Today's Nugget

Ah, reality sets in. Here is the second "daily" nugget (the first one having occurred three days ago.... ::sigh::)

When I was teaching my kids phonics, I had a bit of a difficult time explaining the “wh” sound.  I mean, I “get” that it has an “h” sound in it, and a “w” sound, but it always sounded more “hw” than “wh” when I pronounced it and explained it. My daughter actually said to me that it ought to be spelled “hw”, but I didn’t know what to tell her.

This week I learned that in Old English, it WAS spelled “hw”. Sometime, when English was transitioning, “hw” was changed to “wh”, but the sound remained the same.

So, hwen English went from Old to New, some things were changed hwich affect our spelling. Let’s try to remember that hwen we are correcting our childrens’ spelling tests next time! J

Learn Something New

I've been doing so many reviews, and life has been so busy, that I haven't been posting anything that isn't a review!

And, with something I have been reading, I have begun to try to learn one new nugget of information to share with my family, so...

I thought it might be fun to have a theme, for awhile, of "Learn Something New Every Day!"  As long as I can I will try to post a new nugget each day. Life is real, so I doubt I'll be able to post every day, but I'll do my best. So, here is my first nugget.

In World War II, a new land vehicle was developed that could be transported by glider, that could go fast, was 4-wheel drive and could go over rugged terrain. It had a low profile to make it a difficult target. It included a shovel, an axe, an extra can of gas, a handy place for the driver to store his rifle.

It was called a “GP”. Over time it came to be known as a “Jeep”.

Lightning Lit & Comp, 7th Grade - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

Our homeschool is very literature based.  When I learned that Hewitt Homeschooling Lightning Lit & Comp  ("Literature and Composition") was going to be reviewed by the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I immediately went to their website to see what they are about.  My son is now in 7th grade, so I looked immediately to the 7th grade level. I was very pleased to see that Lightning Lit is a literature-based program, and I volunteered for the review. I was very pleased to do so, because many of the titles in this set line right up with the plans I have this year for JD and his literature. We have been strong in our literature coverage in the past, but weak in our composition and mechanics, so I was very interested to see what this program had to offer.

I have been aware of Hewitt Homeschooling, for twenty years, although I have never used any of their products (other than a "Scope and Sequence" decades ago). Hewitt Homeschooling originated with co-founders Carl Hewitt and a pioneer of the homeschooling, Dr. Raymond Moore, who wrote many homeschooling books that I own, with his wife Dorothy Moore.

My package from Hewitt Homeschooling arrived at the end of May. It is so beautiful! All glossy, shiny, with beautiful photography on the cover. These books are solid, in-your-hands, bound, paperback books (not e-books!).  For this review I received the following:

• Seventh Grade Literature & Composition Teacher's Guide (105 pages) (Priced at $20.00).  You can go here to see the Table of Contents, information on How to Use and Schedule, as well as a sample chapter!
• Seventh Grade Literature & Composition Student's Guide (145 pages) (Priced at $20.00) and,
• Seventh Grade Literature & Composition Workbook (162 pages) (Priced at $20.00).

To use this program, you also need to acquire (purchase, borrow, locate on-line, etc.) copies of Rikki Tikki Tavi, Tom Sawyer, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, All Creatures Great and Small, and Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children.  (You can get a complete pack with everything you need HERE for $91.73!)

Many of the titles in this Literature Plan were already in my plans for 7th Grade! This was an amazing fit to me for my upcoming school year.  And, as I looked at the schedule for how to do the program, I was pleased that the methodology largely lines right up with the pace that I like to cover our literature books.

When the materials arrived, we were in our last few "official" weeks of our school year, but I jumped right in. I wondered how this program would work with my son. Previously we have been covering our literature assignments with some narration after assignments, but with no literary analysis. I know that my son will benefit from this program, but he is often very contrary with new things that I bring in to try to enhance our homeschool... What would he think...

