An Exciting Offer from Samson's Classroom

Are you looking for some last minute gift ideas for your kids?  My kids love subscriptions as gifts that will last the whole year.  I have a great offer for you from Samson's Classroom:

Give the gift of reading this holiday season… a gift that children will have for the rest of their lives!
 There is nothing adults can do to ensure a successful future for the children in their lives that is more valuable than helping them develop strong reading skills. This holiday season the creators of Samson’s Classroom, a web-based series of games that helps students become better readers, is making it easy to give the gift of reading.
 Between now and December 24, visit www.samsonsclassroom.com and enter the promo code AMAZON12 to purchase a one-year subscription at $15 off (a 50 percent discount on the single-user plan) AND get a $10 amazon.com gift certificate to accompany the subscription!  After placing your order (using the promo code), you will receive an email containing your Amazon gift card plus a printable holiday card to present to the child.  It’s a great way to show children how important reading is and give them the ability to purchase their own books.
 Samson’s Classroom helps children learn to read by playing fun and engaging games that focus on the three core building blocks of reading: sight words, spelling, and reading comprehension. It is widely regarded as the best literacy suite available to reinforce the skills that students need to become great readers and is used by schools in all 50 states and over a dozen countries.
  Tips for encouraging reading in young children You can expose children to reading by:
 ·       Turning on close captioning when they are watching television and ask them about the words on the screen from time to time.
·       Suggesting a trip to a bookstore instead when they are pleading for a trip to the toy store.
·       Encouraging them to explore educational toys and reading-based activities and kits in bookstores and toy stores.
·       Rewarding them with reading-related materials like comics, stickers and bookmarks instead of toys and candy. 

My son has really enjoyed using Samson's Classroom this year.  You can see my review at http://noteablescraps.blogspot.com/2012/10/schoolhouse-review-samsons-classroom.html.

Schoolhouse Review: Samson's Classroom

I've said "just a few" times that my kids love learning with games, and I love using them for teaching!  Samson's Classroom is a fun learning website for early language arts.  While some learning websites have so many games that you wonder if the kids are learning anything, and others are straight learning so that the kids do not perceive them as "fun," in Samson's Classroom, the learning itself is the game.  There is just enough "education" for me, and just enough "fun" for my kids!

Samson the Dog helps kids practice sight words, spelling, and reading.  

In the Sight Words section, your child works through four levels of seven "sight words" lists each.  Each list is learned in five steps.  The first step is simply studying the words on the list.  The student looks at each word, watches it being spelled, listens to the pronunciation and spelling, and listens to a sentence with the word in it.  In any of the study sections on the site, the student may stay on a word as long as he needs, or move forward whenever he is ready, which I really appreciate, because it is difficult to get my son to work on things when they move either too quickly or too slowly for him and he gets frustrated.  In Step 2, the student listens to the word being spelled, then clicks on the proper letters, in order, to spell it himself.  In Step 3, the student identifies the words as they are spoken and used in a sentence.  In Step 4, the student again clicks on letters to spell each word, but this time, the word is used in a sentence but not spelled out loud.  In addition, all the letters in the alphabet are provided as choices, rather than just a few of them.  Step 5 again involves identification of the words, and some choices given are incorrect spellings of that word.  By the time your child finishes all five steps, he or she has mastered that list of sight words and is ready to move onto the next list.  While working through the lists, the student also works through different colors of karate belts, so that when she is done, she will hold a black belt in sight words!

In the Spelling section, the parent/teacher may put in her own lists of spelling words.  If you want to use any spelling words that are not recognized in the program (for instance, I made a list of the books of the New Testament for my daughter to learn to spell, some of which were recognized and some were not), you may request that the words be recognized and submit your list for review.  Again, the first step for the student is to study the words on the list, which may be done on the computer, or there is an option to print the list out.  There are then three games to help the student first fill in missing letters, then collect letters and put them together, and finally spell the whole word on his own.  The games are fun and move fairly quickly to hold interest.  If you are not quick enough, you can be caught in a spider web (that happened to me a lot!) or tackled by a walrus and turned into an ice cube!  Also, you compete against other people in your classroom (or homeschooling family) for the highest scores and Championship Belt.  The parent can also play in order to give some healthy competition!

The final section is Reading.  I had my 4th-grade daughter work through this one so I would be able to review it, as my 2nd-grade son is still working on his Sight Words black belt and the Spelling.  I think he could do the Reading section as well, as he is actually a pretty good reader, but he is working through the games more slowly.  In the Reading section there are four levels.  In each level, you select each passage, read it, then answer the questions about it.  Some are direct questions and some are based on inference.  As someone has pointed out, the reading comprehension section is a great preparation for standardized testing.  Mastering the reading passages earns the student "Hammer Time swings."  The Hammer Time game then awards "Hammer Points," which may be compared against the "Top 5" scoreboard.

