Journey Homeschool Academy 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.



For summer school we tried out Journey Homeschool Academy we used the Experience Biology: Elementary.  This course can be found by clicking here Experience Biology: Elementary.  The course is geared towards kids that are 6-12 years of age. The program does acknowledge God as the creator but does not seem to go much farther than that. The program currently has 16 lessons and they are adding additional lessons as they are completed. There will be 30 lessons in total when the program is finished. This course can typically be completed during 1 school year is you are doing 1 lesson per week. Program cost is $129 and covers the entire immediate family.

Current completed lessons offered are:
Lesson 1: What is Life
Lesson 2: The building blocks of life
Lesson 3: The secret code of life
Lesson 4: Fueled up
Lesson 5: What's in a name
Lesson 6: Biomes Everywhere
Lesson 7: Itsy bitsy teeny tiny creatures
Lesson 8: The junk drawer kingdom
Lesson 9: The fungus among us
Lesson 10: What is a plant
Lesson 11: the wide world of plants
Lesson 12: Mean green energy making machine
Lesson 13: Roots and shoots
Lesson14: The reason for flowers
Lesson 15: It begins with a seed
Lesson 16: Amazing animals

This is probably one of the simplest programs to use. First your child watches the video lesson. There is only one log in for both parent and student. So you log into your online portal and let your kids watch a video lesson about basic biology principles. Next they will do a fun activity or assignment to help them connect the video to the world around them. If you need a little more your child will then explore books from the recommended reading list. You can do some or all of them. You can use them as a read-aloud or for independent reading assignments for each child.


There are 30 videos in the Experience Biology: Elementary and tons of hands-on activities to help your child bring the lesson to life. You will also find some memory work extras and copy work to use as needed. Lessons take around 15 minutes to complete, they are quick enough for those kids that loose interest quickly yet packed full of information. The girls dove right into these videos' and work pages. The girls enjoyed the video lessons the most but felt the worksheets were a little to easy for them however they are both at the upper end of the age range for this program. I felt like the videos were engaging and covered a decent amount of information for the given age range. You can take the lessons a little farther by using the resources and supplemental items that each lesson offers.

Some of the activities were activities that we had done in previous years so the girls felt they were not challenging enough. They said they would like to see more activities and maybe offer some activity options that would be a little more challenging for the kids in the upper age range of the program. For us I don't believe the program would last us a full school year. Just because we do science 4-5 days a week. For a family that just does maybe a weekly science lesson or stretches out the lesson over a full weeks time you could get it to last a hole school year.  Over all I feel like this is a great budget friendly program for kids that are close in age and grade level. I hope you will click the link below and see the other programs that the crew members used.

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CrossWired Science Review

CrossWired Science is a new science program that we were given the opportunity to try out. This is a yearly subscription Science program that is Biblical based introducing young children to "deep God-honoring Science" and it brings powerful science that points to the Lord as students finish their high school years.. The material on the sight is designed to be use for students in multiple grade levels from kindergarten all the way to High School. This is a science program with really great video lessons or explanations coupled with some great resources for more learning and understanding.

The website stated that the program covers 30 global topics. Currently there are just 2 topics listed on the website which will give you 3 months of science as a full curriculum. The two current Global topics are Sound, and Fluid Dynamics. These are the two topics the girls have started with. There will be two more additions coming soon and that will give you an entire school year of science. With the other upcoming additions they will offer approximately 6 years of Science.

Both of the girls were confused on how get going on this. When they log in it took them to the Home page which displayed videos. They thought this was what they were supposed to be doing. So they started watching the videos. They stated they were cool but short and didn't have enough information. They had actually watched the sample lesson videos. They had watched roughly 8 of them before I realized what they were doing the good news is they enjoyed them. When the student logs in they have to go to a tab at the top labeled curriculum. They then have to select first time or second time. If they select second time they get the same videos and topics but the questions and test are harder. I have both the girls working as first timers.

Each class session should take around 45-60 minutes. There are videos, quizzes, experiments, extra links to investigate, and memory versus. So the girls log in and select a topic. One started with Fluid Dynamics the other with Sound. It gives them a video to watch then below the video it gives them some questions to do. After answering the questions they select the finish quiz button and it grades the quiz. You then select the next lesson button and go on to the next lesson which is set up in a similar manner.

Under the Parent/teacher tab at the top you can find worksheet answers. Under that same tab there is an area for unit links, general links, and teacher resources. The first 2 are exactly that links that go along with each unit. Teacher resources has tips for using CWS, a calendar, and a link to information on the student dashboard. I also discovered a student progress section which tells you who has completed how much and when. There is also a quiz results section that you can go and view each students quiz results. Now for the thing I felt was missing from the Parent/Teacher tab. I was really disappointed not to find a break down of subject areas covered for each Global Topic. These topics seem to cover several subjects and there is no guide to show me what is being covered in each one. This means I have to spend hours reviewing each lesson so I can log what was being covered. If you click the general links option it gives you daily links to other resources. My issue with this is its hard for my kids to find it on there own or to even know its available in less I am there to go over it with them.