Well, he just loved Week 1 of Rikki Tikki Tavi! I actually slid into doing some of the work as we drove home from vacation. We had done the reading, and my son really seemed pleased with himself at being able to answer as I asked him the questions from the book, and my husband was impressed with his recollection of a reading that had occurred some time ago (as in we did not cover the questions even the same week as the reading, but rather after a lazy week of vacation, with lots of distractions that could have kept my son from remembering the story). JD actually remembered the facts of the story better than I did, and I had read it out loud to him!

During our reviewing period, we moved on into Tom Sawyer. I am just loving knowing that I am now equipping him with information he needs for his foundation as he approaches high school - the mechanics of the literature, not just the literature itself. This program goes, step by step, very methodically yet incrementally, through Plot lines, openings as a device in writing, nouns, adjectives, capitalization, use of apostrophes, graphic organizers, pronouns, antecedents, knowing and writing to your audience... There is in-depth material on poetry: rhymes, couples, limericks,  and haiku. 

After five weeks with the material, I still find that the biggest difficulty we have in our home school is that my son does not want to be told what to write, and he does not want to write what he is told. He also does not want to review what he has written and does not want to revise what he has written -- he just wants to be done with it.  This is a bull I am going to have to take by the horns this year, wrestle with, and win over, because writing skill is going to be essential to his college success. I believe that this curriculum will, this year, help me do just that. The fact that it combines the composition course with the literature materials seems just the right recipe for our family for this up-coming school year. I couldn't be happier!

Hewitt Homeschooling's Lightning Lit & Comp for Seventh Grade is a rich resource, and I am giving it a very high score for my home school.

• It is my opinion that this material is easily adapted to be used for 6th graders and 8th graders, as well as 7th graders, however for my 7th grade son it is a perfect fit.
• This program has such a variety that I think it will benefit all learning styles.
• I think this program runs most smoothly when the teacher prepares before the lesson, by pre-reading the guides and knowing what is coming up for each day's assignments.
• Each student would benefit from having their own workbook, but the other books are reusable and non-consumable. In homes with two students in the same grade, it's up to you whether to share or let each student have their own Guide.
• I did not encounter any areas in the books that I thought would be offensive to a secular homeschool. The company, itself, has religious leaning, so I do not know if all of their materials would be comfortable for a secular homeschool, but I believe 7th Grade Lit would be fine. (And, obviously, I am saying it would not offend a Christian home school.)
• I have been very impressed by this program. I will be recommending it to my friends.
• My son liked this program, and he doesn't like much. That is huge. (Later, when we start wrestling further over writing assignments, I am sure he will have a different opinion at times...)

In addition to Lightning Lit & Comp for Seventh Grade, Hewitt Homeschooling has a complete line of materials for grades K-12.  They not only carry literature packages for every grade level -- they also have programs for the various grade levels in Art and Music, Bible and Character, History and Geography, Mathematics, Science and Health, Thinking, and Vocational. If the material I reviewed is an indicator (and I'm sure it is), this is a company that I will be coming back to in the future for other materials for my home school!

DISCLAIMER:  I received, from Hewitt Homeschooling, a three-book-set of Lightning Lit & Comp for Seventh Grade at no cost. I did not receive any other compensation. I was not told what to say in my review; the opinions contained herein are my own and have not been influenced by outside forces. I love this program!

To see additional reviews of this product, and other products by Hewitt Homeschooling, please go to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog page for Hewitt Homeschooling, HERE!

This has been a Schoolhouse Crew Review! I hope you have enjoyed reading my thoughts and experiences. Please feel free to leave comments below!

Homeschooling Spanish Academy: A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

For over a year now my son has been asking me to teach him Spanish. All the while I had been trying to teach him French, which I speak, and Latin, which I was learning with him, but I felt inadequate to teach him Spanish. I kept buying different versions of Spanish courses, and had the opportunity to review a different one months ago, all with good intentions, but with very little in the way of results.
 
Then I learned that we would have the opportunity for him to take seven weekly Spanish lessons via Skype, through Homeschool Spanish Academy out of Guatamala. 

I have long been a believer that "immersion" language learning is the best method to use to teach a foreign language and to learn a foreign language. I was not having success immersing my son in Spanish largely because I did speak it myself, and it is hard to teach something you do not know.

