A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

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Canadian Online Homeschool Conference

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Put on by Canadians, but not only for Canadians. 🙂    Welcome to the Canadian Online Homeschool Conference.   34 speakers, about 40 topics.  In both French and English (not all sessions, just some).  Sessions for parents, kids, youth, highschool, homeschooling, preparing for beyond college and more.  

canadian Online Homeschool Conference

Some details for you

REGISTRATION FOR THE 2020 CANADIAN ONLINE HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE IS OPEN!

This year, you have two options. The first is to join us for free – this will give you access to daily sessions for 24 hours (until Midnight Eastern) starting on February 5th.

The second is to grab a Complete Access Pass. It’s only $17 (until Feb 12th). You will get lifetime access to all sessions on the 5th to watch at your leisure.

Find out what sessions we have this year, see the speakers that we have lined up, and grab your spot now!

access pass for Canadian online homeschool conference

Some Sessions To Perk your interest

Homeschooling Sessions

  •  How Can I Get My Kids To ‘KNOW’ Their Times Tables?
  • Gameschooling
  •  Why Homeschooling Your Child With Unique Needs is a Good Choice

French

  • Découvrir les étoiles et les constellations 
  • Apprendre en s’amusant avec les technologies

Kids and Youth

  • Learning About Rabbits  
  • Start Your Own Business
  • Watercolour Ice Cream Cones
alphabet

Others in this Series

For the Love of a Stink Bug

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My son has this thing for bugs.  He thinks they are such interesting little critters.  Today he was researching flies since he found one that was green!  He learned that the iridescent ones I am catching on the fly paper in the rabbitry are bot flies.  We haven’t figured out what type of fly it is yet. 

We were fascinated by a tiny spider we discovered Monday, that looked a bit like sparrow poop!  It was a fascinating little spider and I tried mightily to get a video of it but just couldn’t get it to come in clearly.  

Anyways, this lad has shown me his heart in the care he bestows upon these wee ones of creation.  He researches and studies, he’s learned where to ask questions, and he spends so much time looking and watching and learning.  He’s lately starting to gravitate toward ants and recently captured a wild carpenter ant colony.  He’s checking it regularly to see if he can find the queen. If he has the queen he’ll have a long working colony.

This post isn’t about ants though!  🙂  It’s about my lad’s heart and his love of the creepy crawlies in our world.

Stink Bug on red string

I saw this clearly when he had discovered a stink bug in the house last fall.  They don’t stay over the winter and tend to die off fairly quickly when frost hits.  Occasionally they make their way into the house and we find them when we step on them (don’t do that by the way, they will live up to their name). Knowing this my son argued about the need to keep him in the house where it was warm.  He didn’t bite, just a harmless fellow, so I said “sure, do what you can for him.”   He found an old crate that we got some Easter bears in added popsicles sticks, bottle caps, felt and string to make a nice living area for a climbing bug. 

stink bug habitat

Anyways, this green fellow intrigued my lad, so he figured out how to care for him, and built it a habitat.   He fed it a variety of food – predominately apples, oranges, some pomegranate, tomatoes and lettuce. That wee stink bug kept going over most of the winter. 

When finally Stink Bug bit the dust there was much sadness in our house as he was the perfect house guest.  He made no fuss, and NO STINK, and ate a good variety of feed.  My son loved watching him climb around in his habitat. Toward the end of his days he found ways to escape his habitat but never ventured far much to my lad’s delight.  Isn’t that what we want for ALL our pets?  🙂

stink bug habitat

Interested in doing your own insect research?  Discover the fascinating world of insects!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com also has a bug class.  Did you know that right now if you become a member you can get two years for the price of one?  I KNOW!  It’s an amazing deal.  School for your whole family for one low price!

schoolhouseteachers bugs

My Son’s Favourite STEM Crates

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My son and I have been doing KiwiCrates for a while now, and last year finally upgraded to doing the TinkerCrates. Tinker Crates are for kids 9-16.  They are a bit more involved and have a fair number of projects available to them in the TinkerZine

I thought today I would talk with you about some of my lad’s favourite crates that have come to us via kiwi/tinker crates.  He’s done a lot of crates so it’s a tiny bit hard to choose. 🙂  Suffice it to say, he’s had lots of opportunity to do STEM projects.

Tinker crates are so much fun. Here are my son's favourites

First up: DaVinci’s Clock.  You know a good crate when it’s still being used long after it was made. 

 

There’s the planetarium, which he uses to light starts up on his ceiling at night.   I still remember his joy when he got it all put together. 

I haven’t written about this one yet, but the lad still plays games with the Tinker Crate Arcade game.  And some how unbelievably I can’t find a good picture of it to share with you!  GAH!!!   Sometimes.. oh sometimes I just want a different camera.  🙂   But hey… trust me.. he plays with it.  It’s like the toss the ball to get it into a hole…. except he’s made all kinds of interesting rules to go along with it.  🙂

What else does he still do stuff with?

There’s the claw and the fuzzy minions.  🙂  (at least that’s what I call them).  This made up a carnival type game where you have a claw and try to grab a stuffie.  These fuzzy minions have been a lot of fun in our household. 