Samson's Classroom offers a number of resources to the parent/teacher.  In addition to being able to produce your own spelling lists for the games in the Spelling section, there are articles about literacy and learning, printable awards and certificates to be given to students, included lesson plans, and printable PDF worksheets.  I love the resources for playing Bingo or Sight Words Baseball.  You can see your students' progress and also how many attempts it took them to master the problems from your dashboard.

Samson's Classroom is recommended for children in the K-5th grade reading level.  Sight Words is geared more to the younger end of the age range, while Reading Comprehension is geared more towards the upper end of the range.  I allowed my 4th-grade daughter to skip the Sight Words section, as it would be quite easy for her, and she completed all 4 levels of the Reading Comprehension section in about 2 days.  I can still use the Spelling Section for her throughout the year as a fun way to practice her new spelling list each week, which is a great tool.  Other than that, though, the program is a bit easy for her. It is a fantastic program for my 2nd-grader, who is still working on his Sight Words black belt and the Spelling section.  I believe it will take him the full year to finish the whole program.  As I was sitting here writing the review today, he tried to kick me out of the computer chair so that he could play the game!

I highly recommend Samson's Classroom for kids in the K-3rd grade reading level, and higher if they enjoy these types of games and would like to use them for spelling words and reading comprehension practice.

Here's the basic info:

Product:  Samson's Classroom subscription website (works with Mac or PC)

Website:  http://www.samsonsclassroom.com

Ages:  K-5th grade reading level

Price:  $30/year for one user or $50/year for a family plan (up to 4 students).  There are also school and classroom plans available.

To see what my fellow Crewmates thought of Samson's Classroom, click the banner below.

Disclaimer:  I received a free subscription to Samson's Classroom in exchange for a fair review.  No other compensation was given, and all opinions are my own.

Schoolhouse Review: Reading Kingdom

During the summer, we were not getting up early, keeping a normal school schedule, or working on our normal curriculum, so it was a good time for reviewing things like reading and math drills in a fun and relaxed way in order to improve the kids' skills for the fall.  My six-year-old has been using ReadingKingdom.com.  Developed by Dr. Marion Blank, Director of the Light on Learning Program at Columbia University and one of the world's top experts in reading, this online subscription program may be used as a drilling or practice program to supplement whatever curriculum you are using.  It distinguishes itself from other programs by using Dr. Blank's patented six skills method for reading success. These skills include sequencing, motor skills, phonics (phonemic awareness), meaning, grammar and reading comprehension.  It is designed to be a fun, game-like drill program that pre-K through 3rd-graders will enjoy using to learn to read.

The program has bright, fun graphics, and it may work well for you if you have a student who is beginning to read up through a 3rd-grade reading level who types fairly well on a physical keyboard or an on-screen keyboard and who is motivated by computer learning programs.  The on-screen keyboard option in the program is a nice feature for early computer-users or for anyone who would like to use the program on a tablet or iPad.

Unfortunately, the program was not a good fit for my son.  He is already a fair reader, but he has hunt-and-peck typing skills at his ripe old age of 6.  He was not able to type some words and sentences in the time allotted, and so the skills survey threw him back to a much earlier reading level, at which point he was very bored with the lessons.  I must emphasize at this point that Reading Kingdom's customer service had a quick response time and was VERY helpful.  They moved his reading skill level up and explained to me how to go into the settings and increase the response time he was allowed.  They also directed me to more exercises for typing skills.  My son's typing skills are adequate for other reading programs that he's done, and he was quickly bored by the typing exercises.  Moving his skill level up and increasing the allowed response time was helpful, but it was not enough.  The program seemed to have excessively long pauses in some areas, and then speed through others.  Some directions were clearly stated, and others were not.  My son would, for instance, not know to hit the "space" bar in a particular place and would type the first letter of the next word instead.  Once the program had moved on to the next place because his time had elapsed or he had hit the wrong key, there was no way to go back and correct the mistake.  Being a hyper-perfectionist, he became extremely frustrated.  Meanwhile, even at the higher level, he was still frustrated and bored by the excessive repetition he experienced with one word at a time, but then the program would launch through entire sentences, and then go back to repetition of one word.  We worked on the program for several weeks, but I think that because of his energy level, frustration with sitting still, and general impatience with the program, it is not a good choice for him.  This is not a general frustration with any computer program that requires him to sit still, as some do work for him, but the combination of factors with this program is problematic.  

Reading Kingdom may work well if you have a child who enjoys working on the computer and is patient with various speeds in programs, and the customer service for the program really is excellent.

You may try Reading Kingdom free for 30 days to see if it is a good fit for your child.  To learn more about the patented six skills method, click here. 

