It is that time of year again-The Blue Ribbon Awards! At the end of each year, the Homeschool Review Crew votes for our favorite products. It’s always a tough choice from all the amazing products we get to use throughout the school year. Thanks to all the vendors who let us review their products.

If you're interested in being part of The Homeschool Crew we'd love to have you. You can apply here.

If you click on the winner’s name you’ll be taken to their reviews. Here are our winners for this year!

Favorite Reading Resource: The Reading Game

Favorite Literature Resource: Progeny Press

Favorite Vocabulary Resource: The Critical Thinking Co. – Vocabulary Virtuoso

Favorite Language Arts Resource: EdAlive – Words Rock Online

Favorite History/Social Studies Resource: Home School in the Woods

Favorite Science Resource: Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science

Favorite Math Curriculum: CTC Math

Favorite Math Supplement: MathRider

Favorite Bible/Character Resource: Teach Sunday School – Easter Escape Room

Favorite Children’s Bible/Character Resource: Tommy Nelson – Roar Like A Lion

Favorite Fine Arts Resource: Artistic Pursuits, Inc

Favorite Fine Arts Resource: Practice Monkeys – Self Defense

Favorite Elective: The Fallacy Detective

Favorite Book/Book Series: YWAM Publishing

Best Resource I Didn’t Know I Needed:  WORLD Watch

Favorite College Prep Resource: ACT Mom

Favorite Helpful Tools and Resources: Fermentools

Favorite Preschool: BUCK Academy – Baby Buck

Favorite Elementary: YWAM Publishing

Favorite Middle School: Teaching Textbooks

Favorite High School: CTC Math

Favorite Product For Mom/Teacher: The HomeScholar

Kids’ Choice: Reading Eggs

Teens’ Choice: LightSail Education

Crew Favorite: Creating a Masterpiece

 

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

My son has been playing the guitar off and on for the last six years. He ran into a stump and needed a new direction with his playing. My son has been enrolled in the Practice Monkeys and their Guitar program. We received 3 months of classes.

Practice Monkeys uses the Suzuki Method in all of its programs. This method was created by Shinichi Suzuki. In a nutshell, you learn by ear-training, you learn at an accelerated pace with the Twinkle variations with your classical guitar. This technique will make it easy to explore and learn other genres in the future. It is also self-paced to meet your student’s needs. This is me paraphrasing the method greatly.

Sarah Van Kleeck is the creator of Practice Monkeys which is an online music program. Along with the Suzuki Method and other resources she created are used. No prior music instruction is needed for the student or parent. Another feature is that the pricing is for the family and not an individual student. This is an online subscription program per month.

Once you are signed up you will schedule an assessment/placement for the program. You will be assigned according to your level. You meet 4 days a week Monday through Thursday for 15 minute live classes online at a set time. If you aren’t able to make every class the sessions are recorded. It is recommended that you spend 15-20 minutes after your class of practice. You can go back and view previous classes if needed also. Your instructor will demonstrate techniques, go over the music, you can ask questions, and get instruction that will help you as an individual with your instruments. The classes are small and the teacher can address issues like your instrument is out of tune and such.

In the program, you will have one on one assessment which is an affordable additional cost. There is a download PDF assessment form on the website. This will let you see all the skills they need to accomplish to make sure your student is ready and has met all the skills before moving forward. Your instructor will also let you know if they see that your student is ready for an assessment.

Practice Monkeys offers several instrument courses plus a self-defense program:

Violin ages 3 & up

Cello ages 3 & up

Piano Ages 3 & up

Guitar

Self Defense ages 5 & up (Brazilian Jui-Jitsu wrestling)

Your “dashboard” is called the Treehouse. This area will give you access to everything you need for Practice Monkeys. It is very easy to navigate the website.  You can access your PDFs for your program. I downloaded what we needed and put it in a 3 ring binder for my son. It also gives you access to your level to access the live classes, schedule an assessment, and additional videos outside of your regular “live & recorded classes. These videos give you more instructions on your instrument and lots of helpful tips. Emails are sent out weekly for any information on classes, schedule changes, website issues, and encouragement.

Information is on the website for required material and recommended material. You will find helpful information on instruments too. This is a complete program from the comfort of your home.

Practice Monkeys Guitar

The Guitar is designed for ages 8 and up, some younger kids 6 & 7 can join if the parent is involved in aiding the student. This uses a classical guitar with teachers who are certified in the Suzuki method. There are 12 levels for guitar.

In my son’s 3 ring binder it has a practice sheet that you can check off your assignments on your practice sheets and a skill and habit checklist.

An illustration of the parts of a guitar,  PIMA and finger numbers used within the sessions, and your assignments with the chords.

A Parent Guidebook that will give you an overview of the program, parental involvement, and other information to assist you as the parent.

My son learned to play an acoustical guitar which means it has steel strings (classical guitar has nylon strings). Several years ago we signed him up for private instruction and he also learned to read music. Due to the cost, we could only go so far with the instruction. Over the last few years, he has just been going over his books and finding things online to practice. He was getting a bit bored with this method. When Practice Monkeys came available he was pretty excited to try something new.

After the account was set up we got him signed up for his first assessment for placement went great and he was placed appropriately for him not being familiar with the Suzuki method. Together we went over the website and his 3 ring binder. We both looked over the Parent Handbook. He has been faithful in getting on the live classes and watching the videos when he couldn’t do the live lessons. He practices in the day and after classes.

I had to go back to work in the evenings recently. His classes are in the evening when I’m at work. He is my steadfast and independent child. I wasn’t worried because he communicates with me well and I just don’t have any issues with him. I knew he was getting online for his classes and practicing and doing everything required.

Long story short when the next assessment came up I just signed him up for it without communicating with him first-which usually wouldn’t be a problem. I told him the date of the assessment and a few minutes before his assessment he had a meltdown and I got online with Mrs. Van Kleeck myself! I was embarrassed and felt a bit foolish. This is really unlike my son. Well, I got him on after a few tears and 5 minutes or more of Mrs. Van Kleeck patiently waiting. My son felt he wasn’t understanding the Suzuki method and wasn’t doing it correctly. He was a bit mad at me and thought he wasn’t ready for an assessment.  Mrs. Van Kleeck was absolutely amazing with my son. She went over things and spent a decent amount of time with him. She sent him a Suzuki Guitar Volume 1 book, classical guitar strings, and set up to meet with him weekly with one on one instruction at no cost.

Where I dropped the ball was not obtaining the Suzuki Guitar Volume 1 book. I somehow didn’t think we would need it for the course. The book and his meeting with Mrs. Van Kleeck have built up his confidence and understanding of the program. He still does his live classes in the evenings too. He has enjoyed practicing his guitar again.

Practice Monkeys is a pretty amazing program and Sarah Van Kleeck has gone above and beyond to assist my son with his lessons. I can’t express how thankful I am with words.

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You can try a free trial class. Other Homeschool Review Crew are using different courses with Practice Monkeys. Find out their experience by clicking on the graphic below.

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Good books are a priority in my homeschool, thankfully both of my kids love a good story. I love it when I can find resources that dig deeper in those books. We have used Progeny Press study guides a few times in our homeschool lately. Our most recent one is Frankenstein Study Guide.

Frankenstein Study Guide is for grades 10 – 12^th grade. Progeny Press has a plethora of study guides and books available. You can use Progeny Press as a full-year credit of literature with 4 of the Study Guides.

I received a PDF download, for the study guides and the Answer Keys. You have instant access to your download once you purchase it. This can also be purchased as a physical Printed Workbook or on a CD. On the CD you can print out the pages or type the answers directly into the document. If you don’t own the books you can order the books that accompany the guides from Progeny Press too.  

Progeny Press literature studies cover K-12^th grade. They break their guides down by grades: Lower Elementary (K-3rd), Upper Elementary (3rd-6th), Middle School, and High School. They recommend that you first read the book as a whole before beginning the study guide. They are flexible to accommodate your child’s needs if you read a few chapters then work on the study guide. I have done them both ways with my son.

You will need a dictionary, thesaurus, Bible the NIV is used in the guides but you can use your translation, books for the guides, and access to the internet. There are resources to look up online to enhance the guides.

Plan around 8 to 10 weeks for middle school and high school to complete each unit study. Usually one section a week is recommended.

The Answer Key has all your answers to the questions in the key. It’s easy to navigate through the answers and is broken down so you can quickly locate the chapter or section you are working on to grade. 

The PDF Study Guide is interactive you can type your answers into the PDF and print them out or you can print it out and write the answers in the space provided. This will work with both Windows and Mac.

The Study Guide has a short biography about the Study Guide’s author and the author of the book you are using. A Table of Contents is also provided at the beginning of both guides. There is some information provided about using the guides and how you can put together a final test.

 Frankenstein Book and Study Guide

The Study Guide uses the Frankenstein Book by Mary Shelley. The Study Guide is developed by Calvin Roso and Andrew Clausen.

There are a total of 24 chapters, and an overview of the book. A Background Information which gives you details on the science and discovery of the time the book was written. One discovery was exploration and encountering new cultures and animals. My son found this interesting as he was reading over this and sharing it with me. Another interesting part is the information about the literary movement and the types going on in the world. It also gives you an overview of the Political Revolution going on in the world. With all this information you can see how the author did her homework or was familiar with the science and other aspects of the world around her.

You can also add more substance-using, The Ideas for Pre-reading Activities. This has activities like reading a suggested playwright and a Poem and writing a paper on them. There are map work activities, and reading Genesis 1-9. You can find other activities by going to Progeny Press’s Pinterest page too. There are also quite a few recommendations on essays projects for the book at the back of the study guide.

Synopsis of Frankenstein:

This classical story was first published in 1818, Robert Walton, the captain of a ship, retells this story to his sister back in England. He meets Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by sled and is not well. Walton brings him aboard the ship, helps him back to health, and hears the tale of the monster that Frankenstein created.

Victor Frankenstein collects and connects parts from dead bodies, which creates a living him rejected and abandoned.  As revenge, it kills Victor’s younger brother William.  Even though Victor knows that his creation is the murderer, William’s nanny, Juis blamed him for the death, tried, and executed.  There are three more deaths in Victor’s circle: the murder of his friend, Elizabeth, his new wife, and Victor’s father, who dies from losing his son William, the beloved nanny Justine, and his daughter-in-law.  Frankenstein eventually loses his own life.

Vocabulary Words: The exercises use vocabulary words throughout. From matching the word to the definition using a dictionary, multiple choices, fill in the blank, and other activities. The words are challenging and require some analysis of their meaning.

Questions: Comprehensive questions that lead to further thinking about the story from the book.

Analyzing: This goes above the comprehensive questions and has a lot more details. Some may include grammar concepts, anthropomorphism, and point of view, examining motives, how they feel, or character issues.

Dig Deeper: This is the Biblical portion of the study guide that deals with principle, relationship, conflict, and other topics. A scripture reading is also provided in this section.

My son read the book this summer and he didn’t have to re-read the book first. The book was not the one that Progeny Press uses but very close to the original story.

He referred back to his book as needed. The book he used lined up well with the Study Guide and he didn’t have any issues. I would recommend using the book they use normally. Some of the vocabulary varied but not too much. The vocabulary words are advanced and he used the dictionary often. He found that when he read the story this summer it was easier figuring out the meaning in context. With the study guide, he found it more challenging with so many months in-between him reading the book. In other aspects of the guide, he recalled the storyline enough to fill in the blank, and if not he referenced his book.