The Fibre-optic Constellation he was quite pleased to have managed to figure out. It was quite complicated to build.   Took him much longer than most build.  You probably can’t see how the stars light up, but it looks very neat in a dark room. It’s another light he puts on while reading before bed. 

Ah before I forget, I must not neglect to mention the Spy Case.  This provided a lot of fun for the lad, sneaking around corners and peering into things.  🙂   And how doesn’t like writing in invisible ink?   

Anyways, Tinker Crates have been a boon to our household, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this peak into some of the favourites of my lad.   

——–

Don’t forget!  SchoolhouseTeachers.com is on sale!  WOOT WOOT!!!   more than 350 courses, covering grades k-12, Good for the whole family.  Classes to entertain, to educate, to inspire, and you get World Book online, and planners and you know.. I can’t list it all.  Seriously.. CHECK IT OUT!  If you need to know more reasons check out this post. Use the codes, get an excellent deal. Maintain this low fee status whenever you renew. 

NotebookingPages is On Sale!!!

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Guess what starts today?!?!?!   From January 24 through to January 26, NotebookingPages is on sale!  WOOT WOOT!!!!

Oh…you don’t know what notebookingpages.com is?
Well if you want you can read my review of them. 

But seriously, notebookingpages.com is a fantastic resource for finding and making and using notebooking pages.   Pages to help your children learn memory verses, or show what they know on a given topic.  They are constantly making new pages, and many of their pages can be used.

Here’s a sample of just some of their pages.  They have topics for little kids, and bigger kids.  Science, history, geography, art, bible, character, and well…just about anything you can think of.  They have blank sheets for when you just NEED something.   It’s seriously a great resource… and you really should avail yourself of the opportunity to get their lifetime membership now. Take advantage of the sale eh?

STEM: 3D viewer by Tinker Crates

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My son and I have been doing KiwiCrates for a while now, and last year finally upgraded to doing the TinkerCrates. Tinker Crates are for kids 9-16.  They are a bit more involved and have a fair number of projects available to them in the TinkerZine.

When we first started doing the crates, the lad needed a lot of support from me in order to finish them, so I think it is just superb watching his confidence blossom.  It admittedly took a while for my sensitive minded boy to realize that as much as mom LIKES building these crates with him, I also LOVED watching him branch out on his own with Tinker Crates.  Now of course, there is no stopping him.

Recently he took on this project “3D Viewer”

It was great to watch him work through the stages to building it, step by step.  He played close attention to the instructions. The instructions are so clear, and the images show the pieces exactly, so properly making the3D viewer is pretty easy to do “as long as you pay attention, make sure you tell them that part okay mom?”.   So pay attention, don’t miss steps, and you can make your own 3D Viewer.

Slowly but surely it came together.   Piece upon piece, fitting together just perfectly.

It hardly seemed like anytime had passed and he was calling me “come see mom, come see”.  And low and behold we had a 3D viewer.

Once he finished this big build he turned his attention to the smaller activities found in the tinker zine.   Here he learned about perspective by looking at some art, and playing with 3D mirrors.

My son really likes the tinkerzines because “they tell you stuff, like more about what you just built, and teach you new ways to look at stuff”.   “They give you good small projects to try too”.

After seeing how perspective was influenced by a 3d mirror he had a chance to try his hand at drawing within that knowledge.  It worked!   I’m glad he figured it out because I struggled with this one.  He’s got a better grasp on the spatial aspect of things I guess.

  To see this viewer being built, check out this video.

Anyways, Tinker Crates are a great monthly addition to our home.  I hope you will consider them for your home as well.  They are a great way to involve your children in a monthly STEM project and have fun learning.  Foster that independence, learn some good science, you never know where it will take you.

In case you are curious, Kiwi Crates also makes crates for children of all ages and interests.  Cricket, Koala, Kiwi, Doodle and Tinker.  I am tempted to get the doodle crate as well….just to see what type of activities they put in them for artists to do.   But so far, the Tinker Crates are a hit.

Now if you want to round our your experiences with Tinker Crates, NotebookingPages.com will be on sale January 24-26. Here you can find all sorts of notebookingpages to help round our your studies with the Tinker Crate.  It’s worth your time to check out their lifetime membership.

Reasons to Consider SchoolhouseTeachers.com

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I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t tell you about the sale that SchoolhouseTeachers.com has going on right now.  SERIOUSLY remiss.   This is such a fantastic offer you won’t want to miss out on it.

Only 90$ for a whole year!   Huge savings!

Imagine with this….. over 350 classes across the spectrum from little ones all the way through mom and dad.

PDF’s to print off yes…not huge deal, it’s just paper and time right? So many of them you can just read off your screen rather than printing them off.  Reading is reading, you know?  The very positive part…. there are so many options, so many different classes, that you can choose subjects that YOUR children are interested in.  Why not make the learning easier by giving them material that totally floats their boat?  You can print off the list of classes and help your children foster some independence by just telling them.. pick three, any three, doesn’t matter which.  What are you most interested in learning about?

