French Essentials Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

 

Do you speak a foreign language?  Do you want to learn?  Or wish you had taken the time to learn when you were young?

Foreign language is a staple in schools these days. Not just public schools but homeschools too.  French Essentials is one such language program. They help students learn French from native speakers.  The program is designed for homeschoolers.  Crew members have received a full year or full package of the French Essentials to review.

There are 10 modules in the program which equate out to 2 years of High School French classes. You don't have to be in high school to take these courses though.  They recommend their courses for grades 2-12. The younger grades of course are not going to get as much done, but they do have until the 12th grade to finish all the modules.  From their website if you start the modules in grade 3 and do one module per year you will complete the courses your Senior year or during grade 12.

The program can be purchased either as a full set where you have access to all the modules and downloads for a full year or as individual modules.  Each individual module is accessible for 90 days.  Each module can be purchased for $69.95 while the full year(full package) of all modules can be purchased for $149.95.  Right now only modules 1-5 are available with the rest to come.

The program includes downloadable, printable worksheets/assignments as well as audio and visual learning.  You actually hear and see the language in use to help you learn it.  It is taught by native French speakers.  It is designed specifically for home learners in a clear easy to use format.  Learning a new language is always easier if the teachers really know it and are fluent.  This normally only happens if they are native speakers or have been totally immersed in the country of the language.

As with all foreign language programs both in schools and at home, it is designed to be a daily course.  It should be used 4-5 times per week to help the child remember and improve.

With that, you might wonder how often we used it.  We used it 5 days a week, every week.  In fact, we're still using it!  We love learning foreign languages and have never had a chance to learn French before so this fun not just for the kids, but me as well. I never had the chance to take French in high school or college either so now I am learning with my kids.  Since my oldest is only 8 and in 2nd grade we did not do the actual tests and such, but more just listening and learning.

Next year when they are in 3rd grade they can do the writing and tests so that they are learning more.  I love how it is set up so that they can start earlier than they could if they were not allowed to start until they could do the written work.

Beginning in lesson 5 of module 1 they start having other things to do besides just the listen and say type work.   The first four lessons focus on learning the alphabet and pronunciations.  Those four lessons could be made into an entire year with younger children.  We made it past those, but went at a very slow pace becaue my learners were so young.  We did not do the tests but did play some of the games that go along with the lessons.

The program focuses on teaching and learning in four ways:

-Listening Comprehension(which we used and worked with well)

-Speaking(again one we could master)

-Reading

-Writing

The reading and writing parts were the ones that my young learners had problems with.  I would like to see more listening comprehension for pre-readers, but that is not really what the program is geared towards.  My kiddos did learn some of the writing.  They can write the alphabet and some basic words.  They also can read some small words.  It would equate to reading at a kindergarten level in our school probably.

With the course comes:

downloadable lessons

printable workbook(plus all necessary parent/teacher pages)

online exercises and activities

online lesson tests

topics on french culture

If your student has already had some French instruction, they can take a placement test to see which module they should start with.  It will direct you to where they would best fit into the program.  We of course had no French at all.  I have never had French and neither has my husband or any of the kids.  I do have cousins who live in England who are fluent in French and we said a few words to them when they were over visiting recently.  My grandmother also spoke French but unfortunately she passed away before we learned anything to tell her.

Read more Crew Reviews for French Essentials on the Main Crew Blog!  We all received the same to review but with different kids we all have different experiences.

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IXL.com Math and Language Arts Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

Does you little one like math and language arts?  Or is it like pulling teeth to get them to do their schoolwork?  Would they do their work if they thought it was play?  Well, let me introduce you to IXL.com an online site with math and language arts practice for kids.  You can get an online math membership or an online language arts membership or a membership that includes both. We were given a year membership to both Math and Language Arts for up to three children as part of the Crew Review Team.

Membership is $9.95 per month per subject with options of adding the other subject or additional students for more.  If you want both subjects for a month it is $15.95.  A yearly membership is $79 for one subject.  If you wish to do both subjects for a yearly membership it is $129.  Each additional child is $20 per year if you do the yearly membership or $2 a month for the monthly plan.  Obviously, the yearly both subject is the best deal; however, if you child is not in grades 2-4 you will not be able to use the language arts section until they expand.

