MaxScholar: A Reading Intervention Program Review

There can be all kinds of levels and grade expectations in our society, but sometimes we are just going to struggle.  Things like Dyslexia, ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, Autism and just any learning difficulty are factors in many children's learning.  MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs were designed with those children in mind.   MaxScholar is a comprehensive, multi-sensory, reading and language-based program that is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach, the Lindamood-Bell Process and other research-based methods.  For this review, we received a one-year license for two students to the K-2 programs, MaxPhonics and MaxReading.

What is Included:

MaxPhonics includes multi-sensory activities like videos with songs and correct pronunciation, handwriting practice and drills for individual letters, blends and digraphs.  MaxReading includes 13 levels of reading passages, comprehension questions, vocabulary in context and introducing highlighting, summarizing and outlining the texts.

What Worked and What Didn't:

At first glance I intended for Miss Z (almost 3) to start playing around with MaxPhonics because she begs to learn about letters all the time.  Unfortunately, it did not hold her attention very long, but instead became frustrated because she wanted to 'do' something else.  She is a hands-on gal and the only hands-on element that was relevant to her age was handwriting, but still a bit beyond her.  Ultimately, I made a wrong judgement call in her readiness for this program.  It is designed for older kids and would be best suited to address a specific need or skill.  If J had struggles with phonics or certain blends, this program would be ideal for that.  He enjoyed going through some of the activities mostly because he knew it already.  As it turns out phonics are one of his natural strengths.

J instead spent most of his time on MaxReading. He has just started reading books on his own which put him at level K.  In addition to reading practice, what this program helped him with was attention to details.  He is an active, action loving kid that will overlook the (subjective) unnecessary information.  The reading prep would begin with a picture that you would later be asked questions about, requiring you to have paid attention to details in the picture.  He was frustrated at first, but took to it better once he understood what it was looking for.  One thing that we didn't love was that since he didn't make it past the K level yet, the program wouldn't allow him access to the games yet.  I'm sure they were just beyond his level, but his personality likes the variety of games mixed in.

Who Should Buy This:  If your child or student is struggling with phonics or reading, this is a great option!  If your child needs a more guided approach to comprehension, the highlighting and outlining portion of MaxReading is a great tool.  The slower pace and repetitions of both programs provide the best opportunity to fill in the specific gaps in someone's struggling education.

Keep up with MaxScholar on Social Media: 

   

    Facebook: MaxScholar, https://www.facebook.com/MaxScholarLLC/?fref=nf

    Twitter: @MaxScholarLLC, https://twitter.com/MaxScholarLLC

    Pintrest: MaxScholar LLC, https://www.pinterest.com/MaxScholarLLC/

    Google+: MaxScholar, https://plus.google.com/+Maxscholar/posts

    LinkedIn: MaxScholar, https://www.linkedin.com/company/2884620

    YouTube: MaxScholar LLC, https://www.youtube.com/user/MaxScholarLLC

Check out what other Crew Members thought about MaxScholar:

Adventures In Arkansas, Part 2

On Friday morning, we hiked the Devil's Den Trail and racked up some steps for sure!  It was cool and beautiful - perfect day for a hike.

By the end, both of the kids had acquired walking sticks and felt to be quite the hiking experts.  From there we drove over to Petit Jean State Park where we stayed at their lodge for the night.  The view out the back of the lodge was gorgeous (as you can see in the first picture below).

We ate at the lodge's restaurant, which was good and had a fabulous view too, and then stopped by Cedar Falls Overlook before we headed to watch the sunset and visit with a park ranger.

Saturday morning we packed up and hiked the Cedar Falls Trail, which turned out to be more challenging for the kids than we expected, but they did awesome!  And the views were worth it.

 

Saturday afternoon we headed over to some old friends house where they blessed us so much by our visit.  Sunday morning the kids helped with breakfast before we joined them for worship in Little Rock.  

After lunch, we headed home and this pretty much sums up everything else. :)

Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 Review

For many of you, school has just let out and Summer Break has begun.  That means Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 from The Old Schoolhouse is just in time for a new academic year!  Although a school year looks different for every homeschooling family, we all need some kind of planning method to fight the madness.  Even before I was in charge of anyone else's education, I always struggled to find a planner that met my needs and made me smile.  When I was given the chance to review a planner specifically designed for the homeschooling mama, I knew it was worth a try!

