Skip to main content

Essential Skills Advantage - TOS Review

Today I have a great product for you to check out! We recently got the chance to review an online K-6 product called Essential Skills Advantage. It has been a blessing for our homeschool. We receive their Complete Home Learning Suite for review.

   

What is ESA?

ESA is a self-paced curriculum that covers reading, Writing, Science, Spelling, Language & Grammar, as well as Geography. The whole curriculum contains about 43 individual programs, 998 learning units.

This program is quite extensive in scope. Note though, on the screen to the right, that not all grades are covered depending on the subject. ESA is easy to sign up for, and easy to use. Once you are logged in you choose your grade level and your topic, and start going through the different units for that particular topic.


I had the boys, grade 5 and grade 7, focus on the Geography and Writing units. My grade 5, because his geography knowledge was terrible, and my grade 7 to cover any learning gaps that he has in the writing mechanics area and in Geography. Both did Writing and Geography, on a daily basis.

Once you are logged in you get this screen and you are ready to go. This is where you get access to your lessons as well as the reports.


Essential Skills Advantage is an online curriculum, so you will need internet to use it. It is very interactive and engaging. The activities are very varied and offer instant feedback. Depending on the subject you are studying, you get to do:
  • Matching exercises
  • Point and click
  • Multiple choice
  • Placing on a map
  • Identifying 
  • Correcting errors
  • Unscramble words
Each unit, in the different subjects, vary in length between five to close to a hundred activities. For those small units, my boys would do them in one go. For the longer ones, they would break it up through several days. Working on ESA daily was no problem for them, as it goes pretty quickly.

My boys enjoyed working with ESA. It is colourful and straight to the point. Most of the directions are clear and easy to understand. They like that there was a button that allows you to have the direction repeated and that you got stars for correct answers. They also enjoyed the satisfaction of the grade at the end of each unit.

   

I personally like ESA. I like how comprehensive it is. My youngest learned a lot in Geography, and my oldest was able to review what he already knew and fill in whatever was missing. I also like that as a parent you can look through the reports and see where they are doing well, and were they are having trouble, as well as check on their completion progress. I like that you can redo the activities, and you can also skip the ones you do not want to do. It is just a very flexible, easy to use curriculum all around.

The only complaint that I would have is that it would sometime glitch, and we had trouble with one of the activities, as we could not figure out how to write down the answer (it was on coordinates). Also it would have been nice to see the mistakes that the students have made. My oldest also regretted that, though it tells you right away whether you got it right or wrong, it did not tell you what the right answer was when you got it wrong. That said, as a whole this is a really good program. Once we finish our current spelling curriculum, I will have both of the boys use the spelling part of this program. I probably also will have my rising 6th grader do the grammar part when we resume school in a few weeks.

I would definitely recommend ESA as a practice or review curriculum (at least for the older grades).

Check them out on their social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google +
LinkedIn
Blog

Essential Skills Advantage Review



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reformation Day Giveaway

We are approaching October 31, which is an important date for all protestants. This date commemorates Martin Luther’s nailing of his ninety-five theses to a church door on October 31, 1517 in Wittenburg, Germany, which in turn provoked a debate that resulted in what we now call the Protestant Reformation. As the “Father of the Reformation”, Martin Luther is a vital figure in Church History. His sacrifice and willingness to wage battle against the spiritual, religious, and political powers of his medieval world allowed Christians throughout time to embrace the following truths: salvation by grace alone , through faith alone,  and in Christ alone, along with the supremacy of Scripture, referred to as  Scripture alone, and all of it for God's Glory Alone. These being commonly called the Five Solas of the Reformation.  Danika Cooley, author and creator of the Bible curriculum Bible Road Trip ,  has recently written a book for young people recounting Luther's story:   When

Visual Learning Systems - TOS Review

I have to admit I am in love with our first review product from the 2015 crew year. We received a full year subscription to Visual Learning Systems 's Digital Online Science Program Elementary edition and S econdary edition . Science has always been one those subjects I am having all sort of trouble deciding what to use and never being fully satisfied with what we are doing. Well my search is over. I am really hoping to stick with this one. What is Visual Learning Systems? Visual Learning Systems is an online science publisher that provides quality science educational material through videos. They offer Unit Studies for K-12 in DVD or digital format, as well as a Digital Online Subscription for both Primary/Elementary  (K-5) and Middle/High School  (6-12). The program we received, the Digital Online Subscription, is totally online. Therefore you need a computer and an internet connection. It also works fine on tablets. When you sign up you get a log in for the stude

Veritas Press Self-Paced History - TOS Review

Veritas Press  is a long lasting Christian classical homeschool curriculum company. They have served the homeschool communities for a long time. For the past few weeks, we have been privileged to be reviewing one of their latest products:  Self-Paced History . The Self-Paced History curriculum is an online interactive history program. It consists of 160 lessons per course per year, each covering about 32 important historical events. The full program is chronological and is divided into 5 periods: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt  New Testament, Greece and Rome  Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation  Explorers to 1815  1815 to Present  These courses are best suited to kids in the grammar stage, that is grade 2-6. Tuition for each course year is $199, with a discount of $100 for each additional student. You have a full year to complete the course. Because Self-Paced History is an online program, you will need a computer with internet access. You can find more