Scaredy Cat Reading System-Review

For the last few weeks we have been using Level One of Scaredy Cat Reading from Joyce Herzog.  We received a full set including the Teacher's manual, Student workbook, Student Reader, The Story of the LetterMaster, Song CD and a Fun Pack. Scaredy Cat Reading is not only phonics based, it is mastery based as well.

Level One of Scaredy Cat Reading familiarizes students with the alphabet and teaches them the sounds the letters make. The Teacher's Manual is a wonderful resource for the parent of any young child.  I cannot begin to tell you the number of ideas that are included in this book.  It is a 45-page spiral bound which includes an introduction, the rules of the Scaredy Cat Reading System (which are not taught to the students in level one), specifics of the program for pre-readers and other general information you need to know.  

The book then describes the three steps of Scaredy Cat Reading level one.

Step One: learn the alphabet

Step Two: learn the names of each letter and recognize it in many different fonts

Step Three: learning the primary sounds of each of the consistent consonants and learning "who" the vowels are

Next you will find a page on Reading Aloud, Games to Play with Letters, Progress Tracking Sheets, Handwriting Hints and several pages you can copy for handwriting practice.

Finally, the remainder of the book is packed with ideas for teaching the letters and their sounds. She has a cute idea of having different styles of days depending on how much time you have or how much you want to work on this in a day.  There are appetizer days to whet your child's appetite, main course days where you spend more time with the child on specific activities, salad days and dessert days are also on the "menu". 

The Story of LetterMaster; Who Gave the Letters their Jobs is a 31 page comic book style story of how each letter was assigned its sound or sounds.  The story is also found on the audio CD.  Unfortunately, this did not really hold the attention of my children (and I can't say I loved it either.)  I'm not one for a comic book to begin with and we just didn't care for the story.

The LetterMaster comic and one of the reproducible handwriting pages

The ABC Reader is available in a secular and a Christian version.  I was sent the secular version.  It contains the lyrics to an ABC song that is different from the "next time won't you sing with me" version we are all familiar with.  This is to prevent children learning "elliminnowpee".  There are two versions of this song.  The one in the book has secular words, the one on the audio CD is the Christian version.

Sadie with the ABC reader

The ABC reader starts out with many pages of the alphabet written in different type fonts and styles.  Capital and Lower case letters are both learned.  There is also a page of the letters in sign language.  Other pages include a pictorial primer, a list of animal names by letter and given names by letter.  It also includes all of the lyrics to the songs.

a worksheet from the student workbook

The Student Workbook has 143 pages.  Step One of the book has 18 pages where students match letters and learning the alphabet.  The final page of this section has students do a dot-to-dot of the alphabet in alphabetical order.  In Step Two students learn the letter names on pages like the one shown above.  There are 53 pages in this section.  Step Three teaches children the letter sounds.  Letters are taught individually in groups.  The First Letter names are taught first.  These are the letters that say their name first like B and D.    There are a couple of pages for each letter which include a page of pictures where the child circles words that begin with the letters and and/or cross out ones that do not followed by a page of letter activities.  For example, for the letter T some suggestions are to touch your toes ten times, listen to a tuba or a trombone, and taste tea by the teaspoon with your tongue.  Lots and lots of ideas for each letter.  The final pages are by the different groups of letters (first name consonants, last name consonants, hard working consonants and vowels).

The Audio CD begins with a reading of the LetterMaster which takes about 25 minutes, followed by a variety of simple songs sung acapella.  Most are more like jingles or rhymes than songs and I don't find them all that catchy.  The kids don't enjoy listening to it.

The Fun Pack comes on light cardstock so I laminated most of it. There are Bingo cards, and Alphabet Spinner, cards for uppercase and lowercase letters, letter pieces to put together to build letters and cards with pictures to match sounds with.  There are some magnet sheets as well with letters and pictures for learning and reviewing concepts.

