Learning Dynamics ~ A Review

The Learning Dynamics Reading Program by Learning Dynamics is a wonderful tool to get your young child started on their road to reading. This is a complete system that comes with everything that you will need to teach your child how to read. Each lesson, which is less than 15 minutes in length is geared for a young child short attention span. There is even a 30-day money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied with the program.

What is included in the program:

1. Lesson Manual
2. 50+ Full Color Books
3. 30+ Songs on a CD
4. Student Activity Workbook
5. Letter Rewards
6. Flashcards

How we used it?

I have had the privilege of working with a dear friend's son who just turned 4 years-old. Little man was so excited to start learning the letters of the alphabet. We were definitely starting at the beginning as he was not familiar with any of the letters, the sounds that they made, or how to write any of them. We are still focusing on staying in the lines when coloring and holding crayons 🖍 properly. It will be awhile before he is ready for the readers 📚. Slow and steady wins the race. That is the true beauty of homeschooling.

Having taught my own six children how to read I was excited about checking out Learning Dynamics. Over the years I have used many phonics programs and curriculums to teach my own children how to read. I learned what worked with one child did not necessarily work with my next child. It was definitely an individualized journey with each of them. Some of my children picked up on reading quickly while others needed much more time to tears to learn how to read.

So how exactly is Learning Dynamics taught?

1. Introduce the letter being taught. Show the uppercase and lowercase letter. Introduce the sound that the letter makes. More is added in the teacher manual. 
2. Read the story in the teacher manual.
3. Letter song on the CD. 
4. Complete worksheet in Student Workbook
5. Listen to the letter song again.
6. As a final check use the flashcards to have your child name the letters and sound that the letter makes. Reward child with popout piece. 
7. Optional Activies
8. Blending is introduced after 5 letters are learned. At that point blending instructions are given. 
9. When books are introduced it will specify which book to read, re-read, etc. 

Our experience...

M says mmm.

M is for mouse, mop, and money. 

I am coloring the mouse.

In order to reinforce each letter I decided to make fun letter crafts

that can be hung on the wall to make an alphabet wall. Here is

an M is for mouse. These crafts ARE NOT a part of the curriculum. 

I just added them in to reinforce the letters and to add in a element of

fun for each letter being learned. 

A is for apple, alligator, and ant. 

Reviewing the letters A and M. 

Working on his A craft. 

Say "cheese!" A is for ants on an apple. Little man is so proud of 

his letter A. 

P is for pumpkin, pencil, and pig. 

Little man working on his P is for pig wall project. 

Little man is still getting his letters and sounds mixed up at bit. I work with him several times a week.  I have told him mommy the importance of CONSTANT reinforcement everyday, throughout the day in order to learn and retain these fundamental basics.  

Each letter of the alphabet has a friendly character to go with its letter. 

"bbbb" as in Baby Bear

"cccc" as in Cameron Caterpillar 

"dddd" as in Dancing Dinosaur

 Flashcards are provided for uppercase letters,

and on the opposite side are the lowercase letters. 

There is a set of flashcards with blends. On one side are the blends,

and on the opposite side are a list of words that go with the blend. 

Students can earn letter rewards!

The sequence of readers for Learning Dynamics is: 

Blue

Red

Yellow

Green

The Blue Readers are the first set of readers that your students will be reading.

There are 23 books in the Blue Series. 

Book 1 starts out very simple. 

After completing the Blue Series your student will move

onto the Red Series. The Red Series has 10 books.

This is Book 1 in the Red Series. 

By the time your student gets to the Green Series they will be reading multiple

sentences per page. Both the Yellow and Green Series have 10 books each.  

After learning the first five letters ( m, a, p, s, and t ) your child will begin to blend. They will also be ready to learn their first words. By lesson 9 they will be introduced to the first reader. The music CD really helps the child to reinforce the letters and the sounds with catchy songs. 

Learning Dynamics is a solid program for helping young children learn to read. Definitely check out their website for more information about the program. Also, click on the link below to read about what other reviewers had to say about the program. 

Social Media

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To read more reviews click here.

Treasure Island

Treasure Island

Our family enjoys games. This game is definitely worth buying. 

"Long John silver's crew has committed mutiny and has him cornered and tied up! round after round, they question him about the location of his treasure and explore the Island following his directions— or perhaps his misdirections? who knows... the old sea dog is surely planning an escape, after all, after which he will definitely try to get his treasure back. Treasure Island is a game of bluffing and adventure in which one player embodies long John, trying to mislead the others in their search for his treasure. The hunt reaches its climax with long John's escape, when he will make a final run to get the booty for himself!"

