A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Highschool

Make Easter Meaningful for Teens

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How do you make Easter meaningful for teens?  This was the first thought I had when I saw the crew prompt Easter Traditions.  It’s easy when children are little to do resurrection rolls, dioramas, Easter Eggs, and various other Easter themed crafts. But teens are generally a bit beyond that aren’t they?  Yet, Easter… making it mean something with our teens matters!   I’m not going to say I have all the answers, but I make some suggestions! 

I’ll suggest acts of service, times of learning, and ways to celebrate.

Acts of Service

Teens by the vary nature of their creativity, energy levels, need for good mentors and to be good mentors, and their life experiences make them excellent candidates to be helpful at Easter. 

From preparing Easter Egg hunts for the littles in the neighbourhood or in your own family.  They could take charge of colouring eggs, hiding eggs, and coming up with innovative ideas for making an egg hunt Christ-centric.  

A lot of churches that I know of have Easter morning breakfasts!  Teens can help in the kitchen flipping pancakes, scrambling eggs, setting up tables, and helping with clean-up. 

Times of Learning

Helping teens really understand the significance of Easter can be achieved through good services at your local church, unit studies such as this one, and even Devotionals.  The Review Crew recently looked at Easter Escape Room which might be just the ticket for your teen and their friends.  

Label sin on stone and bury it.  I know… this is a bit odd and I learned about it from a gal on the crew.  Our hope in Christ enables us to be free from the burden of sin.  So write a sin on a stone, and bury it in the ground, symbolic eh?

Making Easter Baskets, Easter kits or various Easter-related items and selling them.  Finding out what meets the market, deciding if they will be faith-based or more secular.   It’s a way for them to learn entrepreneurial skills!

Make Easter Meaningful for Teens

Ways to Celebrate

Have some fun of their own!   Send them on a hunt around town following clues!  They can run it on their own, compete with friends, or make it a cooperative venture.  If you were good at doing this sort of thing you could even make cryptic biblical clues.  Flummox them!  🙂      You’ll find other ideas here. 

Treats to share with others.  Easter baskets for shut-ins, cookies for staff at nursing homes or the hospital, colouring pages for littles, and maybe even making a skit to put on for parents!  A time of fun. laughter, remembrance and celebration! 

Planning Easter dinner.   Some teens will be up to this solo, others… will need some help.   Yet others just want to be responsible for a part of dinner or even not at all!  They might even prefer not to make the meal but make unique place settings instead.  Use their gifts and talents, push their skills a bit, and celebrate the hope we have in Christ.

march2021

What about you?

How do you make Easter meaningful for teens?  Have you discovered something that I haven’t thought of?    If so, let me know in the comments eh?  It’s so good to learn from each other. 

Savour the moment

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So it’s Five minute Friday again and Miss Kate has posted this week’s word.  Savour is one of those words that evokes a variety of memories.  Savouring the beauty of a the world when one goes camping, savouring smells arising from a cookfire or stove in the house, savouring the smells of Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter.  One can savour lessons learned and time with friends.  Currently we are in a change of seasons where out on a walk I can savour the moment as I gaze up spring flowers. 

I can also savour moments in the lives of others, victories with skills learned, total wins, and life skills solidified.  Isn’t it good to relish the successes gained in the lives of family and friends? 

savour the moment

Savour the Moment

Sunday afternoon
A quiet time to rest
Traditionally a day
When Mom is less stressed.

No meals to make
Unless desire to make
Perhaps today is
Time for some cake?

Leftovers await.
Inspiration may arise.
But hold… there’s a teen
Life skills must apprise.

Question arises
What does the lad think?
If on Sundays it’s his turn
For food and drink?

Sure mom he says
I can handle that
If you help abit
Lest the food all be flat!

Savour the moment
Flavours descend
A lad’s willing help
Oh… I might have to amend!

MOM! Help the cry!
I ask what’s betwist
We have no ingredient
Is the meal now a miss?

Teaching I help
The lad learn substitution
Learning a recipe’s a guide
Not always the full solution.

Savour the moment
When confidence is found
No longer hotdogs and soup
Now casseroles abound.

Savouring the moment
When skills learned in life
Mean the lad’s future
Is filled with less strife.

Able to cook,
And learn to adapt.
Part of life-learning
It all seems so apt.

savour the moment

Scriptural Insight

Proverbs 22:6

6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

 Genesis 9:2-3

“The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”

Matthew 6:11

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

1 Chronicles 9:31

“Mattithiah, a Levite and the oldest son of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with baking the bread used in the offerings.”

Independent Learning: a high schoolers day in the life

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Did you know I have a highs school student?   I KNOW, shocking isn’t it?  I remember so clearly the fun of my lad as a little guy, his questions as a middle schooler, and then planning for highschool.  It’s been quite the journey for us.  I thought today would be a good day to show you how homeschooling works for us.   So today, Independent Learning: a high schoolers day in the life.   

Independent Learning: a high schoolers day in the life

My son’s day starts, depending on the week we are in.   Part of his schooling is with the local highschool, and the rest is through online or textbooks.  He does 98% of his school work in his bedroom either sitting on his bed, often with his cat next to him, or sitting on his desk. 

At the beginning of the year we take the time to count out the number of schooling weeks, the chapters/lessons in his course material, and then decide how much he need to accomplish weekly to be done by the end of the year.   The end result: he can be independent in how he does his work. 

Covid Impacts

With Covid running rampant throughout the country our schools have moved to a quadmester system.  Two subjects for two months. then another two subjects for two months and so on and forth.   In reality this has turned into one subject for one week, and then one subject the following week.  

