Perfect Reading & Beautiful Handwriting: An Everyday Education 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.

Learning to read and write is a very beautiful thing.  It comes with tears and arguments for sure, but once it starts to click, those bright eyes of knowledge are simply beautiful.  As with anything, there are all types of reading and writing programs. Some have lots of bells and whistles while others are very minimalist.  Now that two of my three children are readers and I see my 3 year old bending toward it, I have a greater appreciation for the minimalist approach.  Today we are reviewing just such a program - the Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting ebook from Everyday Education, LLC. 

What We Received:
We received access to a single download of the Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting ebook: The Intelligent Parent's Complete Step-by-Step Program for Teaching Any Child How to Read in 60 Days!  This is a 218 page ebook that teaches children how to read while providing a model for handwriting that is simple yet beautiful.  As a digital file, it is reproducible and useful for multiple children or repeated practice. The first five chapters include 60 reading lessons with handwriting practice.  Chapter 6 focuses deeper on handwriting.

How It Works:
As is stated in the beginning of this book, you can use Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting in at least four different ways:

• To Teach Young Children How to Read and Write
• To Teach Children With Reading Difficulties to Read Effectively
• To Teach Children To Have Fast, Legible, Attractive Handwriting
• To Teach Yourself Beautiful Handwriting

If your child is new to reading then starting at the beginning is ideal. Each lesson focuses on a collection of words that share a similar sound or grouping.  Typically there is a reading page and then one or two handwriting practice pages.  While some fast paced students could theoretically do one lesson per day, it is not really recommended that way.  In the Charlotte Mason tradition, short lessons are found to be more effective and these lessons are great for revisiting as long as is necessary.

If handwriting is your main focus for this program, the practicing pages are conveniently separated from the instruction pages so that you aren't forced to print unnecessary portions.  As the handwriting progresses, it delves further into calligraphy ideas which is great for all ages.  It discusses slanted lettering, joining letters, edged pens, etc. Learning to slant your letters is something I have always been able to do, but I honestly have never thought very much about it.  Along with a uniquely lined handwriting practice pages, this program plainly and simply provides a beautiful framework for enhancing your own writing abilities. 

How We Used It:

My 6 year old daughter is an avid reader so we had no need for that portion, but her handwriting still needs a lot of practice.  I printed the handwriting practice pages without the instruction pages in order for her to practice.  While reading is not something she struggles with, it was so fun to watch her read the silly sentences and get so tickled by it that she ran and showed her brother on multiple occasions.  "Yell at a pig, have a big fig. Pet a fox, kiss an ox. A big black blob is on a block."

What We Thought: 
This program is very flexible to suit all levels of learning.  It is comprehensive, but easily split apart as needed.  The reading aspect is minimal, basic and adaptable to any situation. The font used is very accurate to actual handwriting that is clean and clear, but easily shifts into joining letters eventually.  The goofy sentences are fun and effective for children learning to read (and beyond) and my kids cracked up at them!  In my experience, learning to read doesn't require a lot of bells and whistles, but consistent instruction and lots of being reading time together.  This program has it down to a fine art all while combining handwriting instruction too.  I highly recommend this for new readers and writers!

Follow Everyday Education on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janicepcampbell & https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinlit/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EverydayEdu & https://twitter.com/JaniceCampbell Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcwords/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.mx/janicecampbell

Do you have a brand new reader or a special needs student?  Check out the other reviews to see other perspectives on this product!

Easy Peasy Cursive: A Channie's Workbook Review

Handwriting can be a sore subject sometimes.  To kids it can feel so tedious.  Parents and teachers are continually debating the validity of learning cursive.  Especially when it might take your child an excruciating long time to finish a simple sentence or paragraph, it could be tempting to toss the whole subject.  J is somewhere in the middle on the subject.  He doesn't love handwriting for handwriting sake and can complain about it a lot, BUT he's always been very interested in cursive handwriting.  Since new stuff (books, curriculum, etc.) is always motivating to J, the Easy Peasy Cursive Workbook from Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks looked like a great way to light a new fire in his handwriting.

Channie's was born from a mother filling a need in her son's education with a visual guide for handwriting.  Her son's teacher noted that many other students could benefit from the sheets she was creating for her son and so she decided to share with the world!  Typical handwriting sheets are just dotted lines - usually one example only - and a lot is expected from little brains to visually remember what it looks like before really learning what it feels like to write the different symbols.  Even noting the difference (in location) between uppercase and lowercase is usually a big challenge, but these workbooks shade in the area for lowercase making it very easy to follow.  In addition to cursive, Channie's also offers workbooks for print handwriting for preschoolers and up, sight word practice books, and a whole set of math workbooks too.

One of the big things with handwriting that we struggle with is getting overwhelmed.  This workbook contained 3 pages for each letter - 2 tracing and 1 on your own.  There was plenty of work that it made sense to break it up.  In his mind, completing 1 or 2 rows at a time was much easier than a whole page.  Having it all contained in a workbook was much more convenient than lone sheets of paper scattered around.  However, if you prefer single sheets, all the pages were able to be torn out if necessary, like a typical pad of paper.

Over the review period, there were many instances when he would experiment and try writing out  words on his own.  Without me even asking to evaluate, he provided me a chance to see how his writing was improving and he was retaining the cursive lettering.

If handwriting or managing visual spaces on paper is a struggle in your house, Channie's Visual Handwriting and Math Workbooks is a great place to start.  They are versatile, cheap, and effective! 

Keep up with Channie's on Social Media for their Latest Releases:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/channiesworkbook  Tag:   @channiesworkbook     

Homeschool Copywork Review: More Than Just Handwriting Practice

From the very beginning of our lives, we learn what we see.  When our children see what others do, they attempt to imitate it.  Whether you have a good example or a poor one, we still work to create our own version.  A great way to ensure success in our children is to make sure they see others succeeding around them.  A child learning to play the piano should hear great pianists play!  You wouldn't expect a chef who had never had great food to be very good at his job.  The elements involved in handwriting, like spelling, punctuation, and even reading comprehension, are treated in the same way at Homeschool Copywork with the added benefit of memorization options as well. They provide a number of significant poems, hymns, and stories to use in handwriting practice and general copy work in ebook form ready to download and save for multiple uses.  This surrounds your students with meaningful literature and significant words while also training their hands and discerning eyes to write and communicate well.  This is an especially great asset to those using a Charlotte Mason or Classical education model.

For this review we received a Lifetime Membership to Homeschool Copywork which gave us access to all of their downloadable products.  Since my son is learning to read, his handwriting is certainly in progress so we mainly focused on Animal Alphabet Copywork pages first and then moved onto Transportation Copywork, both of which are good for PreK, Kindergarten and 1st grade students.  In both collections, each page had a word or phrase to copy and a corresponding illustration for coloring.  I really appreciated that several words were less trivial or mundane, and a few even included the definition if it was a particularly uncommon word like nimbus and lorry.  My son really enjoys his coloring lately and the illustrations are like those from coloring books.  More than once he asked if he could skip the writing part and just color the picture!  I chose to print out the entire collection of pages at one time so he could access them himself easily as we're getting started in the morning.  It turned out to be a nice warm-up for school activities.

With my son being young and even dragging his feet at times, you might wonder if this kind of thing is worthwhile until he is older and able to stick with some of the more literary collections like works of Lewis Carroll or Emily Dickinson.  Something I've discovered about our family is how heavy we lean to gradual learning.  Small amounts of something most every day over time results in solid learning and improvement.  Beginning simple copy work like this now is setting the stage for an easy transition into the great masterpieces later.  Some of the other products available come from all manner of subjects including artist studies, scriptures, poetry, great quotes from composers, presidents, and authors, holiday themed pages, coloring books and even themed blank notebooking pages for when you have a customized assignment.  In some selections from the upper elementary and junior high section there are cursive options as well as regular print.  If you think Homeschool Copywork might be a good fit for you, keep in mind there are three separate membership levels: Free Membership (includes only free products), One Year Full Membership ($29.95), and Lifetime Membership ($45).  If you expect to use these products for longer than a year or with multiple children and you would like more than what the free level offers, the Lifetime Membership really is the best deal because you will always have access to everything.  And finally, here are some more products they offer:

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