Little Wonders Preschool from Wisdom Wonder Project Review

{Disclaimer:  I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.}

 

This is G's last year of "official" preschool.  He has been using the Little Wonders Preschool from Wisdom Wonder Project this month and loving it!  The Little Wonders online subscription bundle has curriculum for three levels - Preschool, Junior K, and Kindergarten.  The program is designed around childrens' developmental stages and books.  We have access to all 3 of these levels for a year, which is awesome, so we can pick and choose the best path for G!  I absolutely love this feature.  Our bundle includes Literature, Block Play and Little Masters (Art).

Regarding Literature, this curriculum includes material for 4 picture books each month so you will use one book each week.  These books are not included within the curricula so you will need to own them or have access to a library.  

 

We were able to find 3 of the 4 books used for September's Literature at our local library!  We couldn't locate Planting a Rainbow so we were flexible that week and used other books that we already owned.

Reading Peter's Chair

 

Rosie's Walk was one of G's favorites.  He loved answering the questions about the book and enjoyed pretending to be Rosie and what she might be thinking.

Above you can see G enjoying the past the mill sensory activity.

 

Swirl by Swirl was a lot of fun too.  G still looks for spirals everywhere we go!
 

G making dough spirals inspired by Swirl by Swirl.

The Little Masters (Art) focuses on one book and one famous artist each month. Student will be exposed to various elements of art and they will have a space to create and practice it.  September's book is The Line by Paula Bossio (another shout out to our local library for having this) and the artist for the month is Andy Warhol.

The Line by Paula Bossio

G had a lesson on the color wheel.

G mixing color while painting - he loved making green!

Above, G is making dots on his paper with Q-tips.

Now, his dots are going for walks.

Similar to The Little Masters, The Block Play aspect of this curriculum has one book per month as well and focus on experiential learning.  We weren't able to find September's book of the month at our local library but I was able to locate a cute online adaptation video of it so G was able to watch it.

 

The Block Play book for the month of September is Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins.

The Block Play section has so many fun activities to discuss and do together this month.  It has a vocabulary section to discuss with your student - words like under, over, below, etc. to help improve their directional skills.  It also has mapping activities where students can build a city and then make a map of their city.  They will use their blocks to stamp shapes into dough.  

 

 

 G absolutely loved this activity.

They will build a house from blocks as well as other creations inspired by them.  They will also see just how high they can build a tower until it tumbles.

G building a tower until it falls!

While I haven't shown you everything, I hope that you have a good feel for this program.  G is really loving it!  It's engaging, enriching and just plain fun.  I appreciate that he is enjoying learning.  I'm also impressed that these books were all new to us.  We read a lot and I was pleasantly surprised by this fact.  We are both looking forward to October's curriculum and books.  If you are looking for a hands-on, engaging curriculum for your young students, I'd highly recommend Wisdom Wonder Project!

Wisdom Wonder Project also has a Young Scholars program (First/Second Grade) and a Kindergarten Singapore Math program as well.  Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read even more reviews of Wisdom Wonder Project including some of their other programs.

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Latina Christiana Complete Set from Memoria Press Review

{Disclaimer:  I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  This post contains affiliate links.}


I am a huge Memoria Press fan so I was excited to receive their Latina Christiana Complete Set to review.  You may remember our review of First Form Latin from Memoria Press last year.  This set is designed as a beginner course for students of all ages with a more specific target for grades 3-6th.  It is recommended to move from Latina Christiana into First Form Latin.  I thought this program would be great for my younger kiddos!

Our Latina Christiana Complete Set

Our set came with a Teacher Manual, Student Book, Instructional DVDs, a Pronunciation CD and Flashcards.  Fear not if you know nothing about Latin!  This course was specifically made for you, the teacher with no Latin background (that's me!).

 Our Instructional DVDs

 A closer look

I love having the Instructional DVDs component of this course.  Our program includes 3 discs with a total of ~ 5.5 hours of instruction.  The lessons have a self-instructive format and the average lesson time is ~ 15 minutes.

 

Jessica Watson is the Latin Instructor (the same instructor used in our First Form Latin) and she does a great job laying out the material and teaching comprehensively for each new grammar lesson.  I think the vocabulary practice and explanations of the derivatives is especially great.  The DVDs include helpful on-screen notes, illustrations, diagrams, and recitations.

D watching the Introduction.

Pronunciation CD

The Pronunciation CD is a valuable resource to have as it contains all verbal pronunciations for every lesson.  Fear not if you are not sure how to pronounce a word!  This trusty CD comes in handy.

Our Teacher Manual

The Teacher Manual is chock-full of everything you need!  It even includes the Student Text as in inset with overlaid answers.  With detailed weekly lesson plans, comprehensive teaching instructions, grammar overview, a recitation schedule, tests/quizzes and answer keys along with background information of Latin sayings and Roman history.  Memoria Press has done all the legwork for you!

 Above you can see what I mean about having the student workbook as an inset.

 Another peek inside

Our Student Workbook

All of the material in this program is reusable and can be used with multiple students with the exception of the student workbook.  You will need a separate student workbook for each student in this program.  Each lesson in the student workbook is broken into Latin sayings, vocabulary, and grammar forms.  There are a total of 25 lessons (plus 5 review lessons).  Every lesson has corresponding exercises to be completed.  The exercises give consistent practice and review of the lesson information.  There is a lovely Appendices at the back of the student workbook chock-full of great resources.

 A peek at Lesson 1

 D completing Lesson 1

 A close-up view of her completed page.

 A peek at the first review lesson (reviews lessons 1-5)

 Our flashcards

 Above are the flashcards for lesson 1 vocabulary.

