A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Homeschooling

Art Book: Doll Crafts

By Leave a Comment

Today I have a fun book that has me wanting to build dolls or teach a class about making dolls.   I can’t say that teaching a bunch of girls is way high on my list of things to do… but this book has my inspired to perhaps break out of my comfort zone.  The book “Doll Crafts” by Laurie Carlson. 

Why does this book inspire such confidence in me, an ungirlie girl, who doesn’t like to sew or do dolly type stuff?  The variety of dolls to make.   And the detail they put into describing how to put them together.

And then there’s the patterns and the variety in accessories that even “I” should be able to make.   Clothes and puppies and patterns, houses and glasses and even hair!   It’s a cornucopia of ideas.

Not only that, the table of contents makes it very easy to find what you are looking for.  Two pages, divided into the following sections.   

  • Welcome to the Workshop: doll markers toolbox
  • The Adventure Begins: Dolls (this section is further divided into 15 subsections)
  • Dress them up: Doll Clothes and Accessories
  • Home Sweet Home: Dollhouses

I think about this book, and then consider some of the Popsicle crafts I’ve been seeing on Pinterest lately and I think wouldn’t that make a fun class to teach?

You need to check out some of the details on each page.

My Thoughts: 

Laurie Carlson has done a stellar job of putting together this doll craft book for children.  Clear instructions, lots of patterns, complete materials lists, history of the doll being made, and child friendly language.   Makes it a worthwhile book to get for your creative youngsters, or their parents who want the fun of making dolls for their children.   Can’t you just see your girls (or yourself) enjoying this book?  

Doll Crafts: A kid's guide to making simple dolls,
   clothing, accessories, and houses. 
Laurie Carlson
Chicago Review Press
Crafts, dolls, do it yourself, youth
trade paperback, 138 pages

Reviewed for Chicago Review Press.
  
Where can you find it?:  Amazon Link.

Field Trip: Ingersoll Cheese & Dairy Museum

By 2 Comments

The Ingersoll Cheese & Dairy Museum is another place we visiting with KICK this past year.  It was a good visit and very different from the Alymer Dairy Museum. 

The children started off their time here all gathered together in front of the MARVELLOUS wood carving which I would dearly LOVE to show you but they had this annoying little sign “No pictures please”.   GROWL.  I tell you it was FANTASTIC.  Someone took their time carving out the history of the pioneers coming, how they travelled by wagon, moved the milk jugs in the early days and what not.  The clearing of the roads.  The detail in this carving was simply amazing.  You are ever up in Ingersoll.. GO TO THE MUSEUM if only to see this wood carving. 

Anyways, it kept me fascinated while the children listened to and participated in the program they had prepared for them.  Learning to card wood, dressing up like pioneers and such like. 

The group was then divided in half with one group getting to play with the old time toys, and the other half touring the dairy museum.

We went to the dairy museum first.  They crammed a lot into this small barn.  They kept the youth in a small group and moved around in an organized fashion.  It was nice the building was small because then I could move around and take pics and be unobtrusive and still listen at the same time.  🙂 They gave the children ample time to ask questions.  Did you know they produced the largest cheese?   Amazing how big it was.

 

After this the children moved to playing with the older toys.  They made a number of fun today.  I’ll have to see if I can find my notes. 🙂  Here we go, my notes:

13 years to build wood carving of pioneer scene

What would bring along….chickens, turkeys, ducks, cow, horse, oxen, sheep, seed. Animals and plants that would help them start their new lives as farmers.

Showed how to work the wool you’d get from sheep

Children put on some of the clothes the pioneers would wear. Clothing made to last as long as possible. Made skirts longer and then hemmed short and let down as needed. Men with loose fitting clothes to help with doing all the physical work they engaged in.

Redcoats, would go along to help protect the settlers, also represented the government.

Three sisters corn beans squash. Corn supported bean, bean provided nitrogen, squash protected the roots. Large leaves shaded out the weeds.

In Canada we tended to get along with the natives, learning from them.

Ingersoll is a town built around the cheese industry.

The youth were able to practice walking on stilts, playing hand coordination games, Jacob’s ladder and other games. They worked on making simple animation toys and generally had a lot of fun playing.   

It was a rather cool day so none of us lingered long outside once the children were done playing.  Some of us left, others of us moved inside to enjoy the non-dairy part of the museum. 

It was a nice day out, good to chat with new members, good to have fun with each other.  My son would have preferred to tour the museums rather needing to sit through a pioneers presentation (as I think most of the older students would have too) but the stilts!  HUGE hit and a lot of fun.  🙂  As were the hand coordination games.  Makes me want to practice using pencils. 🙂

Review: Snow Lane

By 2 Comments

Sometimes you read a book that touches are a hard subject and you are left with… what do I say about this book?   DO I encourage people to read it?   How do I tell them how hard it is to read?  Should I let them in on the secret hiding behind the doors?  Snow Lane is one such book.

Snow Lane, a middle school read by Josie Angelini. A good book to read together and discuss.

Annie lives on Snow Lane.  One of nine siblings, she’s the youngest of the group and smart as a whip.  Her dyslexia causes her some problems but doesn’t slow her down too much.   Her first day of fifth grade her teacher issued a challenge to her students “I want you to start thinking of your place in the world…. instead of thinking of a job, I want you to think about how your talents could best serve the world…even if you have to invent a whole new career that they don’t have a name for yet, I want you to do it.  This year, I want you to find your destiny.”

Annie grabbed a hold of that idea, what could her destiny be?

This thought remained a constant in her life for the rest of the year.  Through the tough stuff that happened, and through the friendships she maintained, her openness, honesty and sense of humour proved to an important part of who she was.  We saw her so much wanting for the MORE of her family, her questioning of her Catholic faith, and her continued friendships with her schoolmates.

My Thoughts:

This isn’t what I would call an easy book to read, and a big part of me is hesitant about letting a middle schooler pick it up to read, yet at the same time wanting them to see Annie’s resilience.  I think I would be more inclined to want to read this book with them rather than say “here, go read it”.  You see that way, when things are tough for Annie and her family, you can talk about them together, and make the understanding and the hardship more manageable. Because that’s important when you are a middle schooler. 

MIddle school book that covers a difficult subject 
Snow Lane
Josie Angelini
Feiwel and Friends (MacMillan)
Trade Paperback, middle school, fiction, chapter book
Abuse, Character, Friendship, Loyalty
197 pages
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books. 

Where Can You find it? Amazon Link.

Other Middle School Books you might enjoy

Three great middle school reads.

Three middle school books.

Great Books for Middle School.

Books for your Middle Schooler.

Blog Images and Copyright

By 6 Comments

HEY!   Know what I just finished reading?  Being careful about the images you put up on your blog!  I KNOW.. it’s important stuff eh?  Because of all the things that you do with your blog you want to be careful that you don’t mess up your family finances because you didn’t exercise due care about the images you put up on your blog. Blog images and copyright is an important topic for bloggers to be aware of. 

My usual approach on this blog, in regards to blog images and copyright, is to use images that I or my family have taken ourselves.  I am not the worlds best photographer, but for background images where I want the text to be most important, it works eh?  Taking images of books and what not is easy enough eh?   But what do I do when I want a GOOD image for something?  

Do you think I should just go to google and grab an image?   THINK AGAIN!!!  Can you tell from looking at an image if it is copyrighted or not?   Do you think simple attrition is okay?  THINK AGAIN.  I know.. it’s a tough one eh?  I am not a lawyer, and I don’t understand all the ins and outs of photo usage, and frankly some of it doesn’t make sense to me, but what it comes down to is this… people don’t like other people using their images without permission.  Get permission OR use what is yours to use and don’t take it if you aren’t sure. 

What to do?

The easiest and best thing to do is to use your own images.   It’s to your own advantage right?   Line up some books, grab an image at a bookstore, or take a picture of some wildlife or nature scenery, use your children as a source and if you’re worried on how those images can be used on line, be judicious in how to you take pictures (like from behind or the side, or block out their face).   It’s so easy now-a-days with cellphones and tablets so easily at hand.   

If you can’t take your own though, or you needed something specific, what do you do?  

Where to find Blog Images

Well, you can look for public domain pictures.  Wiki has a list that you can find here. 

You can find photos under the Creative Commons rules.   Read the fine print.. can you use it for private or commercial use?  DO your research.  It’s important. 

You can buy a subscription to a site like PhotoSpin, StoryBlocks, ShutterStock and others.  Buy a subscription or an individual photo and work with it in your blog.  You are paying for fine quality photos. 

Utilize free image sites like Pixaby, Unsplash,  Startup Stock, StockSnap, Burst, Free Range, SplitShire, Gratisography, and more. You can find 21 different places listed here. 

Here’s a list of about 80 libraries you might want to make use of. 

