Super Teacher Worksheets Support Struggling Readers! {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

  Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

When my children were younger, I was introduced to the 10,000+ (now 20,000) printables that Super Teacher Worksheets offers and found them super helpful. Two years later, I revisited this winning resource with delight, but, then, my kids aged of it.

So, why would I have chosen to review another 1-year membership of this K-5th grade resource now?

Because I am working with a homeschool friend's struggling reader and having the worksheets at my fingertips to use for supplementary work and homework is super helpful!

Teaching Reading with the Help of Super Teachers Worksheets

Since my homeschool friend asked me to help her son with his reading, I have been working with him once a week using a loose Orton-Gillingham approach combined with phonetic readers and Super Teacher Worksheets.

Each week as I prepare for our meeting, I quickly browse the reading, writing, phonics, spelling, and sight words worksheets on the Super Teacher Worksheets membership website and print off ones that relate to whatever target phonograms we have recently worked on or will be attacking that week.

With these on hand, I am easily able to add extra challenges and fun to our lessons and to provide his parents with concrete exercises and activities to do between our sessions.

I love that I can quickly pull up and print a wide variety of worksheets which dovetail with whatever target phonogram I am teaching on a certain day and that there are multiple offerings to support lessons. With the available printables, I always have a new challenge or review resource at hand to work on together in session or to send home with my friend's son for homework.

My friend's son seems to enjoy the printables, too! Often, when he comes back with his completed work, he is eager to see how he did on it and sometimes asks for more worksheets! I think he and his parents appreciate that the worksheets are clear cut, not overwhelming, and provide an ideal amount of practice and stretching of skills.

More than just ELA

At present, my friend's son and I are only working on his English Language Arts skills. However, should I be asked to expand what I am helping him with, I can also easily access math, social studies, science, holiday, and seasonal printables with thanks to my Super Teacher Worksheets. membership. (I have used worksheets from these other areas with my own kids in the past.)

It's fabulously convenient to have so many printables right at your fingertips with easy navigation.

With games, cut-and-glue activities, puzzles, mini-books, traditional worksheets, and more, there truly is something for everyone on Super Teacher Worksheets, and since Individual Memberships currently cost just $24.95 per year and offer unlimited downloads, the resource is amazingly affordable!

It's one-stop resource for worksheets for:

• math
• reading comphrehension
• phonics
• early literacy
• grammar
• spelling
• reading and writing
• chapter book units
• science
• social studies
• PreK and Kindergarten
• Holidays
• parent/educator tools

There is also a worksheet generator where parents and teachers can create their own math problems, spelling lists, Bingo games, wordsearches, flashcards, quizzes, and more. What a time saver that is for busy educators who want to customize printables but not be responsible for totally designing them!

I recommend  Super Teacher Worksheets to homeschoolers, tutors, and teachers with K-5 students. It is an easy-to-navigate, super helpful resource that allows you to find premade printables or customize your own quickly.

Learn More

Find Super Teacher Worksheets on social media on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.   

Over 30 Homeschool Review Crew families have been benefiting from this comprehensive library of printable resources.  Get a  peak into more of the resources by clicking through to read all of our reviews as many of us chose different ones to highlight. 

Check Out These Excellent Study Guides for 2 Classic Books {A Progeny Press / Homeschool Review Crew Review}

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Do you have a child reading C .S. Lewis or Tolkien this year?  Then, I recommend you dig in with the The Last Battle Study Guide and Fellowship of the Ring Study Guide by Progeny Press. Each of these interactive literature guides is top notch!

Why Did We Choose to Use These Progeny Press Guides?

When we were offered the opportunity to review The Last Battle Study Guide and Fellowship of the Ring Study Guide, I jumped at the chance, for, even though I knew our summer was going to be busy, our past experience with Progeny Press guides has been so positive that I wanted to check out these ones, too.

Our past reviews of Give Me Liberty, My Side of the Mountain,  Redwall, and Frankenstein proved to me that Progeny Press can flex with whatever schedule we have and can offer us as little or as much as we want as we dive into pieces of literature.

