Sunday, April 28, 2013

Spanish For You Review

I had the pleasure of reviewing Spanish For You's Fiestas curriculum. This curriculum is for grades 3-8. It is a little above where my daughter is right now, but we loved looking at it and are looking forward to using it more in the future.
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This curriculum is affordable, is suited for self-study, family, or class use, is flexible, easy to use, and fun. The whole package that I reviewed which included a physical books and digital files for Grades 3-8 is only $64.95. It includes fun drawings drawn by the author's child and accurate and informative Spanish lessons.  The author recently reorganized all the digital files so they are easy to access and keep on track with the lessons.

Learning a second (or third or fourth) language is important to many people. I think this product is a great choice for doing this.


Thursday, April 11, 2013

A Review of a Planner (by a planner)

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a planner. I have OCD tendencies so I need to know when, where, how, and have everything written down. Whenever someone starts talking about any kind of plans, my trusty (very scribbled in) daily planner comes out. A lot of people have switched their lives to their planners on their phones or other electronic device, but I just can't do it. I need to be able to write, and scribble out, and write again.

So, when I found out I had the opportunity to review a Homeschool Planner I was estactic because this was one part of my life that I didn't feel I had planned out as well as I would like. I received the Apologia Ultimate Homeschool Planner by Debra Bell and the Ultimate Daily Planner for Students for Little One to use. In the package was also an Apologia Catalog (which was helpful in choosing a Science curriculum for next year, but that's another post)

 
My first impression of both planners was just how beautiful and well put together they are. I love the plastic covers and that they are spiral bound. They are durable, yet light and easy to carry. I dove right into both of them and was even more impressed as I went on. Both planners not only included basic planning pages, but also many extra resources and helpful information.
 
 
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner has a sample plan for planning a homeschool year, along with weekly and monthly planning sheets.
 
Weekly Plan
 
I have found that if I take time on Sunday to fill in my plan for the week, it goes by much more smoothly than if I hadn't. Since I received this planner mid school year I didn't use it to plan for the year. I do plan on using it to plan for the following year though. This planner costs $28 and I feel that it is more than worth it for what you get.
 
 
I also received the Ultimate Daily Planner for Students for Little One to use. This planner is geared toward students in fourth grade and up. Little One is in first so it was a little above her, but we were still able to make it work. I think that older children would get a lot out of it though. What we did was I wrote out her plan for the week into the planner and she marked when she completed them. If she was older and more independent, I would have sat with her on Sunday when I was making my plan and have her fill it our herself with what she needed to get done and when. This planner costs $19 and again I feel that it is worth the money.
 
These planners have been such a help to both of us and I'm excited to continue using them.