Math and Handwriting Practice with Page a Day Math {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Thanks to the Homeschool Review Crew, Harold and Hannah have had the opportunity to work on improving their math-fact fluency and their cursive handwriting with resources from Page a Day Math. 

Page a Day Math offers both physical kits and downloadable digital kits.  All of the materials we received were downloadable files, though some of my fellow Crew Mates were able to review physical kits. As I decided to work on multiplication with the children first, I chose the Multiplication Starter Kit. But, I also want to move into division, so I chose the Division Starter Kit as well. These kits each include 12 books, each with 14 days worth of work. Also included are bonuses. There are flashcards, assessment pages, a progress chart, and two cursive handwriting books in each kit. 

You can also purchase digital flashcards and assessments separately, so I decided to get the flashcards and assessments for addition and subtraction. I figured we could use them for assessing their knowledge and allowing them to practice their math facts. 

What I was really interested in was the opportunity for the children to start working more consistently on their cursive writing. The Multiplication Starter Kit came with I Can Write in Cursive and Beautiful Biology! Cursive Practice, and The Division Starter Kit came with Adorable Adjectives! Cursive Practice and Eats and Treats! Cursive Practice. We were also able to choose any of the other handwriting books we were interested in. So, I chose Scenic States (seeing as we have been learning about American history), Fun Physics, and Cool Chemistry. 

Each of the math books in the kit follows the same format. Each one focuses on the math facts of one number, and each book spans the facts from 0 times the number to 12 times the number, with a final page for review. Each day the child will work on one number's facts on the first page, and review what was already learned on the second page. Technically the pages are front and back, thus the "page a day" name. Of course, that is with the physical book. 

Front:

Back:

As you can see, these books are going to be supplemental to your math curriculum. They don't teach what multiplication and division are, they just allow a child to practice their facts, while working on their handwriting.  And the color-coded flashcards offer even more practice. 

The flashcards need to be printed out, preferable in color and on sturdy cardstock, cut, and folded. After giving the children the first two math assessment pages, I discovered they both needed to start with their facts for 3 and 4. So, I gave them the flashcards and the workbook pages.

I just have them work on a page a day after drilling with the flashcards.

They have actually been spending more time with the cursive handwriting book. I had them start with I Can Write in Cursive, so they could learn all the letters. 

For each letter the child needs to trace a couple of rows of capitals and a couple of rows of lowercase, and then a few upper and lower case pairs.

I actually had the children work on these a little differently, as I wanted us to get through the alphabet and start working on joining the letters into words. 

I gave them three letters a day. They were to do two full lines of each letter, one uppercase, the other lowercase. Then, on the following day, they were given the next three letters. They were to do one uppercase and one lowercase letter (not row, just a single letter) for each of the previous letters practiced, and the full rows of the new letters. In this way, the children have made their way through the alphabet and have started on words. 

Here's a look at a page from the Eats and Treats! Cursive Practice book.

One thing I would have prefered to have had in these books is blank lined pages for the children to practice on. I did have my own to print out, but I found it a bit weird that this program only has children tracing, and doesn't leave room for any free-hand practice on the page.

So, I had the children trace one word, write it a couple of times on lined paper, and bring it to me to check. Then they re-traced the word, and practiced again. If there were any letters they were struggling with, I showed them an example and had them practice the letter, without tracing it.

Harold has really been enjoying writing in cursive. He volunteered to do extra work to perfect them.

Younger children will appreciate the cute Math Squad doggies found throughout the book. In the math books there is a picture of one of them on each page, cheering the child along. And they all join together on the certificate at the back of the book.

In the I Can Write in Cursive book, the Math Squad reminds the child what sound the letter makes when they encourage them to color the picture that starts with the sound. 

And in the themed handwriting books, they ask questions in relation to the words on the page. 

Here's a sample from Beautiful Biology:

And a sample from Eats and Treats:

Harold really loves these books, especially the handwriting. He says those are his favorite. Hannah isn't a huge fan, though she couldn't really give me a reason. I'm wondering if she thinks they are a bit childish for her, seeing as she is in fourth grade.  However, I appreciate that she has a way to practice her math facts and her handwriting. Maybe the fact that she needs to write the numbers over and over will help her not to write certain numbers backwards anymore.

These are cute little workbooks to help your early elementary child(ren) work on math fluency and handwriting. I think they could be a great addition to your homeschool. And the digital books are awesome because you can print the pages out over and over for more practice if necessary.

You can find Page a Day Math on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Page a Day Math.

Practicing Reading with Reading Kingdom {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Thanks to the Homeschool Review Crew, Harold was given the opportunity to use Reading Kingdom for the second time. The first time was five years ago when he was only three years old. Hannah, who was five at the time, was using it as well. Harold was a bit young for the program at that time, and I was curious how he would do with it now that he is eight years old. That, and he was begging to try it out. 

