Luv'N Lambert Life

A blog about living with Epilepsy, IBHS, Homeschooling and so much more

crew review

Math Meets The Real World {Crew Review}

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Mathematics is my least favorite subject.  I have one child that excels at Math and another who, like me, just doesn’t get it.  I am always looking for ways to make Math understandable and make relate to the real world for us, especially as homeschoolers.  For this review, we were given an online subscription to NatureGlo’s eScience MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle.  
The MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle contains the following courses:
Math Connections with the Real World: 6 Week Online Class
MathArt In Ancient Cultures: 6 Week Online Class
MathArt in the Art & Sciences: 6 Week Online Class
MathArt – Patterns in Nature: 6 Week Online Class
Each of these courses are separately awesome and, of course, we could not complete them all in the time allotted for this review.  You can buy each of these courses separately for $149 a course or you can buy the entire bundle of all four courses for $199 a month for three months or a one time fee of $546.40, which gives a 10% discount for your purchase.
Gloria Brooks founded NatureGlo’s eScience.  Her love of teaching brought her to sharing her courses online.  As a full-time RVer, Gloria travels often and shares her knowledge with students as much as she can.
This is a course that you can easily use as a family.  There are no limits on age or educational value.  Each course is different and well developed, with lapbooks, study guides, videos and more.  The courses are each broken down into several lessons.  Those lessons each have different activities to complete.  Games are also included.  Best of all, there are also fun craft activities to make learning real.
For this review, we worked on Math Connections with the Real World.  This course taught us the history of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Numbers.  Can I be honest?  I briefly remember learning about these in school but I didn’t remember much past the words themselves.  As I said in the beginning, Math is not my thing.
In Mathematics, the ratio is Golden if their ratio is the same as the ratio to their sum to the larger of the two quantities.  Fibonacci Numbers are an integer sequence that increases as you add the last two numbers in the sequence.  At least that’s how I understood them.
None-the-less, my kids got it.  They learned a lot from this course and I’m glad.  It was awesome to see how Math relates to our world, to things we see everyday.  The videos discussed how everything has a pattern, everything in creation and without those patterns things in this world simply would not exist.  I look forward to learning more with the kids using the MathArt courses as we continue to learn.
MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle is for everyone.  You will greatly enjoy these classes.  We look forward to learning more.
You can find NatureGlo’s eScience online at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/natureglo1  Tag: @natureglo1

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MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle {NatureGlo's eScience Reviews}

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Starfall Home Membership {Crew Review}

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Starfall

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!

All these things are developed to keep your child’s interest in learning.  For us, it’s been one of the best educational programs we’ve ever encountered.  I am more than thankful for all that Starfall Education Foundation has taught my children.
You can get your own subscription to The Starfall Home Membership for $35 a year.  This is such a wonderful investment for young children and one you will love.  You’ll see them truly enjoying learning right away.
You can find Starfall Education Foundation online at:



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The Starfall Home Membership {Starfall Education Foundation Reviews}

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Drive Thru History Adventures {Crew Review}

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Drive Thru History Adventures
I have been a huge fan of Drive Thru History Adventures and Dave Stotts since the show premiered on television a few years back.  Any time a review comes up for Drive Thru History, I truly get excited.  This review for Drive Thru History Adventures was no exception and it has truly exceeded my expectations.  This is good stuff, y’all.
Drive Thru History Adventures

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.

Drive Thru History Adventures

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.

Drive Thru History Adventures

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!

Drive Thru History Adventures

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.

Drive Thru History Adventures

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

Drive Thru History Adventures is offering 20% off for readers of the Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  Here is the link to the digital issue: https://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/2018×1/?pg=1#pg1 
The Drive Thru History add is on page 19.
You can find Drive Thru History Adventures online at:

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Drive Thru History Adventures - Subscription {Drive Thru History Adventures Reviews}
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Ultrakey Online {Crew Review}

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UltraKey Bytes of Learning

Here we are on this beautiful spring day, ready to write our first review for the Homeschool Review Crew!  I’m so excited to be back on the Crew for another year and ready to bring you many amazing products that I know you guys will enjoy just as we do!  Our first vendor and review this year is from Bytes Of Learning.  We were so excited and blessed to be able to review their Ultrakey Online Family Subscription.

