TOS Crew Review: Super Star Speech - Super Star Games

I was given the privilege to review these great games created by Deborah Lott, who is a licensed Speech language pathologist a with Master’s degree in Education/ speech pathology and author of Super Star Speech. She is also a homeschool mom of 16 years. Super Star Speech is a speech therapy program you can do at home.  I have not reviewed the product but if you go to http://homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolcrew/768114/ you can read reviews of Super Star Speech or visit the Super Star Speech website by Clicking HERE.

I am reviewing several games produced by Super Star Speech.  These games are full color and cover various topics.  They are quickly downloadable in PDF format so that you can print them out and use them with your children.  Topics for the games include: Parts of speech, Science topics (plants, insects, animals, etc.) history topics (colonies, revolution,etc.), geography (continents.)  The grade level depends on the topic.

We reviewed the following games:

All About Animals - which is a animal classification game.  Includes directions for older and younger students. They don't have to be able to read to play this, but someone should be able to read to ask the questions. This is for grades K to 5.

Insects - this is a fun build an insect game.  You ask questions and you get build your own insect. Need someone to read to them, but any age can play.  Geared to grades 2nd to 6th grades.

Covering the Continents is a geography game geared for ages 6 to 10.  I really appreciate this game because I have been having difficulty with this specific topic with one of my children. You do need someone to be able to read these to the student, but overall the game is not difficult to play. The object is to answer the most questions and obtain tokens so you can "settle" a continent. There are seven questions per continent. A very fun game to play while learning the continents.

Colony Quest is a history game based on the 13 original colonies is geared to grades 3 to 5. Similar in play to the Continents game, object is to answer questions correctly to "settle" the colony.

The last game we reviewed was Road to Revolution.  Road to Revolution is geared towards grades 3 to 8. This American History Game contains 48 multiple choice questions and a game board to move around. You must get the question correct to move forward in the game. Answers are on the cards so someone else must read the question aloud other the person whose turn it is.  Included in the cards are some "loose a turn cards" and  "move one space cards."

The games are full color and fun. They all include instructions. You may need to supply a die with some of the games. You can easily print these out and give to your child to cut out and set up.  You can purchase these at CurrClick and have them instantly as a download for $3.50. To goto the CurrClick website to purchase these - CLICK HERE.

To see what other games are available or to purchase click HERE.

TOS Crew Review: Heads Up!

http://www.headsupnow.com/ AKA Heads Up! is a supplier of information and products for struggling learners. There products are designed for use with various learning styles and strengths to help children feel sucessful. Products are for homeschool families, occupational therpist, teachers, and parents to use with academic and life skills*. (*Information paraphrased from the Heads Up catalog.)

The product we reviewed from Heads Up! was one of their own creations. They are different types of reading aides to help keep visual attention while drawing attention to a smaller portion of text. They can also be used to help keep a child from being overwhelmed when seeing the entire page.

(This yellow one is 4" X 9" and the pink one 4" X 4-1/2" )

They come in various sizes, shapes, and come in 6 colors. They are made with transparent colored polycarbonate with a frame printed on it.

For older children the Heads Up! Reader can be use for focusing just one line of text at a time in a larger chapter book. This can also be used as a book mark as well.

I have been using these with my beginning readers to help keep them focused on one sentence at a time. My younger children (6 and 7 years old) have enjoyed using them with their phonics and early readers. I have been letting them choose the color to help keep interest. Also, if they are distracted by another sibling, using the frames helped them quickly to return to the word or sentence they are suppose to be reading, quickly.

This frames are very sturdy and I expect we would lose them before they would be destroyed - LOL!

Visiting their website, they have various products that I never have thought about much because I don't have a struggling learner. I imagine these tools would be helpful in many homeschools. I saw items to help with hand writing, sitting still, phonics tools, audios for seminars given by Heads Up!, math products, speech therapy, and even books for various learning disorders. If you have a struggling learner, this catalog is well worth a look!

"Children, 'fair' means giving you what you need when you need it. It would be unfair to treat you all the same." Melinda L. Boring (one of the many quotes of encouragement in the Heads Up! catalog)