Study Skills? (A REVIEW)

How well do my children study? That is the question we asked ourselves as we explored the Victus Study Skills System course. We learned very quickly that they all have room for lots of improvement! That's why I am excited to be working through this curriculum to help my kids see where their strengths and weaknesses in learning lie.

I received physical copies of all the levels of the Victus Study Skills System, and the Student Planner. We used 3 of the levels including Level 1: Primary (K-2/3), Level 2: Elementary (2/3-4/5), and Level 3 (5/6-10/11). We had planned to use the College level as well for the high school senior, but she just didn't get around to it during the review period. She looked it over and was interested in doing it, so we may have her do it at a later date as it has some college prep questions and thoughts. As for the other levels I will touch on each one  that we used, as well as the Teacher Edition.

The college level is great for upper high school level too! Hoping to have my high school senior give it a try this spring.

Teacher Edition:

The teacher book. This is the backbone of this course. It has all the information needed to effectively teach the course to the students. It lays out the philosophy of the whole program, so there is a bit of reading for the teacher at the beginning, but it really gets you excited about teaching the course, and that is one thing that is emphasized about teaching this course is that you have to feel it. You have to really be committed to what you are teaching here, and that is important to help the student be convinced and committed themselves. There are 10 lessons in all, and how to present it all is covered in the Teacher's edition. This book needs to be read for all the levels, even when there are teacher supplements for the other levels.

Level 1: Primary (K-2/3)

Level 1 teacher supplement, and workbook. These books are the simplest and smallest books. It's no thicker than a little booklet, and almost looks like a pamphlet. But, this is for the youngest students K-3, so I can understand why. This is deep for this age, so there are more physical activities for them to do as they explore this subject of studying. I think it's a great way to start making them more aware of what they are capable of at such a young age. For example, in lesson 2, the topic is learning with senses, and one of the activities is to do an art activity with clay or fingerpaints, and have the child describe what senses were involved in that activity. There are also simple worksheet pages in the workbook.

Level 2: Elementary (2/3-4/5)

Level 2 Student Workbook, and Teacher Supplement. The Student Workbook is stepped up to a coil bound book, and the Teacher Supplement is a booklet. The worksheets in this book are a little more involved that the first level, so it's helpful to have the Teacher supplement that has specific instructions for this level.

Level 3 (5/6-10/11)

Level 3 Student Workbook. I feel like this is the main level of the course. There is no teacher supplement because it goes directly with the Teacher's Edition. It is a little more wordy than Level 2, and there are more things to do on the workbook pages.

Student Planner

This student planner is pretty neat. We didn't get around to using it yet, but it's got a lot of empty planning pages. It goes into detail in Level 2 and 3 about how to use a planner, and even before that introduces time management, so the students can use this planner in conjuction with that part of the program. My goal is to get my middle schooler to learn how to use a planner.

I really see a lot of benefits of the Victus Study Skills System. In fact, I think it is an awesome concept to teach kids. I think this curriculum does a great job at getting kids to think about themselves, and really what they are capable of. The only thing I found difficult is doing all the levels at once with all the different teacher's supplements and such. It really didn't flow well to have all the kids doing it together. Maybe that's the point, I don't know. Maybe it's better to do one on one with the different levels. I didn't have time to explore that possibility, but might consider it in the future. Otherwise, I think this is a great system to get kids thinking.

If you'd like to see what other crew members had to say about this curriculum you can click on the banner below!