Premium Subscription from LightSail for Homeschoolers: A TOS Crew Review

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

Premium Subscription  from LightSail for Homeschoolers

Premium Subscription 

from LightSail for Homeschoolers is an online subscription to help build 

reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills for grades PreK-12.

LightSail for Homeschoolers Library gives you access to over:

• 12,000 books - including 3,500 classics and many faith-based titles 

• Over 50,000 World Book Encyclopedia Articles with Maps, Atlases & Timelines

• Lerner Sports Encyclopedia

• Audio Books - over 13,000 titles including - standard audiobooks, audiobooks with text highlighting by word, and audiobooks with text highlighting by sentence

• 360 degree Images

• Videos

• Augmented Reality

• Livestreams 

It's truly a complete digital library that you can access anytime (with no overdue fees!) In addition, this program is designed specifically for homeschoolers with lessons in reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills built in.

The ability to track reading minutes, use bookmarks, highlight quotations, and create memory lists are just a few more nifty features designed with homeschooling in mind.

Students are given an assessment as they begin to accurately determine their Lexile reading level.  This helps determine the books and assignments.  "Power Texts" are at the student's reading level, and are the tool for helping increase reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills with educational features like fill-in-the-blank assessments to check reading comprehension, a full dictionary, read-aloud ability, related content while tracking reading minutes and offering incentives.

All student reading is overseen through the parental control features that let parents monitor and control content, assessments, media, features, chats, and more.

We are HUGE book lovers and were excited to see what LightSail has to offer.  With multiple children using this program, it was easy to find tons of great content, they can even read the same titles, and participate in a family chat or answer challenge questions.

Since we do love a good book with actual pages to turn, while cuddled up together, and my kiddos are all proficient readers - we focused mainly on all the great ways to use Lightsail, other than tracking reading minutes and building literacy skills, which this program is great at with an adaptive platform that customizes to your child's reading level! 

They have an entire library of interesting things to discover.  Like the World Book maps and timelines to go with our history studies.

The 360 degree images that really wowed us - visiting the Sistine Chapel or the inside of the airplane cockpit!

The Lightsail library is interconnected, so frequently related images, books, and articles are just a click away.

Their Video section is jam-packed too!  You can check out videos from a wide range of subjects, but our favorite has to be the Ted Ed talks...or maybe the Livestreams...

Who doesn't love a good Unit Study to spice things up?  Lightsail has over 150 to choose from - fully integrated with books, encyclopedia articles, videos, or any other multimedia content designed by homeschool moms, for homeschool moms.

The Library collections are impressive, you can pick from dozens of genres and thousands of titles.  Handy search features help you find books customized to your child's reading level as well.  I appreciate that they also have faith-based titles and an impressive collection of classics (especially after seeing some of the "Most Popular" reads... making me thankful for the ability to control the reading material options for my children!)

There is SO MUCH to this program, I feel like we will be unpacking all the treasures for a good time to come.  Best of all... it's easy to take on the go with you.  

Find LightSail for Homeschoolers on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LightSailEd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightsailed/

Hashtags: #hsreviews #homeschool #homeschooling #reading #ebooks #edtech #elearning

See what other members of the Crew thought here

                  

Reading Eggs and Mathseeds from Reading Eggs: A TOS Crew Review

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

         

Reading Eggs and Mathseeds from Reading Eggs

Reading Eggs and Mathseeds from Reading Eggs is a  great way to keep those reading skills sharp for students ages 2-13! We have been using this program for years.    This program works on your computer, laptop, tablet or on your mobile device with their new app.

The online, yearly subscription includes access for up to 4 students to:

Reading Eggs Junior is designed for your preschoolers - ages 2-4. It uses a variety of read-aloud books, alphabet games and more to get your child focusing on letters and the sounds they make.

Reading Eggs is for ages 3-7, uses a self-paced program to get your children excited about reading. They can complete a variety of activities and earn golden eggs as a reward!

MathSeeds is a great program for ages 3-9 to practice and perfect math skills with over 200 lessons, printable worksheets, and fun rewards. 

Reading Eggspress helps ages 7-13 with practice for their reading skills. A simple placement test helps put them in the correct spot.The program is full of games, activities, online books and more that help your child learn to love reading. This is where my tester has been.

 
Fast Phonics is for your 5-10 year olds. It's packed with games and levels to keep your new readers engaged by practicing systematic phonics! 

Mental Minute Drills - designed to practice and master essential math skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.This program is based on solid research and focuses on building essential reading skills through phonics, sight words, spelling, vocabulary and comprehension. But, it's so fun - they had no idea they were really learning!


