CursiveLogic {A Review}

 

CursiveLogic was founded out of necessity. A young man, older than the average age of learning cursive wanted to learn cursive.  His reading tutor Linda Shrewsbury discovered an easier way.  CursiveLogic teaches the entire cursive lowercase alphabet in just 4 lessons.

We were lucky enough to receive the CursiveLogic Workbook to be able to use it with my high school son. Now he had already learned cursive, but it wasn’t his favorite, print was still his penmanship of choice. We knew in order to write essays for his upcoming college exams he would need to feel totally comfortable writing in cursive.

CursiveLogic uses a simple formula to teach cursive.  In just 4 lessons you will learn (or relearn) to write the entire lowercase alphabet in cursive.  Each lesson goes over one of the 4 shapes. 

Now after that first young man was taught cursive so quickly using this method, Ms. Shrewsbury has taught cursive using this method to many people of all different ages and backgrounds. 

This method was born through a well educated individual. Linda Shrewsbury is the primary author of the CursiveLogic curriculum. Linda graduated from Harvard University in 1974 with a concentration in economics. In 2007, she received a Masters in International Studies from Oklahoma State University. In addition to homeschooling her own three children for 13 years, Linda has been privileged to work as a teacher and a college professor in both private and public institutions. But CursiveLogic was not born from the ivory towers of higher learning. Linda created CursiveLogic to meet the needs of one special student who simply wanted to learn to sign his name.

Let me tell you a little bit about the method. There are 4 basics to it.

Letters grouped by shape ― Four foundational shapes underlie the entire lowercase alphabet. Rather than teaching the letters alphabetically, CursiveLogic groups the lowercase alphabet into four groups based on the shape of the initial stroke of the letters and teaches all of the similarly-shaped letters in a single lesson.  Letters are also taught in a specific order that reinforces the pattern.  By teaching all of the similar letters together, CursiveLogic captures the natural synergy of the alphabet itself, allowing each letter in the series to reinforce the proper formation of all the others.

Letter strings ― CursiveLogic captures the flow of cursive by teaching all of the similarly shaped letters in a connected string rather than as individual letters. CursiveLogic’s letter strings teach students to connect letters from the first lesson, allowing students to internalize the flow of cursive handwriting even before they have learned all 26 letters.

CursiveLogic also uses visual and auditory cues to reinforce the shape patterns:

Theme colors — Each shape string has a color—orange ovals, lime loops, silver swings, and mauve mounds—that reinforces the formation of the basic common shape.

Verbal task analysis — Students learn a simple, rhythmical chant that describes the path of the writing instrument as the letter shapes are formed.  The process of verbally describing a motor task while performing it aids the acquisition of new motor skills. 

A day/week in our life:

Now, with my son already having learnt cursive.  We planned on using this as more of a review and to up his comfort level in writing in cursive.  I originally wanted him to use this workbook daily.  Once I saw it and we began he only ended up using it about twice per week. His cursive has improved so much in just the first two weeks of using it. 

Our thoughts and feelings:

I asked my son what he thought.  He said that it takes the pressure of remembering each letter and trying for perfection. You practice the 4 shapes and get those down and you can write any letter with ease.  He said that it focuses his mind on what shape he should be writing instead of what letter he is writing and that makes him feel like he can think more clearly.

Check out CursiveLogic on social media here:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cursivelogic
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ilovecursive
Instagram: http://instagram.com/cursivelogic

As you can imagine with all the controversy over continuing to teach cursive they stand on the side of keep cursive alive!  Join them in their crusade to keep cursive.

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

 

Vocabulary Using WordBuild.

My daughter loves vocabulary.  She feels the more words she learns the smarter she is.  It’s been a strange thing to me how many words she wants to know.

When Dynamic Literacy offered WordBuild: Elements, Level 1 Set (Includes WordBuild the Game) for review I was very grateful to be able to receive it for her.

 

About The Company:

Dynamic Literacy is a company that is based on frequently used Latin and Greek roots. The program is a collection of educational materials designed to communicate the structure of the English language to students of all ages.

