Literacy Centers by Suzanne Puccerella is a wonderful addition to any home schooler’s bookshelf, if you like the worksheet approach to learning. Your 2nd-3rd grade students work independently at each center, even checking their answers after they are finished working. The centers focus on the literacy skills of antonyms/synonyms, homonyms, contractions, syllables, main idea and supporting details, comparing and contrasting, prefixes and suffixes, alphabetical order and sentence construction. The activities contain colorful photos with engaging illustrations that make learning interesting and fun for your students.

Literacy Centers is made up of 10 centers that can be made from putting the pages of ten chapters into various folders. There are pages just for the teacher and pages for the student to fill out. All pages are perforated so they come out easily. Directions are given as to how to set up a literacy center with an activity, a practice sheet and answer key for the student to test their own work.

I liked the way the centers are set up, although in my home school we didn’t move around anywhere. I put the centers in a book of page protectors and put everything pertaining to that center in one pocket. I made copies of the activity and practice sheets so that we could go over the information at the center more than once. The pages that used cut outs were cut out and placed in envelopes. My students would take out the cut outs, do the activity and then place the cut outs back in the envelope.

This resource was very helpful in my home school. My students were a bit younger than the recommended ages given in this book, but the content and presentation of the material was good for a supplement to their main language learning. I was able to use this book in the ways that best suited our levels of learning. While I wouldn’t run out and make this book my top priority, it will be a very good addition for those needing help with their home schoolers’ language arts lessons.

Product Review by Lyria Moore, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November, 2008