 A few of the games and activities from the Fun Pack

I have mainly focused on using this with 5 year old Ellie.  She loves the fun activities and the workbook.  She often asks to do it and for that I am thankful.  We try to do some part of Scaredy Cat reading each day. We don't always manage to fit it in, but I really like that she enjoys it and is learning.  My 3 year old also likes to join in and sometimes even the older kids will as well.  (Especially if we play BINGO and Skittles are involved! Forgot to take pictures of that.)

Ellie playing a matching letter game.

Ellie loves learning her letters. She put them all in order herself.

I plan to use a lot of this program with my 3 year old when she turns 4 in September.  I think it will be fun for her to have her own "school" to do next year.   While we do like this, I don't think we will purchase future levels.

My favorite part of this curriculum is the flexibility and the wonderful ideas (and fun pack) to really help children learn pre-reading skills.  If you are looking for something to teach your child reading in a fun way, I do think this is worth taking a look at.

There are 4 levels of Scaredy Cat Reading.  You can have your child take a free placement test to determine which level you need. There is also a page of free downloads.

The crew is reviewing a wide variety of books and curriculum from Joyce Herzog including: Scaredy Cat Reading System Level 2, Scaredy Cat Reading System Level 3, Scaredy Cat Reading System Express, Learning in Spite of Labels (A great book!  I have this.), Timeless Teaching Tips,  Choosing & Using Curriculum Set, Luke's Life List, Luke's School List, Stepping Stones to Praise and Worship,  Stepping Stones to Bigger Faith For Little People, Budding Authors, 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar, Bible Quotes and Educational Dice Bag.  Lots of fun stuff to read about!

Here is a video from author Dr. Herzog about the Scaredy Cat Reading System:

Scaredy Cat Reading System level 1 is available for $75.00.  Additional student workbooks are $30.

Author Dr. Joyce Herzog is well known in the homeschooling community.  She taught learning disabled students for 25 years in public and private schools and has written many books and curriculum for homeschoolers.  Read more about her.

Click to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

Family Time Fitness

If you follow my blog or know me at all you know that I have spent the last 2 years (almost) losing over 80 lbs and am currently working on getting into shape (and still losing more weight).  I was so excited to have the opportunity to use Family Time Fitness with my family.  We received the Fitness 4 Homeschool Core 1 Curriculum for K-8.

The Fitness 4 Homeschool Curriculum allows homeschool parents to teach physical education without previous knowledge of physical education and athletic development. Our program, designed by experts in fitness training, nutrition and body movement, is designed to suit every age and ability level while affordably fitting into your budget. Our program combines flexibility and fun with a comprehensive curriculum to give your children a foundation for strong bodies and minds.  -from website

If you are like me, you probably think that physical activity is enough for PE class.  Family Time Fitness asserts that Physical Education (PE) is structured physical activity that develops an organized mind and body for students.  Activities like one day co-op play, Wii Fit, Wii sport and individual sports are not considered physical education because they do not comprehensively teach and manage physical fitness in students.  This program was started because of a lack of PE programs for homeschools.


I think we all know there are benefits to physical education. Here are a few that I find so important: Childhood obesity prevention (I have been obese for most of my adult life and some of my younger years- I do not want this for my kids!), Diabetes prevention (Diabetes is in my family.  Again, this is not something I want my kids to have.), and weight management. Other benefits include improvement of gross motor skills, better self-confidence and increased energy and focus for academics.  These are just a few of many that I chose to highlight.

Family Time Fitness should be used a minimum of three times per week but they strongly recommend using it five times a week. Each lesson takes 30-45 minutes to complete.  I honestly have not figured a way to schedule that much PE into our week.  We are fitting this in wherever we can.  I put it on the kid's schedules every day but we don't always get to it.

