Product: History Pockets
Company: Evan Moor
Recommended Age Range: Elementary
Time Required: about 20 minutes per week for 36 weeks
Difficulty: Prep work is time-consuming, but easy. Most of the activities have little or no writing (especially for the Grades 1-3 options), so not very difficult for kids either.
Cost: $11-$16 per book depending on the topic. At least 10 editions available on different topics. Literature pockets are also available, though we haven’t used these. (Note that it might be cost effective to get a subscription to Teacher File Box for $13 for one month or $100 for a year. This gives you digital access to ALL Evan Moor products and allows you to print as many copies as you need. I am not affiliated with Teacher File Box. Just a regular subscriber.)
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Bottomline

History Pockets might not be for everyone, as they involve a lot of preparatory work. I cannot imagine using these for an entire class. However, if you don’t mind either getting all the activities ready for your students or guiding your students through creating them themselves, then they can be a really fun, hands-on way to learn. The final product is something the child will be proud of and will revisit again and again.

How We Use It

So far, I have used the Ancient Civilizations, Native Americans, Life in Plymouth Colony, and The Civil War history pockets with at least some subset of my kids. This year we will be doing Ancient Civilizations again, as my oldest is the only one that has done it so far.

Four years ago, when I first used History Pockets with my oldest, I did not have a plan. We just tried to complete an activity or two each week, but we didn’t make it to the last pocket by the end of the year. The following year, I implemented our homeschool crate system. Now that I plan our schedule out before the school year begins and prep all the material over the summer, we make it through everything.

Here is my process for planning and implementing History Pockets:

1. First, I choose which History Pockets I want to do by searching on Amazon. Then I go to Teacher File Box and locate the one that I want. Although Teacher File Box is a very affordable way of accessing a ton of resources, they do not always make it easy to find what you are looking for. However, EVERYTHING is there. Below I searched for “Ancient Civilizations History Pockets.” All of the pockets are separate links, instead of there being one link for the whole book. Thankfully, the first search result is the first pocket of the book I want.
   
2. I open the first pocket in the book I am looking for. In this example, it is “Pocket 01: What is History?” If you select “Print,” you can see everything that it is possible to print for this pocket. (Note that most computers nowadays will let you “Print to PDF.” This allows you to save a copy on your computer for easy access later.) I will look through that pocket and figure out which activities I want my kids to include in their book. Usually I include almost all the activities, but I might leave out 3 of 4 from the whole book that I feel are either not age appropriate, or I don’t think my kids will enjoy. I write down my list on a separate sheet of paper. This way I know how many activities there will be in total at the end. I also print a copy of each activity for each of my kids.
3. If you scroll down on the page mentioned above, you will see links to ALL of the pockets in the book. It is under the tab called “Original Title.” I repeat the above process of saving, reviewing, deciding on activities, and printing for each pocket.
   
4. The pockets are made out of 12″x18″ construction paper. I order that if I need it.
5. Next, I go through my list and figure out how many activities I printed. There are 36 weeks in a traditional school year and 36 weeks of folders in our homeschool crate system. I divide up my activities among the 36 weeks. Usually I have more than 36 activities, so I see which related activities are fairly easy and combine them to the same week. The cover of the pocket book and the pocket labels I leave out of my folder system. I like to have my kids do those before the school year starts while so that their pocket books can be assembled and ready to go when the school year begins.
6. After I’ve decided which activities go with which weeks, I put in my earbuds, put on an audiobook (see my Scribd review), and spend a few hours cutting out all the pieces and gluing construction paper onto the back of the ones that I want to have a backing. I have 4 kids, so this process usually takes a few days.
7. After my 12″x18″ construction paper arrives and my kids have finished coloring the cover and pocket labels, I assemble the books for each kid. Now we are ready for the school year.
8. During the school year, once a week, I pull out all the coloring sheets my kids have to do from that week’s folders (usually part of their science and social science). Then I let them watch a movie while they complete their coloring for the week.
9. On a different day, we will read over whatever needs to be read for their history pockets. If there is any writing for the activity, we will complete that by the end of the week. All the completed work goes in the appropriate pocket of our history pocket book. The kids can go look back through their book anytime they want.

To summarize, here are some pros and cons I’ve found using History Pockets with my kids.

