Showing posts with label TOS 2018. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TOS 2018. Show all posts

Friday 30 November 2018

Personal Favourite Homeschool Products for 2018

As 2018 begins to draw to an end I've been reflecting on my third year as a Crew leader with the Homeschool Review Crew.  This year the Crew have had the priviledge of reviewing 66 products and have provided over 4,500 reviews for the greater homeschooling community.

At the end of each year the Crew vote to select their favourites in a number of catagories and I was pleased to see a few of my personal favourites selected as Blue Ribbon Award Winners. We reviewed a few things too this year and today I would like to share my top five products for 2018.

Audio Drama's by Heirloom Audio are by far my favourite homeschool discovery and St. Bartholowmew's Eve Audio Drama is my all time favourite from their Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty Collection.

Our newest favourite history resource/curriculum is Drive Thru History® Adventures with host Dave Stotts.

CursiveLogic has made learning to write and improver cursive writing a pleasure.



I loved the practical advice I discovered in Taming the Lecture Bug.  (I think I may need a refresher).


GrammarPlanet has been a life saver.  

Be sure to pop on over to the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read what a few of my homeschool Crew mates Personal Favorite Products Reviewed for 2018 are.


Last Chance Call to JOIN the Homeschool Review CREW 

After making sure you meet all of the requirements, if you believe you would be an asset to our Crew and wish to join us, please fill out the application below.

Monday 15 October 2018

St. Bartholowmew's Eve Audio Drama {Review}

Are you looking for excellent audio drama's that are family safe, combine inspiring stories and historical accuracy all rolled in one?  Our family favourite resource is produced by Heirloom Audio.

As a family we were first introduced to The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty when we were given In Freedom's Cause for Christmas a few years ago.   That was the beginning of our personal collection and we have thoroughly enjoyed every single episode as they have been released. The latest release is St. Bartholowmew's Eve and I think this one has become my favourite to date.


What we received
  • A down loadable copy of St. Bartholowmew's Eve. (115 MB MP3 version)
  • The music score is an original and written by Emmy Award Winning Composer John Campbell.
  • Listening time: 2 + hours
  • Recommended ages: 6 to Adult. (IF listening with younger children please be aware that some scenes are intense listening!)
  • Featuring: Brian Blessed, Elizabeth Counsell, David Shaw-Parker, Brian Deacon, Andy Harrison and Hugo Docking.


How we used it
We were gifted a digital copy of St. Bartholowmew's Eve . After downloading it, I extracted it from it's zip file (114 MB).

We burned it to two CD's in the mp3 format to listen to in our old car stereo.  We LOVE listening to audio drama's when we are travelling to our multiple weekly commitments OR on long holiday journey's.  It's become a family tradition to take along our Henty Adventures!



About St. Bartholomew's Eve 
This audio drama has been adapted from the book, St Bartholomew's Eve by G.A. Henty. George Alfred Henty was an English novelist and war correspondent and is best known for his accurate historical adventure stories. He wrote 122 works of historical fiction.

The story of St.Bartholomew's Eve takes place during the Reformation period in 1580 and is a tale of the Huguenot Wars. The story opens with Sir George finding his two young friends Ned and Sebastian skipping first service at church in favour of other exploits. He then shares with them the story of the Huguenot Wars and how their freedom to worship was obtained for them through the faithfulness of the Saints.

The story follows the life of 16-year-old Philip Fletcher an English lad, who finds himself living in France at the home of Henry of Nacarre. Henry and Philip side with the Protestants and join the service of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny who are standing up for the freedom to worship as they believe God has called them to do. Philip is an accomplished swordsman who quickly learns to use a hand gun and distinguishes himself in various battles, receiving recognition and promotion for his bravery.

Catherine de Medicis, the mother of Charles IX the French King had a growing fear of the influence that Admiral Coligny had over her son. In response to this she gives approval of a plot by the Roman Catholic house of Guise to assassinate Coligny. Due to the failed assassination attempt she plots with a group of nobles to kill the Huguenot leaders who were still in Paris for the wedding festivities of Catherine's daughter Margaret of France and the Huguenot Henry of Navarre. Just before dawn on August 24, 1572, the bell of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois began to toll and the Parisian mobs massacred more than 2,000 Protestant men, women, and children, and this in turn triggered further persecutions across France.