The Fitness 4 Homeschool Curriculum includes a startup guide, PDF lesson plans, video demonstrations, assessment tools, reminder emails, lifetime curriculum and video updates, access to online webinars and certificates of completion. One curriculum purchase can be used for all your children, with no subscription or renewal fees.  I have 6 children in 8th grade and below.  For me this program works out to be less than $10 per child and I can continue to use this for the remainder of our homeschooling years. I think the price is very reasonable considering all that you get.

There are 260 lessons, printable charts for assessments, a grocery list, a nutrition log, meal planner and a daily food diary.  

Here are the details:

Startup/Training Guide - The Startup Guide is a guide for parents and includes an introduction to physical education, information on what to expect from the program, safety information, how to integrate physical education into your curriculum, teaching tips and equipment information.

Lesson Plans – Each of the 260 professionally planned lessons arrives in PDF format and includes a List of Supplies, Warm-Up, Activity, Cool Down and Suggested Outdoor Activity. Each exercise is described in a detailed, user-friendly format for easy access. Each lesson provides 30-45 Minutes of physical activity. If you do all the activites that is over 7800 Minutes of activity a year! If you do the suggested outdoor activity you get an additional 10-15 minutes of physical activity.

A clip of one lesson

1-Page Summaries– Each lesson has a One-Page Summary to facilitate easy printing and portability. The summaries keep you from printing all 900+ Pages of Lesson Plans.

A clip of a one page summary (same lesson as above)

Video Demonstrations – Each exercise includes a demonstration video with real kids doing the exercises. There are over 200 instructional video demonstrations available to you with this curriculum, and you are guaranteed lifetime access to these videos as we update them.

This is a sample of one of the video demonstrations.


Assessment Tools – They provide tools to help track progress of the basic fundamental movements. Other downloadable tools include nutritional logs and meal planners for a comprehensive fitness approach.

a clip of the meal planner

a clip of the nutrition log

Encouragement Emails – During the first year of your course, they send you reminder emails each week day to keep you and your children motivated on your fitness journey. They also always include nutritional and fitness tips in the emails.

Online Webinars – You have access to  regular online webinars and webinar archive for further in-depth instruction and tips on the curriculum.


The 260 lesson plans utilize repetition, but they are also progressive and sequential. The program is designed for all age levels and abilities, and because they believe that the learning process is most valuable with family engagement, the lessons are designed so that the whole family can join in the lessons. View the Scope and Sequence.

One of the really unique aspects of this program is that all of the lessons can be done inside!  Seeing that much of the year it is just too cold here to do PE outside, this will be a real blessing.  I also love being able to put the lessons up on the computer and instruct the kids from there.  I will be honest, I have not been participating with the kids.  I have my own exercise plan, so I just direct the children as to what they should do.  Sometimes I can just describe what they should do, other times I might watch the videos ahead of time so I can demonstrate it quickly or just show them the video so they can see what to do. Although this picture was taken outside, we mostly have been doing this in the house.

Doing a ball activity

You do need some equipment but it is very basic and you can improvise too.  You will need playground balls (or other ball), jump ropes (either commercial or something you make yourself), bean bags (or a small ball or even a rolled up pair of socks), foam balls (or a beach ball), a stop watch (I use one on my iPod touch or laptop), measuring tape, cones (or something you already have to use as markers), and hula hoops. They also list an exercise mat as an optional item.  We don't have one of these. I had to purchase hula hoops and I did buy a jump rope too.  It was under $20 for everything I needed because we had everything else already.

The kids are having a lot of fun with this.  We learned that some of our kids are really good at hula hooping.  Emma's record is over 40 minutes.  My record?  Less than 4 seconds.  I cannot hula hoop at all.  I am extremely pleased with  Fitness 4 Homeschool Core 1 Curriculum  .  If you want to help your children or your whole family to be fit (or meet PE requirements in your homeschool), I highly recommend you give it a try.

