Back to Homeschool ~ our school room

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Hi there! Click on over here and visit our updated school room.
 

Create Better Writers ~ a TOS review

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Madison loves to writes short stories. In fact she has notebooks full of them and is hoping to send one into a publisher in the near future. When I heard the Review Crew was offering products from Create Better Writers I knew we wanted to try them out.

Create Better Writers offers a complete writing program or several  books and eBooks that show you just how to teach writing and grammar to your K-12 students.  We received How To Write a Paragraph, How To Teach The Five-Paragraph Essay, and The Homeschool Writing Action Plan all in eBook format to review.

How to Teach the Paragraph is the newest edition to the Create Better Writers line up and will help your 3rd grade and up student learn how to write a paragraph. By mastering one simple trick your student will have the building block to write everything from reports, essays, and stories. Writing becomes painless with this  $7.99 eBook.

“Teach students one simple trick that will help them learn the paragraph. Students will learn to organize their thoughts and write a well constructed paragraph”.

                                                                                                  ~ from the website

How To Teach The Five Paragraph Essay is  geared towards students in grades 4-12. It’s simple step-by-step plan will guide teachers and students to master the simple outline. With this eBook students learn how to organize their ideas and then write a five paragraph essay within an hour. Great for preparing for standardized testing such as the SAT/ ACT. If you can  answer  “yes” to any of the questions below you might want to check this product out.

1. Would you like to show your students how to write a strong five-paragraph essay to a timed prompt, and have them complete it in about an hour?
2. Would you like to show your students a simple format that will help them write essays from any writing domain?
3. Would you like your students to be able to write exciting introductions and conclusions?
4. Would you like a detailed lesson plan that will show you, step-by-step, how to teach the five-paragraph essay?

The eBook is available for $17.95, and a soft cover edition is also available for $19.95. This product gives your student a  great foundation for organizing and communicating their thoughts with the written word.

The Homeschool Writing Action Plan  is a complete writing program for grades 3-12. Divided into 3 sections this plan presents the sometimes tricky subject of writing in clear and uncomplicated fashion.

 

 

• Writing Action Plan Summary: The entire program laid out in 15 steps.
• Pacing Guide: Offers 3 plans for students to complete the 15 steps.
• The Road Map: Will tell you what to look for along the way.

After completing this study, your student will know how to :

• Write Strong Essays
• Write a Research Report
• Write Great Stories
• Write Intelligent Descriptive Sentences
• Increase vocabulary
• Be prepared for the SAT/ACT Writing College Exam

This eBook is available for $ 15.95 and a soft cover edition is available for $19.95.

I used this with my three older girls, the older two who are strong writers. They did not know about the trick mentioned above that is found within the eBook, and now that they do it has helped them organize their thoughts better. Mikayla worked through the How to Teach a Paragraph a bit slower as writing is not one of her favorite subjects. Overall, this is a great program if you are looking for a writing program. It hits all the basics of what you need to know and teach at an affordable price. Create Better Writers offers a free monthly newsletter that is definitely worth looking into! Check out what my fellow Crewmates thought of this product by clicking the banner below.

Company ~ Create Better Writers

Product ~ How To Write a Paragraph, How To Teach The Five-Paragraph Essay, and The Homeschool Writing Action Plan

Price ~ eBooks between $7.99 - $17.95, soft cover copies $19.95

Ages ~ 3rd  - 12th grade

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DISCLAIMER:I received 3 eBooks from Create Better Writers, in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Olympic Edition

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Back to Homeschool ~ Planning

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Welcome back to day 3 of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop where over 70 bloggers are teaming up to share how they plan there days, weeks, and years. If you missed day 1 (methods)  or day 2 (curriculum choices) you can find them by clicking the links.

First I can not believe it is August 1st! 19 more days and we will be starting our 4th year of A Stable Beginning Christian Academy, how exciting! Now, I wish I could tell you I am some kind of planning guru and I have all my lesson plans done. Well, I am not. In fact, I have only one week planned out for each of the girls. I am trying not to stress about that and know that my plans, and the 50 million other things I need to do will be done by our first day. And you know what, if they are not…then I think I will cut myself some slack and be okay with that!

If you were looking for some planning advice be sure to click on the links below and gleam some inspiration and advice from these ladies…I know I have and it has given me the inspiration I need to get things done.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for day 4 and see our classroom.

Back to Homeschool ~ Curriculum plans & GIVEAWAY

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Welcome back! On day 1 I shared with you our Homeschool method. Today it’s all about curriculum, my favorite! My plans are set and final (let’s hope so) changes have been made. Come August 20th we are ready to begin. So without further ado here is  my updated 2012 – 2013 Plan of Study. *** For some reason it is posting jumbled together, click the link above for a neater view.

Marie ~ 10th grade

Bible History, 1 cr ~ Sonlight Bible Apologetics 200

English & Composition 2, 1.5 cr

~Classics of Literature 200

~ Excellence in Literature, Honors

History of God’s Kingdom, 1 cr ~ Sonlight Core 200

Math, 1 cr ~ Teaching Textbooks Geometry

Science (Honors), 1.5 cr

~ Honors Apologia Chemistry with Red Wagon Tutorials

Foreign Language, 2 cr

~ Alpha Omega Life Pac Spanish 2

~Latin: Henle 2

Logic, 1 cr

~ Traditional Logic 1

Health, .5 cr (1st semester)

~Alpha Omega, Life Pac High School Health

Drivers Ed, .5 cr (1st semester)

Home Ec, .5 cr (2nd semester)

~ Christian Light Press Home Economics I

PE, .5 cr

~ Competitive cheerleading, 2X’s a week

PSAT/SAT/ACT prep 1 hour/day

Total credits: 11 credits

Madison ~ 6th grade

Bible/Recitations

~ Sonlight Bible G

~ morning recitations

History/Geography

~ Sonlight Core G: World History, part 1

~ notebooking, map work, outlining

Language Arts

~ Rod and Staff Grammar 6

~ Rod and Staff Spelling 7

~Writing with Skill

~ Word a Day vocabulary 6

~ reading lists

Math

~ Saxon 7/6 w/ DIVE

~ Family Math (for Middle Schoolers) Fridays

Science

~Planning my own program studying Earth Science, Chemistry, and Physics for 12 weeks. We will be using a combination of Elemental Science and Christian Kids Explore. Yes, I know this looks like a lot of science this year, but this child has requested lots of science focus because she wants to be either a chemical or mineral engineer.

Logic

~ Red Herring for Science, A1

Latin / Foreign Language

~ First Form Latin

~ Spanish 4 Children, Primer A

~ Homeschool Spanish Academy (Spring 2013)

Health

~ Sonlight Health, Medicine, and Human Anatomy

Art

~ World’s Greatest Artist ( picture study/art projects), 1 hr week

Music

~World’s Greatest Composers Vol. 1

PE

Level 6 gymnastics team 22+ hours/week

Mikayla ~ 4th grade

Bible/Recitations

~ Sonlight Bible D

~ morning recitations

History/Geography

~ Sonlight Core D ~ Intro to American History, part 1 (notebooking what we read)

~ Road Trip USA (over 2 years)

Language Arts

~ Rod and Staff Grammar 4

~ Rod and Staff Spelling 4

~WWE 3 or ???? (still trying to figure this one out)

~ Word a Day vocabulary 4

~ A Reason for Handwriting, book D

~ reading lists

Math

~ Saxon 5/4 w/ DIVE (pick up where we stopped)

~ CapJaxMathFacts

~ Family Math Fridays

Science

~ Otter’s Elementary Science: The Human Body

Latin

~ First Form Latin

Health

~ Rod and Staff Happy Health Habits

Art

~ World’s Greatest Artist ( picture study/art projects), 1 hr week

Music

~World’s Greatest Composers Vol. 1

PE

Level 7 gymnastics team 22+ hours/week plus 2 hrs of TOPs training

Montana ~ Kindergarten / 1st

Bible/Recitations

Sonlight Bible B

Memoria Press K/1 recitations

History

Sonlight Core B

notebooking what we read

Science

Study animals, the human body, and plants the WTM way

Reading

Reading good books working way up to 30 minutes independently.

Math

Saxon 1 * finish up book

Mathematical Reasoning, Level A

Family Math Fridays

CapJaxMathFacts, addition

Language Arts

Explode the Code, 1,2,3

A Reason for Writing, Book A

Short copy sentences

PE

Level 4 gymnastics team, 12 hours/ week plus 2 hrs of TOPs

McKenzie ~ Pre-K3

Teach Me Joy ~ Animal Play

Letter of the Week

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready

Mathematical Reasoning ~ Beginning 1

Books, books, and more books

PE ~ Tumble Bunny gymnastics 1 hr/wk

Whew! If you read that all you deserve a prize! And your in luck I have a giveaway for you today. Up for grabs is a set of my favorite pens,  Pilot® FriXion® POINT Erasable Gel-Ink Pens, Extra Fine Point, 6/Pack, that I use for just about everything! The best part is that they are erasable, love it! The giveaway ends on Friday morning so enter while you can and please leave a way for me to contact you! Winner will have 3 days to contact me or another winner will be selected.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Zane Education ~ a TOS review

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Remember when you would walk into your classroom and at the sight of the T.V. cart would silently or verbally rejoice because that meant it was movie day? I remember those days of watching movies in the classroom. Just because we are homeschoolers does not mean I can not give my girls those short little movies/documentaries. Enter into the picture Zane Education.

We have been using Zane Education for the past few months.  Zane Education is the world's largest and most comprehensive library of fully subtitled educational videos currently available online, with subtitles. Zane offers over 1500 curriculum-based online educational videos for 11 different subjects and 260+ curriculum topics. Videos are available for grades K-12 as well as adults.  Perfect for the visual learner these videos can be utilized in schools or for home educators. The videos are also a great resource for those with special needs, ESL, and/or gifted.

With over 94% of teachers now regularly using video in the classroom as an effective teaching aid, there has been a dramatic increase in number of websites attempting to provide the use of educational video online. Yet virtually without exception, all those video providers have overlooked the inclusion of the single most important feature that arguably provides the most important educational benefit for students – the Subtitles, or otherwise known as Closed Captioning.                   

                                                                                    ~ from website

 

Video subjects available include:
*Art
*Biology
*Geography
*Health
*History
*Library Skills
*Literature
*Music
*Religious Studies
*Science
*Social Studies

While the videos are presented mainly from a  secular perspective, a Christian Learning Guide is also available. The Christian Learning Guide tells you what may be offensive for Christians in every single video. Also available are several other  helpful Publications, including a video catalogue. These guides come standard with the Gold Membership level , but are available for purchase independently. Another feature I enjoy are the PDF lesson plans for the videos.  They include comprehension questions, discussion and debate questions, vocabulary, activities, and research and essay assignments. These are fabulous!

With 5 Membership options there is something for everyone at Zane Education! Basic FREE Membership, Gold Membership, Silver Membership, Bronze Membership and Topic Taster Membership. Monthly subscriptions range from $5.00  to $17.99 per month. A Gold Membership costs just $198 for the whole year.

But wait! Zane is generously offering Schoolhouse review crew blog readers 35% off any annual gold, silver, or bronze membership purchased by August 31, 2012! Use code ZE325HSM at checkout to receive discount and that brings your Gold Membership to less than $130 for the year!

With so many videos to choose from Zane Education has been a huge blessing to our family.  I recommend you try them out and see if they would be a good fit for your family. I am making plans to include these worthwhile videos into our weekly  lesson plans. There is truly something for everyone. Be sure to check out what my Crewmates thought by clicking the banner below.

Product ~ Zane Education

Price ~ click here for membership pricing

Ages ~ K – adult

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DISCLAIMER: I received a year Gold Level subscription to Zane Education, in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided.