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Showing posts from October, 2011

TOS Review: EIL: Introduction to Literature (English 1)

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I believe that every student should study literature as part of a well-rounded solid education.   I’ve been looking for years for a curriculum to study literature.   Last year as part of the crew, I was exposed to a series called Excellence in Literature written by Janice Campbell.  These are published by Everyday Education. I really liked what I heard about Excellence in Literature and so while at my homeschool convention this past summer, I purchased the British Literature Survey course for my oldest daughter.  Imagine how thrilled I was when I saw a vendor interest form   asking for my level of interest in book one, Introduction to Literature . Introduction to Literature is the first level in the Excellence in Literature series. There are four other levels including the Survey of British Literature.  (Click on the image to read more about the series as a whole.) Janice Campbell divides Introduction to Literature into 9 units. Designed to take approximately four weeks each, each

An Experimental Dinner

The other night we tried an experiment for dinner (sorry I didn’t think to take pictures!) and I think it turned out very well.   For lack of a better term I told the girls it was “hash”. My oldest daughter said “Was this an emealz?”  I said “Nope,  I made it up!”   She then asked me for my inspiration.  Thought I would share it with all of you. A few months ago at Bible study, we were discussing sauerkraut and the different ways to use it.   I’ve been meaning to try it rinsed and fried with potatoes but just hadn’t gotten around to it. A week or so (or more?) ago one of my emealz was “beef hash”.  It called for frozen cubed hashbrowns.  I knew I wouldn’t have any left over roast so I planned to use some cooked ground beef.  Well we never made that recipe because… well because life happens <grin>. So then I was at the grocery store with Honeybear and we found smoked sausage on sale.  Hmm, could I do something with sauerkraut, cubed hashbrowns and smoked sausage? Why yes, I th

TOS Review: First Form Latin (Memoria Press)

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There are many great reasons to study Latin such as “studying Latin improves a student’s critical thinking skills” or “studying Latin improves a student’s understanding of English vocabulary and grammar.”   I know that studying Latin can provide an excellent foundation for studying other romance languages such as Spanish, French, or Italian. Despite these great reasons for choosing to study Latin, Latin wasn’t on my radar for this school year.  We’ve dabbled a bit here and there with Latin but we decided to go in a different direction.  God, apparently, had alternate plans for my daughters’ education. As part of the TOS Crew, we received the bundle package from Memoria Press for First Form Latin which includes the DVD, audio CD, Student Textbook, Student Workbook, Teacher Manual, Workbook and Test Key, Quizzes and Tests, and even the flashcards! I wasn’t sure I wanted this program because we’ve used Latina Christina 1 from Memoria Press and it wasn’t a good fit for my family.

Words

Words are powerful tools.  They can be powerful weapons.  It grieves me when I see words misused and tossed around in hurtful ways. “Everyone” knows that communication on the Internet is difficult.  We bring our conceived notions and ideas and even our presumptions to the table when we read an email or forum discussion.  We cannot hear the tone of the person writing.  We cannot see her face.  We cannot read his body language.  We interpret what we read through the lens of our own knowledge, experience and understanding.  And most of the time we get it wrong. But miscommunication happens just as much in face-to-face contact as well.  I don’t know how many arguments, disagreements and fights could have been avoided if my husband and I had stopped to truly hear one another.  Even having the body language, facial expressions and vocal tones, we still talk past each other bringing our own baggage to the table. It grieves me when I see words taken out of context and twisted and held again

TOS Review: Game: Say Anything (Family Edition)

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Last year as part of the TOS Crew my family had the opportunity to review Wits and Wagers (Family Edition) from Northstar Games . (You can read my review here .) We noticed then that Northstar Games had listed Say Anything (Family Edition) as “Coming 2011”.   We spent the summer looking through game shelves but hadn’t found it.  Then this year’s Crew began.  I saw that Northstar Games was an upcoming vendor.  We were thrilled to be chosen to review this new game. From the Rules:   Overview (Read to new Players) Say Anything is a light-hearted game about what you and your loved ones think. It gives you the chance to settle questions that have been hotly debated for centuries.  For instance, “What magical power would be the coolest to have?” or “What would be the most fun thing to throw off a tall building?” So dig deep into your heart or just come up with something witty- this is your chance to Say Anything! Requiring at least 3 players and allowing for up to 6, players should b

