A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Homeschooling

Arcade Tinker Crate

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My son has been getting tinker crates for quite a while now.  This one he did a while ago and he pulled it out the other day just to make sure it still worked.  Sometimes I wonder if he’ll ever rehome any of them, his shelf is pretty full of finished projects. 

arcade tinker crate

I remember it took a bit finally complete and we had a lot of fun with the tiny guys… both as arcade items to capture and just in playing.  They turned out to be rascals who got into everything and found ways to tease the lad.  🙂 (yes we had a lot fun together).  🙂  It’s been oh… about a year, possibly longer…

What you get with a Tinker Crate:

A tinker zine, directions, a kit to build.  Those are the basics.  What they don’t tell you included is fun, creativity, wheels turning in young minds, what ifs, and could I try….Seeing my son mature in his skills with the crates and his burgeoning confidence that he can come up with ideas and make things on his own.  It’s a great thing indeed!

arcade tinker Crate

You see what Tinker Crates does is give young people a proven kit, they give excellent instructions that if the builder follows them, ends in a well finished product.  Mastering this skills has the benefit of teaching coordination, thinking through problems one step at a time, pride in a build well done, and the fun of success. 

Kiwi and Tinker Zines:

The Tinkerzine opens their eyes to new possibilities, and real world applications.  Providing links to interesting sights, books to increase awareness, and the “did you know factor” that so intrigues young people (and their parents for that matter).  The things we have learned is amazing. 

Some of the magazines will come with comics, others with a lot of facts.  Regardless of the style, the learning received is more than you would expect. I find that the kiwi crates use more cartoons than the tinker crates (but that would also be age related right?)  Tinker crates are geared for youth 9+.   Information to draw the student in andarcade tinker crate

Additional builds to make.  Every kit will come with additional projects to try.  Sometimes this will be with materials added to the crate, other times you need to use items you find at home. 

arcade tinker crates

As I said earlier, if you follow the instructions the builds are easy enough to put together.  Complicated steps just require you the slow down and take it step by step.

arcade tinker crate

Here my son demonstrates how well the claw works from the Arcade box.

I urge you to check out Kiwi Co for their crates.  They have some for most age groups.  Tinker crates are a welcome part of our household, make them part of yours too.  See the confidence, knowledge and excitement build.  

Canada Day Resources

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Fireworks for Canada, post with resources to help you celebrate

Canada Day is right around the corner, coming up this Sunday.  It’ll be a nice day to celebrate I hope (it’s supposed to be hot).  A time for parades, cool drinks, hot dogs around a fire with family and friends, and then gathering with the community to watch fireworks.  It’s always a grand night. 

How does one celebrate Canada?  

Well, first off you need to dress the part.
Moose, geese, maple leaves, flags and more.
The colours red and white are found galore.
As one and all show their heart.

(want to make your own?)

Then

Find a parade, a band or two.
Floats, and horses, a bikes a plenty
Honking, shouting, beeps and roars
Follow the flag to the community centre.

(Nation’s capital, Canada Place, or join our family.)

Followed By:

See cars, and bouncy castles, 
Popcorn and cupcakes,
Music and dance
Face-painting, and crafts.

Canada Day Bracelet, Noisemaker, Coasters, headband, and handprint flags.

cupcakes decorated for Canada Day
Now watch

Sparklers, and coloured lights
Games of chase, dogs bark
Balls, bikes, Smoke starts to rise
Then boom and spark, Flash and sizzle.
POP!

Fireworks in a Jar, Fork Fireworks, Shaving Cream Fireworks, and wet Chalk fireworks. 

fireworks for Canada Day

Other Canada day posts are from Canada Day Celebrations and Celebrate Canada’s Birthday.  Now head on over to the crew (open on Thursday) and see what others have to say about this holiday (and others that happen around the same time). 

National Holiday Resource Round Up 2018 {Homeschool Link UP}

Introducing our Summer Schedule

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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so I thought I’d introduce you to our summer routine.  We do tend to homeschool year round, but in the summer life changes. School still happens but often in ways that are not known at the beginning of the summer.

Introducing our Summer Schedule

Our focus is on: Language arts, math and reading.   When the lad and I were talking about our summer schedule I told him my non-negotiables and asked what he wanted to do over the summer (because the how doesn’t always matter).  He surprised me by adding a number of other items.  He wanted to continue with Drive thru History, weekly projects, and more.

