Focus on Fives Kindergarten Curriculum

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I love when we get to review materials that are geared toward early education. Learning with little ones is always such an exciting experience! Everything is a new adventure that is filled with endless possibilities. 

I often have people ask me what curriculum I use for kindergarten. Honestly, I am a big believer in learning through play and taking a more relaxed approach to education in the younger years. Hands-on play and learning by doing are vital, but it is also important to teach written skills. I was intrigued by the BJU Press Focus on Fives kindergarten curriculum from BJU Press Homeschool and couldn't wait to get started with my little one.

BJU press first started writing curriculum that is both biblically and academically sound in the early 1970s. Over the next few years, textbooks for all elementary grades and various secondary courses were completed. They became the first publisher to respond to the needs of home education in 1982 and have been "giving Christian educators the tools they need to teach from a biblical worldview and help young people be prepared to live a godly life" ever since.  

I personally used some BJU Press curriculum materials during my junior high and high school years. I was eager to see what they offered for the opposite end of the spectrum as I worked with my 5-year-old.   

The Focus on Fives curriculum set is designed to help kids develop the skills they need through age-appropriate introductions of science, social studies, handwriting, phonics, and reading. The program instills a multi-sensory approach as it incorporates visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic learning activities. Kids need to see, hear, touch, and move!

The full curriculum includes the following materials:

• Worktext
• Phonic Practice
• Phonics and Review Cards
• Phonics Flip Chart
• Reading Books
• Write Now! Handwriting
• Teaching Visuals Flip Chart
• Teacher's Edition

The Worktext contains over 400 pages of learning worksheets. The first two-third of the book has a page to accompany each lesson. There are exercises that involve writing letters of the alphabet, circling correct answers, drawing lines to matches, coloring, cutting and pasting, dot-to-dot, and more. Each unit begins with a letter to the parent explaining the scope, tips, and optional books and is separated by color-coded tabs at the bottom of the pages.

The end of the worktext contains supplemental materials including a kindergarten diploma, cutouts that are needed for specific lessons, and checkup pages (similar in format to a quiz) that correspond to the units and have the same color-coding at the bottom.

The Phonics Practice workbook is filled with pages that provide practice of phonic skills and word families. This book, like the Worktext, has an open spine to make it easier to remove the pages for the student and color-coded tabs to match each unit. This one follows similar fine-motor skills for the exercises, but varies in content. The phonics book focuses solely on words--reading, recognizing, writing--the worktext also relies on pictures and relationships such as differentiating between seasons, practicing size comparison, noting animal qualities, and more.

The Phonics and Review Cards are approximately 2.5" x 5.5" on glossy cardstock. These flashcards include the letters of the alphabet with multiple examples and high-frequency words. There is also a card for each of the mascot characters that are used throughout the lessons that can be cut out and glued to a craft stick.

The Phonics Flip Charts has nearly 125 pages of visuals used for teaching. Though the website lists a spiral-bound collection, my version consists of loose, glossy cardstock pages. Included are alphabet charts, high-frequency word cards, phonics characters, mascot characters, word family cards, phonics songs charts, handwriting wall charts, spelling cards, and phonics charts. The majority of the pages are double-sided with additional teaching information on the back. The pages are numbered in the bottom right side corner for easy organization. 

Teaching Visuals Flip Chart is a spiral-bound collection of visuals that are used in the lessons. The covers are sturdy cardboard while the pages are very thin. There are 46 pages that show students healthy habits, insect life cycles, nursery rhymes, musical instruments, landscapes, seasons, history, and more. The back of each page lists the lesson it's from along with teaching helps and information.

While I appreciate the notes on the back, it would be more beneficial to have them on the back of the previous page, so I can have access to that while my child can still see the picture.

There are 34 Reading Books included with the curriculum. Each book is a 9" x 6" paperback with full-color pictures that fill the pages. The books are numbered on the fronts and follow the same color-coded unit tabs of the other materials. The back of the books are colored to match the unit, as well.

