We really enjoyed that book, so I was especially excited when I was contacted by Reformed Free Publishing to see if I would like to review a new book release called His Mercy Endureth Forever: Psalm 136.
This book is intended for the next age group, around 6 to 9 years old.
This book takes Psalm 136 and puts it into a beautiful book for children, showing them what all God has done for us.
The book is very well made. The hardback cover is just so beautiful. It looks like a painting. Kathleen DeJong did an amazing job on the illustrations. They really bring the verse to life so that your child can better understand it.
His Mercy Endureth Forever shows our children, and us as well, that God has always shown mercy, and that He continues to show us mercy today, and why we should give thanks to Him for all that He has, and will continue to do for His people.
Even though this book is geared towards a little older audience, Brently still likes it. Granted he mostly just likes the pictures, but hey....It's all good, right?
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. There is no other compensation for my review. I think this is a beautiful book. Let me know if you pick one up for your family!!
Matific Galaxy is made for grades K-6. We are doing the Kindergarten level. We are learning how to count, how to add, how to recognize patterns and we will be learning even more. Here is a chart of the skills learned in Kindergarten.
Now, Brently knows how to count up to 14 correctly, but he will know how to count up to 20 by the end of this program. Everything else besides patterns will be fairly new concepts to him. We were going at a slower pace with my trying to help incorporate concepts during our days because I thought that it moved fairly fast from counting smaller numbers to larger numbers and to speed counting. I thought there wasn't much more that we could do until he understood certain concepts more or got a little older. I decided to go on ahead so that I could at least see what the program was like as it progressed. I realized that I was wrong. This program does have different concepts and some will seem harder but then the next one may be right back to the previous lessons learned. It has a lot of repetition but in different ways.
We actually got through a lot more in the last couple of weeks then we did previously because I just didn't realize how the program worked. I say all of this so that you won't make the same mistakes that I did. I will say that if your child is younger and doesn't know how to read or isn't familiar with the basic kindergarten concepts you will need to be there to help him/her.
OK, let's get into what the program actually is.
When you first start the program your child will see these planet looking things with alien looking things on them. I know, great description, huh? lol
As your child completes all of the activities on that planet, they will unlock the next one.
They earn pixels for completing the activities. Once your child gets enough pixels to fill up their alien they get to move on to the next planet.
The activities are all really fun but I wouldn't say they are games. I don't really care for programs that are too game-ish, if that makes any sense. Here are some examples of the activities in this program.
It starts off really easy asking your child to click on 3 fish. It will ask your child to click on different numbers each time.
These activities are not all of the activities and are not in a specific order. Here you can see how they are counting but also introducing addition.
When stringing beads they are counting and adding.
In these activities they are counting and learning the concepts of more or less.
Here is an example of reintroducing previously learned concepts.
Now they are adding in number recognition. Brently can count but doesn't recognize all of the numbers.
This activity helps your child to learn how to write the numbers. Now, we were using my laptop, which is a touchscreen, but we could not trace with the finger. It only allowed us to use the mouse pad which is really hard for a child to use. We did not try this activity on the tablet, so it may let you use your finger and trace on the tablet, but I am not sure.
This is one of the concepts that seems harder than the rest that you have been doing, and your child may not actually understand the concept at first but it is just being introduced. Your child will have plenty of time to fully understand how to do these problems.
These activities are more counting and adding ones.
THIS is Brently's favorite activity of all. The characters ask if they can have some cherries and Brently likes to say NO! So he spends a ton of time on this one. lol Once he actually says yes, the character licks them up with a huge slobbery tongue. Brently thinks this is hilarious.
As you can see here it then starts introducing the concept of subtraction.
Here you are hanging the balloons in order from least to greatest. This is one of the activities that I just had to do, or tell him where to place them so that we could move on.
This one as well was hard for him. You had to use three cards to add up to ten. I just helped him and moved along.
That is how we have done things. I have realized that although there may be a few concepts that he is not ready for that we don't have to stop. I can just help him through the ones he has trouble with and move on. He will at least get an introduction and he can always go back through the program or past lessons on his own after he has grown in understanding of the concepts.
As your child moves through the activities they earn pixels, coins, prizes and achievements.
There is usually an audio button that your child can click to hear the directions, but there are times that the aliens show something and do not speak them out loud so if your child can't read you will have to read it to them.
There is also a parents portal. Here you can see how your child is doing on each planet and in each concept as well. When you sign up you will set a certain number of minutes or hours you want your child to work each week and you will receive weekly emails letting you know if your child met that goal or not.
Here are examples form my parent portal of Brently's work.
Matific Galaxy has won several awards and is a highly praised online math program.
You can use Matific Galaxy on a desktop or a tablet. There are two prices available. The first one for $19.99 allows you access to one grade level for one yer. . The other offers you access to all grade levels, K-6 for $39.99. If you think your child will go through more than one grade level in a 12 month time period, or you want your child to be able to go back and practice formerly learned skills then this is the better option. You will also receive a 25 percent discount for each additional child you sign up.
My overall thoughts are that I really like this program. I was given a one year subscription, but I think that this will be a subscription that I will renew on my own after my subscription ends. I feel like I have not adequately described the program well enough, or shown how much we both actually really do like this program. I think that it is very well designed. It keeps a child's attention. It is really fun even though it is not done in video game style. It is something that we like to cuddle up on the couch and do together. It is easy to do on the tablet, which I really appreciate. This makes it easier to take on the go, and even just easier to sit on your child's lap. Brently asks to do his math all the time. He really enjoys it. He likes to go through activity after activity. I am usually the one who has to make him take a break.
Personally, I also think that this price is insanely good. $19.99 for the whole year? That is such a good price. I really appreciate that they have made this so affordable.
I highly suggest that you look into this program and see if it is something that you think your child would like.
I am not the only one who reviewed this product. My fellow Crew Mates have reviewed all of the different grade levels, so if you are interested in other grade levels as well, then please read the rest of the reviews!