TOS Review: George Washington Carver:His Life and His Work DVD

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  Recently, as part of the TOS Review Crew, my family received a copy of the DVD, George Washington Carver: His Life and His Work.   Published by Marshall Publishing & Promotions, Inc, this 30 minute documentary covers 5 areas: Inspiring Words:   Quotes from George W. Carver set to music with fantastic scenery Early Life:  narrated as if Mr. Carver himself is telling us about being born into slavery and his father dying and other tidbits from his early life. College Years:  with scenes from the different places Mr. Carver traveled we learn about how he worked his way through several schools. Tuskegee Years:  An overview with photos of his time at Tuskegee and his commitment to his students. Final Years: This part contains actual footage of Mr. Carver! Though a narrator speaks for most of the DVD, we actually hear Mr. Carver’s voice as he gives a speech. We enjoyed some parts of the DVD more than others.  We particularly enjoyed the bits and parts of real time footage

Book Review: Shadows in the Sand by Gayle Roper

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I tend to shy away from typical romance novels.  When I read this line from the back cover “While her heart does a happy snoopy dance at the sight of him, he never seems to notice her,” I thought to myself nope this isn’t a book I want to read.  But I kept reading the description.  “When Carrie’s dishwasher is killed and her young waitress disappears, Greg finds himself drawn into helping Carrie solve the mysteries.”  That did it.  This wasn’t going to be a typical romance.  It’s a mystery.  With some romance interwoven. From the Publisher: She serves him breakfast at her café every morning … but he never seems to notice her. Carrie Carter’s small café in Seaside, New Jersey, is populated with a motley crew of locals … although Carrie only has eyes for Greg Barnes. He’s recovering from a vicious crime that three years ago took the lives of his wife and children—and from the year he tried to drink his reality away. While her heart does a happy Snoopy dance at the sight of him, he ne

*Sigh*

It’s been a rough week. Actually it’s been a rough fall.  We had a rough start to our school year with 3 of us having confirmed strep.   This weekend (well starting on Friday) we’ve had 3 visits to Urgent Care in 3 days. It amazes me how one or two people being sick can throw off our entire family.  Especially if one of them is mom and the other is mom’s right hand (aka The Oldest Daughter). I posted about how our schedule had gotten all out of whack and we had an afternoon tea party meeting to sort things out.  Things are so crazy here that we’ve barely started implementing some of the changes and then <wham> <bam> we get hit again this week. Things are so thrown off that I haven’t been blogging as much either.  I’ve got several reviews coming up and I really like posting in between reviews but this coming week you might see reviews back to back, something I prefer not to do. And to make getting back on track even more  difficult, Honeybear is taking off three days of

TOS Review: e-mealz

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Now that our home school is in full swing, I need help with making dinner.  Some days are just too full with coaching and mentoring two high school students as well as one junior high student.  Throw in Supergirl’s educational challenges (she’s working at first grade level) and I’m not sure I have any functioning brain cells left to think about dinner.  Thankfully for the last 6 weeks I haven’t had to think about dinner.  As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a 3 month subscription to e-mealz. E-mealz is a menu-planning (with grocery list included) subscription service created by Jane DeLaney .  For $15, you receive a menu plan with a grocery list each week for three months.  E-mealz offers several different plans and options.  You’ll want to explore the options tab to see which plan would suit you. Each option is clickable so you can read about each plan and each description includes a sample menu and grocery list. I wasn’t sure at first if e-mealz would be a good fit f

TOS Review: Always Icecream

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For the last several weeks my daughter has been having a blast playing and learning on a website just for girls ages 7 to 12. Always Icecream strives “to combine three important aspects of child-appropriate online learning in a unique way:” Motivation : Girls experience Always Icecream as a fun “play” site, with a friendly community (parents can turn off the social features). * Learning: Girls practice a wide variety of academic and practical skills in a playful way.* Rewards and Recognition: Girls earn “$coops,” our in-game currency for playing learning games. This currency can be used to take care of online pets in PetWorld and decorate homes in MiniWorld. Achievements are recognized through medals and special awards as well as progress reports to parents.* Tailorbear’s Review of Always Icecream (age 12)   It is….. well it’s social. Very social. I have almost no clue who some of my friends are, but because it is moderated I can get to know them. It is TONS of fun because

You know you’re a homeschooler when…

Your 14 year old says “Do we have to do Lit analysis while eating dinner?” Yes, she was a bit annoyed at her 16 year old sister who started the conversation with “Hey Mom, who would you say is the antagonist in Emma ?”  I thought f or a moment or two and responded with: ““ I’d have to say Emma.  I’d say the conflict theme is man versus self so Emma’s really in conflict with herself” She agreed and brought up Frank Churchhill and how he just wasn’t really the antagonist. That’s when Turtlegirl piped in with her objections to the conversation. And rolled her eyes at us.  I’m not sure I blame her.  <grin>

TOS Review: Visual Latin 1

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Latin wasn’t a subject I wanted to focus on for this school year.  There are a million great reasons to study Latin but I had a few good reasons to not pursue it. That is until we had the opportunity to review Visual Latin. One of my objections to pursuing Latin centers on my lack of Latin ability.  I am not a Latin teacher. I don’t have the desire to spend hours and hours learning a language just so that I can teach it to my girls.  With Visual Latin, I don’t have to teach. <insert happy sigh of contentment> When trying to decide if I should express interest in reviewing Visual Latin ,  I spent some time exploring the website  What I found completely changed my mind about studying Latin.  Check out this video! . Visual Latin | A Quick Explanation from Compass Cinema on Vimeo . I strongly recommend reading Our Approach to Latin Learning . That page explains the simple design of Visual Latin and how it works.  If you’re as impressed as I was you’ll want to watch the sample

An Afternoon Tea Break

Things have been spinning out of control around here lately.  Or longer than lately but we reached the breaking point today.  School hasn’t been getting done, or at least not consistently enough to meet my long term educational goals.   I have a list a mile long of projects and chores that need to be accomplished and I have a spreadsheet full of schedule dates that I find myself pushing off and rearranging. Let me take a moment to tell you about a crazy lady with multiple personalities.  I know she has at least two.  I’m pretty sure there are more.  Prideful Tess and Practical Tess.   I’m sure there’s the Tess who lives on Fantasy Island and Dreamy Tess but let’s just focus on Prideful Tess (cause she is getting her behind kicked big time this week) and Practical Tess (who has been doing some of the “I told you so”s and butt whipping of Prideful Tess) Prideful Tess is herself mixed up.  On the one hand she’s very insecure (or maybe that’s just another Tess altogether) but this Pridef

A Review Related Homeschooling Kind of Day

Every now and again we have a day in our homeschool schedule that seems driven by the TOS Homeschool Crew.  (Check out my sidebar of upcoming reviews with links to the products and/or vendors).   I usually try to space things out and we work review products in our school schedule.  Every now and again things get thrown off because Daddy takes a day off so we can go to the Greek Festival in town or there’s a federal holiday and dad is off work or we get strep throat or… well.. life just happens. Today was one of those review driven days.  We have several new programs to add into our schedule.  We also needed to focus on a couple things that are review related but aren’t items currently being reviewed.  Maybe I should have said today was Institute for Excellence and Review driven.  It feels like everything we did today some how related to either IEW or the Review Crew.   We started 4 new products today: A math program for Tailorbear.  Supergirl gets to try one of the workbooks too.

TOS Review: Principles of Marketing (Professor in a Box)

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My oldest daughter wants to have her own piano studio someday.  She’s planning to have her own business providing private piano instruction.   We both were so excited to have the opportunity to use and review the Principles of Marketing course from Professor in a Box . Also known as Basic Marketing , Introduction to Marketing , Fundamentals of Marketing , Marketing , or Marketing Principles, Principles of Marketing retails for $119.99.  This course can be completed by any high school student with basic reading and math skills.  Professor in a Box also offers a money back guarantee!  For more information click here .   For more information about Principles of Marketing click here .  Would you like to see a sample of chapter 1?  Click here. Features I love: Includes a lesson plan for the course. There is a file included containing lesson plans for the Marketing Course.  Each activity also gives a time estimate so students can budget their time! The syllabus also suggests how

