Summer's end is quickly approaching

It is really a challenge to do a weekly wrap up with so many product reviews going on around here but I have a lot of neat things to share.  I was literally twittling my thumbs last summer looking for things to do to keep busy.  This year I can barely keep up.  I've had 3 new children join my household since July 6th so I know that has a lot to do with it.  We went from consuming 1 gallon of milk in 10 days to 3 gallons in a week!  BIG adjustment and a lot of store runs but that is a story for another time.

Princess needed to recover from her 2 week leadership institute 2 weeks ago at JMU but she only got one week's rest before we I signed us all up to volunteer at a summer camp for kids.  It was only two days, 2.5 hours each and lunch was provided.  It wasn't bad and a lot of fun to work with an agency dedicated to bring great programs to underprivileged kids.

Then she started an 8 week SAT writing class through time4writing.com (review coming up in a few weeks).  Lastly, she has been attending a Math & Science camp all this week at George Washington University.  I have to drive every morning during morning rush hour to drop her off by 8:30 am then back again to pick her up by 3:30 pm.  I use the HOV lanes so I am able to get there in about 40 minutes if I don't take a wrong turn which I do every.single.day.  If anyone has ever driven in the metro DC area you understand!  The things we do for our kids.  

She has spent the week designing and constructing a bridge model.  She has tinkered with computer design software, she budgeted funds for material costs and built a mini-model to withstand weight.  It has been a great experience for her.

mini model

the final bridge

She is so tired and I feel a little sorry for her but I know it is all good practice for her.  She is using the skills we learn during the school year and putting it to work in the outside world with kids her own age.  Her one consistent response to me about her experiences this summer is "now I remember why I hate group projects!"

While Princess is all work and very little play, we spent a day at Kings Dominion.  The weather was perfect and there were no long lines.  I didn't feel bad leaving Princess behind since she went to Six Flags while at JMU without us. 

It been a good week.  Curriculum planning looms in the back of my mind but I just can't bring myself to pick up any books.  I'm praying it will just all come together when I need it to. 

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

King Alfred's English

 

King Alfred’s English by The Shorter Word Press is designed for students Grades 7-12 and Adults.  It is a relatively short book and reads much like a well written novel.  If one wants to use it as primary text for a middle or high school English course there are supplemental materials available at the publisher’s website.  The supplemental material includes chapter worksheets, unit tests, and links to online literature, articles, images, and videos. 

I used the text for my own pleasure reading.  I gleaned a lot of interesting tidbits about the English language and various cultures.  For example, did you know that the word bodacious comes from a Celtic queen who led her people in successful battles against the Roman Army?  Bodacious, meaning outlandishly bold, describes the personality of this queen.   That’s a piece of interesting trivia.

The story of the English language is a long one with many winding roads and pit stops along the way.  I had to often backtrack in my reading to understand how one path led to another.  It is a story of ancient people groups being constantly invaded by other people groups, pushed out, spreading and mixing their language and culture with the surrounding area.  Language invasion after language invasion brought with it changes that are evident in our current English language. 

There is a lot of Biblical history woven throughout the text as well with stories about the impact Christianity had on developing language.  One piece of Christian trivia included the fact that the Irish used three-leaf clovers to explain the concept of the Trinity to Christian converts.   I didn’t know that.

The publishers do not claim to teach geography but I got a nice geography lesson reading about cultures that influenced Great Britain.  Great Britain itself is an interesting story of different cultures occupying the same country.  This relatively large island has separate areas with their own distinct language and culture.  “Whenever you see distinct differences in culture between areas that are close together on a map, you can bet there are some geographical features that separate the two, something hard to cross like a wide desert or a rugged mountain range," (White, p4).

We studied the middle ages a year ago.  A lot of the historical information in the text was a review of our study.  It was really interesting to match this knowledge with the language changes occurring around this time.  In a homeschool setting, I would use this text as a supplement to a study of the middle ages.  It covers so much history of the time but focuses on the language and cultural influences that each people group brought to England.  For example when William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, ruled in England he moved many French aristocrats into government.  Consequently, French was spoken among the cultural elite.  Anyone who wanted to be anybody spoke French. The influences of this time period had lasting effects on the English language. We use such words as “a la carte,” “coif,” and “lingerie” – all words that entered the English language because of the influence of this time.
                     

