Monday, September 16, 2013

Here is to creating less stress with a menu plan!

I had such a stressful week last week.  I know that not having a menu plan added hugely to that! 

This week, I decided that I needed to have a menu plan.  To ease up on the everyday stresses. 

Keep in mind that I have a fairly busy life so I try and keep it simple.  No judgment please.

Everyday, we will do get your own breakfast.  Whoever is around when Tyler gets up will help him get his. 

The choices will be:

  • Cereal
  • Toast and Jam
  • Eggs/Breakfast Burritos 
  • Toaster Waffles
  • Smoothies

For Lunch we will eat together except for Wednesdays when we have co-op and eat there.  I will rotate with a helper each day to make lunch. 

Monday- Orange Chicken and Fries

Tuesday- Cheddar Potato soup and rolls

Wednesday- Sandwiches Chips (Packed Lunch)

Thursday- Fish Sticks and French Fries

Friday – Spagettios

Our Dinner plans also have to rotate around some evening plans.

Monday- Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes and green beans

Tuesday- Pork Stir Fry – Using leftover pork and rice

Wednesday- Sweet and Sour Oven Chicken, Rice and Broccoli

Thursday- Manicotti and salad.  I will pre-make the manicotti during the day.

Friday- Chicken Enchiladas, salad and refried beans.  I will also pre-make during the day.

I have high hopes that this planning ahead will pay off.  Even if I have to make another trip to the grocery store for Ricotta cheese, since I forgot it the first time.

This is linked to Menu Plan Monday


Sunday, September 15, 2013

People Keys–Student Keys Binder {A Review}

 

What we are talking about here:

Company: People Keys 

Product: Student Keys Binder

Price: $49.00

Ages 13+

 

About The Company:

People Keys is a company that has provided personality assessments for the past 25 years.  They have helped companies hire and retain people for their businesses through these personality profiles.  Using this experience they have come out with a personal development binder for students. 

About The Product:

The Student Keys Binder comes with 6 different workbooks, which when used in order build upon each other.   

  • The Personality Style Workbook
  • The Perceptual Learning Style Workbook
  • The Cognitive Thinking Style Workbook
  • The Values Style Workbook
  • The Career Choice Workbook
  • The Goal Setting Workbook

Each of the first 4 style workbooks have a short explanation, usually about 3 pages long, followed by a simple questionnaire or two, and then a more in depth explanation of all of the styles for that particular book. 

The in depth explanations include things like strengths and weaknesses of each style, as well as how to best communicate with each style. 

Below is a breakdown of each workbook.

The Personality Style Workbook is a 17 page booklet that will help you in understanding yourself. The section headings of this workbook are:

  • What are Personality Styles?
  • Why are Personality Styles Important?
  • The Personality Style Questionnaire.  Where you will take a quick 15 question timed quiz.
  • Scoring and Graphing of your personality style
  • What D.I.S.C. Measures
  • Personality Styles at a Glance
  • Personality System Overview (of all 4 D.I.S.C. styles)
  • Characteristics of Each Primary Style
  • Task Methods
  • Enhancing Communication (This really helped my son and I, as it tells you the best ways to communicate with each personality style and the ways each personality style will have difficulty understanding you.
  • And finally the Building Effecting Relationships worksheets.  (Which has the student analyze themselves and their relationships.

Perceptual Learning

The Perceptual Learning Style Workbook will help you understand how you learn. With 10 sections similar to the ones in the Personality Style Workbook, you will which of your main senses you learn best with.  There are 3 learning styles.  Once you have identified yours using this book, you will come across a Learner’s Toolbox, many Learning Exercises, as well as multiple tips for each learning style.

The Cognitive Thinking Style Workbook is a 17 page booklet where you will discover which of the 4 Cognitive Thinking Styles you are.  You start off in this book taking the profile questionnaire. Then you go right into scoring and graphing.  You get a quick glance at all 4 of the styles, then it goes into a more in-depth look at each style.  Each style will tell you where you excel and where your thinking is limited.  It also takes a look at how you work individually and in a group. This section ends with how you may improve your learning. 

The Values Style Workbook shows you why you respond differently to certain experiences than others.  After taking this quick quiz you will discover how intense each of the 4 values are for you.  Then you spend some time evaluating your own values style.  The book then moves into an overview into each of the styles as well as understanding your own values and the values of others. It ends with my favorite part.  A worksheet on developing mutual respect.

Career Choice 2The Career Choice Workbook uses the same D.I.S.C. personality style profiling as the Personality Style Workbook.  In this booklet you will be relating your answers as if you are in the modern day workforce.

Goal Setting

The Goal Setting Workbook is a goal setting and planning workbook. It has thoughtful exercises to set goals in many areas of your life, including, career, education, leisure and professional.  You learn the 7 characteristics of winners and why you need goals.  This book requires the most thought and took us the longest to complete. 

A day/week in our life:

We took one week on each of the first 5 workbooks.  We just began using them in order.  I gave my son a new workbook each Monday and told him to have it completed by Friday and to come to me with any questions.

By the first Tuesday he came to me just because he wanted to talk about it.  He wanted to talk about his personality style versus other peoples.  He was able to give a good guess as to what my personality style is.  We read and discussed the differences and saw how we could each communicate with each other better.  

Very similar situations happened each week, as he (and me too!) wanted to discuss our thoughts and what we learned. 

Our thoughts and feelings:

 

These workbooks have given me an amazing insight into my sons mind as I had no idea how differently he thought versus how I think.  No two of our styles are alike.  This has been an incredible discovery for me as we often have conflicts and I would blame certain things, circumstances or what have you, on why we would fight.  Now we both see that it is/was because we are just so different. 

I am not saying that these books solved all of our problems, however they gave us both insight into each other and have allowed us to extend grace to each other since we both now realize it’s just who each of us is.

Don’t take just my word for it, check out more reviews here:

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To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

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I am not perfect.

 

 

My house is never clean enough.

My dinners are never nutritious enough.

My kids can and do misbehave at the most inopportune times.

I get lazy.

My lawn gets to long.

My car gets messy, and the oil changes get overdue.

There is never enough money.

There is never enough time.

The “To Do List” is never ending.

I don’t know the answers to every question my kids ask.

My kids are not the smartest kids in the town.

My marriage while happy, is not perfect.

My kids stay up too late.

I am decent at planning, but horrible with the follow through.

I don’t get up early enough.

There is at least one thing I do perfectly,

I LOVE MY FAMILY. 

Perfectly.

Completely.

Totally.

Eternally.


Saturday, September 14, 2013

Logic of English Foundations A

Logic Of English is a company that offers a systematic multi- sensory approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling.

The company began as an ESL teacher and homeschooling mother gave a lecture on the basis of her common sense approach to spelling and reading.

There are 74 phonograms and 30 spelling rules that explain 98% of English words.  Once your child learns those phonograms and rules they will be able to spell and read most anything. 

How do you learn and teach these for yourself, you ask? 

You can use the Foundations Curriculum.

There are 4 levels.

  • Level A teaches reading and comprehending phrases.
  • Level B teaches reading and comprehending sentences.
  • Level C teaches reading and comprehending paragraphs.
  • Level D will have your child independently reading 2nd grade books.

 

If your child is between 4-8, then they are ready for Foundations A.

Foundations A will teach them phonemic awareness, how to read and write lowercase letters a-z.  Students will also begin to decode short vowel words and constant blends.

All these activities are taught through games and activities to make learning FUN! 

Foundations A comes with:

  • 40 Lessons plus 8 assessments and review lessons
  • 6 Student readers which develop true reading comprehension skills as opposed to the typical readers at this level which encourage students to “picture read”
  • 22 Phonemic Awareness Games
  • 28 Phonogram Games
  • 10 Reading Comprehension Games
  • 2 High Frequency Word Games

The above set sales for $88 and is used throughout all levels of Foundations. 

  • Teachers manual  $38
  • Student workbook (your choice between manuscript and cursive) $18

Try out a sample of the first 3 chapters.

Teachers manual sample.

Student workbook sample.

Once your student completes all the Foundations levels then they move into Essentials.

If your child is 8 and up. (All the way to adult)

Then there is no need to start in Foundations, Essentials is right for you.

Read what others had to say about Foundations, Essentials and some other Logic of English Products.

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To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Time 4 Learning ~ A Review of Online Learning

 

 

The product:

Time 4 Learning is an online learning environment for ages pre-k up to High School level.  It can be used as homeschool curriculum, afterschool curriculum, summer use schooling, or even just tutoring.   It can be used as a supplement or complete curriculum.  Ease of record keeping is an added bonus.

They offer Language Arts, Math, Learn to Read, Science and Social Studies as well as Language Arts Extensions.

We signed up for the 3rd grade level.  Since you get access to the level below and the level above your chosen level, we had access to 2nd grade, 3rd grade and 4th grade level work. 

subjects are organized into chapters composed of interactive lessons, printable worksheets, quizzes and tests. children are guided through the activities at their own pace by an automated system.

Your child(ren) get their own log in and the parent gets their own.  The parent has access to many aspects of the program, such as records, scores, upcoming activities and more.

parent account

 

scope and sequence

 

They also offer an active parent forum, where you can connect with other parents and families using Time 4 Learning.  I did head into the parent forum to ask a question about scheduling and was pleased to find that it had already been asked and answered by a moderator.

 kid gatekeeper

When your student logs into their account they are greeted with options as to which subject they would like to work on.  Each subject has chapters and subchapters and sometimes even sub-sub chapters, which is where the lessons actually are.  They click through to see how much they have done and to see how much they have left to do. 

One concern I had was that it was too much online time.  This can be the case if you don’t use the resources they provide as in printable worksheets and suggestions to go get some items.  For instance, for the very first science lesson we had to get some household items, such as a ruler and a thermometer and more to show different types of instruments that scientists use.  In the parent account there is a science supply list.

Your child can also earn “play-ground time”.  Which is free time within the Time 4 Learning website.  The “play-ground” is full of basic fun and entertaining games.  You set up the amount of time a student has to work to earn the “play-ground” time as well as how long they get to play.

Our Story with it:

Due to my daughter not reading at your typical 3rd graders level, we moved quite a few of the lessons down to the 2nd grade level.  In 2nd grade the system reads to you much more than at the 3rd grade level. 

I printed out a weekly plan at the beginning of each week and I also went in and preprinted any worksheets/ flashcards, etc. she would be using for the week.

Then I would put the list where she could see it and I let her choose which subject to do each day.  Within the subject she had to go in order of the plan. (See a picture example of the plan below).  This way she knew when to do a worksheet and how close she was to being done with the week.

math

The curriculum changes between some games and some basic listening, reading, trying for the lessons.  This way your child is learning more than one way.

Like I said above, the curriculum is not completely online. There are worksheets and games that go along with it.

  One of the science lessons we did had her watching some fun stories and then doing a simple worksheet of the life cycle. PC022053

One of the Language Arts Extensions had us print off some flashcards and do different activities with them.  There were also some worksheets to go along with them.

PC022054

 

What we thought:

First of all, my daughter loves computer learning.  I mean LOVES IT! She has used Time 4 Learning in the past at the younger levels, so we kind of knew what to expect as far as format goes. 

This came in very handy as I used this to keep her busy and learning while I was busy planning and preparing for our school year.  I had procrastinated (surprise, surprise) and got much further behind than I would have liked to.  So Time 4 Learning came in very handy as far as already being set up and just a log in and go type curriculum.

One thing that bothered me was that I was not able to schedule her activities online.  That function is only available for schools that are using Time 4 Learning.  The way I got around that was by printing off a weekly planner for her. PC022052I really like the flexibility to be able to work between the three grades.  As my daughter is at a much higher math level and a much lower reading level. The weekly planner only scheduled one grade.  We were able to work around this by printing both and me marking which lessons of which grade she was supposed to do that week.

 

Buy it:

Time 4 Learning comes in a monthly membership for Pre-K to 8th Grade for $19.95 per month for the first child and $14.95 for each additional student.  For High School age children it is a cost of $30 per month.

See more reviews:

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To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

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Friday, September 6, 2013

$650 Curriculum MEGA GIVEAWAY

Knowledge Quest Giveaway

 

Come one, come all.  

Step right up. 

Enter to win this MEGA GIVEAWAY

Prize List:

A Child's Geography Volume 3 with Wonders of Old Timeline Book ($59.90)

NotebookingPages.com Treasury Membership ($99.95)
Philosophy Adventure Physical set ($89.95)
Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries Intro Pack from Diana Waring ($64.95)
Writeshop Primary Level (winners choice of A, B, or C) plus Activity Pack plus You Can Write A Story ($51.85)

Raising Real Men prize package ($100) Raising Real Men Book, My Beloved and My Friend Book, A Cry From Egypt Book, Boot Camp 9-12, Hero Tales Complete set
A Journey Through Learning $50 Gift Certificate
3 Months A+ Tutorsoft ($49.95)
Lilla Rose (2 Flexi Clips) ($32.00)

See The Light (2 DVDs) ($30)

King Alfred's English and Baktar (Laurie White) ($25)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Child’s Geography Volume 3 {Review & GIVEAWAY!}

 

I was incredibly blessed to be part of the launch team for A Child’s Geography Explore the Classical World and receive a copy of this book to review. 

acgprize3

I’ll tell you what this is now our history and geography for this year!

Are your kids bored with history and geography?  Have you searched and searched and never found a fun engaging way to teach or learn history?  Do you need something that can be taught to multiple age ranges?  Something affordable, that won’t break the bank? Something with very little teacher prep? 

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions then, read on!  (If not, still read on!)

This book, written by Terri Johnson, is the 3rd in a series.  The first two books are written by Ann Voskamp and are A Child’s Geography: Explore His Earth and A Child’s Geography: Explore the Holy Land.  Neither of which we have ever used.  All 3 books are published by Knowledge QuestKQ-LOGOThey are said to all compliment each other nicely, but you do not have to make the commitment to do all of them.  They also do not have to be done in any particular order.  I can appreciate a book that stands on it’s own like this.  This book is geared toward kids in grades 1 through 6 and can be used with a few supplements for older kids.  I have primarily been using this with my 8 year old 3rd grader. 

Explore The Classical World has 15 chapters covering 11 countries.

  • Greece
  • Macedonia
  • Albania
  • Montenegro
  • Serbia
  • Bosnia
  • Herzegovina
  • Croatia
  • Slovenia
  • Italy and,
  • Malta

Each book also comes with a CD-Rom full of optional activities such as map work, prayer guides, activities and and recipes, each organized by chapter for easy to find resources. 

Each chapter is written in a conversational style with sentences like; “Let’s head back down the zigzag footpath to the port below.” You really feel like you are on vacation in the location you are learning about.  A true living book!  Not a boring bland textbook!

This is not written chronologically but rather by location. Katey has had an amazing time being able to remember what she has learned this way, feeling like she is actually there.

The pictures are stunning!  Katey fully loved the way every location was described using multiple senses.

We chose to do about 1 chapter each week.  Sometimes a chapter took more than one week.  We fully used the CD-Rom full of optional activities.

We have made mosaics, PB272043baklava, PB272044and even painted some Greek pottery.  PB272041PB272042

There are truly so many activities to choose from and the book stresses that it is not important to do them all.  Terri  wants to give you more options then you will ever need!  The recipes are simple, unique and true to the culture you are learning about.

Each chapter has two “stopping points.”  One is about the middle of the chapter and one is at the end.  At each one you are asked to take field notes.  - Katey is not a star writer and we chose to do her field notes picture style.  She drew and colored pictures about what she learned and remembered.  This took the pressure of her worrying about what to write and be willing to listen and learn. There are also some discussion questions.  I totally appreciate those as sometimes I am just not sure what to ask my kids to make sure they were listening intently and paying attention.  These are questions like; “What is a peninsula?”, “Would you like to live there?”  and “Why?” 

We have been using this book as our special one on one- no interruption school time that I try to do with each of my children.  That has made this book particularly special for us.

What a typical week of using this geography looked like for us:

We began each week on Monday reading the first half of the chapter together. Doing the discussion questions that came up.  Then she would draw a picture of her favorite part.  Tuesdays we would do one of the activities in the book, usually a craft type activity.  On Wednesdays we would read the second half of the chapter and do the discussion questions, again, she would draw in her field guide. We took Thursdays off since that is our co-op day.  On Friday’s we would make one of the suggested recipe from the CD-Rom.

Explore the Classical World is priced at $34.95 and can be purchased from Knowledge Quest. 

Change History in your home!

Oh, oh, oh!  Guess what!  I almost forgot!  You can win your very own digital {PDF} copy of this book and all the additional resources just by entering using the Rafflecopter below!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

While your at it, don’t forget to enter the Ultimate Giveaway too!  over $650 worth of Homeschool Curriculum.

 


 
 
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest opinion and review.  I am not required to give a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own and those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.
 
 


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