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language arts

IXL {Crew Review}

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IXL is one of our favorite websites to use for homeschooling.  IXL offers IXL Math and IXL Language Arts to it’s users.  This program is an educational supplement to be used as extra practice, not as a stand-alone curriculum.
We have been using IXL for years now and this is one vendor we are always excited to see on the Crew Vendor List.  Our membership to IXL has been such a blessing in our homeschooling.  My children enjoy using the website and learning with it.
My children that use IXL are ages 6, 11, and 13.  Each uses IXL at their own pace and can review the lessons they are learning as needed through the program since it is just simple, yet thorough, practice for them.  IXL provides a wonderful place to learn that they truly enjoy.
IXL isn’t a cutesy website.  This website is clean and to the point in lesson style. You won’t find a lot of distraction or over the top imaging on this site but you will find a great deal of learning that is intriguing and fun for your children.
Lesson answers are often multiple choice, making selections easy to make and understand.  Some lessons are easier to answer and complete than others, just as in a textbook.  How quickly and easily your child can use this website will depend on how well your child learns and your child’s maturity level in following directions educationally.
IXL Math covers all grade levels.  Lessons are provided by Letter from Level-A through Level-N.  Most lessons have over 200 skills to be taught through the program. Level-A begins with number concepts and understanding numbers, while Level-N teaches equations of cosign functions and graphing complex numbers.  You will find everything Math covered in IXL Math.
IXL Language Arts begins at Level D and takes you through Level-J skills.  This program begins around a 3rd-4th grade level for students.  IXL does plan to add more to this program over time and have been slowly working on that goal.  IXL Language Arts covers things like identifying plurals, correcting capitalization errors, how modifiers are used, using parallel structure and so much more.
Parents can try out the lessons as well to see what the student will cover.  Simply click the lesson and it will start.  This is a great way to know if this concept is the right one for your child.
Students don’t have to work on a certain grade level through this program either.  You can choose any level at any time and cover that concept or practice.  This is great for independent learners.  It also allows you to adapt the program to any curriculum you are learning through already.
A membership to IXL is available through their website.  A monthly membership for IXL Math or IXL Language Arts cost $9.95 a month.  A yearly membership for IXL Math or IXL Language Arts costs $79 a year.  A combined membership for both IXL Math and IXL Language Arts costs $129.  You may have multiple students use this program and it is designed for students in grades K-12.  There is an additional cost for multiple students of $2 monthly or $20 yearly.
There are also apps available for using this program on a tablet or other digital device.

You can find IXL in the following places online:
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IEW: Fix It! Grammar {Crew Review}

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For this review, we were given a copy of the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Fix It! Grammar.  We were allowed to choose which book we reviewed and I chose the first in this series for my children: Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree.  We received both the Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree  Teacher’s manual and the Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree Student book for Book 1.  This is a 6 book series which sells online for $19 for the teacher’s manual and $15 for the student book.  This program series is for students in 3rd grade and up.
IEW’s Fix It! Grammar is one of the best programs I have used thus far.  The program is wonderfully thorough and so easy to use.  It was perfect for our homeschooling.
We have been looking for a great Grammar program to use for a while, especially for Emmalee.  She’s a very independent learner and doesn’t require or want a lot of instruction from the programs she uses.  So I had been searching for a program that would teach her exactly what she needs to know as quickly as she learns.  The program also needed to be somewhat adjustable and easy to pick up on because Emmalee wants to learn so quickly right now that instruction bores her and makes listening hard for her to do.  
With Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree, Book 1, I was able to give Emmalee a brief lesson on what she was learning and have her jump right into completing her lesson in the student workbook.  The Teacher’s manual covered everything I needed to teach Emmalee how to use Fix It! Grammar and what we were learning about in the section we were working on.  It also helped that Emma is a great student and she loves learning which made the program flow a lot easier for us.  I would not have had the same results with my son, who does not learn as easily as his sister but this program is still great for him as well.
Students do need a binder for his program which will need to be purchased before they get started.  Within the binder should be dividers organized as Fix Its, Grammar Glossary, Rewrite, and Vocabulary.  Students should start their week out by reading through the “Learn It” section, being sure to cut out the weekly grammar cards that are located at the back of the student book.  I laminated these to make it easier to use and keep up with them since they are to be used for the year and beyond of learning through Fix It! Grammar.  The first few times we did the lessons, I helped by modeling the lesson on the dry erase board to show Emma exactly what was expected of her while using the program.  As I already mentioned, it did not take her long to catch on.
Emma enjoyed fixing the passages she read through.  She also enjoyed the interesting reading that was provided through some of the passages she edited.  She also enjoyed the rewrites for each lesson.  It made for great copy writing practice to help build her handwriting skills as well.
This was such a great program for her to use and just what she was needing for the stage of learning she is now in.  I’ve watched Emma blossom in her learning while working through Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Book these past few weeks and I love seeing the love of learning on her face.  It’s the best feeling ever to have a product and know it’s working so well for your child’s learning skills.
Institute for Excellence in Writing can be found online in the following places:

