A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Homeschooling

Learning and Reading in the Winter

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So the crew does a weekly challenge, and this week it’s all about how do we homeschool in the winter.  My first thought was duh… the same way we do any other time of the year!  But winter brings it’s own delights right?  Sledding, nature study, experiments with ice, or new skills like snowflake photography. 

As I pondered this challenge I got to thinking about skills we tend to focus on in the winter.  I get emails sent to me daily or even weekly on specific topics.  In the winter, I’ll take time to read these with my lad.  The rest of the year, it’s totally hit or miss. So here’s the learning and reading in the winter that we do. 

In the winter there’s reading to do, emails to catch up on, and conferences to attend.  Let’s talk shall we? 

learning and reading in the winter

Read Alouds

There’s nothing better on a snowy winter night than sitting together and reading from a good book.  Recently I talked about some of the books I hope to get through this year.  Reading is such a great way to spend time together.  Talking about what we’re reading and thoughts we’re having.  It’s just lovely. 

Courses

I also do some learning.  Some of this is through video and courses I get through Great Courses and CuriosityStream.   On Great Courses, I often listen to history courses.  Currently, I’m learning about some of the great voyages of the past. 

On CuriosityStream I like doing their science and nature courses.  Learning about birds, animals, landmasses, engineering and more. 

A couple of times a month I take my courses on Alison.  I’ve done understanding wood (that’s not the official title but that’s what it was about), early building construction, electricity,  most recently the human body. It’s fun to dabble. 🙂 There are all kinds of things you can learn online. 

Emails I Get

Did you know that Encyclopedia Britannica has a daily email they send out?  They send out an “on this day” which includes a biography about a person, a world event, as well as links to other events that happened that day in history.   Some of them are really interesting, others meh.  But I’m not fascinated by ALL aspects of history.  🙂 

Science Alert!  I’ve been getting emails from these folks probably for about two years now.  The things you learn it’s amazing!  Makes for some fascinating reading to see what the world around us is teaching us. 

WordGenius.  Like learning new words? Word Genius will send you a different word every day.  They’ll give pronunciation, history, meaning and usage.  Words that grab my attention I’ll often share on Facebook which often gets fun conversations going.

Homeschool Conferences

I take part in, and listen to, the Canadian Online Homeschool Conference.  I am AMAZED this year at how much this conference has grown.  We used to barely cover three days, and look here. This year it run from Feb 3-9 how amazing is that eh?  

Now listen… it doesn’t matter if you are Canadian or not.  It doesn’t matter where in the world you live.  You’ll still learn more about homeschooling then you did before. Will some content be specifically Canadian?  Yup.  But a lot of the homeschooling material I get is specifically other country centric and you know what… we still learn.  🙂 

So come on, join won’t?   You can listen free … but only for that specific day.  If you want to be able to listen ANY TIME you want… you’ll want to the pass.  It’s only $17, which is way less than ordering in a meal and this will benefit you far longer. 

So what about you?  What learning and reading in the winter do you do?  Are you attending any conferences this winter online?   Which ones? 

January 2021

O Jesus I Have Promised

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I am about half way through Lift Up Your Hearts, a hymnal that I found on our bookshelves last time I tidied them up. It’s rather fun to go through different hymnbooks and see what songs I know.  Hymnbooks are so different from each other.  Today’s hymn is O Jesus I Have Promised.

I remember singing this hymn throughout my formative years, but it didn’t really strike me until I was in my 40’s.   Thinking about what the words we sing, what we promise when we lift our voices to God. 

Lyrics

O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me,
My master and my friend;
I shall not fear the battle
If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my guide.

O let me feel Thee near me!
The world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle,
The tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me,
Around me and within;
But Jesus, draw Thou nearer,
And shield my soul from sin.

O let me hear Thee speaking
In accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion,
The murmurs of self will.
O speak to reassure me,
To hasten or control;
O speak, and make me listen,
Thou guardian of my soul.

O Jesus, Thou hast promised
To all who follow Thee
That where Thou art in glory
There shall Thy servant be.
And Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
O give me grace to follow,
My master and my friend.

O let me see Thy footprints,
And in them plant mine own;
My hope to follow duly
Is in Thy strength alone.
O guide me, call me, draw me,
Uphold me to the end;
And then in Heav’n receive me,
My Savior and my friend.

This is the tune I grew up with

Author and History

The occasion of a confirmation service for children (daughter and sons) created the impetuous for O Jesus I have Promised to be written.  Joh E Bode was the pastor in Castle Camps parish in Cambridgeshire, England.  This song was written just for them. 

