You are hereFeed aggregator / Categories / Planet Home Education

Planet Home Education

TOS Review ~ Spelling City Review

Confessions of a Homeschooler - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 19:23

I was so excited to review Spelling City for the TOS Crew! We have used it in the past, and now we got to take advantage of the Full Subscription!

What is Spelling City? It’s an online spelling program that lets you teach spelling, vocabulary and word meaning through interactive online games, tests, and worksheets. You can customize weekly lists for your students then print worksheets, lists, play teaching games, even give practice and final tests.

While Spelling City offers most of their services for free, with the subscription you get some helpful extras such as:

Automatic test grading
Student activity tracking
Saved Lists for each student
Wrong Words List (Keeps track of misspelled words for students so you know what to work on)
Access to SpeedySpeller and LetterFall (Premium Games)
Telephone Support

What’s the cost? For a family of 5 it is $24.99

Things I like about Spelling City free version:

You can enter your own list, then get games, tests, and teaching tools for it!
You can use their lists and ideas!
Share lists with other homeschoolers
Online Games and tests
Printable Worksheets

Our thoughts on Spelling City? If you’re looking for a fun interactive way to help your students with their spelling, this is it! The online games are super fun, and I like that it takes something that can be sort of boring and gives it a fun spin to help keep kids interested and learning. If you haven’t stopped by to check it out yet, I highly recommend it!

Spelling City also offers several resources such as:

Click here to see what other TOS Crew members think!

Disclosure: I am member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. Spelling City provided me with a free subscription to its premium subscription to review on my blog. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Preschool Corner ~ Slow Going

Homeschool Creations - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 19:00

I almost got online earlier this week to tell you that I was about ready to throw everything out the window preschool-wise and just let Kaleb run around all crazy-like and watch t.v. forever and ever. Amen.

And until about mid-day Wednesday I just wanted to cry. Every single thing that I asked Kaleb to do resulted in crying, whining, fussing, more whining…and then a certain Mommy was in a non-too-happy mood because of said behavior. Everything I want to do with him ~ he thinks is for babies.

{sigh}

In his defense, he still isn’t feeling quite ‘right’…but right before lunch time on Wednesday he finally started getting a teensy bit excited and wanted to do something school-related {read a book with me and do a puzzle}. Our biggest problem is he wants to do what the big kids are doing…and there is really no way that he can participate in many of the things they are doing. Every

{Have I encouraged you enough yet???}

Thursday he actually participated in our morning calendar and I didn’t hear any complaining from him, so apparently we’re starting to get a little something going. He really does like the new telling time printable on our calendar and morning board {even though he can’t tell time yet} but if he wants to try to work on it, that’s ok with me!

Did you week go any more smoothly? :)

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Be sure to visit our sponsors!

All About Spelling: The multisensory spelling program that works!

Easy Lunch Boxes ~ Pack lunches fast…without wasting time, money, paper, or plastic!

Categories: Planet Home Education

TOS Review: Time4Writing.com

Lynnae McCoy - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 16:31

HSCrew140x180 When people ask me what the most difficult part of teaching my children at home, I always answer language arts. Grammar is pretty straightforward, but teaching writing scares me sometimes. It’s so subjective.

For this reason, I was excited to have the opportunity to review Time4Writing. Time 4 Writing is an online writing course for children in elementary grades through high school.

How it Works

HowT4W-Works2

When you sign your child up for a Time4Writing course, you will be assigned a teacher, who will guide your children through the course. If you don’t know where to place your child, there are guidelines to help you. And if you get started in a course and realize it’s not the right fit, you may change courses within the first 14 days.

Time4Writing also offers a satisfaction guarantee. If you decide the program will not work for you, contact the company within the first 14 days for a refund.

