Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) ~ Review

Hi friends, My oldest daughter and I just had the chance to review the Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] which includes A Word Write Now and Portable Walls. What an awesome opportunity! Seriously friends, we feel truly blessed by this curriculum.  Writing is an area for my daughter that could use some work.

What is Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] and what did we receive?

This deluxe package has everything you need to start your 3-5 grade student on the road to writing with ease and confidence and great products for teachers and parents as well.

It Includes:

• Teaching Writing: Structure & Style DVD set

This is a DVD seminar that I found to be very beneficial to myself. It includes twelve DVDs. It helps you teach writing to children and even helped me work on my own writing. It begins with the basics and works its way into advanced creative and essay writing. I have not finished yet and still have a way to go with it, but I can already see huge benefits. I also received a very helpful seminar workbook that goes along with the DVDS. 

• Student Writing Intensive DVDs Level A, including the Structure & Style Overview

This is a four DVD writing course for elementary children that is recorded live with Mr. Andrew Pudewa. Andrew Pudewa is the founder, principal speaker, and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Over the course of  about 30 weeks, students will learn how to effectively use a wide range of structural models and stylistic techniques in their compositions, as they write on a fiction and non-fiction topics. It also includes a student notebook. This notebook comes with handouts, complete teacher's notes, source texts, assignments, and checklists. I really enjoyed that it comes with a three-ring binder that has dividers. Having the binder helped my daughter stay organized. 

• Fix-It! Grammar, Books 1 and 2 with downloadable student e-books

For this review we received book 1 and 2 teacher’s manuals with downloadable student e-books. The e-books are 126 pages and filled with wonderful easy to understand lessons. The teacher's book have been very beneficial in helping me understand the lessons. 

We absolutely love Fix It! Grammar! In these books children hunt for and correct errors in daily passages that cumulatively tell a story. My daughter loved the stories and always felt a since of accomplishment after each lesson. She loves that the lessons are not long or overwhelming. My daughter learned so much using Fix It! Grammar! and I highly, highly recommend them to everyone.

We actually reviewed Fix It! Grammar last year and fell in love with the books then. 

You can read that review by clicking on the link below:

http://www.homegrownheartsacademy.com/2014/09/institute-for-excellence-in-writing-fix.html

• A Word Write Now

A Word Write Now is a thematic thesaurus that contains a treasure trove of  words that will spice up your child's writing. I even find myself referring to the book. It's pretty great. It is organized into four sections. They are:

1. Section A: Character Traits

             This section includes twenty-three character traits which include lists of words categorized by nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, phrases, and additional words. Children can also find famous quotations related to the trait.

1. Section B: Word to Describe

                In this section a list of descriptive words for appearance, color, size, time, temperature, texture, and size can be found. My daughter loved referring to these lists often. She learned many new words this way.

1. Section C: Words for Movement and the Senses

               This section includes a list of synonyms for actions of the feet, hands, thinking and all of the senses.

1. Section D: Appendix

             In this section my daughter found a list of words for transitions, prepositions, and literary genres. My daughter is in the process of trying to memorize all of the prepositions.

• Portable Walls

The portable wall is a handy fold-out that contains writing models, tips, and word lists. Having this really eliminates the need for tons of posters that take up wall space. my daughter really enjoyed having it and it is something that will come in handy many times in the future. It is very sturdy so there is no worry about it getting torn through all the use it will be getting. I love that my daughter has all of the information she needs right in front of her. 

Final Thought

This isn't a program that can be rushed through. We plan on taking our time and continuing it through the year. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to review it and can't wait to see how much more my daughter and I learn. My favorite part about the whole program is how nicely each lesson is laid out. There is no need for me to go into panic mode to try to get a lesson together. This not only make learning fun. but also makes teaching easier. I'm very thankful for that.

What does Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] cost?

Currently you can purchase it for $299.00

Want to Connect with Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)?

https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting

https://www.pinterest.com/iewriting

http://vimeo.com/iewtv

https://twitter.com/iew

https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv

http://iew.com/help-support/blog

https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/

Click Below to Read More Reviews from The Schoolhouse Review Crew 

Like our blog? You can Subscribe and/or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest

Enter your email address:
 
Delivered by FeedBurner

Star Toaster ~ Orphs of the Woodlands ~ REVIEW

My daughters and I recently had the opportunity to review a wonderful online educational resource and game called Orphs of the Woodlands from Star Toaster. This was such a fun review. We absolutely enjoyed it so much. My daughters are not natural readers so anytime I get a chance to introduce them to wonderful reading and fun educational games, I'm all over it.