In response, soldiers of the Reformed Church took up arms against the slaughter. Philip found himself behind the battle lines of the Roman Catholic House of Guise, and he leads a squad of veteran soldiers as they fight for family and land. Philip's swordsmanship and wit take him through harrowing struggles, where he finds himself rescuing a woman of nobility.

Many of the surviving French Calvinists, known as Huguenots, flea from their land to various European countries, where they learn to overcome the great price they have paid for their religious freedom, and Phillip returns to England a hero.
Other Available Audio Drama's
  • Captain Bayley's Heir
  • In the Reign of Terror
  • The Cat of Bubastes
  • Beric The Briton
  • The Dragon & The Raven
  • With Lee In Virginia
  • In Freedom's Cause
  • Under Drakes Flag 
  • Wulf the Saxon
Connect on Social Media
Facebook - Heirloom Audio Productions
Twitter - @HeirloomStories
Google+ - +HeirloomAudioProductions
Instagram - @HeirloomAudioOfficial

80 other crew members reviewed St. Bartholomew's Eve, visit the Homeschool Review Crew to read their reviews or click on the image below.

This production has by far been our favourite story.  It has encouraged our faith and enriched our understanding of the freedom we have to worship God.  If you are looking for a wonderful gift for Christmas or want to add to your families listening library I highly recommend St. Bartholowmew's Eve by Heirloom Audio Production.s



Wednesday 10 October 2018

Brinkman Adventures Season 6 {Review}

Audio drama's are one of the best additions to our homeschool that we have had. Our first audio drama was Season 2 from The Brinkman Adventures in 2014 it took one episode to hook us as a family. In fact we so enjoyed listening to the Brinkman adventures we were thrilled to review Season 3 in 2015.

We love listening to audio drama's and books whenever we travel and quite often when we are travelling around locally. We were thrilled to be given a digital copy of Brinkman Adventures Season 6 - Underground Rising to review.


The vision for Brinkman Adventures was birthed in 2009 by Ian Bultman to 'create a missionary radio show that will inspire future missionaries'. He penned the first three episodes and each of his children volunteered as voice actors (there are 9 children in his family). Each of the children's names have been changed in the production but they all play themselves. Over the years the show has grown and incorporates sound effects, foley, music and acting along with voice actors from the Milwaukee area and the rest of the world.

The goal of Brinkman Adventures is to reach people with the incredible life changing stories. Each episode tells a true, modern, missionary story. The aim of the series is changing lives and encouraging young people to become missionaries.

Brinkmand Adventures Season 6 - Underground Rising

Season 6 covers episodes 55 to 60. Each episode is around 25 minutes in length which can be used on short car trips, afternoon rest times for your family or family devotional times. Underground Rising is available for purchase as a physical or digital download. Brinkman Adventures have recently moved to a six episode release structure making this release approximately two hours in duration.

Episodes in Season 6
  • 55 - Dutch Underground Part 1 - Reng and Lynn VanKesteren are Ian Bultman’s (Jack Brinkman’s) grandparents. This episode is based on the true story of their experiences during World War 2. The details of the episode is drawn from Lyn's book: Great is Thy Faithfulness.
  • 56 - Dutch Underground Part 2 - This is part two of Reng's involvement with the Dutch Underground.
  • 57 - Twice Born Fly - This episode is based on a dream of Ian’s that occurred while serving at Alaska Bible Institute in Homer, Alaska. This episode took its name from a true story in Joey's life.
  • 58 - I Wonder Why? - the true story of the Wonder family (some names were changed for security),highlighting the experience of a girl leaving home and accompanying her parents to a foreign country to minister to different people groups, health and healing of hearts and bodies.
  • 59 - Free Burma Rangers Part 1 - This episode is based on the true story of Dave Eubank and his journey from boyhood into a career as a Green Beret in the Special Forces. It especially touched us as we (my husband and I) both grew up in military families during deployment in war zones.
  • 60 - Free Burma Rangers Part 2 - This episode is based upon the events in the life of Dave and Karen Eubank and their family in Burma bringing aid to people within the attack zones and sharing the love of Jesus with the Burmese nationals while working alongside them.


Each story has scripture and prayer in them and real every day life conversations. The family pray together and do bible studies together demonstrating how to apply christian principles in daily living.

Digital episodes may be played on portable devices (phones/tablets) but must first be downloaded onto computer, and then synced with device. (Portable devices are unable to extract zipped files). We burned them to CD's and listened to them in the car on our local journey's. Paul so enjoyed the stories we had to pause Free Burma Rangers and wait till he was in the car with us to continue the story!

The dramatisations are excellent and you feel as though you are actually in the country where the story is taking place. For example in episodes 55 and 56 due to the difficult nature of imitating the Dutch accent, God provided actors in the Netherlands to help portray members of the Dutch Underground from the Dekker family. By God's providence Omie's niece Hieke Hoekstra portrayed her aunt Lyn in the story.


Spoiler Alert! My favourite part about each of the episodes of the Brinkman Adventures are the real stories that each of the episodes are based on.You can find the background stories, photographs, podcasts of interviews with the missionaries, YouTube clips, maps and history for each season under the Real Stories tab (I suggest you listen to each episode before popping over to read more about the real stories, the people and the places.).

The stories have been designed for family or youth group listening.  Some of the stories are quite dramatic and may be a little frightening for younger audiences.  Should an episode be intense or have slightly more mature themes it will start with an introduction with a recommendation that younger children listen to the episode with their parents present.

If you are looking for family safe listening that is encouraging, inspiring and safe to listen to be sure to head on over to Brinkman Adventures and explore the seasons which have been thus far released.  Be warned though, once you start to listen to the Brinkman Family adventures you will not want to stop!

You can connect with the Brinkman Adventures team on Facebook.

70 other crew members reviewed Season 6: Underground Rising, visit the Homeschool Review Crew to read their reviews or click on the image below.


Tuesday 9 October 2018

Career Aptitude Test by CashCrunch Careers {Review}

Finding your vocational strengths can be a little bit of a challenge.  I remember years ago we were getting ready to choose our final subjects for the last three years of school and I still hadn't worked out what on earth I was going to pursue after school.  In much excitement I did an aptitude test and went to find my results out at the guidance councillor who turned around and said the results basically stated I could do anything I wanted.  Well that did not help me any.

I was therefore quite intrigued recently when I was given the opportunity by CashCrunch Games to do an aptitude test via their new on line aptitude test over at CashCrunch Careers.

What does CashCrunch Careers do?

  • Matches your personality attributes to specific jobs.
  • Presents careers and possibilities that would best suit you.
  • Gives a list of possible careers you would enjoy
  • Provides a list of careers you would probably excel in.
  • Provides insights in what paths need to be taken in order to achieve your career stream.
  • Possible roles to explore within career interests.

What is the process?

Once you have signed up and logged into CashCrunch Careers you will be taken to the Dashboard area where you can update your profile information and access the participant survey.


The survey consists of 75 pairs of words.    The participant needs to select the word that best describes them and who they REALLY are. It's important to not select words describing who you want to be or who you think others want you to be.


I confess I got stuck on a couple of the pairs of words because they were similar in nature.  I discovered that if you hover over the words with your mouse a mini pop up box appears with synonyms.  This was a tremendously helpful feature and helped me choose the appropriate word.


To the right of the list of survey questions is a tracking box.  Each of the numbers fills in green when you answer the question.  This make it easy to see if you have missed any questions, as in this case we had missed question 21 and were able to go back and select an appropriate answer.

The survey is not time consuming and is easy to complete.  It took each of us between ten and fifteen minutes to complete.

Careers Report

This report is automatically generated upon submitting your completed survey and can be accessed anytime you log in.

