TOS Review - Star Toaster's Orphs of the Woodlands

 

As a homeschooling parent, have you ever wished for an educational product/tool that could be used for almost every subject you need to teach to your child? Kind of like the magic pill that covers all the illnesses. Well, I think Orphs of the Woodlands from Star Toaster just might be that magic pill in the educational world. We had the outstanding opportunity for all three of my fifth grade tutoring students to use this phenomenal product.

 

 

 

Orphs of the Woodlands is a book that your child will read online to go on an exciting adventure, but there is so much more to this product. There are activities galore (called jobs) and a fun game that is weaved throughout the child's reading experience.

 

Each child/student will have their own login and account to work at their own pace. The parents have a separate login to keep track of all progress. Here parents can preview everything the child will see on their account. The lessons (activities/jobs), book, and game. Progress reports are also emailed to the parents.

 

As I mentioned before I had three fifth grade girls using the program and they are all on different reading levels. At this point in the review one student is on page 262 with 141 jobs completed, another on page 247 with 121 jobs accomplished, and a third on page 301 with 108 jobs completed. They have worked most weeks anywhere from 3-5 days a week for 30 minutes each time. I counted this toward their independent reading and language arts. Although the jobs/activities come from all sorts of categories, like; math, science, language, vocabulary, thinking skills, character, life skills, and the arts.

 

 

Each activity or job that is accomplished provides the child with gold coins. These gold coins are used to support the Orphs. Orphs are the orphaned creatures of the woodlands that you care for by housing and feeding them. This is considered the fun game portion. Here the child spends her gold coins on items such as food, clothing, land, medicine, water, weapons for defense, and projects to provide energy. If the Orphs are not properly cared for they will disappear and you can't get them back.

 

 

 

The book itself is about a squirrel (that your child can name) that becomes a spy to fight against creatures in the woodlands that are terrifying the Orphs. The squirrel character (your child) becomes the caretaker of the Orphs and learns many skills along the way. As your child reads through the book you will notice some interesting add-ons. Vocabulary words can be hovered over to show synonyms of the words to help understand them better. Letters will pop up with top secret messages. Sound effects and music will enhance the story in certain areas of the book. There is so much going on in this online book it would be impossible for me to write about all of it. Orphs of the Woodlands is 15 chapters of excitement, adventure, knowledge, and fun.
 

 

I was lucky enough to have two laptops and a notebook available so that my three students could work on this at the same time. I truly cannot say enough about this product. The girls loved it and never fought me about sitting down to work on it. We also never had any trouble navigating the website. I could get the girls logged in and then they could do it all on their own. Orphs of the Woodlands is a very unique, fun, and affordable way for your child to be educated. I would definitely purchase from Star Toaster again and that's exactly what we will do when Book 2 becomes available.

There is a free trial available that many parents will appreciate. Each subscription is good for 60 days, but if your child doesn't finish in the allotted time the parent can also purchase a 30 day extension. Believe me when I say Star Toaster has really thought through everything with this product.

Run, don't walk (over the Internet that is) and subscribe to Orphs of the Woodlands so that your child can start experiencing the same wonderment and fun. Also be sure to click over and see what other Crew Members thought of this awesome educational tool.

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