Homeschool Spanish Academy Review

           

I recently had the opportunity to try out 7 weeks of Spanish lessons from the Homeschool Spanish Academy, and it was the perfect time to try them out!  My plan was for my 9-year-old to try out these lessons over the summer.  Then, if the lessons went well and she wanted to continue, I would allow her to continue during the school year.  I was very blessed as part of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Homeschool Crew to be given the opportunity to let her try out 7 weeks of lessons for free in exchange for writing this review.  


Because we usually get to choose which products and services we try out for the Homeschool Crew, I most often do enjoy the things I review.  Of course I enjoy some of the review items a lot and others not as much, but I usually do enjoy what I review.  In this case, I totally and completely enjoyed every lesson with my daughter!  I absolutely give this program my highest praise.  


I asked Mary Grace what she wanted me to say about Homeschool Spanish Academy in my review.  She thought for just a moment and said, "Tell them it's great and that I love it!"  And I agree with her!


Here's how it works.  We had one lesson each week.  (I say "we" because, at Mary Grace's age, I sat with her at the computer for each lesson just to supervise.  Since she was just getting started, I wanted to know what she was doing so I could help her during class or with homework if needed.  It was not required that I attend lessons with her, but I chose to do so.)  I went online and scheduled each week's lesson.  Then, on the day/time of the lesson, we went to Skype and watched for her teacher to send us a video call request.  We accepted the request, and the lesson began.


Because Mary Grace was brand new at Spanish, the teacher gave most instructions in Spanish and then repeated them in English.  As Mary Grace learned more Spanish, the teacher began to give instructions only in Spanish and repeated them in English only if necessary.  I loved that because it gave Mary Grace a chance to begin to stretch herself and learn more than just the words being specifically taught in the lesson.  Also, it made Mary Grace so proud when she was able to listen to Spanish instructions and follow them without English interpretation.


Once the lesson began, the teacher could put illustrations on the screen for us to see.  That way we could see the pictures of the items we were learning instead of seeing the English words and translating them into Spanish.  I like this method much better than translating words because, instead of seeing a picture, thinking of the English word, and translating it into Spanish, she learned to see the item and automatically think of its Spanish name.  


There are videos available to see more details on how a lesson works, so I won't include all of that information here.  You can click here to see an adult tell about her class.  I didn't find videos of younger children using the program, but I can tell you from my experience that it is a great fit for younger children up to adults.  




Pricing for the class is based on whether the student is taking beginner, intermediate, or advanced lessons.  Since Mary Grace is a beginner, you can see the pricing for her level in the graph above.  If you have two students who will be doing the same level, you can get pricing for that as well.  There are also graphs showing prices for intermediate students (for 1 or 2 students) and for advanced (for 1 or 2 students).  All of those can be found on the Homeschool Spanish Academy website.  I encourage you to take a look at their website for more details about the program.  


The only real drawback to the lessons (in my experience) is that some people who don't have a fast enough computer or who aren't able to use Skype can't do the lessons at all or might not be able to do the lessons with video capabilities.  The lessons are do-able with audio only, but it is definitely better to do them with audio and video.  For audio-only lessons, the teacher can email the lesson material to the student ahead of time so she can look at the pictures as they talk instead of the student seeing the material on the screen.  


My daughter will be continuing with her Spanish lessons because we found them to be so wonderful!  Of course our review period is over, so we will have to pay for her lessons from now on, but she's learning so much and enjoying her class so much that my husband and I decided it's worth it!  


You can find more reviews by other Crew members by clicking the button below.  Be sure to check out some of them--especially if you have a child in a different age category than mine.  

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week:
I have managed to get the house in order!  It's not all dusted and vacuumed and perfect, but most of our "stuff" is where it belongs instead of being in little piles here and there all over the place.


In our homeschool this week:
My younger daughter (age 9) has been doing an online Spanish class for the last few weeks, and she and I both love it!!  The class is through the Homeschool Spanish Academy.  In fact, I'll be writing a review of our experiences with it this Monday, June 25.  I hope you'll be sure to come read it if you are interested in a great, live, online Spanish class!


Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share:
Chill out!  I used to get all upset and uptight whenever everything on our schedule didn't get done.  It is very important to teach our children responsibility and a good work ethic.  That doesn't mean that I need to get upset when things don't go as planned, though.  (And it's only taken me13 years to learn that!!)


