PowerMyLearning Review (Sverve)

I reviewed PowerMyLearning, in exchange for honest review from Sverve. This is a sponsored post. I wanted to work with PowerMyLearning because my oldest child learns better via the computer and visual aides. Even though Brad is home-schooled, he still needs additional help learning. I have to find different methods to help him learn new things. I also signed Kalen up for an account. Kalen is starting to show an interest in the computer, other than trying to break the keyboard, mouse, and the printer. I bought him a little laptop, to teach him 6 things: A, B, C, 1, 2, and 3. Kalen starts school next year. He will be in Head Start and a Pre-school for kids with intellectual disabilities.

PowerMyLearning is an educational website for educators, parents, and children. The website provides games and activities for children. The parents can monitor the children's progress through the parent account.

You do have to create a separate account for each child, as well as the parent. The children's account needs to be created first. Then, create the parent and add each child's user name. The website then sends a request to the child to connect parent to child.

Also, the kids accounts don't require an e-mail to sign up. They will need their username, password, city, state, and birthday, in addition to school name.

I did it backwards. I created my account first, thinking I can add my children through the parent account, similar to a few other websites. Then, to add your child, it asks for a user name. Can't have a user name if your child does not have account. So, I went to create Brad and Kalen an account. Logged back into mine and added his user name. The website then said it will send a request to Brad to add me as his parent (which is a good thing and a bad thing. What if the child does not want you to track his progress? I definitely recommend the parents setting up all the accounts. ). The process will take a minute for parents with multiple kids.

Then, you log into each child's account, click on their name towards the top, and go to account. There are two options. Link the accounts or select, not my parent. (Another reason, I recommend the parents set up the account).

The website has over 2000 activities in subjects, which include:

1. Math
2. Science
3. Language Arts
4. Art and Music
5. World Languages
6. Social Studies
7. Your Life
8. Technology

I played with the games at first to see how easy or hard they are? Do the games require a lot of clicking? Do the games require a lot of comprehension? You can select games based on subject or grade level. I started at Kindergarten because both kids need to learn the basics. Kalen starts pre-k next year and Brad is in the 6th grade, but still needs the lower grade basics, such as counting, learning numbers, and ABCs. For Brad, I may mix it up a bit, letting him work on activities ranging from K to 6th to see what he can and can't do. For Kalen, I am going to help him prepare for school next year. Kalen will be attending two schools: head start and the school for developmental disabilities.

One game I liked, is Energy City, created by the Jason Project. The game is more for advanced learners. It is a partial city builder game and part strategy. You complete missions, while also keeping the city from running out of money and energy. It teaches kids how to conserve energy.

Reading Eggs (US Family Guide/USFG) Sponsored Post

This post is sponsored by US Family Guide/US Family Guide Bloggers Program. The copy points and pictures were provided. I will receive a 3 month subscription to Reading Eggs for Participation.

As most of yall know, I have two boys, with special needs. I love any program, which can teach my kids anything. I love Starfall, Reading Kingdom, and Zac Browser. I signed up for Reading Eggs, a while back, for the trial, but Brad has not started fully using it yet. Kalen starts school next year (two schools to be exact: A preschool for children with developmental disabilities and Head Start.)

Reading Eggs is a online program, developed by teachers, writers, animators, and developers. The program is designed for kids, ages 3 to 12. Since launching in 2011, the website has gained more than than 500.000 subscribers and has uploaded more than 15 million lessons. You can sign up for a free-two week trial offer of Reading Eggs, with no credit card required. Reading Eggs also has a math component, in addition to apps for Apple and Android. I downloaded the free apps to my phone and saved the paid apps to my wish list.
\

Articles discussing Reading Eggs

• 5 Ways to teach kids how to read
• New apps to develop early learning
• How online reading programs benefits children?
• Reading Eggs earns an award
• Reading Eggs launches Mathseeds
• 5 tips for developing reader confidence
• Development of first math app
• New Literacy Development Strategy
• Online Phonics Games and Reading
• New App of Nursery Rhymes
• 5 Tips for teaching young kids to read
• Alphabet App for Android
• Alphabet App for Android 2

Vocabulary Made Easy Book Review

I read Vocabulary Made Easy, in exchange for review from Homeschool.com. I got the book for free on Amazon on a Kindle Free Day. The book was written by Pat Wyman.

I took my time reading this book because I wanted to absorb the information. I would love for Brad to learn new words, despite his disabililty.

The first thing, which stood out, was the author provided links for three more free books on math, reading, and spelling.

Vocabulary made easy focuses on word association and pictures, which is what Brad's speech therapists use with him. Brad will recognize the picture and know the words more, than seeing a word and recognizing it. The book also talks about using visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learning styles. The author recommends taking a learning style quiz on How to Learn before reading the book. From experience, I know Brad is more visual, while Kalen is kinesthetic (touch and feeling, movement). I also took the quiz for myself:

Learning Styles Preferences for Stacie D Wyatt

47% Visual

32% Auditory

21% Kinesthetic

Visual Learners

If your highest percentage is visual, you prefer to think in pictures or movies. This style is most effective when you want to create and recall images when you read, or when you are taking a written test.

School caters to highly visual learners because they make images when taking written tests, and can retrieve the information they learned much faster. The old adage, "one picture is worth a thousand words" is true for visual learners. Visual learners tend to be neat and organized and their learning style preference tends to most closely match most educational and company working environments.

Auditory Learners

If your highest preference is auditory, you prefer to learn by listening and often recall the words you've heard in your mind. If you are taking a written test, this tends to slow you down because you are speaking to yourself as you read.

Kinesthetic Learners

If your highest preference is kinesthetic, you prefer to be a hands-on learner and most likely love to move around frequently, like athletics, and to build things with your hands. Be grateful for your talents and also, it is important to know that most company and school environments cater to people whose highest learning style preference is visual.

The book also focuses on word association. If your children associate a word to a word or a word to a picture, it increases learning. For example, Romeo is associated to Juliet, or a song may help remember a memory. For example, I had an incident, which happened in 2001 and TLC's unpretty was playing in the background. I now associate that memory to TLC's song. You also can associate words to sounds. Another technique is to play music, while teaching your kids new words.  

Anyway, the book teaches kids to learn one new word at a time, versus learning multiple words. Writing down 20 or so words and learning the meanings is not always effective either. 

This was a great book. I would love to know if the techniques can be modified to special needs kids, more so, on Brad and Kalen's level. I definitely will try the index cards. I have been cutting up some of Brad's old home school vocabulary and making flash cards from the spelling sheets. Trying to match up the pictures to the words. Been a slow process though since I have a lot of work to cut up.