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Disclaimer: I was given a free 30 day trial in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Science4Us is an elementary science program for kids from kindergarten through second grade. I’ve been trying it out over the last month with my 6 year old and 4 year old, and it’s definitely been a hit.
This program allows us to learn science at home, through interactive videos and virtual activities in all areas of science. We’ve been exploring earth and space science in preparation for our further studies in that area later this year.
The lessons with all of the activities were a good hours worth of activity. The kids took turns each day logging in, and the other child always wanted to sit in on the lessons. The lessons are broken down into easy segments that would allow for you to spread the lessons out over several days.
The teacher’s section allows you to schedule lessons and activities for each student. But I let them learn on their own and work through what interested them (which was everything!)
Activities included keeping a virtual science notebook, review exercises, quizzes, as well as some language lessons related to the topic (alphabetizing and syllables), and more.
The lessons are secular science lessons, but I did not run across anything controversial in the studies that we listened to. And I made sure to be in the room during every lesson.
The only complaint that I had about this program was the loading time. It did take quite awhile for each segment of the lessons to load, and one particular activity did not load at all. But the fun was worth the wait time for my kiddos.
Science4us is a super fun way to bring science into your homeschool. It eliminates all the intimidation that science can bring and allows your student to be pretty independent. Some computer skills are necessary (click and draw, click and drag, etc.)
You can begin Science4us in your home for $7.95/month per child, a very complete science curriculum that incorporates math and language into each lesson. To learn more, visit the Science4us website, watch demos, and take advantage of their 14 day money back guarantee.
Disclaimer: I was given a free 30 day trial in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
We were so excited to receive another one of these fabulous CDs from Music Together. My kids have had so much fun with the original Family Favorites that this second installment had a lot to live up to. And it delivered! Family Favorites 2 is absolutely twice the fun, with 19 songs that have won 9 different awards—music and movement and learning, oh my!
These are not just silly kid songs; they are engaging songs that teach without your kids even realizing it. Each CD comes with an activity guide with suggestions for each song. Rhythm activities, language development, music and movement, harmonies, and multi-cultural appreciation are all incorporated into this selection of songs. While I love a lot of different things about this music, I love the multi-cultural aspect most of all. Each album has included a number of ethnic songs that kids love!
As I share about some of our favorites, please check out the Music Together website to hear samples. But don’t listen alone, or you won’t catch the wonder. Get your kids and watch their reaction to the music. I’ll guarantee they can’t sit still and listen.
Some of our favorites…
Two of my favorites to use with Littlest have been Wiggle! and Saying and Doing. Wiggle! also has a verse to sing “tickle,” so not only does Littlest get some great wiggles in but we finish it off with a huge tickle. Saying and Doing is great for emphasizing words and actions from “washing our hands” to “brushing our teeth.”
Rhythms and Rhymes has been my favorite for Middlest for one particular verse: “no one knows where a tippy-toer goes.” Oh my goodness, what a life-saver! Middlest runs everywhere and sounds like an elephant when she does. Trying to get her to tip-toe through the hall while Littlest naps is something we’ve been working on for over a year. But she loves this little rhyme, and I can finally get her to tip-toe! Mr. Rabbit is another of her favorites that she loves to act out.
While all of the kids enjoy the ethnic songs included on these CDs, Oldest is especially drawn to them. And I love to encourage his interest as a way of opening his heart to the unsaved in those cultures. Don Alfredo Baila and Hey-Ya-na are a couple of his favorites. Don Alfredo is similar to If you’re happy and you know it or Father Abraham, combining repeated movements with a progressively faster melody—music and movement and total engagement. It’s definitely a tune that leaves you out of breath. Hey-Ya-na is a Native American melody that has the distinct STRONG-soft beat. My little Indians love to stomp, clap, drum, and dance this rhythm—with a little “whoop” just for effect.
Our last favorite Foolin’ Around is a “grab your instrument and play along” tune. The kids have so much fun with their “instruments,” pretending to play along. And as long as my nerves can stand it, sometimes they harmonize with real instruments, too. It’s hard on the hearing, but so much fun to watch!
Family Favorites and Family Favorites 2 have definite child-appeal that use music and movement to introduce so many learning elements. Plus, the accompanying activity guides give you terrific ideas for making the most of each song. It’s great for rainy days, happy days, gloomy days, and those days when you just need a few wiggles out.