Created by Dr. Marion Blank who is one of the world's top experts in reading, Reading Kingdom is more than a learning to read program. It is designed for children ranging in age from 4-10 years old. Children will learn sounds, but will also work on meaning, grammar, comprehension, sequencing, and writing. Which is why I figured I could still use it with Harold who is already reading chapter books. Though he was using it on our desktop computer, it can also be used on any device with an internet connection, including iPads, Android devices, and Chromebooks. 

We were given a 12-month subscription to Reading Kingdom. 

When a child first gets on the program they are to take an assessment to see where they are going to place in the program. The children are greeted by the friendly owl and the parent is reminded not to give any help during the assessment. I remember from five years ago that the children were not fans of the assessment because they only have a certain amount of time to click the answer before they are shown the correct answer (it's the same in the lessons too). I admit, I figured now that Harold was more familiar with the keyboard, it would be easier for him. The problem is, he still has to search for the letters on the keyboard, so he probably took longer than he should have. This is one of the issues I have with this program. A child may know how to read, but if they are not familiar with the keyboard, it hurts their placement. 

When the children were younger, they placed in Reading & Writing Part 1. This includes Seeing Sequences and Letter Land. This time around, Harold was obviously beyond that, and placed in Reading & Writing Part 2.

As you can see from the above screenshot, there are five different levels in this section. Harold was originally placed in Reading/Writing Level 3, and I had him stay in his assigned level for a while. However, he was getting bored, so I was able to skip him to the next level. The little check mark icons show that Harold was not required to take three different levels. He tested out of the first 2, and then, after he had spend some time in it, I skipped the third. The hourglass shows where he is currently working and the trophy shows that his performance is excellent. 

Each level has several "books" that a child works toward reading. The following screenshot shows the list of books in Level 4. Harold is currently working in Book 19: Birds and Flying.

Actually, he has almost completed it:

For each book there is a list of words to work on. Each word is the focus of the day's lesson. There are activities that a child will work on with these words every day. There are some that appear to be more prevalent, such as: Savvy Sound, Stay n Play, Pick the Picture, Find and Fill, and Sentence Maker. I've also seen the following: Detect & Select, Write in to Read, and Replace the Space. However, the child is not aware of these different activity names, they just move from one activity to the next. The activity names can be found by clicking on each blue highlighted word in the word list (as seen in the above screenshot). 

As you can see, a child has the option to go back and replay older lessons. I actually did that to get the following screenshots of a lesson, because I didn't want to disturb Harold while he was working.

Here's a look at the kinds of activities a child will work on. These are from Level 3, but the activities in Level 4 are about the same.

There is one word that is the focus of each lesson. The word for this lesson was "see." The first thing the student has to do in this activity is to choose which word is "see"or a form of "see," such as "seeing."

Once the child has identified the word a few times, they are to choose the words they hear in order to form a sentence. In the screenshot below, the words in black font are the words that the student was to click on after they heard it spoken.

Then they practice typing the word that is the focus for the lesson.

There is then more practice with the word, after they pick a picture that matches what they are told to click on. In this instance, the student was to click on the thing that could "see." Then they were to type it out again.

In Find and Fill, the student is to choose which unfinished word can become the focus word. I think this is a great way for the child to really see if they know the word. And yes, when they click on the correct word, they then need to type out the missing letters in the correct order.

Then there is more practice in choosing the correct words for the sentence. This time around, the entire sentence needs to be typed by the student without getting to see the sentence.

The final activity is sentence maker, where the child just needs to click on the correct word.

Due to the fact that Harold can already read chapter books, he was getting quite bored with these lessons. Which is why I jumped him ahead to Level 4. Unfortunately, Level 4 is more of the same, very repetitive in learning the word from the list. I guess I was expecting the harder levels to add a bit more when it came to grammar and comprehension. 

While the program is adaptive and is supposed to allow the student to skip the word lesson for words they already know, I am confused as to why Harold was able to skip some lessons, such as for "cold" and "seem," but is still having to work through "hot" and "too." 

Unfortunately, Harold is really fighting me when it comes to continuing with this program. He sees it as too boring and easy. I have tried to encourage him, by letting him know that he can be working on improving his typing and memorization and his focus. When I have watched him, the mistakes he makes are simple, such as forgetting to capitalize the first letter in a sentence, or not focusing on the word he should be clicking on. He also gets frustrated that it will show him the word if he makes one of these simple mistakes. I have also noticed that if a student starts typing too soon they are marked wrong and shown the word because it isn't recording the first letter typed. So, I guess that is where patience is needed. But when it is too easy for him, he just wants to get moving along in the lesson.

So, while I think this program would be better for younger children who are not already reading chapter books, I am also conflicted, because it is trickier for younger children as they have to struggle with the keyboard. And while I understand the benefits of repetition, I am still feeling there is an awful lot of repetition of the one word throughout the lesson.

I was really hoping once I saw the more advanced lessons that I would feel more comfortable recommending Reading Kingdom. However, it still boils down to the repetition of the word is working toward the child memorizing the word instead of working on sounds so they can learn to read other words they are introduced to. If phonics isn't for you and your family, or hasn't been working for your child, you may find this program works for you. 