Their online math section has something for grades preK all the way up to 12th grade.  This includes pre algebra and algebra.  They are also working on a section of calculus coming soon.  I like that the math sections are listed out by grade and then by topic.  For instance, the second grade math contains 218 skills that should be mastered.  You can then click on whatever skill you wish for your child to work on and they can work until mastery.

There are more than 2500 math and language art skills combined at this time.  In a years time your child will not be able to learn and complete them all, but they can at least get their one grade done!  With your membership, whether monthly or yearly, you do have access to all levels!  So if your child does master one level you do not have to purchase a new year subscription to get the next level, you simply move them on up.  I love that!  I have some kids that excel and move through things quickly while I have others that are slower and take more time to learn.  I love the flexibility of the program.

Here is my take on this program:  It is perfect for homeschooling because your child can move at their own pace.  I think it is better for older children or children who are motivated to do things on their own so that you are not constantly asking them if they have done their lesson for the day.  We are not a large computer family.  Until recently my kids did not do a lot of computer school so they are still learning.  That means they are slow to answer some questions just because they don't know where all the keys are.  But, they are good with this program because it does not penalize them or immediately mark them as wrong just because they took their time on  a question.  The end results are what matter.  I am near to help them if they need it or they are free to do it on their own.  I have found at the end of lesson time that they have done an extra lesson or two somedays during their time just because they got done and wanted to go on.  It was fun.  It was not thought of as "doing school" so much as it was having fun and playing games.  That is the ultimate homeschool experience.  We're having fun, we're not just learning!

Language arts is a much smaller section right now with only materials for grades 2-4.  They are working on more for this section and are set to expand it soon.  We didn't do as much with the language arts as we did the math because it only has grades 2-4 currently and I only have two kids in these grades.  My two are in second grade so they are just at the beginning of the coursework available.  There are 82 second grade language art skills.  We did not use them in order. . . . . in fact we jumped into homophones first because it was what we were talking about and I wanted to re-enforce what we were learning and then move on from there.  Some of the lessons we had already covered this year so they were very easy for my kids and they just blasted through them.  Others were concepts we had not talked about and they took a bit more doing to get those down.  I think the way these are taught is great because even weeks after mastering a subject my child still could remember what they had learned.  It's more than just memorizing to get on to the next skill, it's learning.  It's learning so they will still remember it for years and years to come.

We like what we have seen so far of this program.  I have not gone past the second grade though.  Soon we might get to pass into third grade math and I can talk about that, but I didn't really go looking as my kids aren't ready for that yet.

I would like to mention they do have an app for iPad users for grades K-6 in math.  We don't have an iPad, iPod or anything that technologically advanced.  We're still learning how to use the computer around here!  But if you do I think it's a great resource to help take school with you where ever you go.  You can do school while waiting at the doctor's office even!  Big mommy grins at that!  It's so much easier to keep your child occupied in new places if you have something familiar to do, so why not school!  For me the why not is more in the I don't want to have to lug around that many books and pencils, but then again if it's all on the iPad you don't have much to carry.  No excuse for being late on that days math work!

Like what you're seeing and want to find out more?  Jump on over to the Main Crew Blog and see what other reviewers had to say!

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Rosie's Doll Clothes Patterns Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

I have always loved to sew.  At the age of 5 I was given my first needle and thread for doing simple seam sewing.  Of course, those stitches were huge and didn't hold together well at all, but I was started on a lifelong love.  By the age of 8 I was sewing my first 9 patch and embroidering my name, date, and location on it.  This is a love that I want to pass on to my girls.  My oldest 2 are 8 now and I realized I had not started them sewing!  That is horrible.  I was thrilled to be chosen to review Rosie's Doll Clothes Patterns with my children for the TOS Crew review team.  We received Learn How to Make Doll Clothes Video Course with 8 Free Doll Clothes Patterns to review online.  It is recommended for ages 8 and up though I think some more advanced younger ages would do fine and also you might want to raise the limit on some more challenged children as well.  I have one 8 year old who is more advanced than the other 8 year old and the one struggled while the other did well.

Rosie's Doll Clothes Patterns is an online program where you can purchase for $47.23 USD(the program is produced in Australia so this price may change day to day but today this is the correct pricing) online.  It gives you all the instructions you need to make these patterns as well as many helpful hints and tips to help make your daughter's first sewing experience the easiest and best possible.  There are over 130 video tutorials(over 8 hours of help).  We received the online version to review, but according to the website there is also an option to purchase dvd's of the program as well.  You will get tips on how to choose the correct fabric, thread, how to place the pattern on the fabric, cut it out, pin it, and sew it.  As well as much more!