About The Product:

WordBuild: Elements, Level 1 Set (Includes WordBuild the Game) 

This set includes 3 main things:

**Elements 1 Teachers Edition - a 336 page guide which includes:

• Fun facts and alerts about each root
• Guidance for how to use each exercise
• Exercise answer keys
• A weekly “check-up” for each root
• Units that review every prefix and suffix used
• A mini-dictionary for each of the 25 roots
• A comprehensive and a mid-term assessment
• A free on-line account to the Dynamic Literacy website for bonus content

**Student Activity Book - a 156 page workbook that covers 25 Latin & Greek Root Families. This book contains four activities for each root, plus appendices with practice activities for prefixes and suffixes, and even root bingo game boards.

**WordBuild the Game Looking for some fun? WordBuild the Game illustrates the formula WORD = Prefix +Root + Suffix with movement, music, and entertaining feedback.

The way of teaching Dynamic Literacy uses a simple process of learning.

Learn 3 roots.

Learn 3 prefixes.

Learn 3 suffixes.

Put them together and you learn 48 words. 

This is better explained here.

A day/week in our life:

Each Day for about 15 minutes Emily would work in Elements.

For a sample of the daily worksheets from both the teacher and student book see here.  We followed the plan pretty much as written.  Each day was written out simply in the teachers manual.  Each work page she was supposed to do that day was made clearly. She would just do the days work.  When it said for the teacher to write down the word on the board, I didn’t.  We would just discuss it like the book said. 

Our thoughts and feelings:

At first Emily was not enjoying this.  She felt overwhelmed.  I had her keep at it and she soon realized that she was learning new words faster than her word of the day calendar or any other way.  She was learning words at a rate of about 50 per week.  She was retaining the words better due to the fact that they are taught as based around a root word.

This program is generally recommended for children in grades 6-12.  She is in 8th/9th grade and this fit her previous knowledge.  She is not only learning words and their definitions, she is able to use them in a sentence correctly. 

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

 

IEW Student Writing Intensive & Teaching Writing with Structure and Style

 

I just want to let you know up front that this review is going to be quite long and it’s just that Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) has so much to offer.

They sent me one of their Deluxe Combinations. Since I have a 10 year old in 4th grade I received Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] PLUS A Word Write Now and Portable Walls

About The Company:

IEW is a company that realizes in order for children to succeed they need to be able to communicate confidently and effectively. Their goal is to be able to assist you throughout the entire process of learning to write well.

IEW has a long interesting history which originally dates clear back to the 1930’s.  Andrew Pudewa brought it to the United States in the 1990’s.

Ever since then Andrew Pudewa and IEW have taken the homeschool world by storm with not only their award winning programs but their 100% guarantee.

About The Product:

Like I said earlier I received a Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] PLUS A Word Write Now and Portable Walls.

This seems like a mouth full.  It also at first sight seems very overwhelming.  I am going to try to make this review simplify it as much as possible so that you can see it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.  I know when I first began using IEW I felt very overwhelmed. It’s just that they offer so much.

Let’s dig in!

The Deluxe Combo includes

• Teaching Writing: Structure & Style DVD set
• This DVD seminar will teach you how to teach writing the IEW way. The things you learn in this DVD can be used with any age child and therefor with any level in the IEW system.  A total of 12 DVD’s are in this seminar.  9 of them are the seminar. Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch them all at once.  Just watch them as you go.  The other 3 DVD’s have student work samples from all ages and levels of students so you can understand and get a feel for how things look.
• Seminar Workbook
• This binder has a syllabus for the class as well as charts, word lists, sample lesson plans, and more.  This is not a stand alone product.  It is designed to be used with the Structure and Style DVD set.
• Student Writing Intensive DVDs Level A, including the Structure & Style Overview
• These 4 DVD writing videos are geared toward children at the level of grades 3-5. It is also worth mentioning that each level is based on your child having no previous writing experience. 
• Student Notebook with handouts and lesson plans
• This is a 3 ring binder which includes student handouts, complete teacher's notes, source texts, assignments, and checklists.
• Fix-It! Grammar, Books 1 and 2 with downloadable student e-books
• These books make learning grammar simple. Each day you spend about 5-15 minutes grammatically correcting a sentence.  The sentences will collectively tell a story.