On page one there are five informative paragraphs sharing different aspects of your aptitude results:
  1. Career Work Style - Knowing what you can do, what you would like to do and how you are able to do it.
  2. Motivators and De-Motivators - Something the provides a reason or stimulates to do or don't do something.
  3. Career Attributes - The qualities or features regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of you.
  4. Career Match - Jobs that are most suitable for your career.
  5. Matching Jobs - a list of possible careers/jobs ranked in suitability based upon your test results.
Jane, Nathaniel and I all took the same aptitude test and I loved reading each of our individualised reports.  The best way for you to see how these work is to show you a few screen shots. I will show you randomised samples of our results.

Here are our Career Work Style reports.  I will be showing you all three so you can see how different each of us are. (To read them full screen please click on the graphic)


Motivators & De-motivators is a mini report helping you to define those things that stimulate you and provide a reason to do something along with a list of things that de-motivate you.


Career Attributes is a list and description of the top attributes which are considered to by your strengths in the workplace .


At the bottom of the page you will come across the matching Jobs area. There are twenty job areas which are ranked in order of suitability to you.  You will need to click on a career category to more fully explore the possibilities for you.


As mentioned above I had done one of these when I was in high school which proved to be a very disappointing experience however I was quite astounded reading through my jobs list because I had had various employment experiences in many of the areas that had been listed for me.

Career Drill Down pages


If you click on an area of interest for example General and Operations Managers it takes you to a summary page for that field.  On this page you will find a summary of the tasks for that position, activities performed in that role and personal attributes, abilities, work values and skills needed.


 
At the top there are three tabs: Course, Colleges and Video.


Under the Colleges tab there is a Google Map with pins to different campuses which provide eduction covering the particular field of employment.  Each campus  is listed in alphabetical order with an address, hyperlinked website and institution type as well as degree's offered.



Under the Video tab there is an embedded video showing a short introduction to the career and differing functions and daily tasks expected of the person in that role giving the student some insight into the future activities needed to be done within that specific career role. The videos are all close captioned.

I was a little perplexed when comparing my list with Jane and Nathaniel as the jobs listed were the same but in a different order.  Upon contacting CashCrunch Careers Paul was able to provide some valuable insights.

In each of the careers listed, the jobs can vary quite considerably. For example, in the publishing world you will need editors, writers and graphic designers. In the police force there are a number of different personalities required depending on their roles. Some will rise to the ranks in leadership, be detectives, others will follow a more scientific route into CSI and so on.

The purpose of the job list is to show that within career categories, there are a number of different roles for different personalities. The ranking is based purely on your inherent traits. You could work in the same career field but just do different jobs. This value in the individualised report is to create awareness and therefore unlock possibilities that you may have not even considered, which in turn allows you to research and possibly choose a new career path.

Careers Tab

At the top of the page is one of my favourite features of the site the Careers tab. The objective is to provide a place to explore and learn about careers and give you further insight and direction in your career journey.


The careers area is divided into sixteen different generalised career areas
  1. Agricultural, Food and Natural Resources - 38 Careers
  2. Architecture and Construction - 39 Careers
  3. Arts, Audio/Video Technology and Communications - 23 Careers
  4. Business, Management and Administration - 29 Careers
  5. Education and Training - 13 Careers
  6. Finance - 18 Careers
  7. Government and Public Administration - 12 Careers
  8. Health Science - 49 Careers
  9. Hospitality and Tourism - 39 Careers
  10. Human Services - 25 Careers
  11. Information Technology - 7 Careers
  12. Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security - 17 Careers
  13. Manufacturing - 38 Careers
  14. Marketing, Sales and Service - 19 Careers
  15. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - 30 Careers
  16. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics - 31 careers
Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Career List Sample

When clicking on a career takes you to a full page with the three tabs: Course, Colleges and Video.  Each tab gives you the same information as listed above in the Career Drill Down explanation above.

Connect on Social Media with CashCrunch Careers

Closing Thoughts

Since we work an average of 50 years it makes sense to find out what we have an aptitude for and do something we enjoy! Using CashCrunch Careers has been a positive experience for all three of us.  We have found new career paths to explore and are looking forward to seeing where each of us will end up.