Course selections include (for a full list, check the Time4Writing website):

Elementary School Grammar
Elementary School Essays
Middle School Basic Writing Mechanics
Middle School Advanced Essay
High School Paragraphs
High School Essay Writing

Each course is 8 weeks. Children read the instructions or listen to audio instructions and then complete the assignment. Some assignments, like multiple choice quizzes are graded right away. Writing assignments are submitted to the teacher for grading. It’s very straightforward.

My Experience

At the beginning of August, I signed Stargirl up for the Middle School Essay course. We were scheduled to leave on vacation a couple of weeks after signing up, so I emailed Time4Writing to request a one week extension of the 8 week course, and they quickly approved.

welcome_essay

It hardly took any time for Stargirl to figure out what she needed to do. The first thing she did was update her profile with her picture. Apparently that’s important for tween girls.

The assignment instructions were easy to understand, and Stargirl was able to do most of the assignments without any help from me. When she submitted a writing assignment for grading, her teacher always got back to her within 24 hours, except on the weekends. The teacher’s comments were always helpful, too.

Each time the teacher graded the assignment, I received an email, so I could log in and check Stargirl’s progress. Of course, parents can always log in to check on their student, but it was nice to get an email reminder.

My daughter is not a fan of computer work, so I can’t say she loved the course. As a 12 year old, though, some of the writing topics, such as “The Most Disgusting Meal,” appealed to her.

The Nitty Gritty on Time4Writing

The Pros

Variety of courses from which to choose
Great for parents intimidated by teaching writing
Straightforward instructions and assignments
Written and audio instructions appeal to both the visual and auditory learner
Teacher feedback is quick and helpful
Low time commitment for parent

The Cons

The course must be finished in 8 weeks (or 9 if you arrange for the extra week ahead of time).
Cost of $99 per course might be a problem for some
Very hands off for the parent who likes to be hands on

My Overall Opinion

This course wasn’t a great fit for my family, but I can see it’s appeal for other families. Through reviewing this course, I learned that I prefer to be more involved in my daughter’s learning, even if teaching writing intimidates me. That’s my personal preference. For parents who are trying to homeschool, but have limited time to teach, Time4Writing might be a great solution for teaching writing.

We aren’t going to be able to finish the course, as we had so much going on in August, Stargirl got behind. I recommend that anyone signing up for the course make sure they have the time to commit to it for 8 weeks.

Time4Writing Facts

Website: www.time4writing.com
Cost: $99 per 8 week course
Age Level: Elementary through High School
Time4Writing is run by the same company that runs Time4Learning

To see what the rest of the TOS Crew thought, check out the TOS Crew Blog!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Spelling City review

Serenades and Solace - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 14:30

My children have had limited access to internet play time as a general rule. If they've ever wanted to play a game on the computer, it's either been through the library or a disc I've purchased. However, we've been given a wonderful opportunity to try out an online spelling site through The Old Schoolhouse review team, and it's time to let you all know how we've done with it!

Spelling City is an online resource to help encourage children to learn their spelling, definitions and uses. It also offer teaching resources such as Dolch words, compound words, literature based word lists, and homophones.

Once you have selected your word list, you can choose to select "Teach Me". A real person will pronounce the word, spell it and then put it into a sentence for you. It's the same for the "Test Me" section.

Spelling City is as simple as you like for free, or get more creative and explore the Premium Membership for $24.99U.S. We have had access to the Premium Membership, which allowed me to enter the children's names and then track their progress with words used, and those where spelling problems existed. We also had access to premium games. For a complete view of what the Premium Membership offers, have a look at this page. (*I've been informed that the Premium Membership will be upgraded to included more wonderful features to help with vocabulary and phonics.)

The children enjoyed using this site. The games for Mariposa's age level were pretty much right on par with where she was at for this time, although she did find the typing of sentences tricky, having not learnt any keyboard skills yet. She could practice the week's spelling words in various forms of games. "Hang Mouse" was one of her favourites; although she would sometimes deliberately type a word incorrectly to see what would happen to poor mousie! ☺

The newer parts of the site called "Student Writing Practice" and "Paragraph Writing Practice" are more suitable for Maestro, as it would be also for older children. Of course, this would mean more time and proficiency using the keyboard, so keep that in mind. I can see this being a really good tool for further work in vocabulary building, especially in science and literature.