A Little Bit about These Guides

Like most Progeny Press study guides, The Last Battle Study Guide and Fellowship of the Ring Study Guide offer a wide variety of information and activities, which includes:

• a brief author biography
• background information
• pre-reading activity ideas
• exercises to help learn and use vocabulary words
• focus on moral lessons and character values
• study of literary techniques
• a variety of comprehension and "digging deeper" questions
• writing assignments
• suggestions for further reading
• a complete answer key
  

Plus, both guides are written from a Christian perspective.

Wonderful for families with multiple children, these studies can be used over and over again for multiple students in your families. (Just do a "save as" of the file for each child or print out multiple copies.) 

High School Students Can Dig into the Fellowship of the Ring Study Guide

The Fellowship of the Ring Study Guide is aimed at grades 9-12 and, when done in full, can earn a high student .25 transcript credits.

The classic Fellowship of the Ring book itself is not included with the downloadable study guide, but can be easily accessed online, taken from public libraries, or even purchased through Progeny Press.

With book and guide on hand, students can do the prewriting activities, then read the book in its entirety, then jump into the guide, Or, they can read a few chapters a week and do corresponding activities. Or, like my son, they can revisit a book previously read for enjoyment only and dig a little deeper into it with a more academic bent in mind. 

 

As students dive into Tolkien's tale of fantasy, hobbits, adventure, danger, loyalty, and courage, they can explore so many concepts, themes, and skills.

Literary techniques included in the study explore alliteration, anthropomorphism, assonance, comic relief, foreshadowing, homonyms, exposition, paradox, point of view, rhythm, rhyme, setting, and tone.  

As the guide discusses such issues as how to treat prisoners, ethnocentrism, fleeing from sin, praying, seeking counsel, self-awareness, and true friendship, it also shines a light on how God is in control, the Word of God guides us, and God provides strength. Character and moral issues are central to the guide.

Writing assignments and activities include art, a character journal, a crossword puzzle, debate, essays, mapwork,  a mini poetry element study, a travel account and more.

Of course, there are more traditional vocabulary and comprehension exercises, too.

One of the prompts my son dug into had him relating Gandalf to the Good Shepherd and had my son asking a strong question in the conclusion of his response's initial draft: 

Just like the good shepherd protecting his flock, Gandalf was willing to die for his sheep, the fellowship. This willingness to lay down one's life for one's friends or followers is a key part of a virtuous leader and a virtuous person. Will we, like Gandalf, or the good shepherd, be willing to lay down our life if it will save others?

Middle School Students and Older Can Focus on the Last Battle

Meant for grades 5-8, The Last Battle Study Guide can also benefit older students. It comes in a downloadable interactive pdf format and can be used in conjunction with any online or bound copy of the book.

Within the study, literary techniques dealt with include allusion, anthropomorphism, asides foreshadowing, idioms, metaphors, motifs, onomatopoeia, parallelism, and more.

Moral lessons, character values, and  themes include commitment, courage, discouragement, distraction, friendship, hypocrisy, loyalty, racism, respect, teasing, truth vs. lies, wisdom vs. foolishness, and more.

After a helpful synopsis of the book, activities, exercises, and writing assignment topics include art, comprehension questions, discussion, essays, letter writing, poetry, research papers, vocabulary exercises, and more.

One prompt that got my son thinking referred to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. As my son was drafting his thoughts about the prompt, he wrote:

While this allegory has been used to explain many things, such as education or the lack thereof and its effects on our nature, or the preference of comfortable falsehoods to a strange truth, in Lewis’ book, Lord Digory seems to be referring to a different idea. This idea is that of the items with which we interact vs. the perfect ideals of those items in the eye of the divine. Such as a rose which one could hold, smell and see, but which is missing a petal. That is the shadow. The true essence of a rose is that held in the mind of the divine, a perfect rose, more vibrant than any which exists on this earth, more perfect. 

