Baby Joys Reviews

In case you didn’t know, compliment and complement are Homophones, words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Honestly I forgot what a homophone was in about 5th grade, so how do I know, because of All About Homophones, (and yes I did use the book to find homophones to use in the title.) So what is All About Homophones, it’s a teaching manual, but they call it a “complete toolkit for teaching homophones.” Truly, I really liked it! It refreshed my memory quickly about homophones, had a great intro, and is a great book for teaching homophones to your kids. Whether you’re a homeschooler or just adding to what your kids learn in school.

It really is a complete toolkit because it includes worksheets, games, riddles, a suggested book list, and more for grades one through eight (or is it ate?) It breaks down many pairs of homophones by grade level, and had some interesting thing thrown in just for fun.  It wasn’t a complicated lesson book, with pages of extra reading to wade through, it got straight to the point, and stayed there for all 250+ pages. It’s well separated by grade level, so it’s easy to use for one grade or several.

At first I thought the price seemed high for some worksheets, but as I continued through the book I saw all it really has to offer. As I continued through I became more and more impressed with it, and thought the price is actually really good, especially for 8 grade levels in one book!

What more can I say, I liked it, I think you will too! My advice though, pay the extra $2 and get the printed version, then you can make copies of individual pages that you need. A $2 savings isn’t much for an e-book in my opinion.  You can order yours, and see sample pages, on the website, All About Homophones. There are some really neat extras on the site too, check out the Homophone Machine!

Stay tuned, I’m reviewing the Spelling Curriculum too, All About Spelling!

When I received the Spears Art Studio art curriculum, at first I was really “blah” and didn’t really give it a chance. As an artsy craftsy person I thought it wouldn’t have a lot to offer me.  When I finally gave it a chance I was really impressed! For only $40 you can receive the complete teachers manual for K-8 on cd. (High school is also available) The whole thing is well arranged, and in PDF format. Included in the curriculum is 9 months of art lessons, arranged with one theme per week. Each weeks lesson includes ideas for various grades and skill levels. One thing I love is that the theme is the same, so if you are homeschooling a range of kids they can all create the same item, but at their skill level!

For example, the first week of January is Winter and Snow. First there is a page with the objectives, thoughts on the theme, and recommended images (old painting and drawings to look for that go with the theme.) Then since it is a Christian curriculum it also includes bible verses and a religious inspiration for the theme. If you aren’t religious, have no fear, I think the religious aspect could be overlooked easily and you’d still get a great curriculum for $40! The next page is the art for kindergarten, draw a snowman and add paper accents (mixed media,) then first grade draw a daytime snow scene (teaches drawing dimension.) Second graders  draw a nighttime snow scene, and third graders draw a monochromatic snow scene (using ink!) Fourth graders punch holes in paper with a pin to depict a snow scene, and fifth graders draw a monochromatic scene with coffee! See what I mean? Each child creates somewhat of the same item, and they could all be done at one table, but each child is expanding his skills!

Even as an adult craftsy type this curriculum gave me projects I wanted to do, or techniques I never learned!

Really I was just truly impressed! This one CD is simply SO jam packed with great info and ideas! She rounds off each lesson really well, complete with vocabulary words, and is so detailed in the steps! Each individual lesson, every grade, includes a picture of a finished example. Anytime she mentions something specific (a handhold for a pencil, a certain way to fold paper, etc) a diagram is right there to help you!

If you’re worried about finding the supplies, don’t be! Most are readily available, but she also has a section of her site to easily order through a major art supply retailer. She really simplified the whole process!

Once again you can buy grade K-8 (wow!) on one cd for $40, or high school for $30. She also offers a printed edition, arranged in a notebook, for a higher cost.  I really recommend it! Check it out for yourself (including free sample lessons) at Spears Art Studio!

No, I don’t mean rhymes. The first thing I learned from this website is that Rimes are words that sound alike AND look alike (cat, at, bat, vat) the other thing I learned is that you don’t need a bookshelf full of leveled readers to help your child learn to read! At Rime To Read you purchase sets of leveled readers that teach reading using rimes instead of phonics.  After I checked it out a little bit I let my friend use it. Her five year old is learning to read and she gave these books a shot. Her first response was that he seemed to be memorizing, not actually learning, but as time progressed she said that he was in fact learning quite a few of the words, but also simply memorizing some. She, like many others who try this program, decided to add these books as a supplement to a phonics program.

Her son especially loved this series for the novel aspect of it being like a computer game. He was allowed to sit on the computer, and even sit in daddy’s lap, while turning the pages himself and reading them out loud.  Apparently they had an occasional problem of pages stalling, or spoken words not working correctly, but she still really enjoyed the site. she said the biggest issue with the page stalls was that it would frustrate him when he was reviewing my himself. They found past books very easy to get back to to review and reread.

While it is a computer program you can also print the books for go anywhere reading.

My biggest issue is that in order to read the pricing information you have to register and get one sample book free. You can’t simply see it and decide if it is in your budget or not. In the end I think the price is fair. You can buy 4 books at a time for $9.99 or pay $44.99 and get all 20 right away. That is more expensive than some phonics programs, but much cheaper then many series of leveled readers.  All in all I think it is worth trying out, especially since you can read and try one book for free to see how your child likes it.