My thoughts:  King Alfred’s English is a great supplement to any European history class or Language Arts program.  Because the primary focus is the evolution of the English language, it works well with a study of English Literature.  It can be purchased from an online retailer like Amazon or Rainbow Resource for as low as $14.95.

See what my "crew mates" thought of King Alfred's English here.

                                                                                                               
Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

CreateBetterWriters.com

To really wrap your mind around a curriculum one has to read it, study it, and then read it again to really get a good grasp of it.  Once I wrapped my mind around CreateBetterWriters’ program it is really simple and easy to implement.  According to CreateBetterWriters, 

“The goal of this program is to give home school parents a single writing program that can be used with multiple grade levels simultaneously. This system is so easy to manage that you can use it to teach several students at once, whether they are at different stages in their writing development or all at the same stage. It is so comprehensive that your students will enter college with outstanding writing skills.”

CreateBetterWriters intrigued me because they insist that you can use their program regardless of any writing curriculum you already use.  I have a few writing curriculums on my bookshelves but I don’t use any of them in full.  I take bits and pieces from each to teach my kids to incorporate in their writing.

Although CreateBetterWriters has several products to include the Complete Writing Program (you can find the table of contents here), we reviewed How To Write a Paragraph, How To Teach theFive-Paragraph Essay, and The Home School Writing Action Plan.  Their program is for students in Grades 3 and up.

To start I asked my students to write a paragraph about one event that happened this summer.  I found that my rising 6^th grader and rising 8^th grader have a pretty good grasp of good paragraph writing.  My challenge is restricting them to only writing 5-7 sentences for each paragraph they write.  This is especially true of my 6^th grader who I believe needs to be in a creative writing class.  Her imagination is so active that her writing lends itself to story telling.  But for academic writing the CreateBetterWriters “way” is good for honing in her tendency to ramble.  Writers need to learn all types of writing and CreateBetterWriters teaches simple paragraph writing and essay writing in a straightforward manner.  It keeps students focused – one main idea at a time throughout their writing. 

While other writing programs focus only on technique and style, CreateBetterWriters helps students to put words on the page in a meaningful way.  I like that.  I even typed out the formula outlined by CreateBetterWriters for paragraph writing and glued it on construction paper as a focal point for my students for this coming school year.   

Since my kids have the basics down it is fairly easy to expand the paragraph formula to teach writing a 5 paragraph essay to include an introductory paragraph and a closing paragraph.  The curriculum for essay writing even includes a pacing chart and detailed lesson plans so you know what skills to work on from Day 1.  You can progress at your own pace until your students master all the steps for writing an essay.  The basic format can then be tweaked to write other types of essays – persuasive, research reports, etc.  Once your student has mastered the basics you can work on the “bells and whistles” that give writing its unique style.  The appendix includes essay topics to give your student more practice, assessment sheets, and worksheets to work on the different skill areas.

My kids have had a lot of experience with writing so many of the introductory skills come easy to them.  They know how to better their writing as well with different style tricks, though I have to often remind them of that in the revision process.  We will linger on developing better introductory and closing paragraphs before venturing into some of the more advanced skills. 

The Home School Writing Action Plan helps you to see the entire plan and how all the different pieces work together.  It outlines the products and tells you which books to use when and the skills that are taught in each resource.  It also includes a Pacing Guide starting in Grade 3 and ending in Grade 12.  Many writing programs do not show you where you are going or where you will end up.  You will have no doubt with this resource. 

The Home School Writing Action Plan is $19.95 (softcover) or $15.95 (eBook)
 

 

The Complete Writing Program is $59 (softcover) or $54 (eBook) and each purchase includes a free ebook for How To Teach the Five-Paragraph Essay ($17.95 value).

How To Teach the Five-Paragraph Essay is $19.95 (softcover) or $17.95 (eBook)

 

How To Teach the Paragraph is offered as an eBook only for $7.99 or free with the Complete Writing Program or the Five-Paragraph Essay.

