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Showing posts from September, 2015

Teaching High School Language Arts: Resources

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Perhaps it would be better to list it as English Resources or Resources for Teaching Literature and Composition.  As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew I’ve had the opportunity to use several different programs including those focused more on literature, those focused more on writing skills, and those that strive to teach one through the other. These are my most favorite resources for teaching Language Arts or English at the high school level.  They are listed in no particular order. Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) I fell in love with IEW’s approach to teaching writing about 5 years ago when I first reviewed Teaching Writing Structure and Style and Student Writing Intensive C . This is a high school level writing program that teaches parents and teachers how to teach writing. The program can be adapted to add grammar and literature for a full English course. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to review the revised brand new updated Teaching Writing Structure an

Middlebury Interactive Languages {Crew Review}

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Turtlegirl loves languages. She fell in love with French a year ago when we had the opportunity to review the first semester of High School French I , one of the French Courses from Middlebury Interactive Languages . She is thrilled that she gets to complete the course by using the second semester this year! Middlebury Interactive Languages offers courses from Kindergarten through High School. They offer these world languages: French, German, Spanish, and Chinese. Courses are classified as Elementary K-2, Elementary 3-5, Middle School, High School, Fluency, and Advanced Placement (AP). The homeschool world languages curriculum can be taken as a self-paced independent study or families can choose to opt for the guidance of a certified virtual teacher. Some features of the curriculum, such as grading of speaking and writing lessons, are only available with the teacher option. The Schoolhouse Review Crew received six months of access to the self-paced independent study course. Six mon

Random Five September 25 Edition (on September 26)

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I know.  Last week I posted on Saturday.  That was not planned.  This week however it is planned because I wanted to post my USAopoly Review on Friday.  Did you see it? Fun games for the whole family.  This has been a busy week! 1.  Sunday was the post feast of the Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross.  I love this service. Maybe I love it because it’s the very first Orthodox Service that I ever attended.  This is from the vespers service: As the Cross is lifted up, it urges all of creation to praise the immaculate Passion of the One Who was lifted up thereon. For by means of the Cross, He slew him that slew us; and He made the dead to live again, making them beautiful, granting them the Heavens as dwelling-place, because He is compassionate, in the unsurpassed and unspeakable excess of His goodness. With joy, then, let us all exalt His Name, while magnifying His infinite condescension toward our race. 2.  Boobear dyed her hair with henna. We called it Weasley hair as

Family Fun with USAopoly Games {Crew Review}

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If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you might already know that my family loves board games. We often schedule days just for playing games and our family plans holidays around game playing. It isn’t Thanksgiving if we don’t play a game. The girls know that there is going to be at least one new game to open and play at Christmas. Knowing that we love games, I was excited to see USAopoly on the list for Crew Reviews. They generously provided two games for us to enjoy: Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone and Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game . USAopoly I thought that I had never heard of USAopoly before seeing them listed as an upcoming vendor for the crew. Then I started poking around the website. I may not have recognized the name but my family actually had at least one game created by them! USAopoly has been publishing board games since 1994. Some of their games are themed games licensed from other companies. Really like Harry Potter? Firefly? Maybe you’re a family of Wh

Just in time for Fall: A collection of Soup Recipes

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The weather has turned colder. Fall is here.  That means it’s time to think about soups, stews, and chili! I do love posting recipes and I have maybe close to a zillion, ok not quite, but many, recipes that I’ve collected photos for and started a few blog posts but just haven’t finished up. In the meantime Fall has snuck up on us and Soup Season is here.  I’ve decided to collect some of my soup recipe blog posts and share them here with you! I’m going to do this Random Five Four Style! 1. Tomato Florentine ~  Seriously easy. Very adaptable. Honeybear is not much of a soup eater and this one is broth based so not that filling for a hungry man but perfect for a light supper or for a hungry home schooling mama and students for lunch. 2. Our hands down all around family favorite chicken soup nicknamed Pirate Killing Soup, is our variation of Chloe’s Virus Killing Soup .  This is the *best* Chicken and Vegetable soup you will ever eat!  And we do not only eat it when we are sick. It’

Fascinating Physics ~ Online Science {Crew Review}

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My Turtlegirl loves science. She completed a physics course early in high school but neither of us have been confident that it provided enough of the math part of physics. Since her high school career is winding down and we’re in the college app and h.s. transcript stage I began to panic wondering what to do about her Physics credit. Last year, Tailorbear had the opportunity to try the biology course from Fascinating Education . When the crew offered the chance to review Fascinating Physics , Turtlegirl and I decided that we needed to check it out. Fascinating Education Dr. Marguiles, a neurologist, developed Fascinating Science. He sees learning as a neurological issue and uses his education, training, and experience to help kids understand how our world works. Fascinating Education uses an audiovisual technique. Students hear science explained in a step by step manner that breaks down complicated science into easy to understand “plain English.” While hearing the lecture, the stu

Random Five ~ September 19th Edition

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I know. I know.  I did it again.  The meme is called Random Five on Friday and today is Saturday. So let’s just jump to the five random thoughts. 1. I kept meaning to write a blog post because this really is worthy of a it’s own special post but . . . drumroll . . .  A couple of weeks ago,  Supergirl picked up a Bob Book from the pile on the table and began to read it.  She was so thrilled that she could read a book. Yes it was one of the early ones from the first set but it was the first time she had ever willingly picked up a book and could actually, truly read it with no help from mom.  2. Supergirl has also started helping more and more in the kitchen.  At first it was just measuring the oats and the water to help mom make oatmeal. Then it was realizing she could butter toast.  She is very short and struggles with fine motor skills. It sounds easy to butter toast but it isn’t so easy when you have so much going on or not going on for you. I am sure she could have buttered toast

Be a Super Teacher with Super Teacher Worksheets {Crew Review}

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We prefer a literature approach to home school and use real or living books for history and English but a couple of my girls really like worksheets. I’d been contemplating what to do for my 16 year old; our history program has study questions but the format is very difficult to use. How do I get her to answer questions so that I have something to grade? Supergirl often needs extra practice with little skills. She loves worksheets and our math programs do not provide enough for her. I needed something easy to use that would work for Tailorbear and at the same time fill gaps and offer practice for Supergirl. The crew provided a solution! With the Individual Membership from Super Teacher Worksheets . Tim Weibel, who taught 3rd and 4th grades for over 10 years, founded Super Teacher Worksheets in 2007. This website offers activities, games, and printable worksheets for teachers and homeschoolers.  There are over 10,000 PDFs covering Math, Reading & Writing, Phonics, Grammar, Social

Random Five on Friday ~ September 11th

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This is not the first Friday of September but it is the first Random Five post for this month!  1. I don’t remember the day of the week. I won’t forget where I was when heard the news nor will I ever forgot how I heard the news. The phone rang.  I was still in bed as it was just around 6:30 am here on the West Coast. Honeybear was active duty military at the time and he was away doing field training exercises. It was my dad on the phone wanting to know if “it” would affect John.  Would they deploy him?  Would he get to come home first? I didn’t know what “it” was.  Then my dad told me. The towers were gone. Life was forever changed. But, life goes on. Different.  Never the same but it goes on and 14 years later I still remember. My life wasn’t affected the way so very many lives were but I remember. I remember the terror.  I remember the anguish. I remember those whose lives were lost. 2.  BooBear has been scarce around the house for most of the month of August and the early days of

What a Fun and Busy Weekend!

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We’ve had a fun but busy weekend to celebrate a four day Labor Day Holiday break.  Honeybear took Friday off so that we had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Friday was game day and we got to try out some new games we recently received from USAopoly: Tapple, and Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game. You’ll have to wait until the end of the month for my full review but I’m telling you we laughed and we laughed and we had fun. Over the weekend we also played some games we’ve had for awhile.  We always give the girls at least one game every Christmas.  Supergirl loves playing Yahtzee! but she especially loves the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who edition which btw, I discovered is also from USAopoly! Supergirl loves any dice game though but Yahtzee! and Farkle are her favorites.  She and I played Yahtzee! just the two of us and she won! While Supergirl and I tried to collect full houses made of 3 Weeping Angels and 2 Daleks, Daddy and Tailorbear tackled Sauron.  We have this Lord of the Rin

Learning while Playing ~ Mayan Mysteries Online Game {Review}

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A few years ago we had the opportunity to review Mayan Mysteries , an online from Dig-It! Games and the girls had a blast. There was just one problem.  The girls completed the game but at that time there was no resolution. The mystery was not solved. When I told them that Mayan Mysteries had been updated and that it is now complete, they were eager to play it again. Because it had been a long time since she played it, Turtlegirl decided to start over from the beginning to “refresh [her] memory.”  She had the option of picking up with the updated point or starting over. Because Turtlegirl played the game I’m going to hand this over to her so she can describe the game and tell you what she thinks! ******************************************************************** I really enjoyed playing the game. I loved the "mini-games" that helped you learn about household Mayan objects or the Mayan math system. I really wish they had included more of the story during the sites you wo