• A Word Write Now
• This book is a thesaurus of sorts. I say of sorts because it is so much more in depth than many other thesauruses. There are only appropriate choices.  The parts of speech are listed next to the words for younger students.  

• Portable Walls
• No, not the kind of wall I can remodel my house with, but the kind of wall that can surround your student while they are doing their writing.  This wall has great poster like features with out having to hang writing posters all over your house.

 

A day/week in our life:

It took me about a week to be able to begin using this with my daughter after I had received it.  I immediately began listening to the Structure & Style DVD Set. I was able to do this late at night after I put my kids in bed while I was cleaning my kitchen. Once I had watched about 3 hours of it, I felt ready to dive into beginning to teach my 4th grader.  I took the next few days to look over the materials and plan out our schedule. I have previously used IEW materials so I was somewhat familiar with them.

We decided to do the FIX IT Grammar program daily. Five days per week.

I would watch about 3 hours of the Structure & Style DVD a week.

Katey would do 1/2 of a unit of the Student Writing Intensive each week.  Which isn’t intensive at all.  Andrew Pudewa has a sense of humor and makes the writing fun and funny. He breaks it down into simple steps. That when followed create writers.

 

Our thoughts and feelings:

I was shocked at how well IEW worked for my 4th grader.  I know I shouldn’t have been.  I used IEW Level B with my older two children.  My 10 year old learns different than my older two do and learns at a different pace. So I went into this review with the expectation of “ahh, well, I guess I’ll give it a try.”  I am ecstatic to say that my non-writing 10 year old is writing things on her own now outside of our writing time.  She is journaling and writing down lists and things. This program has worked for such a wide variety of learners just in my household.

IEW can be found all over social media:

https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting
https://www.pinterest.com/iewriting
http://vimeo.com/iewtv
https://twitter.com/iew
https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv
http://iew.com/help-support/blog
https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

 

Field Trip Journals

Apologia Educational Ministries is a company that I have been a fan of since I began homeschooling over 5 years ago.
They have come out with a new type of product, once which I have never seen anything like it before.  I am lucky to have been chosen to review it.
It is their new Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal. 


About The Company:
 Apologia Educational Ministries, in my opinion, is most well known for their science selection of products.  They have won multiple awards in many categories.  While they do offer a wide variety of products from basic curriculum to online classes and more, one of the really neat things that they do is fully support the homeschooling community by holding retreats.  Some of them are online and some of them are live!


About The Product:

The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is simple really. It is over 60 pages ready for your creativity to be added. 
It begins with some preparing for a field trip tips. While most of us are mommas and know how to take our kids out places, this section offers some helpful tips to make the most out of the field trip. 
The next section talks about Field Trip ideas.  This is divided into 10 categories.  Each category has a list of field trip ideas, some are simple, some are extravagant.  There is also a password to log into the book online for even more ideas!
The next section is about “Places I’ve Explored.”  There is a 2 page spread for places in your state, another one for places in the United States, and the final 2 page spread is for places all over the world.
Our favorite part comes next.
It is the section called “Field Trip Pages.”  This section is used for specific field trips. This section has you take personal notes, either on the field trip or when you get back, (once my kids even did it in the car on the way home).  There is a place to draw something that has to do with the trip. A place to list any books you read in preparation for this field trip.   There is a section where you would write down the “Story of my day” and a section to write down “something I never want to forget.”
The next part is “My Special Spot.”  This is for a spot in the wild that you will visit 4 times a year, once each season, and you will document what you see, hear, feel.  Paying attention to all the details you would nature journal this spot, noticing the progressive changes over the seasons.
The “As I See It” pages come next.  In this section you would use your imagination to document your experiences.  This section could be used for journaling with words, with photographs, with drawings, with doodles, or any way you wanted.
The openness and opportunity within this book is only limited by your imagination.
Check out the sample pages by clicking the link on this page!