We enjoyed using it to discover our own personal strengths and weaknesses and to discover new career opportunities that we had not thought about pursuing before.  

I am one of 70 families who are reviewing CashCrunch Careers be sure to click on the banner below  to read what the crew members thought.

Friday 21 September 2018

Unit Study Round Up

This week over on the Crew blog some of the team are sharing a few ideas on Unit Studies and this got me thinking.  When Nathaniel was younger we did a lot of Unit Study type things together.  So today I would like to share a round up of the Unit Studies that we have done together.

Famous People Unit Studies

Mondrian Inspired Art

Current Event Lead Unit Studies

  • Winter Olympics - this study focused on the 2014 games but a lot of the resources can be used for any winter Olympics.
  • Summer Olympics - Explore the world of Great Britain and the 30th Olympic Games.
  • World Cup Soccer - this study focused on the 2014 FIFA event hosted in Brazil.  These resources cover soccer and Brazil.
  • ANZAC Day - a few resources to explore the heritage of this beautiful day of remembrance.
  • We had some major fire events happen on an annual basis in Australia so felt it important to learn about Fire Safety.

 Poppins Book Nook Unit Studies

A couple of years ago I joined the Poppins Book Nook which hosted a monthly unit study  with FREE downloads and bloggers who shared the resources around that theme that they had found.  This is a great resource if you are wanting specific themed unit studies.


Here are some of the themes we participated in:

Unit Study We Have Reviewed

Here are some Unit Studies we have reviewed over the years.


This post is a part of the the Homeschool Review Crew Unit Studies Round UP be sure to pop on over to find more Unit Studies and help.

Unit Studies - Round Up - Resources and How to Guide {Homeschool Link UP}

Monday 17 September 2018

Rescue Me! {The Captain Sun Adventures Review}

Nathaniel has been pursuing superheroes this year.  We have watched most of the DC and Marvel series movies and are looking forward to new releases coming soon.  I didn't think I could enjoy superhero stories as much as I've grown to enjoy them with him.

Recently we were introduced to Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us About the Power of Faith. The heart behind The Captain Sun Adventures is part comic book, part children's devotional resource.



Rescue Me! is book one in the series and focuses on origin story, rescue, power and a team of heroes. 

Chapter 1 sample page

There are a total of eight chapters in the story. Each chapter is three pages long and follows a comic book layout with text boxes giving story background and speech bubbles. The graphics are beautifully drawn and family friendly. Although there is a villain in the story he is not grotesque making this book family friendly.

The story is set in the city called Capital City where a darkness is slowly creeping into everything and everywhere.  The citizens are wondering where Captain Sun is. Captain Sun arrives and defeats the villain only to have him return.  What to do?  How can this villain be conquered once and for all?  You will need to read Captain Sun's Rescue Me! to find out ...

Devotional News Paper Sample
Each chapter is followed by a one page devotional in the form of the Capital City Chronicle.  The Chronicle expands and explains the chapter before and presents a scripture to contemplate and questions to help the reader think deeper about what is going on in the story and how this applies to us in every day life.

At the end of Chapter 8 you will find a list of questions to think about for each of the preceding chapters. 

For children who like merchandise or to colour in be sure to check out the fun stuff tab on the It's Captain Sun website.


Book Details
Title: Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us About the Power of Faith.
Author: Bryce Morgan
Illustrator: Mitch Martin
ISBN: 9781466401471
Publisher: M5 Productions
Pages: 39
Format: Softcover, PDF, Kindle

Other Books in the Series
  • Book 2:  Captain Sun and the Army of Fear
  • Book 3: Captain Sun and the Scourge of the Shadow Dragon

Connect on Social Media

Hashtags: #hsreviews, #CaptainSun, #itsCaptainSun
Over All I thought ...
Rescue Me! is a great tool to present the gospel to today's younger generation.The devotional pages are thoughtfully written and beautifully presented.  As your student works their way through this comic book they will be taken on a journey to deepen their understanding of the Christian faith and the body of Christ.   I look forward to sharing Captain Sun Rescue Me! with my younger nieces and nephews.