Read Aloud Challenge 10/6

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I don’t even remember the last time I participated in Debra’s Read Aloud Challenge over at Footprints in the Butter .  It’s been a crazy start to our school year.   Some Reading Aloud or er uh listening to an audio book has been happening.  Not as much Reading Aloud as needs to happen but some is better than none right?   I have mentioned this before but I think it is such a great resource so I am going to mention it again.  Ancient Faith radio has a podcast series called Under the Grapevine by Chrissy Hart.  A few years ago Dr. Hart read aloud the entire Chronicles of Narnia series.  These FREE podcast readings are still available on the website.  So we finished The Last Battle and we’ve started The Magician’s Nephew.   Speaking of Chronicles of Narnia series We finished listening to the Focus on the Family Radio Drama version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and we started The Horse and His Boy.   This book is presented after the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe b

TOS Review: Scruble Cube

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  Being a part of the TOS Homeschool Crew can be a lot of fun.  Recently my family and I have been enjoying playing with the Scruble Cube. It’s a toy and it’s a game. But it’s not just entertainment.  From the Scruble Cube Universe Tab of the website: SCRUBLE Cube can promote the development and exercise of key brain functions- logical deduction, analytical processing and word development skills in a unique and challenging way. And although you can challenge yourself on a variety of levels- if you can simply spell ‘CAT you can play SCRUBLE Cube. (emphasis in original) So what exactly is a Scruble Cube?  The website offers this explanation: In SCRUBLE Cube™ there are 96 individually rotating letter and premium scoring pegs inserted onto a 4 x 4 x4 cube. The letters rotate to aid in pattern recognition when players are creating words. The cube offers a stimulating single or multi-player environment for spelling words of at least three letters on a single plane or over several fa

Winner: What Is He Thinking?? by Rebecca St. James

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It’s time to announce the winner of my What Is He Thinking?? book giveaway!   There were 20 comments on my Review Post but only 19 entries. I used Random.Org to select a number between (and including) 1 through 19.  It spit out number 10. Debbie provided comment number 10 with:   Congratulations Debbie!  I hope you enjoy the book! Thank you everyone for participating in my giveaway.

Today’s Breakfast is brought to you by the letter…

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Last week my husband took some much needed time off from work.  Though our school schedule didn’t allow for us to completely drop school for 3 days, we were able to reduce our work load. Having Daddy home is a treat in and of itself but Daddy wanted to make it even more special.  When he was growing up his father would make pancakes for breakfast.  These were not ordinary round cakes though.  They came in shapes.  Letter Shapes. Continuing in the tradition of his father, Honeybear will sometimes make letter shaped pancakes to make breakfast just a little more fun and special.  He choose one of his vacation days to make letter pancakes for all of us.   And yes even Mom got one too!

Beyond Survival: Homeschool Goals for 2011-2012

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We’re several weeks into our 2011-2012 school year and I haven’t really set any formal goals for our home school.  I’ve got some rough ideas and some basic lesson plans.  I think I’ve laid out a frame work of what I want to accomplish.  Sometimes it helps me to write it out and this week’s Blog Cruise Topic happens to be What are your homeschool related goals for the year? So what are my homeschool related goals for the year?  I think it would help me if I broke it down into parts.  Grab a cup of coffee or tea or whatever cause this could get long. General : To Survive.  Yes, I have a general home school goal of survival.  My goal is to survive having two in high school, one in junior high and one who defies grade levels.  I’ll be searching for ways to overcome home school burn out.  Maybe I’ll even blog about them.  Assuming I find some ways <grin>. Record Keeping .  As I type this I find myself challenged by how far behind I am in my record keeping.  Should I even be a

A little wildlife… a little close to home

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So today is Saturday.  But not just any Saturday.  Today is Bountiful Baskets Saturday.  New shipping routes/company means new pick up times and a (new to us) location.  So at oh dark thirty Honeybear and I roll out of bed, throw on some clothes and plan to exit house to pick up produce.   He opens the door.  We both go.. Aaaahhh!  And he slams the door closed.  We peek out the peep hole and decide those are NOT moths attracted to the front porch light.  I am sure they are some type of stinging insect but the behavior seems unusual.  The sun has not risen but they are active! We exit through a different route and pick up my baskets of produce. (I “contributed” for 2 conventional baskets and 1 Asian pack.  Lots of veggies and some fruit.  Good stuff.)  After we returned home and entered  through alternate route, Honeybear investigated. The porch light was off and the creatures had settled down ON the light globe.  It was still early enough that they were not real active so Honeybear,