Several years ago I came to know AVKO. I actually wrote a post about it on my blog way back when... you can see the brief post here. So, when I saw the list of vendors for this years crew voyage, I was thrilled to see AVKO listed! As a member of the Homeschool Crew, we were each given a complimentary one year membership to AVKO, in exchange I would provide an honest review.
The AVKO Educational Research Foundation, founded in 1974, has as its mission the following:
To determine what makes the learning of reading and spelling so difficult for some and so easy for others.
To determine what it is about our language that good readers learn without being taught that poor readers don't.
To determine whether or not that which poor readers don't learn is ever systematically taught and if it isn't, if it can be.
To devise techniques and materials to enable teachers (or parents) to systematically teach poor readers and/or poor spellers that which schools presently are not teaching.
To widely disseminate its discoveries of techniques and materials that enable dyslexics to learn to read and to spell.
I had a struggling reader, he was dyslexic. I had read many books trying to figure out how to help him. It wasn't until I read To Teach a Dyslexic, by Don McCabe that I was really able to help him. After reading Don's book, I went on to purchase a membership to their website, as well as, purchase the entire set of Sequential Spelling. Those few steps opened up a world of words for my son, who was struggling so.
AVKO, is very confident that their method of teaching will help most, if not all students. One of the quotes from their website is this;
"AVKO claims the underlying cause of illiteracy or dyslexia is a failure of our educational system to teach"
This is a bold statement to make. Except in a situation where there is a reason why a child is not learning to read... learning to read... brain damage, seizures, autism, just to name a few, I believe this statement is spot on. Especially when you look at learning in a classroom setting. I have a high respect for classroom teachers. I am not sure how they can balance trying to meet all the needs of all the children in their classroom. While I believe they do the best they can, if you have a child with dyslexia, or other reading issues, you may not be able to give them the time they need, and they will then struggle and perhaps not learn. Also, I want to also point out, that I had a child who struggled with reading, and once we followed the methods from AVKO, my son was able to make progress in reading that he had not been able to make prior.
Is AVKO the answer to every reading problem a child might have? Probably not. Though I do believe that AVKO will be a piece of the puzzle!
When you purchase a membership to AVKO you gain access to their members only site. As well as receive a discount on purchases you make through the site.
Even if you are not using Sequential Spelling, and even if you do not have a child with learning disabilities, you will benefit from all that is offered to members. Using these resources you will be able to put together your own spelling program using the methods that was used to design the Sequential Spelling Program.
Also, you recieve an e-book version of To Teach a Dyslexic ( a $14.95 value). If you do have a child that you are unsure how to reach, I highly recommend you read this book.
The Teaching of Reading and Spelling from K- College....$59.95 value
The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words.....$29.95 value
The Patterns of English Spelling... $359 value
( this is an awesome resource and something that it referred to throughout Sequential Spelling. It is not necessary to do the curriculum, though it would be a great supplement) Also, would benefit you with spellng in general.
That is just a few of the ebooks. Now in addition he has workshop recordings, teaching tips, pre tests and placements tests and much more!
Purchasing a one year membership will help you in the realm of reading and spelling with your kids, even if your child does not have a learning disability. If you suspect dyslexia or a different disability it just might be the answer. As it was for us.
Also, if you never purchase Sequential Spelling, you would benefit from the materials.
Please visit the crew blog to see what my crew mates have to say about AVKO!!!
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization,
it expects what never was and never will be"
Thomas Jefferson
This review for the TOS Crew is right up my alley, not only was it FREE to me! It would be FREE for you! Now you can't beat that price point.
For many years now, I have heard people talk about how they cannot possibly homeschool because they cannot afford it. They cannot afford to purchase curriculum, etc.. Then they often think if they did find themselves homeschooling the only opportunity for them would be through a public charter program.
I would like to encourage all families, before you sign up with a charter school, check out what is available to you, for free or low cost! And here in this review you will learn about a product you can use for FREE!!
We were shipped a CD from The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc. On the CD you will find American History texts, in the form of ebooks. There are 4 textbooks on the CD. Elementary, Middle and High School, as well as, an Elementary School Spanish Edition (ESL).
