that he likes the Fix It Grammar curriculum. The fact that he is progressively learning to re-write a story and will have a correctly written masterpiece when he is through is the motivation. He hates to fail. He is excited just knowing if he follows the step by step activities, he can’t fail, but will succeed.

I recommend IEW curriculum products for homeschool families. The list of curriculum options available is wonderful and covers many creative fun ways to get your kids interested in writing and writing well. I have a big wish list of their products I hope to obtain in our homeschool. This is our second IEW curriculum product to use in our homeschool, and I believe it is a great addition to our homeschool learning curriculum.

MEDIA LINKS

Check out IEW media links for all the latest news and updates.

Webinar: http://iew.com/events-classes/webinars/intro-to-fix-it-grammar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iew

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/iewriting

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/posts

Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/iewtv

Be sure to check out what other homeschool families on the TOS Schoolhouse Review Crew had to say about using Fix It Grammar in their home.