To find out more about whether Reading Kingdom will work for you, explore the following information:

Product:  Reading Kingdom online subscription website

Website:  http://www.readingkingdom.com

Ages: Age 4 through 3rd Grade Reading Level

Price:  When you sign up for the Reading Kingdom, you receive a free 30 day trial. After that, subscriptions to Reading Kingdom are $19.99/month (with no monthly minimum), or $199.99 per year (20% off). Additional children in your account get 50% off ($9.99/month or $99.99/year). You can cancel your subscriptions at any time.  Contact the vendor for information on volume licensing discounts.  If you cannot afford to pay for the program, you may apply for a scholarship that will allow your child to use the program for free.

Sign up for your 30-day trial here.

Read what my fellow Schoolhouse Crewmates had to say about Reading Kingdom by clicking the banner below.

Disclaimer:  I received a free subscription to ReadingKingdom.com in exchange for a fair review.  No other compensation was received, and all opinions are my own.

TOS Review: Little Books from Academic Success for All Learners

One of the most daunting tasks we face as homeschooling parents is teaching our children to read.  I have alluded to this in other reviews.  A child who is a good reader will be able to work independently and excel in many subjects.  But what if you have no training in education whatsoever, and you know how to read well yourself, but you have no idea how to teach that to your child?  What if you never learned phonics as a kid, and the 1st Grade workbooks look like Greek to you with all of their symbols for various sounds?

Academic Success for All Learners has one good solution - the "I See Sam" Little Books sets.

Before beginning the Little Books series, we were given a placement test to see where our child would best fit in the series.  The child's lesson plan can then be customized to his needs.  This was helpful, since my 6-year-old is already reading and would be bored if we started at the beginning with the kindergarten readers.  He was placed in Set 4, which is just about right for his level.  The company sent me Sets 4 and 5, along with a simple set of "Instructor Guidelines."  I have heard several homeschooling parents say that it was difficult to teach phonics because they did not learn to read that way themselves as children.  The Instructor Guidelines did a very good job of explaining the phonics symbols used, how to sound out words with your child, how many mistakes are acceptable in the mastery of each book, and how to correct mistakes.  If you already read this way with your child, you will be ready to begin; however, if you have struggled with teaching phonics, this guide will be helpful.

Each Little Book begins with "Sound Practice," where you may review several sounds with your child, and then it introduces one "New Sound" to be used in that booklet.  Next is "Word Practice" with words that contain those sounds and that will be used in the booklet, and several "New Words".  After that is the story.  You may let your child read as much as he can on his own, and help him sound out words that are difficult.  Read each book for several days until it is mastered, and then move onto the next.  Small print at the bottom of some pages gives discussion questions to ask as you go through the book, so that your child is developing comprehension skills while sounding out the words.  After the story is a "Looking Back" page, where your child may review sentences from this story or a previous one, to make sure he is retaining the information.  Finally, there is a "Coming Attractions" page, with a preview of one or more words or sounds that will be used in the next book.

As your child finishes each Little Book, he or she may color in one drawing on the Learner's Chart, and when the set is completed, there is a Certificate.

I like the layout of these books and the way each book builds on those that have been done before.  They do a good job of introducing sounds and words, practicing them in a story, and then reviewing them before moving on.  I have always found that my children learn reading better by jumping in and reading actual stories rather than by studying word lists.  This method also helps them to develop comprehension skills early, as some children tend to sound out words well but never pay attention to what they are reading unless they are asked questions.

I also like the reward philosophy behind the method.  The Instructor's Guide lists the methods for keeping the learner interested:

1.  The Stories.  The Reading for All Learners stories are interesting and highly motivating.  Consistently, we have found that children like the stories.

Well, my 6-year-old may be a hard sell on this one.  I think my other three children may have enjoyed these stories more when they were his age, but to be honest, it takes quite a story to hold his attention.  He enjoys reading, but he's not the sit-down-at-the-desk-and-master-the-book kind of kid.  He's more of the wouldn't-it-be-fun-to-blow-up-my-brother's-science-project kind of kid.  He was somewhat bored by these stories, which was the only downside, but he is still advancing through the sets.

2.  Your approval.  A smilie face with the word "Praise" under it is periodically located at the bottom of the pages in the story.  These are to help remind you to praise the learner for good reading.

Very good reminder.  Verbal praise is one of the best motivators for almost any child, and this motivation does help my son.

3.  Showing Success.  The Learner's Chart provides a visual picture of the learner's accomplishment. . . . Each time the learner completes a book, the learner should fill in the chart.  This rewards the learner for completing each book and gives the learner a sense of accomplishment.

Yes.  Rewards.  My 6-year-old likes rewards.  When we first started the new set of books, he picked up the chart, looking somewhat interested.  "So I get to color a fish each time I read one of those books?"  I nodded.  "Do I get to color the octopus at the bottom after I color all of the fish?"  Absolutely.  Coloring sea creatures appealed to him, but he still looked doubtful.