The Homeschool Spanish Academy is a language program taught via Skype meeting. Since it uses this level of technology, the user's computer needs to be checked to make sure it meets the technology's requirements and will be fast enough. I had to have my son use my laptop, because his does not have a camera and does not have a built in microphone. My computer initially did not pass the test, but after a little tweaking and a retest, we were qualified and good to go. 

We were given a seven-week course in exchange for our review. To start, we went to the "How it Works" page and signed up for a free lesson to establish an account with a user name and a password. Before doing that, I watched couple of videos about Homeschool Spanish Academy:







By this time I was looking forward to getting started, and was convinced we would have good success. So I clicked on "Sign up now" at the top right of the page (yellow button).  The "How it Works" page tells you everything you need to get started. The instructions are there for signing up for a free lesson, testing your computer speed, packages you can choose from (different age levels, length of course, number of classes per week), how to sign up for your first class using Schedulicity, how the lessons work, and how the homework works. That's a lot of information packed into that one page! 


I signed up for an account and for a trial lesson.  Before I knew it I was receiving a telephone from Homeschool Spanish Academy "Tech Support" (who happens, also, to be the owner of the company). He walked me through the speed test and helped me get signed up for our first lesson. (Since I was a reviewer I wasn't really supposed to take a free trial lesson.) We signed up for the Middle School lessons. My son, aged 12, could have gone either Early Language or Middle School. 

Our first lesson I sat beside my son. He often has focus issues, so I didn't want him to just walk away from his lesson. I found he was not willing to answer the teacher as she asked questions -- he didn't know the answer and was afraid to say so and also afraid to say that he didn't understand or didn't know the answer. At about 30 minutes he kind of melted down and ran away from the computer, so I finished the class to learn what the homework was and what else would have been covered so I could go over it with him during the week.  I don't know why he had/has this fear, but it continued to plague us through all of these lessons.

After the first lesson, the owner, Ron Fortin, called to chat about how the class went and to answer questions. He asked if I had any suggestions of how we might change things to make the class work better for my son. Since my son had requested a male instructor and there were non, Ron offered to sit in through the class if it would help my son. He was very helpful and involved in trying to make this work for us.


During the class there had been some times when JD had not known the answer to the question asked, and I told him, or he hadn't understood the question in Spanish, so I told him in English what he had said. Ron suggested that maybe, for the next class, I should let him be alone with the teacher, so that's how we did the 2nd class. 

Second class he sat at the dining room table alone while I sat out on the deck just outside the dining room door.  He again lasted about 30 minutes and then ran to his room in tears, and I came in and finished the class so I could go over it with him later.

Third class he did better, and I hoped we would now be into a groove, but it never did really smooth out...  To the very last class that we took, my son (although learning) was resisting taking this course. ::sigh::

Later in our series of classes my son had a sick week. Ron was very understanding, allowed us to cancel and reschedule, and said rescheduling for sickness is not a problem. For other conflicts they ask for 24-48 hours notice for a class to be cancelled and rescheduled.
Homeschool Spanish Academy offers four levels of Spanish:

• Early Language (25 minutes once or twice a week);
• Middle School (50 minutes once a week);
• High School (50 minutes once a week); and
• Adult Program (50 minutes once a week).

PRICING STRUCTURE:

 This program has so many different levels and ways to take the course that I think I would bore you to tears if I listed here all the many options. You can see the pricing for the different levels by clicking the above links. For the level we were taking, Middle School, the options are 1) one student one class per week; 2) one student two classes per week; 3) two students one class per week, and 4) two students two classes per week. We were taking one class per week for one student for seven weeks.

Each week the lesson is emailed to the student/parent. I liked getting the material printed out for my son to look at during the Skype session. We always tried to open Skype with ample time before the class was to start to make sure we didn't have any unexpected glitches.