A day/week in our life:
 
We received our Field Trip Journal just in time. We are a field trip taking family.  We like to be out and about.  One of the big field trips we took shortly after we received this book was to our local Renaissance Faire.  This was our first time going to something like this. It was pretty exciting.

Our thoughts and feelings:
Usually I would just take pictures of us at our field trips with my phone, blogging about some of them.  Other than that they never got written down.  Everything was from my point of view. It was eye opening to see the things the kids noticed and wanted in the journal. I am really enjoying having somewhere specific that is meant for this type of journaling, otherwise it wouldn’t get done.



Apologia can be found all over social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apologiaworld/timeline
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apologiaworld
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/apologia/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/105053356034237782125

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.
 

The Book of Ancient Romans Set {A review}

Memoria Press is a company who’s products we have used many times in our homeschooling journey.

We were very blessed to receive The Book of Ancient Romans Set for review.

About The Company:

Memoria Press is a family run publishing company that was founded in 1994 to help promote and transmit the classical heritage of the Christian West.  When Cheryl Lowe- “One of the Most Admired Women” of 2014 founded the company she wanted an emphasis on liberal arts and the great works of the Western tradition. 

About The Product:

The Book of the Ancient Romans Set is geared toward grades 6-9. As you will see, I used it with my 10th grader.  This set

The set includes:

• The Book of the Ancient Romans, this book was originally written is the 1920’s by Dorothy Mills and has been brought back into publication with added illustrations through Memoria Press.   The book itself is over 400 pages, but broken down into chapters.  According to the table of contents you only do one chapter per lesson. 
• The Student Book, this book is full of things like the facts to know section, the vocabulary section (your student actually has to fill in the definitions here), comprehension questions (your student actually fills in the answers here).  There is an activity section, the activities are things like map work, timeline work, diagraming, researching, writing and more.
• The Teacher Guide, this book mimics the student book with answers and answer guidelines written in.

Sample pages of all of these books can be found here.

A day/week in our life:

When I got these I planned on using them with my 10th grade son.  I laid out an easy lesson plan with him, breaking the entire 5 units with 26 lessons, 5 reviews and 5 unit tests over 26 weeks. We have had it for about 6 weeks before writing this review and my son is already on lesson 12.  He has been almost doubling what I had assigned. Not because it is too easy either.  It’s because he is actually enjoying learning.  He is not a huge history lover and it’s because he doesn’t enjoy getting creative and doing projects.  He has loved the style of this history.  Read the assigned pages, do the assigned work in the student book and be done.

Our thoughts and feelings:

I personally haven’t ever been disappointed with anything Memoria Press that we have used, and this was no exception.  I was actually surprised at how much my son jumped ahead on this one.  He said he likes it because it gets straight to the point and there is no fluff.The fact that he likes this history so much taught me a lot about his learning style.  As much as I cringe at workbook style learning, that is what my son likes.  I know he is learning also.  He brings up conversations about things he has been reading and learning about without me even asking him.

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

 

S is for Smiling Sunrise {a review}

WordsBright is a small independent publisher dedicated to learning. Their focus is on children’s books that are both fun and educational.

Their very first publications is S is for Smiling Sunrise.  A very cute children’s ABC book written by Vick Wadhwa for his daughter and he has decided to share it with the world.

Let’s start with the care that has gone into this book.  First, the book was definitely created with children in mind.

The book is made with high quality, CPSIA-compliant materials. It is also carefully designed to support children’s vocabulary, language, and character development.

The book is a neat.  I really enjoyed reading this book to my children as well as they loved having it read to them, or even reading it themselves.

As you travel through the alphabet with things like E is for Evening, or K is for Kaleidoscope, S is for Smiling Sunrise and U is for Universe.  You can see that this book was uniquely written and the explanations under the quality illustrations are just as neat. 