What is Orphs of the Woodlands?

Orphs of the Woodlands is a groundbreaking online educational series that encourages the love of learning while developing positive character traits. 

Orphs of the Woodlands uses a 3 step approach designed to capture your child’s imagination. 

This educational journey combines:

• A Reading Adventure

Readers are introduced to the story, The Treasure of High Tower.  It's about a squirrel who gets to apply for a job as a spy. In the application, your child gets to create their own name for their spy squirrel character, and that name is then part of the story for the rest of the book. My oldest daughter picked the name Squirrel Kansas. The job of the squirrel is to fight against Night Creatures who are terrorizing the Woodlands. He also reluctantly finds himself responsible for a settlement of orphans known as the Orphs of the Woodlands. He develops a heart for the orphs who are depending on him and he also develops a passion for learning as he grows into a leader. There are 15 chapters to read in total and they are sure to please the adventure-loving kid in your family.

Throughout the story I saw my daughters develop a deeper love for learning. The story was very intriguing to them. They learned so much and even got to try some really fun hands-on projects.

My daughters aren't the greatest readers but that never stopped them from attempting. I did take turns reading with them because they were eager to make their way through the story.

A fun part of the story was the many vocabulary words that my daughters learned. There were many words that they had never seen or heard before. Most of these words were in brown and they could hover their mouse over those words to learn the definitions.

Throughout the story there are also sound bytes of different sounds that the story talks about. This was a very cool addition. It helped my daughters really visualize and hear what they were reading. I love how interactive the story is.  

• An Academic Treasure

My favorite part is that the story is filled with hundreds of lessons on math, science, grammar, vocabulary, thinking skills, character, life skills, the arts, and much more. There is also tips on how to remember things such as, memory tests, as well as reminders to “pay attention!” In the story your child is introduced to a ton of characters that Squirrel Kansas is constantly learning from. Our favorite character was named Professor Forp. This professor is fun and witty. He shares something he likes to call NID's. NID stands for New Information Daily. We loved learning right along Squirrel Kansas on his journeys.

We also had the opportunity to learn and cook new recipes. Our favorite was a recipe called Nutty Nut Bread. It was a huge hit in our house. It was so fun to watch my daughters take charge and follow the directions. They served up some amazing bread and we will definitely be making it again in the future.

We even completed science experiments, learned new math concepts, learned Latin words, and many more super fun things.

Below is a picture from one of the science lessons we completed. In this lesson we learned all about using cabbage as a pH indicator.

We also tried our hands at some fun art. We learned about coil pottery and the girls even made their own. Did I mention yet how hands-on this online book is? I can't say it enough, I love how much it teaches and how much my daughters learned.

There are a variety of techniques used to present the educational material including: videos, flashcards, memory typer, and quizzes.

At the end of each chapter your child is brought to a page that says Help Wanted on the top. This section is where your child will find jobs to complete. Lessons are reviewed before the spy works at jobs to earn his pay in the woodlands. Jobs are actually fun exercises that allow students to improve their skills. Children are rewarded by getting paid in goldstars for a job well done. The more skills a child learns, the higher their pay will be.

 

I appreciated that I was provided with a Skills Page in the Parents Section which had information on my daughters progress and showed me exactly what they had been learning.

In addition to being able to view the skills they were learning, I was also sent an e-mail with progress updates. This was wonderful! I'm not always good about remembering to check in, so the e-mails were a great reminder and very much appreciated.

• A Rewarding Game

The goldstars your child earns from completing jobs are the currency of the woodlands and are used to build a settlement for the orphs in a fun game of strategy. Your child will have the opportunity to find projects that will reduce the cost of taking care of the orphs. By choosing the best strategy, the settlement that is built can sustain more orphs. Having enough goldstars to care for the orphs is a powerful motivator for children to master skills. My daughters really loved playing the game and seeing how many orphs they could support. It truly was motivation to learn as much as they could and to do well on the jobs.

Final Thought

I was thrilled with how much this program has to offer. I could have never expected how much my daughters would learn and retain. The information was provided in such a creative way. It truly was fun for them to learn and they wanted to read. Seriously, them wanting to read is huge! I have never had my daughters want to read. This proves to me that this program is amazing. I also enjoyed the story and had fun working on projects along side them. I highly recommend Orphs of the Woodlands!

How much does Orphs of the Woodlands cost?

A 60 day subscription for up to 3 children is $19.99

A 30 day extension can be applied to any 3 students for only $6.99

Great news! 