In fact, it became so popular that the leadership in the Church of England told people to stop using it for confirmation services.  🙂   It was published in 1869 in in the ap­pendix of Psalms and Hymns of the So­ci­e­ty for the Pro­pa­ga­tion of Chris­tian Know­ledge.

London born, Mr. Bode became in1841. He not only served as vicar in Castle Camp but also in Westwell, Oxfordshire.    In 1855 he delivered the prestigious Bampton Lectures at Oxford.  These lectures were later published as an anti-Catholicism tract.    He loved to write poetry and had hoped to be the Professor of Poetry at Oxford.  Fellow poet Matthew Arnold beat him out for the position by fellow poet Matthew Arnold. 

He wrote poetry and hymns throughout his life. Only a few of his hymns have withstood the test of time.  This one is his most beloved song. 

I am not familiar with tune at all.

Thinking about this Hymn

Bode didn’t write a whole lot of songs, but this particular hymn has stood the test of time. 

Just see the promises made: 

O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me,
My master and my friend;
I shall not fear the battle
If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my guide.

The promises made of service, the awareness of who Jesus is, and the forthcoming troubles one gets as a believer.  Nothing to fear if Christ is there. How if we depend upon the Lord, we will stay the course.  

I can clearly see why people would want this for a confirmation Sunday. I would want to sing if I was declaring new faith in the Lord.  But isn’t it a good hymn of praise for like literally anytime?  To remember that Jesus is the guardian of our souls?  It’s a fantastic reminder and a call to our hearts to recall the goodness of the Lord we call our own. 

Unstoppable: True Stories of Amazing Bionic Animals

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Who would have thought that the advent of 3D printers would create unstoppable animals?   Here, let me give you an example!

Would you like to know more?  In Unstoppable you will meet 13 animals that haven’t let a disability stop them from living life.  They’ve needed some people to help them along the way.  with the advent 3D printers and bionics  it means nothing slows them down now. 

Unstoppable

What do you get?

Full colour pictures fill every page of the 128 page book.  You’ll meet lambs, goats, cows, puppies, birds, turtles and more.  So many ways that animals can be helped! I was rather surprised myself.  Imagine seeing a little guinea pig on wheels!   I’ve seen dogs on wheels so I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but imagine the fidgeting you’d need to do for a wee guinea pig.

Written by Nancy Furstinger and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. You may recall another book by Furstinger called Mercy.  I am reviewing this book on behalf of Raincoast Books.   13 chapters complete with along with a note from the author, glossary, bibliography and photo credits.  A page is listed with websites to learn more about the animals talked about. 

Unstoppable, the details

Written for children 8-12 years old, Unstoppable: True Stories of Amazing Bionic Animals, you’ll find the text easy to read.  The font was very clean and clear. It is a fairly large font that suited the size of the book excellently.  It comes in kindle, trade paperback or hardcover.   

unstoppable sample page

I was very surprised at the types of animals represented: Cows, goats, sheep, ducks, guinea pigs,geese, rabbits, cats, turtles, elephants, guinea pigs, horses, sandhill cranes, alligators, dolphins, llamas, bald eagles and donkeys.   

As a farmers daughter I rather wonder about the expense for providing bionic prosthetics for farm animals but have come to understand that some individuals turn them into pets.  Pets of all shapes and sizes should be provided with good care should they not?

Just look at these really well done images!  Being able to see them in use and how these different animals can now lead full lives, rather cool isn’t it?

The stories are well-written showing the need of each animal, the challenge in creating the right prosthetic and how it has impacted the animal life.   Can you imagine the challenge in making a prosthetic for an alligator? 

Should you get it?

I found Unstoppable: True Stories of Amazing Bionic Animals to be an absolutely fascinating book.   The efforts people go to in order to help their disabled pets amazes me. 

The science behind making the prosthetics intrigues me, and knowing that people can make these aids for their animals using a 3D printer surprises me.  What a cost-effective way to help more animals!

If you have children with a love for animals, science, and engineering this would be an excellent book to share with them. 

Not all the links posted at the close of this book worked. Be advised that some links lead to sanctuaries and rescues that twist the truth. 

Snowflake Photography

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Living in Canada I see snow from December through end of March. Living in the snowbelt of Ontario means I have the joy of seeing a LOT of snow during those months. Snowflakes are great for combining to make forts, snowmen and snowballs. But today I thought we could learn how to do snowflake photography.

Snowflake Photography

The Anatomy of a Snowflake

Have you ever heard of Snowflake Bentley?  He spent his life learning about snowflakes. Bentley is the first person to discover that no two snowflakes are exactly alike.  Pretty neat eh?  AND part of what makes snowflake photography so much fun.  No two pictures will be exactly the same!

Snowflake Photography primer

photo of white vehicle crossing a tunnel
Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

First off, you need a day when snow is actually falling.  If snow isn’t falling you won’t get individual flakes, nor will get crisp edges. 

