Sunday, April 30, 2017

Fun Journaling Idea Book

I asked my daughter to write a review of a new book because it was write up her alley.  These are her words...

To Moms and Teens:

Do you have a child (or are you one yourself) who loves art and language, but needs some ideas to start using their/your gifts?  If you are, then Journal Sparks by Emily K. Neuburger may be the book you need!  It combines art and writing in its ideas for journaling, fosters creativity, and inspires out of the box thinking.

Exercises include--word jars, collages, color descriptions, topic challenges, comics, observations recordings, multi-person entries, and much more!  Also, it comes wiht artsy papers and unique stickers.

But...there are some things you should know before you used this book.  First, in my opinion, no one below fifth grade should use this book.  Some fonts/font sizes would be difficult for young ages to read, and my recommended age range would be middle-high schoolers to adults.  In addition, this is not a workbook.  This si a supplement and instruction manual--a DIY guide.  It gives you ideas to begin with, but from there it is up to you.  Elementary students might struggle with it, being used to workbook formats.

Secondly, some moms may not be comfortable with a few things in the book if they have younger kids.  It contains mandalas, and a potion making idea.  My impression is that the  mandalas are intended to be pretty patterned circles, and their idea of potions is very mild, being closer to olden medieval times when potions were more herbal remedies than witchy brews.

However, if you or your child feel that the above descriptions this book would be enjoyable and useful, then by all means give it a try and I wish you fun journaling!  As for myself, I love this book and cannot wait to try some of its ideas next year.  My om gave it to me because it is perfectly suited to my interests:  I love art, writing, and am very creative.  The ideas portrayed in this book inspire me, and I like them much better than my usual writing prompts, which never allow me to draw or list new words.  If you choose to buy this book, I sincerely hope that you will enjoy it as much as I have!


Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book from Storey Books for review, but these opinions were my daughter's own opinions.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Smaller Furniture, Smaller Space

We've lived in our house for over 5 years now.  Nowadays, my goal is to fix one thing per month, but sometimes it ends up being several things in one month, like it was this month.

First, I went looking for ants under my kitchen sink and discovered water instead....which led to a visit from the plumber, a new kitchen faucet, a new outdoor faucet, and a new faucet in our bathroom.  Then, we were given some hand me down lawn furniture from our neighbor.  I was thankful for it, but wasn't sure how things would go together.  I just wanted things to match.  That led to me spray painting a black table to go with the two green chairs in the front, spray painting a table for the patio, getting a cabinet at Aldi, and another spray painting project waiting for me.  But, it also led to my patio finally having seating and looking like a patio where people gather!  Yahoo!

Then on Saturday, amidst the rain, I went garage saling.  Rain normally shuts down garage sales, but I thought I'd take a chance because the rain came on mid-morning just as I was leaving my house with my middle daughter who is a shopper and enjoys going with me.  There was a community that had a lot of garages so I took a chance and found several garage sales!  Sami and I found two baseball gloves that the girls needed to play catch for $5 (which saved me $55 and another shopping trip), a picture for our kitchen for $1, a used Vera Bradley purse/bag for my mom for $2 (which she loved), and a new Vera Bradley purse for my church bag for $2 in that neighborhood.  Sami found a really cool, fun scarf, too!  Then, we headed to a church where I found a 1950s aluminum chicken roaster with the rack in it in amazing shape.  But, my find of the day was really a table and three chairs that I found for $15.

I realized a while back that I would love to have a smaller table in our kitchen with chairs.  The table we had in it was way too large for the space and you had to squeeze by the edges to get to the back of the table.  But, it hasn't been on our radar to replace it.  Furniture can be expensive and we had something that worked--sort of.

But, when I found this table--in the rain--I asked the man how much it was.  He said $20.  I offered him $15 and he accepted my offer.  We loaded it into my van (the table and all 3 chairs) and I headed home.   When I arrived home, I waited and left it in the van.  I wasn't exactly sure how my husband was going to feel about it.  But, after a few minutes, I told him I'd bought a table and chairs.  His reaction told me that he knows how much garage saling means to me--I enjoy the treasure hunting. So, I brought the chairs and table up to the front porch and he took a look at them.