Family Time Fitness also offers:

High School Fitness/PE
Learning the Language of Fitness and Nutrition Activity Workbooks
Basketball Sports Development Module
Online High School Health Class


Purchase Fitness 4 Homeschool Core 1 Curriculum for K-8 for $57 or upgrade to the Platinum package for $137.  They do offer a free 2 day trial so you can see for yourself what it is like.

Find Family Time Fitness on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for their free newsletter.

See what others are saying about Family Time Fitness on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.




disclaimer: I received Fitness 4 Homeschool Core 1 Curriculum K-8 in exchange for an honest review.

Lots and Lots of Penguins

Several weeks ago we received a DVD set Lots and Lots of Penguins by Marshall Publications. This set includes 2 full length DVDs and a bonus DVD with the animated song Party Like a Penguin. Marshall Publications has been in business since 2007 and has the goal of providing "lots and lots" of media fun for everyone through award-winning DVDs, Books, CDs, CD-roms, broadcast and internet programming that will amaze, amuse, entertain, and educate.

Last year, I was able to review Lots &  Lots of Firetrucks and George Washington Carver DVDs.  I was excited to get the chance to see Lots & Lots of Penguins.

The First DVD I received is:
LOTS and LOTS of PLAYFUL PENGUINS and their TOE-TAPPIN' HAPPY FEET

LENGTH: 75 MINUTES

From emperors and kings to fairies and rock hoppers, these cute and cuddly tuxedo look-a-like creatures are everybody favorite birds and you'll love watching them over and over again in this brand new DVD collection! It features award-winning musician, James Coffey and a fully animated penguin music video, Party Like A Penguin! This video features video footage of penguins in their natural and captive habitats. You will hear their calls and cries and learn interesting facts and trivia about all 17 kinds of penguins from around the world. Also, as a special bonus you'll see other cold-weather creatures like polar bears, seals, and wild birds, and youll also see rare views of the majestic scenery of Antarctica.

-adapted from the website description

This video is a lot of fun and features penguin video set to music alternating with a narrator (with a kind of annoying voice) giving facts about all of the different kinds of penguins.  I had no idea there were so many different kinds of penguins!  This also includes the fun animated music video, Party Like  a Penguin that my kids just adore.

SECOND DVD IS: LOTS and LOTS of Penguins In the WILD

LENGTH: 30 MINUTES

In this DVD you will see penguins up-close and personal in their natural habitats in the wilds of Antarctica, Australia and other scenic penguin areas in the Southern Hemisphere. See a bird's eye view of what its really like to be a penguin.  Professional cameramen go face-to-face to see what it's really like to be a penguin. You will see penguins nurturing their babies, feeding young, building nests and habitats, playing, swimming, hopping on rocks, waddling around more. You will hear singing, squawking and grunting of these incredible creatures and other animals that share their territories. There is no narration or music...just penguins in their natural habitat.

-adapted from the website description

This video did not hold the attention of my kids (not any of them).  The video is of penguins in the wild. There is no music or narration.  

The bonus DVD features the song Party Like a Penguin which is a lot of fun.  My kids really enjoy this.  The DVD just has the music video which they will play over and over and over.....

On the website, you will find an extensive list of penguin facts that you could use as a study guide or the basis for your own unit study of Penguins.

For us, this is the kind of video we will only watch once or twice, but I think it would make a wonderful addition to a unit study on Penguins (or any of the places where Penguins live etc.).  It would also be great for Penguin lovers of all ages.

Purchase Lots and Lots of Penguins for $19.95 (regularly $39.90) and free first class shipping by entering: TOS27 at checkout. They also offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with any item you may return it within 60 days for a full refund or exchange (less the original shipping & handling charges). You may also call to order 1-888-300-3455 between 8am and 8 pm CST Monday-Saturday.