I do not consider this a self guided program at least for elementary and lower grade school kids. Navigation was to tricky for them to be able to figure out what they need to do with out guidance.

This is a brand new program and the company is still adding content and working out the last of the kinks. I think they have a great start on a cool science program that a child could grow with. Be sure to click the banner below and check out what other crew families thought about CrossWired Science and how it might work for your family.

Science Shepherd Introductory Science Review

Science is the name of the game today. This program is Introductory Science from Science Shepherd. The girls have been playing around with this program for a number of weeks now. They finished up last years curriculum early and this couldn't have come at a better time.                            

This is listed as a creation based complete science curriculum for ages 6-11. The course covers creation, geology, biology, astronomy, oceanography, meteorology and a bunch of super fun stuff. This is a video course that has daily on-demand videos, so you need to purchase the video lesson and then the workbooks. There are two levels of workbook level A and level B. I got level B with the review but I ordered a level A for my youngest because well she fell in love with the first couple videos and was mad she didn't get a workbook. You can also purchase an answer key which I recommend you do because it just makes grading easier. 

First I am going to tell ya'll a bit about the workbooks. There are two levels of workbook A and B. You choose the level of work book that works best for your child's abilities. Level A is listed as being appropriate for ages 6-8.. Level B workbook is for ages 9-11. Level B has all the same material as level A, but it contains additional content for the older kids. You should basically look at the sample workbook pages on the website and decide what one you think would work best for you kids ability. I picked level A for my soon to be 2nd grader and level B for my soon to be 4th grader. The work books go well with the video lessons and and you definitely need to have them. They are just not something you can skip out on. They are also super affordable.

Video course YES this has a video course is a huge bonus for us. The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the videos, they are very excited to do science. You get 12 month access to the daily videos. Yes you can buy and extension to that if you don't quite finish it up. The course is divided up into 35 weeks. But you can move at your own pace and adjust things to fit however you run your homeschool. The videos take about 2-5 minutes. The girls say that the videos are not babyish. They like that the videos talk to them like "real people". The videos and lesson pages combined are short which is good for my youngest but my oldest says that she could have used more information. She will often look up additional information on a topic after she has finished her lesson so it seems to be working out ok.

I do have to log in and get the girls to the right video for the day. But after that they can stop and start the video on there own and find the relevant work page in the book. Since the video is the same for both workbook levels, both girls watch the video together. Then they work on the work pages. My older one likes to explain things to my younger one and that in turn helps her to remember better. While I love the lessons and the workbook pages that go with each lesson they are a bit on the easy side for 4th grade. I felt they were ok for a 2nd-3rd grade lesson but I think they need to involve a bit more thinking for 4th grade and up. The girls can finish a work page in about 10 min so they get about 15 min a day in Science. Then my oldest tends to take some time to look up additional information on line when there are things that spark her interest. The program does come with some quizzes which is nice for evaluating what they are remembering and what needs to be reviewed. With access to the video lessons for a full year the girls can go back and watch them again and again as much as they need to.

Other Crew Members had the opportunity to review other levels of Science Shepherd so I want to encourage you to click the link below and see what they thought.

Don't forget to Get Social:

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EdTechLens Rainforest Journey Review

A new science program has been welcomed into our home. This time we are excited to use Rainforest Journey 1st and 3rd grade by EdTechLens. This is another great Crew Review folks.  Rainforest Journey is an e-learning science program grades K-5 that covers life science for elementary  school levels. It covers the same concepts but get increasingly complex. That means the second grade level will be a little harder and more detailed than say the first grade level. It is a media rich interactive digital learning program. The program consist of 34 lessons, assessments, and activities including hands on activities. It is an internet based program.

First I created an account then I logged in and bought the levels that I would be using. We are doing 1st Grade and 3rd Grade since that is the girls current grade levels. I got two single user courses since I am doing two different grade levels. Once you make your purchase you then assign the grade level later. Each of the girls has their own log in. 

From your teacher account you can edit class information. You can get a course outline you can control class content which means you remove things from your kids lesson that you don't want them to see. There is also a Teacher Resource section. In this section you can access answer keys, get lesson reviews, and lesson plan templates, user guide, support etc. Under the Manage Class section you will find a progress report that show how much they have done in each section as well as quiz results. When you log in as teacher you get little alerts that show if there is something that is waiting to be graded. Its easy to navigate and I found it to be self explanatory.



When the girls log in, it brings up a page and at the top it says begin lesson you just click it. The girls figured out how to navigate through the lesson quickly. There is a magnifying glass that opens up the captain that you read for the lesson. It even has a speaker you can click that will read the caption to you. I love that they have the option to have it read to them. It's great for beginning readers. They then click a button at the bottom to go to the next page in the lesson or to advance to the next lesson. It also gives them a button to click for work pages they can print out. Then at the end of the unit it gives a test.  


