A Net in Time

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Be Not Dismayed Whate’er Betide

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Be Not Dismayed Whate’er Betide is a lovely short hymn reminding us of God’s continual care for his people.

be not dismayed whate'er betide

Author and History

Civilla D Martin is the author of this hymn of God’s care. She is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. Writer of many hymns and songs., she married twice over her lifetime. First to a Rev. John F. Geddes, Congregational minister. Later she married Walter Stillman Martin, a Baptist minister, and traveled with him in evangelistic work when she was not confined to her sick bed.

In regards to this first hymn she wrote: I was confined to a sick bed in a Bible school in Lestershire, New York. – God Will Take Care of You was written one Sunday afternoon while my husband went to a preaching appointment. When he returned I gave the words to him. He immediately sat down – and wrote the music. That evening he and two of the teachers sang the completed song.

Lyrics

Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.

Refrain

God will take care of you,
Through every day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you.

Through days of toil when heart doth fail,
God will take care of you;
When dangers fierce your path assail,
God will take care of you.

Refrain

All you may need He will provide,
God will take care of you;
Nothing you ask will be denied,
God will take care of you.

Refrain

No matter what may be the test,
God will take care of you;
Lean, weary one, upon His breast,
God will take care of you.

Refrain

Hawking

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Today I have a graphic novel about Stephen Hawking for you. Hawking, was a wonderful man of science. Thinking through his ideas, and applying math to help prove his theory, Hawking lived a full life despite a diagnosis of ALS.

Hawking

From The Cover

Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick deliver a gripping biography of Stephen Hawking, one of the most important scientists of our time.

From his early days at the St Albans School and Oxford, Stephen Hawking’s brilliance and good humor were obvious to everyone he met. A lively and popular young man, it’s no surprise that he would later rise to celebrity status.

In Hawking, writer Jim Ottaviani and artist Leland Myrick have crafted an intricate portrait of the great thinker, the public figure, and the man behind both identities.

What you Get

I will freely admit I didn’t read all of Hawking. I’m not a big graphic novel fan, and this book is mostly done in black and white images, and my eyes get tired after a while. 🙂 I did read solid sections and this is a really nice story of Hawking, done in graphic novel style.

Hawking

You get the story of his life from the time he was born through to adulthood. The first few pages were in full colour, which I presume will be the full book when you purchase it. Aren’t the colours nice?

Hawking

The print is neat, easy to read, small and not grainy. I did find in my ARC copy that some of the print had fading. Some letters would be dark, and others would be faded. It seemed a bit odd. My assumption again, is due to the ARC copy that I received.

Hawking

What did I learn? Hawking was one smart man who really knew his math and how to put it together with the ideas he was postulating. I kept reading about how math was a part of how he put all his ideas together. New ideas, possibly great ideas, take careful working through of the math.

Hawking lived a very full life. ALS seemed to slow him down, but as he said “I’m a slow thinker”. So it put a crimp in his life, but it didn’t stop him from being the man that he was. Seeing him work through that was very interesting, and for that alone, definitely a book I would recommend you let your middle schoolers and up read.

Hawking

Hawking.
Jim Ottaviani
Leland Myrick (illustrator)
First Second
Trade paperback, 304 pages, middle school
Biography, Science, Hawking
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

disclosure

Submarines of WW1

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After studying the sea battles of world war 1 we thought perhaps we were done until we remembered submarines.  That deserved another week of study!  

Submarines of WW1

We started our study as always with Youtube.

We found it interesting that submarines were thought useless in battle until Kaiser Wilhelm took a ride and loved them, he ordered Germany to start building submarines. Other highlights included: The Electric Boat Company became General Dynamics a major USA based submarine company, the USA was first to use diesel engines in their submarines and Great Britain has 74 submarines built at the start of the war.

Highlights: Submarines changed the face of war. The Germans made the most use of submarines during the war. Living conditions were absolutely horrible due to the use of kerosene lamps and close quarters.

I liked how they talked about what to do with you were in the water, keeping your eyes in the Horizon looking for help.

German high command decided that risking battle with the USA, and ignoring the laws of humanity was necessary in order to win the war.

The lad did some reading in World War 1 History for kids.

His goal this week is to research the changes in submarines from the beginning of the war to the end. Lots of different advances were made. He has since expanded that project as he’s learning a ton and thoroughly enjoying the process. 🙂

Seed Companies in Canada

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A short and sweet post! 🙂

Places to order seed from in Ontario that I know about. I know well a couple of the companies, the rest being. It’s hard to not just order whatever i anyls.