He liked them.

So, we moved our kitchen table into the school room and set up the new table, which really brings me to the point of the whole story.  We live in a house built in the 1950s.  We have no vaulted ceilings or really large rooms.  What we do have are rooms that are smaller and when we put the new table and chairs I realized something that makes sense...  Our house is older, so older style furniture fits better in it.  The new table and chairs is significantly (!) smaller than our table that we bought fifteen years ago from Cost Plus World Market--picture larger round table (even without the leaves) and larger chairs with a tall back.  The table that had been in our kitchen was designed with a modern, newly constructed home built some time between the 1990s and the present--with large rooms and tall ceilings.  It can be deceiving to see furniture in a store.  Furniture stores are huge and have very tall ceilings!  Buying a table and chairs that was built during the time period when our home was built makes sense to me now as to why it fits so much better in our kitchen than our old table.

I checked the chairs on ebay and found that they sell for about $300 each.  They are Ethan Allen (a store that I haven't ever even set foot in because I know it's expensive).  But, the chairs and the table aren't worth anymore to me because of their worth on ebay.  Their value to me is that they fit in our kitchen and I can finally walk by the table and get the pans that I store behind the table without having to squeeze by the table!  I am grateful every time I pass by the table.  But, I'm also thankful for the lessons I'm learning about choosing furniture that best fits the space it's intended for.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Finding Safe Apps... A Great Drawing App for Young Kids!

One of my friends this week got a new iphone.  She was excited that she finally had room for Target's Cartwheel app.  But, her next comment was that her kids want her to install some apps for them.  This started a conversation about kids and apps... and in-app purchases.

Over the past few years, I have resisted installing game apps on my phone and tablet because I've been so scared of accidental in-app purchases being made.  I've read so many stories on yahoo about kids accidentally racking up hundreds of dollars in fees on apps or on cell phones accidentally.  So, I've tried to find apps that I am comfortable with my kids using that I didn't have to worry about.

Recently, I had the chance to review an app for younger kids that incorporated writing and drawing.  It was developed by Evan-Moor.


The app is available via Evan-Moor's site or itunes.  It allows 4-6 year olds to trace different animals and complete fill in the word simple sentences about the pictures.  The app fits these ages best, but all three of my kids (the oldest of whom is 13 years old!) loved it.  My 13 yo is a little unusual because her primary subject interest is art.  She was able to create several projects for her siblings to trace in the program and share these with them.  

The app isn't free.  It costs $4.  But, the peace of mind of not having to deal with ads and have a great drawing app is worth it to me.  I wish this app had been around when my kids were younger!  

Often as homeschoolers, we're looking for simple rewards that motivate kids to get their work done, but are still beneficial.  This app is one of them!  The drawing portion helps kids work on their fine motor control--which can help improve handwriting.  Kids could use either a stylus or their finger to draw.  The stationary drawing screen is something I much prefer for my kids over flashing images which don't require kids to develop a steady focus.  The minimal writing and the cloze sentences would be a good reinforcement for kindergarteners and first graders.   It's a fun, easy to use app for kids.  The last thing that I loved is that I could create a separate account for each of my children and it saved their drawings.  

If you're looking for an easy to use drawing app for your kids--I'd definitely check this one out!

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this app, but that these opinions are my own.



Designing Curriculum

When one is homeschooling, there are two ways of choosing curriculum.  The first is to purchase an all-in-one curriculum.  This could be an all-in-one that integrates multiple subjects like My Father's World or Sonlight.  Or it could be an all-in-one that puts everything together for individual subjects, like Abeka, Saxon, or Christian Light.

The second way to put together curriculum is to draw from different resources.  This takes more time, but it can allow you to modify and tailor your curriculum to your child's needs and to what you want to teach.  Often this can help you save a lot of money.  I read recently on Facebook where one mom was looking for alternatives to spending a thousand dollars on curriculum for one of her children.

