July 28, 2019

A Few of My Favorite Things

July 28, 2019/ Erin Cox

AHHHH! I’m so excited about this! I recently hosted an amazing giveaway with a few companies that I adore. Even though that giveaway is over, I wanted to leave this post up to share their wonderful products!

I know that preparing for the first few years of home education with your little one can be overwhelming- teaching them to read being right at the top of the list of fears at times! I’ve talked about this before, but honestly. teaching our children to read can be one of the most stressful, daunting tasks in all of homeschool (with the exception of Trigonometry… which we will outsource ;).

Below are 4 of my FAVORITE resources for doing K4 and Kindergarten at home this year!

July 23, 2019

Dash into Reading Review- Why I love it soooo much!

July 23, 2019/ Erin Cox

We have used Bob Books for years. For me, they were a great, level-appropriate compliment to All About Reading that allowed us to have additional fluency practice. I always enjoyed how simple the reading was, but let's say that my kiddos were never enthusiastic to read about Bob and all his weird, pointless shenanigans.

February 14, 2019

Review of Foundational Phonics Program

February 14, 2019/ Erin Cox

You may have noticed, if you've browsed this blog much, that I'm an enthusiastic supporter of All About Reading. So, it may come as a surprise that I'm sharing a review for a different phonics curriculum.

When the author of Foundational Phonics, Ariel Gunther, reached out to me with her gentle phonics program, I was more than intrigued. As we worked for years to get my dyslexic daughter reading on grade level, we tried more than a handful of programs. That process, along with the success my friend Hayley has also had with AAR, left me looking through Foundational Phonics with a discerning eye. So it's only natural that as I share all I love, or might not, about Foundational Phonics, I'll be making a few references to All About Reading as well.

What is Foundational Phonics?

January 26, 2019

Dear Scared, Worried (Overwhelmed) New Homeschool Mom

January 26, 2019/ Erin Cox

I received a text from a sweet friend last night, one who is in the thick of her first year or two of homeschooling. As she'd spent many sleepless nights cradling and nursing her newborn infant recently, thoughts and concerns flooded her mind over the progress of her 6-year old daughter's reading.

Anyone who has been in the thick of homeschooling for one year or 10 remembers those days well. Not one of us is impervious to fears, second-guessing, unmet expectations, and the torture of comparison. What follows is a version of my response to her concerns, that she and I agreed, should be shared with you as well.

January 22, 2019

All About Reading: Level 4 Color Edition Review

January 22, 2019/ Hayley Croft

I was so excited when Erin told me that All About Learning Press was releasing a NEW COLOR EDITION of their All About Reading program! I have used AAR with three of my children, and it has been such a blessing to our family. This program has helped me gain confidence and skills in teaching my children to read. I’ve written before about how we use AAR in our home. Today I want to share a little more about the new color editions, and why I have changed my mind about Level 4.

October 10, 2018

All About Reading: How it Works for Our Family {a detailed review}

October 10, 2018/ Hayley Croft

When I first began homeschooling, the responsibility that intimidated me more than any other was teaching my own children to read. I have always been an avid reader, and I desperately wanted to instill a love of reading in my kids. I realized very quickly, however, that my love of reading did not automatically qualify me to teach someone else HOW to read. Because I had no background in teaching reading, I knew I needed to find a program that could walk ME through the process as well as my child. We tried several different programs in the beginning, but they either bored my child to tears or proceeding so quickly that she felt overwhelmed, and I felt lost without a map.

October 03, 2018

I am Using a Living Books Science Curriculum with my Dyslexic Daughter

October 03, 2018/ Erin Cox

I am so excited to get to share about the Beautiful Feet Books' HISTORY OF SCIENCE program! If you're like me, you never really entertained the notion of a science program from the perspective of history. When I first ran across it, I thought that it might not be very hands-on (meaning all books, no experiments) or that it wouldn't be "thorough enough" since it's not specific to one area of science--like biology, chemistry, botany.

Oh my, how I was wrong! I received this curriculum to use with my 6th grader for my honest review. She is a very hands-on kinesthetic learner, who- despite being dyslexic- learns best through real, living stories. When she is involved in a story line, she will remember every single detail of that person's life. Living books are hands-down the best way to get lasting knowledge and true education into her heart and mind forever. You do NOT have to avoid living books for a dyslexic student!

June 26, 2018

When Your Homeschooled Child Can't Read Yet

June 26, 2018/ Erin Cox

If you're reading this, you are probably in the midst of teaching one of your little ones to read OR you have that endeavor looming ahead of you in the near future... amiright? The singular biggest fear of every single homeschool mom I've ever spoken to is failing to teach her child to read well... and especially failing to teach them "on time".

In most of our minds, we envision that our homeschooled child would be reading well in advance of their public school counterparts (or at least at the same time). Simultaneously, in our little hearts, one reason we homeschool is to give our children the time and space to grow and develop on their own timeline. Sometimes these desires and expectations clash and can create monster homeschool mom anxiety. I know many mamas who have quit homeschooling (or never even began) because they were overwhelmed at the idea of failing in this important task.

I want to share some actual evidence with you today that helped put me at ease when my own homeschool student just wasn't progressing like I felt she "should."

May 18, 2018

FREE "Cheat Sheet" for Math + Writing {Elementary}

May 18, 2018/ Erin Cox

I have a daughter with dyslexia. For my sweet girl, one of the most confounding aspects of her learning disability is a poor working memory and the amount of effort (and incredible repetition) needed in order to move information from "temporary storage" into her permanent, long-term memory. During the elementary years, it can take a dyslexic students YEARS of practicing parts of speech, place value, multiplication tables, writing dates and months before they TRULY master it and put it into their long-term memory.

April 06, 2018

FREE Spiral Review Worksheet + 300 Sight Word List (Dyslexia/Reading/Math)

April 06, 2018/ Erin Cox

Do you have a student who needs consistent review over the same skills in order to truly master them? How about a student who is just learning to read and you need a good source of sight words to pull from for instruction and game play? I did, too!

My daughter, who was diagnosed with "profound dyslexia" and "probable dyscalculia," needs to continuously cycle through the same information, even as we add additional skills. Why? Because with dyslexia and many other learning disabilities, if you don't use it, you lose it! I was tired of reteaching EVERY skill we had ever learned before I could get to the actual new content- and obviously, so was she!