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Moving Beyond The Page {Crew Review}

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Moving Beyond the Page Review

Have you ever found a curriculum that simply blows you away and makes you reconsider everything you’ve ever used for homeschooling?  For me that curriculum company is Moving Beyond the Page.  Their unit studies are so thorough, so simple to use and yet so much fun!

For this review, we were given access to our choice of products.  Trust me, this was NOT an easy decision to make.  Since we have been studying the Revolutionary War in relation to our Hometown of Georgetown, SC, I choose two units that I thought we best fit to our current lessons.  For our Language Arts Package, I chose Abigail Adams and for our History Package, I chose Revolution.

{Language Arts – Abigail Adams,   History – Revolution}

 

As soon as I saw Moving Beyond the Page listed as one of our vendors, I knew I didn’t want to miss out.  I reviewed another set of packaged programs for this company with the Schoolhouse Team last year and we absolutely LOVED it.  I wanted to see if we’d feel the same way this year and I’m happy to say we still LOVE them.

Our Language Arts Package provided us with an online guidebook to use and a physical book to read to learn all about the life of Abigail Adams.  The book we received is Abigail Adams Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober.  It is filled with information on Mrs. Adams life and the things she saw during this important time in the early beginning of America. 


The online guide for Abigail Adams provides a wonderful lesson plan which is simple to follow.  You simply log into the website and follow the links.  There are activity pages that can be printed out to use with the lessons being learned.  There are also bonus suggestions from others to help you extend your lessons  even farther.  I really enjoy the formatting of the online guide and the extra content that helps to bring the lessons to life.

I must admit though, my children found the book on Mrs. Adams lengthy and slightly boring and so did I since I was reading it to them.  I think this book and lesson package would be better suited for a more structured homeschool setting than ours.  I was able to find readings from various websites and books from the library to help us make our lessons more interesting.  There were some areas where reading the information provided in the book Abigail Adams Witness to a Revolution could not be avoided and we read through and did learn a lot from the reading.

For our History Package, we were sent a physical copy of the Revolution Guidebook, along with the hands-on book Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself by Kris Bordessa and We Were There, Too!  Young People in US History by Phillip Hoose.  I will admit this package was immediately a favorite of both myself and the kiddos.  Both these books are amazing and they add so much to the lesson itself.

Great Colonial America Projects contains so many interesting facts and super-fun projects to complete!  It includes words to know which can be used for Vocabulary exercises and also for copywork.  It features different persons from the time period throughout the book, providing a better look at those important historical figures and their influence on American History.  This book also gives timeline tidbits would could easily be used to create a physical timeline in your lessons.  There are so many things we learned from this one little book!

We Were There, Too! is a beautiful book itself.  It’s a glossy covered, hardback book that is sturdily made.  It reads like a textbook but the stories are so interesting.  They really draw the reader in and the students as well.  Beginning with the discovery of America, this book takes you on a long walk through History.  One that you won’t soon forget.