Blessings
Chareen


Wednesday 12 September 2018

Learning Latin with Picta Dicta by Roman Roads Media {Review}

Ever since we began home educating the idea of learning Latin has been simmering in my mind and over the years we have attempted a few different programs.  Latin is foundational to many aspects of the English language and is an integral component of many scientific fields.  At times over our homeschooling career I have been frustrated at not being able to pronounce the Latin words before me.  Recently Roman Roads Media offered us the chance to build our Latin vocabulary via their latest Latin course called Picta∙Dicta.

What is Picta∙Dicta
Picta∙Dicta has been created by Timothy Griffith to assit teachers and home educators to teach Latin vocabulary to their students using a specific on line app. It has been designed to be a self-paced learning environment where students learn both English and Latin words. Each course includes multiple difficulty levels allowing the parent to customise the level each student is working at, providing a stimulating, achievable and challenging learning environment.  Picta∙Dicta has been designed to be used on iOS, Android, PC or Mac.  An Internet connection is required to function properly.
  • Picta∙Dicta Natural World - This level is aimed at elementary and jr. high age students. In Picta∙Dicta Natural World students will learn the Latin words for over 400 things in Nature equipping them with a foundation for future studies.
  • Picta∙Dicta Vocabulary Builder - This course has been designed for students who are learning to read Latin or those wishing to improve upon their Latin vocabulary.
  • Picta∙Dicta Ancient World - This is a sequel to Natural World and is currently under development and is coming soon.
To use Picta∙Dicta you will need a separate licence for each user.  The system has been designed to track each student's progress and customise the lessons and review according to individualised performance.

Learning is entirely self paced and there are no live instructors or students.  There is no need of parental involvement in the learning process.

Picta∙Dicta has been designed to build Latin vocabulary and therefore works well in conjunction with any other Latin course you are currently using.

For more information visit the FAQ page about Picta∙Dicta.

How we used it
Picta Dicta log in screen.
 After setting up a parental account, I set up an account for Nathaniel to use.  We were blessed with two courses to use: Picta∙Dicta Natural World and Picta∙Dicta Vocabulary Builder. Due to our lack of Latin vocabulary I decided to get Nathaniel to start with Natural World.  Once logged in the student can see which ever courses they are enrolled in.  Nathaniel is enrolled in two classes so both are on the home page.  He can then choose which one he needs to work on. 

Natural World Campaign View
The top of the list shows the class title and in brackets the difficulty level is displayed.  This is set by the teacher when enrolling the student.  On the right hand side of the same bar there are two options: training or proceeding with the next lesson.
Just below this title bar there are two tabs: campaign (the lessons) or history (date that the lesson was completed and % results for the lesson).

The campaign screen is divided into several columns
  • The first column is the lesson number.
  • Second column depicts the subject matter being covered.
  • The centre column tells the student what the campaign will be doing. (Learning Latin words, matching pictures to Latin words, translating Latin to English, Latin spelling, Reviews in English or Latin) 
  • In the fourth column the student can see at a glance their proficiency which is depicted by a scoring system of stars. If a lesson is still in progress it is saved and is depicted with a clock face.
  • Should a student want to redo a chapter they can click on the anti-clockwise arrow below the cog in the right hand column. 

History View.

Nathaniel is a competent reader and as such I selected Reader Level II for him to work on in the Natural World vocabulary building.  I enrolled him on the same level for Vocabulary Builder but we both soon realised that this level was far too difficult to work through.  I was quite pleased to find that I could log into the parent portal and change the level that he was working on to a more suitable class level.  This reset the program back to the beginning.

Latin word introduction Picta Dicta Natural World sample for horse.

In the first lesson you are introduced to a new word.  The narrator says the word in Latin.  It appears on the screen written in Latin along with a graphic representing the word.  If there is interesting background information pertaining to the Latin word this is provided below the graphic.  We have learnt some rather fascinating things about dogs, chickens, donkeys, wolves etc. The word being learnt is click able and the narrator will repeat the word helping you to learn to pronounce it. To proceed you can click on the enter button or the thumbs up symbol in the bottom right hand corner.  Be sure to read these as questions do come up in the tests about the words and their back grounds.

