LightSail for Homeschoolers Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We recently had the opportunity to review LightSail for Homeschoolers.  What a fun way to improve reading skills in students.

LightSail for Homeschoolers is an adaptive homeschool reading curriculum.  Their program is designed for ages 8-18 (grades 3-12).  They do offer a Young Learners package also, but that is separate.  LightSail offers the choice of a standard or premium subscription.  The premium subscription offers more content.

The program focuses on reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency, which helps not only give you a complete language arts program, but also helps those who may be struggling in the reading/writing area of their studies.  Kids continue to build on their reading and comprehension skills.

Parents can assign their student the books/areas that they want them to work on.  Students can login independently or you can easily sit with them to provide help as needed.  It's very versatile and offers a wide variety of reading materials.  

The one-year Premium subscription that I received gave us access to over 12,000 books, 51,000+encyclopedia articles, 150+unit studies, and more.  We had no lack of materials to choose from during the review period.

The interface is very user friendly.  Each child has their own login for the site.  They can check books out from the library.  For struggling readers, you can listen to the books also. 

You can find reading levels for all ages and abilities.  

As you are working your way through the program, if you are unsure about how a section works, there are plenty of videos uploaded for help.  The video shot below happens to be from a section in Writing that is coming soon.  But it explains what is coming.

There are studies in reading, writing, and vocabulary.  All of these areas intertwine.  

LightSail for Homeschoolers Premium subscription really does a great job keeping everything that families need in one location to complete reading/writing/vocabulary literature program.  You can even try it for a 7 day trial to see if it will be a good fit for your family.

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review this program with their families.  Click on the link below to see how they used this product in their homes, and how well it worked for them.

 

Renita

 

Teach Sunday School - Bible Breakdowns

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We recently had the opportunity to review Bible Breakdowns published by Teach Sunday School.  We were able to use the Old Testament and New Testament over the last few weeks.  These have been a great addition to our Bible studies.

You can purchase Bible Breakdowns in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Each page breaks down the title of the book and a brief 

They are super easy to download from Teach Sunday School in a PDF format.  You can choose to print them all at once, or one at a time.  

Each page for each book of the Bible includes:

• Brief summary of the book
• How many chapters
• Who wrote the book
• Type of book
• when it was written
• time period that was covered during the book

At the lower part of the book, the read information really begins.  In the breakdown section, each chapter of the book is broken down into verses and gives information about events that took place.  It really allows both children and adults to take a look at each verse and how they work together.

As you see below, the chapters and verses are broken down to allow the study of what is in each verse.  

Also included are rankings for popularity of Bible verses.

These pages are great to include in a 3 ring binder with notepages for study notes.  You could also keep the PDF downloaded on your device and refer to it as you are studying.  We chose to keep them in a 3 ring binder to use along with our weekly Bible reading.   These have been a great addition to our Bible studies.

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review the Bible Breakdowns in Teach Sunday School.  Click on the link below to see how they used these pages in their homes and what they felt about them.

Renita

The Critical Thinking Co. - Understanding Fractions Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We recently had the opportunity to review Understanding Fractions published by The Critical Thinking Co.  The workbook has provided a lot of extra help for the girls as they are working to conquer these math skills.

Understanding Fractions was written by Robert Femiano.  This book of roughly 50 pages of fraction practice, was written to be used by students in grades 2-4.  

Inside of this title, students will be practicing:

• The Meaning of fractions
• Writing and using fractions
• Finding common denominators
• Simple adding and subtracting of fractions

Using fraction circles cut-outs, students can truly "see" how fractions work.  These pages can be cut out and colored by students, or even laminated or added to card stock to make them last longer.  For those students in the very early stages of fractions, these are a great addition to mastering their fractions.

Inside the front cover of the book, suggestions are given on how to students can reach their full success while using this book.  It is encouraged for students to work along with their teacher through the pages.  

Each page contains many practice examples, including story problems.  

Understanding Fractions is not meant as a stand alone curriculum.  But as practice to mastery.  That is how we have been using it.  As the student works with their teacher, the teacher is available to answer questions.  Included in the back of the book are the answers, just in case they need a little help themselves.  

Caty has struggled with fractions for a while now.  Each page usually took roughly 20 minutes, depending on our struggles.  These pages can definitely be used by anyone who may be struggling with these skills, no matter what education style they are working through at the moment.  There are even more challenging questions that are marked with a star.  

The extra practice has helped her a lot.  Using Understanding Fractions has saved me time from hunting down extra worksheets and money from printing a bunch of items also.  It is definitely worth the using Understanding Fractions in your schooling.  It can be used with both public school and homeschool students.  

We have used several of the publications from The Critical Thinking Co. for various subjects in our studies.  We have always been impressed and have enjoyed the help in working to mastery.  I encourage you to check out all they have to offer in boosting your student's critical thinking skills.

Several members of the homeschool review crew were given the opportunity to try out several products from The Critical Thinking Co.  Click on the banner below to see what they tried out and how they felt about them.

 

Renita