The first two books have no words but rely on picture reading with discussion starter questions found in the teacher's book. The third book, which is read in lesson 15, introduces rebus reading where a picture represents a more complicated word. Starting with book 4, the students will be reading full sentences, beginning with one 2- or 3-word sentence on a page and progressing through full paragraphs on each page. The last page in each book lists trickier words to note along with a quick phonics review from the story.

The Write Now! Handwriting book is the only black and white in the set. Almost every lesson is a half sheet and generally has places to write letters, then words, and eventually sentences and includes a small picture to color. There are also a handful of dot-to-dot pages that feature either lowercase or capital letters.

There are 6 parts to the Teacher's Edition. There is a spiral-bound book for each unit with a paperback cover on the front and a hard cover on the back. As expected, the book matches the unit color, keeping everything consistent and easy to use. The introduction of each teacher's book contains the same information: goals, learning center ideas, routines, assessments, tips, instructional materials, and more. There is also a lesson plan overview for the unit that lists the pages needed for each resource along with the objectives of each lessons.

The teacher's edition books are packed full of teaching information. When I taught first grade many years ago, I had a teacher's manual for each subject. With the Focus on Fives curriculum, all of the information for the day's lessons is kept in one place.  There are sections for each topic that list the needed materials along with bulleted notes of what to teach. The last page of each lesson gives suggestions for extended activities: story and rhyme time, arts and crafts, learning center, motor skills, science, heritage studies, show and tell, songs, Bible connection, language arts, and more. The back of each book contains additional teacher resources including instructional aids and reproducibles, creative writing prompts, songs, and more.

My little guy and I have been working through the curriculum 3 days a week. He's not officially in kindergarten until the fall, so we're taking a slower approach to formal education right now. The curriculum is written for a classroom setting with enough activities and learning to fill a kindergartner's school day. I love that there are so many options that make it easy to find what works for us.

He enjoys completing the Worktext and Phonics Practice pages, hearing the listening stories, in the teacher's book, and the hands-on and motor activities. His favorite part is the snack of the week which coordinates with the lessons, such as a graham cracker firetruck while learning about firemen, apple and marshmallow mouths to enhance the dentist lessons, chocolate turtles while learning about the pond, "dirt" cupcakes for learning about the garden, tropical fruit cups for Hawaii, and other yummy treats.

One thing that I'm excited about is starting the post office section next week. With all that is going on (or not going on, ha) with our stay-at-home order, we've been trying to reach out to people in other ways. Since we can't physically be with our friends, I've been having the kids send mail. These lessons are perfect as they teach about zip codes, how mail is sorted, how to write letters and thank you notes, the history of mail delivery, using stamps, how to send packages and letters, and more. There is even a suggestion to send a missionary a care package. Other activities include sorting letters of the alphabet written on envelopes into capital and lowercase mailboxes, making stamps out of carrots and marking mail, pretending to be mail carriers, explaining how many of the books of the New Testament are letters, and crafting a mail carrier hat.

Focus on Fives is a full curriculum that teaches much more than reading and writing. The 6 units for the year cover a vast amount of topics through supporting activities: All Around the Town (community helpers), Bookshelf Friends (books, hymns, nursery rhymes), Ants to Elephants (animals, insects, pond, farm), Mountains High to Oceans Deep (landscapes, sharing the Gospel, America), Blue Skies and Gray (seasons, weather), Garden Paths and Wandering Trails (places).

The curriculum begins with identifying letters and recognizing their sounds and teaches students the skills necessary to read full sentences such as "He sent His Son to die for men." It works on rhyming words, compound words, short and long vowel words, and consonant blends. It teaches writing skill such as forming letters and proper pencil hold, but also tracing, punctuation, and copywork. It also teaches valuable motor and life skills, too--all while making learning an enjoyable experience.

If teaching all the components seems overwhelming, BJU Pres Homeschool will be offering online learning course videos beginning this summer. The videos are an hour long and incorporate a variety of learning activities for your little one. You can preview sample videos to determine if they're right for your family.