There are both the uppercase letter and the lower case on the page. Then the word.  Below the word is the picture and the saying.  Let’s use U.

U is for Universe

Sun and moon and stars

Earth and planets, spinning comets

Galaxies so far!

There is a really simply done teachers tips guide that is offered for FREE.  There is one for Pre-K and one for K-3. You can download those from the sight.  The teachers guide gives each letter/ page of the book some suggestions for you to do with your child.  There are concepts discussed, questions to ask, vocabulary and activities to do.

For example, U is for Universe; for the concepts you read about what the universe is. For the questions you discuss what the universe is, it’s size, who lives there and where you live in the universe.  For the vocabulary there are words like universe, sun, moon, stars, and more. For the activities you could visit a science museum, or look through a telescope.

Oh and did I mention, that they offer you a FREE MP3 download of the book being read is sing song form.  SO FUN!

Our thoughts and opinions:

We enjoyed the book.  I love the quality.  You can feel it in the pages.  Not those easy to rip pages where your children tear the books “accidentally” and then BAM book shreds to pieces everywhere.  The illustrations were just right, not too simple, not too complicated. 

This book is so different, in a good way to any ABC book I have ever seen.

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

 

SUCCESSFUL Homeschooling Made EASY! {A Review}

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy was created by Stephanie Walmsley.  She is a homeschooling mother of 5, who loves spending time with family and friends.  She dislikes windy weather and bad drivers.  She is also so much more.  She has the experience and know how of how to not only homeschool, but to homeschool successfully!

She has chosen to share her insight with all of us through Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course.

This 26 lesson course is done with one lesson a week.  Upon signing up for the course you will immediately be emailed your first lesson.  This lesson doesn’t beat around the bush.  It gets right down to it on how you can easily start homeschooling today!  Even if you’re not brand new to homeschooling it can help you to start an improved homeschool life.

Some of the things that the lessons cover are:

• Practicalities,

• Schedules,

• Lesson plans,

• Organization,

• Planning,

• Teaching,

• Housekeeping,

• Extracurricular activities,

• How to choose curriculum,

• And much more.

Take the time to sit back and relax as you create a successful homeschool.  You will need to devote some time to this, not much, about 30 or so minutes a week for the lesson and then another 30 or so minutes a week for the homework.   I know that this hour a week can be hard to find.  I’ve been there.  When I began this, I thought how can I create more time by spending time on something else.  It happened.  I feel like I am still doing the same amount of stuff, but I have more time.

Let’s see what the typical lessons look like:

 

Each lesson will begin with a preface. This will gear you up for what you are about to learn. 

Then the meat of the lesson.  Sometimes you will answer questions that are specific to your family and your situation.  These questions get you thinking.  You may read some examples of other homeschooling families and their routines.  You will evaluate how things are going so far.  You will incorporate what you are learning into your life.

The lesson ends with a summary, an assignment. Usually, the assignment consists of spending time answering any questions you didn’t get to, do any recommended reading, taking care of yourself and incorporating something new into your schedule, (like doing art one day this week).  The end of the lesson will also give you a small preview into the next weeks lesson.

A day/week in our life:

Each week I would receive my lesson and immediately print it off.  I would add it to my binder and then let it set.  I wouldn’t get to it right away.  After getting through the first few weeks of lessons, I decided to create a special time to do this.  I began by choosing a day of the week to sit outside on my front porch alone and spend time with myself on the lesson at hand. 

When I first started, I felt rushed.  I felt like I needed to just get through the lessons quickly.  By the time I moved it to outside me time, I noticed I spent a lot more time on the lessons.  I realized I was getting more out of each lesson. 

Our thoughts and feelings:

While I have homeschooled for about 6 years, I gleaned a lot of great advice from this course so far.  It has helped me to find myself and be okay with who we are.  I discovered even more so that I don’t have to fit in with the stereotypical norm of a homeschooling family.  Actually, I discovered that there really isn’t a norm. 

