USAopoly Review

Homeschooling isn't all about books and learning. Our family loves to incorporate fun into our days, especially since we still have a house full of little ones. I'm a big believer of learning through play during the younger years. Games are a great way to have fun while increasing some skills without the kids even realizing it. We were happy to receive two games from USAopoly: Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game and Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone.

USAopoly is a company that is all about fun and games. They have been a leading developer and manufacturer of puzzles and board games "with a twist" since 1994. Their products are designed to bring friends and families together by creating memorable moments and emotional connections. When the company's values are "bring a smile, play fair, do it right, honor your word, and give it your best," you know the products are going to portray it.

Wonky is the crazy cubes card game. Players build towers using oddly-shaped blocks that come in 3 different sizes and 3 different colors. The game comes with 9 custom blocks, 54 strategy cards, storage bag, and rules, all packaged in a wonky, misshapen box. Players take turns choosing cards that show which type of block to add or an action to complete. The first person to play all his cards or who successfully plays the 9th block on the tower wins.

Some examples of the cards are

• Stack the large blue block
• Stack the small purple block
• Stack any size, any color block / The next player draws a card
• Pass turn to next player without stacking a block
• Stack any color medium block
• Stack any color, any size block
• Reverse the direction of lay without stacking a block

What a fun, silly game this is! Like I said, we have a house full of littles, and little ones haven't quite honed the skills needed to stack crooked blocks, ha. We've played a few times with the cards, but mostly the kids just like to take turns choosing blocks to add to the wobbly tower. I'll even find them each playing by themselves sometimes, concentrating on stacking all the blocks. I love that they have to use strategy and building sense to make it work. My husband, with his engineer's mind, is definitely the best at the game. It'll be even more fun, I'm sure, as the kiddos get older and can understand the tactics of playing certain cards to sabotage their opponents.   

The blocks and the pack of cards fit comfortably in the canvas drawstring bag, so it's convenient and space-saving to store the game in just that, rather than the cute, bulky box. 

Tapple is fast word fun for the whole family. It contains the portable Tapple wheel (requires 2 AA batteries), 144 categories on 36 cards, and rules. The cards fit conveniently in a compartment on the back of the wheel, making the game easy to store. Players choose a category and start the timer. Then they take turns naming a word that fits the category, tap the corresponding letter for the beginning of the word, and press the button to reset the timer. The next person has 10 seconds to pick a word starting with a letter that has not been used and reset the timer again.


Categories include the following:

• Countries
• Something Red
• Boy Names
• Books
• Candy
• Fictional Characters
• Furniture
• In the Ocen
• and so many more

I love word games! This one is fast-paced and lots of fun. The younger kids like to play, but quickly get frustrated because of their inexperienced spelling abilities. The older kids though really enjoy playing. There are so many great category topics (like Bible Characters and Family Members), but we like to make up our own too, to make it a little easier for the little ones. We'll also play without starting the timer and just press the letters. The lack of pressure from the ticking causes less stress and makes it more enjoyable when the younger ones get frustrated. The letters pop back with a simple twist at the top of the wheel. This game, especially, would be perfect for parties, game night, get-togethers, and holidays.

We've been having lots of fun as a family playing these games, and I'm sure we'll enjoy them for many years to come as the kids get older. Even though both games are best for ages 8+ and we have only one child that fits that age range, we've been able to adapt them to be enjoyed now. These games are great for any family to own.

You can connect with USAopoly on the following social media sites:

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If you'd like to see how other homeschool families used these games, please read the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.
    

Dynamic Literacy Review

I have fond memories of learning morphemes with my dad. We'd sit around the table making up our own words by combining prefixes, suffixes, and roots. One of us would say a "word" and the other would figure out the definition by breaking down the morphemes (the smallest part with meaning of a word). It was practical teaching. Throughout the years, he taught me that I could have a basic understanding of almost any word (and could even understand many foreign words), as long as I had a grasp of the individual parts. So, imagine my excitement when I had the opportunity to review a curriculum that focuses on teaching affixes.

WordBuild: Foundations, Level 1 is the first of a series of vocabulary products offered by Dynamic Literacy.  It's perfect for 3th-5th graders (or 5th-9th graders needing remedial work) as it moves past the learning of phonics and on to comprehension of words. The curriculum builds on students' prior knowledge by adding prefixes and suffixes to words they know. Once they are familiar with the process, they will be able to break down more difficult words and infer the definition. I love the way Dynamic Literacy describes the importance and potential of learning this way:
 

Learn 3 roots . . . and you know 3 words.

                                              Learn 3 suffixes . . . and you know 12 words.

                                              Learn 3 prefixes . . . and you know 48 words.       

Foundations has 3 parts: Basics Student Activity Book, Student Activity Book, and Teacher Edition.

The Basics Student Activity Book is a 20-page booklet that is used as a gentle introduction to prefixes and suffixes. The cute, colorful graphics throughout the book are used to help students form compound words and understand how the same portions of words are used and combined to make new words.

The Student Activity Book is the meat of the curriculum. This workbook (184 pages) teaches 30 prefixes, suffixes, and combinations. There are 5 types of exercises for each affix: affix square (combining an affix with a root and determining the definition), affix adder (combing an affix with more roots and writing both the definition and  sentence), magic square (matching words and definitions), word search, and fill in the blanks. 

The Teacher Edition contains all the solutions for the activity book, but it is so much more than an answer key. It includes more information about the topic, ideas for further study, discussion questions, review pages, and an in-depth teaching guide.

I focused on Jake (4th grade) for this set, since he fits the prime age and skill range. While he was the one to complete the assignments, I found my younger children joining in on the verbal lessons. What can we add to house to make new words? Doghouse. Birdhouse. Treehouse. Clubhouse. Dollhouse. Schoolhouse. Even the little ones enjoyed thinking of words. The Basics Student Activity Book was fun to complete. The lessons seemed more like games than work to my son, since they were like word puzzles that he had to decipher. Though the Student Activity Book was more challenging, he is liking it, as well. Since it is written for a 5-day schedule and we school 4 days a week, we combine 2 exercises one day so we can study 1 affix every week.

I like that the book is making him process the information to break down and combine the different parts of words. The only downfall I have with the program is the lack of review in the Student Activity Book itself. There are review pages in the Teacher Edition after every 5th affix, but I would like to see more review in the student's book. People retain information better with repetition. I am trying to point out the prefixes we've learned thus far as we use them and try to incorporate them more in our daily conversations.

Overall, I think this is a wonderful program that I expect will help my children understand how to decipher the meaning of unknown words and give them a good foundation for language.



You can connect with Dynamic Literacy on the following social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.


If you'd like to read more reviews of this product or one of the other products offered by Dynamic Literacy, please head to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.