The BJU Press Focus on Fives curriculum is packed full of resources, activities, and ideas that are sure to help your child be prepared for first grade. There are many options for each lesson to ensure that you find the perfect balance for your growing learner.

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You can see how other homeschool families used this curriculum by reading the reviews on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Fix It! Grammar

When my oldest child told me years ago that Fix It! Grammar was his favorite part of his school day, I knew I found a winning grammar curriculum. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review it again with another child.

It might surprise people that we don't focus on a great deal on grammar curriculum. After all, I do have an English major, taught high school English classes before my homeschooling days, and truly love the language. However, my kids spend a large portion of their school day reading literature. Doing so, they naturally learn proper sentence structure, writing styles, and enriched language skills. I like to teach parts of speech in a fun, gentle way by incorporating games like Mad Libs into our days. Still, I do believe it is important to have some formal grammatical instruction to supplement their learning. I have tried a few different curricula, but none seem to fit my style of teaching like this Fix It! Grammar book from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).    

IEW is known throughout the homeschooling community for their exceptional writing materials. Their mission is to equip parents with methods and materials to help their students become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Their teaching style has been proven to be effective for all ages and levels of ability. 

What I personally love about the Fix It! Grammar curriculum is that it is not a traditional program. Instead of learning a rule and then practicing it in a bunch of random sentences, students work through a fairy tale bit by bit. This method of tackling real-life sentences with limited instruction, teaches students to think about their writing and apply the grammar rules to their own work. This method gives the student a better understanding of the material, helps him to retain the knowledge, and gives the assignments a sense of purpose.

Another aspect that makes this curriculum unique is that the student gets to be an editor. As he works through each lesson, he looks for the mistakes and corrects them, along with marking specific notations such as parts of speech, phrases, and clauses. As he progresses through the lessons and learns more grammar rules, the sentences contain more errors. By the end, he will also be able to mark the part of speech for nearly every word in the story.

For the curriculum, you will need a copy of The Nose Tree Student Book, a spiral notebook, an envelope or the like to hold the review cards, and the Teacher's Manual. The purchase of the Teacher's Manual includes a downloadable Student Book, but there is also the option to purchase a printed, spiral-bound book, as well.

The set-up for the teacher is simple. Prepare the spiral notebook with the two sections (one in front for the rewrite of the story and one in back for the writing of vocabulary), cut out the appropriate review cards (in the back of the student book) for the week, and teach new concepts at the beginning of each week.

So, how does it work? The student is given one sentence of the story each day. There are multiple things that he does with that one sentence:

• Look up the bold word in a dictionary and write in the vocabulary section of the notebook which definition best fits the story  
• Mark and fix the sentence, using the review cards as reminders
• Rewrite the sentence in the rewrite section of the notebook

New grammar cards are added each week. For instance, week 1 starts with the indent paragraph symbol (¶), nouns (n), homophones and end marks. Week 2 adds articles (ar), week 4 adds quotations, and so on. 

To put it in perspective, here is the sentence for day 1, week 1:

¶ Did you ever hear the story of the three poor soldiers

1. The first thing the student does is look up the bold word and write it and the best definition in the vocabulary section of his notebook. My daughter wrote down poor: lacking sufficient money.
2. The second thing is to mark the sentence, using the grammar review cards. She put an n (noun) above story and soldiers. She also put a question mark at the end of the sentence.
3. The final thing is to rewrite the sentence in the rewrite section of the notebook, remembering to indent because of the paragraph symbol. 

As a comparison, here is a sentence from the final week of the book:

the doctor put on the cloak, wished the king and his court farewell, and was with his to/two/too companions directly 

Here, the student needs to start a new paragraph in the rewrite based on there being a new topic in the story instead of following the paragraph symbol, knows to capitalize the first word, can choose the correct homophone, will put an ending period, and should be able to mark the part of speech for every word.

The process should take about 15 minutes a day, 4 days a week for a total of 33 weeks. The course is intended to be a teaching tool, and not graded assignments as the parent should be modeling the editorial process and helping the student as needed.

