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Showing posts from June, 2012

Book Review: Skip Rock Shallows

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I just finished a book from Tyndale Publishing House that I loved.  I felt drawn to request Skip Rock Shallows by Jan Watson because it takes place in the mountains of Kentucky in a coal mining camp. I couldn’t help but think of my father and grandparents and the stories that granny told us of life in the mountains.  Newly graduated from medical school, Dr. Lilly Corbett returns to the mountains of Kentucky to complete her internship before joining her fiancĂ©, Paul, who is completing his residency in Boston.  Her life is all planned out.  She discovers however that her heart is not aligned with her head. She is drawn to these people.  She earns their respect and she questions her decision to leave Skip Rock at the end of her internship. These people need her and she needs them. While struggling to establish herself as the coal camp doctor, she “crosses path with a handsome miner-one who seems oddly familiar.”  I loved this book.  Perhaps I loved it because, while reading it, I kept

Crew Review: IXL Math

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For the past several weeks, Tailorbear and Supergirl have been using IXL Math , an online supplemental math practice program.  With an IXL membership ( beginning at just $9.95 a month), your student will gain access to math skills ranging from Pre-K through Algebra.   A membership includes a parent account and one student account.  Additional students are just $2 a month.  Yearly pricing plans are also available. I’ve used the word supplement, however, IXL uses the word “practice”.  From the User Guide “IXL offers a dynamic and fun environment for students to practice math.” (emphasis mine).   This program is not intended as a full curriculum but instead works alongside your regular program to provide additional practice for mastering each skill.   Did I mention that these skills meet state standards and that you can practice skills according to your state’s standards ? Explicit teaching won’t be found at IXL, however, explanations for each problem are available. When Supergirl

Q is for Quotable Quotes

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I haven’t done a Blogging Through the Alphabet post in a really long time.  I took an unintended break but Marcy over at Ben and Me kept on going.  She’s up to Q now .  Q?  Q!?!  Quiet? Quake? Quote? (those were suggestions from Marcy herself <grin>) or maybe Quickly? Queenly?  Well, if you read the subject line, then you know I decided on Quotable Quotes.  I’m always telling myself I need to write down those funny things my children say before I forget them.  I think I’ve forgotten most of them.  I may have already blogged about the ones I remembered but I think I have a new one or two I can talk about here. Supergirl is developmentally at an age where what she says can be so entertaining. The other day ~one of the very few sunny days we’ve had this June~ she was chatting with her sister.  What BooBear heard was “Do you remember the <mumble mumble garbled sound>?”  Boo asked Supergirl to say it again.  After a few more attempts to get her older sister to understand she

Crew Review: MyMathLab Algebra 2 (Pearson)

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When I was in 9th grade math was my favorite subject.  I’m weird.  I love math.  I don’t, however, always love teaching it.  I don’t always have the patience to go over the same type of problem over and over and I don’t always have the creative ability to present the same material in many different ways.  In other words, I could certainly use some help teaching math.  Especially at the high school level. Recently, through the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I have had an opportunity to use MyMathLab Algebra 2 from Pearson Education with Turtlegirl.  This has been a fabulous experience for both of us.  This program has allowed me to be completely hands off with teaching and yet at the same time know exactly what Turtlegirl is doing and exactly how well she is doing. This is a fully-digital course.  The Student Access Kit is $49.97 while the Parent Access Kit is an additional $30.00 .  Instructions are included for registering and setting up your course.  You’ll want to set up the Parent

Think Back: Animals, Animals, Animals

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Yes, I know that it is supposed to be Think Back Thursday and I know today is Wednesday but thankfully Debbie over at Debbie’s Digest keeps her link open for a week.  (Thank you, Debbie). This week’s theme is Animals.   I went through some old pictures that I have on a CD (Back in the days when we still developed film but you could also get a CD with all the pictures on them) and found a few that I wanted share. This first one is from our first MAJOR vacation as a family.  We drove to Minnesota for a wedding and on the way we stopped in this tourist trap place in North Dakota.  We arrived after 10pm and were desperate for a hotel room.  We spent a bit of the morning looking around before hopping back in the van and continuing on to my sister’s house in Minnesota.   I know this is a statue but it’s an ANIMAL <grin>  This was June of 2004.  BooBear turned 9 on this trip.  The twins (Supergirl and Turtlegirl) were 6 1/2 and the “baby”, Tailorbear was 5.  Turtlegirl and Tailorbear

Which book, which book? So many books, so little summer!

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The weather and the calendar disagree.  The weather has been dark, gloomy, cold and wet. The calendar says June. June means summer. Summer means reading fun books just for the pleasure of reading. We’ll be schooling through the summer not taking much of a break from home education but because it’s summer, we’ll be adding in some just for fun books.  We’ve decided that we’d like to do some of our summer reading as family read alouds.  The girls threw out suggestions such as The Jungle Book , or The Westing Game .  Perhaps we should read Treasure Island or re-read (again) the Chronicles of Narnia? I bet the girls would be thrilled if Daddy read any of the Percy Jackson series books. Speaking of the Westing Game , Turtlegirl shared her reason for wanting this book read aloud again. (we’ve already read it aloud twice I think, and I’m fairly certain a couple of the girls have read it again on her own a time or two!) She says that she has fond memories of the first time we read the book.

Costco is a Dangerous Place!

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I wasn’t planning on a trip to Costco this week.  Poor planning and a need for clean laundry dictated otherwise.  Honeybear and I headed to Costco with a very small list: laundry detergent, frozen already cooked shrimp, cheddar cheese, V8 juice, coffee and produce (since the bountiful baskets sold out which ended up being a good thing since I couldn’t pick it up.) What we came home with (in addition to the above items): Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds, almond butter, popcorn, lemonade, liquid dishwashing soup (for handwashing those items that don’t fit in the dishwasher), kitchen sponges, and an electric pencil sharpener. No, we weren’t hungry.  We just happened to remember a few items we were out of and we remembered the Apostles Fast starts on Monday.  We’ll be eating more vegan and vegetarian meals for the next couple of weeks.  We decided that some almond butter and almonds for snacking for extra protein would be a very good idea. And I gave up my Jelly Belly jellybeans.  Hone

Think Back Thursday: Historical Sites

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The theme for the May 31st Think Back Thursday was Historical Sites .  When trying to decide what to post, I found some pictures of the day we went to the pioneer farm with several families from church.   Boobear would have been just a month past her 15th birthday, while Supergirl and Turtlegirl were a month from their 13th birthdays.  Tailorbear would have been 11.  The girls tried out the desks in the one room school house while Honeybear and another dad checked out a map of the Territories.     There were inside chores to experience such as kneading dough and grinding coffee.  Tailorbear even tried on some of the clothes for a more authentic look. There were animal chores as well.  Here Tailorbear shows off the chicken she caught! Though this was only 2 years ago, I am amazed at how much the girls have grown and changed.  I think time really does move faster and faster the older I get. This post is part of Debbie’s Think Back Thursday over at Debbie’s Digest !