Samson's Classroom {Review}

 

 

 

When ever my boys get a chance to play on the computer they are happy!  When I can find educational games that they enjoy then I am happy, happy, happy! 

Recently, we were given a Family Subscription for Samson's Classroom.  Samson's Classroom is an online education software for children K-5th grade. 

The Samson's Classroom software consists of 3 games:

Sight Words with Samson -  A wonderful learning game for beginning readers.  Sight Words with Samson teaches and helps students to master 224 of the most commonly used words in the English language.  There are 4 Levels and 28 Lessons total in this game. 

 

Sight Words with Samson follows a 5 step process to help children to master sight words.  The students learn the words, they build the words, identify the words, take a quiz and finally they take the treasure hunt challenge.  Samson walks through the challenges with the kids, encouraging and entertaining them

Also included for educators to print out are worksheets, flashcards and bingo sheets to help reinforce what the students are learning online.  They even have award certificates for the kids when they finish complete each level.


Spelling with Samson - A customizable software that currently has more than 7,000 words to choose from.  You can actually use words from your students current spelling curriculum. 

Children learn there words in the Learning Zone, fill in the missing letters in the Karate Chop Challenge, they battle with Terrance the Tarantula in the Spelling Scramble Challenge, last they take the Crunch Time Quiz. 

 

 

Reading with Samson - This is the reading comprehension portion of the software. Children read a passage and then are asked questions about the main idea, sequencing and more.  Kids love this part of the game because the more answers that they get correct gives them more time to play at the carnival!

 

 

 

Samson's Classroom is a great supplemental educational software for students K-5th grade. These games are not only educational, they are loads of fun!  The kids are learning, but to them they are just having fun.  We will definitely continue with Samson's Classroom!

I liked that this software did all the tracking of each students process.  It is very easy to check to see where they students are excelling and where they are struggling.  I feel like this prgram is very easy to use and teacher/homeschool mom friendly.  I also feel like it is well worth the cost. 

There are several different pricing plans available:

Home - 1 User for $30/ year
Family - up to 4 users for $50/year
(there are also several pricing plans available for schools)

I am not the only Samson's Classroom fan. 

Check out all the other great things that other TOS Crew members are saying!

 

 

 

Disclaimer: We recieved a family subscription to Samson's Classroom at no cost to us in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Vocabulary Spelling City {TOS Crew}

My kids seem to enjoy the challenge of getting new spelling and vocabulary words every week or so, but workbooks and flashcards can definitely be boorrinngg.  So, we were very thankful to get to review Vocabulary Spelling City for a second time. 

We reviewed it for the TOS Crew last year, which you can read about here. 

Even after our review period was over, from the first review, my kids still enjoyed playing learning their spelling words with Vocabulary Spelling City.  To me, that says a lot!  While they did enjoy it, with out the premium membership I had to enter their spelling list every time they wanted to play.  Since it was pretty time consuming, we didn't play much. 

You can get a free membership with Vocabulary Spelling City, which is a great way to try before you buy, but it surely does not come with all the great perks of a premium membership, like:

Individual Student Logins - this saves the student's assignments as well as the spelling lists (one of my favorite features).  Having these assignments saved is great for end of the year reviews. 

Premium Learning Games and Features - With the free membership you do get several cool features but with the Premium Membership you get more games and features like....

As you can see, there are lots of extra goodies with the Premium Membership, which is available for $29.99 for up to 5 children.  The Premium Membership is good for 12 months. 

My kids really do love the interactive games on Vocabulary Spelling City.  I think their favorite so far is Hang Mouse, which is a twist on the old favorite Hang Man.   I am pretty sure that Vocabulary Spelling City will be something that we continue to use for years to come. 

You can read what other members of the TOS Crew are saying about Vocabulary Spelling City here.

TOS Crew: Scruble Cube Review

We were given the opportunity to review the Scruble Cube for the TOS Crew, which is 3D word game that is a cross between a Rubik Cube and a Scrabble board game.  See, check it out...





This is a educational and fast paced game that is recommended for kids 8 years old and up.  According to the makers of Scruble Cube, "If you can spell C-A-T then you can play! " The Hubs was in charge of reviewing this game with the kids (I am not a cross wordy, Rubik cube kinda girl). 

I think they struggled at first with the Scruble Cube thinking that after one player built a word, the next player had to build on it, which is not the case.  You can build on another players word but it is not necessary to play.  It is quite easy to form words as you can make a totally new word or add one or more letters to an existing word to make a new word.  We soon learned that you simply make words while racking up points at the same time, each letter is given a point value.  The bigger the words the more points you earn.  The people with most points wins the game!

