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Showing posts from June, 2015

Random Five on Friday ~ June 26 Edition

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I’ve got some random thoughts from the past two weeks. I think I can keep it to five though! 1. My mom has lung disease and it has been getting progressively worse. She gave us quite a scare at the end of May. I was told to “use my best judgment” about coming to visit. Someone who knew all about the situation offered to buy a plane ticket for me to visit my mom. This incredibly generous person, who wishes to be anonymous, also purchased a ticket so I could bring one daughter with me. This was an incredible gift and I have no words adequate enough to say thank you but I have this blog so I thought I would share a few of the blessings from that short trip. 2.  I got to see my mom.  Yes I know that was the primary purpose of my trip. We went every day to the care center and visited with mom and got to know a couple of the residents there. Mom has aged quite a bit since she has gotten sicker.  But she’s still my mama. I could see glimpses of both my grandmother and my mother in her face

Planning the High School Years

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Some of my fellow Schoolhouse Review Crew friends are participating in a monthly blog hop blogging on topics related to home schooling high school.  This month we’ll be talking about planning. The thought of home schooling through high school overwhelmed me. What should I teach? How was I going to teach courses for subjects like Biology and Chemistry? What about a diploma?  What about college? There are even more resources and helps available today than there were seven years ago as I contemplated starting high school with Boo Bear. One resource that I did not have then that I have now is High School Prep Genius . This is a book that I recommend for both parents and students to read and discuss together. So how exactly do I plan high school?   First I started by researching the requirements for high school graduation in my state. I needed answers to such questions as “am I required to follow the public school requirements for graduation?” “Can I issue a diploma?” I also needed to a

SmartKidz Media~ A Multi-Media Library for Homeschoolers {A Review}

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If Supergirl could spend her whole day just watching videos she would. I try to incorporate educational videos into her school plan because they work well for her. Our family also enjoys fun but educational documentaries. We try to watch more of those during Orthodox Fasting seasons and less regular streaming.  Finding something that will entertain, while educating, is not always an easy task, so when the crew had the opportunity to review SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers   I expressed high interest. More than Just Videos SmartKidz Media offers more than just videos. It is a media resource library filled with videos, eBooks, music, and even study guides. The website has two sections: Family Media, and the Reading and Learning Center. The Family Media section is divided into two categories: World of Discovery, and Music and Fine Arts.  The World of Discovery includes topics from Animals and Wildlife, Science, History, Health and Fitness, Lifestyles and Cuisine, Travel and

Supergirl Answers a Survey about Her Mom

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I have been seeing this interview on Facebook.  Ask your child these questions and record exactly what they say.  I decided I’d rather do as a blog post so I asked Supergirl the questions.  Questions are in bold. My commentary is in purple. 1. What is something mom always says to you? Take your thyroid. [yup, every morning I tell her to take her thyroid medication which gets shortened to “take your thyroid.”] 2. What makes mom happy? When I drink all the water. [She must drink a full glass of water with her thyroid medication. I’ve been a stickler about making her do it.] 3. What makes mom sad? When she calls her mom and she can’t talk and she misses her dad. 4. How does your mom make you laugh? She tickles me. 5. What was your mom like as a child? Um, when she was a girl she went to school. When she grew up she went to college and got a college degree. 6. How old is your mom? Three? No. Wait. I don’t know. [I think 3 is her current favorite number.] 7. How tall is your mo

CTC Math ~ Online Math from K through High School {Review}

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I first heard about CTC Math when it came up for review in the last crew run. We used it.  We liked it.  It was fabulous for Turtlegirl. Turtlegirl continued to use it for Geometry but I set it aside for Supergirl until a couple of months ago. Our subscription was nearing its end. I wanted to continue to use it with Turtlegirl so I pulled it out again for Supergirl.I hadn’t liked it as much for her as I did for Turtlegirl and I realized it was because Supergirl needed a bit more maturing. I decided I liked it now enough for Supergirl to justify purchasing a month to month family plan so that Turtlegirl could finish Geometry. So having purchased a month to month subscription, I was thrilled when I saw the 12 Month Family Plan come up for review. CTC Math CTC Math is an online video based subscription program with courses from Kindergarten through Trigonometry. For K through 6th grade this program can be used as a complete program. For the high school level courses you may wish to u

Random Five on Friday ~ June 12th Edition

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This is the second Friday of June but only my first Random Five for the month!   1. Honeybear has a garden again this year!  It's his "baby" though the girls do help.  I did get to help choose what to plant:  tomatoes, carrots, onions, squash, cucumbers, peas and beans. The garden has little sprouts and the tomato plants have a few tomatoes. Seeing the onions takes me back to when I was growing up.  My parents grew green onions and tomatoes and peas, I think.  But mostly every year it was tomatoes.  In general I dislike peas but fresh peas from the garden are wonderful and I am looking forward to those! 2. I didn’t post a Random Five last week but if I had I would have talked about how last week marked the two year anniversary since Honeybear's heart attack.  I even wrote about it. It ranks up there as one of my top 3 most scary moments of my life. 3. Another anniversary date of sorts passed last week. I graduated from high school 29 years ago. That means that I

Teaching Writing Structure and Style with SWI-A {Review}

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I fell in love with Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) my first year on the crew when I had the opportunity to review Teaching Writing Structure and Style and Student Writing Intensive Level C.  I loved it so much that I purchased more products from IEW and begged to review the SWI-Level B with Tailorbear. Supergirl has been begging and begging and begging to do IEW “like [her] sisters.”  I heard that IEW updated and revised the Teaching Writing Structure and Style program. I was incredibly excited at the possibility of using the new TWSS with the Student Writing Intensive Level A.  We have been blessed to review Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, Student Writing Intensive Level A {Value Package A}. Background: Supergirl I was asked to review this package specifically with a special needs student. Grab a cup of coffee or an iced tea and get comfortable. We’re going to chat about how I’ve been using this with Supergirl, my 17 year old, globally developmentally delayed

Summer is here!!

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Nearly every year I post something in May about how much I love May and how perfect the days are and I complain that June is cold, gray and rainy but it’s ok cause May is beautiful. This year has been weird. Our May was not full of beautiful practically perfect sunny days. We had cold and rain. I was getting worried that would mean we would NOT see the sun until after the fourth of July! It was depressing thinking about that. But that has not been the case!  It’s been gorgeous!  We’ve had several days in a row of beautiful sunshine filled days.  We’ve had temps in the 80s. Gardens are growing (including ours but that’s a post for another day), birds are singing, grass is growing.  It’s summer in the mild Pacific Northwest. We did not need the air conditioner at all in May.  We usually don’t need it in June either.  This year though I begged Honeybear to put it in last night because having so many days of temps in the 80’s had taken its toll and the house had gotten HOT.  We wouldn

The Book of the Ancient Romans Set {Crew Review}

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We have used a few of the Latin programs from Memoria Press , including Latina Christiana and First Form Latin , but we never included a focused study of Roman history. Studying the history of Rome is commonly part of a Latin course. We had the opportunity to review The Book of the Ancient Romans Set from Memoria Press which is just perfect to add to those Latin studies! Turtlegirl is my lover of all things Latin and when I discussed using The Book of Ancient Rome along with the Student Guide to flesh out her Latin Studies she was very excited. As soon as the box arrived she absconded with the book and disappeared. The Book of The Ancient Romans Set includes the the history book, a Student Guide and a Teacher guide. Originally written in the 1920s by Dorothy Mills, the history book went out of print.  Memoria Press has republished the book and produced the Student and Teacher Guides. This program could easily be a full year history course for middle school aged children. This p

Introducing the Homeschool High School Blog Hop!

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Several of us on the Schoolhouse Review Crew will be participating in a brand new blog hop:  Homeschool High School Blog Hop. Each month we’ll be blogging about a topic related to Homeschooling High School. I am excited to participate in this new adventure. Now that I’ve been homeschooling some high school age children for several years I feel a bit more comfortable with what I am doing so I hope that I have something of value to share.  Homeschooling through the high school years can seem daunting or overwhelming when you first start. For me it is a very different mind set with new challenges. We will be covering the following topics: June 24 - Planning for High School July 29 - Electives August 26 - Math, Science, Biology September 30 - Language Arts October 28 - "How am I going to teach High School ...?" November 25 -   How do you fit it all in? December 30 - Graduation The following is a list of participants.  Be sure to visit their blogs and read their introd

Some Anniversaries Are Just Not Fun

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Most anniversaries are fun like the anniversary of your birth or the anniversary of your first date with your husband. My husband and I often acknowledge the anniversary of our first kiss. As a family we celebrate the anniversary of our entering the Orthodox Church.  Some anniversaries though are not so pleasant and are just not fun. Today is the 2nd Anniversary of Honeybear’s heart attack. Life has slowly returned to a new level of normal. It’s almost as if it didn’t happen. I don’t think about it all the time. I got lulled back into a sense of complacency and forgot how emotional and scary it was. And then, I had reason to be at the hospital and it all came rushing back again. Supergirl was scheduled for an MRI (long story maybe I’ll blog about it some other time) and we had to walk through the cafeteria to get to the hallway we needed. Just walking through the cafeteria brought back a flood of memories. That wouldn’t have been so bad, just walking through the cafeteria but when

Online Piano Lessons from JazzEdge {A Crew Review}

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Last year my family had the opportunity to try HomeschoolPiano from JazzEdge. This time JazzEdge offered a different selection of products for the Crew to review.  We do not have access to a set of drums so we had to pass on the DrumsWithWillie and having already reviewed HomeSchoolPiano, and we didn’t need the Easy Piano Basics course.  Fortunately, there was a third selection: PianoWithWillie . Turtlegirl didn’t hesitate when I asked her if she would be interested in trying it.  “Yes.”   What Is PianoWithWillie PianoWithWillie is an online piano instruction program that offers two levels or types of membership options: Studio and Premier. We received access to the Studio level of membership. Some of the membership benefits include: Instant Access Anytime ~ because this is a web based subscription membership you can access the program whenever you want so long as you have internet access Use Any Device ~ Lessons can be accessed from any device! It even works on my Kindle Fire