crew review
Starfall Home Membership {Crew Review}
Starfall Education Foundation has been a favorite in our household for 13 years now. I was so excited when I saw The Starfall Home Membership come up for review this year. Starfall has been such a blessing in our home over our years of homeschooling. It is one of our most recommended programs to other homeschoolers.
As always, Starfall Education Foundation provides a wonderful program to help children everywhere learn to read. The program is still free but they now have The Starfall Home Membership available for a low yearly fee. This part of the program offers an informative and fun curriculum that can be used with your young students both at home and in a classroom setting.
Starfall Education Foundation offers an app download to be used by your students. The app is available on both Android and iPad. It’s simple and fun to use.
As I mentioned, we began using Starfall many years ago with my oldest son. It was a program he found fun. Bonus that it was free to use with him. Extra bonus that he actually learned from it.
My daughter also began reading with Starfall. She loved the games and the fun videos that the program included. We could watch a few of the videos or play a few games and it wasn’t overwhelming. It was just the right amount of learning and fun.
Add in my third child. Our love of Starfall continued. Laycie loved the program just as much as her siblings.
And when the fourth baby came, well Starfall was sure to be a hit with him too. He was watching the videos with his siblings before he could sit up. He was singing the catchy songs before he could really talk well. He was learning and all thanks to this wonderful company that has kept my children interested for the past decade.
Now, though I am an avid lover of Starfall Education Foundation, I had never joined The Starfall Home Membership. We simply enjoyed the free parts of this wonderful program. So when this review came up, I wanted to know what it was all about. Seriously, how much better could this program get!
I logged in and set up our account. Through our membership we were able to add in Math and even more reading, phonics and fun. This program is for preschool, 1st and 2nd grade. It’s a great remedial resource for students who may be a bit older as well.
The program is not overwhelming. You can stop at any point and restart again when you’re ready. You can work all day or just 10 minutes. You can restart and replay whatever you need to.
This program has taught my kids so much. They’ve learned to read. It’s helped with reading struggles. It’s helped keep them interested. It was a savior in our household.
And the Starfall Home Membership is awesome. You gain access to so much more. There’s a parent/teacher center where you will find access to full curriculum units that help you teach the basics to your sweet children. You can download additional helps, like charts and images, readers and so much more.
These items are also available for purchase in the Starfall Store. Costs vary by product. These are not needed for the program but they are a great bonus if you wish to purchase while working through the program.
Starfall starts with teaching your child the ABC’s. We’ve watched these little videos and played the games endlessly. My kids LOVE them. They haven’t changed a lot over the years. They’ve only gotten better.
When your child has a good grasp of the ABC’s, you’ll move forward into Learning to Read. This just continues to build and build until eventually, your child is reading! I love it!
Through The Starfall Home Membership, your child learns so much more! You start with math songs, or you can learn about holidays, calendar math, ABC’s, Colors, Phonics, Nursery Rhymes and so so so much more!
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starfall.education/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/starfalledu Tag: @starfalledu
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/starfalleducation/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starfalleducation/ Tag: @starfalleducation
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Drive Thru History Adventures {Crew Review}
The thing I love most about Drive Thru History Adventures is that it truly bring history to life. Dave Stotts creates adventure that keeps you interested and wanting to learn and see more. He takes you to the places where history happened for you to see with your own eyes, even when you can’t be there in person. And he loves what he does… that really shows in both the amazing videos he creates and now through the online program/curriculum at Drive Thru History Adventures.
This is a history program and curriculum that your entire family can make use of. You will learn, along with your children. Even my Mother has used and absolutely LOVED this review. She’s watched the videos and discussed the questions with each of my children. She’s had my 5 year old snuggled up and watching with her, and my teens have stopped to listen in as well.
And then there’s the days when I “forced” my older kids to watch and work through the curriculum. Only, guess what! There was no need to force them. This was something they totally wanted to do and enjoyed!
We used the App for most of this program. The app allowed us to choose the video series we wanted to see through Adventures TV. Currently there are 3 available: Bible History Adventures, American History Adventures and Ancient History Adventures. Each, of course, teaches a whole different section of history but it’s awesome that you can switch back and forth as you wish, or simply work through the whole section on that one subject.
