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An Honest Review of Starfall Home Membership for Kindergarten
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Starfall.com. I received access to the Starfall Home Membership in exchange for an honest review.
Our family was recently given the opportunity to review The Starfall Home Membership from the Starfall Education Foundation. We were first introduced to Starfall long before we started homeschooling by one of our daughter’s then first-grade teachers. We have continued to use the free portion of their site for most of our other children. This is the first time I had access to the members-only portion. For those of you who may not be familiar with Starfall Education or their Home Membership, let’s start with an overview.
What is the Starfall Education Foundation?
Frequently referred to as just Starfall, or Starfall.com, the Starfall Education Foundation is an educational website geared toward children from Preschool through 2nd grade, with a primary emphasis on kindergarten. It focuses on English Language Arts and Mathematics and follows the Common Core standards. Through nursery rhymes, read-alongs, and interactive games, the site serves to help parents and educators reinforce those early skills necessary for reading and math success later on. Starfall has help for both the student and the educator.
Student Experience on Starfall.com
The student home page is bright and colorful with pictures to depict what can be found when clicking a certain icon. The icons are large, so younger kids have an easier time clicking in the right area.
There are a variety of educational games for children to choose from, including some seasonal activities, songs, and read-along books.
My five-year-old daughter, Olivia, liked the Weight game in the Geometry & Measurements section. She enjoyed getting the scale to balance by adding or removing weights. While I don’t think she quite understood the number portion of the weights, she understood the cause and effect of adding or removing a bigger or smaller weight and understood that she wanted the arrow to be in the center.
Olivia was able to easily navigate the site on her own after an introductory explanation. If she clicked into an area that was too difficult or she lost interest, she was able to get back to the homepage and make another selection. On occasion, she would need help from me or an older sibling to understand the directions or figure out a problem.
Since she isn’t reading yet, it was nice that all of the selections that required reading had an ear icon next to the sentences or paragraphs she could click that would highlight the words as it read to her.
Starfall Benefits for Homeschool Parents
Starfall also has a Parent-Teacher Center you receive access to with the yearly membership. This includes access to full Pre-K, Kindergarten English Language Arts, and Mathematics curriculum.
Each curriculum has a Teacher’s Guide to help you get the most out of it. If you were just starting out homeschooling with a Pre-K or Kinder student or have a smaller budget, this may be a good starting point.
In addition, there are supplemental resources that allow you to generate worksheets, download printables, and access projectables. You can customize some of the printables to a certain degree, so there is more flexibility there. I used their worksheet generator to supplement my lesson plans and give extra practice where needed.
What About the Starfall Mobile App?
As with most products nowadays, Starfall also has an app you can download. Just like the website, it has a free version. However, if you are a member you get additional access instead of having to purchase individual activities.
Normally, I don’t download kid apps to my phone. However, for the purpose of this review, I added it. I appreciated there were no in-app purchases or ways my child could accidentally click on other sites. The Starfall app gives you access to all the same things as the website so my daughter was already familiar with them and knew how to navigate it.
We did have one day where older siblings were doing their computer work and I was able to give Olivia my phone for her allotted Starfall time. It was nice to have another option available to save time.
My Overall Thoughts on Starfall.com Membership for Homeschool Families
My daughter would happily spend all day on the Starfall Education Foundation website if I let her because there is so much to do. Because she is five, we obviously limit her time, but she really enjoys this website.
I enjoy it is a website I can trust. We have enjoyed having the Starfall Home Membership and the further access gained. In my personal opinion, I think the membership is most worth it if you plan on utilizing the Parent-Teacher Center. I don’t know that I would get it just so my child could have more to do on the website, primarily because we use it as a reinforcement tool and not the main curriculum. However, the Home Membership is fairly economical. At the time of this review, it was $35/year for use with your immediate family, including grandparents.
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