Just be careful eh?   Be alert to what you are using it and WHERE you are using it.  Consider if you break copyright with places like Pinterest, twitter, facebook and such like. THEY won’t be held liable.. YOU will be. 

On ANY site that you go to, do your due diligence,  Read what they allow and don’t allow.  Decide if it’s in your budget to pay for images, and if it isn’t, make it work.  Be aware of the copyright issues.   Here’s another link you might want to check out. 

So mind your back, but have fun with your blogs, with your livelihood.  Don’t be helter-skelter in your approach to using images.  Get them from places you trust, or your own abilities.  Make your blog pretty, but be honest and be safe for all involved. 🙂 

 

original image from Kaboompics. 

A Week in the Life, Jan 27-Feb 2

By 8 Comments 

Ah, it's been a while since I've done a week in the life post... so let's see what I can pull together here.  :)One week in the life of a homeschooling family

Saturday:

We went in two different directions today.   The lad off to his karate grading, me to a ladies day away.  The lad wasn’t impressed I wouldn’t be at his grading but I couldn’t be in two places at once.  On a positive note his gramma came up and watched so that made my absence better.   🙂   

On the blog: 

StoveTop Mac & Cheese.
Review: Whoosh Boom Splat.

Sunday: 

Church at the local CRC, then a quiet Sunday.  Watched tv, played games, you know, we just chilled.

On The Blog: When Morning Gilds the Skies.

Monday:

The lad did ultrakey on line (review coming), practicing posture and hand positioning.   Unlock math soon followed.  Then we headed off to London where Hubby and I ran about town running errands and just spending time with each other.    The lad in the meantime spent time with his gramma, and did most of his bookwork.   They apparently headed out to McDonald’s for a ice cream treat…. “sorry I didn’t get all my work done mom!”  I just grinned at him.

On The Blog:

The Fun Parts of Homeschooling. 
Darius' Decree.  Devotional on Ezra 6:1-12
Review: Seized by the Sun. WW2 Women Pilot, Gertrude Tompkins

Tuesday:

Laundry day… got loads of laundry done as it was “was the sheets” day as well.  The lad worked studiously on his schoolwork getting done in excellent time (by 1 p.m.).  I was shocked at how quickly he got through everything even with two review materials to get through.    The rest of the day he did some work on an engineering project which “isn’t school because it’s fun to do”.   The lad’s night to cook, he made baked chicken drum sticks, mashed taters and mixed veggies.  Good meal.

On the Blog:

My Son's Favourite Stem Crates. 
The Temple is Completed.  Devotion Ezra 6:13-18.
A Poem by the Lad. made me smile so I thought I'd share it with you.  

Wednesday:

Foodbank in the morning.  The lad did most of his schooling there, helping out whenever requested.   The hours have changed 1/2 hour longer.   When we got home he did his online stuff, including watching Drive Through History Adventures while we had lunch.    The lad worked on his innovator’s project some more. In the evening he had his Karate practice….wearing his green belt now!  New Kata’s to learn.  My night to cook, and I made food.. trying to remember what… it was good, the lads enjoyed it cause we had no leftovers.

On the Blog: 

For the Lord Made Them Joyful.  Devotional on Ezra 6:19-22
Review: The Movie-Making Book. Learn to make better movies.

Thursday:

I had experienced some unexpected pain Wednesday which led into Thursday.  I couldn’t sit still without pain, so I kept myself busy.  I cooked most of the day, making pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice bread, apple pie, Bean salad, bread, some mousse tarts, and attempted some roasted chick peas…but they burnt cause the power went out and I got distracted and the power came on again and well… they burnt.. we rescued about 30 of them and boy.. they were good!   I’ll have to try that recipe again sometime.  The lad was ABSOLUTELY delighted that I said he could eat whatever he wanted for supper tonight… pumpkin pie and tarts were on the menu. 🙂   In the evening he had cadets, they were practicing for the snow derby this weekend.

On the Blog:

Use Strong Verbs.  Write better, a printable to help.
Review: 365 Bible Answers for Curious Kids.

Friday:

After all the activity of the day before I was beat all day Friday.  No zip to do much of anything.  I did manage to make supper… I used some canned beef, mixed it with some rice and mushrooms and some teriyaki sauce and fried it all up.. it was good.  The lad tasted some sans the mushrooms and gave it a thumbs up and hubby stole part of it too… making lunch on Saturday smaller for me. 🙂   The lad worked on his research project, this week he chose to do a video from his list.   He also worked on making a ground hog mound from some marshmallows.  He’s not done yet as he’s doing it a rather interesting way.  Good STEM project.

