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.

Crossbow Education {Review}

My younger daughter and I both seem to struggle a bit when we read.  We can get a little distracted and lose focus sometimes.  When I heard about the Eye Level Reading Rulers from Crossbow's Education, that were made to help with some of these very same issues, I was excited to give them a try.

The Reading Rulers are designed to help readers that struggle with dyslexia and visual stress. 

We received 10 of these wonderful Reading Rulers in a variety of colors.  Each Reading Ruler is made of durable, color tinted plastic.  The colored area is used to underline and high light the text that you are reading.  One side is 1/2" wide for single lines, and the other is 1 1/4" wide for paragraphs.  We prefer the 1/2 wide side, but both are very helpful. 

The Reading Rulers work very well in reducing the glare on pages, dancing letters, blurring text and other symptoms.  The Reading Ruler is great to help keep track of where you are currently reading and it makes a mighty handy bookmark!

 

 

 

We have found that the Reading Ruler is very good at keeping our eyes and minds focused on our reading..  I felt that having something for our hands to do (moving the Reading Ruler as we read) has been very good for both Computer Girl and I.

I would recommend the Eye Level Reading Rulers for children and adults.  They are available in packs of 5 for $9.45 and packs of 10 for $16.95.

  

Please check out what other members of the TOS Crew have to say about Crossbow Education''s Eye Level Reading Rulers!

 

Disclaimer: We received this product at no charge to us in exchange for an honest review.

Dayspring Christian Academy - The Pilgrim Story

 

 

For history this year we have been focusing on early American history.   I have been excited and blessed to be able to teach my children the heritage of our nation from a biblical point of view. 

To go along with out studies, we requested to review The Pilgrim Story from Dayspring Christian Academy.  Dayspring Christian Academy is a Principle Approach School, based in Pennsylvania, whose goal is to teach according to biblical principles for the purpose of America being the restored to it's original heritage.  Their belief is that...

By educating ourselves and our children in the biblical principles that formed our nation and affect every aspect of our lives, we will once again see America as “one nation, under God.” 

Dayspring Christian Academy recently launched an online, self paced, interactive class called The Pilgrim Story.  This class is offered as a six month online subscription, geared towards children in grades 3-6.  The Pilgrim Story teaches children about the foundation of our great nation.  With this course, children learn the true history of the Pilgrims from a providential point of view. 

 

The Pilgrim Story offers 17 lessons.  Some of the lessons included are:

King Henry
Geneva Bible
Liberty of Conscience
Leaving Leiden
Conditions on the Mayflower
Building Christian Character
The Mayflower Compact
plus many more

The Pilgrim Story's online video lessons, which are in the form of interactive, narrated, slide shows, can last anywhere from about 30-45 minutes to complete.  In addition to the video lessons, there are many activities to go along with each unit.  There are crafts, map making, application, vocabulary words, live action and a virtual field trip to Plymouth, MA at the end of the course.

We are enjoying The Pilgrim Story.  The lessons are engaging and enjoyable for the children.  For mom, I am glad to rest easy that the history lessons that they are getting are truthful and biblically sound.  We also like that there are book suggestions at the end of the units. 

The Pilgrim Story has the children putting together a notebook for their note sheets, activity and vocab papers and any other worksheets that they complete. 

The Pilgrim Story is currently available for $99.  Your purchase includes full access, at anytime, for six full months. Access to the course begins about 48 hours after your purchase.

We look forward to continuing to use The Pilgrim Story along with our current history studies.

 

Please take a peek at other reviews from TOS Crew members!
Disclaimer: We received a six month subscription to The Pilgrim Story at no charge in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Feelin' Beeyoutiful! {Review}

A few years back I decided to start using all natural skin products.  I started researching a lot of the chemicals found in most skin care products and I was shocked! I had no idea how harmful these chemicals were to my body. 

Since educating myself about these yucky chemicals, I try to use all natural skin care products whenever possible.  When I heard that I was able to review for Beeyoutiful Skin Products I was very excited, I knew this makeup was right up my alley! 

Beeyoutiful is a company that sells bath & beauty products, essential oils, supplements and other health & wellness products.  Most recently, they have added mineral make up to their line of high quality products. 

All of their mineral makeup products are all natural, gluten free, 100% pure minerals!  No fillers, preservatives or chemicals, in other words NO YUCKY STUFF!