Places we're going and people we're seeing:
One of my favorite things about this summer is that we are purposely not going lots of places or doing lots of things!  We are occasionally going to the library or to visit a friend.  We aren't doing tennis, piano, ballet (except for 1 week--3 days--of ballet in July), speech & debate, etc.  It's been wonderful to be able to stay home nearly every day each week!


I'm reading:
I'm working on reading the Bible in 90 Days.  Some of the Hip Homeschool Moms team members decided that we wanted to read the Bible in 90 Days together.  We're not blogging about it on the site or making it an "official" session for folks to join.  We're just doing it together with our team.  We are only on our second day today.  I'm praying that it will go well for us.  Who knows?  Maybe next time we'll have an official session for folks to join with us.  :)


I'm cooking:
Actually, I've been doing less cooking, and I've been having my kids do more cooking!  My son (age 15) and my younger daughter (age 9) are each taking one night a week to cook dinner for the rest of the family.  It's been a great experience for them, and it has been really wonderful for me not to have to cook every single night.  This is (hopefully) going to be a regular occurrence in our home.


A photo to share:
My daughter (on the right) and a friend took turns last week giving each other a manicure.  The results were not the most beautiful, but they had lots of fun!

If you'd like to see more journal entries, be sure to click here.  Have fun!

Wordless Wednesday: Peek a Boo!

This is a little friend who lives in our pot of marigolds.  :)  


Don't forget to click here to see more Wordless Wednesday posts!  

Wordless Wednesday: Summer on a Plate!!

There is nothing more wonderful than that first tomato sandwich of the summer!!  The only thing I left out of the photo is the salt.  And home-grown tomatoes are absolutely necessary--no grocery store tomatoes allowed.  Bacon is a good addition too, but I love tomato sandwiches even without the bacon.  Yum!!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Summer Edition

In my life this week:
Over the past few weeks, we have finished up all of our extra-curricular activities!  Woohoo! That means we won't have piano, tennis, ballet, speech & debate, or any other regular outside-of-the-house activities for the summer!  The kids and I enjoy these activities and like getting out to see folks, but it's also nice to have days when we can just stay at home too.  


In our homeschool this week:
We are trying year-round homeschooling for the first time!  I've been homeschooling my kiddos for 15 years, and we've always taken summers off.  Because of our outside commitments during the school year and our once-a-week get-together with my sister and her children, it's hard to get everything done in a "traditional" school year.  Instead of trying to squeeze it all in, we decided to just do some school over the summer and see how it goes.  


Helpful homeschooling tips or advice:
I have to say that one of the most important things I've learned in my 15 years of homeschooling is not to stress out over every little thing!  I used to get all upset and worried if we missed a day of school or if our work wasn't done and our schedule got interrupted.  Now I'm much more relaxed about that kind of thing.  I do teach the kids to set and meat goals and to finish their work and so on.  I also teach them, though, that "real life" happens, and sometimes our plans have to change.  


My favorite thing this week was:
This may be a weird "favorite thing," but here it is.  My favorite thing was getting my 9-year-old daughter's room cleaned out and organized!  One thing I want to do this summer is take a day or two each week to clean/organize a room or closet, etc.  This week I did my daughter's room (while she was spending the day with a friend).  I also need to do the same for my son's room, the utility room, my kitchen panty, and all of our closets.  


I'm reading:
I'm reading the 3rd (final) book of the Hunger Games series.  I've been hearing so much about the books lately that I decided I wanted to read them.  Although the subject matter is a bit gruesome at times, I've enjoyed the books.  I'm almost finished with the 3rd book, and I'm not sure what I'll read next.  


I'm cooking:
I'm trying out eMeals now!  I've been wanting to do better about menu planning and being more careful not to spend too much on groceries (which is nearly impossible with today's grocery prices!), so I decided to give them a try.  I love cookbooks, and this is kind of like getting a new mini cook book every week!  :)  I'm also having my 9-year-old daughter cook dinner once a week (with minimal help from me) and my 15-year-old son cook dinner once a week (with no help but I do supervise for safety and instructional purposes).  