In The Last Battle, Narnia as it was is destroyed, and a ‘new’ Narnia is found. But this ‘new’ Narnia isn’t new. It is Narnia as it should be, a perfect Narnia in the eyes of the divine. The ‘new’ Narnia are the real items, the old are the shadows on the wall.

I love that this guide had my son digging into thoughts like this and look forward to reading his final draft response.

My Son's  Thoughts on These Guides

When I asked my 16-year-old for his thoughts on these guides, he said:

These guides are useful and educational. I have read both books before for enjoyment. Now, I am revisiting them with these guides. The guides highlight aspects I did not notice before and make parts jump out that seemed less important on my first readings of the books. 

I found the essays had me researching other literature in order to glean more. This is valuable for me because I am thinking of going to a Classical Liberal Arts college.

I would recommend them.

I would recommend them, too. Whether your child has never read C.S. Lewis and Tolkien or is revisiting books, Progeny Press encourages active, engaged learning.

Learn More

Progeny Press study guides for elementary, middle, and high school students are are available for instant download with no shipping costs and work on Windows and MAC with a universally compatible PDF format.

The Interactive Study Guides should be opened with a free Adobe Reader program and, once opened, allow students to enter their answers directly on the computer, saving their work in progress. (You can also print the guides, of course, if you or your students prefer to work offscreen.) 

Multiple children?  Progeny Press has you covered.  Any child in the family may use the guides - just save a copy for each child.

Want to grade your kids?  A complete, separate answer key for parents comes as an included download and can help.

Plus, if you're not tech savvy, free technical support is available if you encounter any difficulties using the digital guide!

Over 30 Homeschool Crew Review families chose from one of four guides recently, so you can read about experiences with guides for every grade level - by clicking through to find links to everyone's reviews.

You can also find Progeny Press on:

 Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube

Combine Picture Study, Paragraph Writing and Saint Stories for St. Clement's Feast Day

November 23rd is the Optional Memorial of St. Clement 1, Pope and Martyr. It can also be a wonderful day for coming together as a family for art appreciation, writing, and saint stories.

We did just that last year.

St. Clement Picture Study and Art History /Appreciation

I gathered my children together and presented them with these two images:

 

I asked them to study the images for a full minute without speaking, and, then, hid the images and asked each to share some recalled details.

Then, I showed the images again and asked my children to notice any similarities and differences in them, which, of course, had them noting that the main figure in both paintings is similar.

This led to me explaining that both paintings were created by the same artist - Bernardino Fungai, an Italian painter.

I, then, asked my children if they could guess when the artist lived based on the style of the painting.

We noted that the painting had rather flat figures, lacked naturalistic depth and volume, but had some semblance of a realistic nature and a definite background (rather than, say, gold leaf).

With this in mind, we determined the paintings must have been done after the Medieval art period - when figures were painted quite flat and stiff without much background - and before or just entering into the Renaissance period, when human figures were painted with realism and backgrounds were highly detailed. Thus, the painting must be from the Gothic era, bordering on the Renaissance. (The painter lived 1460- c.1516.)

I, then, asked my children what purpose they thought they painter had had in creating the paintings.

We decided it was to tell a story.

I asked if anyone could think of another word for telling stories and we got to the word narrations.

Types of Paragraphs Mini-Lesson

I bridged to the idea that storytelling, or narration, is also done with writing, of course, and that one type of paragraph is a narrative paragraph - or one that tells about an event or series of events, usually in chronological order.

I, then, asked the children if they could recall the other three main types of paragraphs:

• descriptive - describes a person, an object, or a scene in detail, often using many sensory detail

• expository - often lists facts, gives directions, or explains ideas; sometimes defines terms, makes comparisons, and/or shows cause and effect and typically uses logical order

• persuasive - shares an opinion about a particular subject and tries to convince readers to agree with the opinions and to take action; often uses order of importance

We, then, discussed that just as painters rarely arbitrarily select the figures, colors, and more for their artwork, writers often select types of paragraphs with specific purposes in mind.

If writers seek to entertain readers or express themselves, they typically use narration or description.

If they seek to inform, they often use exposition - and sometimes narration.

If they wish to influence people, they use persuasion.