Of all of the writing programs I have or have looked at briefly, CreateBetterWriters is the simplest to implement!  It is so simple I have to ask myself why all programs don’t start this way.  By first teaching from the very simple building block of the paragraph, every other piece of writing builds on this block.  I will be pulling out these resources throughout our school year as my middle schoolers continue to enhance their essay writing skills.

See what my "crew mates" thought of CreateBetterWriters here.
 

 Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com

 

How does one describe what SchoolhouseTeachers.com is about?  It is hard to describe but I would describe it as a huge online learning community.  It took me a while to wrap my head around all of the resources available at the site.  The very first thing I did on the site was peruse the recipes tab where I found a recipe for zucchini fritters – shredded zucchini, shredded carrot, egg.  I made them right away as my garden has produced zucchini in abundance.  What a tasty, healthy treat.  I added a twist by adding parmesan cheese to the recipe, so much for healthy but altogether delicious.  There are many recipes to choose fun if you are looking to shake it up a bit in the kitchen.

Another one of my favorite tabs is the “SchoolhouseDailies” which includes daily grammar, writing prompts, and math drills among other things.  It is my goal to add these assignments to the beginning of my school day this fall.  I’ve seen classroom teachers do this before they start their lessons with students in the morning.  It is a great way to warm up the brain and get the mind in learning mode before the academic day begins.  I wish I could view the prompts at least a week before I actually use them but the assignments are added on a daily basis so I can not jump ahead.  Having the ability to review the lessons beforehand would be a tremendous help for planning purposes.  

 

I discovered the downloadable e-books next.  I couldn’t stop reading Turning Points as I was so encouraged reading story after story of different homeschoolers’ educational journeys.  I saw a little of myself in each story.  It was just what I needed to spur myself on as I try to get myself organized for a new year quickly approaching.  One of my favorite bible quotes from one story included, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”(Psalm 90:12).  In this journey, we all have times of doubt.  Are we doing the right thing?  Did we choose the right curriculum?  Are we missing something?  How comforting was the following quote from Natalie Crabtree, a homeschooler in Georgia, who chronicles her journey in Turning Points:

I know that God “gently lead[s] those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11), and      gentle leading does not involve panic, worry, or comparisons to other kids. God’s gentle leading and perfect timing mean I don’t have to wear myself out figuring out the best plan for each child. God is completely in control, and He prompts, directs, and guides us where He wants us and “he addeth no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22)

WOW!  How encouraging.  Perhaps I should mount this to the wall in my classroom as a gentle reminder that He has it all under control.

My next stop on the SchoolhouseTeachers site included the Pre-School Activities tab.  There are weekly activities here that extend the study of one book.  Books like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and The Button Box. I made a list of these books to check out from my public library to keep the preschooler who is temporarily at my house busy for the duration of the summer.  I don’t have a lot of experience teaching preschoolers nor am I familiar with library book titles aimed at this age group.  I am grateful someone else did the work of putting together plans for me to follow. 

One of the most popular uses of SchoolhouseTeachers.com is the lesson plan downloads for elementary, middle, and high school students.  I downloaded the middle and high school books as this is the age of my kids and found some pages very useful.  The high school planner is 401 pages long!  However, I managed to
skim each and every page.  This isn’t just a plan book.  It is a book of lists, pre-printed forms, and a book of hopes and dreams.  Anything you can think of you can put in this plan book.  I put a few forms to immediate use.  My favorite form is on p253 – the GPA form.  I haven’t seen a more straightforward form to calculate GPA.  I am also used the Volunteer Service Hours log and the Community Service Record.  You can type directly onto the pre-printed forms and save it to your hard drive.  These forms are very professional looking and will look great as an attachment to the high school portfolio or college application. 

My thoughts

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is one of many tools in the homeschooling toolbox one can pull out to add to or mix up the main plans one has in place.  It doesn’t replace the core of most of our homeschool plans – Math, Science, History, Language Arts, but it is the added stuff we need sometimes to break up the monotony of our day in and day out routine.  I believe most moms would purchase a subscription to this site for the lesson plan books alone.  I can definitely see the benefit of doing so.  It is a great way tool for recordkeeping, especially for the high school student.

