NZ Filbruns

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.

About six weeks ago, we were presented with the opportunity to do a course from Journey Homeschool Academy, and had to choose between two topics. The children and I spent our science class time for a few days checking out the various sample lessons offered for the two courses, and decided that Experience Astronomy: Elementary looked pretty interesting. We learned a lot just from the two video lessons that were available as samples! We’ve been using this program now for five weeks, and are really enjoying it. We’re watching the lessons with the whole family, while the evening dishes are being washed. We’re only doing one lesson a week, so just one night a week is spent on astronomy. I decided to do it this way so that Gayle and the older boys can learn about the heavens, as well. We haven’t spent much time with astronomy, so this will plug a gap for them.

So far, we have had an overview of astronomy, learned how the earth revolves and rotates around the sun, the seasons, the phases of the moon, and what constellations are. The lesson about the phases of the moon was one of the sample lessons, so for the past month we’ve been observing the moon as it went through a complete cycle. Watching the lesson for the second time was very good to help cement the concept. One thing we really liked about it was that the teacher showed the way the moon appears in the Southern Hemisphere! Almost everything is aimed at the Northern Hemisphere, it seems like, since most educational materials are produced in the United States. This is, too, but he teaches about both. We could really relate to what he was saying, since we’ve observed the differences ourselves when we traveled back for a visit.

Each lesson, as I mentioned, has a video. This is usually about 15 minutes long. It is accompanied by a 2-3 minute Memory Video, with the main points the teacher wants us to remember. There is also a PDF with supplementary material. This always includes some suggested books to read, a craft activity, several pages of handwriting practice, notecards with the memory points, and a quiz. We’re using the notecards (I have them taped to a cupboard door) and the quizzes, and we’ve done a couple of the crafts. Mr. Imagination loved making a “planetarium!” I like the quizzes to help us think about the video lesson again the day after. It also makes a very easy science class!

Another project we did, which the children really enjoyed, was creating a constellation from marshmallows and toothpicks. Can you guess what the favorite part was? Eating the marshmallows afterward!

These lessons are very much based on the Bible. In every lesson so far, we have been taken on a “field trip” to some ancient archeological site where there was evidence of ancient man worshipping or studying the heavenly bodies (the sun, moon, or stars), but the teacher is very careful to point out that worship of these things was not what God wanted. Also, one of the assignments for the course is to memorize Psalm 8. Most of my boys already know it, so they recite it along with him when he quotes a verse.

Looking ahead, I’m seeing more lessons on the constellations, and then some about eclipses and meteors. After that, it looks like we’ll be making a trip through the solar system before a couple of final wrap-up lessons. This looks like fun! I’m really enjoying this course, and I know some of the rest of the family are, too. Some won’t admit it, but they all sure pay attention when I put the computer on the table and turn it on. Since we do this on a night when the big boys are on dishes duty, they are a captive audience, too. We often quit using review products as soon as the review posts on my blog, but this is one that we’ll continue using till we reach the end.

Sixty-seven families have been using programs from Journey Homeschool Academy. If you’re curious what others say about these courses, as I am, click on the image below to read their reviews.

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.

I was quite interested to see how the MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software from MaxScholar works when I heard about it. Nine or ten years ago, I had two boys who were not learning to read, no matter what I tried. I came across some online programs that taught math skills, but I couldn’t find anything I liked that would teach reading. In answer to prayer, I finally found a physical program that worked. It was an Orton-Gillingham based program, so that made me curious about how MaxScholar was set up.

We actually haven’t used this program a lot. Little Miss (age 5) has used it more than her brothers; she really enjoys it. She started out with a test to find out what she knew. It turned out that she knew the sounds of 14 letters of the alphabet—more than I thought she would! She used MaxPhonics for several days after finishing the test, and then discovered Maxreading; both options are available for her when she logs in. With MaxPhonics, a letter is introduced by name, and then a keyword beginning with the sound is introduced (“yawn” for y, for example). After practicing the name, keyword and sound a few times, the student is to draw the letter “in sand” and on a line, using the mouse. Little Miss had a hard time managing that, but she enjoyed it. The last activity with each letter is to choose whether or not a series of words begin with the sound of the letter being studied. If a she got the word wrong, it was given to her again a few words later.

Little Miss was put into Level 0 of MaxReading. In this level, she chooses a “chapter”, which is actually a picture. The program asks several questions about the picture for her to think about, and then she moves on to a series of questions with multiple-choice answers. Each question and answer have a button beside them, which when clicked read the sentence aloud. After she chooses an answer, the program moves on to the next question. She’s really enjoying this section of the program.

Mr. Imagination was put into Level 2 of MaxReading. He chose the first book in the list, “Australia”, and has read the first two chapters. Vocabulary words are highlighted; he is instructed to click on them to read the definitions, then read the entire story. After reading the story, he is supposed to highlight the topic of the story, the main idea, and important details, then write an outline of the story. After that he is instructed to write about the story, choosing either to write a summary, answer an open-ended question, or answer a general question. The final activity for each story is a 5-question multiple-choice quiz. Once again, each question and answer have a button to click to hear it read aloud.

For MaxPhonics, he has the choice of working on consonants and short vowels, consonant blends, or digraphs. There are also several games available. I saw a memory game and one where you are to chose the missing part of a word. There is also a section called MaxWords, which teaches rules for breaking down words into syllables, and also covers prefixes and suffixes.

Mr. Sweetie was placed in Level 5 of MaxReading (out of 12 levels). His stories are more advanced, but follow the same progression for each lesson. His options for MaxPhonics and MaxWords are the same as the ones available for Mr. Imagination. He has several other programs available, though: MaxPlaces, MaxBios, MaxMusic and MaxVocab. MaxPlaces begins with a world map. A lot of cities have green dots beside them, and when you click on the dot you get to read a story about that city and then answer some multiple-choice questions about it. MaxBios contains short biographies of people in many different careers, with a quiz after the story. Based on the categories I saw, this is not a program I want my children to spend much time with. MaxMusic contains the lyrics of songs from many different performers and groups—once again, a program I’m not happy for my children to use. MaxVocab looks fun, though, with three types of games to play: Hangman, Definitions, and Word Search.

The teacher’s dashboard contains a wealth of resources. Of course, there is a section for generating reports of each child’s progress in the program, but I also found a section of materials for the teacher. These are actually lesson plans and techniques for teaching a child to read. They look very useful and doable! This program looks quite useful, however, since we already have the other program and have been using it, I will continue to use it. However, I can see it working well for families that need the extra help of letting someone else do part of the teaching. The games will be fun for my children, too. I like to have access to educational games for the odd time when the children want to play on the computer. This program is put together quite well and high quality. If you want to try it out for yourself, there are some lessons that can be watched to see how it works. Also, be sure to click on the image below to see what 60 other families have to say about MaxScholar!