You can currently sign up for a free trial 

Want to connect with Star Toaster?

PINTEREST:

https://www.pinterest.com/startoaster/

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/startoaster4kids

TWITTER:

https://twitter.com/StarToaster

*******************

Click below to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew 

Like our blog? You can Subscribe and/or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest

Enter your email address:
 
Delivered by FeedBurner

LearningPalette.com ~ Review

Are you looking for a fun, interactive game-like platform that provides skill-appropriate material and allows students to work at their own pace?

I was just recently given the opportunity to review LearningPalette.com from Learning Wrap ups.  I must say I was pretty pleased with this powerful online math and reading curriculum for grades K-5. I received a full online family subscription for all levels of reading/math palettes instruction, up to 5 users for a full year.

First, I'd love to tell you what Wrap ups are. They were designed to help increase speed in fact recognition. Each Wrap Up has twelve items on its left side and twelve on its right side that need to be properly matched . They fit comfortably in a child’s hand and are self-correcting. The child winds a string around the Wrap Up to an answer they feel is correct. If the pathways of the strings match the markings on back, they have done the Wrap Up correctly.

This whole idea was created by a woman named Marion Stuart. She was a 4th grade school teacher looking for a method that would allow her students to quickly learn their multiplication tables. She had used the traditional methods of flashcards and drill sheets to some success, but there were still quite a few students who didn't seem to respond to those activities. After many trials she came up with the wonderful idea of Learning Wrap ups. I can only imagine the amount of children who have benefited from this fantastic learning tool. 

The company, Learning Wrap ups have also created another interesting learning tool called, The Learning Palette. The Learning Palette is also a self-correcting activity and is shaped like a clock. This learning tool features an almost 12 inch diameter palette which holds a double-sided learning card and 12 different colored discs. The child matches the correct color disc with an answer they choose. When finished placing all twelve discs, they can turn the card over and see if they answered correctly or possibly correct any that were wrong. Now children have the opportunity to use this wonderful learning tool online through LearningPalette.com.

What is LearningPalette.com?

LearningPalette.com is the online, interactive version of the The Learning Palette. It features 35 math titles and 20 reading titles that together provide 7,920 questions. It is for grades K-5.  They offered me a full online family subscription for all levels that can be used with up to 5 users for a full year. They also provide a wonderful demo to use before purchasing.

I was able to create an account for my three daughters and I loved that they were able to log in easily by themselves. I'm sure every homeschool mom can relate to how nice that was. My daughters used this product a few times per week and I believe that they enjoyed it. I love products that allow my girls to work at their own pace and this was definitely one of them. The reading and math area are both divided into sections based on level, subject, and activity. This simple, workable set-up allowed my daughters to navigate LearningPalette.com well. 

Each did very well with LearningPalette.com and the times that they did have trouble they were able to re-do the card as many times as they needed before moving on. I could sense self-confidence when they answered them all correctly and were able to move on.  At one time, there was a question where one of my daughters had to match up sounds. She was so sure that one of the pictures was of a chef and this caused problems when matching to the correct answer because the picture was not of a chef but instead of a cook. When she was done, it corrected her with an x and she was able to see her mistake. This did cause her to become uninterested in it for the rest of the day. I know sometimes in homeschooling we just have to step away and return back later. I assured her that mistakes happen and that she was doing very well. All was fine the next time she logged in and she completed many with ease.

Another great aspect of the online version is that it is able to provide certain features that are just not possible with the hands-on product, such as tracking a student’s progress. This feature came in handy for us, as I love to be able to see how my daughters are doing when using a product. I was also easily able to print out the reports to file away in their yearly folders.

Also, you can access LearningPalette.com on tablets. This was handy as sometimes computers in our home are occupied and having this option allowed my daughters to still use the product.

What does LearningPalette.com cost?

LearningPalette.com currently sells for $59.99 and allows for 5 users. As a special offer to homeschooling families they are offering a special discount of 20% which makes it only $47.99. This offer will allow you to utilize the product until May 31, 2015. Essentially you are getting a 20% discount and free access for 13 months. If you want to purchase you can order by calling 1-800-992-4966 and mentioning Old Schoolhouse or selecting the PURCHASE NOW button. To receive the special Homeschooling discount you will have to enter the Coupon Code - 'HomeSchool'.

Want to connect with Learning Wrap ups?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningWrapUpsInc

Twitter: https://twitter.com/2010Facts

***********************

Click below to read more reviews from The Schoolhouse Review Crew