My first grader is in love with Rainforest Journey. She is enthralled by anything that has to do with animals. The pictures etc. are so vivid and bright that she can't get enough of them. Every day its Mama can we do another lesson can I can I can I please.... So we end up doing this more than just 3 days a week. Which is perfectly fine with this Mama. She is really enjoying the work sheets that they can print at the end of the lesson. I love that they are printable because it gives me something to put in the portfolio. For my first grader I would like to see a bit more discussion about each lessons topic. I felt it was a tad short in the information department on the lessons. I did how ever appreciate the activities they really add a little more to the program and give them some fun things to do that are not just on the computer. 

My third grader did the third grade level. She has also enjoyed the program. She says the pictures and the videos are really great and they show her some Cool stuff, but she wishes it told her more information about the topic. She likes the printable "stuff" at the end. Meaning the work pages and activities. She has done well on the work pages but says she would like to see more hands on activities. We are only part way through the program so there could be more hands on stuff that we just haven't gotten to yet. They are hands on kids so they really enjoy experiments and think they need to do them every week.

This is a supplemental curriculum with 34 lessons. It is a great supplemental curriculum for a semester study. It covered lots of Life Science topics and I feel that my girls have learned a lot from it. We will be finishing out the program because the girls have really enjoyed it. It offers great lessons, reviews and quizzes. I cant wait to see what else EdTechLens comes up with. Check out what the other Crew Reviewers are saying about EdTechLens they have tried out other grade levels and can give you more information on different ones.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/edtechlens
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edtechlens
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/edtechlens/
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+Edtechlens
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechlens

Funtastic Unit Studies Review

 

 

School is in full swing here in our home. The girls are getting back into the grove of it all and I am back to trying to figure out what cool bonus science project we are going to do for the week. This is where the Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers book comes in. It is a Science Unit Studies book For Homeschoolers and Teachers. The vendor is Funtastic Unit Studies and at the time of this review the book is selling for $16.95. You can get it at several different places just go to the vendors site above and they have the links to order. This book provides science unit studies for children ages 4-13. The first 4 chapters are units designed for ages 4-7 and the second 10 are for ages 8-13. The book contains 20 chapters in all. Each chapter teaches basic science concepts that use items you most likely already have in your house. Some chapters also have worksheets and test.

 

Chapters are:

1. Our Senses

2. The Human Body

3. Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life

4. Animals

5. Insects and Their Kin

6. Fun with Magnets

7. Stars and Planets

8. Health

9. Beginning Plants

10. Animal Ecology

11. Insects

12. Microscopes and Invisible Creatures

13. Atoms and Molecules

14. Matter

15. Chemistry Fun

16. Weather

17. Forces and Motion

18. Simple Machines

19. Light and Color

20. Plants II

 

The book has quite a few unit studies in it and I had to explore the book before deciding which we wanted to do.  My sister got the girls dino dig kits a few weeks a go. They have now gone dino crazy so we chose do to the Dinosaur and Prehistoric Life unit study. It is geared for ages 4-7 so it fit the girls age range. We spent around a week on the unit and the girls really enjoyed it.

 

At the beginning of each unit the book will give a list of materials that will be needed to complete the unit. I love the list it makes it easy for me to get everything together before hand. So far most of the items are things we have already had in our house. I did have to buy cream cheese because well I made cheese cake with it before we got to that part of the unit. Who can blame me though its cheese cake right.
There are 6 parts to the Dinosaur and Prehistoric Life unit. Each part has some directions and several activities that you can do with your kids. The unit also gave some suggestions for additional learning resources. Like movies that might go along with the unit or finding books at your local library. We were able to collect books from the library and located the Magic School Buss movie that this unit suggested. We did all the activities suggested in the unit. We found the activities to be easy to follow and understand which is great for my younger kids.  
We did all the activities in the unit but these two were our favorite. The #1 favorite was the Bagel Stegosaurus. We cut a bagel in half then used carrots for the head and tale and apple pieces for the spines. Cream cheese held it all together. The girls have made these several more times for breakfast since we did this unit. We also made dinosaur eggs using small plastic dinosaurs that I just happened to have in the prize box and some grated soap. We used Ivory left over from a previous experiment. They formed it around the little dino's and then they used it to wash their hands. The more they washed the quicker they got to the dinosaur.

  

  Over all Funtastic Unit Studies offers a good amount of unit studies for its Price. I like that I can use it for more than one grade level. The author does offer some freebies on her site I would like to suggest you to try them out because they are fun:   

  Freebies:Here's a link to a page  that has two free pdf units from the book:http://funtasticunitstudies.com/science-unit-studies-book/

And here's a link that has some other, unrelated, freebies:http://funtasticunitstudies.com/lessons-and-activities/
Historical Chapter Book   I would like to invite everyone to click the link below and see what the other Crew Members had to say about Funtastic Unit Studies. There are so many different unit studies I am sure they all tried something different.