"I'll tell you what," I said.  "When you finish reading all 14 books in a set, color all the fish, and color the octopus, I'll give you a dollar."

Now I was speaking his language.

"Let's read, Mom!"

The Little Books series includes 141 colored coded readers. There are 8 sets of books from Kindergarten to a third grade reading level. Each story includes comprehension questions to use. They include inferential and evaluative questions as well as basic literal ones.  Each set is $30.  Academic Success for All Learners also carries other carefully researched materials for teaching reading, math, and even behavior concepts.  Find more information at http://www.iseesam.com.

The customer service is another plus at Academic Success for All Learners.  I did not have any problems or a need to contact them, but I received a very nice letter encouraging me to contact them at any time.  They are very encouraging and seem eager to help.  There are free resources available on the website, as well as a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.

If you are looking for an early reader program with a good succession of books to teach phonics, reading, and comprehension, and a reward component, I would recommend trying the "I See Sam" Little Books.

Other TOS Reviewers reviewed various level sets of the Little Books.  To see their opinions, click here.

Disclaimer:  I received two free sets of Little Books from Academic Success for All Learners in exchange for a fair review.  No other compensation was received, and all opinions are my own.

TOS Review: The Reading Game

This month, we were given the great privilege of reviewing The Reading Game, created by “Wordly Wise” author, Kenneth Hodkinson.  The Reading Game includes six illustrated storybooks and six sets of flashcards which correspond to the storybooks.  The flashcards are used to play a memory game between the student who is learning to read and the parent, teacher, or older student who is already able to read.  As the student plays the game, he or she quickly learns the words on the flashcards.  Once he learns one set, he moves to the next, until he has all the sight words for the first book learned.  Then he can read the first book.  After that, he proceeds to play the game with the memory cards for the second book, and so on.  By the end of the sixth book, he will have a reading vocabulary of 180 words, almost half of which are among the one hundred most commonly used words in the English language!

This is one of those tools that I wish I had discovered years ago to use with my first child when I was teaching him to read!  My youngest son strongly dislikes workbooks and flashcards, and he definitely learns best through games.  Whereas he is completely bored by repeating his sightwords flashcards, he loves the fast-paced memory game using cards that are almost identical to the boring ones (he especially loves it when he wins)!  I like the fact that there are no pictures on the word side of the flashcards to help him figure out the words, so he really has to learn which words use which letters.  (The animal picture on the back of the cards shows to which animal story they correspond.)  I love that he is able to learn so much so quickly through playing the game, and that he gets the immediate reward of being able to read a whole book at the end of each game.  The only thing I didn't like is that the books do not use capital letters (except for the word "I") or punctuation.  The author explains this in the instructions to the game, saying that he prefers to let the students learn the words first without worrying about things like capitalization and punctuation yet.  I believe that children learn things like correct grammar and mechanics best by reading books that use them correctly.  They just get used to seeing periods, question marks, and commas in the right places, so that they are often using these things correctly even before they learn the grammar lesson.  That small difference of opinion, however, did not diminish our enjoyment of this game.  My 6-year-old can play for hours, and then enjoys reading his new books to anyone who will listen!  His reading has improved dramatically in the couple of weeks since we have received this game.

The Reading Game is geared toward lower elementary students and is suitable for any child who is learning to read.  My older children, who are all good readers, enjoyed playing "tutor" and playing this game with their little brother.  I believe an older struggling reader could even benefit from playing this game in a "tutor" role with a younger sibling, strengthening her own reading ability and building her self-confidence.  More information about the game can be found at http://www.thereadinggame.com/index.html, where you may also purchase it for $24.95.

I highly recommend The Reading Game for anyone who has children who are learning how to read.  To see what other TOS Crew members thought of this game, click here.

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of The Reading Game for the purpose of a fair review.  No other compensation was given, and all opinions are my own.

Riding the Blog Trains

Oh, I just love the first day of the month!  Blog trains, scrapbooking store newsletters, new kits from clubs, it's like Christmas in Digi-Scrapping World! :)  How I would love to spend the whole day opening all my "gifts" and scrapping away with my free downloads, but alas, I have a house that needs cleaned and children who actually expect to be fed.  But I have enjoyed a few hours here with a cup of coffee and all my new downloads.  Here's a LO I made with Sprouting Seeds Studio's Blog Train contribution for Stuff to Scrap's "Read All About It" Blog Train.

Boy, have I got a plethora of "school" pictures I can scrap with all the goodies I downloaded from this Blog Train!  Here's a QP for you from the above page.  Click preview to download.  P/U only.

If you haven't taken a ride on the Blog Train yet, jump on at Sprouting Seeds Studio to download this portion of the kit. 

No Foolin', have a Happy April!  :)