We are currently halfway through week 5. Of course, the sentences have already gotten a little longer and more complex. Along with nouns, my daughter can also recognize articles, pronouns, and who-which clauses. She has also learned rules about quotation marks. 

The spiral-bound Teacher's Manual makes the material simple to teach even if you personally struggle with all the crazy, irregular rules of the English language. The format is easy-to-read, and the directions are clear. There are also many notes throughout the lessons that include teaching tips, advanced words that haven't been taught yet, and various other concepts. The back of the book contains a scope and sequence and a glossary which includes in-depth descriptions of parts of speech, sentences, clauses, phrases, punctuation. additional rules and concepts, and stylistic techniques. 

The Nose Tree is the first book in the Fix It! Grammar curriculum which is intended for 3rd-12th grades. Because the remaining 5 books in this set require this foundational book, it is reccomended that students start with The Nose Tree, though there is an optional placement test your student can take.

My daughter is in 5th grade. Since this is her first experience with Fix It! Grammar, I started her at the beginning. She find the lessons simple and could probably finish the entire book in a few weeks if I let her. She likes writing her own stories and is a voracious reader. Naturally, she is thoroughly enjoying working through this fairy tale and rewriting it. But her favorite part? The vocabulary. She gets excited every day when she sits with her giant dictionary and searches for her word. Queried, divulged, forlorn, pitiable, pilfered, laden, and stoutly are some of the rich vocabulary that is highlighted. I love hearing her incorporate these new words in her everyday speech. 

When I first told my girl that Fix It! Grammar was coming, she was somewhat disappointed, because she didn't want "extra" work. She was hooked from that very first lesson though. Just like her older brother, she says that the book is fun and is the first subject she completes each day. 

Here's what she told me about the curriculum:

"I like that it has a story that I work through instead of just random words. Oh, and I love the vocab!"

The Fix It! Grammar series from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) is a fantastic grammar curriculum. I have used this first book with 2 of my children successfully and was reminded how much I am impressed with it. In fact, I am planning to continue through the series with my oldest kids and soon start my 9-year-old in The Nose Tree using the downloadable Student Book that came with my Teacher's Manual.   

If you're looking for a curriculum that truly works and is applicable to both grammar skills and writing skills, Fix It! Grammar is highly recommended. 

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Make sure to head to the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of the different books in this curriculum. 

Hake Publishing Review

I love language arts. I'm one of those people that laugh at grammar jokes and plays on words. I majored in English in college and taught it at the secondary level. I may or may not silently correct people when they speak grammatically incorrect. Yeah, I'm one of those.

It's funny to see what kids pick up on. (Hey, did you noticed I ended that sentence with a preposition? Just because I love the language and all the finer points of it doesn't mean I speak formally all the time, ha.) Because my kids are around me all day, they have naturally learned many grammar rules without having been officially taught. Also, because the majority of our schooling is based on literature, they learn much about sentence structure and grammar rules simply through reading. However, there are some things that I do believe should be specifically taught, whether it's the hows, whys, whens, or whatnot. That's why I was excited to hear that Hake Publishing recently published their Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 curriculum. 

Stephen Hake, the founder of Hake Publishing, began writing for Saxon math in 1984 and is the main author for the 3rd-8th grade textbooks. He believes that students will succeed with a language arts program based on Saxon's style of incremental development and continual review. Their curricula currently covers grades 3-8, but has been used successfully to help students even older.

The homeschool version of each level contains 3 parts:

• Student Textbook
• Student Writing Workbook
• Teacher Guide

The student textbook is a consumable, softcover book that include daily lessons, review sets, and tests. There are 111 lessons that cover capitalization, punctuation, parts or speech, sentence structure, spelling rules, correct word usage, and dictionary skills.  The lessons begin with a grammar meeting which is designed "to strengthen listening skills, to model correct word usage, to practice new vocabulary, and to develop effective speaking and writing habits." After that, the new lesson is introduced along with practice exercises. Finally, the student completes the review set of exercises on his own, receiving help as needed.

The writing workbook contains 21 writing lessons that are to be assigned on test days. The workbook's purpose is to help the student develop good writing by practicing recording his thoughts and ideas on paper. It enhances skills such as brainstorming, active and passive voice, topic sentences, facts and opinions, persuasive writing, and more. 

The teacher guide is a scripted manual for leading the lessons. It includes the grammar meeting question along with the daily vocabulary words. As far as the actual lesson and exercises, it simply states to read it together and work through the examples and practice sections. The actual exercises are not included, so the teacher needs to be looking at a student textbook for those. This book also contains the answer key for the textbook and the writing book along with the masters for the tests and extra practice worksheets and the accompanying answer keys.

My 10-year-old daughter is the one who has been working through this book. Even though she is in 4th grade, I thought this would be a good option for her since this is her first formal introduction to learning grammar and because Saxon (which this is modeled after) is known to have a higher level of teaching. I was pleased to see how well she's doing with this. Many weeks into the curriculum, she still hasn't struggled with any of it. The lessons take maybe 10 minutes to work through.

One thing that is somewhat impractical is the grammar meeting sections. Since the narrative is written for a classroom setting, it is a bit awkward to read as is. As homeschoolers, we are used to adapting curricula to meet our needs, but I would think that something that is marketed as a homeschool version would already be adapted. Also, since the teacher guide does not include the actual exercises, it is not beneficial other than the masters and answer keys, in my opinion.

The curriculum itself is working well in our home. The lessons include review along with new concepts, and they are not too long. I love the addition of the vocabulary and Latin root words as they are vital in understanding definitions and etymology. 

If your child benefits from the teaching style of Saxon math books, he might thrive with the depth and complexity of the Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 curriculum.
  

You can read more reviews of this curriculum on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Writers in Residence Review

I enjoyed writing stories as a child. I grew up and took writing classes for my English major in college. Now, I write for our blog. My husband wrote stories, too, and continued even as he got older. I have multiple poems he's written me over the years, as well. {swoon} Our daughter writes stories often and has her own notebook specifically for them. Our oldest son though? Hates writing. When we talk about his writing assignments, I always get the typical response, "Why do I need to learn this?" He think because he doesn't want to become an author that he shouldn't need to hone his writing skills. I've tried to show him how practical it is to put your thoughts into written word, whether he wants to write a sermon, fill out a resumé, send a letter, go to college, get certain jobs, along with other examples. I couldn't seem to get through to him, so I was hoping maybe Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries would help.     

Apologia Educational Ministries is well-known in the homeschool realm for their science curricula and other biblical worldview products. This Christian company believes "that every educational subject in your home school can and should be taught from a biblical worldview built on the solid foundation of God’s Word and centered on Jesus Christ." It's always best to use products that reinforce your beliefs. We have loved everything we've gotten from Apologia in the past, so I was looking forward to this product, as well.

Writers in Residence is a new language arts curriculum created by Debra Bell. This all-in-one student text and workbook will guide your students through the entire writing process. Along with learning how to create engaging stories and essays, they'll learn sentence structure, the parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. Instead of focusing solely on the four traditional forms of writing (personal, expository, persuasive, and narrative), this curriculum teaches the student how to combine several forms of writing as it is more practical.

There are four types of writing projects throughout the course:

• I Remember -- Students write about experiences they had.
• I Imagine -- Students write high-interest, creative writing assignments in the form of fiction.
• I Investigate -- Students use research skills to write a form of investigative journalism.
• I Think -- Students write persuasive essays  and defend them with logical reasoning, facts, and examples.      

The program is divided into six units with multiple modules each. 

Unit 1: When I Was Young -- Writers use their memories as a source of ideas.
Unit 2: Very Truly Yours -- Writers use their imaginations.
Unit 3: My Family Hall of Fame -- Writes should write what they know.
Unit 4: My Favorite Author -- Learning to think deeply.
Unit 5: The History of Me -- Learning to dig into your past.
Unit 6: Zap! Pow! Kazam! --Learning to create great characters.