The course we're using has 8 free patterns(however at this time a 9th pattern has been added available until December 24th, 2013 midnight).  The 9th pattern is of your choosing.  So instead of 8 patterns for $47.23 you are getting 9!

The 8 patterns we had access to for this review were:

sport shorts

crop top

sarong

halter top

summer nightie

hat

pumpkin 

underpants

I have to say these patterns created quite the conversations between my daughters and I.  You see, we're rather conservative in dress at our house.  We don't wear halter tops or crop tops or spaghetti straps etc.  We believe in modest dress for our girls and I try to model that belief to them.  So of course they had questions about these outfits.  We made them though.  And I told my girls that if they wanted their dolls to wear them that they could.  My girls are big into dolls and matching clothes(my oldest has the American Girl catalog almost memorized with what she would like to have) and so they did ask me if they could make clothes for their dolls that look like what they wear so we're going to have to purchase some patterns I think.  Very proud of my little girls and if you look around the site there are several other patterns that follow a more modest dress code.

If you browse Rosie's Doll Clothes Patterns site you will find that she also sells doll clothes patterns individually.  The patterns are available for 18 inch dolls(think American Girl) or Cabbage Patch dolls so your daughter has a choice of which one she wants to outfit!  My girls have looked around and would love to get some of the other patterns.  They are available in PDF so that they are easily printed and used.  You know it's a good program when your 8 year old daughter is begging for a new doll clothes pattern for Christmas so she can sew new clothes for her doll!  She also wants a chance at using my new sewing machine. . . . did I mention I think learning to hand sew is a great asset!  One pattern(today's cost) is $5.63 which gives you access to the PDF of the pattern, instructions, and video guides.

Make sure to check out the other Crew Reviews by going to the main Crew blog and checking out the post for this vendor.  As we all are different people with different children you'll find each post a unique take on Rosie's Doll Clothes!

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VocabularySpellingCity Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

What do you do for spelling at your house?  Here we never had a set spelling list or spelling book.  I would just randomly choose words each week and we'd use them. Sometimes I'd theme them but most of the time it was just words that I knew my kids needed to learn.  Now enter my joy with a Crew Review we got to participate in!  VocabularySpellingCity is a neat little website that we got to try out for our kids that I can highly recommend!  This game based program focuses on vocabulary, spelling, writing, and language arts.  We received a year of the Premium Membership for free in exchange for our review.

This website offers a standard membership which is free or a premium membership which costs $29.99 per year with up to 5 students.  It is geared for ages K-12 so really any of your homeschool kiddos can use this.  We used it for grades K, 1, and 2.  With it you have the ability to use their word lists or input your own.  Because of the input your own feature I think you could use it with preschool as well(just my thoughts not the websites) as long as your preschool child was capable of using the computer.  I know with my kids my preschoolers can do a lot more than I think just from watching their older siblings.

VocabularySpellingCity offers learning through fun.  One of my boys dubbed it as "they tricked me into learning"!  Yeap that is the truth!  It "tricks" them into thinking they are having fun and just playing games when in reality they are learning as well.  These fun games teach them how to spell words, what words mean, how to use them in sentences, and so much more!

The free account offers you the basics while the premium membership(what we received) offers so much more!   Check out the photo below from the Premium Membership page to see all the extras you can receive.

I have to say that we loved the fact that there weren't ads on the pages.  My kids get distracted easily and far too often would click on ads and such that might be moving on sidebars just because they want to see what they are and what is going on.  They're kids, they're curious and I wouldn't have them any other way, but those ads are distractions.  I am a huge fan of flashcards as well so those are an added bonus as you can print those off.  We also are fans of laminating said flashcards for reasons I'm sure you can relate to.  My littles often get their hands on them and laminated in the mouth stays together longer than just paper in the mouth!  Yes it has happened.  Yes I have learned the extra money is worth it!  Now for the totally selfish part. . . . I love that I don't have to write down their grades!  Yes it keeps track of that for me so I don't have to grade them or record them.  I can simply print their records for our log books and tada I'm all done!  Easy is good when you are homeschooling this many little kids!  I have 8 in school from prek on up to 2nd grade and that extra time can be used for other things.