If I had even younger children just beginning to learn spelling, then the "Beginning Spelling Lists" using phonics would be ideal.

Should you feel a little lost navigating the site, they do offer training videos for teachers and parents. I found these to be very clear, so you needn't feel unsure exploring the site with this information.

Once signed up to the site, some encouraging emails will be sent through to you. They want to know if you're having any troubles, so wonderful customer service is a plus. Newsletters are also sent out with any news on additional coming features (see * above).

NB - I received this item from TOS for the purpose of review. There is no other compensation and the opinions are my own. Thank you to TOS and Spelling City for the use of this product. If you'd like to read further reviews on this product, please click on the icon below.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

My boring life?

Oh Peaceful Day - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 08:42

Hello.

Remember me? I used to blog here on a daily basis once.

It is now one week since my computer died. I have a whole camera full of photos to show you and I can't download them. There are posts hiding in those pictures about cooking, crochet, dance, gardening, books, homeschool and family. They're posts about the minutiae of my ordinary domestic life. And you know that's what I like to talk to you about most - the boring stuff - the stability of the daily rhythms of my Peaceful Life in the country. Somehow without those photos I just can't get inspired to write. The old clunky laptop doesn't help much either. And so I've been silent.

Only it hasn't really been an ordinary peaceful boring week. There's been lots happening - good, bad and ugly - and so I thought I would drop in sans photos to update you on what's been going on around here. For what that's worth.

Perhaps you've all left me anyhow - for more exciting places - blogs where something happens. Blogs about lives that are not boring. Perhaps, but I hope not. I'd hate not hearing from you all, and if I don't blog nobody comments and I pine. Anyhow it hasn't been boring this week at any rate, so at least today you'll have something to read about, even if you can't see the pictures. For those you'll have to be patient. Which is something I'm not feeling at all.

This week:

The computer, the oven, the sandwich maker and the vacuum cleaner have all died. Now to be honest, having no vacuum cleaner doesn't worry me unduly, but having no oven does. Especially since it decided to die halfway through baking a loaf of bread. This is bad.
Also bad is the fact that the smoke alarm battery decided to start beeping its 'getting flat' alarm at 2 o'clock this morning. Why does this always happen in the middle of the night? Are they programmed at the factory to do this?
Jemimah decided that this was the week to purge her room of all toys that she has outgrown or tired of. The tidy room is sublimely good; the heap of toys that she has haphazardly piled on the laundry floor for me to sort into opp shop/bin/family piles is bad.
My Treloar rose order arrived in the post and I have planted out 11 Abraham Darby along the front fence and 6 Felicia along the fence in the English garden along with sundry other varieties in other places. This is decidedly good.
I have begun pruning the 100s of older roses. You may remember that this is a task that I loved doing with my dear Dad, so this job has been decidedly bittersweet. Lots of tears because he's not here with me, but lots of great memories too. I am determined to do a job that he would be proud of.
Jemimah danced in her Jazz Ballet concert and looked beautiful. You will need to wait for pictures of this. She looked beautiful and the dancers were great. This was really good.
My dear Mum came to stay last weekend to watch Jemimah dance. This was wonderfully fantastic, of course.
Our older daughter - the one I don't blog about - was rushed to hospital with meningitis. This was very terrible.
The diagnosis turned out to be the viral type of the illness which is much milder and rarely fatal, rather than bacterial meningitis, which has a terrible prognosis, and she is now back home nursing a bad viral illness but otherwise unscathed. This is a wonderful answer to prayer.
We celebrated the 60th birthday of one of our homegroup members with cake and singing prior to our study of the wonderful word hesed, as part of our study of Jonah. This was good.
We ate chicken curry served with Thai sweet and sour vegetables with friends. The bok choy, broccoli, coriander, tomatoes and lemongrass were harvested from our own Kitchen Garden. This was good.
The freesias are flowering and I have lovely little scented bouquets through the house. This is lovely!
I have mastered the Ripple, and my ripply blanket of cuddly goodness is now about a foot long. I can't wait to show you this. I do hope you will ooh and aah over it with me. This is frivolously fun.
Grannie is not yet finished. I am not liking the sewing in of all those hundreds of ends one little bit. This is bad. We are using her though, and she is beautifully warm and cuddly, despite being rather hairy, so this is a good thing.
Literacy Lava 6 was published. This is definitely good. You can get your copy by clicking on the button in my right sidebar there. Can you see it? That's it above 'your say'. Nobody has told me what they thought of my article on travel with kids. That is bad. Or maybe it is my article that is bad and you're too polite to say. That is possible.
My sister accompanied hubby and me to the current Australian Ballet production, Edge of Night. I love the ballet, I love my husband, and I love spending time with my sister. All good.
One of my bloggy friends booked flights for her family to come and stay with us in December. This is absolutely wonderful!
Hubby has developed tennis elbow. This is bad.
I have mastered the art of no-knead bread. I will share this with you when I can show you the pics, but I am so proud of myself. This is yummily good.
Last but not least, we have booked a holiday to Bali and Moyo Island in Indonesia. We will be leaving next weekend, and will be away two weeks. I will leave you to decide which word best describes this announcement for yourselves, but I'll give you a hint - it is definitely not ugly.