What I noticed first about the planner was its size.  It is a spiral bound notebook less than a 1/2 inch thick - thin enough to fit in most bags or medium to large sized purses, but big enough to write out ideas with comfort.  Especially for multi-student planning, those pocket-size planners just don't do the trick.  As you can see in the picture, Hey Mama! is just enough in all manners of size.    

This planner runs from July 2016 to June 2017 and perfect for those looking ahead to another school year starting in the fall.  Since we school year round, the dates of a planner aren't all that important as long as you have unmarked weekly planning pages and have the option to photocopy extras when needed:

There are 12 monthly calendars that begin with a "Hey Mama," devotional and monthly notes.  After that begin the 36 weekly planning pages with more "Hey Mama," devotionals throughout. The last section of the planner includes a host of planning resources and options including monthly, semester and yearly goals, attendance charts, reading logs, curriculum planning pages and reference pages for writing, historical dates, presidents, capitals, and a resource on creating academic transcripts.  It's a great collection of things that are useful for a variety of ages and purposes.

Honestly, there are a zillion different planners or apps to keep up with your stuff.  I've attempted to use many along the way and now that this homeschooling thing is really moving along, I'm learning (out of necessity) what is really useful and important to me and what is not.  Writing things out - from plans to just ideas - is ten times more effective than typing them into a device.  It may not be hip to say so, but there is something about pen to paper that helps my brain process better.  Keeping our goals, collectively and individually, in mind improves my attitude and thus the school days.  This Hey Mama! planner encourages me to be a better, more well thought out planner myself.  I need more things like that in my life.  If you decide to order one of these planners before July 15th, you can get $10 off a with the code: CREWCODE

Keep up with all the great things The Old Schoolhouse is doing through social media:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/theoldschoolhouse/?fref=ts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosmagazine/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TOSMag  @TOSMag

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Theoldschoolhouse1

Check out what other members of the Crew had to say about this planner:

Essential Skills Advantage: A Learning Platform Review

One of the biggest concerns as a parent is whether or not our child is learning what they need to know.  It is often that we second guess ourselves and/or their teachers about missing something in their education or worry about what they are losing over the summer.  For the past several weeks we were given the opportunity to review the Complete Home Learning Suite from Essential Skills Advantage.  The best way to calm the concern of holes in their learning that I have found is to line the walls with varying resources.  That way, whatever you didn't think of, surely someone else did, right?ESA provides a huge resource that can fill in gaps and keep skills fresh all summer.

ESA's Complete Home Learning Suite includes Reading, Spelling, Language & Grammar, Math, Science, & Geography for grades K-6.  For every subject and grade level there are multiple skills to practice and multiple activities to do so.  In the math section alone (for 1st grade) we didn't even get to all the categories of activities, like Probability and Data Management, because there were so many options! We really appreciated this because it falls in line with our diversified approach to learning - multiple ways to learn and reinforce concepts.  ESA has done a good job considering the needs of every type of learner.  

The program has several purchase options that include monthly and yearly for single or multiple students.  For our review we generously received the year subscription for one student.  Since each student has access to all grade levels, they can advance to the next level on anything whenever they choose.  I love that! J, my 5 year old who is hovering around 1st grade for most skills, enjoyed being able to switch to Kindergarten level on any subject at any time, if only to build confidence. 

In addition to various learning activities, you are able to track progress on every activity including highest score, average score, number of attempts and time spent.  This is even more valuable with more than one student to keep up with! As parent/teacher, you are allowed to determine their grade and print a certificate of completion for each unit and detailed report cards!

It is really important to our family that the majority of curriculum and education happens away from a screen and make a point not to rely very heavily on online education.  Our experience with this program definitely put ESA on the short list of preferred options, despite it being online, because it was so versatile and appealing on many levels.  Something to keep in mind when considering this for your students is that, at least in Kindergarten and 1st grade where we spent most of our time, there wasn't any instruction for new concepts, only activities to practice and progress.  For our purposes, that wasn't a problem at all because we used it as a supplement and gap filler.  If you are looking for a complete curriculum to take the place of instruction, this would not be it by itself.

Especially as most schools are breaking for summer around here, Essential Skills Advantage could be a great option to try for a few months to keep everyone on track!  Keep up with Essential Skills Advantage on social media and read what other crew members had to say below!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skillsadvantage/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkillsAdvantage @SkillsAdvantage
Google+:https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BuyESA/posts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skillsadvantage
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/SkillsAdvantage

Blog: https://learnwithesa.com/blog/