LET'S GET REAL: Homeschool Review Crew: Our Review of Home School Navigator

For the past 5 weeks we have been using a wonderful online Reading and Language Arts program from Home School Navigator. We were given a year subscription to review, and are happy to share what we have done so far.

Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum will help you teach reading, writing, vocabulary, comprehension, and grammar to your elementary aged children. I love that instead of using grade levels, they have a color coded system. If you have a child who is a little behind in these subjects, this program will not make them feel as if they are not where they need to be. Instead they will just see progress from where they start.

They have six levels to offer families. Red and Orange are for beginners, Yellow and Green are for intermediate readers, and Blue and Indigo are for more advanced students. My daughter is in the fifth grade and the Indigo level was perfect for her. You will be purchasing a yearly subscription that cost about $97 for each level you would like to complete.

The last three levels have Interactive Notebooks that go along with the program and are very unique and worth working through as you go through the lesson plans provided for you. You may even purchase these notebooks separately from the subscription. I like that you can pick and choose what you would like to do even though the lessons plans are laid out. I also liked the online portfolio maintenance. What a wonderful way to help manage what you include in your yearly portfolios.

As I said before, my daughter is working through the Indigo Level of this program. This is the last level of the Home School Navigator curriculum. Each level of this program includes:

· A 36 Week Course
· Daily Reading, Writing, and Word Study Lesson Plan
· 60 Instructional Videos
· Word Study Program
· Activities That Encourage Multiple Learning Styles
· Monthly Skills Checklist
· Portfolio Maintenance
· Monthly Goal Sheet/Portfolio Check-In
· Downloadable Review Games

During our time working through the program, we have been using it daily for her vocabulary word studies, and her writing skills. I feel as if her comprehension and writing has improved. She has been enjoying the videos that go with the lessons and has been able to learn about the importance of character development in her writings. We haven't tried the downloadable review games yet, but we are thinking they may be fun.

We just started on the Interactive Notebook for the book Holes. So far it has been a unique way to study the book and we are looking forward to finishing it over the next few weeks. It is designed to be a more in depth study of the book and will open up discussions of certain aspects of the story.

We do not do yearly portfolios as we get our children tested each year, but I am impressed with the way you can upload their assignments from this curriculum for easy access as you put together their portfolios. That is a huge time saver for homeschooling parents. It would be great if all online programs offered this.

Would you like to learn more about this online program? Come on over to their website or their social media pages listed below: