Homeschool Piano {Review}

I have always wanted to learn to play the piano. I love hearing melodies being played and gentle worship warms my heart.  My dream is to one day be able to sit at the piano and worship.

We purchased a piano 10 years ago and I started traditional piano lessons which lasted all of two months and then I had to quit as I became to sick to continue (Morning sickness does that sometimes). 

Recently an opportunity presented itself to learn to play the piano with piano teacher Willie from HomeschoolPiano.  For our review we were given  HomeSchoolPiano - Complete Set of Books

What we received

• All Online Access benefits (unlimited, lifetime access to HomeSchoolPiano.com)
• Tracking and quizzes for up to 5 students
• Unlimited lesson streaming to any device

• Unlimited music downloads
• Unlimited lesson video downloads
• Jam Track CD (download version)
• Core Piano - 33 lessons
• Book 1 -  6 Units
• Book 2 - 6 Units
• Book 3 - 6 Units

Lesson Structure
Homeschool Piano covers six different areas and includes advanced tips as bonus material. It also works with the N

The six areas covered are:
Technique - Willie gives practical advice to help you improve with each lesson
Rhythm - He teaches incidental theory to help you keep in time.
Ear Training - Each lesson helps you learn to hear your music and therefore understand melody, chords and more.
 Reading - Willie encourages you to be patient with yourself and through incremental steps helps you conquer reading music.
Song - The songs you play are loads of fun and make learning the piano something you and your students will want to do.
Imporvisation - Willie encourages you to have fun and be creative. In fact Sir N was so inspired after his first lesson that he sat at the piano for a good half an hour trying to work out a melody he had heard. You can see a clip of him doing so on Instagram.

How we used it

I started off with creating an account with Homeschool Piano.  Once logged in creating a student account was simply a matter of adding their name, user name and password.  Once a student account was created the student then logged in and chose their lesson and continued.  They only have access to their own accounts.  As the main account I had access to all their records as well and could see at a glance their progress.

Once Sir N was  logged in we selected which program to work through. We clicked on the drop down menu Piano Lessons and choose one of four options

CorePiano = absolute beginner
Book 1 = beginner, maybe brushing the dust off and coming back to piano
Book 2 = beginner to intermediate (starts incorporating more complicated concepts, songs and improvisation ideas)
Book 3 = intermediate (toward the end of this book we are getting into concepts like syncopation, voice leading and more advanced scales for improvisation)

Sir N has used a few piano programs over the last year with the crew and he has never been taught by a teacher before I decided to start off with CorePiano for him.  It's been ten years since I had lessons so I too started with CorePiano.

On this page you can see which class you are in on the right beneath where it says:  Where You Left Off. From here you can continue your lesson at the click of one button. Even if you have only completed half the lesson it takes you straight to where you were.
On the left you have the option of choosing the page your lesson is on or clicking straight on a selected lesson shown below. The advantage of this is that you can review a lesson as many times as you would like.
 Below the Where You Left Off box is the resource box. Here you will find your music book to download and print for the set of lessons you are working through.

Once we printed off our book I had it ring bound at Office Works with a plastic cover for durability.

Records

As you can see the tracking of classes is quite comprehensive.  You can select your students name and see at a glance how far they worked through the lesson.  No cheating here the records speak quiet clearly of just how much the student has done in each lesson.  You can see the name of the lesson, date started, how much of the lesson was watched and the date completed.

The Lessons

One of the things we've enjoyed the most about Homeschool Piano is that it streams to any mobile device.  We have streamed our lessons to my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone,  Galaxy Tab and our home television.

It's so portable and easy to use.  Sir N loves to watch his lessons on our television.  We both have enjoyed seeing our lessons in larger  than life size. 

The lesson  screen is divided into three areas.
The top of the screen is a digital keyboard that highlights the note being played in red and gives the note name above it.
The middle area is a live view of Willie's keyboard showing a live feed of his instruction
The bottom left shows an insert of Willie from the side and from here he teaches you his student.

We would watch our lesson on the television and get an over view of the lesson.  Then move to the piano and take the tablet with us and redo the lesson with practical hands on at the piano.

Initially I thought we would work through a lesson a day but since starting our music journey with Willie we have moved considerably slower as Sir N has struggled to use both hands together at the piano.  Since we have lifetime access to Homeschool Piano there is no pressure to get to the next level in order to complete our lesson.  This is something I have come to really appreciate in the program. Sir N is able to watch the lessons over and over until he fully comprehends what he is learning. He can simply watch them for fun outside of our official music time slot.

There is no fear we are going to run out of download.  We can pause the video at any point and apply what is being taught.

Cost of Homeschool Piano**

The cost is $299.00 for the complete program with two payment options

• A single payment of $299.00
  Unlimited life-time access to HomeSchoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students
• Payment plan -  $99.97 per month for three months.
  Unlimited life-time access to HomeschoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students

**All prices are correct at time of review.  The vendor reserves the right to change the price without notice.  Please check all prices before purchasing.

Recommended Age Range
This product is for use with all ages.  If your student is old enough to sit and be tutored and follow directions then they can begin lessons with Willie.  The best part with life time access is you can repeat any lesson as often as you like.

Willie is an excellent teacher and explains as he goes along and as an adult learning to play I have enjoyed all my lessons with him.

Connect with Willie at Homeschool Piano


Here are some really helpful articles by Willie

• Can my student benefit from Homeschool Piano if they've already taken piano lessons ?
• Should I force my child to play the piano ?
• What kind of equipment do I need in order to do Homeschool Piano ? 

Final Thoughts
Sir N loves Willie's sense of humour and his passion for playing the piano is infectious.  Sir N is also practical in his approach to learning so Willies practical suggestions have been very helpful for him.  We have been loving our music journey with Willie and are looking forward to growing in our ability to play the piano.

Blessings
Chareen

WriteShop Primary Book B {Review}

Writing around here is like pulling hens teeth!  It is just plain difficult. It's not that I don't know how to write myself (my biggest problem is limiting my words ...)  and I know how to teach writing but what I have on the shelf was just not working for Sir N.  I was beginning to worry as I wasn't sure what we were going to do.

Thankfully I was recently introduced to WriteShop.  I took sometime to read over the author's How to Choose a Starting Level and looked over the sets available and decided that since Sir N is a reluctant writer we would start off with WriteShop Primary: Book B Set.


What we received

• Teachers Guide (eBook Edition) 228 pages in PDF (30 MB).  I saved it to my Samsung Galaxy Tab.  
• Activity Pack (eBook Edition) 25 pages.  PDF format 99.12 MB). I have printed these to have on hand and they are stored in a magazine box in the cupboard.

How we used it
After downloading the two eBooks.  I printed all the pages from the Activity pack. Next I took a few days to become familiar with the  Teacher's Guide.  It was well worth taking the time to read this introduction. The how to section is 32 pages with some wonderful hands on ideas on how to create an environment to help your student become a successful independent writer.


There is a really helpful 'Planning Your Schedule' section in which Nancy makes some suggestions with examples of one, two or three week routines for each lesson.   I love the flexibility these plans have provided for me.  Some lessons we have done using the two week plan and some we have used the three and some the one week plan depending on Sir N's understanding of the work presented.  There is even a "How to teach children at different levels" section. 

The program consists of 10 lessons.  Each lesson has a specific focus and theme.  For example Lesson 1 is Writing a letter and Lesson 7 is Humour.

This is Sir N's second guided writing practice and the very first letter he has ever written by himself.  I was his dictionary and I am so pleased with the results.  He was very reluctant to start with but by the end he was happy to write it.

Through out the program we enjoyed doing hands on projects.  These contribute to the learning in  a practical engaging way and Sir N enjoyed making things for the program. Each lesson has eight activity sets to complete.

Here is a sample of one of the "At a Glance" boxes and the reason I so appreciated the Teacher's Guide. I am apt to push through and stay until it's finished which can at times be detrimental to learning. I loved these highlight boxes which encouraged me with how, when and why behind each action.  My guide has really empowered me as the facilitator I have benefited from the scripted lesson plans.

Each lesson uses a short book as part of the program.  The recommended books are an excellent resource in finding books which provide quality literature which in turn benefits your students understanding of producing good writing structure and style.  The list provided is divided up into lessons with up to 12 suggestions per lesson.

One of my favourite parts of the program is that Sir N has not had to do a lot of independent writing.  We share writing duty.  As he has seen his work unfold he has been happy to do a little more each day as he gains confidence and endurance to write more.  The biggest blessing has been seeing him start to write little notes for himself.

Nancy is really good at encouraging me the tutor to separate out penmanship from composition.  The Teacher's Guide is like having her sitting with me gently coaching and encouraging me what to say, what to prepare or what to do next.  She is a tremendously encouraging and her explanations are empowering for me as I understand what I am doing and the purpose behind each step. The best part is that her wisdom is there for me to go back and re-read when ever I need to.

WriteShop differs from other how to teach composition titles in that it doesn't tell you what to write, or copy.  It provides you with specific questions and prompts to help the student to structure their thoughts and accomplish the task at hand.  By the end of the lesson through dialogue your student has gone from a blank page to a completed task.

The final part of a lesson is publishing the work.  This could be anything from writing a letter and mailing it to someone to making a basket of  "Story Loves" (page 119).


The Activity pack contains a handy evaluation chart. Upon completing the 7 activity sets for each lesson you are provided an evaluation of the student in the following areas

1. Content
2. Writing Skills
3. Mechanics

You are not left to wonder what the author means in any of these areas as beneath each subsection there are specific questions pertaining that skill for you to answer using a three letter key provided.  As I used this I gained an accurate view of where my student is at and can see at a glance his progress and where he still needs help.


**Cost of WriteShop Primary Book B

• Teachers Guide (Print Edition) - $35.95
• Activity Pack (Print Edition) - $5.95
• Teachers Guide (eBook Edition) - $29.95
• Activity Pack (eBook Edition) - $4.50

** Prices are current at time of review and can change at any given time at discretion of the company.  Please double check the price before placing your purchase.

Recommended Age Range

• Ideal for students in first and second grade.
• May also be used with reluctant third graders. 

This program is an excellent way to introduce composition to reluctant writers and primary school aged students.

Connect with WriteShop



Final Thoughts
We are both enjoying the learning to write journey with WriteShop.  I am enjoying having Nancy tutor me through the guide and Sir N is learning through delightful activities rather than mundane writing projects.

I like doing the projects with him because they are not simply busy seat work they specifically designed to be a creative way to help him remember the new things he is learning each time we do WriteShop. It's ultimate purpose is for Sir N to learn that Writing = Fun! and in the long run also preventing the meltdowns over writing we have had in the past.   The best part is that I don't have to come up with the ideas they are all provided for me.


Blessings
Chareen

Thank you to WriteShop for blessing our homeschool with this excellent product.

Veritas Press - Self Paced Hisory {Review}

I have had a love affair with history since high school.  As much as I enjoyed history in high school I really did not grasp the full scope of history as we learned it in a disjointed manner.  One of the things I have really loved about our home education journey has been discovering the joy of learning history chronologically.  Oh my did history come alive once we started learning history as it happened.  Recently Veritas Press blessed Sir N and I with a year long access to the Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt. Every day he begs me to do Veritas history. It's become our all time favourite resource. Today he begged me to do a lesson before bed time!

Grab a cuppa and let us take you on a tour of this excellent resource for your homeschool.

What we received

• A one year subscription to Old Testament and Ancient Egypt Self Paced History. OTAE has a total of 160 lessons covering history from Creation to Egypt falling to Rome.
• One set of Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Flashcards

How we used it
Once we were signed up Veritas sent us a detailed welcome letter along with an excellent set up tutorial with step by step instructions. I have a teachers log in and Sir N has his own log in.

Teacher log in features

•  As the teacher I can log in and see a summary of what my students have been doing. The log in page shows the student, his course and over all grade for the year. Once I select a student it takes me to the above page.
• The top has a bar shows the overall progress my student has made on the course.  The green indicates the correct answers and the yellow indicates questions he has missed. 
• A completed lesson is indicated in blue highlight along with a tick. I can click on any completed lesson and view the complete lesson without it altering his progress.
• Upcoming lessons remain locked until the student completes the current class.
• The center column is a record of his assignments.  There are two types of assignments: worksheets and tests. 
  Once a concept has been taught in a lesson (s) there is a Worksheet which is a test of the subject matter.  Once the test has been submitted you can not go back and retake in order to change your grade.  The worksheet marks however do not alter your overall grade for the year.
  Every fifth lesson is a test.  This test is also a once off.  Once it is submitted your grade is recorded and contributes to the over all grade for the year as indicated by the progress bar at the top of the page.
• The third column contains four documents. (Supply list, Card samples, Level 1 and Level 2 recommended reading)

Student page
This page is almost identical to the parent page.  Once logged in the student can choose to resume their lesson or click into their course and choose wether to repeat a lesson, resume a partially completed lesson or start on their next lesson.  They can see when the next worksheet will be coming up as indicated in the center colum.  They can see their over all progress and current grade in the top bar.

Each days lesson launches in it's own window.  This week we are on lesson 32.  Lessons are presented in a slide format.
This window contains a number of features

• Top left - name of the course OTAE (Old Testament Ancient Egypt) and the lesson number.
• Top right - table of contents and any available downloads for that lesson are in the attachments.
• Bottom left - Slide number indicator.  Here you can see the total number of slides in the lesson and the progression numbers.
• Center bottom - here you can see the slide loading and the progress player.
• Bottom right - standard rewind, play or jump to next buttons.

There is a full tutorial on how to drive the program when the students first log in and they can not access their class work until that is completed.  The tutor fully explains each aspect of how the program is presented and what is required of the students in order to progress.  It is completely interactive and a lot of fun.