He planned 3-4 days a week depending on his other assignments. My son prefers the interactive PDF that he can type in the answers rather than write them out. After every chapter, I go over his answers with him. That way we can discuss the questions if needed. He has completed several sections and I suggested that he didn’t do more than 1-2 sections in a week. He did not do any more of the Optional Projects and Activities.

We have done several of the Study Guides from Progeny Press in the last few years. Frankenstein Study Guide was an enjoyable one for my son.

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Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew are doing different Study Guides than what I did. Click on the graphic below and see what they think.  Don’t forget to head over to Progeny Press to check out their selection. 

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

My son has been learning some important skills to help him be more successful in college with his study skills. He has had an opportunity to use another fantastic resource from Greg Landry's Homeschool Science. This time around he is using Study Skills / Measurement / Lab Reports/ Graphing - Self-paced 7th-12th grade. I received a 12-month subscription to the course.

This online Self-Paced course is intended for 7th-12th grade homeschooled students. You will find other courses and grades available for your family.

Greg Landry is a former college professor turned homeschool dad. This is taught from a Biblical Christian Worldview. The sessions start with Mr. Landry praying and he teaches students to think Biblically - I love his statement above.

You will need a Canvas account to use all of Greg Landry's Homeschool Science courses that are online. I would also recommend a printer to print out the PDFs however, you can view the worksheets via computer if needed. Everyone in your immediate family will have access to the material as long as it is within the timeframe of your subscription.

Navigating the site is easy. If you have multiple courses you just click on the course and it will take you into your course. On the site it is self-explanatory. You have a link to download your PDF file. Each of the video lessons has its unique link. Once you click on the link you are ready to go.

As the course name implies you will learn about study skills, measurements, lab reports, and graphing. One thing that Greg Landry noticed was that students struggled with some essential areas. That is why he felt that digging into measurements, metric systems, graphing, and how to write a solid lab report would benefit learning these topics. All the classes weave together in this course.

After you have logged into your account you will have access to the PDF and the videos. It is suggested to have a 3-ring binder, or a notebook, and coloring pencils. I immediately downloaded the PDF and put it in a binder for my son. This let him just open his notebook where he left off.

Classes covered are both online videos and a companion PDF file.

There are eight videos. The first one is for the parent and the student to watch. It doesn’t matter if you watch Intro: Instructions and Introduction for Parents and Students together or separately. This lesson will give you an overview of the course, the importance of these essential skills, and how to best utilize the information in your homeschool. This video is less than 6 minutes.

All the videos will have Greg Landry teaching the course. The videos are no longer than 30 minutes each. You will have a video of him explaining the concepts. He is very concise and clear in what he is explaining. He doesn’t move too fast nor does he drag a topic into boredom. He also doesn’t dumb down a topic as he gets straight to the point without the fluff. He is a pleasure to listen to. My son thinks he would be a very approachable and down-to-earth individual from his teaching style. While you are listening to him you will see the PDFs being shown and discussed throughout the video.

Intro: Instructions and Introduction for Parents and Students

Taking Notes, Note-Sketching, & Studying

Test Taking

Measurement & the Metric (SI) System

Temperature & Graphing

The Scientific Method & Lab Reports

Scientific Notation & Magnitude Perspective

Statistics, Probability, Accuracy, and Precision

The PDF for Study Skills / Measurement / Lab Reports / Graphing - Self-paced 7th-12th grade is broken up into seven chapters for each of the topics. You can easily follow along with the PDFs as you are listening to the videos. My son typically will work on his PDFs while listening to Greg Landry and pausing occasionally if needed. The PDFs are illustrated and the worksheets give you enough space to write in or you could use a notebook if you prefer.

This being a self-paced course you can schedule this to fit your schedule. You could do one class each week and finish the course up in less than 2 months. You could do it bi-weekly or finish it up quickly.

