Lesson Planet was designed to help teachers find material that is relevant to what the are teaching quickly and easily ~ providing over 150,000 lesson plans and 75,000 worksheets. It was created by educators as a search engine that is member supported and available to any teacher {public, private or homeschool} to use in lesson planning.

Teachers can find resources in the following ways:

• Searching by keyword, grade level and overall rating
• Clicking the Narrow, Related or My Recent Searches keyword options
• Browsing for reviewed resources by Subject, Calendar or Theme
• Exploring relevant State Standards, matched to each member’s state
• Utilizing Advanced Search to narrow by duration, method, technology, and more

My Thoughts

You all are probably well aware of the fact that I like to put my own lesson plans together {for the most part}. And make printables ~ lots of them. We use a few worksheets during our day for handwriting and math, but otherwise I put together notebooking sheets based on the topic we are studying.

If I need ideas for a topic we are studying, I might do some searching and digging around on the internet to get my creative juices flowing and go from there. When we were asked to review the Lesson Planet site I was in the middle of planning for our Australia and New Zealand studies, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use the site and find some great stuff.

Unfortunately for me, it really wasn’t. While I did get results, it definitely wasn’t what I had in mind and I found four dead links for the first search I did {I reported them}…but that didn’t start me off well with things. I know that part of my problem is that when I have a specific idea in mind for something it is generally easier to put it together myself. If I’m going to spend time on it, I want it done the way I want it done {because I’m odd like that ~ it is in no way the fault of anyone else}.  However, I am well aware that others love not having to go through the hassle of putting lessons together, being able to find applicable worksheets at the touch of a button ~ and if that is you, it might be a site you want to check out.

I would recommend their free 10-day trial before you purchase a $39.95 yearly membership. Try it out before you jump in to see if it’s something that you would use.

When we were first asked to review for Super Star Speech, I wasn’t quite sure how I would be able to write a review. There aren’t any major issues with any of our children’s speech ~ and trust me, after working with children who have had speech problems I know how difficult that can be for teachers and parents.

The primary focus of the Super Star Speech site is focused on giving parents the tools needed to help improve their child’s speech at home. They offer a book called Super Star Speech: Speech Therapy Made Simple, a 90 page resource that includes the following:

· Articulation test assesses speech sounds in all word positions.
· Specific instructions and tips for teaching every sound
· 240  picture cards printed on colored card stock (ring bound edition)
· Games and activities for enjoyable practice and drill
· Reproducible lesson plan forms

In addition to speech products, they do offer additional homeschool games and resources. Super Star Games are inexpensive pdf downloads {$3.50 each} that help reinforce subjects that you are teaching at home: grammar, history, geography, science, and more.

We were given four pdf games to try together: Covering the Continents, Silly Snail, Colony Quest, and the Inventors Game.

Covering the Continents ~ players decide which continent a fact describes. If they are correct, they can place a marker on that continent. Once they earn three markers for a continent, it is considered ‘settled’.

Silly Snail  ~ a parts of speech game where players tell what part of speech is bolded in a sentence. If answered correctly the player moves along the game board to that part of speech.

Colony Quest ~ similar to the Covering the Continents game, but players learn facts about the 13 colonies and race to ‘settle’ them

The Inventors Game ~ players learn about major inventions from the 1400’s up to the 1900’s and who was responsible for the invention. The game can be played as a matching game or as a timeline game.

Our two favorites were Covering the Continents and Silly Snail, mainly because they both cover topics we are doing a lot with right now: geography and grammar. :)

Find Out More

If you’d like to find out more about the Super Star Speech program or the games that they also offer, you can visit their website. Deb Lott, the author, also has a blog that provides helpful information about speech development. Several of my Crew members reviewed different products, including the speech program, so be sure to click on the banner below to read more.

Last year our girls had a chance to play on the Time 4 Learning site, but this year it was Zachary’s chance to have a little fun! He was most willing to oblige too and was rather persistent in requesting to play.

What is Time 4 Learning?

Time 4 Learning is an online PreK – 8th grade curriculum that can be used a supplement to your current curriculum or even as your entire curriculum for language arts, math, science and social studies. The curriculum is tailored to each of your children’s educational needs and levels and includes animated lessons, interactive activities, unit assessments, and printable worksheets for reinforcement (and it is ad-free!). Lessons are also correlated to standards in all 50 states.

The preschool curriculum offers two different levels of difficulty and covers 40 different topics including: shapes, numbers, feelings, human body, insects, color mixing, weather and much more. Our boys started on color mixing because we had just finished a unit on rainbows ~ and even Kaleb {age 3} was helping out.

Parents have the ability to log in and print automated progress reports for record keeping or portfolios. You can also see how your children are doing in all the areas that they are using, and see what areas they need to focus more attention/time on. There are lesson plans and a scope and sequence also available for parents to access at any time.

My Thoughts

The program is very interactive so kids don’t realize that they are “learning”. The activities were much fun, the graphics were fabulous, and Zachary was able to work through the program with little help from me. When his time was up, I could log on and print off reports to see exactly what he did while on the site ~ and make any adjustments for the next time he was online.

While Zachary did enjoy the program, $19.99 a month would be a bit steep for us to pay every month  ~ unless we were using it as our core curriculum, which we wouldn’t. I don’t think I could envision having him on the computer that much {nor would I want him on it that much}.

Find Out More

Time 4 Learning offers a free 14 day trial of the site, lesson demos, a scope and sequence of their lesson plans, and also a parents forum for those that are using the site. If you’d like a quick video demo of the site you can click here.
The cost for Time 4 Learning:

• $19.95 a month for the first child
• $14.95 for each additional child
• a 14 day money back guarantee

King Emmanuel rules over the kingdom of Terrestria ~ a land that was peaceful until Argamor, the King’s chief musician tried to take over the kindgom. Although he was defeated, Argamor contines to stir up trouble over the years, enslaving many of the King’s subjects ~ still hoping to overthrow the King.

The Terrestria Chronicles allegory series was written with a three-fold purpose: to honor Jesus Christ as King, to challenge young readers to love and serve Him, and to teach them to guard their hearts for Him. The focus of the series is always on the King.

Terrestria Chronicles is a seven book series, but each of the books are able to be read independently from the others. The Sword, the Ring, and the Parchment {Book 1} tells the story of young Josiah, a slave to Argamor who is rescued by King Emmanuel and adopted into the Royal Family. Prince Josiah is on journey in The Quest for Seven Castles {Book 2}, but is unprepared for many of the temptations he faces and realizes the importance of following the Book he was given and listening to the voice of the Dove.

My Thoughts

We received the first two books in the series to read and our kids. I haven’t read them out loud to the kids yet because I wanted to screen them first, but they will be ones that I know our children will enjoy. For now they will be read-alouds so that I can monitor a little better some of the content I present to them ~ because the books do not gloss over the darkness and depravity that sin causes.

The recommended age for reading is ages 10 and up and I would definitely agree. At the conclusion of each book there is a glossary section for some of the different terms as well as the ABC’s {Admit, Believe and Confess} of salvation. 

Find Out More

You can purchase the entire Terrestria Chronicles series for $39.99.  Books may also be purchased individually for $7.99. A study guide is also available for $5.99. There are free coloring pages for kids to work while families are reading the stories aloud.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.