Review: Home School Navigator

For the past few weeks, I have been using Home School Navigator with my four children for their language arts education as part of my review. This program is designed to compile the various aspects of a language arts curriculum into one package. Specifically this program focuses on the following five aspects of language arts:

• Grammar
• Reading
• Writing 
• Word study
• Vocabulary

Instead of creating grade levels, Home School Navigator uses color levels -- recognizing that learning very rarely falls into exact grades. The colors for this program are as follows: 

• Level RED: Child is learning letter recognition and formation. (Approx. Kindergarten reading level)
• Level ORANGE Child can read simple words and sentences and is beginning to write. (Approx. 1st grade reading level)
• Level YELLOW Child can read simple stories and write complete sentences. (Approx. 2nd grade reading level)
• Level GREEN Child is can read short chapter books and is writing in longer passages. (Approx. 3rd grade reading level)
• Level BLUE Child is reading chapter based books and is writing in paragraph form. (Approx. 4th grade reading level)
• Level INDIGO Child can read longer chapter books, critique ideas, and write longer pieces of writing. (Approx. 5th grade reading level)

As a parent, you have access to every single level. You can choose which level to start your child on and change levels if it is too easy or too hard. Each level comes complete to guide you through 36 weeks of learning. Here's what included in a "package":

• A 36 Week Course
• Daily Reading, Writing, and Word Study Lesson Plan (including flex days for your busy schedule!)
• 60 Instructional Videos
• Word Study Program (including word wall headings, cards, and games)
• Activities That Encourage Multiple Learning Styles
• Monthly Skills Checklist
• Portfolio Maintenance 
• Monthly Goal Sheet/Portfolio Check-In
• Downloadable Review Games
• And More!

For $97 (a little over $8 a month) your child and can work through this program on a daily basis.

I set my children in the following levels"

• Hannah (age 4.5): Level RED
• Abigail (age 6.5): Level ORANGE
• Sidge (age 9):Level GREEN
• Isaac (age 10):Level GREEN

Below is a screen shot I took of what Day 1 of our study looks like using Isaac/Sidge as an example. You can see that each day is clearly defined as to what we need to do:

I did a short "trial" of this program during the six weeks or so that I was reviewing it. This guide above shows you exactly what we did on a given day. Every single day is outlined like this for you making it super easy to follow along. Most things were available to me through the program or online, and if not, I got a few things at the library. 

 

While I only used this program on a trial basis during the last six weeks, I was nearly immediately sold on it. I want to let everyone know that I am planning on using this as THE language arts of our homeschool curriculum come fall. In fact, we will be homeschooling nine kids together this fall as I will be working in tandem with my cousin Hannah and her five children. Truly I believe that if you add a science and a math to this curriculum, your school year is completely set. It's that complete. It covers sooooo much.

 

As I mentioned above, each reading level comes complete with most everything you need to teach your child language arts from K-5th grade. There are daily reading, writing, and word study lesson plans. I strongly encourage you to check out Home School Navigator today. It is incredibly well priced and incredibly well done. I do not think you will be dissapointed!

You can check out Home School Navigator on Facebook, Pinterest (under Home School Navigator) or Instagram.