We Were There, Too! also contains new words that can be used for Vocabulary, Spelling, Copywork and more.  Lessons on the specific people who made History happen can be easily expanded upon though the book is pretty thorough in examining these people and is historically accurate in it’s information.  This book is a wonderful addition to our lessons and our homeschooling.

The Revolution Guidebook is approximately 168 pages long.  It begins with covering history from the settling of America which did surprise me, as I was expecting it to only cover the actual Revolutionary period and the War itself.  I was thrilled to discover it began with America’s settlement and covered some information that we had already been discussing in our homeschooling over the weeks before we began this study.

The guidebooks for both of these packages are written so that the teacher can jump right in and begin right away.  The packages come with the books and some packages come with extra activities that may otherwise be hard to locate so that you can easily begin the study.  These packages are set up as unit studies and as most unit studies do, they cover the information being learned thoroughly both by providing excellent reading selections with the chosen books and by providing a thorough and completely planned guidebook to direct the teacher through the lesson. 


  We used these unit studies together in conjuction as much as possible.  They fit well together, since Abigail Adams was a witness to the Revolution which we were discussing in the Revolution study.  We used these lessons almost daily over the review period and we learned a lot from them.  We also learned a lot about the history of our hometown, and nearby Charleston in the process.  We enjoyed how the lessons brought so much of our home’s past to life for us.

The guidebooks provide lessons activities, extensions, suggestions for extra books to read and so much more.  Best yet, they are so so so easy to follow.  We have learned so much with these lesson packages in such a short time because of the simple and easy layout which makes it easy to jump right in and learn.  I’m really considering switching other parts of our learning program to Moving Beyond the Page because of the ease of using the program and it’s completeness.

The packaging prices aren’t bad either.  The Language Arts Package for Abigail Adams with the Online Guidebook is priced as $26.88 at time of this review.  This includes access to the guidebook online and the physical book Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution.  This package is designed for use with students ages 12-14 or who have a reading level of 8-9th grade.

The History Package for Revolution with a printed copy of the guidebook is $65.93.  It comes with the guidebook in print copy, a copy of Great Colonial American Projects You Can Build Yourself and We Were There, Too!: Young People in US History.  This package is designed for use with students age 12-14 or who have a reading level of 8-9th grade.

