The past few weeks, I’ve been looking over Eclectic Foundations Language Arts Level B the past few weeks in order to provide an Eclectic Foundations review.  I have been using this program with my 7 year old as part of the Homeschool Review Crew.  She has been struggling with reading the past few years, but I think she’s really starting to catch on now and I think this program has helped reinforce her knowledge.

About the Product:

Eclectic Foundations consists of 144 lessons to cover 36 4-day weeks, a complete year’s worth of lessons.  Each level covers Phonics, Grammar, Spelling, Reading Comprehension, Handwriting, Composition, and Poetry, so no need to buy extra books.

McGuffey readers are utilized in the Eclectic Foundations program.  The guideline for levels is as follows:

• Eclectic Foundations Level A uses Eclectic Primer: 1st grade
• Eclectic Foundations Level B uses 1st Eclectic Reader: 1st–2nd grades
• Eclectic Foundations Level C uses 2nd Eclectic Reader: 3rd–4th grades
• Eclectic Foundations Level D uses 3rd Eclectic Reader: 5th–6th grades
• Eclectic Foundations Level E uses 4th Eclectic Reader: 6th–8th grades
• Eclectic Foundations Level F uses 5th Eclectic Reader: 7th grade–college sophomore
• Eclectic Foundations Level G uses 5th Eclectic Reader: 7th grade–college sophomore
• Eclectic Foundations Level H uses 6th Eclectic Reader: 9th grade–college senior
• Eclectic Foundations Level I uses 6th Eclectic Reader: 9th grade–college senior

It’s important to note that if your child recognizes letters, they may do better with Level B as Level A assumes that your child does not know their letters and cannot read.

Eclectic Foundations Level B is for the student who recognizes simple words and is ready for silent e words and covers McGuffey’s First Reader.  Phonics utilizes word lists from Word Mastery by Florence Akin.  Handwriting consists of letter practice, famous quotes, short poems, or the “slate work” from McGuffey’s First Reader.  Each week offers a new poem and comprehension questions.  You can view the scope and sequence for Level B here.  You can also preview the first 4 weeks to get a feel if it’s a fit for your family.

The products are available in both paper copy and digital download and are very reasonably priced.

My Thoughts:

 

I really appreciate the simplicity of this program.  All of the books are spiral bound which I just love.  It’s so much easier when books lay flat!  With the Phonics Practice Sheets being laminated, they can easily be reused for extra practice, which makes me happy as well.

The Teacher’s Guide walks the teacher right through every step of the program and explains what to do and how to do it.  It has suggested questions to ask your child to ensure comprehension.

Having several subjects all combined into the Language Arts Student Workbook makes it easier to stay focused and get the day completed.  We can easily transition between handwriting/copy work, poetry, grammar, etc.  Most days only offer a page of work, so I would likely be inclined to add a little more, however I think it would be fine as a stand alone as long as your child doesn’t need extra practice.  If they do, the Phonics Practice Sheets are perfect for that!

My daughter didn’t mind doing the work, although it wasn’t her favorite thing.  She found it a bit easy, but I think that it was great to help give her more confidence in her language arts studies.    The work is fairly simple and not distracting with pictures and colors so that worked great for her personality type.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit Eclectic Foundations on facebook.  You can also see more reviews on this level and othersby the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking the banner below.

Our home is filled with devices.  iPads, iPods, cell phones, Kindles, and of course multiple computers for homeschooling.  Honestly until recently, we hadn’t really given much thought on putting safeguards into place for our children.  I was super excited when the chance came to review an internet accountable software.  We were given the wonderful opportunity of checking out Accountable2You, and were given access to the Family Plan.

About the Product:

Accountable2You is is an accountability software that you can use on multiple devices with a membership.  Basically it tracks the activity and will alert you when something fishy is triggered, whether in an internet search or even in a text message.  The program can be set up to have someone be the accountability partner and receive an instant text or email when there is questionable activity.  This program cannot be disabled unless you know the password and will instantly trigger an alert as well if it’s attempted.

It’s important to note that this is just an accountability program and NOT a web filter.  The website recommends other programs for filtering.

More than just accountability on devices, it can also be set up to alert if someone is on a device after a certain time.  This is perfect for kids that may try and sneak their device after it’s supposed to be put up for the night.

With the program, there are 4 plans to select from:

Individual Plan:  The individual plan is made for one person.  This is perfect for singles and can monitor up to 6 devices.

Family Plan:  The family plan can monitor up to 20 devices!  This even works for your kids that are away at College.

Group Plan:  In the group plan, each user in the plan can have up to 6 devices.  This is perfect for church groups or other groups that want to make sure they are accountable to someone.  Member accounts have all the features of an Individual account, including reporting, accountability partners, and alerts.

Small Business Plan: The Small Business Plan is designed for businesses wanting to monitor activity on devices used within their organization.  The administrator of the plan can set up unlimited devices, such as employee computers or tablets, and see all activity for all devices installed under their account.

 

My Thoughts:

This has actually been quite an interesting review!  Since using Accountable2You, it’s opened up great discussions with our kids on what is appropriate internet usage and such.  Thankfully we haven’t had any major alerts, but I’m so glad that we have this added for extra accountability.  We did have a couple yellow alerts.  My daughter was searching “cute shirts for girls” on Amazon and since it had the word cute and girls in the same search, it alerted me.  Even though it was an innocent search, it was good to know that the program was working and that it yellow flagged a questionable search so that I knew to go review that item.  We also had it triggered with some books that my kids were looking at.  It will tell you the exact time and device that triggered the alert.

I found the program really easy to install on every device except on the iPad and iPhone.  Android was super easy.  With Apple devices, you have to disable safari and use the Accountable2You app to access the internet in order for it to track.  With Android, I just had to install the app and set it up.  It tracks texts on Android but not on Apple.  It took a few extra steps, but wasn’t too difficult.

My favorite part of the program is that it will still track if you go in the “incognito” mode if you don’t want your internet history followed.  That is a very important feature to have with kids.

I’m thankful that we have installed this on our devices and will definitely renew when it is time.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit the Accountable2You website.  You can also find more on Facebook and Youtube.

Please click the banner below to find more reviews on this product and others with the Homeschool Review Crew.