Make Learning Fun with IEW {TOS Crew Review}

Have you ever found a product you loved?  I know most of us have!  Whether it’s the shampoo you use or your favorite snack, we normally have something we love.  The same can be true of homeschool products though it normally takes us longer to find them!  Well, at least that’s the way my life goes.  But I have found that I can make learning fun with IEW!  IEW stands for Institute for Excellence in Writing.  We recently were sent a Resource Set from IEW to review.  It contained Timeline of Classics, Teaching with Games Set, and A Word Write Now.  

We’ve reviewed different products from IEW before and have loved them so we were thrilled to receive some new ones this year! The first one that I was super excited to try out is the Timeline of Classics. Yes, I was excited! You see I love reading and I love the classics. I want to foster a great love of reading in my children and get them interested early on in the classics. They provide so much to us and will truly always be great works of literature to learn and glean from.

Timeline of Classics is a great resource that lists out classic works of literature as well as some audio and video resources by historical time period. So you can choose a time period and immediately have a nice long list of books and resources to help your child learn and understand that specific time period better. For instance, if you’re studying say Middle Ages, you’d look up the Middle Ages list and take that to the library with you to hopefully come home with a pile of books to increase your children’s wealth of knowledge for that time period.

The time periods are broken up into Ancient(which we’re actually studying now), The Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation(a particular favorite of mine), and Modern Times. These will collaborate well with many history curriculums and really increase the knowledge and understanding your children have as well as your own knowledge and understanding! I know that I thought I knew a lot about a lot of things, but when I started teaching my children I was learning as much as they were!!

The next product we dived into was A Word Write Now. We have used this previously with another IEW review but I was glad to have another copy! With nine kids that I’m homeschooling and six of them old enough to be doing spelling lists these come in handy! You can check out my previous review HERE to see where we reviewed Fix It! Grammar and A Word Write Now.

We have been using A Word Write Now during our spelling time. My kids have been assigned once a week to find a word that is synonymous with their spelling word as well as tell me how they can use both in the same sentence. While doing that we’re also working on parts of speech and definitions. I also tend to make my children search for a new word if I catch them using the same word several times in book reports or anything they’re writing. I like to encourage a broad vocabulary and there is never too early a time to start!

A Word Write Now is a thesaurus, but also so much more than a thesaurus. It can be used for all ages from K-12 as well as ESL students. It’s easy to use and navigate for even the youngest students(with help of course). It’s also a great resource for playing scrabble! So many words to learn how to spell and use!!

The last resource that we got to help make learning fun with IEW was the Teaching with Games Set. This set teaches the parent(teacher) about several games that can be used to help teach different concepts and subjects to our children. I have to admit that I’ve never been much of a game person. I like board games like Clue that test the mind by solving a mystery but have never liked things like Monopoly. It’s just part of who I am. But my children on the other hand love games. This has been a large learning experience for me. I’ve had to learn how to make myself incorporate games and how to make it seem that I’m excited and think the games are fun and worth my kids doing.

This course consists of two DVD’s, on CD-ROM, and a spiral bound book. This course is recommended for grades 3-12 as well as ESL and special ed students. I only have two children who are above grade three currently which presented me with the challenge of modifying these new games that I was learning so that my younger children could participate and maybe glean a small bit of learning from as well. My two oldest are only 10 with my youngest being 2 so that’s a good age span to try to get them all to use and learn from one thing.

Something that I love with having so many children is that these resources can be photocopied. That’s an important aspect for me since I’m using resources with such a large number. The CD-Rom includes 25 different games. I was glad to find that the workshop was able to teach me how to teach these games as well as how to adjust them to my different age levels and learning styles. I felt equipped to do something that the week before I never would have tried.

All in all, we love our IEW resources. They make learning fun and help me to be a better teacher. I recommend them to all homeschool parents. You may not have a use for all of their products. You may need to slightly tweak this one or that one, but they are great resources that truly can make learning fun and less stressful for both the parent and the child. I hope you check them out!!

If you’re interested in learning more about the other products that Crew members got to review please visit the Main TOS Crew Blog Post.  You can also learn more about IEW from their website, facebook, twitter, vimeo, pinterest, youtube, instagram, and google +.