My son decided to do this in two weeks. It was good timing for him with him starting dual credit classes this semester. He went into those classes this year with the mindset of not needing to take good notes or study skills. I don’t think my homeschool environment prepared him for that. Maybe because when he got stuck we would go back over it until he got it. Now the pace of the classes he has to keep up with the pace of the other students. Thankfully the subjects are ones that he knows well. He does see the need to be more diligent in his notes and study skills. Which will be needed next semester.

His favorite topic was Measurement & the Metric (SI) System, Test Taking, and surprisingly Statistics, Probability, Accuracy, and Precision. He has always found the Metric system interesting and wishes it was the standard in America. He liked the way he stressed to think metric. That is an area that sometimes frustrated him with science. The last one surprised me. I didn’t realize that he sometimes gets mixed up on some of the terminology used in the basic statistics. He told me, “that he felt this was a good use of his time and that he learned a lot more than he expected in this course.”

I loved all the skills he learned throughout the course. These are skills that will help him beyond high school and college. He may not be writing a lab report in 10 years but details matter!

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew have been doing different classes with Greg Landry's Homeschool Science, click on the graphic below to read other reviews, and don’t forget to check out all the options on Greg Landry's Homeschool  Science website.

 

 

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

LightSail for Homeschoolers is an adaptive and unique resource. The program can be used as a complete language arts program or as a supplement. My family was given 1- year access to their Premium Subscription for up to five children.

LightSail for Homeschoolers is built on four pillars: reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency. This covers pre-k-12 grade. 

Once you get your account set up there is an introduction video that I recommend you to watch that will explain each aspect of the program. The introduction runs for around 45 minutes. While you are watching the introduction it will pull up the areas for you to see and do the steps. You will see the introduction video in the right corner. One area it does is helping you set up your child’s age and password. The parent and each child will have their unique password as will the parent. You can view each child individually from your dashboard.

Each child will do an assessment test that determines their Lexile level. This will help to determine the appropriate reading level for them. The Lexile level is updated for each child regularly.

Another feature is World Book which has its World Book Encyclopedia, Timelines, and Maps. This is a massive resource that is kept up to date with relevant content. This tool is a great addition to your homeschool. The encyclopedia area has articles, a dictionary, fill-in-the-blank assessments. The timelines are interactive and better yet you can customize it for whatever you are learning about with each kid having their unique timeline. The Atlas covers every continent, country, and city. You can pull up a database for the atlas in several different resources from political, population, and other information along with references to articles.

LightSail for Homeschoolers library is enormous with 12,000+ books. Audiobooks are something like 1,500. A huge variety of subjects to choose from. You will easily find something to satisfy your kid's likes.

Another available feature “ChildSafe Content Control” allows me to block certain books and entire subtopics that I don’t want to expose my child to. This isn’t a religious base program even though they offer an ample amount of faith material for me to incorporate into my child’s reading. Some topics go against my religious belief and books that I won’t allow. 

I can also put in place that certain subtopics require parental approval. If my child wants to check out a book I will receive an email that allows me to look at the book fully, I can deny or approve. Once I have approved the book they can open the book to read. You can also have control to turn off or certain privileges like over the video contents, action clips, Audisee, audiobooks, and interactive books. You can even restrict the time of day they can watch video material, like during school hours, or set up a reading amount of time to be able to watch a video. I can disable the chat function too.

You can choose if you want any faith-based content with your child. You can choose to have them view which faith material you want them to have access to.

I can also put in place if my child is a struggling reader. I’m still exploring a lot of the tools throughout the program. I can set the number of questions also in the books.

The library has more than just books. There are Unit Studies, Biography Center, audiobooks, Sports Encyclopedia, World Book, 360* Images, Videos, Augmented Reality, and Live Streams. Once you open up an area you will find a lot of material to explore. In the books, you can explore by topics. While reading the books you will have suggestions for similar books or videos to explore.

Like I mentioned earlier the four pillars: reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency are built into every aspect of the program like a finely woven masterpiece that when completed is pretty impressive.