Adventures TV is awesome. It’s available on iPhone and Android. It was easy to download and use right away.
Now, let’s talk a bit about the actual curriculum. For American History, you’ll click on each separate episode and be brought to a page that really digs deep into the topic at hand. The first episode in American History is The Discovery. On the curriculum page, you’ll find the video, then a brief summary of what you’re learning. There’s a suggested reading which is related to the events being learned as well.
Then you’ll be brought to a side road, or additional information that may (or may not) be interesting to you. This is followed by the questions for this lesson. The questions are simple but they are thorough, making sure you student is grasping what they’ve seen and heard and now know.
Following this are downloadable files. The questions and answers are available as printables and any other information is available here.
At the end, you’ll find extra lessons to help you dig deeper into the subject so that you can expand even more on the lesson being taught. These a links to further information and videos which are great additions to the curriculum itself.
And then you are on to the next adventure!
There is a full resources center that is pretty amazing as well. This center gives to you so much extra information. Expert papers, articles, side roads and behind the scenes can all be found here. You can find all the worksheets and answer guides here as well.
There is also a community that you can join. It’s a Facebook group for Drive Thru History Adventures where you will find others who are using this amazing curriculum. You can ask questions and gather great ideas from one another. It’s a valuable resource to have.
As I stated in the beginning, we were more than impressed by this program. Dave Stotts and all those at Drive Thru History Adventures have put so much into the development of this program and curriculum. There heart and love of history really shines through.
There are two ways to purchase a monthly subscription to Drive Thru History Adventures. You can subscribe yearly for an annual cost of $124.99 or you can subscribe monthly for $12.99 a month. It is well worth this cost, trust me!
If you join right now, there is an offer to get The Gospels on DVD for free with an annual subscription. You can find the code for this here: https://drivethruhistoryadventures.com/join/?discount=gospels
The Drive Thru History add is on page 19.
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/drivethruhistory
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drivethruhistory/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drivethruhistory/ @drivethruhistory
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Ultrakey Online {Crew Review}
Let The Little Children Come {Crew Review}
Forbrain {Crew Review}
Forbrain helps with language development and with learning. It’s basically a digital phonics phone, designed as a headset with a microphone that you speak into and you can literally hear yourself speak. The device is developed with a dynamic filter which filters the sound of your voice and plays it immediately for you. The dynamic filter pushes the sound over to the Bone Conduction transducers. This is what allows you to actually hear yourself speaking through the device. A high quality, repostionable microphone is what captures your voice in the beginning.
Forbrain works for 6 hours before dying out. It takes around 3 hours to charge. It’s black with blue transducers.
Everyone in our family used this device. I even let our nieces and nephews give it a trial run. It’s a little odd at first because, well let’s face it, we just aren’t used to hearing ourselves speak so that can be just a bit odd until you get used to it.
Forbrain is just awesome. I could see this device being used in choral groups everywhere. I sure wish I had one when I was in Chorus during high school. It would have helped with tone so much.
Speech and debate teams would be another great place to use this product. Public speaking is sometimes scary because we struggle to hear ourselves. This product can help boost speaking confidence for users, putting them a step ahead when competing.
I found it’s greatest use for us was with Winston, who is often really shy and is wanting to expand his speaking abilities at 17. He’s ready to go forward in the world but struggles a little in talking to others, so this device has helped to boost his speaking confidence. He can wear it a while and listen to himself and his personal responses then further develop them into better choices in speech.
The device also works amazingly well for Laycie who often stutters when she speaks and sometimes gets caught on her words. She’s able to wear the device and it helps her hear and think as she speaks. This has tremendously helped her stuttering and her confused speech during the day. We will be continuing with using Forbrain to develop her voice over the next year.
This device has helped my children gain confidence in their speech. I’ve personally used it as well to help boost my own speech and my singing confidence. It’s worked great for both uses!
It is recommended that using Forbrain for 15 to 20 minutes a day for around 6 weeks can increase speaking ability and brain function. Use it for reading, writing, singing, and more. It’s a great device to use all the time. Forbrain costs $239 but is worth every dime.
Find Forbrain – Sound for Life Ltd on Social Media:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/forbrainLTD
Twitter : https://twitter.com/forbrainheadset
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/forbrain—retrain-the-way-you-process-information