Lessons contain

• So far we have had three main teachers.  Hadassah, the Great Sphinx and Simeon.  
• Every day the students practice the memory song which helps them to remember the chronological order of things.
• Teaching is done interactively.  Sometimes the next slide auto loads and sometimes the student needs to do an activity to show that they have grasped the concept in order to unlock the next slide.  At other times they might need to click next in order to access the following slide.

• There are games each day with revision questions for the days lesson.
• Some of the games cover all the main time line information covered.
• No two games are the same.  The graphics are excellent.
• Some of the games are time sensitive and I had to help with reading the answers available and helping Sir N click on the ones he wanted in order to beat the clock.  A couple of times I had to retake the game a couple of times as I did not succeed.
• The purpose of every game is revision of what has been taught in order to bring about mastery.

Sometimes the answers in the multiple choice questions are really funny.  At other times they keep you on your toes and you need to carefully read them as they are so similarly worded you might get them wrong if you don't take your time.

Even today's colour and print slide had questions pop up in order to continue and colour in the next portion of the graphic.

• Once a topic is completed a medallion is placed on a map indicating completion of the topic. 
• There is a fully interactive time line containing the graphics identical to the memory cards on it.
• A time line card is added to the time line upon completion of that specific cards lesson.  

Testing

• Every fifth lesson is a test.  If you choose to do one lesson a day the test would be taken every Friday. 
• As a parent I was required to agree to supervising this as a closed book test.  No notes or time line cards are to be used in order to take this test. 
• All tests are done via multiple choice.
• Upon submission the test is immediately marked and the score is given.
• You are then given the option of looking over the test and printing it.
• Once you close a test it can not be retrieved in order to look over and is not available for the parent to look over in the teachers section. This is the only thing I would love to see changed in the program.  It would be really good to be able to go in on the parent log in and look over a test to see how my student  responded to each question and helpful to me as I would know what they needed to review for future lessons and tests.
• If a student answers a question incorrectly it is highlighted in red.
• The middle column shows the correct answers for each question and the right hand column shows you the student submitted answers. 

Exploring history with the flash cards.

Flashcards

• There are a total of 32 flashcards in the pack
• They are printed in colour on card stock and plastic coated.
• Each card measures 12.5 cm x 20 cm (5" x 8") 
• They are in chronological order. Each card has a number on the reverse so you know where in the deck the card goes as well as where in time order the event took place.
• Each card is marked with a line at the top in order for you to know which one is biblical history (purple) and which one is general history.  Each series is represented by a different colour.
• Each card is illustrated with a famous painting a picture relating to the specific time period in history. There is a reference note below each picture.
• On the front you will find the title of the event. When applicable a scriptural reference is also added. 
• On the reverse of the card you will find the name and reference refered to on the card and a summary of the event 
• The bottom square contains a list of resources to expand your students learning opportunity of the event. (Bible, Greenleaf Guide, Children's Illustrated bible, Child's story bible, Journey Through the bible, Streams of Civilization, Time Traveler and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia to name a few) 
• They are excellent for review.
• A good hands on time line tool.

Cost**

• Old Testament and Ancient Egypt Self Paced History $199.00 for the first student. This fee gives you one year of access to the program.
• Veritas Press is currently offering a sibling discount of $100.00
• Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Flashcards $19.95
• MP3 Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Memory Song $6.95 (view a sample)

** Prices are current at time of review and can change at any given time at discretion of the company.  Please double check the price before placing your purchase.

There are a total of 5 streams in the Self Paced History classes

1. Old Testament and Ancient Egypt
2. New Testament, Greece and Rome
3. Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation
4. Explorers to1815
5. 1815-Present 

 Hardware and Software Requirements

• Web browser (Mozilla, IE 10 Chrome or Safari)
• It runs on Windows Vista, XP, 7 or 8
• For a Mac you need the following OS 10.6 or 10.7.4 or  10.8
• Adobe Flash 10.3 or higher
• Good internet connection. 

Recommended Age Range

• Veritas recommend a minimum age of seven on the first day of class. The course has been designed with 2nd - 6th graders in mind.

Find out more

• There are five courses available in the Self Paced History stream.  You can view five sample lessons for each stream online.
• Why choose a classical Christian education?
• Veritas Our Story
• Veritas Blog
• FREE resources 
• Self Paced History FAQ

Connect with Veritas Press 

 

What we thought
I don't know who is enjoying history more this year Sir N or myself!  We are both learning so much together. Although this is my third time through history chronologically I have learned so much more with Veritas that I am looking forward to doing the next four years of Self Paced history classes with them.
Every now and then Sir N will say "Oh I didn't know that !"  

This program has superseded my every expectation and has been the highlight of our homeschool year!


Blessings
Chareen

Restoring Our Culture for Christ ... 

One young heart and mind at a time! 

- Veritas Press