William Dam. You can order on-line and pay for shipping or pick up on location. I ordered all the light stuff from these folks since, after pricing out the price of seed packs at the nurseries, they were much cheaper.

Veseys. I did most of my ordering from this company this year. Signing up for their newsletter gave me free shipping, so I ordered the heavy stuff from them! 🙂

I really like Richter’s but don’t really want to pay for more shipping…. but they have odd things that many seed places don’t have. Last time I ordered from them was six years ago and I still had viable seed last year that I used up.

I’ve been trying to decide if I want to order celery seed for soups from Heritage Harvest or not. I haven’t checked to see what shipping is, but soup celery is great for those who love a good soup!

You will find a list of heirloom/organic seed companies listed here.

Lack

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I am writing this just before I go to bed. Tiredness rules this body today. Join us over at Miss Kate’s won’t you?

lack

Hours run 230-midnight
A hard-working middle aged husband.
The work is hard, not enough men
But the pay helps a household run.
One does not look a gift horse in the mouth.

A wife in support
Stays up late
Minding the house
As a good man works
But tiredness reigns.

Some nights, sleep overcomes
A comfy chair, a quiet playing show
Snores soon abound.
But sleep in a chair
Is not the same as
Sleep in a bed.

So the lack sometimes shows
Tiredness rules.
Accidents happen.
Tempers flair.
And mom learns
And hubby learns
that sometimes… bed calls loudly.
and it’s okay if
The wife
Does not
Stay up
for
a hard-working
man.

zzzzzzzzzzz

What’s keeping Me Busy

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You will find me being very sporadic on the blog over the next while. I have some reviews written up already and some random posts I’ll be getting done. Too many other things are keeping me on the go. I thought I would talk with you about what’s keeping me busy.

Homeschool Co-op

Homeschool co-op has started and I’m teaching a phys ed class and a logic/debate class. We are using The Fallacy Detective. I won it years ago in some contest I can’t even remember anymore. 🙂 Want to know more about the book just click on the picture. 🙂

Also it is spring time in Ontario. THAT very fact has my bones itching to be outdoors. To that end I’ve been a bit …busy. 🙂 I’ve been slowed up the last two days since I took a tumble and bunged up my lower left leg BUT slowed is not stopped! 🙂

White Barrel Gardens

garden beds from white barrels

First I started with what I am calling my white barrel gardens. Hubby works at a feed mill and they’ve been giving away these animal food quality barrels. Anyways, he’s brought me home six barrels I think. I’ve cut all but one in half, the last I’m hoping to turn into a rain barrel.

Two of them I’m using as starter gardens. I’ve planted lettuce in one and peas in the other. I used branches from the hedge that I’m planning to cut down as supports for the plastic. There is a need to water them soon and check for growth!

garden beds from white barrels

Barn Board Gardens

My second project involves the movement of 4 1/2 gardens. The hope is that I don’t have to rebuild all four, but so far I’m having to rebuild two of them. One is finished (my job), the lad is going to build the other. He’s getting paid so he’s eager to earn his keep! 🙂 I built the one so he has a template to work from.

New garden bed using barn board

I have to admit that it is a lot of work moving the beds from being vertical to the rabbitry to being in line, BUT it give me more useable room between the gardens and the rabbitry, which means…. drum roll.. LESS tripping and falling for yours truly! More room means it will be easier to do my twice yearly top to bottom clean out. Staying healthy makes that job easier.

I anticipate it will take another three weeks to get it all done. In the midst of that I need to do some reviews… Cross Wired Science is coming. Write a blog post or three. Finish our taxes! Find time for family and fun. Life does go on…but it means that some things (like blogging everything I think about) will fall to the wayside for a while.

what's keeping me busy

Review: Transcripts Made Easy

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Did you know that my son is going into grade nine? GAH! I am trying NOT to join in with frantic homeschooling parents getting bent out of shape over highschool. Trying hard but not necessarily succeeding! 🙂

Everyday Education has come to my rescue… at least in the area of transcripts and grading. Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork has been a boon to quieting my mind over this important part of record keeping.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

What I am Reviewing

Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork.
Everyday Education.
Janice Campbell
Digital ebook, PDF.

$24.95
138 pages.  4th edition. 
high school transcripts, homeschool transcripts, homeschool high school

Transcripts made easy is a comfortable read filled with a wealth of information. It comes as a PDF document easy to store on my laptop. At 138 pages I chose not to print off most of it, but I will be printing off some of the record keeping pages.

This is the fourth edition of this helpful guide for making highschool transcripts. You will find helpful tips from the following experts included: Professor Carol Reynolds, Judith Munday, and Kathy Kuhl.

The six sections of Transcripts Made Easy are:

  • Meet the Transcript
  • Plan with the End in Mind
  • Keep Simple Records
  • Grades, Credit and GPA
  • Create the Transcript
  • References, Resources and Reproducibles
Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Transcripts Made Easy Details

Janice Campbell starts off by explaining what a transcript is (a record of what a student has studied.). She walks us through the different sections of a transcript, what to put into them and why they are important. SUPER helpful.

Transcripts Made Easy is designed so that you can jump in at any point and use only the parts you need. If you pick up this ebook from upper elementary school you would start at the very beginning. If you are just finishing highschool though, you might want to just skip to how to actually fill out the transcript.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

From just learning how to keep records, what to record, how to track hours and more, there are many options provided. When it comes to transcripts, regardless of where you are in the process you can still come up with a usable transcript, so fret not. Help is here.. make full use of it!

One of the Things I most appreciated was Ms. Campbell’s careful explanations as to why we need to be careful how we put our transcripts together. When explaining why grading on transcripts is important, she helped me understand the mindset of the person who would be looking at that transcript. She then proceeded to walk me through the different ways of grading material, extremely helpful to someone who has never graded her child in his work. 🙂

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Section Details

As much as you can just jump into the area that you most have need of, really the whole book is helpful.

  • Meet the Transcript: Talks about what a transcript is, the different areas, and what needs to be included.
  • Plan with the End in Mind: How to plan out your highschool education, sample methods, how to make sure you are meeting requirements, developing study skills and more.
  • Keep Simple Records: Simple is best right? Why by complicated. Keep good records to make the end product easier to manage. I only skimmed the special needs section, just know it’s there.
  • Grades, Credit and GPA: How to grade, how to manage grades if you are an unschooler, different ways to mark, and a helpful writing evaluation rubric is included.
  • Create the Transcript: different types of transcripts are given, along with directions on how to create them. Pros and cons are listed for each helping you make an informed decision.
  • References, Resources and Reproducibles: forms you can use to make your homeschooling journey easier. Forms I intend to use are the class profile, the subject worksheets, and the line transcript.
Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

My Thoughts

Janice Campbell writes with a personal tone. I LOVE how she disseminated her information in an easy-going, practical format. She even reminded me that if I have a question about how to do something with a document, just ask google and there will be an answer. Sometimes I forget that!

She takes what would seem to be an overwhelming task and breaks it down into simple record keeping. Some for the homeschool parent to do, and some that the student can do. I have been pleased to talk through some of her material with my son. His first question was “Is there a sheet I can fill out?” I could happily tell him “yes!” 🙂

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

The loads of examples provided, to show the variety of transcripts and type of record keeping amazed me. There is more than one way to do it all, it’s just a matter of finding a system that works for the parent.

An excellent resource for anyone looking at how to put a transcript together for their student.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Suggestion:

Something I would LOVE to see is .. oh, how do I put it? With PDF’s you can use the fill and sign feature. So I would love to either see separate PDF’s for each of the forms that can be filled out OR….

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

A link to a google docs folder with pre-made forms already to use. That was my first thought when I saw the sample diploma along with instructions on how to recreate it. It was like… OH.. if only this were a google doc so I wouldn’t have to recreate it! I could then just fill in my son’s name and the name of our school. THAT would be the best! (YES, I admit to having a lazy side!) 🙂 I don’t know which would be better. Separate PDF forms could get cumbersome, but be really useful. BUT the google docs aspect could simply be an embedded link. I don’t know. I just LOVE the idea of having ready made forms that are fully editable, and available as a separate file.

My Recommendation:

If you are homeschooling highschool, regardless of your methodology, go get this book. It’s chock full of important information to consider in regards to homeschooling. It’s more than just transcripts, it’s grading, legal requirements, options, how to grade and so much more. It is well worth your time invested.

Everyday Education

50 members of the Homeschool Review Crew have looked at the offerings of Everyday Education. Click here or on the banner below to go read the reviews.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

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