Reviews: My Favorites Archives - Page 8 of 8

Jan262009

A few months ago I reviewed a program All About Spelling by Marie Rippel. One that I will be using for years to come with our kiddos.

I am that much in love with the program.

Needless to say, I was thrilled beyond measure when they sent me a second product of theirs to review called All About Homophones: Your Complete Tool Kit. This is an amazing resource to help teach your children homophones quickly and easily (homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently…be/bee, sea/see, etc…).

All About Homophones comes with homophone worksheets, games and activities, and includes over 200 pages of teaching tools and resources for you to help teach your child about homophones. The graphics alone in the book are wonderful and the curriculum itself is even better!

My girls have loved playing card games such as Go Fish!, Pig, Old Maid and more to help in learning the different words and their meanings. The information is presented in such a fun and interactive way that the girls forgot we were doing school – and to me, that’s what learning is really all about!

Everything that you need for All About Homophones is included in the book you receive: reproducible pages for the card games, worksheets, graphic organizers, crossword puzzles, student record sheets, grade-level lists, teaching plans, and more! You can purchase a softcover printed copy ($19.95) or an ebook version ($17.95).

And if you haven’t heard about All About Spelling, check out my earlier review about their curriculum. The All About Homophones Tool Kit comes with a money-back guarantee too – 30 days, no questions asked. I’ll leave you with this fun translation from the homophone machine:

“Awl About Homophones is a grate tulle

two ewes inn you’re school thyme.”

See? Even I am having too much fun with it!

All About Spelling Review – Homeschool Spelling Tool

Dec42008

We received this product at no cost in exchange for our honest review. All opinions expressed are solely mine.

I thought we were perfectly fine with the spelling program that we were using until I started using All About Spelling with the girls. Now I’m hooked on this homeschool spelling program and thrilled that our kids look forward to spelling time and we love doing it together. We have worked our way through level one and will be starting level two soon.

Each lesson book in All About Spelling comes with a materials packet that includes: flashcards, index card dividers, tokens, progress charts, a completion certificate, and other tools to help you teach. The program also uses letter tiles that can be used in all six levels. The letter tiles are not included in the material pack of each level (so that you wouldn’t have six sets). They can be purchased separately for $12.95.

All About Spelling teaches “phonograms” – letter combinations that are the base for building words (a cd-rom of the sounds is also available for purchase if you would like to hear the exact sounds of each phonogram).

What I am loving about the program:

The lessons are amazingly easy to follow: Step-by-step directions are given for each lesson in the level, including all the materials that you will need for the lesson.
You can customize each lesson to your children’s needs. We went through the early lessons rather quickly and then paced the lessons at a rate that was comfortable for us.
Review: Each lesson includes a way to review the steps and rules that have been taught in previous lessons, along with reinforcement for the lessons that were learned during that lesson.
Hands-on materials: The program uses letter tiles that you can make magnetic to spell out the words and sounds that you are practicing. There are also flashcards included in the set along with the teacher’s manual. This hands-on aspect has really helped in our learning.
Clear/direct spelling rules: All About Spelling teaches clear rules (and notes any exceptions if there are any to the rule) – even I’m learning a thing or two!
It will be a complete curriculum from preschool to high school. It’s a one-stop spelling curriculum, and I LOVE that!
Price!! Both the level one and level two sets are only $29.95 each and can be used in the years to come with younger children since the materials are not consumable (a HUGE plus for me!). Levels three and four are $39.95. If you are teaching more than one student at a time, you can order additional materials packets (for around $12.95 each).

There is nothing that I haven’t been pleased about with this curriculum – seriously! If you are interested in learning more about how to teach using All About Spelling, know that they a 100% learning satisfaction guarantee. This is definitely a program that we will be using through the years with our kids!

This All About Spelling Review was written based on our personal use of the program. I was provided the program to review in exchange for my honest opinion.