Then each class we would go over the printed materials for that week's lesson, and also go over the information for the homework the student was to complete for that week. Later, after the student completed the homework, it was to be sent to a certain email address for homework. It was then corrected and returned by someone at Homeschool Spanish Academy.  (There was at least one week when they did not correct and return my son's homework, but when I emailed them they took care of it right away.) Early Language students are assigned about 30 minutes homework per week; Middle School, High School and Adult classes are assigned about an hour's homework per week.
In my opinion, to really learn Spanish well the student should actually be doing review of the current week's lesson for at least twenty minutes daily. We were not very consistent with this, and I think my son might have been more successful with this program if we had been.

We had a recurring difficulty adjusting to the fact that the class times are posted in Mountain Time. It was difficult to get used to signing up for one time and remembering that our class was actually two hours later, being Eastern Time. One class got rescheduled somehow so that I got a reminder that the class would be at 11:30 Monday, and on HSA's end they had me down for a class at 1:30 Tuesday. We never did figure that one out... And there was at least one day when I was calling them when they didn't call me when I expected, and if I remember correctly that was because of the time difference.

The quality of the instructors and the lessons was exemplary.   I was sorry my son just couldn't work well with it. I did sit with my son through most of the classes, and studied the homework with him, and I myself did learn a lot. I think the biggest difficulty we had was getting our study time and homework done daily between the lessons.  I think the program would be better if the company could create videos (or at least audios) to be available to the paid students, that they could play, watch, and practice with between the Skype lessons. That would have helped us a lot. 

This is a little slow, but it is a video of my son doing a lesson. He thinks a long time before he finally answers a question -- maybe he was processing and not understanding the question, I'm not sure... But this is a flavor of what our classes were like:

The Spanish taught by Homeschool Spanish Academy is specific to Guatamala. If I understand correctly, the different countries and different areas have inuendos and little differences in the way the language is spoken. Not being knowledgeable about this sort of thing, that's all I can really say about it.

The customer service at Homeschool Spanish Academy was the best! I began to thing that Ron Fortran sleeps with his Skype open on his bedside table! Any time I texted him or called him, he replied almost immediately!

The Spanish teacher's were excellent, well trained, and for the most part understood our English at all times. I think any misunderstandings we had could have been largely related to Skype, and voice processing only being able to go through one way or the other. In other words, if we started talking while she was talking, I don't think she could hear us until she stopped talking, I'm not sure. 

One other suggestion I would have: Currently Homeschool Spanish Academy has only female instructors. My son would have preferred a male instructor.

Homeschool Spanish Academy did not require any additional materials to be purchased. The lessons were delivered to the student incrementally. Printing the lessons wasn't required, but was helpful. Since they were in color, that can be expensive. Also, my son thought some of the illustrations were corny-looking. I thought they were okay.

The purpose of the product Homeschool Spanish Academy provides is to teach students to converse well and with a proper accent. I believe this program is excellent for that, even though it didn't fit for my child. I think their method of teaching the pronunciations of the alphabet on the first lesson is key for this, and then the regular corrections of mispronunciations. That is what makes this program so good -- the real live person teaching the lessons.

One of the features of this program that is nice for families is that the class can be set to have more than one student participating with the instructor. I imagine it would be nice for some families if  Homeschool Spanish Academy were able to accomodate even more than two students to one instructor. I know of families with triplets or quadruplets, so it would be nice for those families if Homeschool Spanish Academy were able to let those families just have a regular group class. Of course, each student would need their own state-of-the-art computer set up with microphone, camera and Skype. It is possible that the instructors would find it too difficult to conduct such a class, but to me it seems like a good idea...

What I Liked and Didn't Like:

□  I liked the classes being one-on-one;

□  I liked the people who work for Homeschool Spanish Academy;

□  I liked working with Skype. This was new for me, using Skype.

□  I liked the challenge. I've come away having learned some Spanish, even if my son didn't. I think he probably did learn some, but I probably learned more (I probably applied myself more than he did).

□  I didn't like that there were no male instructors. I hope they can change that in the future.

□  I didn't like that there seemed to be some mistakes in the papers -- the lessons and the homework. Specifically, Lesson 1's homework asked that a raspberry's name is in Spanish, but we had never been given that information. There were some places where words (in Spanish) were randomly capitalized, and I thought they were incorrect, but not knowing the language I can't really be certain.

