18 Years Ago Today!

Do you remember what you were doing 18 years ago? Admittedly, I have trouble remembering what I was doing last week let alone a year ago.  Forget multiple years ago! But I do have some recollection of 18 years ago.

It was a Sunday.  Unusually hot for Duluth, MN.  And it was Father’s day.  I was waiting for my husband to get in from Fort Lewis where he was Cadre for the ROTC Camp.  He was flying in on leave in anticipation of the birth of our first born daughter.  She wouldn’t make her appearance though until the next day.

My doctor had scheduled an induction for June 19 which allowed us to contact the Red Cross and arrange for my husband to be home.  He had a well meaning Captain try to comfort us by telling us that his wife was in labor for something like 32 hours and that he had plenty of time to fly around the world and make it back in time for the birth.  The thought of a 32 hour labor was most emphatically not comforting especially not the thought of going through that without my partner!  However, hypertension, pre-term labor and other risks prompted my OB to schedule an induction.  She was actually surprised I had not gone into labor yet and did not expect that I would actually make it through the weekend to the induction.

Anyway, the captain was wrong.  My husband’s flight from Fort Lewis was longer than my labor and it’s um only 6 hour flight including changing planes at MSP.  But that wasn’t June 18, 18 years ago.  That would 18 years from tomorrow.

I don’t remember if I went to church that morning, 18 years ago.  I might have.  It would have taken my mind off waiting for my husbands evening flight.  We had not been attending this church for very long before my husband left for his temporary duty. We only had a couple of friends at that church (they were wonderful people who gave me lots of support while Honeybear was gone both before BooBear arrived and the 2 months she and I were alone.) I do remember however some of the older ladies (I think of them as the little old ladies) who would look at me and smile.  They gave me that look.  The “at least she is in church even though she is alone and pregnant” look.  I admit I must have looked like a single woman.  My wedding rings didn’t fit and I always attended church alone. Kind of hard to attend church with your spouse when he is 2000 miles away helping train ROTC cadets! I started wearing my wedding rings on a chain around my neck. 

I remember it being so hot that we slept in the living room rather than the bedroom because it was cooler. That was not the summer to be pregnant in Duluth.

The next day we welcomed our first born daughter.  She looked so much like her daddy.  I wish I had a scanner or a least a digitized photo from then but you’ll just have to settle for this one from her senior picture set.

{Crew Review} Birdcage Press: Go Fish for Ancient Egypt

If you have ever been to my house, you might have noticed that we have a lot of games. We enjoy having a family game day or a family game night every so often. I like sneaking a bit of education in with our games. If a game is fun enough, the girls don’t seem to notice if it’s school.

 

Go Fish for Ancient Egypt from Birdcage Press is just one such game.  With two levels of playing our whole family can play. Well, we can take turns playing but no one is too young or too old! This “go fish” style card game comes with 36 cards and a little booklet of information.  There are 6 sets of 6 cards. You need all six cards in your hand to lay down the set.  The object of the game is to collect the most sets.

The cards are 2 3/3” x 4 3/4” and made of sturdy laminated card stock.  Each card has a picture, depicting something from one of 6 categories: Gods, Goddesses, Symbols, Pharaohs, Mummies, Afterlife. So a “God” card would have a picture representing the god, a “definition” and a brief explanation.  At the bottom is a list of the other 5 cards in that set.

The game can be played with 2 or 3 players. The game includes instructions for two levels.  Being able to read is helpful but not necessary for the young ones when you play the version for younger children because in addition to the category name and the specific card name, each card has the category number! This means that Supergirl can ask “do you have any 6’s” instead of asking “do you have any ‘afterlife’ “

The regular version, though played in similar fashion to the age old popular Go Fish, requires you to ask for a specific card in the set. This makes the game more challenging. For example in a 3 player game you might guess that the person to the right has at least one “afterlife” card because on his last turn he asked for ushabti but you don’t know which ‘afterlife’ cards he has. You can only ask for one specific card at a time.

Different Ways We’ve Played:

We’ve played with 2 players and we’ve played with 3 players.  We’ve played the easier younger version and we’ve played the more challenging regular version.  We played for fun, meaning we didn’t take the time to read the information on the cards or read the information in the booklet, but we’ve also played for education.

When we’ve played the game as a supplement to our current Ancient Egypt studies, we would stop to read the booklet and the cards whenever someone completed a set. Yes, this makes the game longer but it does help you to get to learn the information.

Unfortunately, we had an opportunity to take the game on the road so to speak.  On June 2nd my husband had a mild heart attack.  The girls threw the game in the back pack to play while hanging out with Daddy.  It’s much more fun though to play with daddy now that he is home.

Thoughts from Tailorbear (finishing up 8th grade):

I really like this game! I get to learn another perspective on facts I already know, and I also learn new ones as well! 