Reading has options to set up Reading Assignments, Reading Goals, Reading Milestones, Add Unit Studies, See your Lexile Growth, Book Clubs, view Reading History, Reading Badges, View Reading Totals, coming soon is a Booklist.

You can choose by topic or browse the books as a whole. Some of the books have Power Text which I would describe as comprehension but they call cloze exercises. You will find boxes littered throughout the text. Once you click on those boxes it will open a word bank that you will choose a word that corresponds to the sentences. You will see the definition below and it will tell you if the cloze is wrong. This also acts as vocabulary. You can redo the cloze exercises after reading the book and it will give you detailed information on the word.

The reading section allows you to change the font size, adjust the reading direction from vertical to horizontal, several books are available as an audio option that you can follow along while it is reading out loud. You also earn badges throughout from reading certain books, cloze exercises, and other ways to obtain the badges.

What this amounts to is that you have eBooks, audiobooks, TED talks, interactive books, videos, and Livestream all in one place. Plus you can purchase books if you need a certain one that is not available on the program.

The writing section will have writing assignments soon. You have a place to journal, take notes, author your own book, write about yourself, read your books and those written by your family. Some books seem to have a tab for a writing assignment attached to them which you can investigate the objectives in the dashboard. We did not use the writing feature in the program.

Vocabulary is centered around your cloze exercises. You can take a spelling test from the words used at their Lexile level. Some books allow you to use words that have been taken from the clozes in the books you read.  As a parent, I can assign and create spelling bees for my students. I can also set it up to do a spelling test after they read a book.

Fluency I didn’t use for my older kids. You record yourself out loud reading a portion of a book. Afterward, it is sent to the parent to evaluate the fluency.

Another gold nugget is the ability to assign memory work or quotations in the Assignment Builder Tab. You can pull the memory work from outside sources or the program. Quotations come from book passages or scripture.

How Did I Use LightSail for Homeschoolers in My Homeschool?

I used this with both of my kids. My daughter is 18 and graduated. However, I’m still schooling her due to her special needs and cognitive level. My daughter loves this program. One reason is that it will read out loud to her or I read it to her. Her comprehension level is high when listening to something. This put her Lexile level higher than her reading ability. This is fine as she enjoys more complex books as long as she doesn’t have to read them herself. If she was reading the text herself she would be around 3^rd to 4^th-grade level. She enjoys doing this daily and I let her choose the books she wants to read and I look over them and give her access to them. She loves looking in the faith-based section. This has many books that are her level to read too like Sammy Spider First Rosh Hashannah. She does the cloze exercises and sometimes I do need to assist her. She tries not to choose a Power Text for this reason. She wants to continue to use this in her school routine.

My son is a strong reader. I don’t think he did as well as I thought he could have with the Lexile placement. I honestly don’t think he put his best effort into the placement test either.

He prefers a physical book but also doesn’t mind eBooks. He wasn’t as thrilled about the program. It wasn’t the program it was a teenager who has a full plate with dual credit classes and such. He already does a lot of reading. For his literature program, he was assigned to read, Salis Marner by George Eliot. It has been a bit of dreaded torture for him with this book. When he found the book online he asked if he could do it here instead of the physical book. It has been a lifesaver for him, he doesn’t mind that it is a Power Text. I think that has assisted him to listen closely as he is letting the program read out loud and working on his book report for it. 

For a science book report, he wrote about black holes. He found this book that had lots of references and a video to use for his report.

He also has read some books for fun. He will use this as needed and I know his next assigned literature book he plans on reading this online too.

I didn't utilize several of the features in the program. I looked them over and felt that certain areas at this time were not necessary and would create too much unnecessary work and stress on my kids. We mainly stuck to reading books and taking the close exercises. I didn't think the other features were necessary at this time in my homeschool. Regardless, this has been a good fit in my homeschool with the books.

LightSail for Homeschoolers has a free 7-Day Trial to test run the program to see if it is right for you.

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Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew are using LightSail for Homeschoolers. Click on the graphic to see what others think.