See? Not boring this week at all. I wonder what next week will bring.

Thanks for reading.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

One Torah for All

Journeying in the Wilderness - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 07:26

Report This Post

Categories: Planet Home Education

HSB now has a CSS EDITOR! Click the “read more” link to read about these great announcements!

Homeschool Blogger - Kristen Hamilton - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 05:31

HSB now has a CSS EDITOR! Click the “read more” link to read about these great announcements! First, the ticket issue has been fixed! If you need technical support, submit a ticket or email us at: hsbadmin@homeschoolblogger.com. Second, the site may be down(off and on) throughout the week due to system upgrades. One of these system upgrades we’re very excited about is our new CSS EDITOR found under “Appearance” in your dashboard. This is just a taste of what’s to come. We are working on some other great features for the template editor- so stay tuned! Third, The Old Schoolhouse has some amazing specials going on right now in their store. Take a look at: http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/

Lastly, take a look at and sign up for HomeschoolBlogger’s FREE classes! We have several webinars coming up- don’t miss one! http://homeschoolblogger.com/webinar/

Categories: Planet Home Education

Homeschool Handbook Featured Me!

Confessions of a Homeschooler - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 05:05

The Homeschool Handbook has posted their premiere issue online for free, and Confessions of a Homeschooler is featured! Yay! The magazine is full of great ideas, inspiration and homeschooling help! If you haven’t already seen it, go check it out for yourself!

{uhem}…I’m on page 29 if you’re interested ;o)

If you don’t like reading things on your computer you can click the "Download" button at the top of the screen, you have to sign up for a free issuu account, and download the PDF file to your computer. You could even save it, frame it and hang it on your wall if you wanted to ;o)

Thanks Maureen for reading my blog and featuring me in your awesome homeschool resource! If you haven’t signed up to receive this magazine yet, visit the Homeschool Handbook site!

Have a great day!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Marvels of Creation (Magnificent Mammals) by Buddy & Kay Davis

Reviews and Reflections - Heidi Strawser - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 03:24

Did You Know?

A camel can go without water 10 times longer than a human.

A cheetah can run up to 70 miles an hour.

25,000 sharp-pointed quills cover the porcupine.

It’s two feet long and weighs 132 pounds—the heart of a giraffe.

What an incredible design these animals have! The Master Creator made such wonderful and beautiful animals for our enjoyment!
Children and adults both will delight in this illustrated guide to birds of the world. Filled with spectacular photographs and “bird brevities”- it is great for any home or school library.