I'm grateful for:
I am extremely grateful that my family members all live close by!  My parents live about 20 minutes away from me along with my younger sister and her 2 kids.  My twin sister lives about 20 minutes (in the opposite direction) away from me with her hubby and 4 kids.  My husband's parents live next door (along with 2 dogs, 1 cat, and 4 parakeets).  And my hubby and our 3 kids, 2 cats, 2 parakeets, and 1 fish all live together in the house we built 4 1/2 years ago.  I am blessed!


A photo to share:

Cousins <3  My daughter, Mary Grace, and my sister's daughter, Sarah after their ballet Spring Performance last weekend.  They did a wonderful job and had a great time!  

Rainbow Sentences Review

  

It's so much fun trying out new apps on my iPad!  Sometimes even when I download apps for my children, I have just as much fun using them as my children do.  It's especially nice when I come across educational apps that they really enjoy.  My kiddos are old enough to know when they're using an "educational" app, but as long as it's fun, they don't mind.  ;)


I've been trying out an app from the Mobile Education Store recently.  It's called Rainbow Sentences.  The app is designed to help students learn to write sentences that are grammatically correct.  It uses color-coded words (or groups of words) to help the student know where the words or word groups should go in the sentence.  It has 3 levels of complexity, too, so that your child can start on a very easy level and progress as his skills improve.  


I love that there are several options available as far as settings are concerned.  The settings that may be turned on or off include:  audio instructions, correct answer reinforcement, record correct answer (an audio recording of the child saying the sentence), line color coding, word color coding, and word grouping.  You can see from the screenshot below how the words can be color coded.  As the skill level increases, there are groups of words that can be color coded or not--depending on your preference and the child's mastery level.  I really like that you have the option of using the color coding or not.  I enjoy using "helps" like color coding at first, but I like to fade out those prompts after a while.  



You can see that the cartoon-like pictures used for the activity are really cute!  My youngest child is 9, and she loved them!  I did too, to tell the truth!  Because the pictures are so colorful and interesting, the game seems much more like a game that is for fun rather than an educational game.  


I tried this app out myself, then I let my 9-year-old daughter try it out, and finally I tried it with my 4-year-old nephew.  As I said, I loved the game and played it for a while checking out the features and how it works.  My 9-year-old loved it for a while too.  She's an excellent reader, though, and soon got tired of it because it wasn't challenging for her.  My 4-year-old nephew, however, absolutely loved it!!  



One of his favorite things (besides the colorful pictures) was that he could record himself "reading" the sentence each time he completed a new sentence correctly.  He was positively gleeful as he recorded and listened to himself after completing each new sentence.  At his age, and because he's not yet beginning to read, he definitely needed the color coding "prompts."  He wanted to do the sentences independently, but even with the color coding he still needed some help.  Over all, though, he loved it and did a pretty good job too!


The main drawbacks I noticed were first of all that my nephew got a little bit "hyped up" because he was so excited about the pretty colors and the ability to record his own voice.  I think that if he used the game regularly, though, it would become something he enjoyed but wasn't so hyped up from playing.  


The other thing that he had trouble with was that, as he touched each word to drag it to the correct blank, he often "missed" the word he was trying to drag.  It was a little bit difficult for him to get his finger right on the correct word and drag it into place.  Again, though, I think he would have had less difficulty with that if he hadn't been so excited from playing it for the first time.


The only thing I noticed that I'd really like to see changed is that it takes so long for a student to make enough progress to get a reward.  The student must complete 5 sentences correctly in order to earn one puzzle piece.  Once the entire puzzle (about 12 pieces) is completed, the puzzle "comes to life" and some kind of fun little animated scene is played out.  For some children, they might be able to wait that long for reinforcement.  Others, however, might get burned out if they have to wait that long.  It would be really nice for the parent or teacher to be able to set the number of sentences and the number of puzzle pieces necessary to earn a reward.

I absolutely would recommend this app to anyone who has a beginning reader or an older child who needs some extra help learning to form grammatically correct sentences.  It's a fun game with great pictures and fun reinforcement.  You can see more information about this game and others at the Mobile Education Store.  The Rainbow Sentences app sells for $7.99.  


You can see additional reviews of Rainbow Sentences and some other educational apps at the Schoolhouse Review Crew site.  Have fun!


NOTE:  I received this app for free in exchange for using the app and writing this review.  I received no other compensation.  The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Screen Time: How Much Is too Much?