Thus, several paragraphs written about the same subject might be very different, depending on why a writer wrote them.

With this in mind, we chatted about other things we know about paragraphs, including going over the fact that we divide a larger body of writing into paragraphs to give a readers’ eyes a rest and to indicate switches to new main ideas.

We also talked about starting a new paragraph when:

• expressing a new or different main idea
• explaining another part of your subject or step in a process
• providing another kind of support for your opinion 
• changing the time or location
• changing speakers

Writing Challenge

All that discussed, I set a timer and challenged each of us to choose ONE type of paragraph and to write something inspired by the paintings in paragraph form.

After that, we shared our paragraph's and guessed what type of writing - narrative, descriptive, expository, or persuasive - each of us was going for. (We had all chosen narrative!)

I then revealed the names of the paintings: St. Clement Striking the Rock and Martyrdom of St. Clement and asked if anyone could recall anything about St. Clement.

St. Clement Study

{Some links which follow may be affiliate links.}

Our own stories shared, I then read the St. Clement story from Once Upon a Time Saints, which we chatted about briefly.

Finally, as a sort of invitation to creativity, I showed my children this St. Clement video from Youtube:

My hope was that the video might inspire my children to learning more about this saint and other saints through questioning and/or perhaps decide to make some videos/film shorts inspired by this one.

That did not happen that day, but the seeds were planted for another...

And the creative writing that came out of the day was entertaining enough to share - which I will do in a moment.

First, though, I would just like to say that the paintings, mini-lesson, writing, and reading became a worthwhile cross-ages, cross-curricula study, and I pray that by sharing about it here, you are inspired to enjoy art, writing, and the saints with your own children.

Stories to Share

In the first narrative piece, the writer married elements of Biblical writing with humor, with his own personal style, combining inspiration from both Fungai paintings - as well as from the characteristic style of Gothic paintings - into the story.

The Bishop hit a rock and said, "Let there be water." And water gushed from the rock. 
Now, there happened to be a dancing lamb on the rock, and he got swept away away into the ocean where he got hit by an anchor that the same bishop that hit the rock threw.  Yes, he can bilocate at any given time. Also, he can grow giant whenever he wants. Shrinking stuff for him is as easy as breathing for us mere humans.

The next story told took inspiration from the Martyrdom of St. Clement, and then began to use ideas from the other painting, Some paragraphs are move narrative and others more descriptive All work to tell a story with strong imagery, vivid verbs, and specific nouns.

It has been six weeks since we set anchor in this foreboding place. 

When we arrived, the land had seemed cheerful and welcoming because land does not roar and pitch poor vessels into the sky only to crash them back down with the snapping of timber. And land does not swallow ships whole in the belly of a wave. 

But, we soon learned and had its issues as well. 

Now, as we travel through this land, I long to hear the trickle of water in this desert.

The third story was only loosely inspired by the paintings, taking the figure in the armor-like head covering and the "gush" as inspiration for a dramatic, action-packed, and gruesome narrative.

The tall man wrenched his weapon from the dead guard and headbutted his next attacker.

Thane had seen enough. He threw himself at the scythe-wielding reaper of men, thrusting forward his spear. The pointed shaft penetrated the muscle of the man and pierced his heart, showering those nearby with blood as it skewered him.

Thane dropped his spear and drew his arming sword. Before him, northern raiders pillages the town, plundering its wealth, setting its building ablaze, and slaughtering or enslaving its people. 

A gaunt prisoner barely covered with threadbare strips of cloth, plodded away from the stone quarry. His throat ached with dryness.

As he paused his weary steps, closing his yes and drawing in a weak breath, heavenly vision of thirst-quenching water played in his mind's eye. 

Drip. Drip, Drop. The prisoner thought he could hear the soothing water in his imagination. Then, the gentle dropping sound turned to a full on splash that taunted him so strongly that his eyes flew open.

"What?" he croaked incredulously.

In front of him stood that crazy Clement who called himself and exiled Christian, and, in front of Clement stood an incredible flow of water - real, sweet water.

