There Will Be A $5.00 Charge For Whining: The Starfall Home Membership (A Homeschool Review Crew Post)

Sometimes you just need a little fun in your life.

And if that fun happens while one is learning…we are all better for it! I am a HUGE proponent of learning through play. I’ll talk a little more on that in a minute, but first let me tell you about this review. We recently took a look at The Starfall Home Membership Review from the Starfall Educational Foundation.

Way back in our early homeschooling days, Starfall.com was one of the first resources that I fell in love with. Josiah is (and was) a struggling learner. He is dyslexic and I searched high and low to find resources that would give me a leg up. Or at least a toe. Learning to read is tough for these kiddos! No matter how much he would appear to master the material on a certain day, by the next day it was like he was learning a whole new language!

Anybody with me?

I am not even sure how I came across Starfall all those years ago, but it was an instant hit in our house. He could “read” along with the little stories. School become “fun.” And I grew to understand how VITAL review and play was going to be for Josiah’s learning experience.

Zac the Rat and Peg the Hen became important parts of Josiah’s school days.

As a former preschool and kindergarten teacher, I was immediately impressed with the content and ease of the site for my little guy. He could use it (mostly) by himself and felt very accomplished.

So a little more about Starfall.com. It is an educational website created for kiddos in pre-K through 2^nd grade or special needs learners. The site concentrates on learning to read through phonics, but The Starfall Home Membership has expanded access beyond the free content to math and additional reading activities.

I normally don’t post prices when I post a review (product prices can change from year to year), but I believe I can make an exception in this case. The Starfall Home Membership only costs $35 for a year. This membership fee is for the entire family. Basically, all the kids can use across multiple devices and computers.

Of course, you can use a lot of content on Starfall.com for FREE, but the Home Membership is really a great deal. Especially if your house is filled with littles.

Obviously, it has been a long time since we’ve needed Starfall.com in our school day. Josiah is now 16. While reading is not his favorite pastime, he is a confident reader. In fact, he recently told me that he volunteered to read the main part of “Shrek” in his High School Homeschool Co-op theatre class.

That is a BIG deal for my guy.

When the opportunity to review The Starfall Home Membership came available, I begged and pleaded (probably) to be included. If only for the chance to plead my case. Starfall is a TERRIFIC addition to the struggling learner’s educational toolbox. It made such a difference for us. I just knew I needed to share the love.

I want to show you just a few peeks into the world of Starfall.com and share with you some of my favorite things.

Fair warning. There are a WHOLE lot of screen shots here.

This is the main page I see when I log into our account. All the little icons at the bottom are holiday related. They take the user to fun things to do according to whatever you might be celebrating at the time.

The Math Song page is genius. In addition to being dyslexic, Josiah also has something called Dyscalculia, which is a disability relating to math.

Using songs to teach is such an effective method. Starfall.com has done it brilliantly.

5 Little Speckled Frogs is a song Josiah and I sang together. I also used it for years when I taught. Here the kids can actually see the little frogs jump in to the pool. I'm a fan.

The 2nd Grade Math Skills section is not comprehensive, but they have the basics available. I am telling you. If you have a student who struggles with math...let them play games.

This game is a matching game. Even the student who struggles daily with memorization will feel like this is something he or she can tackle.

Another fun section is the Talking Library.

There a variety of books to chose from. This one on humpback whales is right up our alley. One of the great things about these books is, yes...they talk!

Another fun little section is a Sing-Along. There is also a section just for motion songs. See that continuous play button? Oh yes. Be prepared to have "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" playing all. day. long.

The 1st Grade section has a math and a reading section.

This little story is under one of the Phonics tabs. See that little ostrich tab on the right hand side?

Here he is! The student simply clicks on the ostrich and is able to see a coordinating activity.

Starfall has an excellent Parent Teacher Center. It is so awesome that you need to be able to add to get into it! I had to do math in my head! No fair, Starfall. It's been a long time since college algebra.

The Parent Teacher Center is really great. It is extremely well organized. It has special articles and instructions for homeschool parents...which I think is great. Sometimes we just need it all laid out for us, don't we?

They also have a wonderful download center.

This particular picture shows the activities available for download under Grammar.

I clicked on Short A - Classification and it brought me to a PDF of this printout. Perfect!

Printable books, posters...just a little bit of everything is available to us. It really makes for a complete learning experience.

I mentioned previously that The Starfall Home Membership also has a mobile app you can download. I didn't check it out, myself. I did hear (through reliable sources) that it doesn't have all the content that is available on the desktop version, but I know that I personally love having learning games and books on our tablet.

You can see that I'm a big fan! If you are able, go check The Starfall Home Membership out. I think you are going to be impressed.

You can connect with Starfall.com via the following social media outlets. Don't forget to click on the banner for more reviews!