□  Overall, I really liked Homeschool Spanish, and my son really didn't.

□  I would definitely recommend this program to anyone, especially since they can try it for free!

DISCLAIMER:

Our family was given a 7-week course of Homeschool Spanish Academy in exchange for our review. We did not receive any other compensation. My opinions and words are my own, and are not influenced by any other factors.

This review brought to you by The Schoolhouse Review Crew. Let me know what you think! Leave me a comment!

Artist Study: MoMA

Thank you, Harmony Art Mom, for this heads-up to this link. YouTube video of every  painting on display at the Museum of Modern Art:



Caution: This slide show contains some nudes, so be aware of that before you view or let your kids view.

Today's Treat: Birth of a Giraffe

Today's treat is a video of the birth of a rare massai giraffe! 

IXL Math: A TOS Crew Review

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer! School finally done for the year... or not!

As I reached the ends of my 36-week Daily Lesson Plans for 6th Grade, I truly, this year, did not want to waste our summer. I informed my son, he would do fifteen minutes of math each day on an online website.  He groaned, but understood. 

I was very pleased when I learned I had been chosen to review IXL Math. This is a perfect fit for what I need: a program that I can use right now, immediately, to keep his math facts sharp, and a program that I can continue to use for the entire school year to help him understand the math concepts we will be learning this upcoming school year.

We had to change over from doing book work, finishing our school year, to working daily on the IXL website, but we have finally made the complete transition. Now my son is fully cranking on  IXL Math, does his daily time almost without complaining, and seems to be enjoying the site. Today he received some token awards for work completed, and he pleased! When fall arrives, I hope to transition him to doing both his daily Math lesson, and some daily time on IXL. (He does not adjust to change well...)

About IXL:

• IXL Math has links for students to do math work at levels from K to Algebra, and Geometry, Trigonometry, and other advanced topics are on their way! 
• IXL Math is currently used in 180 countries around the world! 

• IXL Math has links to state standards, so that you can see your state's standards and see how IXL Math supports and reinforces these standards.
• IXL automatically tracks student progress and displays proficiency scores in the state standards reports. These reports allow you to quickly evaluate student aptitude and identify trouble spots. I clicked on the link for my state, for my son's grade level just completed (here), and was amazed at the list of standards IXL is reinforcing and tracking on my son.
• IXL sends me a weekly report on how my son is doing. In addition, I can log into the website (as me, the parent), and access more detailed reports, to see exactly when my son worked, how long, what grade level, what math operations, etc. 
• I only had one student, but families with multiple students receive a family report.
• IXL Math has beautiful colorful pages that catch the eyes of the children and hold their attention.
• The program adapts the questions to your child's abilities, based on how they are responding to the questions they are being asked.
• IXL Math provides audio for the early learners (through first grade).

As I checked out the report on the website, I had to wade around a bit to understand how my son was doing. Like any program, there is a little learning curve. I learned that initially he was not actually doing the fifteen minutes a day, but that as time has gone by, his usage has increased without my even requiring him to work longer. That tells me that, 1) this site is now "familiar" for him and not "new", so he's not fighting me over it any more, and 2) he actually likes it, because even if something is familiar to him, he will resist doing it if he doesn't like it. I'm pleased about that.

I really liked using IXL to help my son see where he was getting things wrong. He had a particularly difficult time when it came to writing numbers out in word form. He didn’t know here to hyphenate, where to put commas, etc. After he got some problems wrong and I explained to him why his answers were wrong, he quickly adapted and began to answer correctly. It was wonderful.

In our book work this year, when he would get a problem wrong, even if I showed him how to do it correctly he would sort of shrug, and continue to get the same things wrong again and again. Using IXL, he seemed highly motivated to answer correctly just to get to that screen-shot that would say “Correct!” with a green check mark! It was wonderful!

He sometimes gets frustrated when he doesn't understand they way the question is being presented, and being stubborn he does not click on the button that will give him an explanation. I will continue to work on this, because the whole concept of having the student click on the button to get the explanation is one of the huge benefits of this programs.

Today, as I was sitting with him, he was working on decimals, and as I watched him get one wrong, I could see what he was not understanding. As soon as I explained it to him, he immediately started getting the rest of the answers correct, and he was pleased. He benefits a great deal from knowing immediately if his answer is right or wrong, and from having the explanation immediately if he got it wrong. Our daily math program in 6th grade he did not have that benefit. (I can't even tell you how many of his papers have never even been checked.... ::sigh::) Then he received several virtual awards, and he was very pleased with himself! 

My son has not done well, consistently, with programs like this one that I hoped he could work with and benefit from, so I am very pleased with how well he is doing with IXL.

Nitty Gritty Facts:

• The cost of IXL Math is graduated, based on what you want and need for your family. 

•  
• This program is also used by schools, so click HERE to see information about that as well. 
• This program does not require any teacher prep. Your student can work on any level they want to, or you can direct them to work on the level that you know is where they should be.

MY PERSONAL TAKE:

• I like the immediate and exacting correction of my son’s answers. He is benefiting from the quick feedback and adjustments and explanations.
• I like the virtual awards. I like the way the immediate feedback and awards really energize my son to do more, work hard, and learn well.
• I appreciate this company giving us such a generous opportunity to review their site, with a six-month subscription. I selfishly wish they had given us a year. I will be saving my money from book-sales with subscription renewal in mind…
• What I don’t like – has nothing to do with this company. I don’t like that we live in a culture where using the Internet is unsafe and requires such parental vigilance. ::sigh:: With every good thing there are also disadvantages.
• I have been surprised by how energized by son is by the instant feedback and virtual awards. I had to bite my tongue when my mouth almost said, “It’s just a picture of an ice cream cone!...”
• I really like that I don’t have to correct his math! And last,…
• My JD likes this one, and he hates everything!

DISCLAIMER:
I received a six-month subscription to IXL Math in exchange for my review. My opinions are my own and are sincere.
This review brought to you by The Schoolhouse Review Crew. Let me know what you think! Leave me a comment! To see more reviews by the Crew, click HERE!
 

Picture Study/Artist Study

Today I stumbled across an email that linked to a YouTube video on how to do picture study, by Sonya Shaffer. This is so excellent I never want to lose it, so I am linking it here:



Enjoy!

In Which we Try to End Strong!

I have been scurrying for a couple of weeks, trying to end when I had planned (tomorrow). The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!

My mind has been somewhat fogged, anyway, because my step-sister, who lives with us, has been ill. It appears she may have been sitting on symptoms for years, and waited until it is too late-- it is looking like stage IV breast cancer. I will find out Friday.

In the meantime, some of the subjects have been sliding. In April, I had tax issues, and my subjects that slide when I don't have time, slid... That would be nature study, artist study, and composer study. Some nature study DID get done, and I even took photos, but I haven't had time to blog about it.

So, blogging has slid as well. I've kept up with my reviews, but little else. So, here is our current effort at our home school before we can end for the summer.

BIBLE
My son finished his Awanas year strong, only to find out that he wasn't eligible for an award that he longs for. This was because he joined Awanas at the end of 4th Grade, and only has completed two books of T&T. So, after a conversation with the Awanas leader, he learned that he is allowed to complete those two books, become eligible for the award, and move on to Trek. He's been going like gangbusters on the first of those two books, and I think he is 3/4 finished after only three weeks. (This is a book that is normally done in a year! This is amazing!)

In addition, we have begun the Apologia study of the series, "What We Believe", book 3, Who is my Neighbor. He is doing this grudgingly, but today, when he saw the word search in the journal,  continued to growl (with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth), and left his Legos and disappeared to work on it. He loves word searches!

We also did the hymn, Rock of Ages:

MATH:

This year we have been working on Horizon's 6. We almost finished early, and then let the last six lessons slide, and now are scurrying to finish up. After I go over something JD needs help with, I think we are done. I think he actually already did the final test.

We are also doing (almost) daily work with IXL.com to cement facts. He also previously was using AdaptedMind.com (I had a free 30-day trial), which he really liked, and he was not happy when I switched him from that to IXL. He doesn't do well with change.

SPANISH:
We are currently working hard trying to get started in Spanish. We have a 7-week course with Homeschool Spanish Academy, which I will report on in July.  We've had a rocky time of starting with this. My son seems to expect to know stuff before he gets taught, and then gets upset when he is asked something that he doesn't know the answer to. ::sigh::

Ah! Update! We had class today, and he was doing much better! ::sigh of relief::


HISTORY:
We have actually finished all of our history assignments for the year. We have just finished AmblesideOnline.org Year 5, Term 1.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
My son has been regularly working on a Daily Grammar book, a handwriting book, and we have done writing assignments here and there. I didn't do much to work on his spelling -- he's always above grade-level on that one, so I let it slide for the time being.

LITERATURE:
Each day we finish more of our books that we have been reading from Ambleside. We finished Of Courage Undaunted, by Daugherty,last week, as well as our Isaac Newton Biography. Some of our "reads" fall under "Free Reads" instead of "Literature" by the AO schedule, but it is all the same to me. Left in our bin we are working on Little Britches, by Ralph Moody, The Little White Horse, by Goudge, and On the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald. I think we won't finish Little Britches today, but we should be finishing the other two.


GEOGRAPHY
I think we are behind the AO schedule on our reading of The Book of Marvels. I'm not sure if I will continue to work on it this summer, or just squeek it into our schedule in the fall. Our last reading was about a French citadel called Carcassonne, which we really enjoyed reading about due to our love of a game by the same name that was apparently based on the place, made by a European country. We ignorant Americans had had no idea it was an actual place!


So, Art, Music, Physical Education, Health... I wish I had more to put down for my review, but hopefully our reviewer will be content that we did enough to be marked "Compliant" for our state's requirements.


So, that's it for now. Need to get off and get on with my day. Thanks for reading.
 

TOS Crew 2011-2012 Vendor Awards!

For the 2011-2012 School Year I have had the privilege to be a reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's TOS Homeschool Crew. Each year, at the end of the year, the reviewers get to vote on the favorite and the best products of the year. The votes have been tallied and the results are in. Below are the results. For the products that I had the privilege to review, the product is linked to my review. For ones that I did not review, the product is linked to the TOS Crew Blog's Reviews page for the product. 

Favorite Reading Instruction Product:  Reading Eggs
Favorite Writing Product:  Write Shop
Favorite Language Arts Product: Progeny Press
Favorite Social Studies Product: TruthQuest History
Favorite Science Product: Amazing Science
Favorite Math Product: Math Mammoth
Favorite Online Math Product: Math Rider
Favorite Foreign Language Product: Visual Latin
Favorite Fine Arts Product: Artistic Pursuits
Favorite Christian Education Product:  Apologia: Who Am I?
~~~
Favorite Preschool Product: Before Five in a Row
Favorite Elementary Product: All About Reading
Favorite Middle School Product:  Write with WORLD
Favorite High School Product: Excellence in Literature
Favorite College or College-Prep Product:  Excellence in Literature
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Best Online Resource:  Reading Eggs
Best e-Product: Heritage History
Best Homeschool Resource: Apologia: Educating the Wholehearted Child
Best Book, Novel, or Magazine: Apologia: How to Have a HEART for Your Kids
Best Children’s Book: Amazing Animals by Design
Best Game or Toy: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything
Best Hands-On Resource: Pitsco Education
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Best Resource I Didn’t Know I Needed: eMeals
Best Customer Service: K5 Learning
Most Adaptable Resource: Creek Edge Press
Most Family-Oriented Resource: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything

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Kids’ Choice (favorite of CHILDREN ages 0-12):  Reading Eggs
Teens’ Choice (favorite per the TEENAGERS): Pitsco Education
All Around Crew Favorite: Visual Latin

Each winning vendor has received this wonderful award to display with pride:

Congratulations to the winning vendors!  TOS Crew hopes you will sail with the Crew again!