Instant Publisher

When I published my first Super Star Speech book in 2008, I spent quite a bit of time researching printers, both local and internet, trying to find a company that could provide exactly what I wanted at the best cost. I needed a spiral-bound format so that the books would lay flat and could be copied easily and found that some printers only do perfect-bound books. And with my limited budget, cost was very important. It’s really easy with their cost estimator tool, to quickly figure out what the cost of printing books will be and to adjust the variables, such as binding or volume ordered to see the effect on price.

Instant Publisher was able to provide what I needed, and the cost was the best I could find as well. They have a lot of options for size, binding, and paper type. I’ve used them ever since and have been very pleased. I usually even have my books printed and delivered in a week or so. I think the longest wait I’ve had has been two weeks.

If you have a printing need—cookbooks, your new novel, whatever, I’d suggest looking at what Instant Publisher has to offer.

Disclaimer: I’m sharing my honest opinion about my experiences with Instant Publisher. In return, Instant Publisher is providing me with a coupon toward my next order.

The Art of Poetry (Schoolhouse Review)

Do you know how to “teach” poetry? I really didn’t. We enjoy reading it aloud from time to time and may note instances of alliteration or onomatopoeia, but until now, that’s where my children’s poetic education ended.

The Art of Poetry, published by Classical Academic Press, provides homeschool parents (or classroom teachers) with an excellent program to study poetry with their children.
The Art of Poetry is designed for middle school and high school aged students and includes three components: a student book, a teacher book, and a DVD set (optional).
The 268 page Student Book includes 16 chapters, and covers topics such as images, metaphor, symbols, rhythm, shape, history of form, movements, and genres, as well as focused studies of Emily Dickenson and Walt Whitman.  Each chapter discusses the focus topic, then includes 3-8 poems with discussion questions that help the student analyze and understand the poem in the light of the chapter focus. The chapter ends with a glossary of literary terms and  an activity list with suggestions for observation activities to picture collages to writing assignments.
The hefty 313 page Teacher’s Guide contains the entire student text plus detailed answers for the poetry discussion questions. I found this very helpful—Personally, I would have missed a lot of insight without having this as a guide as I attempted to discuss the topics.
The DVD set features the author, Christine Perrin, MFA, discussing the poems and chapter topics with four students. We found it helpful to hear their thoughts, and the discussion was a good model for showing Emily the types of things she should be noticing in poems. Ms. Perrin also modeled some of the end-of-chapter activities.
Our Experience: I felt that The Art of Poetry was a very thorough and in-depth guide. It has been a challenge for Emily, who is in 7th grade, requiring at times, more abstract thinking than she is capable of. She enjoys poetry, however, and is learning a lot as we progress through the course. My initial intention was to cover most or all of the book in a concentrated study of around two months. Instead, we’re taking it more slowly, so we have ample time to discuss and savor each poem. This is definitely a meaty high school level course, although it is accessible for motivated middle school students.
Our procedure has been to read and discuss the chapter topic the first day, then to read and discuss two poems each day. Sometimes we re-read poems that we’ve already discussed. After we finish the chapter, we watch the DVD. This has helped to cement the concepts and deepen our understanding. Then we choose several of the end-of-chapter activities to work on.
Emily’s favorite activities have involved writing her own poems.
We read this poem by Ezra Pound:

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Emily wrote her own poem inspired by it:

Splash

The heavy drops of rain

fall hard upon the soft soil.

We also read this poem by Emily Dickinson:

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

shook down on me

the dust of snow

from a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

a change of mood

and saved a part

of a day I rued.

Emily wrote:

The Dust of Poop

The way Dove

looks down on me,

The speck of poop from

and old oak tree.

Has given my hair

a change of style

and made it look

so crazy and wild.

Yes, her poem shows her quirky sense of humor, but she’s enjoying writing and poetry!

Final Thoughts: I think the Art of Poetry is an excellent course for those who want to undertake a serious study of the subject. The literary techniques Emily is learning about will be very useful in analyzing any literature, not just poetry. I think the teacher’s book is a necessity because of the answers to the discussion questions and added insights. The DVD set would be nice to have—we have benefited from “listening in” on the discussions and hearing the lectures,  but if the expense is an issue, the course is still very good without them.