The Writers in Residence curriculum is intended for 4th grade and older, but is flexible enough to be used with multiple ages at a time. A sample schedule is given at the beginning of the book. This tool makes it very easy for my son to know what assignments need to be completed each day and helps him to not get overwhelmed by the size of the very large book.

Speaking of large, this book is packed full of not just assignments and directions, but all sorts of little tips and snippets of information. The book is engaging and colorful. It grabs your attention with its format and isn't a typical "boring" textbook.

An Answer Key book is also included with the all-in-one student book. This key contains all the answers for the student activities in which there are specific answers, like the punctuation and capitalization exercises, answers to reading assignments, definitions, and more. The answers are shown in green type on pages that look identical to the student's book.

Both books are easy to use. My son is being challenged by the assignments, but not to the point of frustration. We had a few very rough days in the beginning, but because the lessons build on previously taught concepts and skills, he is becoming more confident in his writing. I still cannot say that he enjoys writing, but he is starting to accept that it's a necessary skill to know. In fact, the other day he told me that he read that he needed to learn to write properly so he could make quality scripts for his stop motion videos. Hey, it's a start! Whatever it takes to grab his attention in learning this skill works for me.  

I am pleased with the content of Writers in Residence. It's thorough and systematic and is written in a way that my 10-year-old can understand. The assignments are interesting and not overwhelming. I have seen improvements in both my son's writing and his confidence. While he may never completely enjoy the writing process, I do believe this book is making a difference in helping him to accept it.

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

Here to Help Learning

My daughter loves to write her own stories, so I knew she would benefit from reviewing an online subscription to Here to Help Learning, specifically the Flight 1 Paragraph Writing.


Here to Help Learning is a homeschool writing program that helps students in grades 1-6 master both paragraph and essay writing. They offer 3 flights, or years of curriculum, for both styles. Each flight contains 32 lessons and covers the 5 types of writing: narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive, poetry.    

The company is owned by Forrest and Beth Mora, a husband and wife with 8 kids. He tells a cute story about how Here to Help Learning came to be. From homeschooling to offering supplemental classes to running large co-ops to filming videos and creating a detailed program, Mrs. Mora has been serving and encouraging other homeschoolers for 20 years.

 

The core values of the company are listed on their site as follows:

1. Serve

• Committed to the success of the student and the educator
• Dedicated to give more service than expected
• Devoted to cheerful generosity

2. Content Rich

• Deliver high-quality instruction at an affordable price
• Provide innovated educational products that serve all learning styles
• Enhance the love of learning, one home at a time

3. Integrity

• Honor God and His Word in all we do
• Hold fast our word in all our relationships
• Maintain high ethical practices no matter the cost

Because my daughter is in second grade, she is using the paragraph writing course. The 3 flights are independent of each other and can be completed in any order. We chose Flight 1 and got to work. The Getting Started page is filled with helpful information and contains the teacher guides, step-by-step pictorial guides, lists, explanations, printable resources, and more.

The lessons are designed to scheduled twice a week--1 day for filmed instruction and 1 day for written assignments. Each filmed lesson consist of 5 components that will move the student through the writing process.

1. Pre-Flight Checklist  -- list of supplies needed
2. Flight Check-In -- welcome, turn in assignments, character trait for project, review memory verse
3. Take-Off -- game time, writing warm-up, recite writing process
4. Full Throttle -- main lesson, discussion, hands-on projects 
5. Flying Solo Assignments -- instructions for independent work

The estimated time needed for first day is 60 minutes, while the time required for the second day is approximately 30-60 minutes.

Since the program is based around a flying theme, each filmed lesson begins with Mrs. Mora dressed as a stewardess, standing in an airplane (her dog Knucklehead is even the captain!) The character she plays is so calming and soothing that my kids call it her "sleep voice" during those scenes, ha. Right away, you learn that Mrs. Mora loves to have fun. From there, she takes you step-by-step through the program. Part of each lesson is recorded in a real co-op class that she taught. You can watch as she leads the class and interacts with the kids. She truly has a love of teaching and helping others, as is evident through the videos. Her outgoing personality pulls you in; it made me even want to sit in her classes!