Family Favorites 2 is available as a CD for $14.95 (plus shipping) or as a download for $9.99. Visit the website and let your kids dance through a few samples. It won’t be long before these become your “family favorites,” too.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
As a fun math supplement for the summer, I decided to give Life of Fred a try. I’m always concerned about bringing in the practical, conceptual, critical-thinking part of math—especially since math isn’t necessarily my strength. And Life of Fred seemed like an engaging way to get that done.
Boy, was I ever right!
We read one chapter a day, roughly five minutes of “math” storyline, and the kids are never happy with just one chapter. I’m always asked for “just one more.”
Fred is a five year old who started teaching math at the university when he was nine months old, and the antics pick up from there. My kids get so tickled with these stories. I mean, the kind of belly-busting hysterics that are the picture of childhood joy. Science, critical thinking, history, and advanced math like algebra are all woven into the most unbelievable story. It’s silly, and so much fun.
Like a sketch of what Fred would look like if his nose were deciduous. Or Fred’s idea of how to turn a circle into an ellipse (put an elephant on top to squish the circle).
Each chapter ends with around 5 math questions from topics within that chapter. It’s light and original, asking about familiar math concepts in unfamiliar ways.
Though I wouldn’t use this as my primary math curriculum, it certainly has been a fun summer study. Oldest gets some reading practice by helping read some of the chapters; he gets a review of the math concepts he learned earlier this year, plus Life of Fred expands on those concepts and provides practical applications; Middlest gets an introduction to the concepts she will be learning; and they both are having so much fun with Fred that they ask for him everyday.
“As serious as it needs to be” is Life of Fred‘s slogan—I love learning like that, especially in the summer!
Check out the Life of Fredwebsite and pick up your own fun summer math program.
No disclaimer needed for this post. I purchased these myself and just wanted to share with you what we thought about them.
Disclaimer: I received these products for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Last fall, I had the opportunity to review Music Together’s Family Favorites CD and teacher book. (Read my previous review here.) It soon became an unexpected favorite and often requested part of nearly everyday. I’m not exaggerating! Now that Littlest can get around and make his wishes and whims known, he’ll often head for the CD player motioning his baby sign for “please.” I know exactly what he wants:
We all dance together, beat out the rhythms, and sing along to our “family favorites” (pun absolutely intended). We’re not just having fun and bonding, though that alone is valuable; we’re learning about rhythms and harmonies, language and cultural diversity.
So when I had the opportunity to do a follow-up review with some of Music Together’s Singalong Storybooks, made to accompany our favorite songs, I was absolutely giddy!
Music Together has taken some of their most popular songs and illustrated them as read-aloud, sing-along books, available as both board books ($8.95) and hardcovers ($12.95). We were given Hello Everybody, She Sells Seashells, and One Little Owl for review.
The day these arrived was like Christmas at my house. The kids were so excited.
There are several aspects to these books that I love. For one, there are so many interactive ideas and suggestions provided within the books themselves. (A free download of the accompanying song is also provided.) Sing the story, read the story, sing and let your child complete the phrase, make up your own verses to the song as you read, count the objects, find the characters and objects, and more. And because the books were written to our favorite, already memorized songs, the story-line and the experience went with us throughout the day, even after the books were closed on the shelf.
Each book comes with suggested activities for using the story with your child.
In addition to rhythm, music, and language, these books are great for reinforcing counting and addition, colors, and even identifying seashells!
One of our fun activities was to dramatize the “One Little Owl” song, inspired by the pictures from the book. Pictured here is the verse “The poor old tree said, ‘Oh, no!…All these things are sitting on me.”
The various ideas gave me a chance to interact with each child at their own level with the same book. My one year old enjoyed hearing me sing the song and point out the characters as we read. My four year old loved to count the animals on each page and finish the song for me when I paused. My six year old was all about making up his own additional verses to the songs.
Middlest’s favorite book
Oldest’s favorite book
Littlest’s Favorite
One other aspect that I love, especially for my Littlest, is the language development that comes from hearing the story in song. During one of our “Baby Story Times” at our local library, the librarian mentioned how songs slow down our speech and make it easier for babies to hear certain sounds and words. Adding the pictures and story to this experience of singing makes this a very powerful teaching tool. And I’m not the only one to recognize this; these books have won long lists of awards from various organizations.
Mom’s Choice Award
NAPPA Honors Award in Educational Tools
National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval
Academics’ Choice Smart Books Award, and more!
Then, there’s the fact that these books are just plain fun—beautiful illustrations and quality books that are enjoyable all by themselves. With literally shelves upon shelves of books at our house, these are favorites that all of my kids (including the littlest of all) keep coming back to again and again.
Now, Music Together is even more of a favorite. Not only do we have the catchy tunes with lots of rhythm and movement, but now we have the added element of a fun story with pictures. It’s learning and fun that keep us coming together for more.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way for a positive review, and all of these opinions are my own.
I have been casually searching for learning ideas for my littlest. When I stumbled upon Flowering Baby, I was instantly intrigued.
Flowering Baby is a curriculum of “whole child development” activities for children birth to five years old. The curriculum is about $30 for each year’s worth of lessons (organized by age: birth to one, one to two, two to three, and four to five).
I received the “One to Two” curriculum for free for this review and was able to begin at month 13 with my little guy. Each month includes titles of books to read to your baby, a classical composer to listen to, some finger-play/nursery rhymes to listen to, as well as an assortment of activity ideas that include everything from language skills and muscle development to painting and exploring.
Each month lists all books, music, and supplies needed. Most titles are available at a library or can be substituted with books from home. And the supplies are simple things that I usually had on hand.
We’ve been using this product for a couple of months, and I have loved this curriculum for two reasons. First, I love having special one-on-one time with my little one because, honestly, it’s easy for him to get forgotten in the rush to get the big kid’s lessons out of the way. Or, I tend to occupy him rather than really play with him. This curriculum gives me a very focused 15-20 minutes with him, just him! I actually send the big kids away and focus just on him. We both enjoy this time immensely.
Second reason I love Flowering Baby are for the ideas. Even as an “experienced” mother of three (that’s a joke, by the way), I often get in ruts and don’t immediately think of ways to challenge and build his little skills. Flowering Baby gives me ideas (about 25 lessons a month) and inspires me with my own variations on those ideas. It helps me to realize what he is probably capable of attempting, something that’s easy to lose track of as time flies by. Many times, I would read the plans and think “oh, he can’t do that yet” only to be amazed that he actually could (and loved trying)!
Also, Flowering Baby is teaching me! The language lessons, especially, have taught me practical things like how to talk to my baby, what to talk about, what to point out in a picture, etc. Motor skills were also surprising lessons for me, like teaching my baby to kneel rather than his default sprawl position that is hard on his little hips.
Then, there’s the fun—hide a toy; teach direction words by placing a toy under, over, beside, etc; “fold” laundry together; find faces in books and magazines; get a mirror out and look at our faces together; and so much more!
My little laundry helper. He also likes to “help” unload the dishwasher.
Just a note, I did not follow this as a step-by-step lesson, though you could. I looked through the ideas several times during a month to get ideas for our next time together and then put it away. I knew which books to read, and he quickly found his favorites. All of us enjoyed the classical music selections, which we listened to using the free Naxos app on my ipod (comes with several free playlists that coordinate with this curriculum).
Littlest’s new favorite book
And because I can only take so much mess, I modified some of the ideas to fit us. For instance, one activity was to practice pouring rice or beans. I had nightmarish visions of what this would look like, so I instead opted for our pouring lesson to be at bath time with water in the tub. Instead of painting (I tried this at Christmas for grandma gifts and am still in need of therapy), I opted for crayons.
But customizing this curriculum was really what made it a winner for me. Their ideas bred so many other ideas. If the lessons called for feeling different textured squares, I instantly thought of textures throughout our day—when we went on nature walks, when we were standing outside the restaurant waiting to be seated, or wherever we were. I loved that the lessons helped me to focus and weave in his learning during the whole day.
Littlest enjoyed creating with crayons (much sooner than my older kids did).Our sensory bottle made from adding a beaded necklace and water.
Is it worth the $30? If you’re trying to justify $30 on your little one, I’d ask you to price some of the toys in his toy box. Most likely, a couple of those (that he probably doesn’t even play with) would easily have cost you $30. And you will get a lot more out of this purchase than a new toy that he will probably quickly lose interest in anyway. Honestly, I wish I’d had this as a new mom to use with my other two children.
Also, keep in mind that this is not a list of ideas to keep your baby busy so that you can do something else. These activities require you sitting down with your baby. Many of them require you to closely supervise your baby as he explores.
Want to check it out for yourself? The website has great samples to preview for each age. The Flowering Baby curriculum is sold on CD or as a downloadable PDF (I printed mine and bound it myself to have a hardcopy). You can purchase the curriculum at the Flowering Baby store or on Currclick.com.
I’m looking forward to continuing with this curriculum, and I’m looking forward to more special “baby” moments with Littlest throughout this year.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way for a positive review, and all of these opinions are my own.
I’ve grown up with phonics all my life—learned it, used it, taught it, explored variations of it. And yet, I have absolutely been blown away by the Logic of English phonics.
I received the Essentials Teacher Manual, one Essentials cursive student workbook, and one set of Basic Phonograms flashcards to review with my children. And every time I open the book I have a new epiphany. This program is hands-down amazing.
“The Logic of English Essentials curriculum includes 40 lessons, introducing 74 Basic Phonograms and 30 Spelling Rules. While the spelling list includes 480 of the most frequently used words, students learn thousands of additional words with the lessons as they learn how to write compound words and add prefixes and suffixes to form derivatives.”~ from the website
In other words, this program is very comprehensive and thorough while breaking the concepts down into easy-to-handle lessons. It’s phonics, spelling, and grammar all in one.
The Teacher’s Manual provides detailed scripted lessons that require minimal teacher prep and are easy to teach from. Plus, it’s a beautiful, high quality hard cover book.The student workbook, available in cursive or manuscript, is a soft cover book with perforated pages.
The lessons are not intended to be completed all in one day. Rather, you can take as much or as little time as your student needs to master the material. Each lesson is divided into three parts: phonics, spelling, and grammar. While the program is intended for older students and adults, there are plenty of helps and suggestions for younger students.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been working through the Essentials program in two different ways. Middlest is working on the material through the Intro of the book before Lesson 1. We’ve been working on phonemic awareness activities and phonograms. Oldest has been working through the complete program, taking roughly 10 days to finish a lesson (working 15-20 minutes a day).
Unique features of curriculum:
The most obvious is that it really explains and makes sense of the language. The curriculum claims that 98% of all the English “exceptions” can be explained with phonics; and I’m now convinced that’s true. Her approach to phonics is very logical and progresses steadily, eliminating nearly all of the traditional “sight words.”
This program has suggested activities that appeal to all modes of learning. A lot of curriculums claim that, but this particular curriculum makes it easy to see and choose the activities that fit your child. Even the layout of this curriculum makes sense! Activities are coded for each learning style.
The program blends phonics, spelling, and grammar into each lesson. The phonograms are incorporated into the spelling list, the spelling words are incorporated into the grammar lesson, and the spelling and grammar is solidified with simple dictation and composition activities at the end of the lesson.
This program is intended to be user-friendly for any age, young to adult. There are plenty of kid-friendly activities, but the curriculum and the material would not be insulting to an older student or adult. The author has provided sample schedules for dividing the lessons into daily assignments based on the age of your student.
The author Denise Eide, in her video presentations, describes readers as either intuitive or logical. Intuitive readers have a feel for language, and usually do not struggle when presented with an exception or variation on a rule. Logical readers, however, need all the information up front and struggle considerably when a word does not follow a memorized rule.
I am learning this first-hand. My son was definitely an intuitive reader; he could easily read words and phonograms we hadn’t even covered yet. He had a “feel” for language. My daughter, on the other hand, is apparently a logical learner. She struggles with exceptions, and I long gave up trying to teach her any sight words.
How has this curriculum worked for both of my learners? My son’s spelling frustrations have turned to absolute delight as he explores and understands the language, and my daughter has absolutely flourished.
Here’s a break-down of a daily lesson in Essentials.
Phonics
The phonograms lessons are a mix of drill and experiencing the sounds. In other words, the student is allowed to really understand what the sound is doing and why. Vowels are the sounds we can sing or sustain, the sounds that can be made louder and softer. For instance, I asked my daughter if she would be able to yell /b/ or /m/ from across the yard and have me hear her inside the house. No, of course not. But if she yelled /a/, I would definitely hear her (and often do, I might add).
This experiencing the sounds has been phenomenal with both of the kids. We talk about what part of our mouth is actually making the sound (tip of the tongue, back of the tongue, teeth, or lips) and whether the sound is voiced or unvoiced (s and z; b and p, for instance). We’ve even gotten a mirror and looked to see what our mouths are doing. It has really helped her with some of the tough-to-tell-apart sounds like e and i.
There is also a terrific emphasis on phonemic awareness, a concept I really knew very little about before we began this program. I always thought that phonemic awareness had to do with “reading readiness” and whether your child was interested in reading. But these exercises really help a child to understand how to break a word into its individual sounds and how to “glue” those sounds back together. Game ideas include variations on “I Spy” and “Charades” and more.