My student has her own dashboard.  She can choose to practice skills like spelling, play games and compete against others, complete lessons to earn golden eggs (the reward!), visit the library, see her targets, play games in the arcade or even go "shopping" at the mall.

and,  I get detailed progress reports on what she is working on.

My tester has been using the program for the past several years, and loves it!  Her lessons are arranged on a "map" that she works through that corresponds to the book she chooses.

A lesson for them covers several key reading skills. There are several different sections that focus on different skills for reading:

• Cover Story - they answer questions about the cover of their book. 
• Dictionary lets them learn new vocabulary with dictionary practices.
• Fact or Opinion practices recognizing the difference as they read.
• Main Idea & Details and Making Inferences helps them identify key sentences and learn to make inferences from what they are reading. The program offers immediate feedback on answers.
• Words in Context helps pinpoint how words are being used.
• Reading allows them to read directly from an interactive book. They have plenty of great books to choose from.
• The Quiz checks how much they remember. They need to score a minimum level to advance to the next step on their map.

After each section is completed, she earns gold "eggs".  These are the currency of the program.  The eggs can be used to play games, or go shopping!  Of course, this is my tester's favorite part.  She loves to decorate her apartment, collect pets & change her avatar...

I've been impressed with the depth of the content on Reading Eggs and my testers have loved it. 

I recommend checking them out with the FREE 30 day trial to see for yourself!

Find Reading Eggs on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingeggsUSCATwitter: https://twitter.com/readingeggs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingeggs/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ED-7e2xA3fxgrM7Wq2XGQ

Hashtags: #hsreviews #learntoread #readingeggs    

See what other members of the Crew thought here

                  

Words Rock Online from EdAlive: A TOS Crew Review

                                

 

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

Words Rock Online from EdAlive

Summer is a great time to sneak in some learning that looks more like a video game!  Words Rock Online from EdAlive is an online, adaptive learning program designed to help your students (ages 5-15) with core literacy skills like vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation and pre-literacy in a fun game-like environment.

Parents login first and set up student user accounts.  The program will work on any internet ready device - tablets, computers and smartphones - you can take it on the go!

Students can choose to play a multi-player, Battleship-type game to capture slugs and earn points. The program is an adaptive learning format, that means it records and adjusts the difficulty of questions to each student.  Players can choose quick games against other players or against the computer. My testers really didn't like the game - it seemed to take too long for the turns, and they quickly tired of it.

My students preferred to choose the "Questions Only" option.  In this mode, students are asked a WIDE variety of language questions including vocabulary, spelling, grammar and punctuation.

The questions are varied, with an option to choose "Too Hard" if the question is above their level.

What my students enjoyed most was the variety.  Some questions have them typing in the answer, some moving the boxed word and other variations. Here's a peek at some of the questions:

At first the questions were easy for them, but the adaptive learning function adjusted questions to more and more difficult questions.  Each question allows the student the opportunity to attempt to answer twice before displaying the correct answer.  

This one even stumped me!

The questions cover spelling, vocabulary, grammar & punctuation and advanced grammar questions.  You can also choose the "all content" option and have all types of questions in a random order. It's a fun way to review and keep those skills sharp over the summer.

Each question is presented in a fun, cartoon illustrated way.

Spelling exercises are included too...

These type of questions were great for developing careful reading and details!

The parent account lets you see detailed results so you can know what needs some more attention, and which skills are mastered.

The program is not comprehensive enough to teach the skills, but it can be a fun way to sneak in some review.

Be sure to check out the other products from EdAlive    

• Baggin' the Dragon Maths Online
• Volcanic Panic Reading Success Online

Find EdAlive on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdAlive
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edalive
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edalive_onlinelearning/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/edalive/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/EdAliveTube

Hashtags: #hsreview #wordsrock #vocabularygames #wordgame #grammarlearning #vocabularyenglish #vocabularylearning #wordgames #wordskills #readingsoftware #vocabularyinenglish #wordpower #phonicsisfun #phonicsactivities

See what other members of the Crew thought here 

        

Failure Free Reading Home Edition: A TOS Crew Review

Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew

Failure Free Reading Home Edition

Everyone can use help polishing their reading skills. We have been taking a look at the 

Failure Free Reading Home Edition.

This is an online program designed to help struggling readers master those vital reading skills with a new and varied approach based in brain research. The focus of this program is to help build the neural pathways needed for reading skills via a non-phonics based approach.  If you are one of the many families that has students that struggle with phonics, this may be a great fit for you. 

I was intrigued by science behind the program and had 4 of my testers give it a try.  Quick note, all of my students have mastered phonics and reading skills, one of the things I like about this program is that it offers benefits for all readers, not just struggling readers. 

 It's a fairly easy-to-use program that begins with a single login and individual placement tests for each student to determine their level.