UltraKey Online Family Edition

Ultrakey Online is a wonderful designed program that teaches typing to students.  There are various levels to the program which allow you to start from the beginning and work your way up, or will allow you to assess where you need to begin and build from there.  So you can use the program for any skill level and increase those skills to become better at typing overall.
We were given access to Ultrakey Online Family Subscription which allows us to use the program with the entire family.  You can use this program with up to 8 users but you can email Bytes of Learning if you do have a larger family and they also have wonderful suggestions for that.  8 was just the right number for our family of 7!

UltraKey Online Family Edition

As a parent/teacher, I was able to set up the program really easily for my students.  The directions are easy to understand.  The program also talks you through each step in some areas which is nice as well, especially for the younger kids who are still learning reading.
At this time, the program uses the North American keyboard and spelling but there are plans to adapt this for the UK, Australia and New Zealand in the next year.  As we live in the US, this was not a problem for us.  We were able to use the program immediately and have enjoyed it.
When you begin setting up the program, you will log in the information, user name and password for each of your students.  You can then choose Family settings which are basically the settings for how the program will run.  You can allow your student to choose as they work through the program or you can set the program to one paragraph up to an entire text to type.  You can allow access to the gaming zone or block it.  The gaming zone is a reward program for working through the program and rewards the user for completing goals, encouraging them to continue with the program and discouraging boredom.
In Student Management itself, you can set individual goals for your student’s typing.  You can customize these as you see fit or you can allow the program to develop goals for your student.  You choose whatever is best for you.
In Student Settings, you can choose backgrounds that fit that student, as well as color choices and hand settings.
You can choose their spoken support, more or less.  You can choose step-by-step learning, how much practice is allowed, and whether back spacing is or is not allowed during use of the program lessons and tests.
The program allows for reports of the students work, as well as reports for the family itself to compare.  At the end of the program a certificate can also be printed to show that you have completed the work.  This is a great addition for homeschool portfolios and for college entrance.
Through this program you will learn not only typing, but also finger position and posture.  You will be able to develop these as you work through the lessons.  Proper posture and finger position is an important part of any typing program.
The program is filled with videos for each lesson, too.  This shows you how to type correctly, gives you pertinent information on use of the program and also encourages you to do your best while using the program and for years following.  All Win-Win-Win for the program!
One of our favorite parts was the Game Zone that I mentioned above.  These are just fun little extras that we were able to play around with to make typing fun.  A nice break from the regular typing program as you worked through.
The program is able to be used by anyone.  If your child is able to sit and knows the basics of letters and words, they can begin this program.  If you are 67 and want to build your typing skills, you can use this program.  So long as you have the skills to type, it’s something you can use to help build stronger skills with typing.
We truly enjoyed working with Ultrakey Online Family Subscription from Bytes of Learning.  The 8-User Family Subscription that we were given costs $49.95.   There are other smaller versions available as well for slightly less cost.

You can find Bytes of Learning online at:
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UltraKey {Bytes of Learning Reviews}

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Let The Little Children Come {Crew Review}

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You may remember that around Halloween we did a review for Let The Little Children Come.  It was an evangelism pack of pumpkins to be shared with others in order to share God’s word during a Holiday many choose not to celebrate.  It was a great way for Christians to reach out and speak to others about Jesus at that time.  
For this review, we were sent the Gospel Tracts and Evangelism Tools Sampler Pack from Let The Little Children Come.  These products are an awesome way to reach out and share the gospel with others.  
This packet contain 10 colorfully, engaging items that are designed to share God’s word with children.  Button flip-outs, The True Story of Christmas Animated Tracts, The Lost Easter Egg Pop-up Tract, a Silicone Salvation Bracelet, a Wordless Bracelet Kit and much more help children link God’s word to their lives and helps you as a parent or advisor to make this happen.
The Bible tells us to reach out and share the Gospel with others.  It tells us that our children are the place to start building a love for the Lord.  These wonderful tools help to make that happen by giving Biblical quotes for our children to build upon, by giving them physical items that point them towards Christ’s love and by leading them to learn about God’s greatest gift to the world.

Each item that fills the Gospel Tracts and Evangelism Tools Sampler pack is specially picked to assist you in bringing your children, or the children in your life, closer to Christ.  Each item has a different lesson and meaning to help you make this happen.  Each item is special and unique for this reason.
You can find Let The Little Children Come on Facebook!

Forbrain {Crew Review}

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I’ve spent my life as a blogger, an author, and a singer.  I’ve often wished for a device that could help me hear myself better, that could help me fine tune my thoughts and hear my words, a device that could help me to actually hear my tone and my annunciation.  Forbrain from Forbrain – Sound for Life Ltd helps with all of this!

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

MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle {NatureGlo's eScience Reviews}

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