Five On A Friday #5

So it's first week back of term two, just after our Easter break. It's been tough getting back into the swing of things.

In The Home

Things have been a bit chaotic around here and with the busyness of my huge home and resources clear out I totally missed doing last weeks five on a Friday.

I am still doing bits and pieces and clearing spaces around the home and passing on items we no longer have a need for.

In School

Given how busy I've been over the break I really was not ready for school to start back so this week has been tough going in that regards. We've had a couple of gentle mornings and we have a few review products that are in use so at least we are keeping up with those.

We are also gearing up for our micro-school to start back next week so I'm getting my plans organised for that.

Out & About

Sunday we caught up with our fav micro-school friends for a family picnic and a small birthday celebration for one of our mums.

During the week the kids also had some of their friends over for an afternoon of hanging out, playing board games and getting rowdy on the PS4.

Today we took a drive down the coast to hang out with some other homeschoolers at Bounce Indoor trampolining. Everyone is always exhausted after two solid hours of jumping and flipping!

On The Net

In case you missed it The Old Schoolhouse has offered the Review Crew members access to some of their e-books for us to share with you. These will only be available for free during the month of April. If you missed my post you can see the 30 Free e-books I have here. I am trying to share as many of the links to the other bloggers that are offering freebies as I can over on my Facebook page so keep an eye on that.

On The Blog

Posts I've shared this past fortnight

I shared how I gently move my children towards independent learning.

Of course I shared the April only free e-books.

Did you see the Times Tales review? This is such a simple product and it sure does help with learning the tables.

I shared our recent visit to the Gold Coasts newest cool attraction.

We've finally added copywork back into our routine and I shared our thoughts on the site Homeschool Copywork.

Lastly, my youngest has been typing and reading up a storm with Read, Write & Type.

That about wraps up the week.

How did yours pan out? I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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Read Write & Type ~ Review

My son has been using the Read, Write & Type Program from Talking Fingers Inc.

We were provided with  this program in order to review it. Read, Write & Type provides learners with early reading, spelling and typing practice.

What Is Read, Write & Type

Read, Write & Type is a research proven reading software program, that teaches phonics, spelling and early typing skills. The program is aimed at children ages 6 to 9 years.

My 7 year old son has been using the program.

How We Used The Program

As you enter the program you are introduced to the three main characters, those being Lefty LaDee Hands, Rightway McKay and the resident villain Vexor the Virus.

The premise being that Vexor has stolen all of the sounds and the child needs to help get them back to their rightful homes. Which are their keys on the keyboard.

To do so the child needs to work through a series of exercises and games each letter at a time. As they complete the activities the letters are won back from Vexor and returned to their rightful place on the keyboard.

Even though the program begins with the single initial letter sounds the child is very quickly typing words and simple sentences.

With each letter the child is presented with various challenges and games to ensure that everything is cemented before moving on.

Letters are taught in groups of four, once the child has successfully progressed through all of the activities associated with those four letters they will be presented with a certificate of merit, which you can choose to print out if you wish.

What We Didn't Like

My son felt he was slightly too old for the program, even though for me I believe he still got a lot out of doing it. He already knows all of his initial sounds and is completing early readers with ease but the lessons introduced very different words than what he is used to and it also helped him solidify his learning. Not to mention that he got to work on some early typing skills.

There are no real lesson stop and start points with the program so at times it is difficult to tell when you are finished. Although it does retain where you have progressed to so that the next time you log on the program simply picks up where you left off.

What We Did Like

I love that this is pretty much an independent program. Once in a while he needed to ask me something he wasn't sure on or every now and then I would need to remind him about his finger placement. Apart from that he could and did do this program independently.

I also like that once they progress enough they earn mini readers, which download as a pdf and are just another way to add in more reading practice for the child.

Each lesson is relatively short, being around 15 minutes, although as I mentioned earlier if the child needs to stop for the day the program will simply remember where they are at when they next log in.

Looking Ahead

My son is well over halfway with the program so he will continue and finish it off over the next couple of weeks.

If you have a child that loves to learn online, is asking about typing or needs extra phonics help then Read, Write & Type may just be the one for you.

Pricing & Details

Visit the Talking Fingers Inc. website for more details on this program and the other programs they also have available.