I hope you have enjoyed this look into our eclectic study of St. Clement and can enjoy your own inspired lessons with your children.

St. Clement, pray for us.

Progeny Press Showed Me My Kids Are Finally Ready for Some Traditional Academic Studies {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Looking for interactive literature guides for your middle and highschoolers?

Having enjoyed fun, flexibility, and a combo of independent and group learning and exploration with a couple Progeny Press guides before, we decided to try out the Redwall Study Guide and the Frankenstein Study Guide when they were offered to us for review.

Like most Progeny Press study guides, these two guides offer a wide variety of information and activities, which includes:

• a brief author biography
• background information
• pre-reading activity ideas
• exercises to help learn and use vocabulary words
• focus on moral lessons and character values
• study of literary techniques
• a variety of comprehension and "digging deeper" questions
• writing assignments
• suggestions for further reading
• a complete answer key
  

Wonderful for families with multiple children, these studies can be used over and over again for multiple students in your families. (Just do a "save as" of the file for each child or print out multiple copies.) 

High School Students Can Dig into the Frankenstein Study Guide

The Frankenstein Study Guide is aimed at grades 10-12 and, when done in full, can earn a high student .25 transcript credits.

The classic Frankenstein book itself is not included with the downloadable study guide, but can be easily accessed online or taken from public libraries.

With book and guide on hand, the guide suggests that students do the prewriting activities, then read the book in its entirety, then jump into the guide. However, I chose a different course for my son.

Because my highschooler has a heavy load of studies and commitments right now, I simply asked him to self-pace through the book and guide, selecting activities that interest him or ones that I want him to focus on to deepen specific areas of knowledge or skill, which will include a final essay.

This works for him and for me as it introduces him to the meaty classic of Frankenstein, gives him some guidance and challenge with studying the story and corollary topics, but does not overwhelm him.

This is what he has to say about his work and the study so far:

I took this study, because I need English credits, and I have never read Frankenstein. I thought it would be a good way to earn some of my required credits while reading a classic.

When I first started reading the book, I did not like or dislike it, but, as I went on, the story became more and more gripping, especially the character of Frankenstein himself. I am now invested in the story and am about 1/3 of the way through the book.

Meanwhile, I read the pre-reading ideas in the guide, but decided not to do any of them. Instead, I skipped ahead to the lessons based on the book and started answering the questions onscreen.

In the past, I was not a workbook kid, so whenever we had a study like this my mom and I would chat about the material instead. I have not done many regular academic question-and-answer sort of things before besides multiple choice with online courses, so my progression with the study is slow.

I like how the study highlights many of the words I have read. When I am reading, new vocablary does not always stick out to me since I get so engaged in the story. It's nice to be reading the study guide, then, and learning words I can use in my own writing.

I also like the questions - how they ask you stuff about what the author is thinking. I know my mom has tried to talk about these things with me before, but I don't always pay attention. Doing this study on my own has me thinking more about author opinions.

 

For example, when I read the question on the author's opinion about poverty, I did not really know what poverty had to do with the story, but, then, as I was rereading sections of the book, I started realizing just how much the main  characters interact with poor people and how their actions might reveal Shelley's own opinions about poverty.

 

This study is forcing me to look for answers to questions I would have never asked using methods I would have never used. In the past, I would get too engaged in the characters and plot to notice other things.

This study is more "schooly" than most things I have done, because when I have done "schooly" things before, I tended to skip or adapt the "schooly" parts. This time, I have not been doing that because I am desperate for an English credit. The study is not completely my style, but I am learning things.

I would recommend this study guide to people who focus better than I do and those who want to get a typical, well-written study guide the poses interesting questions to the reader. I ould definitely say it is for a skilled ninth grader or above. It has merit, and I am glad I am doing it.

I give my son credit for being so honest and am also well-pleased with how he is willing and able to self-pace through this study, learning things along the way.

Should you and yours choose a different approach to the study - doing the entire study just as written, you will certainly dive into a lot!

Topics included in the Frankenstein study are information about the early 1800's, the history of science and discoveries, different literary movements and some politics.

The guide suggests activities related to Faust, poetry, mapping, research, and Bible study.

Literary techniques and topics touched upon are many and include context clues, characterization, framing, setting, mood, allusion, parallel foreshadowing, Gothic and  romantic novels, tone, irony, verisimilitude, metaphor, contrivance, theme, etc.

Among moral and character values that are raised are motivation, hubris, friendship, death, sin, guilt, human goodness, responsibility for our actions, revenge, man's nature, purpose, responsibility, God and His creation,  and ambition.

Writing assignments and activities include essays, research, and dramatic scenes.

Of course, there is plenty of fodder for pondering and discussion amidst the more traditional vocabulary and comprehension exercises, too.

Late Elementary Students and Older Can Focus on Redwall

The Redwall Study Guide is aimed at students in grades 6-10. Frankly, I think younger students who are good readers might enjoy the popular Redwall book which can be easily ordered online or from your local library to be used along with the study and that students on the older end might find the book less challenging/interesting, but still benefit from the breadth of topics the study guide focuses on.

My eldest, now 15, enthusiastically read the entire Redwall series years ago as a pleasure read. Now, my 11-year-old, is diving into Redwall for the first time with this study. He has the following to say about his experience this far:

The book is good. It is at the right level for my interests and abilities. I finished the first book - or section - of the book and, then, went over to the guide. 

The guide is okay. It is easy to use. I open the document my mom saved for me, read questions, and answer them onscreen. 

The questions make me think about the story and the words used in it. Some of the vocabulary words I don't even remember from the story until I read them in the guide and have had to look up the meanings of them, so I can put them into my own sentences. 

So far, I have learned the most from the vocabulary words and the questions about the story. I really like the vocabulary words. I would not have noticed them just reading and am learning a lot. 

I did have a problem saving my work on my computer and lost a lot of it. My mom then showed me how to fix it and what to do so I don't lose my work again. I don't mind doing the work over, though.

I would recommend this study for people who like reading, Redwall, and fun learning. It can be used as an independent study, which I like, or as a parent-kid study or even a group study. I want my friends to do the same study and then to discuss it after.

I was delighted to hear that my son likes the vocabulary exercises so much!

In the past, my kids did not like nor do well with many workbook/traditional study materials, so I tended to approach learning in other ways. In doing so, formal study of vocabulary took a back seat to learning through natural conversation, reading, etc. Without this study and my son's comments on it, I would not haverealized my son is ready for and enjoys more formal focus on vocab. (Winning!)

Since my son likes the study, I am also delighted that he will willingly self-pace through so much of it, and, in doing so, will be introduced to many new words and ideas while reviewing some he already knows.

Within the study, literary techniques dealt with include foreshadowing, dialect, empathy, foils, paraphrasing comic relief, paradox, simile, acrostic, mood, idioms, symbolism, paradox, cliff-hanger, irony,  and more.

Moral lessons and character values include focus on leadership, pride, teamwork, cooperation, promises, self-control, wisdom, talents, reaping what we sow, the armor of God, etc.

Activities and writing assignment topics include fantasy, maps, cooking, animals, architecture, art, crafting, flags, newspapers,  democracy, and service projects.

Among the extras mentioned in the guide, my son found out there is a Redwall animated show. That excited him, and now he wants to watch it when he is finished with the book!

Both study gudies are written from a Christian worldview.

Learn More

Progeny Press study guides for elementary, middle, and high school students are are available for instant download with no shipping costs and work on MAC and Windows with a universally compatible PDF format.

The Interactive Study Guides should be opened with a free Adobe Reader program and allow students to enter their answers directly on the computer, saving their work in progress. (You can also print the guides, of course, if you prefer to work offscreen.

Any child in the family may use the guides - just save a copy for each child - and there is a complete, separate answer key for parents.

Not tech savvy? Free technical support is available if you encounter any difficulties using the digital guide!

Homeschool Crew Review families chose from one of four guides recently, so you can read more about the Frankenstein and Redwall guides - as well as learn about the Cricket in Times Square and Wagon Wheels one - by clicking through to find links to everyone's reviews.