The Art of Poetry $24.95
The Art of Poetry Teachers Edition $29.95
The Art of Poetry DVD Set $69.95
Bundle of all 3 products $99.95 (new price April 1)

Fool Moon Rising (Review)

“What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why do you boast as though it were not a gift?” 1 Cor. 4:7
This verse from 1 Corinthians is the theme for a sweet picture book, Fool Moon Rising, by Kristi and T. Lively Fluharty, and published by Crossway.
Fool Moon Rising tells the tale of the moon, who bragged about his great power—his ability to change shape and even disappear, his power to light up the night sky, and his effects on the tides. He was puffed up with pride until the brilliant light of the sun forced him to admit that he was not the greatest being in the sky and that even his light was only a reflection of the son’s great light.
The story, ideal for 3-7 year olds, is told in a bouncing rhyme and directs children to acknowledge their own dependence on God, and the danger of pride. The back of the book includes several discussion questions and fun facts about space. The artwork is bright and fun, and depicts the moon as having a lot of personality.
Fool Moon Rising would make a good bedtime story or devotional. It could also easily be developed into a unit study for children, including not only Bible truths, but a study of the moon, space exploration, and astronomy.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.

Essentials in Writing (Schoolhouse Review)

Company: Essentials in Writing
Product: Essentials in Writing 7th Grade Level (1st through 12 grade levels are also available)
Price: $40 (DVD with video instruction and CD-ROM with printable worksheets, assignment sheets, and answer key

$20 Optional Pre-Printed Workbook

I’ve tried a lot of different writing curriculums with my children and have never found just the perfect one. Some focus on creativity and creative writing, others work on specific skills and writing genre, and still others seem to jump around too much. I think everything we’ve used has helped my children’s writing skills improve, because the more they write, the better they will be at writing. Still, I never felt as if I found a great program, one that would really prepare them for good high school or college level essay writing.
Essentials in Writing is a sequential, video-based curriculum with the goal of creating “confident writers.”  Each lesson is introduced and taught by the author, Matthew Stephens, in a short video segment. Then the student does the daily assignment, which may be a worksheet or a writing assignment. Larger assignments, such as essays or research papers are broken down into bite sized pieces, keeping the projects very manageable for students who might be intimidated by a large assignment.
From the Essentials in Writing site:
“In Seventh Grade, your child will learn:  detailed sentence structure, additional grammar, additional capitalization/punctuation rules, proper use of a friendly letter, using the writing process to compose narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive writing (including formal paragraphs), and five paragraph essays, compare and contrast writing, response to literature essay, effective writing skills, multi-paragraph composition, the process to complete a research project, other forms of written communication, and other topics.”
Our Thoughts:
I really like this program! It is living up to my expectations. Emily spends about 30 minutes a day doing her assignments (sometimes more, sometimes less). First, she watches the video lesson, which is 5-10 minutes long. The instructor, Matthew Stephens, teaches the concepts clearly while writing examples on his whiteboard. He then explains the student’s assignments. Some lessons have 2 or 3 days of assignments to go with one video, so Emily will proceed through the assignments and go back to the video lessons when needed.
The 7th grade curriculum covers clauses, run-on sentences, comma splices, complex and compound sentences, and prepositional phrases in the early lessons. In lesson 7, it begins to teach the formal writing process with lessons on paragraphs, then on various types of essays.
Emily enjoys writing, but I do think that even the most reluctant writer would do well with this program. The lessons are very clear and every major assignment is broken down into “bite-sized” pieces. The personal narrative, for example, is written over 4-5 days, from outlining to rough draft to final copy. A student who might be overwhelmed with an assignment to simply “write a personal narrative” is given ideas about what to write, and incremental assignments that are simple to do until the project is completed. A scoring guide is included for each major writing project that helps the parent grade the essay and helps the child understand which areas could be improved upon.
I’ve been watching the videos with Emily about half the time, just to keep up with what she’s doing. I also briefly look over her finished assignments and help her make revisions or corrections. But for the most part, this program takes very little of my time and allows Emily to work mostly independently. Her abilities are being stretched, but she has not been frustrated. Most importantly, she is learning to recognize and understand the difference between good and mediocre writing.
I thought about sharing Emily’s narrative essay about her most embarrassing moment, but unfortunately, it turned out too embarrassing for me to share!
This is a program that we plan to stick with. After using it for a month, I’ve already recommended it to several others!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Making Your Own Homeschool Games (And a Free Bible Trivia Game!)

 

Do you like to play games? Most kids do! At our house, we often play games as part of our school day. There are many games that you can buy to practice or learn different subjects. We have a lot of those, but we like to make our own games, too. Almost every subject can be made into a game. Here are a few ideas:

1. Use a board game that you already have. Make some question cards about anything you are learning. For example, you could make a set of questions about reptiles or the Civil War or planets. Write a question on one side of the card and the answer on the other side. Each player must answer a question correctly before he or she takes a turn.

2. Make a matching game to practice something you are learning. You could write a math fact on one card and the answer on its match. You could name an inventor on one card and his invention on the other or a vocabulary word on one card and its definition on the other. 3x5 inch index cards cut in half are a nice size to use. Place the cards face down on the table and take turns turning them over looking for matches.

3. Write historical events on cards. Write the date the event occurred on the back of the card. Try to arrange the events in sequence, then check yourself by looking at the dates.

4. Regular playing cards can be used for math games. Here's one idea. Take out all the face cards. Divide the remaining cards into 2 equal stacks. Play "War" with the cards to practice "greater than" and "less than." To make the game harder, flip 2 cards over on each turn. Add the numbers together (if you are learning addition facts) or multiply the numbers (if you are practicing multiplication facts). The person with the highest total collects all the cards for that round.

5. Divide a large sheet of paper into 9 rectangles. Write a number from 1 to 9 in each space. Toss 2 or 3 beans onto the paper, then add or multiply those numbers together. Take turns with another player to see who can reach the highest score. Write fractions in some or all of the spaces to make the game harder.

6. Give each player 10 number cards from a regular card deck. Roll a die. Each player uses any number of his cards to create an equation that will equal the number on the die. For example, if the die shows a 4, a player could make 2x2 or 6-2 or 3x3-5 or 2x6-8. Each player writes down his equations and the player with the most correct equations in two minutes wins that round.

Looking for more ideas?

Download a free copy of Old Testament Bible Match at Currclick or visit my homeschool games page to see some of the other  games I’ve created for our homeschool. Use them for ideas or even buy one that fits into what you’re studying.

Science in the Kitchen

One of the common concerns about homeschooling is “how to do lab science.”  I’ve taught my children at home through the eighth grade and honestly, that has never been a problem. On occasion, I have purchased lab materials, such as dissection tools and specimens, test tubes, and fruit flies for genetics experiments. But usually, I can find nearly everything I need for hands-on science right in the kitchen or medicine cabinet.

And the perfect place for us to work on all those messy experiments? The kitchen, of course!

Testing for starch

Floating boats

Comparing the density of liquids

Read more about “schooling in the kitchen” at the 5 Days of Teaching Creatively Blog hop!

Science Club Fun

I host a science club for our homeschool group twice a month. Last week, the kids had a lot of fun building boats out of straws, clay, and aluminum foil.

Then, they competed to see whose boat could hold the most weight (as measured in washers and pennies).

After the initial test, we discussed why some boats were more successful than others and I gave the teams another chance to improve upon their boats.

 

Everyone declared it to be a lot of fun!

100 Bible Verses Week 10

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.”   1 John 5:11-12

I have to confess that I’m slipping a bit in the memory challenge. The last 3 weeks’ verses are partly memorized, but not all the way there. I really need a better system for keeping up with them. Instead of keeping my memory notebook on my desk, I’m going to move it to the living room where I do my quiet time in the mornings.

And where I’m really slipping is keeping up with Emily to work on her verses. I don’t think the past 3 weeks’ verses are even in her notebook yet. Maybe if she studies them while she eats breakfast?

My goal for this week is to get caught up!

Fixing My Eyes on Jesus (Review)

Fixing My Eyes on Jesus, by Anne Graham Lotz, is a 366 day devotional book. Each daily reading is short (100-150 words) and begins with a Bible verse.

I found a few devotionals that were insightful and really spoke to me.

One of my favorite passages tells of a scene from Pilgrim’s Progress in which a man is too engrossed in picking through garbage for some sort of tidbit to notice that behind him is an angel offering him a solid gold crown studded with jewels. Lotz says, “ When we get to heaven, will we be ashamed of our preoccupation with garbage in this life—garbage that prevented us from turning around, leaving it all behind, and reaching out for what God wanted to give us? !1 Cor. 2:9 says, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.’”  Very convicting!

Anne Graham Lotz’s passion and personality come out in the readings. I have seen her in videos and listened to her read books on cd and as I read, I can “hear” her speaking. She has a passion for Jesus, and the theme of this book emphasizes that.

Many of the daily readings, however, seemed somewhat uninspired. While the content was doctrinally sound, the readings reiterated themes that I’ve read many times before instead of giving me fresh insight into the scripture passages. It was hard at first for me to put my finger on just why the book didn’t grab me. Then I realized that other devotional books that I’ve read are more personal. The authors share personal stories from their lives that bring the topics to life. In this book, I didn’t see as much of that.  Anne Graham Lotz did some personal sharing, but so much of the content was more like commentary. This style would likely be what some others would prefer in a devotional, but left me wanting more.

I received a free (e-book) copy of this book from the Booksneeze blogger program in exchange for my honest review.

The Dog Ate My Homework!

Yep, she really did. Our dog, Macy, pulled Emily’s math page off the kitchen table and shredded it into tiny pieces. Looks like she had a lot of fun with it! Emily’s not complaining, either.

“Get the Picture” Vocabulary Cards (TOS Review)

 

Vocabulary is an important part of any subject, from literature to science to math.  When children fail to master this vocabulary, they tend to do poorly in school, even though they may understand the underlying concepts. For example, a child may be competent with addition skills, but if he or she doesn’t know the terms, “sum” or “increase,” the child may not be able to interpret what he or she is being asked to do. 

 

The “Get the Picture” vocabulary cards from Lone Star Learning provide a great way to help children master this vocabulary. We tried out Set 1 of the math (Target Vocabulary Picture Sets) and Set 1 of the Science Vocabulary Pictures.  Each vocabulary word is presented in a pictorial form that is designed to help the child remember the meaning of the word.

 

Details:

Target Vocabulary Picture Sets

• $29.99 (5.5”x 4.25″ cards), $34.99 (8.5” x 11”)
• 57 math vocabulary cards including terms such as “acute angle,” “diameter,” “divisor,” and “octagon.” 

Science Vocabulary Picture Sets

• $29.99 (5.5” x 8”)
• 40 science vocabulary cards including terms like “lever,” “gear,” “conifer,” and “precipitation.”

 

Our Experience:

Emily was familiar with most of the math and science vocabulary words, so we used them as a review tool. I found that, although she knew the context of many words, she couldn’t necessarily define them clearly. so this became not only a review of previously learned science or math concepts, but an exercise in clearly articulating word meanings. I also found that she was a bit fuzzy on some terms or concepts that we had studied a year or two ago, so the cards became a good vehicle for briefly revisiting these topics.

 

The way the words are depicted on the cards is quite clever, with graphics giving the reader cues to the meanings. As we looked at each word, we talked about the graphics and discussed how they helped to show the word meanings. I also had Emily divide the words into categories…seasons, simple machines, types of rock, and so on.

 

For a younger child, I would use the cards a little differently. I would pick out just the vocabulary that corresponded with the topics we were studying in math or science, discuss, and display the cards, and possibly use them to make a vocabulary test for the unit.  They are also BIG—definitely large enough to use with a group or to display on a wall. And just look at the pictures to see how attractive they are!

     

Lists of the vocabulary included in each card set can be found at Lone Star Learning. Card sets are not grade-specific, but include a variety of words useful for elementary through middle school ages. 

 

My verdict: A fun way to practice vocabulary!