My students all scored well above their grade level for this program, so we can't really speak to it's efficiency in helping struggling readers, but - we can show you how it was helpful for building vocabulary skills.

Once their level has been determined by the placement test, each student can begin the "Instruct" portion of the program with the option of self-paced, computer guided lessons (the option we used) or a more scripted teacher directed path. A combination of both online and teacher assisted lessons are the recommended path.

The lessons are grouped into levels, clusters and units. Each include online lessons and downloadable instruction materials - 

Illustrated Reader

Student Workbook

Teacher Manual

The Online lessons include guided audio instruction and are designed to take about 20-30 minutes of independent work for the student to complete.  Lessons begin with a short video definition of vocabulary words, there are 5 new words in each unit for a total of 30 new vocabulary words in each level.

The lessons focus on learning the meaning of the vocabulary, with a variety of activities like identifying synonyms, fill in the blank, spelling exercises, using the word in proper context and matching exercises.  

Vocabulary skills are frequently strong determiners of success on standardized tests like the ACT and SAT.  My high school level testers found this program a great tool to help practice and learn new vocabulary and my middle school testers used this program to help refine their vocabulary and spelling skills. It's a rare program that can truly meet the needs of all levels, and Failure Free Reading Home Edition passed our test with flying colors.

The online lessons were engaging with variety and easy to complete, plus the program allows me to see reports of each student's progress to pinpoint what they are working on.

Overall, we found this to be a well-designed program and a fun way to practice reading skills at all levels!

Find Failure Free Reading Home Edition on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FailureFreeReading/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thereadingdr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/failurefreereading
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FailureFreeReading

Hashtags: #hsreviews #FailureFreeReading

See what other members of the Crew thought here

Reading Eggs from Blake eLearning Inc: A TOS 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

Reading Eggs from Blake eLearning Inc


Reading Eggs from Blake eLearning Inc is a great way to keep those reading skills sharp! We have been using our 1 year subscription that gives access to multiple programs and levels for up to 4 children in your family. This program works on your computer, laptop, tablet or on your mobile device with their new app.

• Reading Eggs Junior is designed for your preschoolers - ages 2-4. It uses a variety of read-aloud books, alphabet games and more to get your child focusing on letters and the sounds they make.

• Reading Eggs is for ages 3-7, uses a self-paced program to get your children excited about reading. They can complete a variety of activities and earn golden eggs as a reward!

• MathSeeds is a great program for ages 7-13 to practice and perfect math skills.

• Reading Eggspress helps your younger readers in grades 1-6 to practice their reading skills. A simple placement test helps put them in the correct spot. Both of my testers are using this level. The program is full of games, activities, online books and more that help your child learn to love reading. 

• NEW - Fast Phonics is for your 6-10 year olds. It's packed with games and levels to keep your new readers engaged by practicing systematic phonics!

• NEW - Mental Minute Drills - designed to practice and master essential math skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.This program is based on solid research and focuses on building essential reading skills through phonics, sight words, spelling, vocabulary and comprehension. But, it's so fun - they had no idea they were really learning!

Each of my testers had their own dashboard, thankfully - it's just one login for me to remember :-) Parents also have access to detailed progress reports from their login.

Each of them has a customized "Map".  Even though my testers are both using Reading Eggspress, they have different maps - depending on which books they have chosen to work on. 

They can choose to practice skills like spelling, play games and compete against others, complete lessons to earn golden eggs (the reward!), visit the library, see their targets, play games in the arcade or even go "shopping" at the mall.

A lesson for them covers several key reading skills. Let me give you a peek at one of their lessons. 

Cover Story - they answer questions about the cover of their book. 

 

 Dictionary lets them learn new vocabulary with dictionary practices.

Fact or Opinion practices recognizing the difference as they read.

Main Idea & Details and Making Inferences helps them identify key sentences and learn to make inferences from what they are reading.  The program offers immediate feedback on answers.

Words in Context helps pinpoint how words are being used.

Reading allows them to read directly from an interactive book.  They have plenty of great books to choose from.

The Quiz checks how much they remember.  They need to score a minimum level to advance to the next step on their map.

After each section is completed, they earn gold "eggs".  These are the currency of the program.  The eggs can be used to play games, or go shopping!  Of course, this is my tester's favorite part.  They love to decorate their apartments & avatars...

I'm impressed with the depth of the content on Reading Eggs and my testers love it.  I recommend checking them out with the FREE 30 day trial to see for yourself!

Find  Blake eLearning Inc on Social Media:

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/readingeggsUSCA/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/readingeggs
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/readingeggs/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/readingeggs/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCReadingEggs

Hashtags: #hsreviews #readingeggs #eggsplorer

See what other members of the Crew thought here