Then you need a contrasting background that you can sweep clean of anything unnecessary. 

susan verhoog snowflake
Photo Susan VH

Use the right camera so you can zoom in to capture details. 

Photo Susan VH

Take lots and lots of pictures as fast as possible before the snowflake melts.

Photo Susan VH

Play around a bit, see what you can make work.  You might be surprised at what a different background can produce. 

Photo Susan VH

The colder it is outside, and the fresher the snow, the better your photos will be. 

Photo Susan VH

The settings you put on your camera will depend on the light that you find in your particular situation. 

YouTube Snowflake Photography

These two fellows use different cameras and do macro photography!

Huh… did you know that you can get a magnifer for your cell phone and use it to take pictures of a snowflake?   Amazing eh?   This lady uses a light box and her cell phone.

Resources

My friend took a photography class to practice and learn her skills, so if you can find a class do that!   Gives you people contact and some real-life mentors to help you fine-tune your art.

Some resources off Amazon (using affiliate link) that will help you (or inspire you) as you partake in your own snowflake photography.

All images of snowflakes (unless otherwise noted) have been taken by a friend named Susan. Wasn’t she gracious in allowing me to use them? 

Want to know about snowflakes and winter based learning?   SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a variety of winter-based ebooks and activities to engage your students.  Currently on-sale!

fresh start
January 2021

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

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Love Divine, all loves excelling is a marvellous tune speaking to the love of God.  Charles Wesley is the author, a prolific hymn-writer, and a Methodist.  He worked with his brother John. 

love divine all loves excelling

Lyrics

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav’n to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

I grew up singing this tune

History and Author

Charles Wesley is the author is this lovely old hymn.  Even more 200 years after his passing, the hymns of Charles Wesley continue to remain popular within the faith community. 

Charles lived much of his life in his brother’s shadow. Even so, he is the one who started the Holy Club in 1729 that his brother eventually led.  Faithful Moravians helped both John and Charles search deeper into spiritual matters.  As Charles’ faith was strengthened he began to write hymns.  Over his lifetime he wrote over 6000 hymns.  Wholesome Words has a more complete write up of Charles Wesley. 

Other hymns by Charles Wesley

This tune is not as familiar to me though I’ve sung it before.

Ponderings

Love Divine, all loves excelling…. can you see it?   Can you see Jesus as God’s expression of love to the world?  Then leading on to the Holy Spirit and how he moves in our hearts.  Then God!  God Almighty comes and we serve him, being blessed.  Looking on in the final verse to a new creation. 

Don’t you just enjoy the progression in this hymn?   Showing how the love of God touches us in so many ways, and then glory oh the glory that awaits.  So much hope, and it starts with God’s love.  Lovely eh?

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

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Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew. Please understand that affiliate links are used in this post. 

Welcome all!  It’s a brand new year with the homeschool review crew, and like always, it’s time to tell you all about the SchoolhouseTeachers.com site.  It’s a fantastic resource for homeschoolers with loads of courses for all ages.  I can’t wait to tell you all about their Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership..  For this review, we focused on public speaking courses for highschool.   

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

SchoolhouseTeachers.com, details

So first off I wanted to share with you some of the details about what makes SchoolhouseTeachers.com special.

  1.  They have over 475 courses for you to peruse, allowing you to tailor your education to your specific student.   Many of these courses are interactive. This online curriculum continues to change.  New courses are always be added, and older courses are being updated. 
  2. School Boxes.  This something new this year.  Within SchoolhouseTeachers.com you can find boxed curriculum.  An excellent place to start if you need a starting place. 
  3. Each course comes with lesson plans tailored to that particular course, I’ll talk more about this later. 🙂 
  4. There is an extensive video library. 
  5. World Book online.  So basically you have an interactive encyclopedia right in your home!
  6. Categories to make searching for things easier.  Like highschool courses, electives, science, math etc. 
  7. Resources such as the Focused Learning Centers, the Literacy Centre, and helps for Special Needs. 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com continues to work hard to make sure their online teaching resources are helpful to a variety of homeschoolers.  They want to meet the needs that you have with your students. 

How We Used It

One of the things I love to do is to walk my son through the courses that he’ll take.  He’s learning to figure out how much work he needs to do if he wants to get his work done in a certain time. So it’s nice when looking at a course to be able to show him the weeks and workload involved and how much credit he’ll get upon completion.

My son has a fairly busy school year so I made a point of picking something it would be fairly easy for him to work in around his other studies.  Since he was unable to take Drama at the local highschool this year, I thought taking the public speaking course would suit him well.   

I went to grade 10 course selections, and then to the drama and speech electives.  

I looked at two courses on SchoolhouseTeachers.com for public speaking, and since I can, I thought I’d combine them for my lad.  Isn’t that part of the joy of homeschooling?  You can use materials in a way that suit you best. 

Public Speaking SchoolhouseTeachers

I mashed these two courses to make a full credit course for him.   I added some speech analysis for him from different sources around the web, and from an older review.  It will take him the balance of the year to completely finish as he’s doing it as an add in around his other courses. 

Lessons come as PDF’s to download.  They were also easy to view online.  Printing them off was completely optional.  My lad likes to jot notes down.  I found the downloads were handled differently for each course.  In the Introduction to public speaking the lessons were one complete download, in advanced the downloads were divided up.  My son preferred the separate downloads. 

Each course delineates what to expect each week.  If desired, you can print this sheet off to facilitate completion. 

What we liked

I liked how the advanced public speaking course encouraged critical thinking.  Looking through a number of ways to evaluate speeches, and then coming up with a system that worked for that student.

A fun assignment was to pretend you were on Shark Tank.  We’re Canadian so we used the Canadian version called Dragon’s Den for our inspiration.  My son has a love of ants, so decided to talk about selling a formicarium for ants.  This gave him something to demonstrate as he talked about why his product was better than the competition. 

It was good to see him take something he loved (ants) and be able to use that in honing new skills (public speaking).   With their all in one curriculum, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has allowed to use some of his passion in developing skills for the future. 

schoolhouseTeachers.com logo

I have reviewed this digital curriculum several times in the past. Every time I have focused on different aspects of this tremendous resource. 

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/ and https://www.facebook.com/SchoolhouseTeachers
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOSMag/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosmagazine/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/   
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7i0BRyoTPYT3chTcj52UmA

Read SchoolhouseTeachers.com Reviews!

One of the amazing things about the crew is that everyone uses SchoolhouseTeachers.com differently.  Need proof?   Read the reviews from all members of the crew.  Our review types are varies: Video, social media, and blog posts.   Click the image below to read them!

click to read

Reading Goals for the New Year

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Reading Goals for the New Year?   What type of easy blog challenge is this?   AH… SUPER EASY!!!!   Let’s have fun eh?   Where applicable I’ll link to reviews of books, or affiliate links through Amazon.  

I’ll cover books I plan to read with the lad, show you the piles of books I have to go through, and show you my current reads.   Books are fun no?

reading Goals for the New year

Reading with My Lad

One of my joys is daily reading with my lad.  We’ve been continuing our exploration into the World Wars. We had planned to read the Diary of Anne Frank next, but somehow we had a kids version and that was annoying, so we’ve moved onto Memories of Anne Frank and we are going to do Life behind the Wall when we are finished it. 

We have this whole section of books to choose from.  Will we get through them all?  Most definitely not!  But it’s good to have books to choose from and decide if we’ll read through on our own or together or decide we’d rather not.  🙂   Options!

Books to Answer Questions

My 15-year-old is struggling with issues of faith, questioning even the existence of God.  It’s hard sometimes to make sense of God.  So last year I picked up a number of books to help me in answering his questions. 

Why Trust the Bible I am enjoying going through.  I’ll have to re-read it to help solidify ideas.  I like how he sees Christ as central to the bible and works in trusting the bible from that angle.   Unearthing the bible we picked up to go with Drive Through History. 

I’ll be starting Core 52 with him most likely next week, give him, hopefully, more opportunities to ask questions.  That’s all I’m aiming for, opportunities to ask questions as together we learn. 

My Book Options

At my bedside I find these books.  I have to admit, some have been sitting here for more than a year!   But eventually I’ll get through them!

I won 2/3’s of these books that sit beside my comfy chair, not sure if I’ll ever read them, a couple of them intrigue though: Five little Indians and The back of the turtle. 

Audible Reads

I often find myself listening to books as I work around the house.  Right now in fact (since this is an easy post to write) I am listening to a book on Audible called Mad Ship. Membership is easy and gives you a book per month to read/listen to, for generally less than half the price of a new book. 

Review Books

My love of reading also spills out in telling others about the books that I read, or books that can be discovered.  Below… books waiting my review!

Reading Goals for the New Year

As you can see, I’ve lots of books I can choose from this year to read from.  Books of faith, fiction, non-fiction and books to review.  All sorts of interesting, alarming, learn-fromable, and sometimes fun reads. 

Do you have books you choose to read or do you just read from what you have available?  Buy, borrow, be gifted with, new or used, books are meant to be enjoyed!  Have fun in your discoveries this year!   If you have a mind to, tell me what your reading goals are for the new year.

Amazon Links

January 2021
reading goals for the new year