I do want to note that the free option is still a good deal if you can't afford the premium.  I know several people that might not have that extra money right now, so sign up for the free and purchase the premium when you can.  I do have a question in about what happens when you have more than 5 kids for premium so will let you know that answer when I get it.  With the free you still get the handwriting helpers, the printables, and spelling testing/spelling help.

Free apps can be downloaded to your phones or Kindle even as well.  We don't have that technology here in our house, but for those that do this is a great thing!  Makes learning on the go much easier without having to take a laptop with you.  As homeschoolers that flexibility is something we normally tout and this makes us continue to be able to school on the go.  For my family it would be taking the laptop and working on it when we stopped for breaks or at night since we don't have smartphones, Ipads, or Kindles, but for those that do you might want to check into their free apps.

This is a great daily use website.  I highly recommend doing even a few minutes on a daily basis.  The more they do it the more they learn. We do one list a week.  Each day we do a different game to help us learn more about the word and practice spelling the word.  I print off pages where they actually are writing the word as well because I'm a stickler for penmanship and am determined my kids will learn how to not only spell but write legibly too!  And then we test on Fridays.  If you only do a 4 day week instead of 5 testing on Thursday would be your ideal.  That gives them the rest of the week to learn their words and learn how to not only spell but use them.  We also do double testing.  They are required to do the tests online, but then we also do some oral testing where they have to write down the word.  I either give them sentences and have them put the correct word in or I tell them the word and they must spell it just like the tests we used to do.

My kids love this program.  I'm giving it five stars because I love it too. Makes homeschooling simpler which in this busy time of life for me is a good thing.

Please hop on over to the Main Crew Blog post and read all the other reviews.  There were many of us who reviewed this website and we all have different thoughts and feelings so you won't read the same review twice.  It is a great program and I think we will continue to use it with my kids for the years to come.  Really the money it costs for the website versus what the spelling books would cost is a great deal to me.

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God's World News Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

With the Crew Review team we recently were able to review God's World News.  We received the Early Edition which is for grades 1-2.  It fit the best with our little school here considering I have 4 kiddos in that age range.  My kids love getting things in the mail just for them.  Which is great for this review as we got a year subscription free!

God's World News has a variety of different levels.  They have 6 total spanning from God's Big World for preschool and kindergarten to Trak for high school.  Each level is available for a years subscription for $28. You can get a full year subscription which includes 10 editions or a school year edition which only includes 7 editions.

With our subscription we received an online edition.  Through this you can get online and read the editions, back editions, and much more.  You can read biographies, print off activities, and so much more.  The kids can also access a kids website or kids zone to find fun things and games for them to do.  I've loved that there is a parents weekly email that gives me extra ideas for current events.  Up until getting the magazine, I've not done a current events curriculum with my kids.  We really haven't talked of much in the way of current events at all.  I had thought they were too young.  Well I was wrong!  They love learning about the current events and I love the Godly Christian take on them that we get with God's World News.

We also received a full sized map of the world to help us locate the locations of the articles.  This was so much fun!  We love finding out where in the big picture the events are taking place.

You may be asking yourself, so what's the big deal with this?  So what, it's a Christian magazine for kids?  But it's so much more than just that!  Yes it is a Christian magazine designed for kids at each level.  But it helps them develop critical thinking skills.  I had never thought of working on critical thinking in my kids this little, but it makes sense to start it now so that they grow in their thinking as they learn.  It makes a lot of sense actually and I for one am very glad for this.  I had never heard of them before this review opportunity came up and it has been such a blessing for us.

My kids can now tell you some of what is going on in the world.  They may honestly know more about this stuff than I do.  I must admit I don't follow the news.  I really don't.  We have no television.  We do have internet, but I don't do a lot of news reading.  I look at the weather, check my emails, do some facebook, and blog.  That's the extent of my internet.  I'm not sure I really have time for all I do on here and have no clue how I'd fit news into my tight schedule.  So now I get my news too!  Current events as told to me by my kids who are reading it in their God's World News!

Within each magazine are full color pictures related to each article.  The articles are short and in big enough print my kids aren't intimidated by them.  It also connects a Bible verse to the stories.  One of the editions had pirate stories including their ships and how they are recovering one such ship.  The verse was Psalm 143:5 about remembering the days of old.  Yes!  That is what we are doing.  We are remembering and relearning from them.  Great stuff here!