You can find Reading Kingdom on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates have to say about Reading Kingdom or ASD Reading. Some of us reviewed the regular program, while others reviewed the ASD Reading program for children on the Autism Spectrum.

Learning About Computer Science and Coding with Workman Publishing {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Tabitha had become interested in coding a while back when she had found a book at the library. She has since returned that book, but was quite interested when the opportunity arose for her to review Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook written by Grant Smith and published by Workman Publishing. I figured this was an important interest to encourage, seeing as computers are so important in everyday life. 

This 566-page, 8"x 6" softcover "Big Fat Notebook" is the newest of a series. There are also "Big Fat Notebook" study guides for Math, Science, American History, World History, and English Language Arts.  I love that these are put out by the makers of Brain Quest. Tabitha used to love her Brain Quest workbook when she was a preschooler, and so did I. So, I was quite intrigued to learn they had these books for middle schoolers (recommended ages 11-14). I am definitely contemplating adding the other books to our homeschool library.

This Computer Science and Coding study guide is recommended for those who may be having trouble with their computer science class, or with a coding project. Perhaps you already had a class and would like to refresh your memory, this would work as well. Tabitha has been using it to teach herself the basics, and I figured it would be a great way for me to learn, because well, computers and technology never really have been "my thing," and I would like to change that.

There are eight units in this "Big Fat Notebook," which are then broken down further into chapters (between 2-9 chapters for each unit, for a total of 39). Here are the subjects you and your students will learn about in this book. 

• Unit 1: Computing Systems
• Unit 2: Data and Analysis
• Unit 3: Software Engineering
• Unit 4: Algorithms and Programming
• Unit 5: Universal Programming Principles
• Unit 6: Programming with Scratch
• Unit 7: Programming in Python
• Unit 8:Web Development

I appreciate that the book starts with the basics, allowing the student to learn what computer science is and what computers really are, along with their background. I mean, yes, children these days use computers or tablets, or phones, all the time from a very young age, but I think there is definitely a benefit to understanding the basics. I love that it looks at what is and is not computer science. Sorry, no, playing a video game is NOT computer science. Programming your own IS. 

I really love the fact that the book looks like a notebook, complete with highlighting and doodles. As the student works through the book it helps to know the way it has been organized. 

Vocabulary words are highlighted in yellow and definitions are in boxes:

Important people, places, dates, and terms are written in blue:

There are doodles, graphics, and charts to show big ideas.

I really do love that humor is added with these graphics.

And the charts really help the visual learners.

And main ideas are underlined. 

Each chapter concludes with a "Check Your Knowledge" section.

The answers are then shared on the following pages.

Tabitha has been working though this book, doing about a chapter a week. She reads and then rereads if she needs to make sure she is comprehending. She takes notes in a notebook, and answer the questions there as well. Even though there is some room to answer questions in the book, I have found there isn't really enough to write out the answers all the time. So, we are using the book more as a study guide and textbook, keeping it fresh for younger siblings.

Though you do not have to work though the book in order, in fact it is color coded to be able to easily go to the unit you are interested in learning about, Tabitha prefers to work in order, as do I. Personally, I can't wait until she gets to the chapters on programming with Scratch and Python. It looks very interesting.

From what I have been able to tell, not being very knowledgeable myself in computer science, this book is a wonderful foundation for the age range it is meant for, along with beginners of any age (i.e. me as an adult with no clue). The information is laid out in an inviting fashion and makes learning fun. I definitely recommend this as an addition to your homeschool library. And I definitely want to look into the other books in this series.

You can find Workman Publishing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook.

Littles Learning Link Up: May 19th, 2020

   

Each month you will find:

• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
• The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

Hmm, an update on our homeschool. Last week was a no-school week (as we school 5-6 weeks on, 1 week off). However, the children were still using Beyond the Stick Figure for art because that review was due last week. In fact, here's a look at some of the art created last week.

You can read my review here.

Plus they have been using EdShed for math and spelling practice. Harold has also been using Reading Kingdom daily. Tabitha has been learning about computer science and coding with a book from Workman Publishing. She has been working through the book independently and seems to be enjoying her time in the book. Next week I will be sharing my reviews of Reading Kingdom and Workman Publishing. And then in June there will be reviews EdShed (MathShed and SpellingShed) plus Page a Day Math. 

We are also going to start in with some history again, though we are doing some review using The Mayflower at Cape Cod (another new review product) plus Time Travelers: The American Revolution (not a review product, just a product I want to try from Homeschool in the Woods). 

I plan to get back to our My Father's World studies during the next school year. 

Unfortunately I have no more co-op lessons to post about. Hopefully co-op will start back up in the fall.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Creepy, Crawly, Buggy Round Up

April Showers Brought May Flowers Round Up

Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 3 wonderful posts linked up. I'll feature a randomly selected post and the most clicked on post.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool shared Learning Games for Elementary.

This week's most clicked on post is:

 Hilbert's Mazes shared Hand Drawn Dog Maze - Free Printable PDF

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter