homeschool software

PrezQuest

January 17, 2009 By Barb 3 Comments

Exciting news! I have moved blogs. I am in the process of slowly moving all the posts over. Please join me at MomOffTrack.com.

Looking for something unique to do this week for the Inauguration? This may be your answer! This week the kids and I had the opportunity to do our first live online learning event. It was really cool. There is a live teacher that walks the kids through the lesson which makes it different from any other online learning program that I know of. When the kids answered questions correctly, our ‘teacher’ would give them a high five, which they thought was really neat. They enjoyed being actively engaged in the lesson and hearing their names used.

The event that we did was called PrezQuest.

During the event the live teacher acted as the kids campaign manager. The teacher walked them through the qualifications to be the President, the five main jobs of the President, and the Election process. The event is peppered with cute animations of past presidents that share fun facts and interactive games.

I loved that the process is meant to be shared with a parent. This is not something you sit the kids down to do while you make dinner. The intent is to spark conversation and interaction between parents and kids. In other words, it is the perfect medium to do something a little different during your homeschool week.

I was most impressed to have Ranjy Thomas, the president of Flying Rhinoceros (the development company behind PrezQuest) personally call me after the event to ask for my feedback. We talked about a few of the ‘glitches’ I encountered, namely the initial log in process not going smoothly and he assured me that they are working on ironing small things like that out. He was very warm and friendly and had a real interest in learning about the homeschool community and how their company can best serve our needs. They plan to do many more live events with different topics. PrezQuest is available to families for $6.99 per event, or $11.99 for the event and the book “Wooden Teeth & Jelly Beans.” In either case you get a great activity book to print and access to the online games after the event as well.

I absolutely recommend PrezQuest and I am looking forward to see more from this company. I think they are a real bright star to watch in the future of children’s online education! They already have a great site of free educational games to play on so even if you don’t get to do PrezQuest, make your way over to The Fraboom Network and check them out. If you do take part in PrezQuest please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of the experience!

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Filed Under: Homeschool Curriculum Tagged With: homeschool software

Pokemon Learning League Review

November 27, 2007 By Barb Leave a Comment

I first saw this advertised in an education magazine and was pretty excited about the concept. Basically, the concept is that the Pokemon characters teach mini lessons. The lessons are VERY similar to the ones found on brainpop.com or time4learning.com except that Ash, Brock, May and Pikachu take on the ‘teachers role’. In theory, this could be a great thing for those young Pokemon fans. Unfortunately, we found the program lacking in many ways. The site claims that it is targeting grades 3-6. From the site:

Primarily for grades 3-6, Pokémon Learning League can also be used with young gifted students, special needs students, and English Language Learners. Because it is a supplemental resource that supports differentiated instruction in core content areas, the program can be used with a diverse range of students and in a variety of learning environments and programs.

My 6th grader has absolutely no interest in Pokemon and the lesson content was far inferior to what you would expect on a six grade level. They are using the characters as a draw and lacks some real substance to the lessons. In contrast, my third grader loves Pokemon. He has what the public school terms ‘special needs’. The lessons were far above his head. The only thing he got from them was the fun of watching the characters walking around.

I probably would not have felt the need to write a review of this program if it weren’t for the price of it! For a family with three children an annual membership is $99!!! I would hate for anyone to plop down that kind of money without a little warning. There are far better online sites to spend that kind of money. Here are three of my favorites:

I Know That
Time4Learning
Brain Pop

We won’t be buying a membership to Pokemon Learning League. It is too bad because it is a fabulous concept. I would like to see it provide more drill challenges. The characters would be great in motivating kids to practice facts. Thank goodness they provide a 30 day trial. Try it out and if you disagree leave a comment. Maybe I am missing something…

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Time4Learning

October 25, 2007 By Barb 1 Comment

When I first started looking into homeschooling the first question was, of course, “What will I teach?”. My son is 9 years old and has high functioning autism. I knew that he has always learned well from TV shows and computer games. I needed to find a curriculum that was disguised as a game. He was at the point where he hated school and anything ‘educational’. Time4Learning absolutely was the answer for us. The lessons were short and to the point. The characters did a very good explaining the concept and then demonstrating how to complete the problem without losing his interest. The math curriculum was so effective for him that he completed an entire grade level in three months. I had purchased MathUSee to supplement Time4Learning for Math but right now we don’t need it. Time4Learning is our complete curriculum for math. The success and confidence in Math that he has gained from Time4Learning has been remarkable.

He has a lot more difficulty following the Language Arts program because the characters talk very fast and it times out with a message that says “Need more time?” within a few seconds during the reading portions. He always needs more time to process the information. He is more successful with the Language Arts Enrichments than the core Language Arts program and I have simply made the decision for now to use something else for comprehension and story elements. The ILA (Integrated Language Arts) sections of the Language Arts section is interesting and he likes to complete those.

The Science and Social Studies sections are too small to be used as a core curriculum but he likes to do them. We are participating in the Cornell bird study right now and we use Brainpop.com as well to supplement. Not mention, real life!

He loves being able to check his online portfolio and goes to check his progress after every lesson. I love being able to print these reports once a month. Even though I am in a state that does not require homeschool reporting on testing, I still keep a portfolio for him. Every month I print off a report of his lessons and stick it there.

So, as a homeschooling mom and a former public school teacher I would have to say that Time4Learning is well worth the time, money and effort we spend on it. My 6th grader who is still enrolled in public school has a membership as well and uses it to supplement lessons that he needs extra practice on. The fact that he enjoys Time4Learning in addition to a full day in public school speaks volumes in my mind. There is a free trial available so I would suggest taking advantage of it and see if it works as well for you!

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