You can also find Progeny Press on:

 Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube

Avoid Library Fines while Enjoying 1,000K+ Resources {A LightSail for Homeschoolers Review}

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Raise your hand if you're ever racked up $10 or more in library fines because life got busy and you neglected to return huge stack of loans on time.

If you are the type of homeschooler who likes to draw from a wide variety of books, but does not want to risk such fines again, LightSail for Homeschoolers is a resource worth looking into.

Since receiving one year of access to a Premium Subscription of LightSail for Homeschoolers to review, my youngest son has not requested a single library book. For, at his fingertips, he has an incredible amount of digitized books to choose from and is enjoying browsing some, reading others, and learning more about how to use the many reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency 
resources that LightSail for Homeschoolers offers.

When I asked him for his thoughts for this review, he explained:

With Lightsail, I first had to take a placement quiz to see what level I am at. Basically, I read passages and had to answer questions by filling in words from four choices. 

After the quiz, I was free to read any book around my level and to watch livestream and videos. To watch the videos, I had to read for 10 minutes or more from a Powertext which unlocked the videos. The Powertext is a book at your level or a bit higher that will challenge you. I am currently reading a non-fiction one about war canines. 

The program also has audiobooks, action clips, encyclopedias, spelling, writing, and more. I have used a little of these things, but mainly like the reading aspect right now.

I find Lightsail interesting and want to continue to use it, because it has a huge variety of books that I don't have to return to a library. I would recommend it to any age student that can read and likes to be onscreen.

Diving a little deeper into what LightSail for Homeschoolers is, let me add some Mama thoughts:

LightSail for Homeschoolers is a complete, online, adaptive language arts platform that offers over 1,000 curated resources which work together to help advance students of all ages cross four pillar of literacy: reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency.

The Premium Subscription we received includes access to a bevy of e-books, dozens of modules, hundreds of features, and thousands of pieces of faith-based and secular content. We're talking digital books - fiction, nonfiction, classics, and more, - plus audiobooks, encyclopedias, current events, video clips and the list goes on... There are also special features for each pillar of literacy.

Fluency options include reading aloud, narration, memory modules, grading etc. 

Vocabulary options include vocabulary and definitions, spelling lists and spelling bees, cloze exercises in texts, dolch sight words, and grading. 

Writing options include grammar skills, becoming and author and book sharing, essay writing, inquiry-based writing, informal writing workshop, and grading.

Then, our favorite, Reading options include booklists in classic, faith-based, and securlatr collections; the entire World Book Encyclopedia, Atlas, and Timeline; memory work; read alouds; built-in assessments; unit studies; content controls; and grading.

Of course, all this means you can use LightSail for Homeschoolers for all of our language arts and literacy needs, or you can cherry-pick what is most helpful and interesting to you and yours.

If I am 100% honest, I will admit that, due to the sheer volume of resources that LightSail for Homeschoolers offers, we have just scratched the surface of all the platform has to offer. Thus, I can not attest to every aspect of how it deals with every pillar of literacy.  I can say, however, that if your child likes to be onscreen to and to self-direct (as my youngest does), this resource is a solid one for language arts.

It allows you, as a parent, control over what types of content you want accessible to your child while allowing your child freedom within limits.

Also, since LightSail for Homeschoolers is such a massive resource, I would suggest that both you and your child take time to watch the introductory videos included with it before digging in. (Trust me, this will help you avoid frustrations, such as your child being locked out of certain resources.) I would also suggest, as we are doing, getting used to one aspect of the resource at a time.

Learn More

If you'd like to learn more about LightSail for Homeschoolers, be sure to click on over to see what other Homeschool Review Crew families thought about this comprehensive platform. 

You can also LightSail for FREE for up to 7 kids, getting instant access to thousands of exciting books if you sign-up today!

Plus, you can find LightSail on social media, of course:

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LightSail is worth taking a look at as a way of helping grade K-12 children explore and develop language arts skills... without racking up more library fines!