 

Tomorrow the lads have a Cadet event… a snow derby.   They are hopeful to bring home some ribbons.  I’ll have the house to myself so plan to get some reviews done and some blog posts written.   Hopefully I’ll have more energy than I did on Friday. 

On The Blog: 

A Conversation Runs. a Five minute Friday Word prompt post.  A poem.

Linking up at the following:

Homeschool Coffee Break. 
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. 
Friday Funnies Flops and Fails.

Use Strong Verbs

By 10 Comments

Want to improve your writing?  Do you desire to make it more interesting?  Writing that grabs people in and makes them to digest all that you have to say to them?  Then mind the verbs that you use.  Look for the active, use the passive only when you need to.   Strengthen your writing skills.

improve your writing, use active voice.

Did you know that verbs fit into three categories?

  • If the subject performs the action of the verb, we call the verb active.
  • If the subject receives the action of the verb, we call the verb passive.
  • A verb that is neither active or passive is a linking verb, a form of the verb to be.

Consider these lines from Treasures in the Snow by Patricia M. St. John: “His father wished he had known of this, so that he could have put a chocolate stick on the step, for he hated to disappoint his boy.  However, open the back door he must, to roll the milk churns across to the stable; so he lifted the latch.  In an instant Dani had dived between his legs like a rabbit, and was kneeling by his slipper in the snow.”   Oh… can’t you just picture it?  Doesn’t it draw you right in?

Use your verbs, use them well.   Don’t over use them…by adding too much colour with the active voice.  Be aware of how much passive voice you are using as you want to keep the action moving, or the emotions properly felt etc.  Using an active voice in your writing requires the use of strong verbs. 

What do strong verbs do?

Strong verbs convey characters, save excess words, and create movement. 

Remember that active voice has nothing to do with tense.  Tense is in the past, present or future.  It doesn’t convey action, just merely when an event occurs.  Voice is what defines the relationship between the subject and the verb, basically who does what. 

As you are writing, and rewriting, make sure you watch what you are doing with your verbs.  Are you conveying the feelings, action and characters they way you want?   Are you showing your readers what they need to see, feel and want to know?

Do you want to practice what you have learned?    Check out this worksheet. 

Interested in other writing tips?
Order Words for Emphasis
Setting Goals, Regain the LoveOn being a write - arrange

 

 

Review: The Movie Making Book

By 2 Comments

You know how sometimes you can run across a book and think….wow.. this is just a fun how-to book?   Well, The Movie Making Book is one such book.   In this book you will find skills and projects to help you make better movies.  Loads of helpful tips and suggestions for the budding movie director. 

Nine Sections make up this creative, colourful book that is just loaded with good ideas to help the budding movie maker learn the necessary skills to be great. Also has a getting started and equipment Guide. 

  • Getting started
  • Movie Shots
  • Movie Skills
  • Special FX Shots
  • Editing Your Movies
  • Super Sounds
  • Movie-making Projects
  • Making Programs
  • Movie-making Stories
  • Share Your Movies
  • Equipment Guide

This book is brought to us by Dan Farrell and Donna Bamford who have been leading film-making schools for young people for more than 10 years.  They have a wealth of experience in teaching young people the film industry. 

Each lesson is set out in an organized fashion, listing the equipment, along with letting us know why a lesson is important to learn, pro tips and how-to’s.  Though it’s not pictured in the image below, each lesson comes with plenty of images to help cement the learning.   The text is written to be clearly understood by youth without talking down to them.  Creativity is encouraged, along with the sense of “you can do this”.  Lots of helpful how-to’s are given along the way from adding music, to how to shoot an angle to give the impression you are not on land, how to make an introduction and more. 

The pro-tips that are included throughout the book were spot on and helpful. 

It would be so easy to use this book, and all it’s accompanying projects to do a movie-making credit with your students.  Teach them how to do a storyboard, costumes, sound effects and more.

My Thoughts:

This is a fascinating and helpful book, geared to helping younger people figure out the ins and outs of making a movie.  Filled with helpful tips, reasons why it’s important, and great images to help bring concepts to life. If you have a student eager to make movies, this well put together book will meet their needs quite nicely. 

 

  
The Movie Making Book: Skills and Projects
    To learn and share
Dan Farrell
Donna Bamford
Chicago Review Press
Page 144, middle school
Trade Paperback

Reviewed for Chicago Review Press.

Where to find it: Amazon Link.