Pros

• A really fun format. Rather than just do worksheets, kids do writing activities with flaps, write postcards, make masks, puppets, pop-up books, and more.
• Makes a great final product that the child will want to look at again and again.
• Quality activities that provide a lot of educational value.
• Activities can be prepped in advance.
• Does not require very much time on child’s part to complete.
• Coloring helps with child’s fine motor skills.
• Writing activities are usually creative.
• Great for a wide range of ages. I have used the Grades 1-3 books with my 4th/5th grader and the 4th-6th grade curriculum with kids as young as kindergarten.
• Personally, having a final product to strive for helps keep me on track. I am less tempted to skip activities when I know we are going to add them to our book that we will be saving for awhile.

Cons

• Requires considerable prep time to get all activities ready, especially if you have more than one child.
• Would not be great for a child who does not like coloring. (Though even my kid that is less enthusiastic about coloring likes History Pockets, because I let them watch a movie while they complete the coloring.)
• The final product seems too nice to throw away, which can feel like a problem when you have four kids and not a lot of storage space!

Overall, if you have the time and patience to give History Pockets a try, I have found it to be a very fun, effective way to get kids excited about history!

Related Links

History Activities for Kids
A Guide to Homeschooling
Curriculum Choices by Grade

The post Evan Moor History Pockets Review appeared first on ResearchParent.com.

Product: The Story of the World curriculum
Author: Susan Wise Bauer
Company: The Well Trained Mind
Recommended Age Range: Elementary
Time Required: about 30 to 90 minutes per week (depending on how many activities you do)
Difficulty: Written in an easy to understand way even for early elementary. Activity Book contains so many ideas that it would be overwhelming if one were to try to do all of them, so realize that this isn’t expected.
Cost: $40 to $75 per volume depending on whether you choose to purchase digital or physical copies and how much supplemental material you intend to include. (My personal preference is a physical book (~$13) and a digital copy of the activity guide ($27). I did not use the tests or audio versions.)

Bottomline

As someone who did not retain much of the history I learned in school, I found this series to be very approachable and made history easy to learn. The author wrote in a way that would be entertaining to children while still being historically accurate. I feel that my fourth grader and I now have a fairly solid foundation in all eras of history. I also think that this curriculum is a great value for the price, particularly for the main history text and the accompanying Activity Book. While I have no experience with other history curricula to compare it with, overall I am very satisfied with this Story of the World curricula.

How We Use It

I like to prepare for our 36 week school year over the summer using our homeschool crate system. To prep Story of the World, I print out a copy of all the mapwork and chapter summaries (or timeline labels for Volume 4) for each child. For this reason, I recommend purchasing the digital version of the curriculum from the Well Trained Mind website. I like to print two pages per sheet of the maps so that they fit better in a composition book.

I then cut out all the pieces for each of my children and divide them into the 36 weeks of social science folders in my crates. Since there are typically 42 chapters and only 36 weeks of school, I double up on chapters for the first 6 weeks. Week one contains Chapter 1 and 2 , Week two contains Chapters 3 and 4, etc. Week 7 is chapter 13, which leads to the book being complete on Week 36.

If I like them, I also sometimes print out the coloring page for a given chapter (also with the two pages per sheet print option). I include those in the folders as well.

Over the summer, I also get a composition book for each of my children. Then, as we complete the work for each chapter during the school year, I glue it into the composition book. I also have my older children write a sentence summarizing something interesting they learned in the chapter. For my younger children, I either write for them or put some dashed writing for them to practice tracing. For Volume 4, rather than just adding the material to the composition books sequentially, I label each page with a year and glue the timeline labels on the appropriate date.

On any given week, this is how our family typically does a Story of the World chapter. It may vary slightly from week to week.

• Monday: Typically, I like to start our week with our history reading. That gives us the whole rest of the week to be inspired by what we learn in case we want to plan any hands-on activities or additional reading to supplement the lesson. Usually I read-aloud the chapter while my kids eat lunch. Afterwards, I have them tell me one sentence of something interesting that they learned and I write it in a notebook for them to copy into their composition books later. This whole process takes about 30 minutes.
• Tuesday or Wednesday: One day a week, my kids get to take turns picking a movie. While they watch, they complete their coloring for the week. This always includes their history summary or timeline pictures and any additional history coloring pages I want them to do. Sometimes this includes lapbook material for language arts or science as well. My kids think this is a treat.
• Thursday: While the kids are sleeping, I set out their map work for the chapter and colored pencils on our kitchen counter. I also glue all the history coloring they did into their composition book. I write their copywork sentences that they choose onto a post-it note for each one to copy into their composition books. At some point between breakfast and lunch, we will do the mapwork as a group. I will then glue the maps into their books and they will copy in their sentences. This process takes about 20 to 30 minutes.
• Friday, Saturday, or Sunday: If there is some fun activity we want to do to supplement our learning, we will typically do this at the end of the week or on the weekend. This might include an art project, reading related picture books, or watching a documentary. This definitely does not happen for every chapter. Often times we will use these days to catch up on our map or copywork if we ended falling behind during the week.

