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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Do your kids have problems remembering things they are taught? However, do you find they are good at recalling songs? If this is the case, you may want to give Cross Seven Ventures – Homeschool Musical Memory Tool a try. We have been using this homeschooling memory work tool from Cross Seven for a few weeks to memorize state capitals and grammar definitions. Boy, it has made a difference with my son.

Homeschooling Memory Work Tool

So what is the Cross Seven Ventures-Homeschool Musical Memory Tool?

For starters, it is a program that follows the four cycles of Classical Education. It goes through the various topics covered each year in Classical Education. The program is for kids in grades K-6 and aligns with the Claritas Publishing program. However, we do not use Claritas and have been able to incorporate it into our homeschool.  

The subjects covered in the program are:

• Scripture
• History
• Geography
• Latin
• Math
• Grammar
• Science
• Timeline
• Timeline Songs
• Hymns

That is 10 subjects covered!

The Weekly Lessons

Each content area has twenty-eight weeks of lessons with one video per week. You can definitely adjust the lessons accordingly, though. Some kids may need more than a week or less than a week, depending on how you use it and your child’s abilities.  

With this homeschooling memory tool, kids click the cycle, the subject, and the weekly lesson they are working on. Each lesson has a short video for the kids to watch. The videos set the material to music. So if your child likes music or learns songs quickly, this may work well for them.

The other nice piece is that the material has a visual component for the kids to follow along. I think the pairing of musical videos AND the visual element is a great way to learn.

For example, some videos are recordings of children singing and adding hand movements to help remember Bible verses. Others have information highlighted on the screen while they sing the song.

To access the videos, you can log in on your PC or stream on your TV through different streaming apps like FireTV, AppleTV, and Roku. We viewed all our lessons on a computer since my son was the only one in the family using it. If you have more than one child, streaming to the TV is an excellent option.

End of Week Quizzes

At the end of each weekly lesson, kids log in and take a quiz over the material. The quizzes differ for the various content areas. Once kids finish the examination, the results of their quiz show up on the screen. Kids can retake the quizzes if they want.

Besides videos and quizzes, Cross Seven also has fun links, history videos, and a Parent Dashboard (to keep track of your kids’ quiz scores). They offer a lot of useful tools. And since the grammar stage in Classical Education is based on building a solid foundation in facts, this is a fun way for kids to learn the material required during this stage. It is certainly a helpful homeschool memory work tool.

Using the Homeschool Memory Work Tool in Our Homeschool

My sixth-grade son was the only one who used the program. My daughter is in eighth grade, a little too old. I would say the program was definitely age-appropriate for my son, though.

The homeschooling memory tools in this program helped my son. He tends to have a hard time memorizing information, but this seemed to help.

For this review, I had full access to all four cycles. So, I explored all the different levels and decided to start off with two areas: geography and grammar.

Geography

With geography, my son worked on memorizing the states and capitals. Since there are 50 states, the lessons focused on a few states at a time. As the song played, my son viewed a map that labeled the states and capitals. The video highlighted each state as they were mentioned in the song. Therefore, my son learned the information AND the location of the states on the map.

Each week, another group of states is presented. All are set to different tunes. I can honestly say we ALL learned the states and capitals along with my son. The songs are catchy, and we all found ourselves humming them. I don’t think I will ever forget them now. The best part is my son is learning them, too.

Here are some images of the map my son would view while the song played.

Geography Quizzes

I was very impressed with the quizzes over the states and capitals. My son had to answer multiple-choice questions that had him identify the location of the states and capitals and their location. The questions were multiple choice. I was able to see if my son recognized the place on a map, not only sing a fun song with them.

Here are a few examples from the quizzes.

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Overall, my son was able to complete four weeks of lessons during the review period. He really enjoyed the videos. The songs were just right and easy to remember. He never had any problem completing the quizzes. It was an enjoyable way for him to learn AND remember the information.

Grammar

Along with geography, my son worked on grammar, too. Each week focuses on a specific part of grammar. Again, the information was viewed on the screen while put to music. As my son sang the song, the definitions were highlighted. During the review period, my son worked on the eight parts of speech, nouns and pronouns, and adjectives and articles.

The grammar section was a little harder for my son. The eight parts of speech took a little longer for him to learn, so we only completed three weeks in this section.

Honestly, he didn’t care for the songs as much in grammar. However, part of it was because he wasn’t as interested in the topic (I don’t know many kids who are). Some of the songs didn’t flow as easily as the states and capitals. It is hard to list the eight parts of speech in a fun song. I think they did a good job trying to make it work, though. Overall, my son was able to learn the material.

Grammar Quizzes

The quizzes in grammar were a bit different. My son had to do things like fill in the blanks by dragging or typing in answers and do word searches. They were thorough in testing his knowledge without being too hard. He did go back and redo one quiz because he wasn’t happy he got one wrong.

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Overall, I think the grammar videos and quizzes will help kids memorize their grammar definitions. It will help them a great deal once they start applying these concepts.

Other Content Areas

I went through the four different cycles and the content areas of the program (which, by the way, the site is easy to navigate). I really liked how they were all set up. I started picking out other subjects to work on.

While going through the site, I spent some time looking over the math material. I am looking forward to having my son try some math videos. I found useful material on skip counting, memorizing common fractions expressed as decimals, area and perimeter, and mathematical conversions. There are so many topics that kids struggle with in math that this program may help.

The videos I checked in the math section were similar to the geography and grammar. A screen shows the information being learned, and parts are highlighted while the song plays so kids can follow along.

The math quizzes, like grammar, had a variety of ways for kids to show what they had learned. One time they may be dragging information into the boxes, while other times, they are filling in the blanks. It is a great way of tapping into different ways to assess a child’s skills.

Overall Thoughts of This Homeschooling Memory Work Tool

Cross Seven’s homeschooling memory work tool was impressive. I think it is an excellent way for kids to memorize the basic facts they need in multiple subjects. It will help them build a solid foundation.

The videos are well done. I can’t stress enough how pleased I was with both a visual and audio piece to the program. It will significantly help kids learn and memorize the information.

Many kids can benefit from this program. My kiddo certainly did. To find out what others thought of the program and how they used it in their homeschool, check out more reviews by clicking the banner below.

Happy Homeschooling!