Each writing project highlights a writing skill. The first project for the paragraph writing is "All by Myself," which falls in the narrative category. Since we are not using this in a co-op setting and we are not using it with the entire family, I have worked with my daughter one-on-one and helped during the portions of the lessons which encourage the students to work together. After she and I brainstormed some ideas, she decided to write her project on "Learning to Read." She followed the steps of the writing process, one step each lesson. While she has always loved making up stories, writing a narrative was new for her. There were a couple frustrations along the way as she learned skills, but having that one-on-one time to walk her through gave her the confidence she needed.

Since she enjoys creative writing the most, it is no surprise that the writing warm-ups are her favorite parts of the lessons (in fact, she's sad on the days when there isn't one). The warm-ups show a silly picture (i.e. skateboarding dog, eggs riding a roller coaster, hot air balloon in space, cat flying a kite) and provide lines for the story and a word box. The student has 8 minutes to create a story for the picture.

Another thing my girl has enjoyed about this program is having her own notebook. Each lesson day, we print her papers so she can file them appropriately: notes, writing warm-ups, projects, flying solo, language helps. The organization makes it easy for her to find what she needs for the lessons and keep track of her work.

Here is my daughter's thoughts about the program:

"It's fun. I like Knucklehead and the writing warm-ups the most!" 

Here to Help Learning is working well to teach my second grader about the writing process, but I think it would fit even better in a true co-op setting. We have played the games together as a family (my 6-year-old loves Sentence-No Sentence!) even during dinnertime, and the other kiddos have joined in a bit during brainstorming times. Mrs. Mora always makes us laugh and ensures the videos are enjoyable to watch. If you're looking for an easy-to-follow, thorough, and fun writing program for your elementary students, Here to Help Learning is a great option.

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If you're interested in one of the other levels or would like to read more reviews of this one, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

CursiveLogic Review

Many schools today are forgoing the teaching of cursive writing to students, even though there are numerous benefits as to why it should still be taught. Not only is it a faster and more fluid way of writing, but it also encourages brain development and removes the confusion of the lowercase letters b and d, amongst other advantages. CursiveLogic, a new company, still believes in the power of penmanship. Linda Shrewsbury created this program to help a struggling adult student learn cursive. Her innovative yet intuitive method worked so well that the student  caught on to forming the entire lower case alphabet in 45 minutes and was able to sign his name. From there, the CursiveLogic Workbook was born.

CursiveLogic is different from other handwriting curricula because it focuses on the inherent structure of the cursive alphabet, instead of relying on rote memorization. The program is designed around the following features and visual and auditory cues.

Letters Grouped By Shape -- Four foundational shapes underlie the entire lowercase alphabet. The letter formations are taught by shape group based on the initial stroke of the letter, rather than alphabetically. In this way, the natural synergy of the alphabet is captured, allowing each letter in the series to reinforce the proper formation of all the others.

Letter Strings -- All the similarly shaped letters are taught by connecting them in a string, instead of individually. Since the students are taught to connect letters from the very beginning, it helps them to internalize the flow of cursive handwriting even before they have learned all 26 letters.

Theme Colors -- Each letter string has a theme color that helps the student remember the 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.
 

Jake (9) started learning cursive a while ago. He did all right with it, but quickly lost interest. I didn't make it a priority and the lessons were soon forgotten. Since I believe in the benefits of handwriting, I knew we needed to focus on it again. Fast forward to a month or so ago. His penmanship was sloppy and he had forgotten how to form many of the letters.

He flipped through the 96-page, colored CursiveLogic workbook and was immediately excited. Excited? My I-always-complain-about-writing boy? The method shown in the book with its colored letter strings grabbed his interest. Better than that initial excitement though is the fact that his penmanship quickly improved and that eagerness to learn more and write better continued. He enjoys using colored pencils to form the letters according to the theme colored strings. Who knew that my boy who isn't interested in coloring and doesn't like to write would be happy to combine the two, in a sense.