And God created…every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:21).

8 X 8 • Casebound • 80 pages

Buddy Davis is a speaker and singer/songwriter for Answers in Genesis (AiG) in Hebron, Kentucky. There he leads the “Creation Adventure” children’s workshop at AiG conferences. His easy-to understand style makes him popular with listeners of all ages and he plays a variety of acoustic and folk-style instruments.

Heidi Says . . . I previously reviewed another book from this series - Sensational Sea Creatures – here. This year, as we’re planning to study Land Mammals, I thought this book would make a great supplement to our science studies once again, and I was not disappointed.

About the Sea Creatures book, I said:

“ . . . a full-page picture (in full color) on the left hand side, and an information page on the right. In addition to the information, each page also contains a box with extra information about each creature, such as scientific name, length, weight, life span, special design features, and a “did you know?” fact. The color pictures are real photographs, and are bright and eye-catching. The information is easy to read, yet very informative and interesting.”

That same description holds true for the Magnificent Mammals book as well. Some other things that I like about this book are the fact that they don’t just share about common, everyday mammals; but, instead, include some more unfamiliar mammals such as the two-toed sloth and the echidna. The back of the book contains an appendix with sketches of each mammal’s footprint and a handy-dandy glossary of terms.

I’ve come to expect quality, educational products from Master Books and New Leaf Publishing. I can trust them to include God and Creationism, which is something I really appreciated when using books to educate my children. The very first paragraph in the introduction by the authors sums it up perfectly:

“It seems that no matter what book about wildlife we read, God isn’t even mentioned. Wildlife programs are full of indoctrination in evolution. This book erases all evolutionary concepts and gives God the glory for His creation.”

And to that I say emphatically “Amen!”

Categories: Planet Home Education

Can You Believe It?

Buckaroo Days - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 02:17

As a homeschooler, I tend to search the internet for tips and advice from the experts to make our learning experience better. The best place that I have found for all kinds of information, including curriculum help is The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine.

Right now TOS is offering a “Labor of Love” sale, because they know homeschooling is a “Labor of Love” and they want to keep you informed, encouraged, refreshed and most of all they want to remind you that you aren’t alone. Beginning August 31 to September 15, They are offering homeschoolers a one-year print subscription for only $7.95. Yes you read that right!! $7.95! If you would like the current print issue plus the one year subscription it is $12.95. I haven’t seen prices this low, so you must hurry to get this special deal. They are offering only 5000 subscriptions. So this special price may end before September 15.

Don’t miss this low price. Grab it before it’s gone. Go to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine to get yours today!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Deaf Day at the Creation Museum

Reviews and Reflections - Heidi Strawser - Fri, 03/09/2010 - 00:45

I just received the following information from the Creation Museum and thought it was worth passing on. I like seeing things like this, honoring and catering to the needs of the special needs community. Hope some of you can take advantage of this!

Next Monday (September 6) will be our first “Deaf Day” at the Creation Museum. Much of the museum’s content is deaf-friendly every day, with very visual and open-captioned videos throughout the museum—but Deaf Day is specifically focused on providing the best possible museum experience for hearing-impaired visitors.

Over twenty volunteers, including several interpreters, will staff various areas of the museum. Deaf guests and their immediate families will receive buy-one-get-one free general admission to the museum on this special day.

And, speaking of the Creation Museum . . . there’s still time left to sign up to win a copy of Charlie & Trike in the Grand Canyon Adventure here on my blog.

Categories: Planet Home Education

The best pizza…?

Closing Time - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 22:36

My husband, Phil, drove past this pizza place in another town earlier this week…

That is quite a boastful statement, one that we knew was very likely not accurate, so Phil decided to check it out the next day. The building itself did not exactly raise his confidence in their claim…

But my brave husband didn’t let that deter him! He decided to try the lunch special for just $3.99…plus $0.70 for an additional topping.

Isn’t it, um…cute? Yes, that is a normal sized fork, so you can see how big the pizza was. He said it was okay, but a far cry from the best pizza anywhere!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Nasi Goreng.

Aussie Coffee Shop - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 22:34

This recipe brings back such fond memories for me. I remember my mother making it on a regular basis when I was a teenager. I haven't ever made it for my children but was reminded of it this past week so looked up the recipe.

This is the recipe I am using. It can be found here.

Ingredients:

400g (2 cups) long-grain white rice
1 tbs vegetable or peanut oil
2 (about 275g) chicken thigh fillets, excess fat trimmed, cut into 2cm pieces
1 175g pkt shortcut bacon (Primo brand), thinly sliced crossways
5 eschalots (French shallots), thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery stick, trimmed, finely diced
200g small cooked peeled prawns
40g (3/4 cup) loosely packed finely shredded Chinese cabbage
80g bean sprouts
2 tbs bought fried shallots (Maesri brand)
2 tbs kecap manis
1 tbs soy sauce
4 eggs

Method

Cook rice in a large saucepan of salted boiling water following packet absorption instructions until tender. Drain. Spread over 2 baking trays, in a thin layer, and set aside for 2 hours to cool completely.
Heat a large wok over medium heat. Add half the oil and heat until just smoking. Add half the chicken and stir-fry, for 3 minutes or until brown and just cooked through. Transfer to a bowl and repeat with remaining chicken. Add the bacon to the wok and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until brown and crisp. Transfer to a bowl.
Add remaining oil to wok and heat until just smoking. Add the eschalots and garlic, and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until eschalots are soft. Add the carrot and celery, and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until carrot is tender. Add the prawns and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until heated through.
Return cooked chicken and bacon to the wok with cabbage, and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until cabbage wilts. Add cooled rice, bean sprouts, half the fried shallots, the kecap manis and soy sauce. Stir-fry for 2 minutes or until heated through. Transfer to a large bowl. Cover with foil to keep warm.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Crack 2 eggs into the pan and cook, uncovered, for 2 minutes or until the white sets and the yolk is almost set (for a soft yolk) or until cooked to your liking. Transfer to a plate and repeat with remaining eggs.
Spoon nasi goreng into shallow serving bowls. Top each with a fried egg and sprinkle over remaining fried shallots. Serve immediately.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Review: Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, Grade 4

Weird Unsocialised Homeschoolers - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 21:30

If you've hung around here for awhile, you know it's no secret that my family loves Easy Grammar and Daily Grams. You can read my review of the Ultimate Series, as well as a comparison of Easy Grammar and First Language Lessons. The folks at Easy Grammar recently sent me the fourth grade level of Easy Grammar and Daily Grams to review and, of course, we love them, too!

Because I'm so vocal about the fact that we're huge fans, I get a lot of questions about Easy Grammar and Daily Grams. For that reason, I'd like to do this review in a Q&A format. Please realize that I am answering these questions from my own personal experience, not as an official spokesperson for Easy Grammar and Daily Grams.

Do you have to use Easy Grammar and Daily Grams together? It's not required that you do. Both can be used independently of the other, but they combine to make a comprehensive grammar program for kids in grades 3-7, with additional books set up in the Daily Grams style for grades 2 and 8-12. We have loved all of the books in the series, but I was especially fond of the second grade book. It was perfect for my kids, both in lesson length and scope and sequence, when they were that age.

Easy Grammar provides the actual teaching text, while Daily Grams provide daily 5-10 minute review sheets that help reinforce and cement concepts learned. Both texts use a cyclical style of learning that helps students master and retain concepts such as:

Punctuation
Capitalization
Parts of speech
Subject/verb agreement

Each Easy Grammar level begins by having students memorize a list of prepositions -- in the fourth grade text, the list increases to 40. Then, students learn to find and cross out the prepositional phrase, making it easier to identify the subject and verb. Students spend time learning about individual parts of speech, such as pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives. There are also two complete sections dedicated to punctuation and capitalization.

My child hasn't used Easy Grammar and Daily Grams before; on what level should we start? Because all of the grade levels have the same basic information, taught in a cyclical style to help students achieve mastery, I suggest starting at whatever your child's grade level happens to be. Each level simply increases in complexity and builds on basic concepts, which are reviewed at each level. An exception to this suggestion is if you have a child in 8th grade or above. In that case, I would use with Easy Grammar Plus, which is the final installment in the Easy Grammar series and was written for middle school through adult users.

Do I need both the teacher and student versions of the books? Not necessarily. The teacher's versions of both Easy Grammar and Daily Grams contain both the answer key and reproducible student pages. In Easy Grammar, the student page and the answer key page are side by side, so you would need to copy the student page for your child. (To make this easy, I usually have the binding removed from the book and have it three-hole drilled so that I can place it in a binder.)

In the Daily Grams book, the answer key is in the back of the book, so photocopying isn't necessary. For both books, a non-reproducible student book is available for your convenience. It's often less expensive to buy the student book, rather than doing all that copying, especially if you have multiple students. I like having the answer keys for quicker grading or for reference if I'm not sure of an answer...which happens more often, the older my kids get. The Easy Grammar teacher edition is $27.95; the student text is $13.95. The Daily Grams teacher edition is $24.95, while the student text is $12.95.

Easy Grammar and Daily Grams are one part of our homeschool day that my kids never complain about. As a matter of fact, Brianna actually said she was a little disappointed to finish the Easy Grammar series because she enjoyed doing it. She's still doing the Ultimate Series books, of course. To me, there's not a better endorsement for a grammar program than kids who love grammar. It does their grammar geek mama's heart good to hear them say it. The only complaint I've heard about Easy Grammar 4 was from Josh: the book is pink. Hey, if that's the worst thing he's got to say about it, we're good.

I received these products free for the purpose of reviewing them. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Expedition Earth Winners

Spell Out Loud - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 21:30

I'm thrilled that so many people were interested in Erica's curriculum! I offered a challenge that if we had 100 entries I would also offer another set of the curriculum. Well we had 137 entries! So here are the two winners picked by random.org:

Ticia said... I'd love to learn about England.
Cheryl said... What a great giveaway! Thank you! My son just started karate and would like to learn about Japan.

If you didn't win and are still interested, you can pick up Erica's curriculum here:
Expedition Earth: A Journey Through God’s World

$ 15 ~ Instant Download - No Waiting!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Link Up - History

The Homeschool Village - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 20:30

Link up your History! Share your post when did you 1st hear about homeschooling and what was your reaction? Did you have a mentor to help you get started?
** please keep in mind - this is not a why homeschooling debate but rather a when you came across homeschooling post!! We are an uplifting community who desires to encourage others. Please do not use this opportunity to bash the public school system, teachers, and/or students. Thank You!! Guidelines are available and highly encouraged!
If you have an older post that shares the when you "met" homeschooling - feel free to link to it.

Next Week we're shifting gears and turning the spotlight on dads and their roles in homeschooling!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Mongolian Beef & Broccoli

Confessions of a Homeschooler - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 19:43

I found this great recipe on Hon What’s For Dinner. It’s the PF Chang’s Mongolian Beef recipe, but I added broccoli instead of green onions. The meat is super tender and sweet, and everyone but my son liked it.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 tsp Ginger, minced (I used ground ginger and it was fine)
2 tbsp Garlic, chopped
1/2 cup Soy sauce
1 cup Dark brown sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1 lb Flank steak or sirloin sliced thinly
1/4 cup Cornstarch
3 Green onions sliced or 2 Cups Broccoli steamed

Directions:

Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in skillet over medium high heat until hot. Add ginger and garlic and let sizzle for 30 seconds, then add soy sauce. Gradually add the brown sugar and let it dissolve while stirring. Let the sauce come to a boil, then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Cut the flank steak into thin strips against the grain. (Tip: Meat is easier to slice when it’s partially frozen. It will thaw quickly after sliced too!) Place meat and corn starch in a bag and shake to coat the meat. Let meat sit for 10 minutes, so the cornstarch sticks to the meat.
Put 1/2 c. vegetable oil in a wok/ skillet and heat on medium-high until hot. Add the meat to the wok and brown for about 4-5 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to drain.
Clean the pan out and return meat to pan and cook on high for about 2 more minutes. Add the sauce to the pan and cook for another minute. Add the green onions or broccoli and cook for 1 minute longer.
Remove from heat and serve with rice.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Homeschool Calendar and Morning Board ~ Telling Time

Homeschool Creations - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 19:00

I was re-organizing my calendar board for the new school year and trying to get it just right when I stopped over and visited Michelle’s at Delightful Learning and got an idea for a little something to add to our board.

We have several different clocks in our house ~ from the old-fashioned chiming kind with Roman numerals to digital clocks. Michelle was putting her calendar together and made something similar, and I knew that it would help a few of our kids right now. :)

mini Judy clock In the blank area of the printable, I have a mini ‘Judy’ clock {it’s about 4.5” squarish}. I printed the time sheet off onto cardstock, laminated it and then attached the mini clock on with four velcro dots so that we can also take it off the board if we want too. So far it’s been a great addition to our morning board routine.

Here’s a look at our re-arranged calendar board. The numbers below all link to the documents/sites where you can find the printables. The board itself if a large piece of foamboard that you can pick up from either Walmart or Target for around $3.

And you can totally ignore the fact that the kids were playing with the hands on the clock…and I didn’t realize it until I was posting this picture. :) It was correct when we did it this morning!

Since all four of the kids will have different verses for Awana this year, I took the verse cards off the board and we added a few things to pray for: our President and our Compassion child.

1. Today is… This is a printable that I downloaded from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.2.

2. Days in School ~ This is a sheet that the girls use to fill in how many days we’ve been in school.

3. Make the Date ~ This is another great printable from Carisa that you can find on her Calendar page.

4. Skip Counting Charts ~ I have a plastic page protector taped to the board and can slide our skip counting charts into this slot {or another 8 1/2” x 11” sheet}.

5. What Time is It? ~ to work on both analog and digital time

6. 4x6 picture of our President and the Compassion child that we sponsor {if you have space on your board, you can sponsor a child too!}.

7. Today’s Temperature ~ This printable has two thermometers on it where we mark the indoor and the outdoor temperature.

8. Weekly Weather Graph ~ Our weekly weather graph that Kaleb and Zachary both do.

You can also see our our calendar and morning board layout from last year. Be sure to check out these other great resources/ideas for calendar and morning board printables:

~ Carisa @ 1+1+1=1…Calender page

~ Michelle @ Delightful Learning

~ Mama Jenn’s Calendar Board

Be sure to visit our sponsors!

All About Spelling: The multisensory spelling program that works!

Easy Lunch Boxes ~ Pack lunches fast…without wasting time, money, paper, or plastic!

Categories: Planet Home Education

Ecce Homo, by Domenico Feti

Ink Drips - Thu, 02/09/2010 - 13:33

Ecce Homo: Behold the Man (spoken by Pontius Pilot).

I have done this for you, what have you done for me?

Staring up at a painting in a gallery, a man in 1719 stared up at a picture of Christ. For awhile he just stood there, staring at his beloved saviour and thinking of all the torture Jesus had gone through. As he stared into the face of the painting his eyes were directed to the bottom. They read, “I have done this for you, what have you done for me?” The mans eyes filled with tears as he again looked at Jesus.
What had he done for Christ?
“My life will not be spent in idle touring and visiting.” the man whispered in determination.

What about YOUR life?

~ Meggie
This man was Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf. He went on to do many amazing things for Jesus Christ.
Is Jesus your master?

Filed under: Bible Thoughts, Do Hard Things