Friday, October 11, 2013

2nd Grade Dew Learning Review

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Little Miss and I have been using Dew Learning full-year Second Grade subscription for about a month now, so I decided it is time for an early review of the curriculum. Some of you have been asking for it on our Facebook page, and I know I have been promising this for a while now..

In case you haven't heard of Dew Learning, it is a brand new online Christian homeschool curriculum developed for the iPad, Mac and PC. (We even used my iPhone this week for one lesson, but I am getting ahead of myself here...) This year grades K-4 are available, and next year grades 5-8 will launch, also (and upper grades will follow next). The full-year subscription has eight core subjects: Bible, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music and Health/PE.

Many of the lessons have video clips and white board instruction to supplement the written lesson, and at the end of each lesson there is "Dew It" problems for the student to answer. You can also print PDF worksheets and spelling lists.

Since Dew curriculum is online, students' work stays saved securely on their servers, and you can access it from any device as long as you have internet, and whenever you want to, 24/7.

A pretty perfect set-up for our traveling family!

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This was our classroom on Thursday for one lesson. After we had finished Bible, Language Arts and Math home, we took a break to walk on the beach.

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It was so nice outside I started thinking: "It would be great to finish school out here..." Then realized we can! I had my iPhone with me, and was able to access our Health/PE lesson right then and there!!

I have been so impressed with Dew Health/PE curriculum. We have been learning about staying healthy by exercising right, eating healthy foods, getting our rest, having good hygiene, obeying safety rules and by having a relationship with God. Every lesson comes with a exercise video, which is really good, and challenging!

I have to be honest here, and confess that Little Miss and I have only done one exercise video, even though they really are great. Believe it or not, the reason is Little Miss doesn't want to! I'm not sure why not, but I haven't pushed them (yet), since she is so active every day anyway. I am hoping to try again later, as I would certainly benefit from them {smile}.

I took these two screen shots of our lesson. They look a bit different on a bigger screen, but the lesson certainly was doable on the phone as well.

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We stayed at the beach a bit longer, then went back home to finish our school day by doing our Art and Music lessons.

Art is pretty cool, our lessons are a mixture of learning about the techniques and art history, as well as art projects. (I do need to give feedback to Dew about including pictures of the completed projects, as there was this one salt dough owl project that didn't turn out quite I thought it would after reading the instructions...!?!?) So far Art has been Little Miss' favorite subject.

Music has been fun, too. We are learning about notes, rhythm, and also about music in our Social Studies countries like South Africa and Australia. Mama is learning right along side Little Miss. Social Studies might just be my favorite subject. It has been very interesting to talk about different cultures with Little Miss.

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Dew Learning curriculum has been a great fit for us, overall. I love how every single subject and every single lesson point back to Jesus. We want to have good language skills to share about the gospel, we want to have healthy bodies to have the joy and energy to serve Jesus and others, and so on.

It reminds me of our favorite children's Bible, The Storybook Bible - Every Story Whispers His Name. (We have recently found another favorite for older kids: The Action Bible, but that is another blog post.)

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In our Bible lessons we have been going through the story of Moses. I have been completely happy with the lessons. Math, also. It is different from the way I learned way back when in Finland, but I like it. With our teens we didn't start homeschooling until fifth grade, so this all is new territory for me.

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In Science our last lesson was about cells. Here you can see the whole scope and sequence of 2nd Grade Science.

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Language Arts we struggle in. I think Little Miss is somewhat behind in LA, as we did K and 1st grade LA last year. So we pick and choose what we do in Dew LA this year, and supplement with some 1st grade material. I would be interested in hearing what other Dew users think of 2nd grade LA, and I am waiting on a response from Dew as well (emailed them yesterday). 

I do wonder if we should switch to Dew 1st grade Language Arts?

***Update - I already heard back, wow!! I get to take a look at the First Grade LA curriculum to see if that would be a better fit. Impressive, Dew Learning:) Thank you!!!


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The Dew Curriculum is still under development. There are features that have not been implemented yet, which I believe will make the curriculum even more awesome, like the option to download five lessons to work offline.

I have also given feedback on having the voice option for higher grade lessons, as well. Currently it is only for K and 1st grade lessons.

I would also like to see a calendar, and a way for the teacher to unassign lessons.

It is still a bit bare bones. I am okay with that, and can wait for the upgrades, since overall I like Dew Curriculum so much. We have been with AOP Monarch since day one, too, and over time they managed to fix the various issues and bugs they had that first year.

We homeschool moms rock on with the whole patience thing {wink}.

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Since there is no calendar option (yet), we made our own lesson schedule. Dew is set up for a five day week, but since we attend homeschool co-op on Fridays, we are on a four day schedule at the moment. We do Bible, Language Arts and Math every day. On Mondays and Wednesdays we do Science and Social Studies, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we do Art, Music and Health/PE.

Our typical day starts by 9 am, and some days we are done before lunch, and some days we finish our day in the early afternoon. Of course our PE is often swimming in the ocean, so that adds a bit to our day:)

Little Miss and I do all lessons together. Occasionally she'll listen to a video without me, but she is not reading fluently enough to do the lessons on her own yet.

Dew Learning has a great customer satisfaction policy. If you are not happy, Dew Learning will offer a full 12-month 100% money-back guarantee. They also have multiple child discounts that are fantastic! You can shop their products here. I believe we have an active 40% off discount code for you to use: ourmothershipadventures. Do let us know if that doesn't work for you.

Dew Learning is one of Our Mothership Adventures sponsors and have provided us with this curriculum for review purposes. All opinions are entirely our own. Thank you, Dew Learning!  
Here is our full disclosure policy.

26 comments:

  1. Sennie, I love your pics! Thanks for sharing the precious moments by the shore!

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  2. It sounds like the perfect fit for you all! I wish I could click my heels together and come visit you for PE!!

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  3. Thank you, Jutta<3

    Sharron, I wish you could, too! I think our girls would really enjoy each other (once the little ones warmed up:) One of these years, right?!

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  4. Sennie,
    I have seen this listed somewhere else for material and have wondered about it! I am trying to decide about moving our kids to a more digital format, I'd love to hear more about it and about Monarch. We use AOP now just not the digital format.
    I want to come for PE too.... absolutely beautiful, what a wonderful blessing for your family this fall!

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  5. I'm using Dew Learning 2nd grade too! I agree with you about LA - the book they wanted them to read, "D'Aulaire's book of Greek Myths", was not the greatest selection for 2nd graders! Also, where are the grammar/phonics activities? It doesn't really teach them how to read! I absolutely love everything else though! (I have found a lot of typing errors - I guess that is normal for the first year with any program)

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  6. Gayly, feel free to email me if you have any questions! Online lessons have been great for our family.

    julie rose, we switched to first grade LA, which is a better fit for Little Miss. Some of it is review, but we are still in the beginning, and it's good for her self-confidence to know some of the material already. We'll see how it goes. More 'learning to read' stuff, too, which is good. And yes, there have been more bugs, like in Math she is being quizzed stuff we haven't learned yet, or in LA some Dew questions don't show up. But I'm not too concerned, like you said, normal for first year.

    And we tried to Greek Myths book, too, and were horrified and closed it pretty quick! I think LM turned green when babies were being eaten. Not sure what the thought there was - the book is not appropriate for 7-year olds!!

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  7. Do you still have a code for a discount?

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  8. Morgnmc, did you try ourmothershipadventures ? If it doesn't work, let me know. Good luck!

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  9. Is the discount for certain products? I tried to use it for three different full year programs (2nd, 5th and 7th ) and it didn't work. Says coupons does not exist. I was also considering ordering certain subjects instead. Thank you.

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  10. Tasha Green, I am waiting to hear back from Dew Learning. I'll leave a message here when I hear back from them, and if you leave an email, I can email you, also. I am so sorry the code I was given isn't working.

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  11. It should work now! Try ourmothershipadventures as the code!

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  12. Thank you for all the info on dew learning. We have been thinking about using it. I have noticed that even though you mention (as do other blogs and reviews) that there is a money back guarantee, there is nothing in writing on their site that such a guarantee is in effect. Do you have a link?

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  13. Hi Shannon, I just saw this. Dew Learning may have changed their guarantee a bit, but under Support I did see this:
    "100% Guarantee
    We take responsibility for you to have an excellent experience with Dew Learning. If you are not completely satisfied after using our curriculum for an entire school year, then we will refund your purchase price within 30 business days. All we ask of you in return is to help us, via a survey, to understand how we could have served you better."
    Link here: https://dewlearning.com/support/

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  14. Hello!
    Thank you so much for this informative review! I just heard about this new curriculum, so it's great to hear from someone who has actually been using it.
    Has Dew Learning informed you of how long your promo code would be active? Thanks again!

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  15. Hi Jessica, the code should be good through the end of the year.

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  16. Excellent! Thank you so much!

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  17. Thanks so much for the code! Just bought math for my second grade son!

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  18. Glad I could help, Jessica and jen! All the best to your upcoming school year.

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  19. Hey there! We use Dew learning for our 2nd grader, and we love it. I was trying to maybe find an online/facebook support type group for Dew users, and I was wondering if you know of any.

    Thanks!
    Jess

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  20. How awesome, Jess!! I don't know of a support group, though. Have you asked Dew? Maybe you should start one:)

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  21. I have been trying to purchase Dew Learning for a couple weeks now and the site shows they are not selling right now. Do you know when they will be back online? I have emailed and havent heard anything back.
    ty

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  22. Where did Dew go?! We are in our free trial & loving it, but now they seem to have disappeared! Phone was not answered, and every support email is bouncing back!

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  23. Anonymous and Carol, I have no idea what is going on, but their website says they have put a pause on selling their curriculum. I hope they come back soon!

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  24. Please let us know when Dew is back up and running again.

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  25. If I find out, I will surely let my readers know. Unfortunately I'm not in the loop in any way. I hope they come back soon!

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  26. This is, sadly, what Dew Learning's website says:

    Dew Learning has ceased operations and is no longer in existence. Please note, you will have access to your platform and content thru June 30, 2015. Please be sure to get all data removed prior to this date.
    For support, please contact info@dewlearning.com. Please note: This support is provided by a third-party firm hired by Dew Learning prior to ceasing operations.
    We sincerely appreciate all of your support. We put forth every effort to get Christian education everywhere. We hope what we started will continue to create new opportunities.

    I have no idea what happened. It's very sad news.

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