Summer Schedule 2018

The reviews that we do will vary depending on what we have on the dock to work on, and our interest in them.  For instance we just finished reviewing a program called MaxScholar that he won’t be continuing for the rest of the summer.   His current plan is to finish reading through the biography section in the fall. 

MaxScholar

Since it is summer though our view is also this.  If we have something better to do, then schooling through books or videos drops to the wayside.   This week he worked through his schedule on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was plumb full of foodbank working, trips to Noah’s Ark to drop of yard sale leftovers, followed by a trip to London to shop and visit gramma. 

Thursday the lad did his basics only, we’d planned to do a couple of review things but I wasn’t up to par yesterday so that fell to the wayside.  On Friday we watched a lesson on geology and dinosaurs and then binged watched Drive Thru History.  🙂  That was fun.  The lad also started working on STEM project a model DaVinci had drawn out.  It’s maybe 1/3 the way done. Gave me a bit of time to write some blog posts too that has just not been happening.  Booked an appointment for a job interview and confirmed a doc appointment for the lad and… moved some bricks around.

Watching Drive Thru History

I dragged the lad outside to help me with a project I’ve had in my mind for the past couple of weeks, moving my cinderblocks to a better location and cutting off my tarp holders and putting them in storage.

Organizing our cinderblocks

Friday evening we went to a friends graduation ceremony.  It was really good to go, gave us a good idea what to expect for next year when the lad graduates grade 8. 

graduation

Saturday my lad got his advanced Green Belt.  It’s good to watch all these students increase their skill set. 

It wasn’t what I could call the most exciting week but when one’s health is being irritating, sometimes a lack of excitement is called for. 🙂

Revitalize Your Prayer Life

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I don’t know if you recall that a while back I was feeling distant from God due to all the changes we’ve been experiencing in our lives.  I was feeling a real need to find a way to connect to God.  Hubby suggested that I use an app called PrayerMate.  It sends an reminder to pray which “isn’t all demandy or in my face” but just an encouragement to keep praying about the things that are important.

PrayerMate App

Let me walk you through how it works.

When you set Prayer Mate up it has a number of lists that you can join.  I chose the following:

  • My Walk with God
  • My family
  • My church
  • Sharing my faith
  • World mission
  • Biblical Prayer
  • Praying for hubby
  • Praying for children
  • and others

You can choose others or create your own lists.   Then each day a list to pray through is created for you.  And a reminder is sent.  My reminder comes at night around 8 p.m.   Five items are chosen from my lists to pray for, never two from the same list.   Today I would be praying with Paul, growing more like Jesus, praying for my lad, praying for the church, and for a missionary family.  This list changes from day as you can see from my image below.

PrayerMate App

Swiping to the left starts you off with your first prayer

Prayer Mate App

Some of the prayers are quite long, causing you to scroll down the page.  They are all easily readable, and you can either pray them as is or reword as needed.

I really like that I can add things in that I want to remember to pray for. For instance I have days that I pray for my neighbours, people on the crew, my family of birth and so forth.

Prayer Mate App

I can’t say it’s perfect, it isn’t.. because I (yes me) am so not perfect.  It sends reminders and there are days I just don’t take the necessary time.  BUT if I do choose to use it my prayer time can last as little as five minutes or as long as 20, all depending on what the Lord lays on my heart and how much I just need to talk to go about the good things and the hard things in life.

My hubby first learned of this app through Challies.  You might wish to read his review of this helpful app as well.

You can also learn more about it here.

I encourage you to get this app, you will find it invaluable for helping you pray more effectively and also just to remind you to take the needed time to connect with him.  Not just a “give me give me” but a thank you for all the many things the Lord provides us with.    Find PrayerMate here.

So Tall Within

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So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom is a lovely, meaty picture book containing poignant statements and images to that speak to the truth of hard times and hope.  I loved reading through this book and showed it to a fellow homeschool mom who asked “Can I take this home and read it?”  That makes for a nice book eh?   Let me then, tell you all about it. 

So Tall Within, my review

Written by Gary D. Schmidt, So Tall Within walks us through the life of Sojourner Truth on her way to freedom and living as an adult with a mission… freedom for slaves.   I loved the set up of this lovely picture book, which is geared toward children 4-8 years old.  The vignettes that opened each chapter spoke truth about what slavery was and did to the people trapped within that way of living.  This opening page set the tone for the rest of the book, showing the promise within the hardship.  I just loved how aptly the text fit the image created by Daniel Minter. 

So Tell Within

Schmidt walks us through Sojourner’s life, starting with her life as a slave with her momma Mau-mau Bett, learning to remember who her siblings were, to her eventual slavery, through the promise of freedom and finally needing to seize it. She married whom she was told to, had children and found her way to freedom with the help of good people.  Despite her inability to read, she knew the law and her rights and fought for them. And through that, she developed her mission in life.  Tell her story, help bring about freedom for others.  And so Sojourner Truth walked and taught, and walked some more, telling her story to any who would listen.  She travelled through Michigan, Iowa, Washington D.C, and beyond.  Talking and walking, it was her life’s work fighting for freedom.  

So tall within

Interspersed among the 48 pages of the lovely book that causes one to think, ask questions, and ponder the will of a strong woman, are lovely pictures.  Oh my!  They are wonderful pictures filled with tons of images to point out to a young child, or that will inspire the thinking in an older one. 

Images that are full of colour and darkness and light. Images to grab the artist within you and make you ponder all the more the story of Sojourner Truth.  Seeing her faith, seeing her determination, seeing her will to succeed.  Sojourner fought for what is right and didn’t let time or distance stop her. 

So Tell Within

She had help along the way, and we are shown that help.  We saw her loss and fear.   The Slavery was a Time images pulled out truth as we entered into a new part of Sojourner’s life. 

Get this book. Read it with your youngsters.  Use it as a start to a study on Black History. Let your teens read it as well!  It’s not just a book for littles, but for anyone wanting to know more about Sojourner Truth and the struggles that black people had coming out of slavery.   It was a tough time, but determination… wow.. it wins through. 

So Tall within

 

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom
Gary D. Schmidt
Daniel Minter (illustator)
Roaring Brook Press
48 pages, 4-8 years, Softcover, Picture Book
Biography, History, Black history
Reviewed for Raincoast Books
Find it on Amazon.
disclosure

The Secrets of Radar Museum

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In the spring the lad and I had the delight (along with Dad) of going to the Secrets of Radar Museum.  We arrived a touch late due the museum moving but it ended up working out okay.

Secrets of Radar Museum

I am not going to put all the pictures in this post of what we saw there, as there were a good variety of exhibits and points of interest.

I’ll just point out some highlights.

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

The tour guide took the time to point out the number of different uniforms for the radar division and those attached to it.   The hand with with the charges was a specific badge of the corps. She explained the whole making of it but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten in the meantime. 

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

I do recall her explaining how when the radar division was shut down a lot of the records were destroyed, particularly that of the women that were part of the unit. This makes it very hard for them to get an accurate history of the numbers involved and what positions they all held.

While the tour guide was showing the children around I took the time to read the various plaques they had up explaining different points.

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

There was so much there of interest to me, from learning the role of women, to learning about the planes they used, to seeing the equipment that was put into use.

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

One of the things my son liked was learning about the equipment they used and learning how the radar messages worked. The word RADAR is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging, and in its simplest form it consists of a transmitted radio signal aimed by an antenna in a particular direction, and a receiver that detects the echoes off any objects in the path of the signal.

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

He was unimpressed by some of the misleading information given, when they talked about only the women files being destroyed when in actuality all the reserves and temporary staff information was also destroyed.  

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

The final part of our tour had the students divide up into two groups.  One to have a paper airplane contest and the other to learn about the Shortwave and Radar in Canada today.  The students were able to view the various aircraft flying into London and the importance of using shortwave, being introduced to some of the rules surrounding it’s use and more.  The students seemed most intrigued by the number of flights they could see.

secrets of radar museum, London, ON

  It was a good visit to this small museum, we learned a lot.  I would recommend you take your children or homeschool group there as well.  Learn our history eh?

Review: Silverdale Press

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Rhetoric anyone?  Do you know how to write a skillful, artistic and persuasive speech?  Introducing Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers by Silverdale Press LLC. Learning to think persuasively with great speeches from the past. Come read our review.

Silverdale Press

You see that boy in my opening image?  That would be my son.  He’s just about to explain to me what he thinks of John F. Kennedy’s speech about the space program.   This time of discussion has been a blessing in our household over the past few weeks.  Silverdale Press’s, Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric program has been a boon to our household. 

Who is Silverdale Press?

Silverdale Press was founded by Joshua and Jill Hummer.  Their aim is to help middle and high school students cultivate knowledge and improve their skill sets.  In that quest they aim to teach the ways of great leaders, writers, thinkers, and citizens.

Silverdale Press

How is the course set up?