Picta Dicta Natural World multiple choice sample
 Once the words have been introduced students then practise hearing the word, seeing the word and then selecting the correct graphic to match the word.   Progress through the lesson can be tracked via the circle in the top right hand corner of the page. At the reader level the system uses different processes to memorise the words and their meanings such as: English to Latin word, Latin word to graphic, graphic type the English word, graphic type the Latin word etc.

Once you have completed a lessons words the system progresses you to the next set of words.  Once you have learnt these words, the two lessons words are combined so that you do not forget the words you have already learnt in previous campaigns.



Should your student want to do some fun hand written reinforcement of words learnt using Picta∙Dicta you can download two PDF documents with crosswords on the Picta∙Dicta Downloads page.

Topics covered in Picta∙Dicta Natural World 
There are a total of 256 chapters divided into the following topics.  Each topic is followed by a number of review lessons to maintain vocabulary already learnt.
  1. Basic Animals
  2. Fruits, Berries, and Nuts
  3. Human Anatomy I
  4. Land Forms and Terrain
  5. Small Animals
  6. Parts of Tress and Plants
  7. Human Anatomy II 
  8. Water
  9. Birds I
  10. Growing Things
  11. Sky and Weather
  12. Animal Anatomy
  13. Sea Life
  14. Trees
  15. Hand and Foot
  16. Constellations
  17. Exotic Animals
  18. Flowers and Herbs
  19. Vegetables and Legumes
  20. Human Anatomy III
  21. Birds II
  22. Insects, Arachnids, and Worms
  23. Sign and Habitat
  24. Light and Fire
  25. Metals and Stones
  26. Ground cover and Vegetation
Sample Game Descriptions for Reader Level II
  • Learn Latin II - Learn new Latin word and read stories about the different animals and their roles within the ancient society (see graphic of horse above).
  • Latin Picture II - Connect Latin to English, using the Latin words and English descriptions.
  • English II - Label the given picture in English (great spelling revision)
  • Spell Latin II - Translate the Latin words into English and type it in.
  • Review Latin VII - Translate the English word into Latin and type it in.
Student Difficulty Levels Available
  • Basic: Learn both the English and Latin names for items. Reading and typing are not required. All lessons are simple, short and narrated to the student.
  • English: This level is for young children who cannot yet read.  Each of the exercises are multiple choice and all words included are read aloud.
  • Reader I: Students who are comfortable reading English.  Recognise English and Latin words, choose and spell both in English and Latin.  Descriptions for each item is basic.
  • Reader II: Aimed at students in upper elementary who read well.  Read stories from history and literature relating to the words and basic etymology.
  • Express: For older students who want to proceed quickly with no English assignments or review lesson.. 
  • Teacher: designed for those who do not wish to do drills but need access to the vocabulary, concepts, and articles.
For the Parent
Picta∙Dicta has been designed for children to use, it does however require you to set up a parent account before the student can begin their course. To find our more about setting up and managing a Picta∙Dicta account you can go to Roman Roads Media where they have shared a step by step video tutorial on how to do this.

Within the parent portal you have access to follow each enrolled students progress. Once you select the student you want to follow up on the system will provide you with a summary of where that student is at and what their current campaign and score is for the week.

Parent Portal student report card.

Connect with Picta∙Dicta on Social Media
Click on an icon to learn more.
Facebook Twitter Instagram 

Over All I thought ...
I am impressed with the simplicity and ease of use of Picta∙Dicta.  I love the graphics and back ground information supplied and that this level groups together all things in the Natural World.  There is sufficient repetition to reinforce learning and the system adapts to the student need.  Having a regular review lesson after each new concept is learnt is helpful in maintaining vocabulary already learnt. For students who can already read I have appreciated the Latin and English spelling component.  Overall it is a well thought out and practical app safe to use with your students of all ages at home or on the go and I am looking forward to gaining a wider Latin vocabulary alongside Nathaniel in the year ahead.

Blessings
Chareen

Classical Rhetoric and Picta Dicta {Roman Roads Media Reviews}