See what others are saying about Lots and Lots of Penguins on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Other videos being reviewed include: The History of the Oregon Trail & The Pony Express, The Historic Expedition of Lewis and Clark – We Proceed On!, and The History of America in the 1880′s – A Decade of Progress  Be sure to check out all of the videos that Marshall Publishing has to offer, from Monster Trucks, to Planes and Trains to Educational history videos.




disclaimer: I received Lots and Lots of Penguins in exchange for an honest review

Review-Zane Education-video learning

Zane Education is a learning system that uses online educational videos along with online quizzes, study guides and a study center with several resources.  Members have access to over 1500 educational videos.

Zane Education also has what they call The Missing Piece©.  The Missing Piece© is that most of the videos have subtitles which provides for more learning styles. This is also beneficial for some students with special needs and makes the videos accessible for the hearing impaired as well.  Students can even turn the volume off and just read if they wish. Read more about The Missing Piece©.

The chart below shows the subjects covered by grade and age.

Zane offers a variety of publications to help you in your homeschool This comes with any 12 month membership subscription or you can purchase the guides for $49.95. The first guide is the Zane Education Learning Video Catalog which is a 266 page downloadable e-book that provides an in-depth introduction to Zane's online educational video library and all of the 260 curriculum topics and subjects subjects except for math videos. You can find a free list of the math videos here. (The math videos are from Kahn Academy and not owned by Zane.)

Secondly, there is a Christian Learning Guide, another downloadable e-book that is essential reading for any Christian parents and teachers that need to be reassured that the learning material being provided to their children and students fully conforms to Biblical teaching. This 424-page Christian Companion to Zane Education's Online Learning Video Catalog was specially written for Zane by Marshall Foster and Ron Ball you can read a much more detailed overview of the entire contents of this ebook are available here on the Christian Learning Guide page. 

These guides are both extensive and well done.  It adds structure to the videos so that you could use this as the basis for your homeschool if you wanted to.  

They also offer two free guides.  One is the Zane Educational Video catalog which you can download here.  This is a shortened version of the full learning video catalog mentioned above.  The second free guide is the math guide also mentioned above.

The following guides are also available free for those who are registered basic free members:



All of the quizzes are also available with the basic free membership as well.

This is a screen shot of a quiz question.  Each question is multiple choice.
Students can go back and change their answers at the end if they wish.

The summary report at the end of the quiz.
 If answers are incorrect students each answer is then explained for the student.
 Students can print their results or email them to you (or themselves).

Here is a screen shot of a video:

The video cannot be made full screen.  This is a small screen shot,
 but the video  player is about 6" x 4"on my 17" screen.

What I like about Zane:

• There are so many videos to choose from.
• The subtitles are a great feature.
• The education guides are excellent.
• The quizzes and study center are a great help.
• Video learning tools include a glossary, encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus and World Fact book

What I don't like about Zane:

• These "videos" are in a Power Point style rather than actual videos.  My kids don't like watching them. They remind me of filmstrips and documentaries that I watched in school (and I'm in my mid-40s)
• The videos cannot be made to fit the full screen.
• The videos have buttons in the left corner that do not do anything.

One word of advice about the videos.  I did come across a couple of videos that I would not want my younger children to watch. (One in particular was a video about teen pregnancy which did show some pretty graphic pictures and video.)  Also some of the videos  have evolutionary content. The Christian Education guide would come in handy in steering you to appropriate videos.

I do think that we will continue to make good use out of these videos even if I have to coax the kids to watch them.  I don't think I would ever pay for this service, but it may be just the thing you are looking for.  This really does save you the time of trying to find videos to go along with whatever you are teaching.

There are several levels of pricing. Monthly subscriptions begin at $8.99 a month and go up to $17.99 a month.  Year subscriptions start at $98.99 and go up to $197.89 a year. Don't forget to register for a free basic membership to try it out or try a Topic Taster membership for $5 a month. For the month of August you can save 35% by using code ZE763HSM.

Find Zane education on Facebook.  They have an extremely active Facebook page.

See what others are saying about Zane Education on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.




disclaimer: I received a free one year gold subscription to Zane Education in exchange for an honest review.