Doing these exercises has solved a lot of the reading issues I was having with Middlest, like random guessing at words rather than sounding them out. What I thought was a personality conflict between the two of us was actually a gap in her learning! And she has loved our time together with these game and activity ideas.
In addition to drilling the flashcards (or we often used their Phonics with Phonograms app), the student is given several suggested kinesthetic and auditory activities to reinforce those sounds.
Phonograms Bingo is a favorite that we play often.
Spelling
Here’s where I could park for a long time. The method for teaching spelling is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I love it!
The spelling words provided, about 15 for each lesson, follow both the phonograms and the spelling rules introduced within the lesson. In other words, not only are the phonograms taught to help the student read the sounds, but spelling rules are also taught in the same lesson to help the child know when to use those sounds in writing and spelling.
The student is taught how to think through the sounds in a word before he attempts to spell it. “How many syllables?” “Let’s sound out each syllable.” You then coach your student through the phonograms and the letters that make those sounds, having him mark the word as he spells it.
The student book provides a place for the words to be written, a page that is similar to his own dictionary page. The student writes the word by syllables on the blanks provided. Then, throughout the lessons, he refers back to this page to add more information: the part of speech, the plural spelling, and the past tense spelling of the word.
There are also suggested activities for making spelling cards on 3×5 cards that can be used in the grammar lesson. We did both of these activities on different days during the week. As my son becomes more comfortable with the process, I could easily assign him to do his spelling cards independently after we have done the list together.
As in the phonics approach, the spelling rules are both drilled and explored. In other words, there is a flashcard for the rule that you will review and require the student to learn. However, the exercises are geared toward exploring the rule and learning how and why it works. For instance, several similar words will be shown, and as the student studies the words, you help him to see the similarities in those words. (Deck, duck, stick, lick—”CK is used only after a single vowel which says its short sound.”) Then, several suggested games and activities allow him to think of his own words that follow the rule.
One area where my son has really struggled this year is understanding when and how to add suffixes. A terrific feature of this program is that in addition to learned rules, there is also a flowchart that allows a student to ask questions and logically follow a process for deciding how the word should change.
The rules are very thorough and can, in some instances, tend to be complicated. But the combination of both memorizing and exploring the rules through a variety of activities helps to make even the more complicated ideas memorable.
There are both spelling rule and grammar rule flashcards available for purchase. However, we made our own to fit our 3×5 card system.
The spelling words are further taught within the grammar lesson, so I will continue explaining that process below.
Grammar
Within each lesson, one or more grammar concepts are introduced. For instance, in Lesson 1 the concept of both nouns and singular/plural were introduced. Again, I loved how the spelling words were the foundation for this lesson.
The student is asked to find the words in his list that are nouns, label them on his spelling list, and/or draw a red box around them on the spelling cards. Another suggested activity was to allow the student to illustrate the nouns in his list. Then, an exercise in the student workbook had him spell both the singular and plural form of the spelling words using the grammar rule that had been given.
To me this was priceless. The student is not simply memorizing a list of words but actively using those words in their different variations.
Other activities include creating phrases by combining words from the spelling list, either by dictation or by copying phrases made with the spelling cards, providing opportunity for both copywork and dictation depending on the your child’s level of ability.
Oldest is arranging his spelling cards into his own phrases and copying them into his student workbook as a “composition” activity.
The grammar rules introduced in the next lessons not only apply to the current list for that lesson but also refer back to previous lessons. For example, in Lesson Two, adjectives are introduced. The student labels adjectives in both List 2 and List 1. Everything in this program builds logically and smoothly.
Assessments
The program does not come with tests and quizzes per se, but assessments are worked into the curriculum every fifth lesson. Even this, however, really reflected the teacher’s heart that the author has. Her assessments require the student to show not just that he can repeat a drilled list of words but that he can use those words in various forms; and built within the assessments are lots of additional activities to reinforce trouble spots.
You are not simply drilling and testing. You are teaching and assessing and teaching some more.
On the Logic of English blog, Denise has also provided alternate lessons, either to add more challenging words or to help a student who might need a little more practice with a particular rule. Again, to me this really reflects her heart for those using her material. She has a passion for helping students understand the language.
Summary
Logic of English Essentials curriculum makes sense, in every way! From the phonograms and rules to the layout and teaching methods. Your child will never again complain that English is a language that doesn’t follow the rules.
Is there anything I didn’t like? Not really, but there are a few points that might be an issue for some.
Cons:
There is not an easy way to go back to lesson material for reference. There is no index, and the table of contents provides only the lesson number. When trying to find information, I instead went to the website to the teacher training video which provided page numbers for the teacher manual.
There are no readers that accompany the Essentials curriculum. This would be one reason why I would hesitate to recommend this for younger beginning readers; reading practice is limited. For those first-time readers and pre-readers, I would recommend investigating the Foundations curriculum that Logic of English is currently working on.
This is a curriculum that will require teacher involvement, particularly with younger students. That said, the lessons are well scripted for the teacher; and as the teacher and student become familiar with the process, there are opportunities for the student to work independently. The lessons also allow the teacher to customize how long the lesson will last each day and over how many days the lesson will continue.
Bottom line, I love this program. I was impressed by the website and videos and have been equally impressed by the curriculum. I have learned a ton, and I’ve been surrounded by phonics my whole life!
In fact, I love this program so much that I am discontinuing our current program (phonics, language, and spelling) with Oldest and switching him to this next fall. And I’m seriously considering switching Middlest to the Foundations curriculum, geared for the younger students, when it prints. (That’s saying a lot, folks, since I have a very long-standing relationship with our current program.)
Want to see more? The Logic of English website provides great samples of both the teacher manual and the student workbook (available in cursive or manuscript) as well as a video tour of the lessons. Also, the teacher training videos available for free on her website give you a very comprehensive look at the program’s approach to both phonics and spelling.
Whether you are looking for a spelling/language program for your young reader, a remedial program for your older reader, or a literacy program for adults, Essentials is a fantastic solution. And if you are needing a curriculum for your beginning or emerging reader, be sure to investigate the Logic of English’s new Foundations program.
Disclaimer: I received these materials for free for the purpose of review. I was not paid or compensated for a positive review, and all the opinions in this post are my own.
I stumbled upon a new favorite phonics app the other day that I absolutely had to share. Phonics with Phonograms app is produced by the Logic of English, which is a curriculum that I was totally impressed with as I researched the website and watched the informational videos. The website and the curriculum explains nearly all of the supposed “exceptions” of our English language with rules that are as simple and easy to learn as the phonograms themselves. (Intrigued? Watch this video for a short summary and this video for an in depth look.) I was absolutely astounded by what I was learning, and I have been surrounded by phonics all my life!
So of course, I downloaded the Phonics with Phonograms app to give it a try with my kids. Brilliant! That’s the best word I can find to describe this super-affordable app. The Phonics of Phonograms app, available for iphone/ipod or ipad, allows you to set up multiple children with their own saved settings and lists. You can even customize your own playlist of phonograms for each child.
The phonograms can be reviewed, by level or all at once, in two different formats. One format is to allow the child to touch each card and the sounds will be given. The second option is to have all of the sounds spoken as each card is shown.
During the game, a phonogram sound is given. The child must select the correct phonogram card from the four shown.
Then, the child plays a game, listening to the phonogram given and choosing the correct one from a grouping of four different phonograms. Once the matching game is complete, the stats are saved for you to inspect. You’ll know exactly what the child missed and how many times he got it right.
Correct answers are shown on the left; incorrect answers are shown on the right, both what the answer should have been (in red) and what the student chose (in black).
Also, old phonograms are reviewed and new ones are added at each level. There are 10 levels covering 74 phonograms.
I began with Middlest first, allowing her to work through the levels as they were given. She loved it! And it immediately picked up on the letter sounds and phonograms that she has been having trouble with, reviewing them until she began to get them right.
Oldest, naturally, couldn’t wait for his turn. I set up a customized list because I knew that many of the phonograms were ones he knew. I went through the list and selected ones that were unfamiliar to him (and some that were new to me, too!) Once again, he loved the game, and we both had learned a lot by the time he finished up.
This app is not only ideal for improving reading skills but also for additional spelling help. Many of the phonograms include spelling tips, suggestions for when and where those sounds appear in words. Oldest is a strong reader but was helped immensely by these spelling tips.
It’s definitely an app that I have added to our daily routine. I highly recommend checking out the videos and the Phonics with Phonograms app, which is available through iTunes for $2.99.
Need a little more help with your beginning reader? Watch literally hours of free teacher training videos on their website, a wealth of information even if you think you know all there is to know about phonics!
These opinions are totally my own. I purchased this app for my children and chose to review it simply because I was impressed.
I will be receiving more of their Essentials Curriculum for free for the purposes of reviewing, so stay-tuned for more from the Logic of English!
Science4Us is an elementary science program for kids from kindergarten through second grade. I’ve been trying it out over the last month with my 6 year old and 4 year old, and it’s definitely been a hit.