Thoughts from Turtlegirl (finishing up 10th grade):

I really enjoy playing this game. I love all of the different facts featured on the cards. I also like that it comes with a little booklet, as well. I like how I can play the harder version if I want a challenge, or the easier version if I just want to have fun. Plus, I love how simple the rules are and how similar to regular Go Fish it is.

Nitty Gritty Details:

• Product Name: Go Fish for Ancient Egypt
• Vendor Name:  Birdcage Press
• Price: $10.95
• Recommended ages:  Age 7 and up
• Format: 36 Colorful playing cards + 34 page booklet

 

 

 

 

Visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to read what others have to say about the different games from Birdcage Press.

All information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

You can read my other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews by clicking here.

Our Backyard Visitor

Earlier this afternoon, I peeked out the window and noticed an unexpected visitor.  I don’t know if this is the creature who visited last year. The type of creature isn’t really strange or unusual.  No, rather it is the animal’s timing. Daytime is sleep time and nighttime is hunt time.

 

 

Last year I did a little bit of blogging about some our backyard wildlife.  I think I’ll have to keep the camera close by and see who else comes to visit this summer!

{Crew Review} Math Mammoth ~ Make It Real Learning

I think I read somewhere that the purpose of math is to be able to use it in real life. We should be able to apply mathematical solutions when necessary to every day tasks like deciding which cell phone company has the best deal, or how much flour do I need if I 4 1/2 times that recipe.

Because I want my daughters to be able to make connections between the math they are learning as part of school, and the math they sometimes unknowingly use as part of every day life, I jumped at the chance to review  Math Mammoth with 3 e-books in the Make It Real Learning math series.

We chose Graphing and Other Algebra Skills for grades 7,8 and high school ($4.99), Linear Functions 1 for Algebra I and Algebra II ($4.99 ) and Quadratic Equations 1 for Algebra I and Algebra II ($4.99). Each of these eBooks explores math skills using real life situations. A situation is described such as comparing portable music players. A series of questions related to the real life data follows. These questions often build on the previous question and in some cases, such as choosing the best cell phone plan, the two-page sections may build on each other. Following every section is the answer key. Sometimes we had to use the answer key to help us backtrack to figure out the problem.

Using Make It Real Learning:

We set aside our regular math curriculum to focus on these short eBooks for the review. Ideally though, I think I would use these as a weekly supplement throughout the school year. Each two-page section is enough for 1-2 class periods.  With each workbook containing 10 activities, 3 workbooks would be enough, in my opinion, for a full year’s worth of supplements by assigning 1 activity each week.

Some Features I love:

• Each activity has a little quote box that answers the question “When am I ever going to use this?”  One answer: “Using the concepts in this worksheet, you will be able to interpret graphs of real world data sets and explain their practical meaning.”
• The problems on the worksheet cause you to think.  Unlike traditional math workbooks, the student will not be able to just regurgitate word problem formats with different values.
• The answer keys contain the entire text of the problem.  This means I don’t have to flip back and forth to get the context for the answer.
• With the eBook format, I only have to print the pages we need. I don’t have to print the answer keys.
• Some of the eBooks use a type-it-in feature so the student can use typewriter or drawing tools available in Adobe Reader 9 or higher to type or draw answer at the computer. (Note: we didn’t use this feature but I love that it was available on the Graphing eBook!)

 

Thoughts from Turtlegirl (finishing grade 10):

 “I kind of bit off more than I could chew with the Quadratic Equations. However, when I did the graphs, it did me a lot of good to practice using the math in a real life setting. Word problems are my weak point in math, and this helped solidify it. I like how they use actual statistics. I also like that they have you use your answer in one question to solve the next sometimes. (However, it does make it difficult when you can’t solve the first, and thus you cannot solve the next!) I like that with the graphs, you don’t always have to make the graphs but instead most of the time, just extrapolate information from the graph to form your answer.” 

Thoughts from Tailorbear (finishing grade 8):

“I have had a lot of trouble with linear functions. I don’t really understand them. So I had a lot of trouble doing my problems. Plus I don’t like word problems that much. I have trouble translating and other things (Although these were easier then others). I like graphs! Graphs are simple and understandable. Unless you don’t know what horizontal asymptotes are! I really think that if I knew more about the subject I would do better with the problems!

My thoughts:

I confess my math skills are very very rusty. These three e-books in the Make It Real Learning series teach application of specific math skills. I found myself reading and re-reading a problem and not comprehending what I needed to do.  I lacked the vocabulary and the math skill to be able to use thinking and reasoning to set up the problems. Both Turtlegirl and I believe that Graphing and Other Algebra Skills was an appropriate level for her but even that level stretched Tailorbear a bit too far.