Beeyoutiful Skin offers many different shades of foundations, actually over 20 of them!  They also have several blush, eye/lip colors to choose from.  To make it easier for me to choose, Beeyoutiful sent me a few samples of their Mineral Foundation to ensure that I chose the right shade of foundation for my skin.  After trying a few different ones I decided on Ophelia. 

For this review I was sent the Ophelia Mineral Foundation, one eye shadow, as well as a sample of another shade.  When I received my Beeyoutiful package I was very excited once I opened my box! 
Not only did the make up come in very pretty packaging (I am a sucker for pretty packaging!), but it also came with an awesome foundation brush, a combo brush for eye and lip make up and a how to DVD. 

 

I felt that the Beeyoutiful makeup was very easy to use and felt great!  One of my favorite things about the mineral foundation is the barely there feeling.  The mineral foundation gives great coverage, and I don't feel like I have tons of make up on.  I felt that the foundation lasted very well through out the day.

 

I also really liked the eye colors that I received.  Not only did they work beeyoutifully {smile} as eye shadows, but they doubled great for lip color!  Using the combo brush dipped in a tiny bit of water or coconut oil and then into the eye color worked great on my lips!

I recommend Beeyoutiful products, I think that they work great, are long lasting and again NO YUCKY STUFF!

Currently, you can purchase the mineral foundations for $25.00 (20g), the eye shadows for $10.00, and the blush & bronzers for $16.00.  These are great prices for all natural makeup!  They also have several packages that you can choose from. 

 

 

Disclaimer: I received these makeup products at no charge to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

 

Please take a peek at what others on the TOS Crew have to say about Beeyoutiful Skin Mineral Makeup!

Music Together {Review}

The kids and I really love to listen to music and dance around.  I really thought that getting to review Music Together would be lots of fun, and boy was I right! 

Music Together is an internationally know early childhood music and movement program for children up to 7 years old and the adults who love them!

Music Together sent us their Family Favorites Songbook for Teachers, as well as the Family Favorites CD to review for the TOS Crew.  The first thing we did was listen to the Family Favorites CD.  From the beginning one thing was certain, they had come up with a perfect name for this CD.  The songs on the CD were lots of fun and quickly became favorites for us too! 

The songs included on the Family Favorites CD are:

1. Hello Song
2. Biddy Biddy
3. Splishing and Splashing
4. Ridin' in the Car
5. Stick Tune
6. She Sells Sea Shells
7. Playin' in the Kitchen
8. Palo, Palo
9. John the Rabbit
10. Spin and Stop
11. Mississippi Cats
12. One Little Owl
13. Goin' for Coffee
14. Obwisana
15. I've Been Working on the Railroad
16. Dancing with Teddy
17. Allee Galloo
18. May All Children
19. Goodbye, So Long, Farewell

You can listen to samples of the songs here.

The kids really enjoy listening to these songs.  This is a great CD to play in the car or when during chore time, it can really get them all moving!

The Teacher Songbook added a whole other level of fun.  The book starts off explaining the philosophy of Music Together.  Then I read about using different instruments, and the games and activities that they suggest.

The next section of the song book takes each song and gives suggested activities and instruments.  For instance, for the song I've Been Working on the Railroad they suggest sitting and singing and then going into large movement (large movement, is defined as any activity done while standing).  They suggested that we use pretend sledgehammers as we "work" on the railroad and play pretend fiddles.  Talk about lots of fun!   Other fun suggestions were to play a secret singer game and read a few books on trains. 

Another really fun song on the CD is called Biddy Biddy.  This song is lots of fun.  Little Bits (4 years old) and I had a good old time with this one.  The book suggested that we use egg shakers to the tune of the music.  We didn't have egg shakers so we just put some rice into some small plastic containers and used those instead.  They also suggest using the children's names in the song and large movement. 

I feel like the Family Favorites CD could stand alone, but the Songbook does have a lot of fun ideas.  The Songbook and CD would make a full music curriculum for children 7 and under.   The Family Favorite CD is available for $14.95, the Songbook for $29.95 or you can purchase the Songbook and CD together for $39.95.  If you use the coupon code “Schoolhouse” at checkout on the Music Together online store, you can save an additional $2 on your purchase.


Disclaimer: We received this product at no charge to us in exchange for an honest review.  

Please check out what other TOS Crew members have to say about Music Together!