I received four PDF’s from Silverdale Press

  1. Rhetoric Answer Book
  2. Rhetoric Lesson Book
  3. Rhetoric Reader
  4. Rhetoric Workbook

The Lesson Book sets out a schedule to follow weekly.  There are 36 lessons divided into five sections. Each lesson is designed to be completed in one week. The five sections are introduction, invention, arrangement, style, and conclusion.  

Silverdale Press

Each lesson in the workbook spelled out each of these steps specifically. The lessons include topics such as Stasis theory, emotional appeals, taking notes and developing a reading list.   People studied vary from John Locke to John F. Kennedy to E.B. White.

Silverdale PressSetting reading goals had my son doing something he normally doesn’t do (though I’ve been trying to encourage for the past two years) but having it as part of a lesson seems to have spurred him on.   “Mom, I have a list of books that I want to read though they aren’t the type that Kennedy would read.  I want to read “The Hobbit” “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings”. ”   Did you catch that?   NOT ones that Kennedy would read (see… he remembers!!!!!) AND he came up with a list of books that he wants to read for himself.   I totally call that a win!

Silverdale press

What books would you put on this list?  

There are massive amounts of pages in these ebooks, The lesson book 235, workbook 202, answer book 65, and reader 111. You can choose to print it all off or print off only what you need to.  At this point, I’ve been printing the speeches and the review questions only.   

Each week finishes off with an essay challenge based on a major point of the speech reviewed.   “Give me ______ or give me death”.   “We Choose to ________”     By the end of the 36 week study you’ll have received lessons in what real writers do, how to pitch your work and handling rejection.  The aim is to produce better writers, and writers want to be published. 🙂

Silverdale Press

How did we use it?

This is a high-school level course and my son is a rising eight grade student.  This meant I adapted the program to suit our needs.

The first lesson we broke over two weeks.  Taking time to thoroughly discuss the speech we were given.  We learned new words, figured out what rhetoric was, and just talked.  We talked while feeding our rabbits, and going for a walk, this wasn’t a sit down and think about it lesson…this was an on-going discussion for us.  Part of the requirements was to write an 500 word essay.  I simply told my lad, write an essay based on the prompt. I’ll write one too and then we’ll talk about each others essays.   Admittedly this was HARD for my lad.  Coming up with something to write about (even with a prompt) and then figuring out how to write the essay… tough job.   I walked him through how I was writing my essay and from that he was able to put something together but wasn’t happy with it and actually wanted to totally rewrite it.

Surgery happened.  The essay got put to the wayside.  I  started to work my way through lesson two, discovering something wonderful.  My lad didn’t want me to work through it on my own.  He wanted to continue to chat with me.  Since he wasn’t allowed (Doctor’s orders) to do school for two weeks I put it on hold.   For the past two weeks we’ve been talking about Kennedy’s space speech. All this discussion and coming up with ideas.  It’s been a hoot.   Could you imagine a world with all self-driven cars?

I’m not requiring an essay from him at this point.  We’ve decided that for now, we will just discuss the speeches, we’ll learn new terminology and do the lessons, but mom will write an essay, and the lad will critique and together we’ll make it the best we can.  The lad will talk about an idea he has, and the arguments he would use to persuade his audience of its merits.   For instance the lesson on Patrick Henry had him discussing with parents the merits of a good video game and how it doesn’t rot your brain.   

Our plans are to work our way through each lesson (taking a couple of weeks to do so) over the next year or so.. and then when the lad is in grade 10 we’ll do the course again, this time with an essay requirement being part of it.  When we do so, I will make full use of the answer key which provides correct answers and a rubric for the essays. Silverdale Press

Our Recommendation:

This highschool level class has been a lot of fun to work through with my seventh grade student. We are far from done, but we are looking forward to our next lessons.  My son wanted me to assure parents with grade seven and eight students to not be afraid to get this course.  It’s alot of fun to talk about ideas, and to try to figure out ways to make an essay or speech more persuasive.  Silverdale Press has produced a stellar program with their Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric class.  It’s been very good to be about practicing the habits of great writers.  As a parent I liked how they organized all their workbooks and setting out a good way to approach it. It helped me to break down a bit more for my lad.  The side benefit is that I am learning as well.  This is an excellent course for parents wanting to increase their skills as well. 

Silverdale Press

 

Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers
Silverdale Press LLC

Ages 14-18
Homeschool High school, homeschool writing curriculum,
Digital, Ebook, PDF
Rhetoric, Persuasive writing, Speech

Homeschool Review Crew Reviews:

The crew reviewed two products from Silverdale Press

Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers – ages 14-18
White House Holidays Unit Studies – ages 5-18 

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