From their website: Membership is yours for the first month for just $1! You’ll have full access to daily, weekly, and monthly assignments for your students and tons more material for you. Every month after the initial one, it keeps coming—new daily, weekly, and monthly lessons—all for the price of one fancy coffee ($5.95 each month).

See what my "crew mates" thought of SchoolhouseTeachers.com here.

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.

College Already?

Not yet.  Three more years to go.  However, Princess got a wonderful introduction into the culture that is college over the last 2 weeks.  She was part of the Leadership Institute at James Madison University (my alma mater).  She was busy from sun up to sun down each day and wanted nothing more than to sleep after arriving home.  The girls weren't allowed to call home the first couple of days and when she finally called, she could only talk for a few minutes.  However, she filled us in on all the details on the 2 hour drive back home.

Here is what our girl looked like the day we dropped her off.

On her very first call home she made mention of how good the food was as they ate at the college's main dining facility.  Nothing has changed about that since the mid 90's when I was there.  JMU continues to be ranked in the top10 for the best University food.  It is really good.  True to form, Princess ate the same breakfast every morning.  She knows what she likes and tends to stick with it. 

Eggs, Ham, Tater Tots, Yogurt

soft serve chocolate ice cream

Hot Dog, Mac n Cheese, Greens

My potato loving girl

my girl is not a dessert fan but she said every other girl raved over this cheesecake

The first morning back from this experience Princess commented "Oh now I have to make my own breakfast!"  Yes ma'am the ready made buffet is no longer open. 

One of the many highlights of her stay included working out at JMU's new University Recreation Center (U-REC).  Princess likes to work-out and got her chance everyday.  They didn't get to use the pool but she enjoyed the indoor track, Zumba classes, and Yoga.  If I could go to a work out facility as nice as this I would workout everyday too (uh...maybe).

 

 Indoor track

 Racquetball courts

 This facility was actually off limits but she wanted a shot of it.

 

She was not a fan of the rockwall.

Every morning the girls attended Math, History, and Creative Writing classes.  Her class assignments included business planning for a new business, mock interviews, and resume writing.  Projects included oral reports with powerpoint presentations with video inserts (great for public speaking). Math was mainly review but there were Geometry concepts introduced that Princess wasn't too familiar with.  We will be doing Geometry next year. 

The weekend between the 2 week stay the girls enjoyed a trip to Washington DC/Baltimore.  This trip included a visit to the MLK memorial, the Black Wax Museum, and a theatre trip to see the stage play Greece.  My family's favorite movie is Greece so although the play was entertaining, Princess says it falls short of the movie.  The trip ended with a visit to Six Flags America. Princess forgot her camera when she left for the trip so I have no pictures of the excursion.

Other activities during the two weeks included a cultural dinner at a local Ethiopian restaurant.  Princess couldn't understand why everyone else didn't like it because she enjoyed the food.

They volunteered at a childrens' center and a elderly care facility and of course there was plenty of time for goofying around with new friends.

 

 This program was absolutely phenomenal.  For all the activities the girls were involved in, it was a great value. It is my goal to have Princess do something like this every summer to widen her perspective and experiences. I am very pleased with this first experience.  There is a male institute as well on campus.  Both programs are a minority student initiative so if you have a student who is part of a minority population check out the Female Institute at JMU.

JMU has doubled in size since I was there.  They were building the new engineering school when I left.  There is a complete second campus there - new buildings, new outdoor recreational facilities, new dining halls.  It is absolutely phenomenal.  I have to go back just to tour this new side of the campus.  I fell in love with my alma mater all over again.  You better believe JMU will be on our list of schools to apply to in 2 years. 

Bust of James Madison

Math Essentials No-Nonsense Algebra

My 9^th grader is still working through the Algebra curriculum she started in the beginning of the school year.  Some Algebra topics were tough so we added supplemental resources to help learn the material.  I wish I had known about No-Nonsense Algebra by Math Essentials as it would have really helped with some of the topics we had difficulty with.  Unlike the primary Algebra curriculum we use, No-Nonsense Algebra is very concise and introduces concepts in a straightforward manner.  We started in Chapter 6, Polynomials, as a way to review material my daughter had just finished in her main text.  She found it easy to get through as there are approximately 20 problems in each lesson.  She completed a lesson daily.  