There are those homeschooling moms who have no televisions in their homes.  Their children don't play video games, computer games, or hand-held games.  In fact, their children don't have any "screen time" at all because they just don't have electronic devices in their homes.  I am not one of those moms.  We do have a television.  We have an XBox.  We have computer games and hand-held games.  I try my best to be reasonable about the screen time my children get.  I'm not always so great at setting limits and establishing boundaries.  I'm just a regular mom trying my best to do what's best for my family.  With that in mind, here's how I try to handle "screen time" with my children.  


It seems that my children and I have a difference of opinion about how much screen time is ok and how much is too much.  (Isn't that pretty much true for all of us?!)  Since this is our first year of year-round homeschooling, we haven't had school work to do during the summer in the past.  For that reason, I have traditionally given them a little more screen time during the summer than I have during the "school year."  


Typically during the school year, I don't allow my children any television, XBox, hand-held games, computer time (except for the part of their school work that is done on the computer), or any other electronic device usage until after about 3:00 p.m.  I learned years ago that, if my children were allowed to have any screen time as soon as their school work was finished that they would rush through their work and not do a good job so they could get done.  To prevent that from happening, I made a rule that no screen time would be allowed until after 3:00 p.m. no matter if school was finished or not.


During school, I try not to give the children screen time even after 3:00 p.m. and even after school is all done for the day.  At their ages now (16, 15, and 9), they usually have books to read (for fun or for school), projects to work on, ballet or tennis or piano lessons to go to, or speech & debate classes to prepare for.  When we do have an afternoon at home, I try to limit screen time to an hour or so.  


I usually allow them a little more screen time than that during the summer--especially when it's so blazing hot here during July and August.  For those months, the kids can only go outside when they are swimming because it's just too hot otherwise.  I don't usually put an absolute time limit on it during the summer, but I do try to limit it to an hour or two--depending upon if that particular child is watching a movie or playing a video game, etc.  


I'm not really absolutely sure how to handle it this summer since we will be doing year-round homeschooling for the first time.  (We've homeschooled for 15 years, but we've never done it year-round before.) I may simply stick to the same arrangement that we have during the "traditional" school year of having one hour of screen time after 3:00 p.m.  I know the kiddos won't appreciate that, but I do like for them to get out and swim or even take time to read or play board games, etc.  We won't be doing as much school work as we do during the regular school year, so they will have a bit more time to fill up.  I don't want it filled up with electronic devices, though!


How do you handle screen time with your children?  Do they get more or less time during the summer than during the school year?   Any encouragement or advice?  I'd love to hear how some of you moms handle this issue.

Memphis Zoo with My Girl!

A few weeks ago, I went to the Memphis Zoo with my youngest child, Mary Grace.  She had gone with me to a homeschool convention in Memphis, and we stayed there an extra day so we could spend a day at the zoo.  We don't often go places just the two of us, so that was a nice treat in itself.  Visiting the zoo together was even more fun!


      


The giraffes were beautiful!  There was a baby giraffe that was a little shy, so I couldn't get a good picture of her.  There was a pretty little giraffe topiary nearby, so I snapped a photo of Mary Grace beside it.  

  

The hippos were absolutely monstrously huge!!  You can't really get an idea of their size from this photo, but it would have taken 3 people at least with arms stretched out to encircle one of these fellas!  


The turtles just looked so friendly to me.  Look at that cute little striped head.  He just looked like he was posing for a photo.  


  

I tried to take a picture of the otter in the water.  Those little guys are so fast, though, that I couldn't get a good one.  Here he is headed back to the water for more fun!


The flamingos were so pretty!  They reminded me of a silly joke that my son used to tell everybody when he was small.  Q:  Why does a flamingo stand on one leg?  A.  Because if he lifted the other one, he would fall down!  Pretty corny but he loved to tell it!  


  

We were so glad that the panda bears were at Memphis while we were there!  I think the sign said that the Memphis Zoo will have them for 10 years or so.  After that, they'll go somewhere else for, I assume, 10 years.  I think they have about 2 or 3 years left in Memphis.  This is the female panda smiling for everyone!


The monkies are always lots of fun to watch.  This one had a lot of personality!  Unfortunately, he was pretty cranky.  I'm glad I'm not in that enclosure with him!


  Here's Mary Grace during our zoo trip.  We surely did have a great time together!  I'm so thankful that, because we homeschool, she could go with me.  And we are able to count this as a school day since it was actually a "field trip" with just the two of us!  I am one blessed mama!