So what we're doing.  Read the magazine.  Do the activities in the magazine.  Go online.  Print off extra activities as well as answer keys so the kids can grade their own(they love this) and also read more.  If there is a person in our stories we look for his biography.  If there is an event in our story we look for related articles.  The online resources really are wonderful and so much more than just taking a peek at recent magazines.

And now I close with the highlight of my kids reading.  In the first issue we received, the first story was about the 150th Anniversary Reenactment of Gettysburg!  This was so neat because the kids could say that their Daddy was there!  No he wasn't in the pictures or in the article specifically, but he was there!  And they love to reenact the Civil War with us so this was great.  This one little one page article with 3 pictures started a whole study for us.  We studied the battle.  We watched films from the reenactment.  What a great way to start off our subscription to this magazine!  They are forever in love now and keep waiting for another "blast from the past" that might feature their Daddy someday!

For more Crew Reviews go to the Main Crew Blog Page and see what other Crew reviewers had to say about this great magazine.  You'll find reviews for all the different editions/levels so make sure you choose one that relates to your child's age to check out.

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Time4Learning Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

Recently as a member of the TOS Crew Review Team we received a 6 month subscription for free to Time4Learning to review.  We have been using it with our oldest who is in 2nd grade.  She is 8.  They offer learning programs for preschool through high school as well so really any student could learn from this site and use it.

Time4Learning covers the five main subjects so really it is an entire curriculum in and of itself.  You can use it without having to use another curriculum.  We, however, do still like to include Bible as a subject and you don't find that on here.  You do have access to math, science, social studies, language arts, and LA extensions.

This online program is student focused so it moves at the pace that the student sets.  There are no deadlines or strict standards for how fast a child has to complete the course or how many lessons must be done per week.  It's a really simple program that requires very little adult supervision.  All I had to do was be available if she didn't understand something or needed help with a word she didn't know.  During the very beginning there were some issues with the fact that she isn't extremely comfortable with the computer yet as we haven't done a lot online.  That just gets better the more she uses it and she now is pretty much a pro with clicking and doing her lessons.

The cost  really isn't too bad.  For the preschool through 8th grade courses it is $19.95 for the first student each month and $14.95 for each additional student per month.   High school coursework is a bit more at $30.00 for the month which includes four courses.  My children are far from being close to starting high school so I really didn't dig too deep into that one.  We used the 2nd grade course as we have two children in that grade.  All my others are younger than that.

Our favorite subject was math.  I say was because I think the course we used last year for math must have been an advanced first grade course as we knew most of the second grade lessons already and she was able to breeze right through them.  That most likely is why it's her favorite subject!  It's done!

Next was science.  Oh my but she loved the Earth and Space section.  We hadn't covered that at all in our school yet and she just loved learning about the planets and moon.  This was one of those where she'd get done a lesson for the day and need to move on to her other subjects and try to tell me she hadn't done her science yet so she could do another lesson.  I would be giggling in my head because I LOVE that my kids love to learn so much.  It's a great feeling to know that your child is engaged and interested enough in a subject to want to keep learning even after they're supposed to be done for the day.

Our least favorite subject was reading.  She tends  to struggle with reading still.  This program is very good for struggling readers as it does let them move at their own pace.  The "reading" or language arts  is divided into two sections.  You have language arts and language arts extensions.  In the extensions you have 22 chapters that help children work on their vocabulary and building their vocabulary as well as work on learning to write short sentences using proper grammar and punctuation.

Social studies was a good one too as it really seemed to work into what we're doing in school as well.  It took her on "virtual tours" really and let her see more of what our monuments and such are like.  It went perfectly with the section we were doing on states as well.  She liked this and we often brought things out of what she learned on the computer into our school discussions with the rest of the kids.

You can learn more about the entire second grade coursework by visiting this page on Time4Learning which gives you an overview.  I've tried to highlight some of the specifics that we liked about the program.  The only thing to dislike is that it is all on the computer and there are no hands on books.  It also requires a computer of course which some families may not have.  Our problem would be if we used it with more than one student that we only have one computer and it would not work very well with that set up.

All in all we loved this and recommend to others.  Main things, you need a computer and your child needs to have special time set aside to use it.  Make sure you're available to help with questions especially for the younger grades.

As members of the Crew Review Team we all reviewed Time4Learning but different grades and levels.  Crew reviewers can tell you about preschool through 8th grade as we did not review the High School levels though they are available now.  Make sure to hop on over to the Main Crew Blog and read all the Crew Reviews!

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