We liked that this game is pretty versatile and 1 to 4 players can play at one time.  You can make the rules easy or more challenging.  You can play with or with out the included timer.  You can have a three letter word minimum or four to make it more difficult.  They have even included "wild cards" to make any letter you want.

Scruble Cube even has several other options for play on their website that offer even more educational value, like sentence building.  I think it would be great to have kids try to spell out some of their spelling list words to spice up spelling. 

As a mom, I love that it is educational.  I also like that this is a simple game, in other words there aren't 37 pieces that I have to track of.  You have the cube, a sand timer, a rubber band and a pad of score cards.  One other bonus, is that when your 3 year old is so excited about this new game you have bought that he rips the box open in excitement, all the contents will fit perfectly in a Ziploc bag : )

We aren't the only ones that think the Scruble Cube is great, it received the Dr. Toys Best Pick for New Products as well as the Creative Toy Award for 2010 from Creative Child Magazine.

Scruble Cube would make a great gift for kids, adults and even teachers.  It can be purchased directly from Scruble Cube for $24.95.


We were given the Scruble Cube free of charge for review purposes only.  We were not paid in any way and the opinions expressed here are my own.

TOS Crew: Wordy Querty

The year is coming to a close for us, so it was nice to take a break from our regular spelling lessons to try out Wordy Querty for the TOS Crew.

Wordy Querty is an online computer program that teaches spelling and reading.  It was created by Talking Fingers, the same folks that created Read, Write and Type.  Wordy Querty is actually the sequel to Read, Write and Type, but can be used on it's own.  Wordy Querty was created to take children to the next level, after learning how to read, write and type new words in the first program, Wordy Querty teaches them how to spell them correctly.

Wordy Querty is intended for children in 2nd to 3rd grade.  The purpose of Word Querty is to improve phonetic skills and help children learn how words are constructed, which actually helps them when they are reading and writing.

The Wordy Qwerty program has 20 lessons, with six activities per lesson.  According to the Talking Fingers website, the following foundations are taught with in the program:

1. Some sounds can be represented in several different ways.
2. Most words follow about 20 easy spelling rules.
3. There are many word families, (words that sound the same, or rhyme). By changing the first letter(s), you can make hundreds of words.
4. Some words are "outlaws". They don't follow the rules. They must be recognized quickly and automatically.
5. Writing to dictation develops vocabulary, comprehension and fluency as well as spelling skills.
6. Reading (and filling in missing words) develops vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency skills.

 The 20 lessons in Wordy Querty teach the following Spelling Rules:

1. Silent E
2. Sounds of C
3. Sounds of G
4. J or DGE
5. W or WH
6. C or K
7. CK or K
8. CKS or X
9. CH or TCH
10. LL, SS, FF, ZZ
11. OI or OY
12. VE Words

13. Open Syllables
14. Double Consonants
15. Doubling rule
16. ER, IR, OR, UR, EAR
17. I Before E
18. Plurals: Add ES
19. Plurals: Y to IES
20. Plurals: F to VES

I thought that hte program was pretty impressive.  I had Computer Girl (2nd grade/7 yrs old) using the Wordy Querty, and she really enjoyed it.  One thing that I thought was pretty funny was that with Wordy Querty and Read, Write and Type the Lil' Chef wanted to get in on the action.  She enjoyed playing the games just as much as Computer Girl.  I thought it was a great idea because it was kinda like a refresher course for the spelling rules that she has already learned.

We have enjoyed both programs and I do recommend them.  I can't at this point say that I would rely solely on these programs for phonics and spelling BUT they definitely make WONDERFUL supplements.

Let me tell you how you can get Wordy Querty and Read, Write and Type for your very own.  You have a few options that you can choose from.
-  You can purchase a 5 year Online Home Subscription for up to five users, the price ranges from $25.00 to $100.  
- The second option is to purchase the CD editions.  Read, Write and Type costs $79.00 and Wordy Querty costs $35.00.
- The last option, which I think is the most economical, is the K-4 Reading Bundle for $99.00.  Here is what is included:

• 1 READ, WRITE & TYPE program CD
• 1 SPACESHIP CHALLENGE program CD
• 1 WORDY QWERTY program CD
• 1 JINGLESPELLS audio CD
• 1 Activity Binder
• 1 set of Reward Stickers
• 1 Practice Keyboard
• One 24" x 36" Poster

Please take a minute to check out what others on the TOS Crew are saying about Wordy Querty HERE.  

We were given an online subscription to the Wordy Querty program at no cost to us.  Please know that we were not influenced by the free product and that the opinions stated here are my own.