The biggest thing I have gotten from the course so far is a higher self confidence of who we are and why we homeschool.

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy can be found on social media here:

Facebook

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

 

La La Logic ~ A Preschool Curriculum {A Review}

La La Logic is a company that strongly believes in the combination of online Brain Challenges, printable worksheets, and enrichment activities. Together these create a strong critical thinking foundation in your child that will result in an enhanced capacity for learning.

They have created a 100 week Preschool Curriculum to teach children ages 3-6 critical thinking and logic skills. The Preschool Curriculum is based on multiple popular IQ tests. (See this page and scroll about half way down to see the list)

When you purchase this curriculum you get a lifetime membership to use with multiple children (up to five). There is no time limit on how long you take to complete it with your child.

The curriculum is broken down into 3 main parts.

1. The Brain Challenge

2. The Worksheet

3. The Extension Activities

During The Brain Challenge your child spends time on either the computer, iPad, Android Tablet, or Mac doing some interactive activities.  Each activity gets more complex as they pass the previous ones off.

The Worksheet portion gets kids using their problem solving and critical thinking skills as well as fine motor skills as they will need to color, cut and paste the worksheets. The first time I printed out the teacher plan, which I will explain below, I made the mistake of printing it double sided and then my son had to cut the worksheet, which in turn, cut up the enrichment activity.  Don’t make that same silly mistake.   

The Extension activities vary from things like word games, scavenger hunts, stories, narration, solving puzzles, dramatic play, picture study, copywork, nature study and more.

These activities usually got done over 2 days the suggested days were Tuesday and Thursday.  You would spend the first day reading a provided story to your child, then on Thursday see if they could remember what happened and narrate it back to you.  You would also discuss the story some more with some given questions.

There is also an area where your child can just play the extension activities and go on and on.  This is a fun way for them to play on a device while still learning some preschool logic games.

Now back to the beginning.  When you first log into the site there are two choices for you.  One says Home- Students.  The other one says Continuous Brain Challenge Mode. For the first week of using this I could not figure out how to get to the lessons, I kept having my son use the Continuous Brain Challenge Mode.  When I finally discovered the weekly lesson plans I felt so silly.  They were right there above where I was clicking for him to play and learn on the Continuous Brain Challenge Mode.

Under each student you will have the choice of La La Logic Curriculum or Extra Practice.

If you click on La La Logic Curriculum it will take you to a section that has 20 of these cute little chalkboards.  Each chalkboard is labeled as a set, like Set 1, Set 2, etc. Each set has 5 weeks worth of lessons in it.  Once you click on the week you are in a suggested weekly schedule appears along with the weeks Brain Challenges and the downloads you will use that week. There is also a section for you (the parent/teacher) to make some notes, and mark the lesson as complete.

 

 

A day/week in our life:

How did you use the product?

Once we got going correctly we used the curriculum exactly as it suggested. The weekly schedule looked like this.

Monday- Brain Challenge

Tuesday- Enrichment Activity

Wednesday- Brain Challenge and Worksheet

Thursday- Enrichment Set

Friday- Off.

Each day took about 10 minutes total with the exception of Wednesday which took between 10 and 20 minutes.  This was the perfect amount of time for my little guys attention span. He is at the high end of the age for this with him being 5, but he really enjoyed it. 

Our thoughts and feelings:

Each lesson is completely laid out for you and I mean completely.  This was the easiest- on me – curriculum ever as far as teacher prep went.  We would log in and he would usually work on his iPad while I printed out the weeks stuff and then we would just come to it each day and do what it said.  This was so simple one week I even had my 14 year old teach him and she understood it all perfectly without having to have me explain to her what to do.  I also really appreciated the fact that you could play the logic games and not mess up where we were at in the lessons by using the Continuous Brain Challenge.  This allowed my 10 year old to play some of the games too. After she saw her little brother playing some games during school, you know she wanted to try them out too.

To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.