We are thoroughly enjoying using this book. The teacher's manual (with step-by-step instructions) and student workbook (with lessons, practice sheets, and 3 dry erase surfaces) are combined in this one book. The CursiveLogic method seems so simple, yet works so well. Sometimes we complicate things too much. This truly is a logical way of learning cursive. 

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If you would like to see what other homeschool families thought of this book, please read the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

First Start Reading Review

It is always exciting when your child learns a new skill. Understanding the concept of fractions, memorizing the states and capitols, and learning how to bake a cake on your own are all great things, but my favorite thing to teach is reading. Why? Well, for one, most other subjects are dependent on the ability to read. You want to learn how to preform an experiment? You must read the instructions. You want to try a new recipe? You must read the directions. You want to find a cheat for that level of your game that you're stuck on {wink}? You must be able to read others' advice. Reading is a big deal in our home, and the foundation of our curriculum is based it. My 9-year-old is required to read a minimum of 1 1/2 hours every school day and then spend time reading on the weekends, as well. He will also spend time at night enjoying a book before he falls asleep. And while his love of reading didn't come naturally but had to be cultivated, it never would have happened had he not learned how to read in the first place. Yes, reading is highly regarded in our home.

I taught first graders before staying home to raise my family and I've since taught 3 of my own children to read, so I've seen many different reading curricula. I'm always interested in seeing other programs though. We had the opportunity to review First Start Reading and since I've heard wonderful things about Memoria Press I was excited to try it out.

The First Start Reading program includes 4 books (A-D) and a comprehensive Teacher Guide. Not only does this curriculum teach an age-appropriate approach to phonics and reading, but also instructs proper pencil grip and letter formation. It covers both short and long vowels, consonants, 45 common words, and manuscript printing. One thing that I appreciate about this curriculum is that it teaches the vowel-consonant approach, instead of the ladder approach. For instance, in a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) word, the ladder approach teaches the student to read the first two letter together and then add the last letter (e.g. sa-t, sa-d, Sa-m). The vowel-consonant approach teaches the student through word families, or rhyming words (e.g. c-at, r-at, s-at). When I taught first grade in a private school, the curriculum was ladder-based. I, myself, have always used rhyming word families to teach my own children.

I used these books with my 5-year-old. You know, there's a joke about homeschool kids not knowing what grade they're in. It's funny because it's true. Technically, he's too young to officially be in kindergarten (according to the cut-off date for the beginning of the school year), but he's been doing its work for many months now. My other kids will ask if he's in kindergarten. Yes, but no. Make sense? Regardless, since he's been reading for a while now, I started him halfway through the program, Book C.

The book begins with learning the short E. The student colors pictures beginning with the sound, draws his own picture, and traces and writes both capital and lower case letters. From there, he practices blending that /e/ sound with other letters and then using those blends to write words. The student also learns common sight words, like have, are, of, put, and so on. Lesson 4 is where the real fun begins--reading a story! The short stories use those blends and sight words that the student has been practicing. They are broken down into chapters, or lessons, and give the student a place to draw and accompanying picture. At the end of the story, the student is tested on those words through dictation. The process repeats itself throughout the book. 

The Teacher Guide includes instruction for the teacher, a word-for-word script that can be used for the student, and questions to further discuss the stories. 

My son enjoys reading and was pleased to color the illustrations and draw his own pictures for the stories. He's not so crazy about the writing portions though, ha. I should clarify that his lack of excitement has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with the actual process. Generally, we complete 1 lesson a day. For the longer writing lessons, we might split them to 2 days, not because the lessons are too long, but because he's still strengthening and learning to control his writing. 

I am enjoying using this curriculum. The lessons are short which is good for kindergarteners; the book teaches the material, applies it, and then reinforces by testing; and it includes a bit of fun with coloring and drawing. My son is doing well and I'm excited to see how he does in Book D.

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Memoria Press offers many different products. You can  read more reviews of this reading program or their cursive curriculum on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.