www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
a focus on word families. Books A-D
cover consonants, short and long
vowels, 45 common words, as well
as manuscript reading. Throughout
the four books, your child will begin
reading in the first lesson, and advance through 31 phonetic stories.
The teacher’s manual provides teaching tips and assessments.
New American Cursive: Penmanship
Program Workbook 1 – is designed for
first graders. Simplified letter forms
are presented, and multi-sensory
methods are used to help children
develop the motor skills to write in
cursive. A fun character, Mr. Meerkat,
guides your child through each lesson
with step-by-step instructions on how
to draw each letter with an emphasis
on creativity. New American Cursive
eliminates unnecessary strokes, with
26 fewer strokes than the top three
most common cursive programs currently on the market. A teaching guide
is included with the workbook. Practice can be completed in 20 minutes
per day.
— Read the Crew reviews to see how
these were used in real homeschools!
Orphs of the Woodlands: An
Online Interactive Reading
Adventure
Star Toaster
www.StarToaster.com
Do your kids find reading boring?
Looking for a fun way to encourage your children to read and enjoy a
story? You will want to read on. The
members of the Schoolhouse Review
crew recently had the opportunity to
review the fun and engaging online
reading adventure from Star Toaster.
Star Toaster is a company produc-
ing online books, geared towards kids
in fourth grade and above, which offer
you considerably more than reading.
The company offers “an educational
journey that combines a reading adventure, an academic treasure, and a
rewarding game.”
Orphs of the Woodlands transforms
your children into spies of the WAK
Underground. Their task is to help the
animal “orphs” get to a place called
Ivythwhite, where they were born
and lived until the Night Creatures
orphaned them. Along the way, they
accumulate gold stars that allow them
to provide for the needs of the orphs.
They also have to fulfill a mission of
finding a hidden treasure. While doing
so, they get to navigate a world of adventure and fun learning as they complete jobs, meet new characters, and
overcome obstacles.
The beauty and appeal of Orphs of
the Woodlands lies in its interactive
and engaging features. The graphics
are outstanding and draw you in. The
story is enticing and filled with humorous teaching videos that you can access
anytime, either by clicking on them
during the story, or when you do jobs
for your orphs.
Orphs of the Woodlands covers a variety of subjects in the lessons woven
throughout the story including math,
science, vocabulary, Latin, the arts,
famous quotes, music, and even cooking through recipe ideas. Your children even get to practice their critical
thinking skills. The teaching is not only
embedded in the story but also taught
through the training for the projects
that they have to fulfill.
With Orphs of the Woodlands, not
only can you read and get captured in
a story where you learn about numerous topics, and enlarge your vocabulary, there is also a game component
that kids will enjoy as they get to take
care of their orphs. Character traits are
another aspect that you will love. One
of the creators’ goals is to seek to nurture good, positive values in the kids
as they make their way through the
woodlands.
Star Toaster is also committed to
keep you, the parent, informed as to
what your child has been learning. Star
Toaster offers a free trial, so try it for
yourself!
-Find out how the Crew used this!
La La Logic: Homeschool
Preschool Curriculum
La La Logic
www.lalalogic.com
If you are wondering where to get
started with your young one, La La
Logic has a wonderful Preschool Curriculum for you. You can start using the
program with your child as early as age
three. It is geared towards children ages
three to six and includes 100 weekly
schedules.
Each week of activities includes
things you do online, an activity you
do as a pair (parent and child), and
things you do on paper. The online activities are brain training exercises, but
your child just thinks he/she is playing
a game because it’s fun! The printable
activity your child does will include
things like cutting, gluing, and coloring. The activity with a parent might
be something like reading a story and
talking about it, placing objects around
the house in a particular order, or making up a story.
The week is all planned for you. You
just log in to your child’s account and
print the weekly schedule with worksheets. Once you have done that, you
just follow the directions each day, and
help your child through the program. If
your child is an older or advanced preschooler, you can do two weeks’ worth
of lessons in one week. La La Logic suggests if you are to do that, you do one
week’s activity in the morning and the
next week’s activity in the afternoon.
Each day’s lesson should only take
around 10-20 minutes. It is suggested
you do it this way, as opposed to skipping ahead because the program is progressive in nature. This way, your child
won’t miss a thing!
The activities will get progressively
harder as your child goes through the