I will begin to assign lessons in No-Nonsense Algebra that cover topics she hasn't yet learned.  Then I will use our main text as review material.  I will definitely keep this resource around for my other children, one who will tackle Algebra in two years.  I’m not sure if I would use it as a main text as there just aren’t enough supplemental problems to work through to really flush out the concept.  However, there are final review problems included in the book but no tests.  The Algebra also includes free online access to video lessons.  We did not need these but may as we approach new material.  

Math Essentials produces many other books that cover other math topics - Fractions, Decimals & Percents, Geometry, Problem Solving, Whole Numbers and Integers. 

The website also touts an unconditional money back guarantee  It states to "use Rick Fisher's Mastering Essential Math Skills for 20 minutes a day as directed. If you don't see what you feel are dramatically improved math test scores, send us a note saying so. You'll receive a prompt, complete refund - no questions asked!"  With a guarantee like that, you really have nothing to lose if you use their products.

This from their website:

Free Online Access to Video Lessons!
1-10 copies $27.95 (Book and Online Videos)
11 or more copies $25.95

AS AN INTRODUCTORY OFFER, EACH SET WILL COME WITH A FREE A+ MATH KIT. (A $4.99 VALUE)

Prices for their other products can be found here.

Go here to find out what my "crew mates" thought of Math Essentials.

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.

Hewitt Homeschooling

For those of us who like a well drawn out curriculum plan with schedules, Lightning Literature is a great choice.  I love the no nonsense way this curriculum is laid out and structured.  Hewitt Homeschooling Resources has taken the guess work out of executing a college prep literature and composition program. 

The complete curriculum includes a student’s guide, teacher’s guide, and the novels that are assigned for study.  The novels are classics so you may already own them or can use the library to save money. 

There are several guides available but we reviewed the American Literature: Early-Mid 19^th Century guide. 

This guide focuses on different literary devices to include the Autobiography using the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; Rhyme and Meter in Poetry using the poetry of Washington Irving, William C. Bryant, Edgar A. Poe, and Henry W. Longfellow; Persuasive Writing based on Life of Frederick Douglass; and Character Development in Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  I like this approach to literary analysis focused on classics that every high school student should have exposure to.  Subsequent guides focus on different aspects of literature.  The course can be taught in one semester.  However, we are expanding the study to a one year study.  Schedules are provided in the Appendix of the guide so your student will know exactly what to do each week to complete the study within a semester or academic year.  I’m grateful to Hewitt for providing this option.  My student looks at her guide and knows exactly how many chapters to read for the day and what worksheets to complete.  I try to read along with her so that we can discuss the books but I’m usually behind. 

My thoughts:

The guide is broken into 4 units with 2 lessons in each unit.  Each lesson focuses on one author’s work complete with comprehension questions and plenty of writing exercises to choose from for each unit.  I am using this curriculum with a 10^th grader so I expect weekly writing assignments.  Based on the 36 week yearly schedule my high school student will be writing three papers every 9 weeks.  However, comprehension questions are scheduled weekly.  My one and only criticism of this curriculum is the spacing of the writing assignments.  Ideally for a 10^th grader I would like to see papers written weekly or at the very least bi-weekly.  There are some units where writing isn’t scheduled for 6 weeks.  During this time the student is focused on reading and answering comprehension questions.  This is where I may have to do some tweaking to see if I can spread out the writing assignments to suit my taste.     

I can see my family using many of Hewitt’s guides after we complete this guide.  We’ve already used the 7^th grade Junior High guide and my 5^th and 7^th grade kids loved it.  As homeschoolers we tend to focus on the study of classic literature but poetry is tricky to work in the rotation.  I am thankful that Hewitt weaves this into their guides for a well rounded study of literature for a year.  I highly recommend it to families needing a structured, scheduled plan for the study of literature and composition.

The Lightning Literature and Composition Pack which includes the Student's Guide, Teacher's Guide, and the four books the student is to read sells for $46.56.

Separately, the Student Guide is sold for $29.95 and the Teacher’s Guide is $2.95.

I find the Teacher’s Guide is very helpful with rubrics for grading the student’s work.  

To see what other Schoolhouse Crew Members thought about various Hewitt Homeschooling products, check here 

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.