Or show them a grade list.

Also, I don’t know if you are familiar with World Book online? Guess what comes as part of your subscription… I KNOW!!!  It’s so great!!!   All that trusted knowledge right at your finger tips.

Molly Green is now part of SchoolhouseTeachers, pretty neat eh?  Helping you make frugal decisions, caring for friends and family as best you can, be mindful of your home.   An excellent resource.

Don’t forget about the magazines.  Totally free all the time. Yes, you can use the free app, but isn’t it easier to read on a bigger screen?  Neat eh?   All that reading and encouragement eh?

What else can I tell you that might sell you on SchoolhouseTeachers.com?  Oh…more and more classes are adding a video component.   Great eh?   Consider Drive Through History.  A well-done video with an accompanying worksheet.

So many reasons to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com.   The fact that it is on sale, right now, is only icing on the cake.  Don’t miss out!  $90 for a whole year of learning for your entire family (or if you prefer $9.95 per month).

I appreciate this site so much I’ve written about them off and on over the years.

Review 2017. Interesting courses. Poetry Links.

Grade Seven Curriculum Choices

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 Today on the Homeschool Review Crew Five Day Blog Hop we are talking about Curriculum.

http://www.anetintime.ca/2017/08/grade-seven-curriculum-choices.html

I thought I would take a moment to talk about the materials the lad and I hope to use this year.


I’ll start with the easy stuff

Make Electronics.  One of my goals for the lad is that he have a job in the trades.. so that EVEN IF he wants to get a teaching, pastoral, blue-collar job at maturity, this will give him something he can do on the side or use as a fall back.   He’s already ruled out plumbing and expressed an interest in learning electronics… so I found this book for him on Amazon.  This summer I picked up a few electrical things (cameras, clock radios and the like) for him to tear apart with his dad and learn a thing or two.
 Links to amazon.ca  and amazon.com if you want to get it for your own student.

Unlock Math.  We reviewed this online math curriculum earlier this year.  The lad likes it and since he’s happy and learning, I’m also happy.

Science Spine.   God’s Design by Answers in Genesis. Just as we did last year we’ll play around with this curriculum a bit.  Watching youtube videos, reading books about the subjects that interest us, doing experiments etc.

Canada History Spine. Last year my lad used these books as a jumping off point for doing his own research, we’ll continue that this year.  Reading through one section a week and the lad doing research online or in the library.  Most will be written reports, but I’ll have him do longer things like dioramas and what not as well to work on different ways of presenting a report.   We’ll use it to pick art projects and stuff.

Logic of English: The lad has expressed an interest in improving his spelling, grammar, and such like.   And since we have Logic of English in the house I figure I’ll use it.  

What else will we be doing?
Well I have these shelves eh?

http://www.anetintime.ca/2017/08/grade-seven-curriculum-choices.html

Bottom shelf – where he stores his “actively working on materials” as well as some Shakespeare and French Lessons.

Middle shelf is mostly curriculum and binders to hold worksheets etc.

Top shelf is 90% resource materials that it would be fun to go through.

Then I have HIS book shelves and no, he won’t read all these but I will pick from them for read-togethers.

grade seven curriculum choices

Our Fridays are filled with doing everything differently, so we do STEM, art, field trips, co-op and more.   These shelves help with that.

http://www.anetintime.ca/2017/08/grade-seven-curriculum-choices.html

My goal is to keep everything organized so we can always find what we need easily. I hated it last year when books kept disappearing since the lad would just drop them randomly throughout the house.  So having dedicated shelves and a spot where the lad can put loose sheets or “I’m actively working on this” materials should help with that.

A good number of us from the crew are taking part.  I urge you to go visit them by clicking this link.

Here’s a list to get you started:
Lisa – Farm Fresh Adventures – Lisa enjoys keeping it real on her blog, as she shares her adventures with homeschooling on a farm in a small town.

Lori  – At Home: where life happens
– I am Lori. Wife to an wonderful husband, mother to 3 giggly girls in
the throes of growing up, teacher to said 3 giggly girls, and, most
importantly, a Christian striving to live life as God tells me to in the
Bible.

Meghan – Quiet In The Chaos
– Child of Christ, wife, and mama to 4, in my quiet corner I share
about our homestead, homeschool, real life, and cooking real
{traditional} food, while raising my family simply.

Melanie – Tree Valley Academy –
Tree Valley Academy creates and shares lesson ideas and educational
printables for homeschooling parents of early elementary-aged children.

Michele – Family Faith and Fridays –
Follow our family of 6 on our military moving, God loving, homeschool
adventure!

Missica – Through The Open Window
– I’m a homeschooling mom to a special needs son. My blog reflects our
lives, and our journey “through the open window” of autism.

Monique – Mountain of Grace Homeschooling
– I’m a Catholic homeschooling mama to 2
amazing kids. We are finishing up the middle school years and heading
into  navigating the world of high school.

Looking for curricula to fill in those gaps?   I know a great place to go.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com has courses for the whole family, from the youngest to the oldest.  Check out the early bird special going on right now.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

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