Home School Product Reviews

I am a firm believer in the importance of proofreading! I tell my children often that we all make mistakes, but it is every writer’s responsibility to check for their own mistakes. Just think how much embarrassment we could save ourselves! Editor in Chief is an interesting, fun way to practice proofreading/editing skills in just a few minutes a day. I like the balance between obvious errors and those that take some time and awareness to find. I also like the fact that they sneak in a lot of interesting information on topics my children might not otherwise read about.

Great Product!

This (Easy Grammar Ultimate Grade 12) is a great PAINLESS product that keeps your older student up to speed in grammar. Heads up to parents… I have found we prefer to purchase ONLY the teacher’s edition as it is JUST THE SAME as the student edition but the brief answer key is ALL in the back of the book. As long as your student is not tempted to look in the back for answers I have found this edition to work well. As a parent, I prefer the ease of answers in the back of the book if I need to check one and my students are not distracted by them. It also keeps me from having to order a workbook AND a teachers manual. Good deal!!

Challenges the “norm”…

This is our first year homeschooling our 2 school aged daughters who have already been in public school for a few years. I was so frustrated with how “cookie cutter” public education was, especially when it came to creativity. When I saw this book (Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 2) I though, “huh, what good will such short lessons do?” I couldn’t have been more wrong!!! These short lessons do NOT take much time but they DO get your child thinking outside of the box and paying more attention to the ins and outs of writing. My 2nd grader is surprised by the challenge, but I love to see her rise up and face it. Thanks for such a great product!

Word Fun

I never studied Latin or Greek, but what can be more fun than submarine means ‘under sea’? So, we have a lot of fun making a game of the cards. My daughter was 8 when we started. We put photos next to a lamp for ‘light’ and we put tele on a shelf far away for ‘far away’ and then put skopeo under reading glasses for ‘examine’ etc, etc, and then we say what the words mean and then make full words ‘telescope’, ‘telephotos’ and say what they mean. It is a lot of fun, but not enough cards. So I am ordering the second set. You need the book for looking up on what card a word is located (saves a lot of time, plus the author will inspire you for the reasons to study word roots). We also make some cards for Latin/Greek roots not in the set. My son is 5 and he is captivated by the fact that Tyrannosaurus Rex means ‘King of the Tyrant Lizards’.

I was really excited when I saw this product, as  I knew it would be great for my 5 year old son who is struggling with his handwriting. I like a gentle approach to handwriting, but who has time to make pudding all day long and let them trace in it?! This solves my desire to let my son have hands on activities for handwriting, yet without the mess.

I would really like it if the pen was attached to the magnetic board. I’m trying to figure out a way to attach it myself.

Even my 13 month old loves to use this! The sound of the magnetics being pulled up keep her happy.

I really hope they come out with a numbers one, I would buy it!

The Magnatab is now available in Uppercase Letters, Lowercase Letters, and Number!! You can find all three at timberdoodle.com

For the teacher, the answer key clearly identified the needed corrections with the explanation as to why the grammar correction is needed. I presented the book as seat work for him to do while I worked with my other student. I let him pick the stories that caught his attention and while we have not started from the beginning of the book it does not take away from the grammar instruction. My son tackled the exercises with enthusiasm. He found the articles interesting and the challenge of finding the mistakes “fun”. He loves to read and this challenged him to pay attention to the readings and to look for mistakes.

Word Roots B1

Wow! Spelling and Vocabulary review that is actually INTERESTING without drudgery! My children have LOVED Word Roots. I LOVE the fact that they have maximize learning value with a minimal amount of busywork. Even if you do not use them for the school year they are a PERFECT little workbook to take along on a vacation or in the car to keep the brain stimulated!

Excellent product with a couple of small downsides

I used A Reason for Writing during this past school year for my sons, ages 6 and 8. I loved the concept of the Bible verses. I loved that the lessons were brief. My boys have a short attention span. I was using book A for my 6yo and book B for my 8yo. I saw no difference in difficulty or verse length between the two books. In the end I think both of my boys have good handwriting and I won’t have either of them go through another printing workbook. They were helpful, but one was enough. My boys didn’t get the border sheets. I tried to inspire them, but they just wanted to do the writing and be done, not color the page and share it. This is a personality thing. My daughter, who is 4, will eat that concept up in a year or two. So keep your child’s personality in mind. Lastly, the pages are hard to tear out. When you tear our their special paper for them to do their Very Best Work on and it RIPS, it’s frustrating. Be very careful tearing out your border sheets.

Evan Moor Daily 6 Trait Writing- I just found this style of writing instruction to be all breadth and no depth. After 3 or 4 years with trait based writing, I suppose students can turn out simple compositions which would go over well on state writing tests, such as our own FCAT. The trait based writing system hits all of the main writing “traits” that someone grading a student’s paper would be marking for. However, in elementary school I would prefer for my students to copy excellent written passages (such as the Classical and Charlotte Mason model suggest) OR just write their little hearts out (with personal narratives, journaling, story telling, etc.) This seems like teach-to-the-test writing to me.

This is our first year using this writing program. We’ve homeschooled many, many years, something around 15 now! Anyway, a huge struggle has been finding a good writing curriculum. I’ve found some that are good in one way, but tedious in another, go too fast or too slow, seem to think that writing is first and foremost at all times (it’s not for us), etc., etc. So often it seems that actually breaking down the process to better, or truly, learn the skills is difficult. It is difficult in general, but also difficult to find one that is interesting in the process. I feel this conquers all fronts! It’s marvelously incremental and precise. I, as teacher, don’t have to guess or try to interpret what the writer’s point is; it’s clear! It’s also concise and last, but not least, it’s even interesting in the process. All of our kids have been reluctant writers, though we do have some that actually write for a living! We love this workbook that is small in time requirement, but develops writing skill so well!