These flashcards work for both the Latina Christiana and Prima Latina programs.  The flashcards come pre-cut (less prep work!) and are 3.5 x 2.5 inches.  The cards contain the vocabulary with derivatives, Latin sayings and the conjugations and declensions.  I really appreciate that they include the lesson number that they correspond with on the cards as it makes it easy to organize and use them!  Above you will see that our amo flashcard contains 1 (PL 4) in the upper left hand corner, the 1 corresponds to lesson 1 in Latina Christiana while the PL 4 corresponds to lesson 4 in Prima Latina.

I have started using this program with D, who is finishing the 5th grade and has no previous Latin instruction.  I think it's a great fit for her.  We started at a very slow pace because we are planning on taking a break over the summer and jumping back into it in the Fall.  I really like that this program introduces Latin at a gentle pace and gives the students all the tools they need.  And speaking of tools:  we have the CD if we can't remember the pronunciation of a word, we have the instructional DVDs so I don't have to be intimidated with teaching the lessons, and I have the all important teacher key if I'm unsure of the correct answer.  Memoria Press's Latin sets really are complete!  If you are looking for a beginner Latin program for your student, I would definitely check out Latina Christiana.

I also want to mention that there is an optional history component to this program from Memoria Press, Famous Men of Rome Set.  A great motivating factor for students studying the Latin language is learning the history and culture of Rome and Memoria Press has made this easy with this extra option.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read even more reviews of Memoria Press including some of their other Latin Complete sets.

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Second Grade Literature Guide Set by Memoria Press Review

E will be in 2nd grade this upcoming school year.  I was super excited when we received the opportunity to review the Second Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press.  You guys might remember I'm a huge fan of Memoria Press as we have used their First Form Latin and Simply Classical Spelling Books.  Their products are amazing.

We received all of the Second Grade Literature Guides without the novels.  This was super generous of Memoria Press as we only had time to review one of the guides in this set.  This Second Grade Literature Guide Set includes both student study guides and teacher guides for all five novels - Prairie School, The Courage of Sarah Noble, Little House in the Big Woods, Tales from Beatrix Potter and Animal Folk Tales of America.  Thankfully, we already owned all of these novels except Animal Folk Tales of America so I am ordering it as we speak.

 Our Literature Guide Set

 Our Books

The student study guides are consumable and expected to be used by one student; whereas, the teacher guides can be reused.  E and I chose to start with Prairie School + Memoria Press Literature Guide.

Our Prairie School Set

E reading

Memoria Press' literature study guides help train students to become engaged, active readers and challenges them to think.  These guides focus on comprehension, vocabulary, spelling and composition skills.  Every lesson has a word study to help enrich students vocabulary.  I really appreciate the comprehension questions that challenge students to think about what they have read and learn to identify the main points and messages.

E's student study guide pages for Chapter 1

And the pages for Chapter 2

Prairie School contains eight chapters and is 48 pages so this guide had eight lessons.  You can have your student read the book to you or have them read independently.  I had E read the first two chapters aloud to me.  She did such an amazing job that I had her read the remainder of the book on her own.  The teacher guide contains a model lesson plan that includes pre-reading, reading, and post-reading instructions.  There are four main sections on the pages of the student study guide:  pronounce and spell, vocabulary, comprehension questions, and discussion.  I really like the Enrichment section that includes activities like copywork, dictation, composition, research, mapping, drawing, poetry work, etc.  I have been so impressed with E's comprehension and discussion ability.  It has been so fun.  E reads the comprehension questions aloud to me and tells me what she remembers.  The vocabulary portion has been so rewarding as E's vocabulary is steadily increasing.  She knew some words, had great deduction for others and learned several new definitions throughout this book like hearth, buggy and primer.  E is very advanced in her reading and this book was one of the shorter ones so our pace was a bit faster than expected.  However, we didn't speed through it because there was such value in our rich discussions!

We have already begun our next journey into Tales from Beatrix Potter.  I am pumped that I will be able to use the rest of these guides throughout E's 2nd grade school year.

Tales from Beatrix Potter Set

Tales from Beatrix Potter focuses on the tales of Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Tom Kitten and Johnny Town-Mouse.  It has the same model plan and includes a life lesson section for each book.

Animal Folk Tales of America Set

Animal Folk Tales of America is on its way to me but it looks like it is 14 chapters long.  There is the same model plan and it includes rhyming, writing a poem and has a few chapter assessments.  

Little House in the Big Woods Set

Little House in the Big Woods has 13 chapters and is 238 pages long.  The chapters are longer in Little House in the Big Woods so many of the chapters are broken into two lessons with a part 1 and part 2 in the student study guide, not all though.  There is the same model lesson plan as the other guides.  There are 4 honors activities as well as multiple assessments as well.

Example of an honors activity

I'm really looking forward to researching Wisconsin with E as we have family there and we have visited many times!

The Courage of Sarah Noble Set

The Courage of Sarah Noble has 11 chapters.  It has the same model plan with 3 honors activities and 3 chapter assessments.

I'm excited about this illustrating a scene activity.

I love that you can see samples of both the student study guides and teacher guides for all five novels on Memoria Press' website.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of Memoria Press and check out some of their other products including Third Grade Literature Guide Set, Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set, Fifth Grade Literature Guide Set, Sixth Grade Literature Guide Set, Seventh Grade Literature Guide Set, Eighth Grade Literature Guide Set, Ninth Grade Literature Guide Set, and Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set not to mention the StoryTime Treasures Set and More StoryTime Treasures Set.

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