This second way is the way I've always put together our curriculum.  I budget around $500 per year for all three of my children together.  I purchase a lot of fiction books through the school year because our library system doesn't usually have the books my kids love, but saving money on curriculum allows me to do this.

I make a list of each subject for each child for the coming year and then go subject by subject choosing curriculum.  When I find a publisher I particularly like, then they become the place I start looking.  For grades K-6, Evan-Moor, EPS books, and Harcourt were the three publishers I looked at first.

One of the resources I've often used is books from Evan-Moor.  One example of how I've used their books is their Daily Math Practice.  I use a mastery curriculum, so my kids needed a little bit of review every day.  There are homeschool curriculums, known as spiral curriculums that switch concepts every day--like a spiral--such as Horizons, Saxon, and Abeka that build in a lot of daily review.  But, there are other popular math programs like Singapore and Harcourt that move chapter by chapter from one large concept to the next--mastery curriculum.

I've gone with Harcourt Math for grades K-6 for my kids and have loved it. Harcourt publishes consumable books for grades K-2 and then hardcover texts for grades 3-6.  I also purchased the homework book for grades 3-6 because some of my children did better if they didn't have to write the problem down and only needed to focus on doing the problems.  But, I needed some way to add some review work in every day for my kids since it is a mastery curriculum.  The Evan-Moor practice books have been my solution--give 5 problems per day, which is perfect--not too much nor too little.  They are right on grade level--with grade level appropriate instructions.  There is a mixture of math problems and word problems.

Homeschooling curriculum can add up fast and one of the ways that I've saved is by buying used public school books and purchasing the Evan-Moor books--the teacher books are reproducible, so I was able to buy one book, make two copies and store it after my first child was done, and then let my third child write in the book.  I also discovered that on the Evan-Moor website, they sell student books!  They cost far less and don't have to be copied (less work for mom!).

It's been interesting transitioning into middle school and high school math after finding such a good solution for our elementary years for my kids.   But, those comments need another post of there own...


Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Learning Greek...

When I began homeschooling, I read The Well-Trained Mind and found it's ideas of classical education very appealing.  I attempted to follow this model for two years, but found that it didn't work for my oldest daughter.  I had to step back and rethink how I was going to approach homeschooling if she and I were going to survive this journey!  In that process, I found that I am more of a standards based homeschooler who loves textbooks, because they help keep me on track and hold me accountable.  I have so many things going on in my head and in my life.  Having textbooks help my children know what to do next and works for us because I have very little time to plan lessons.

Not following a classical model of education means many things.  One of them is that I don't intentionally teach my children latin or Greek.  But, I am in a position with a local group now in which I advise several families who do follow the classical model.  I like to be aware of different curriculums that they might use and how those curriculums work.

I have a couple of books that follow this model that I'm going to be reviewing.  The first are a pair of books on teaching Greek.  Harvey Bluedorn, who's sons wrote the well known book The Fallacy Detective, wrote A Greek Alphabetarion:  A Primer for Teaching How to Read, Write, and Pronounce Ancient and Biblical Greek along with A Greek Hupogrammon:  A beginner's copybooks for the Greek Alphabet with Pronunciations.

Greek has always been a puzzle to me, a mystery that I didn't know how to decipher.  Like any language that one attempts to learn in addition to one's native tongue, learning Greek starts with learning the letters--how to pronounce them, memorizing their shapes, and learning how to write them.  The Greek Alphabetarion gives some vague directions on how to study the letters, but they are a little too vague for my liking.  This is where the Hupogrammon comes in.  I am very glad that the author wrote this second book with exercises for how to study the letters.  This book is well formatted and easy to navigate.  It walks the student through each letter and gives exercises which are simple and clear.  Together the two books make a great peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but alone they just aren't the same.

If I were learning Greek, I would consider this curriculum.  I have watched my husband teach two homeschooled high schoolers for the past two years.  He began with the alphabet of the language he was teaching, which took them quite some time, because it was completely foreign to their English letters.  So, I know that starting with the letters in this way is a good way to start with Greek.

I would recommend this curriculum to middle and high school students.  The workbook pages have large letters--so it would also be possible for a younger child to use the workbook if they have the propensity to do so.  The formatting of both books make these books much easier to use than many books I've seen.  The size of the font of a book can make a book daunting to a student if it is very small.

My only caveat is that you need to buy both books.  In the first book, Mr. Bluedorn writes about how to use the book and says that students/teachers must create exercises to go with the letters.  I would liken this approach to what I read in the first grade Horizons mathematics curriculum years ago when I read that I should "Teach the clock."  My mind spun--"How?  How do I teach the clock?"  I see Greek in the same way.  When a parent is unfamiliar with the language but desires to teach the material, more specific directions are needed--and that is where the second book comes in handy.  If you are interested in seeing a preview of these two books, you can find one on CBD.  Both Amazon and CBD sell these books, but a preview is only available on CBD.

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of these two books from Trivium Pursuit for review, but these opinions are my own.




A fun romance to read

I have to admit that I use books as an escape.  Life can overwhelm me and so I escape into books at times.  Thankfully, I read very fast and can set down a book after reading only a few pages.  But, I really enjoy a good book.

This week I started reading Irene Hannon's Hope Harbor series.  I started late in the series, but it still made sense.  I think it is a strength of a book when you can read it as a stand alone if it is in a series. Sandpiper Cove is the third book in the series.

The book begins with Adam Stone and Lexie Graham.  Adam Stone is starting life over after getting out of prison.  He came to know the Lord while in prison through a prison ministry.  But, he's a loner, struggling to trust people and believe that he could have a different life.  Lexie Graham is a single mom dealing with her own pain.  She also happens to be Hope Harbor's police chief.  The story is really a romance more than anything else.  It follows these two characters as they come to terms with who they are.

What did I like about this romance?  It wasn't graphic about the romance and I was grateful.  The author talked about the characters' struggles.  The plot moved along at a steady pace and I enjoyed the characters themselves.  They were likeable.

Did I like it?  Yes.  Am I reading the one before it the series now?

Yes, after I finished this one, I headed over the library and picked up another book from the series...

Please note that I received a copy of this book from Revell books for review--but this review contains my own opinions!

The Value Our Culture Places on Learning Foreign Languages

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a friend about homeschooling and learning foreign language.  She was asking why I thought many homeschoolers don't pursue fluency in a second language for their children.  I have noticed, as my friend has, over the years that parents and teachers have different goals when it comes to students learning foreign language.

Those goals range along a continuum from exposure, to familiarity, to basic competency, and then to varying levels of proficiency and ultimately fluency.  Even fluency in a foreign language can be rated according to different levels.  Tests have been developed to rate a person's fluency in different languages.

My husband and I do value the pursuit of fluency in a second language for our children.  I asked my husband what his thoughts were about my friend's question and he had some helpful food for thought that I want to share in this post.

He pointed out to me that in Europe and around the world, being fluent in to two languages is one of the keys to successfully getting a job as an adult.  But, in the United States, it isn't.  K-12 education is focused on preparing kids for college and getting them into college.  Many parents view sports as their children's potential ticket to a scholarship for college and they large amounts of energy into that effort.  Foreign language isn't one of those things that parents think, "This could get my kid into college."

Colleges are focused on getting students ready to enter the workforce--in the United States... not in Europe or other countries in the world.  And in the United States, being fluent in two languages is nice, but not a requirement or even needed for many jobs.

Given that we live in the United States and being fluent in two languages isn't a job requirement, why do we want our kids to pursue fluency in a second language?  What will that give our kids?  Why have we made that a priority in our homeschooling?

1.  In the past, Americans have been able to be americentric in their view of culture and language.  We live in a big country where national boundaries are not close to where many of the people live.  But, our world is increasingly connected and I believe that it will be impossible to as isolationist as we have in the past.  Learning a second language and about the culture of the countries where it i spoken breaks that mold and can help kids see a wider view of the world.

2.  Here is an article with many reasons:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html

In the end, we value our kids learning a foreign language because we believe it will enrich their lives in many ways!   Our kids enjoy learning French and I love seeing them enjoy it!