The 4th of July

Matific Galaxy ~ A Review

Matific Galaxy is an online learning program for grades K-6 that will engage children with math games. Children will learn at their own pace while problem solving through games. 

My incoming 6th grader has been enjoying playing Matific Galaxy on her iPad over the past weeks. She does NOT LIKE MATH and has surprisingly enjoyed playing the various math games as she has leveled up on Matific Galaxy. There are ten levels in the 6th grade pack. Within each level there are levels. You must complete games (lessons) within each section in order to unlock and advance to the next level. Each game earns the student pixels which helps to fill in the character. For example,

Dusty is the first character. 

This is Kai, the second character, in it pixilated form.

Here are more of the characters as the student levels up. 

Math skills taught in the 6th grade level. 

I was impressed with the amount of concepts covered. 

There are 46 skills in total that encompass the 6th grade level.

In this particular game students get to design their own cell phone case. 

They have to mix colors by dividing the various colors using fractions. 

Students are rewarded with a screen full of stars for correct answers. 

Here my daughter is working out the problems on paper.

In the end they have designed their own cell phone case.

Here is another another game example. 

All of the games are very engaging. Students are rewarded visually as well as in written form with words such as, "You can do it my friend." Students can earn trophies and metals for their achievements. Within the Parent Zone you can keep track of your students progress and see exactly how they are performing along the way. The report will give you an Overall Learning Progression where it will show your child's strong skills as well as the skills that they need practice in. It will also show how many activities you child has completed. 

I most definitely would recommend this app. This would be an AWESOME app to download this summer. This is a great way to keep up math skills over the summer. Chances are you children will not even realize that they are doing math. I have been very impressed with the app and will continue to use this app with my daughter throughout the summer and into the upcoming school year. 

Social Media
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To read more reviews click here.

Jump In, 2nd Edition ~ A Review

Over the past weeks my daughter has been writing with Jump In, 2nd Edition from Writing with Sharon Watson. This Middle School Composition course is a two semester course. This course is specifically written for 5-8 grade. There are 98 lessons in the Student Workbook. 

Throughout the year students will learn to write in the following modes:

1. persuasion
2. exposition
3. description
4. narration

To break it down a bit further students will write:

• Opinion
• Persuasion
• Cause and Effect
• A Newspaper Article
• A How-to
• A Report
• A Biography
• Compare and Contrast
• A Book Report
• A Book Response
• Description
• Narration
• Poetry

Many students are overwhelmed when they hear the work WRITING. They assume that it is too hard or that they are just not good at writing. From several of my children having previously worked through the 1st Edition of Jump In, I know that this program works. I was eager to see the changes implemented in the 2nd Edition as well as having my 6th and final kiddo work her way through this edition of Jump In. Some of the changes to the 2nd Edition of Jump In are:

• Students begin writing a persuasive paragraph first
• More practice in writing paragraphs before essays are introduced
• Lessons on writing paragraphs
• For compare and contrast young students will be introduced to Venn diagrams and more advanced students charts
• Student Checklists
• Writing Schedules
• Mistake Medic
• Digital Lessons on how to write work cited pages
• Teacher grading grids
• Writing Prompt Program for Teachers
• DIGITAL VERSION NOW AVAILABLE 

My daughter will be going into the 6th grade this Fall. Jump In was the perfect fit for her. She was able to do most of the work on her own. She was quit reluctant as writing is not something she is very confident in yet. My hope it that by the time she completes the program she will feel much more confident in her writing abilities. I love that the 2nd edition starts out with an opinion paragraph first. Kids definitely have opinions! "Jump In, 2nd Edition begins with persuasion instead of exposition essays because wary students more likely will write to convince someone of something than they will write a report. The research report now comes in the middle of the year." 

Rough Draft/Supporting Sentences for an Opinion Paragraph

What I really liked about the curriculum is that the lessons are broken down into manageable chunks. Lessons are not intimidating for students and do not take more than about 20 minutes a day. The material is written in age appropriate language so that students are able to work independently. Students thoroughly interact within the workbook before they are asked to write a paragraph or essay.  

I had my daughter jump forward to writing a book report after she worked on her opinion section. I thought that over the summer it would be a good idea to write a few book reports after reading some of her summer books. My daughter also loved working on the topic of persuasion, lol. I am sure like most it isn't hard for most kiddos to come up with ideas and words to persuade others. 

The Teacher Guide has schedules for a one-year, two-year, and a three-year plan for maximum flexibility. 

I would definitely recommend Jump In, 2nd Edition to others. 

To read more reviews click here. 

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