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IXL {Crew Review}

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IXL is a well-known name in Homeschooling and education.  What began as a Comprehensive Math program has expanded to include Language Arts as well.  This amazing program can be used to supplement any math or language program available.
IXL provides thorough instruction and practice of important skills in both Math and Language Arts.  The program is designed to be set up to meet State Standards but can also be used to simply supplement extra practice in subjects or units as needed.  Covering grades K-12 in Math instruction and grades 2-4 in Language Arts, with future plans to expand, this program provides just the right amount of supplementation at home.
The formatting of the program is set to basically allow children to read through the problem then choose an answer through A, B or C options.  This allows a child to process and answer quickly when using the program.  Children can work on, above or below grade level as needed and parent/teacher options allow this to be set per child as needed.
There is audio available for math skills in the younger grades, which is helpful for students who may struggle with reading skills.  An iPad app is available as well for extra math practice.  Students can work either by grade level or by topic as needed.  Working by topic allows the student to work strictly on Addition or Estimation or Algebra as needed, wherever the student needs the extra help.  
Language Arts is set up similarly to Math, allowing the student to work on grade level or by topic.  So if your student needs extra practice with Sentences or Nouns and Pronouns, you can simply choose that topic to start them on.
In parent mode, you can set up each child’s account through the Profiles and Settings options.  I was able to set up a parent account and one account for each of my older children.  I input their names and chose a picture to fit them so they can tell who is who.  These are fun little images to help them distinguish their personal accounts.  I can also opt to set a secret word for each of them to log in with or to leave the account without a word in this section.
Through my parent account, I can check the progress of each student.  I can print reports of their progress, as well.  I am able to view awards for each student’s progress to see how well they are doing in their work.  I can also view my state standards to see how well my children match up to their grade levels and their educational knowledge through the program.
We’ve used IXL for several years off and on now.  It’s a program that I have personally enjoyed though it’s not always been appealing to my children.  However, it’s a wonderful program to have them use as a go to just to cover review lessons quickly and gauge their personal progress.
The style and set up of the program lessons remind me of the Standardized Testing that I used to take yearly in public school.  It’s pretty much presented as a problem with fill in the blank answers, or online choices in the place of fill in the blank.  This isn’t necessarily a problem but it doesn’t completely mesh with our homeschooling style.  My children are extremely hands-on and prefer to watch a video on a math lesson or to actually work out a lesson using blocks or some kind of manipulative over choosing the correct answer from a group of answers.
This program would be amazing for students who are preparing for testing in their state.  In our state, testing is not mandatory, so it definitely doesn’t benefit us there.  It would also be a great program for a family who wishes to meet their state’s standards or to stay aligned with the public school’s standards for education.
My children enjoy being able to see their accomplishments through the Awards in the program.  They also enjoy seeing the information they’ve covered in lessons, and I enjoy that as well.  It’s also nice to be able to print off the areas they have covered and passed thoroughly so I can see what we need to work on next.  This allows me to bypass parts of lessons that my children aren’t struggling with and concentrate on those areas they are struggling with.
IXL is available by subscription for $9.95 for Math only, $9.95 for Language Arts only, or $15.95 monthly for both.  A years subscription of $79 is available for either Math or Language Arts or $129.00 for both subjects for the year.  Additional subscriptions for each child are $2 a month per child, or $20 per year per child.
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Mobile Education Tools, Rainbow Sentences App {Crew Review}

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     Every year when our taxes come back, I look over what we need for school and try to invest it in things that would be useful for us educationally while we have the money to do so.  Last year was no different and I chose to invest in one of our favorite classroom products, our iPad.  This has been such a blessing for our homeschooling and has allowed us to be able to review great products like this one from Mobile Education Tools.

     Rainbow Sentences is an iPad app available on iTunes from Mobile Education Tools.  It’s designed to help students recognize grammatically correct sentences by using visual color coded cues.  The basic structures of Who, What, Where, and Why of sentences are color coded so that students can better understand how these combinations work together to create basic sentence structures.  With this app, students learn to recognize nouns, verbs and prepositions and have the opportunity to record their sentences in their own voice to improve their speech and other language skills.

     Rainbow Sentences features 168 unique images to create a sentence from, 6 levels of sentence complexity, and color coded words for added visual support.  Words are dragged to create correct sentence placement and are spoken for non-readers who may be using the app.  Students also have the option to record sentences in their own voices and to save and email recorded sentences.  Throughout the app, as lessons are completed, students earn puzzle pieces to encourage continued play and those puzzles come to life as they are completed, keeping the students interests active as they work through their lessons.

     Rainbow Sentences was a HIT in our house.  All three of my children loved using this one from ages 4-11.  I set the app up with their log-in and allowed them to play freely as long as they wanted.  Each of them found a different interest while using the app and all enjoyed completing the fun little puzzles as they worked through it.  This is definitely a product we will continue to use.

     Since this app is encouraged to be used with Special Needs children, it was perfect for us.  I will be able to continue using it with all three, and especially with my 4 year old who is in speech therapy once a week.  The ability for her to hear the words in the sentences and also record her own voice reading the sentences will be a great help for her auditory skills, as well as for her brother and sisters skills too.  This app has truly been a huge blessing in our family.

     Rainbow Sentences from Mobile Education Tools is available through iTunes on the iPad for $7.99.  It’s recommended for ages 3-10 as both an educational and special needs tool.  It is compatible with iPad’s system iOS 4.3 or later.  For more reviews of this product, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!

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*Disclaimer – This app from Mobile Education Tools was provided free for me to review in exchange for my honest opinion in a blog post both by the company and the Schoolhouse Review Crew. 

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