I See Sam Review ** TOS Crew**

We received the I See Sam reading program from Academic Success for all Learners to review.
Included in our review material was the first four levels of little books( $30 Per Level), The Instructors Guide, Motivational Materials, Placement and Assessment Manual ($10), and flashcards sets for all four levels ( $15 or a free download on the website)

When we first got this program I really thought it was going to work great for us. It was simple, and my 6 year old prereader jumped right in. She learned to read the first 6 books in rapid time. I was impressed.... until I realized she  was memorizing the couple of words that are repeated.
She can now read See, Sam, I, Me, Mat, am. They really did boost her confidence but I think she needs a phonetic program in addition to these.
I strongly believe language is best taught through a strong foundation in phonetics. This program is what I would refer to as a "whole language" program, it teaches children sight words. It does include guides to sound them out but your child will not even learn all of the letter sounds before the end of level one. I guess that's what I really didn't love. How slowly it takes them through the letters.

She enjoys these books and like I said they really do boost her confidence so I think we will continue to read these books but we will use them in conjunction with a strong phonics only program.
I will say though that I have learned when it comes to reading all children learn to read in a different way at a different time. This program could be just what your child needs. If it is great, it's cute, simple and fun.

Just because this program alone didn't work for us doesn't mean it won't work for your family. Some things I loved about the program are it has cues on several pages to remind you to praise your child, I like that because it is easy to forget sometimes. I also like the simple black and white pages and the books sizes. I like the idea of a whole program encompassed inside the books as well. You don't need a teachers manual or a workbook you just grab the next book and go.
It also includes cute little sticker charts for every book you complete which my daughter really enjoyed.

If you visit the website Here you can view several sample books and download teachers manuals and a lot of other things so you can get an idea of whether this program is right for your family or not.

Check out other reviews Here and see what my crew mates thought. A lot of the crew members loved this product and it was a great fit for their families. 

I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review of the product. I received no other compensation.

Kid Scoop and The Reluctant Reader Solution **TOS** Review

We reviewed the Kid Scoop Online Newspaper  and The Reluctant Reader Solution for the TOS Crew.


Kid Scoop is an Online Kid Themed Newspaper. Each month there is a new Kid Scoop for your child to enjoy.  The newspaper is bright, colorful, filled with interesting things to read and engaging activities. My kids love it. It is perfect for my 8 year old daughter. She asks to read this and enjoys everything in it. It is a bit advanced reading for my 9 year old son who is dyslexic, although he has enjoyed having me read it aloud to him.  I love that each month there is something new for them to read and work on.

It was a little difficult to get it into a format that was easy to read at first. The print is too small on the website to read online and hard to navigate. I was able to save it as a PDF and then it was very easy to use. Now that I know how to do it it truly is a non-issue. It also takes a bit of ink to print and there are activities on nearly every page that your children will want to do... multiply that by several children and it is a bit much. I love the activities but I wish they would consolidate the activities to less pages or make the activity pages a little less colorful for my ink budget's sake.
Despite the printing woe's my kids like it enough that I will continue to print it out for them despite my ink's displeasure.

The other part of the program we received is The Reluctant Reader Solution.

Let me start by saying that this is perfect. There honestly isn't a thing I would change about these worksheets. They come in groups of 5-7 worksheets per subject and there are enough worksheets to do one every day of the year. The topics cover such a wide range you can find something for any child to love. The worksheets are black and white (easy to print) but still visually engaging and fun. The topics are intriguing and educational.
One thing I loved is they include packets for different holidays, I always find myself going hmmmm seems we should be doing something to learn about  _____(insert holiday here) but find myself at a loss. Now I can just grab the worksheets and go!  Even when I forget to plan it's there for me, that is priceless I tell you!

Now here's the tricky part. For 12 months of Kid Scoop and all of the Reluctant Reader PDF's it is $97.
Caught your breath yet? I know if your like me it sounds like a lot. I sat here for a while trying to decide if it is something I would purchase at that price. The only answer I can muster is I'm honestly not sure. I need to use it for longer before I decide about that.... which doesn't help you.
My fear is that maybe the enthusiasm for it won't last, but I'm hoping it will.
Here's the great thing though, Kid Scoop offers a 365 day money back guarantee. This means if you buy it and your kids love it for a month and then never want to look at it again, well you can get your money back. To me what this means is Kids Scoop is fairly certain your kid's are going to continue to love it. They have confidence in their product so I'm going to say yes considering they back their product so fully I would purchase it. Honestly if it helps your child's reading improve it's fully worth $97, if it doesn't you're not out a penny. That's a risk worth taking if you ask me.

To read what my other crew mates think you can visit the TOS Blog Here.

** I received a copy of the Reluctant Reader Solution and a Membership for Kid Scoop in return for my honest review of the products. No other compensation was received**

We've moved to Minnesota........

or at least the weather thinks we have!! We got 2 feet of snow last night! TWO FEET... I've never in my life seen so much snow. I wouldn't want this to happen all the time but it's really amazing. The kids are loving it... that is until their limbs started to go numb and they admitted defeat by the snow. It's still coming down right now.... really wishing we owned snow gear about now so we could go out and enjoy it for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Peyton trying to dig a tunnel through the snow. 

How much snow is too much for snow angels?

The scary aftermath of all those kids playing in the snow....

Stay warm and enjoy the snow!!

Snow Days

Just thought I would share a couple pictures from our snow days last week. The kids really enjoyed getting to play in the snow and spent a good amount of time working on forts. We also did a lot of art projects to try and keep from going totally stir crazy. Although we had fun I am praying the bad weather they've predicted for this week will pass us by.... I am truly tired of being stuck in the house!

Peyton and Weylin's snow fort... you can see it's armed with snowballs for attack. 

Our kitchen looked like an art store exploded for most of the week. 

The face of an artist ;) 

Valentine Craft and the best kids art book ever!

First up a fun little Valentine craft my friend Valerie inspired us to do. If you want to try it please use her instructions here... her instructions are fabulous and I wouldn't dare try to replicate them lol.

Here is the beautiful work in progress.... This really is a great craft to do with little kids. Despite the fact that everyone helped with every part it still looks gorgeous and not at all like the 2 year old helped even though she did!

Next up I want to tell you about the best art book I've ever purchased for my kids. Not the meatiest nor the most detailed mind you. But the BEST book EVER!! Want to know why? The projects are fun, intriguing and my kids can do them ALONE. The instructions are great with lots of details and pictures and my kids have made projects that look neat and they feel proud of. The best part is I purchased this at Hobby Lobby Monday ( with my handy dandy 40% off coupon) and since Monday afternoon, until now Wednesday evening they have made stuff from it nonstop!!

Here's the book 

Here's some samples of their work ;) ( Some of it is MIA already but you can get the idea) Some of it should be larger but we've been snowed in so I haven't had a chance to take the patterns to a copy machine to enlarge them to 200%

Wacky Weather

The weather here has been rather interesting lately. Here's some pictures of the kids last Saturday enjoying a picnic in the yard in the 70 degree weather....

And here's what it looks like today... it's currently 7 degrees out

I guess I'd rather the wacky weather to all cold... at least we got to have a picnic!

Sand Art

We are studying Middle Ages this year in history. Last week we were learning about India and the Frescos they once made on their cave walls. We decided to try out own hand at this. Let me tell you creating art with sand... not as easy as you might think. Forget about detail, you can also forget about walking barefoot through your kitchen for the next year. Unless that is you enjoy the beach feel ;).

Hard at work.

 Their Creations..