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Showing posts from October, 2014

Random Five ~ October 24th Edition

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October is winding down.  Next Friday is the 31st! 1. The Schoolhouse Review Crew is taking applications for the 2015 crew year .  Hurry though because the applications are scheduled to close on Monday! 2. As the 2014 Crew year winds down I realized that I only have a few more reviews to write. This is bittersweet.  Bitter because it’s the end of the year and sweet because I’ve been on the crew long enough to really appreciate the break. (Yes, I’ve submitted my re-application for the 2015 year. I’ll be ready to tackle reviews again after the holidays but I am looking forward to the break between crew runs!) My very last review of the 2014 year is a game from Out of the Box Games called Snake Oil . Warning this game can be dangerous to health: we have laughed so hard that it hurt!!!  Here is a laughing Turtlegirl. I was laughing so hard I almost couldn’t get the picture! She doesn’t like the picture but I think it truly captures how hard we have laughed. I have her permission to sh

Middlebury Languages ~ High School French {Crew Review}

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Family rumor has it that my great-grandfather spoke French. He emigrated to the US from a French speaking country so that makes sense to me. Another rumor says that he may have taught me a bit of French when I was very little. Though I remember him vaguely, I do not remember any of our conversations, but years later I fell in love with the French language and took a year in high school and a year in college. Turtlegirl has inherited my love of French and has been wanting to learn it for years.  We begged for the opportunity to review one of the High School French Courses from Middlebury Interactive Languages . Courses are sold by semester and you can choose from no teacher or with teacher. We on the crew received one semester of our choice with no teacher. Since Turtlegirl used this program I’m going to let her share about the program and tell you how it works from her perspective. Turtlegirl’s Student Perspective [Begin Turtlegirl] So, on an average day, I log in, go to the Tabl

Standard Deviants Accelerate {Schoolhouse Crew Review}

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With two students in high school, I am always looking for easy to use computer based programs to help me teach. Both Turtlegirl and Tailorbear are studying health and nutrition this year so I was excited to see the list of homeschool subjects offered from Standard Deviants Accelerate . Nutrition is one of the many Standard Deviants Accelerate Homeschool Courses that we chose. Standard Deviants Accelerate (SDA) generously provided us with access to all the subjects they offer! So in addition to Nutrition, I also set up several other subjects.  Tailorbear worked through some of the SDA Chemistry as a supplement to finish up her Integrated Physics and Chemistry course.  She then switched to using SDA Biology to supplement her current Biology course. We’re also looking at supplementing her American History course with the SDA U.S. History subject. In addition to their Core Curriculum Subjects SDA also offers AP Subjects to prepare for the AP Exams. We did not use any of the AP cla

Random 5 on Friday ~ October 17th Edition

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Yes it really is over half way through October already! I started this two weeks ago! I am overdue for a Random 5 post! 1.  The last time we were at Costco (two weeks ago!) as we loaded up the van at Costco, I noticed that the leaves on the trees were starting to change color. The one thing I truly miss about fall is the gorgeous display of deciduous trees.  Oh it’s not that we don’t have them around here; it’s just that we have an over abundance of evergreen trees.  Especially in my yard. 2. Speaking of Costco the cashier was a very friendly, chatty young man.  We were discussing driver’s licenses and cars and he mentioned giving up his car for lent! I thought that was so cool. The young man who boxed up our stuff was also friendly and chatty.  It made for a pleasant end to a long shopping trip. 3. We have joined the 21st Century. I now have a smart phone. It’s a cheap smartphone but now I have unlimited text (I had such limited texting on my “dumb” phone that I pretty much didn’t

X is for X-mas (Or Why X-Mas does mean Christmas)

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It’s only October.  We still have to get through Halloween, my anniversary, and Thanksgiving before we even get to December.  So why am I writing about X-mas?  Because this week’s letter over at Ben and Me ’s ABC Blogging is X.  I admit I was stumped.  Yes I could use a word like exciting or exhausted and focus on the x part of the word but I wanted to see if I could actually find a word in the dictionary from the x-section.  Did you know that the x-section is barely two pages? I came across X-mas.  Did you know it was in the dictionary?  I don’t think I’ve really thought about it but I guess it makes sense. Let’s look at the dictionary definition: “n. Christmas.” Ok so X-mas means Christmas according to the dictionary.  It certainly has been widely used in December as a replacement for the word Christmas . I know many people, wonderful Christian people, who refuse to use x-mas and prefer to write out Christmas each and every time. It seems as though these good people are afraid o

Essay Rock Star Persuasive Essay Writing Course ~ A Schoolhouse Crew Review

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I love math. I’ve found some great tools for helping me teach math. I don’t love writing. Yes, I see the irony in that statement. She has a blog, she writes reviews, but she doesn’t love writing? I like teaching writing even less than I like formal academic writing. Maybe it’s because I lack confidence in my own ability to write or maybe it’s just that formal writing is much more intimidating than informal writing for fun. I want my daughters to be able to communicate their thoughts in writing. I want them to be prepared for college writing. I know they need to be able to write formal academic papers if for no other reason than they need that skill for college. Fortuigence , founded by Lily Iatridis, offers online writing courses that prep students for high school and college writing. Ms. Iatridis is a former classroom teacher with a heart for homeschoolers.  Fortuigence currently offers a FREE course for parents, Top Reach , as well as full 1/2 credit course for high school student

Wrestling with my {reading } Self-Image

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Sometimes I feel afraid to admit, even to myself, what I like to read. It’s my pride I think. Pride is the sin I struggle with  the most. So back to what I like, I evaluate what I like and wonder if it’s good enough, smart enough, or whatever and then I become fearful that I’m trying to like something to please someone else or worse that I’m becoming pretentious. I also wrestle with these kinds of thoughts: “if I admit that I like reading mystery fluff like what Mary Daheim and Donna Andrews writes, does that mean I am less intelligent?” or “Do I want to read Three Musketeers or Les Mis because I think it will make me feel more intelligent?” I wrestle with ideas like “do I like Shakespeare because I like Shakespeare or because I think that liking Shakespeare makes me look smarter or more intelligent?”  (I like Shakespeare because I like Shakespeare, but I like that I feel smarter because I like Shakespeare.) I wrestle with being honest and true to myself and fighting the idea that