I recommend using the Make It Real Learning series as a supplement choosing books with skills below the current working level. I wish I had chosen levels below the Algebra 1 level such as Fractions, Percents , and Decimals I (or II) or maybe even Arithmetic II for Tailorbear.  I love the concepts and philosophy of this series.  Math needs to be meaningful. These are short, inexpensive e-books that show math in real life context and I think they make an excellent supplement.

This is not the Schoolhouse Review Crew’s first time trying Math Mammoth. I loved Math Mammoth’s 6th Grade Light Blue Series. The Blue Series is wonderful as well. You can check out past Crew run’s of Math Mammoth as well the current crew’s opinions.

Visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to read what others have to say about Math Mammoth.

All information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

You can read my other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews by clicking here.

{Crew Review} Motherboard Books: Let’s Make a Webpage

Since you are reading this blog, you must be at least a little bit familiar with the internet and the idea of web pages. Maybe you are a web designer and you know more than just a little bit or maybe you’re like me and you can toddle around using blogger or wordpress, but that’s about all. What about your children? Or your teens?  I am certain that my oldest daughter, a fellow blogger, knows more about creating and editing blog pages than I do or ever will! And my 14 and 15 year old daughters are certainly eager to learn programing and want to design web pages.

Phyllis Wheeler of Motherboard Books has several resources to help you teach your children computer science skills. The Schoolhouse Review Crew had the opportunity to review their choice of Logo Adventures or Let’s Make a Webpage.

We reviewed Let's Make a Webpage. This program uses Visual Site Designer (available in a free trial version)which writes the HTML code in the background, so you do not need to know HTML to create a website. Ms. Wheeler, the Computer Lady, walks students step by step through the process.  The student will design a website that includes a background, images, animations, text, links, and even sound! She even includes how to use your webpage as your home page in your browser. You’ll find a table of contents by clicking here and scrolling to the end.

For young students, this program might take a few days to work through.  I’d keep the sessions shorter only working as long as the student does not become frustrated.  Older students could work through the program in an afternoon or two. Ms. Wheeler does encourage the students to experiment, explore, and create more than one page.

I had two of my daughters read through the e-book following the instructions including doing an interview. Turtlegirl interviewed me and created an “about me” page for my blog. We need to do some playing with the html code to get it compatible with my blog.  She’s also working on another page to be the home page of the browser.  That one asks her “did you complete your schoolwork?” She’s on the hunt for animated turtles to include.

Tailorbear was uncomfortable with the idea of interviewing someone. I suggested she “interview” a favorite character. This idea got her creative juices flowing and she created a website for her favorite “fire bender”.  She even found animated dragons.

Thoughts from Turtlegirl (age 15):

The instructions were clear and easy to follow, although it was a little too babyish for me. For example, when we were supposed to look on the internet for backgrounds and such, she took a tone that might be more suitable for 6-7 year old when explaining what not to do. Other than that, it was well-written. I enjoyed working with it.

Thoughts from Tailorbear (age 14):

I think the instructions were clear. I just had trouble doing them.  I felt like the book talked down to me. I think it would probably work very well with 7 or 8 year olds. I liked designing my website. It was fun, and I learned something too! I think my favorite bit was “interviewing” my person! I had a little difficulty transferring my sound stuff. I think I would have liked the book more, if the tone was not so young. Even though I had some trouble doing the instructions, I was able to figure it out without asking my mom for help.

 

The Nitty Gritty Product Details:

• Product Name: Let’s Make a Web Page
• Vendor Name: Motherboard Books
• Author Name: Phyllis Wheeler, The Computer Lady
• Format: E-book
• Price: $19.95
• Recommended Age Range: The cover says ages 8 and up, the crew age listed: ages 8-14. 
• My suggested Age Range: Because of the style of writing, I think children over 12 would feel “talked down to” and so I think ages 7-10 would be good with a 7 or 8 year old needing more parental help and the 9-10 year old fairly independent. I would still use this with an 11 or 12 year old if she had no prior computer or designing experience.
• Requirements: In order to follow the instructions in the eBook and create a web page you will need Visual Site Designer from CoffeeCup.  There is a free 30 day trial which is sufficient for using this eBook.  The software is $49.  You do NOT need to purchase the software in order to view or edit your page.

I would love to see Ms. Wheeler write an e-book to teach the html coding, perhaps using another one of CoffeeCup’s product.  Though the girls enjoyed creating a website, both were disappointed that they didn’t real get to learn html coding.

This e-book is a great way to introduce children to the fun of designing webpages, especially if they are too young for, or too inexperienced with html coding. Neither students nor parents need to be an html expert to utilize the instructions in the e-book.

Visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to read what others have to say about Motherboard Books.

All information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

You can read my other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews by clicking here.