To summarize, here are some pros and cons I’ve found over the past four years of using the Story of the World curricula.

Pros

• Very thorough
• Easy to understand
• Highlights entertaining, interesting, or amusing aspects of history
• Works well for a wide variety of ages
• Geography map work reinforces history lesson
• Activity Book is a treasure trove of information: Contains review questions, narration exercises, additional reading suggestions for various age groups, map work, coloring pages, and suggestions for hands-on activities to bring the learning to life.
• Audiobook is narrated by Jim Weiss who is a fantastic storyteller. We didn’t use this option often, but my kids enjoy so many Jim Weiss stories that when we did, they loved listening to the familiar voice.
• A book of tests can be purchased separately. We didn’t use these, but it is nice to have the option.

Cons

• The Activity Book is so amazing, it can make you feel like you are not doing enough. We only completed a small fraction of the activity books.
• There are some sections that my younger kids in particular thought were boring. I’m not sure another curriculum could have covered as much information and made it more entertaining, just be aware that not all kids will find all of history thrilling.

Other Factors to Consider

• This is neither a Pro nor a Con in my opinion, but the text is written with a slightly Christian emphasis, particularly in Volume 1: Ancient Times. However, it is so slight that we are allowed to use samples from this curriculum with our public charter school. Note that various world religions are discusses from a fair and informative standpoint.
• Also, be aware that this book does describe tragic events in history. The author is sensitive to the young audience, but just know that she does not gloss over events completely. For this reason, Volume 4 is recommended only for kids in fourth grade and older. (I chose to read it to all my kids, but there were definitely some topics like the Holocaust and nuclear bombings that seemed a little heavy for my younger kids.)

Overall, I am extremely pleased with our first attempt through a four year history cycle using The Story of the World. Next year I am planning to try out Pandia Press’s History Quest. However, I will happily return to The Story of the World curriculum if I am dissatisfied with it in any way.

Related Links

History Activities for Kids
A Guide to Homeschooling
Curriculum Choices by Grade

The post The Story of the World Review appeared first on ResearchParent.com.

Product: Sassafras Science Adventures living book series
Company: Elemental Science
Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: about 60 to 90 minutes per week
Difficulty: Program is easy to follow and story is fairly easy to understand even for early elementary. The science described can be fairly advanced, but full understanding is not necessary in order to use the curriculum.
Cost: $25 to $100 per volume depending on how much supplemental material you want. (Each volume lasts one semester and there are 4 volumes so far.)

Bottomline

In my opinion, all you really need to get nearly everything out of this program is the living book (the Kindle version is $10) and the lapbook for $15. I also highly recommend the audiobook if you spend a good amount of time in the car. This material lasts for 18 weeks or about a semester. Given that my son loves listening to the story, is being exposed to really complex science, and has produced quality interactive notebooks using the lapbook material over the course of the year, I feel like this science curriculum is hard to beat.

How We Use It

Over the past year, my son (a first grader) and I have worked our way through the first two volumes of Sassafras Science: Zoology and Anatomy. He has simultaneously used the lapbook materials to make a book for each of the two volumes. Usually, he colors the pictures for the lapbook material while I read-aloud from my Kindle or we listen to the audiobook. After he finishes listening to a section, we go back to the relevant parts of the book and I re-read the scientific parts, so he can pick what he found the most interesting. He tells me what he wants to write in his lapbook, I write the sentence on a piece of scratch paper, and he copies it into the appropriate part of his lapbook.

Instead of making actual lapbooks out of these pieces using file folders as suggested, I’ve chosen to use these lapbooking pieces in interactive notebooks. For each volume, I simply bind together 9 pieces of cardstock, then glue the pieces into the homemade notebook instead. (Have I mentioned that I love my binding machine? A detailed review and description of the many things I use it for can be found here.)

I’ll admit, very few of the curricula choices I made last summer have completely panned out. However, Sassafras is one of the few that we’ve really stuck with throughout the whole school year. If I pull him away from playing, he’s not always super excited to start his science, but he really does enjoy the story. Once he’s been drawn into the story, he’ll yell at his younger siblings to be quiet so he can hear. He doesn’t want to miss any parts.

How Long Does it Take?

If you do one chapter a week, the program lasts 18 weeks, which allows you to finish two volumes a year. Each chapter takes about 30 to 45 minutes to read (or listen to the audiobook). All the chapters are divided into two parts, so ideally we read half a chapter twice a week. I am glad that I bought the audiobook, because if we start falling behind, we’ll listen to that week’s chapter in the car on the way to and from activities. On a good week, we spend about 45 minutes on supplemental science activities in addition to just listening to the living book. (On a bad week, we’ll only spend about 15 to make sure my son’s lapbook is complete for the week.)

After we listen to a chapter, sometimes we’ll read about the same subjects in other books. The lapbooking guide provides booklists for each chapter, which I’m sure are great, but I’ve rarely used them. I’ve REALLY liked Picturepedia for providing great visuals of both zoology and anatomy. I’m sure it will come in handy with future volumes as well. For anatomy, we’ve also been using See Inside Your Body which my kids really like.

In addition to the lapbook material, the lapbook guide also includes ideas for a number of hands-on experiments or demonstrations. I don’t always make time for these, but they’re usually pretty easy to put together and my kids LOVE them. They were big fans of the gooeyness of the giraffe saliva experiment. Recently we did the kidney demonstration and I will never forget the way my 5-year-old daughter’s eyes lit up with glee when she realized the yellow liquid we collected at the end was supposed to represent urine.

What about Kids of Multiple Ages?

One of the things that I adore most about this program is the way it serves such a wide audience. I’ll be honest…I don’t think my preschooler fully follows the story, even when we’re in the car and she has no other distractions. However, she definitely has a vague idea what’s going on and doesn’t complain listening to it. (My 2 year old, I am certain, has no clue what is going on.) My 7 year old loves these books. There is not a lot of character development or intricate plot twists, but there IS a lot of action-packed adventure which holds his interest. As an adult, they might not be my first choice of reading material, but I enjoy them too and have learned some science as well.

I feel like the science in the zoology book was right at my first grader’s level. It taught about different kinds of habitats, defense mechanisms, diets, and other aspects of zoology. I think he really was able to fully grasp maybe 90% of the science. The science in the anatomy book is at a much higher level. The story itself is just as entertaining, but whenever the “local expert” starts spouting off facts related to anatomy, even I get lost sometimes. However, that doesn’t really bother me. Maybe my son’s only retaining 20% of the science content, but since he’s not starting a pre-med program anytime soon, I don’t mind what goes over his head.

So far, we’ve only used the lapbook material, which I think is perfect for my 1st grader who is a new writer. However, they also have coloring pages, which would be appropriate for an even younger student (my preschooler colors them sometimes) and notebooking pages which would be appropriate for an older student. I could see myself repeating this curriculum in 5 years or so when my baby and toddler are older and having my oldest filling out the notebooking pages as an upper elementary student.

I should point out that while I don’t use the “Scidat Logbook” (the notebooking pages) or the teacher’s guides, I did buy them and I’m glad I own them. If my son and I are really lost about filling out a certain portion of the lapbook, the teachers guide has more info than the lapbooking guide that I can use for reference (though most of it is way too advanced for my 1st grader). As I said, I do plan to cycle through using these again someday, and I like the variety of options they have for documenting your learning experience with learners of different ages.

Do I Need to Do These In Order?

While we’re doing them in order, I don’t really think you need to. Like I said, there’s not really a lot of character development. The main premise is that two 12 year old twins are bad at science, so their crazy scientist uncle sends them off around the world on magical ziplines to learn about science from various local experts.

Not only do you not need to read the books in order, but even the topics within each book are fairly self-contained. They spend two chapters at each location learning about something specific (like the rainforest or circulatory system). At each location they have a different adventure that is usually completely unrelated to their adventures in previous locations. (There is an overarching, not-that-scary, man-with-no-eyebrows, “bad guy” that’s following them, but he only intermittently shows up and I have a feeling he’s not going to be resolved until the very last book in the series anyway, which hasn’t been written yet.)

Why Are They Called Living Books?

If you talk to a follower of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, living books are really the only types of books kids should be using to learn. Personally, while I don’t follow it completely, I really like the Charlotte Mason philosophy and it was my search for living books that led me to this curriculum. What is a living book? Unlike a text book, which is a dry chronicle of facts, a living book is a book written by someone with a passion for a subject that makes the subject matter “come alive.” They frequently chronicle the lives of real people or characters and involve the reader’s emotions. They are both memorable and enjoyable.

To summarize, here are some pros and cons I’ve found over the past year of using Sassafras Science Adventures:

Pros

• Easy-to-use
• Enjoyable for student (and parent)
• Provides lots of scientific information
• Great for families with kids of multiple ages
• Inexpensive
• Lots of hands-on suggestions
• Audiobook is great for learning on-the-go
• Results in attractive documentation of the child’s learning

Cons

• Science described can be a little complicated.
• If you fall behind (which we have a couple times), it can seem overwhelming to a young child to catch up.
• Most of the scientific information is not integral to the story, so theoretically a child reading the stories independently could skip over it.
• A lot of the time spent on this curriculum is spent listening to a fun, adventure story which does not completely pertain to science. (I don’t mind this.)
• There are aspects of the story that are not at all scientific, like the invisible ziplines. This doesn’t bother me as it makes the stories more entertaining, but be aware.
• The adventures are pretty far-fetched, especially the dangerous situations that the kids are allowed to be in, but my kids love it.

Overall, I don’t have a lot of complaints…The Sassafras twins have made science easy this past year and we’ll definitely continue to use them next year.

Here are all the volumes they have so far!

Volume 1: Zoology
Volume 2: Anatomy
Volume 3: Botany
Volume 4: Earth Science

Related Links

Biology for Kids
Learning Activities for Kids
Play Activities for Kids

The post Sassafras Science Adventures Review appeared first on ResearchParent.com.

Website: Middlebury Interactive Languages
Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Early Elementary
Time Required: 10 minutes a day for about 70 days
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $180-$240 for a year long subscription

Bottomline

This program is fantastic for the age range recommended (kindergarten through second grade), provided your expectations aren’t too high. All 3 of my kids (ages 2 through 7) love the time they spend doing this curriculum. They look forward to the stories, they enjoy doing the matching activities, and they’re enthusiastic in their attempts to repeat the vocabulary.

However, this program in no way makes them conversant in the language. They will learn simple phrases for greeting people, but otherwise, all the language learning is vocabulary words. They will learn about 70 words over a similar number of 10-ish minute lessons. Especially after having started the Chinese curriculum, I realize that the real benefit of these programs is the exposure kids are receiving at a young age to the way these languages sound, which I think will benefit them as adults.

If you decide to try Middlebury Interactive, it is important to know what you are paying for…

What You Get

When you purchase this curriculum, what you are actually purchasing is a year long subscription to the program on their website. When I started using Middlebury Interactive a year ago, I tried it on my tablet and ran into some technical difficulties. Maybe those have been resolved by now, but I’m not sure. I like to do it on my computer with my big monitor so that my 3 kids (ages 7, almost 5, and 2 and a half) can do it together. Each language curriculum consists of 10 subject-based units plus 2 review units. The unit titles in both the Spanish and Chinese programs are the same: Greetings, Numbers, Family, Colors, School, Body Parts, Animals, Days of the Week, Food, and Descriptions.

Each unit consists of about 6 lessons. The lessons are pretty short (around 10 minutes), so we sometimes do a couple lessons in a day. Each Unit teaches around 6 to 10 words (with the exception of the Greetings Unit, which teaches simple phrases). After finishing the Spanish K-2 program, my 7 year old has mastered all the vocabulary (so around 70 words/phrases), my 5 year old probably knows about half of it, and my 2 year old can recognize maybe a dozen words. In addition to words, each unit also presents simple phrases, but those phrases are not really reinforced with the activities the way the vocabulary words are. (Though it is super cute to hear my 2 year old saying things like “Yo soy grande. Yo soy fuerte.” I am big. I am strong.)

Comparison with Rosetta Stone

After finishing the Middlebury Interactive Spanish K-2 curriculum, we bought the Spanish curriculum from Rosetta Stone Homeschool. We are presently working our way through Unit 1. Like they advertise, they teach languages in an entirely different, more immersive way. Even the very first section presents simple sentences like “She eats” and requires you to click on the correct picture. As an adult, I love it. I think it is an interesting way to learn a language the student to think logically and make connections. However, it is WAY above the heads of my kids. Even my 7 year old struggles to do it and gets frustrated.

Also, both programs have a speaking component. In Middlebury Interactive, you listen to what you are supposed to say, repeat it into the microphone, and listen to yourself. My kids love doing this (even my 2 year old). At the end, you hit a button that marks the activity complete. In Rosetta Stone, you repeat the phrase and then the software analyzes whether your pronunciation is good enough to move on. You can hit a button to a comparison of your sound wave and the native speakers. I think it’s pretty fascinating. However, my kids, especially my preschooler and toddler are not able to successfully repeat the phrases. Even my husband and I get told we are wrong repeatedly before we finally get the light to turn green and move on to the next session.

Rosetta Stone seems like it would be a wonderful program for older kids, and I’m planning to use it for myself in order to help my kids, but it is just NOT a program geared to younger kids. However, unlikely Middlebury Interactive which is a subscription, we now own the Rosetta Stone program so I can just save it for my kids until they’re older.

Comparison with Little Pim

Little Pim is a cartoon about a little Panda that teaches kids simple words and phrases in the language of your choosing. There is no English to help adults know what they are saying and there is no interactive component. My younger kids like watching Little Pim and my oldest also enjoyed it when he was in preschool. However, since he turned 6, he’s been telling me he’s too old. I like Little Pim, because it exposes kids to different languages at a young age. On the other hand, I don’t like my kids watching much TV, so we only use it occasionally.

Ultimately, Little Pim is a decent option for toddlers and preschoolers, but don’t expect them to retain very much. Also, it is not geared toward children older than about 5.

Comparison with Native Speaker

Nothing beats talking directly with a native speaker. Going to his Spanish group lesson is definitely my oldest’s favorite way to learn Spanish. He gets to hang out with kids his own age and do activities and games while listening to and talking with a native speaker. If he wants to know a word or how to say a phrase, he just asks her, and because it was his idea, he’s more likely to remember. I love that he has the opportunity to participate in this immersive, in-person learning environment. I also like supporting a member of my local community.

However, from a financial standpoint, this is my least favorite method. I paid $180 for a year’s subscription to Middlebury Interactive. I pay $10/hour for 2 hours a week for my oldest to go to his Spanish group lesson.  A that rate, $180 would last about 2 months. With the online subscription, all my kids can learn simultaneously. With the group lesson, I would have to pay extra money for my other kids to go. This is something that my kids will be able to do once in awhile, but it’s not something we can do year round.

Spanish vs. Chinese

Having had experience with both the Spanish and Chinese programs, I have to say I find the Spanish program to be a lot easier than Chinese. Part of that might be because I have previous experience with Spanish and Chinese is completely unfamiliar to me. However, I think the main reason is that Spanish can be written and read using the same English alphabet. The Chinese program gives kids activities that reinforce their recognition of the Chinese characters, but until they start to recognize them, the characters are not that helpful in deciphering how to pronounce the Chinese words.

However, now that we’re doing the Chinese curriculum, I appreciate both programs even more. I think was slightly disappointed with Spanish at first, because technically, I could have taught them all the same vocabulary (with poor pronunciation). However, I am completely at a loss when it comes to Chinese and I think it’s so awesome to hear my kids speak in Chinese. If I didn’t have a background in Spanish, I would have been equally appreciative of the Spanish program to begin with.

Pros

To summarize, here are the advantages I see to Middlebury Interactive Languages K-2:

• My kids (ages 2 through 7) LOVE doing this curriculum.
• All my kids can learn together for one price.
• They learn about 50 to 100 vocabulary words and a few simple phrases.
• They listen to fun stories completely in the foreign language. (My kids LOVE the stories.)
• They are exposed to foreign languages allowing them to better hear and pronounce foreign sounds.

Cons

Here are the disadvantages:

• Access only lasts for 1 year, which is plenty of time to complete the curriculum. However, it doesn’t allow you to reuse the curriculum for younger children.
• Kids will likely only learn vocabulary words and not sentences.
• The price tag is a bit high, but as long as you actually do it, I think it’s worth the cost. Also, you can save money by purchasing it through Homeschool Buyers Co-op instead of the Middlebury Interactive website.

Related Links

Learning Activities for Kids
Play Activities for Kids
Best Books for Kids

The post Middlebury Interactive Languages K-2: A Review appeared first on ResearchParent.com.