To see more from Talking Fingers Inc. visit them via your favourite social media outlet

Facebook ~   YouTube ~   Twitter    



 I hope you have found this review helpful. If you would like to see further reviews of the Read, Write & Type program from members of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, please visit this link.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

Homeschool Copywork ~ Review

Today I am sharing with you my thoughts on a product we've been using in our homeschool over the past weeks.

We received a Lifetime Membership to Homeschool Copywork which gives us access to a variety of e-books for copywork and notebooking pages such as the Vincent Van Gogh Copywork, Transportation Copywork and Town Mouse Country Mouse Copywork, along with many other varieties of copywork and notebooking pages.

What Is Homeschool Copywork

I think I really need to take one step back here just in case some of you aren't aware or have never even heard of copywork. So what is copywork exactly?

At face value copywork appears to simply be handwriting practice and in reality one can use copywork pages specifically for handwriting. It is so much nicer to copy out a lovely passage or a poem than fill in boring handwriting workbooks, after all!

But copywork is and can be so much more if you use it wisely. With copywork one can cover spelling, grammar, punctuation usage, comprehension and reading skills.

Plus as the guiding light in your children's lives you can also choose certain passages that you feel are appropriate for them and may offer them guidance and inspiration.

There is so much more to copywork than simply handwriting and if this concept is a new one to you I encourage you to read a little further on the topic of adding copywork into your homeschool. 

Now that you understand what copywork actually is, you're probably thinking, 'right, now I need to find certain passages to use for our copywork, that's just going to add a bunch more work to my overloaded schedule'. 

Wrong, this is where Homeschool Copywork comes into play. All of the sourcing and preparation has been done for you. Simply log into the membership area of the site and you have access to a myriad of copywork and notebooking pages, covering all manner of themes.

How We Used The Membership

Copywork has been on my list to add back in to our days, as it is something we let slide. Often I found myself reinventing the wheel when it came to providing the kids with copywork passages but with access to Homeschool Copywork I didn't need to do anything other than log in and find an appropriate piece to use with each of the children.

  As you know I have three children of very different ages and abilities so I needed to ensure I could meet those with our copywork. 

I was also quite eager to add in some Artist study that I had been working on. It seemed it was the perfect time to begin with our unit on Vincent Van Gogh. Homeschool Copywork has a total of five full volumes of van Gogh copywork pages, each containing a beautiful full colour image of one of his art works and the passage to copy. 

There are various line options and writing styles, making the book suitable for all ages.

I love that we can discuss the work of van Gogh right there on the copywork page, I don't need to go hunting for the art work images. Plus each of the passages is simply beautiful to read.

For some fun we've also been using the delightful Town Mouse Country Mouse book.

One thing that jumped out to me almost instantly was with my youngest and his need to write so small that it is nearly impossible to read. Of course I jumped straight onto the membership area of Homeschool Copywork and found the transportation pages.

These are very simple pages that work their way through the alphabet, but what I loved about them for my son is they gently forced him to slow down and to increase the size of his writing. He works on a few of these each week.

What We Didn't Like

My main issues with the membership area is there is no search function which I feel would be a very valuable asset in ease of finding what your looking for.

I would also love to see a preview option somehow built into the membership area as I needed to download the entire ebook to actually see what is inside. Granted each time I did a download we used the book anyway, but I still feel that this would be advantageous to have available.

We are secular homeschoolers and did find a large portion of the material to be religious in nature.

What I Do Like

Absolutely hands down the ease when it comes to finding passages is a winner for me and this is the exact reason why we have started and fallen off the copywork band wagon so many times over the years. Now that I have access to a range already prepared for me it will truly make it so simple to ensure we keep up with our copywork.

I mentioned earlier in regards to the membership area housing many religious themed copywork pages, however, there were more than enough secular books for me to choose from.

Some of which include, artists such as Monet, van Gogh, and da Vinci. Composers such as Bach and Mozart. There also topics such as the Wright Brothers, John James Aubudon, The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse, along with others.

Looking Ahead

Homeschool Copywork has most definitely become part of our regular routine now thanks to how easy it is having the download membership.

Pricing & Details

Visit the Homeschool Copywork website where you can find all the details and the different membership options available to you.

To see more from Homeschool Copywork visit them via your favourite social media outlet.

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/HomeschoolCopywork
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AmyBlevins 
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hscopywork
Google+: http://plus.google.com/+AmyBlevins
Instagram: http://instagram.com/homeschoolencouragement

I hope you found this review helpful. If you would like to see further reviews of Homeschool Copywork from members of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, please visit this link.



Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ Google + 


Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.