What is The American Heritage Education Foundation? Here is their mission;
AHEF is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens.
AHEF accomplishes this patriotic mission by writing, producing, and distributing FREE K-12 lesson plans to teachers, students, and families in all 50 states and through additional initiatives, programs, and partnerships.
I have printed out all three textbooks, as I have all three levels of students in my house. I wanted to compare them side by side.
Each textbook is is approx. 185 pages long.
The elementary level really covers between 1776- 1895. The Middle School level covers between 1776-1892. And the High School Level covers 1622-1988. This curriculum correlates with NCSS and Core Knowledge Standards.
From the get go, I would say that this program is not for current events, (as you can see from the years it covers) it is indeed to teach your student/s about our American Heritage. Which I do feel is lacking in so many classrooms.
The textbooks are broken up in units, and each unit covers one or more of the themes; Freedom, Unity, Progress and Responsibility. At the end of each unit, there are activities given that will help to reinforce what was learned in that unit. They are age appropriate for the grade levels, which is a plus. One thing to be mindful of, is that this was a curriculum that was designed for classroom use. However, with some adaptation you could easily use this in your homeschool.
Many times when you find a free resource online, the resource is not complete, or it is simply a cursory look on a subject, that is not the case with this CD from The American Heritage Foundation. While we did not have the time to complete the curriculum, it does appear that it is a complete study on our American Heritage. And it is something that we will be using in our homeschool. I believe it would be a welcome addition to any homeschool!
Take a moment to check out the crew blog to see what my crew mates have to say about this resource!
** I was sent a free copy of America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty for the express purpose to use the product and give my honest opinion. All opinions contained in this review are my own, and are indeed, my honest opinions.
As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I recieved a free 30 day subscription to the ACT, Discover Online Career Planning Program in order to review.
This program essentially plays the role of the high school guidance counselor. Just as a guidance counselor, the Discover program guides students down a career path, something that can seem like a difficult task for a parent who perhaps has not gone to college, or if this is your first high school student, where do you begin?
Here is how ACT describes their program;
ACT Advantage offers DISCOVER—the career planning system developed for professional career counselors and used by millions of students to develop a comprehensive career path.
"DISCOVER is jam packed with career tips and uses a proven developmental guidance process to help students:
Assess interests, abilities and job values.
Explore occupations, majors and schools.
Build an education plan that relates to career plans.
Improve job-seeking skills and develop a resume.
The DISCOVER career planning process begins with a research-based assessment system that allows students to assess their interests, abilities and values—a critical step to building a career plan based on personal strengths.
Students can then explore multiple career paths using DISCOVER's up-to-date databases of occupations (including military), majors and colleges. DISCOVER also includes the latest information about financial aid and scholarships.
Price: $19.95 for a three-month license, $24.95 for a six-month license."
All of this sounds fabulous, however, I was a bit turned off by the program before I even had my son try it out. As I have done with my others review, I tried the program out before even introducing it to my son. I want to have a working knowledge of the product, as well!
So, I signed into the program and began to take the inventories they offer, in order to "Discover" what career path would be a good fit. However, as I took the inventories, following the directions they gave, I found that the career choices they gave me, were not anything close to what I would actually enjoy.
I was given things like refuse collector, paper hanger, plumber, butcher, among many other crazy things that do not fit what I would see as my ideal line of work!
I continued through all of the inventories, and was not pleased with the outcome all the way through. I felt that the reports at the end of the inventories were not helpful whatsoever. They were long lists of jobs, that seem to be disconnected. If my high schoolers had this result it would not give them guidance, it would cause more confusion.
We have been able to look at their interests and their talents on our own, and come up with a career path that is much more suitable then what was 'discovered' through the 'Discover' program.
The one thing that I did like about the program was the resume section, which gave a tutorial and examples of how to write a resume.
If you do not have any idea on how to guide your child, or what direction they might want to go in, then this may be a helpful tool.
Please visit their website to see if it would be a fit for your family.
And please visit the crew blog for varying points of view!
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