Since there are some subjects I can’t teach (aka manufacturing) he takes the odd course at our local high school.  Those days start early!  Currently, that consists of him sitting in front of the computer for three hours per day (spread throughout the day) and then working on his homework for another couple hours, and also fits in whatever other schooling he’s working on.

The benefit of quadmesters is they have taught my son the joy of just focusing on two subjects at once.   This is much easier, he finds, than doing little bits of four subjects. 

His course load

So this year he has two subjects the high school, Com Tech and Manufacturing.  His at home courses are algebra, geometry, physics, Language Arts, French, and Geography.   Sometimes things change up a bit depending on what reviews we have in the works from the crew but I mostly try to just work with what we’ve set up.   

We learned this year that through army cadets that he can get credit through the training he does with them.  So once things start up again… this will be a boon to his scholastic achievements.  At this point, his training takes place on Monday evening, online.  We hope in person, weekend training, will occur again before year-end. 

At Home Days

When he has full days at home to learn he tackles one or two courses per day.   

His current routine: 

  • 930 care for his mice, have breakfast
  • 950-1130 work on schooling
  • 1130-1215 play online games with friends
  • 1215-150 spend time with dad (dad works late shift so this is their time together)   We’ll have lunch, devotions, watch TV, play games and/or they’ll work on some project together. 
  • 150-200 read aloud time
  • 2-5 school work
  • 5 ish he often helps me with things like shovelling snow, moving stuff my bum arm gives me trouble with, goes for a walk with friends, etc.   We often use this time to catch up with where he is with his schooling.  Does he have any questions, things we need to cover together, stuck on an idea, needing reminders about getting projects done rather than having to go back etc.   
  • 6-7 he’ll do little things to finish up his school
  • 7-9 is his free-time to do whatever he wants. currently, with covid, that means playing computer games with friends.
  • 9-10 mom time, we watch tv or play games
  • 10 Bedtime.  This sometimes varies as late-night conversations sometimes happen. 

We wouldn’t have gotten to this point without laying the ground work of trust and work ethic.  My lad likes to learn, and over the years, he’s needed to learn how to work independently.   

Part of learning independence was looking at the sheer variety of courses there is at SchoolhouseTeachers.com (affiliate link).   Having this resource as one of the benefits of being on the homeschool review crew has been helpful.  

Want to learn more about teaching independence to your students?  There are 3 or 4 sessions at the Canadian Online homeschooling conference (affiliate link) all about teaching our students to be independent.  You aught to give them a listen!  Free to listen, $17 to have forever! 

canadian online conference
February Social Media Challenge

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

Living Books for World War 2

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Over this past year, my son has been working through a study on World War 2.   We’ve engaged in a number of different ways to do so, watching movies, working through a unit study from Home School in the Woods, doing small unit studies, using timeline figures, reading a lot of living books, and doing independent research.   He has learned a lot and has thoroughly enjoyed his research.  I thought I would share some of the living books for world war 2 that he has gone through. 

Living books for World War 2

Independent Reading

“MOM!  You have got to read this series.  It’s very interesting!”  The Series on Camp x by Eric Walters consumed my lad.  For a while, every time I saw him it seemed like he was reading yet another in the series.   He spent his time learning about Camp X, a camp for Canada’s spies. 

In this series you’ll find

  • Camp X
  • Camp 30
  • Fool’s Gold
  • Shell Shocked
  • Trouble in Paradise
  • Enigma

He also read Spy Smuggler which is the story of Paul Lelaud a 13 year old French boy who wants to fights the Germans. 

How to Lose WW2 by Bill Fawcett. This book is part of the How to Lose series, and focuses on errors made during the war. 

On the Horizon is a book of poetry that looks back on the lives of soldiers at Pearl Harbour as well as citizens in Hiroshima.  

living books for world war 2

Reading Together

One of my joys in life is reading books together with my lad, one to two chapters either at night before bed, or just after dad leaves for work.  It’s our time which I guard jealously… my son perhaps not quite so much.  🙂   

But we’ve read some good books this past year. All of these came in as review books and I’ve linked to the reviews I did of them. 

Not a living book

My lad has also read some less “living book” style books.  I picked up a few books for doing some research.  Sometimes it’s easier to just have a book at hand than to go to a library and have to return them before you are ready.  

Spies, Lies and Disguise was an excellent book.  Providing problems, and then the solutions to problems. 

World War II by R.G.Grant.  My son said, “This was a good book, I learned a lot!” 

Canada’s Wars: An Illustrated History by Jonathan Webb was an overview book.  “It just told me a bit about the wars Canada has been part of.  I liked it!”  It was a source of inspiration for a couple of research papers. 

So there you have it.  Have you had your students delve deeply into a subject?  How did you approach it?  Did you utilize living books?  Or perhaps unit studies or hands-on studies? How does your student like to engage in in-depth study?  My son has enjoyed the mix of living books for World War 2 alongside his independent research and unit studies. 

Simply Coding, a Crew Review

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DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

Are you looking for a homeschool computer science curriculum?  I need to tell you about Simply Coding’s Coding for Kids Annual Membership.  What a fantastic program that my son has been digging into for the past five weeks. 

Simply Coding

What I am Reviewing

Coding for Kids Annual Membership is a coding program designed for students 11-18 years of age. Put together by the team at Simply Coding, they use live demos, videos and slides to help students actively engage in coding lessons.  Students will learn to create websites, build games, and design apps. 

Annual Membership Pricing (Through Oct 1st):

Normally $149 Currently $99 – Single Student (33% OFF) + 10 Day Free Trial
Normally $229 Currently $179 – Family Membership (20% OFF + THREE student accounts) + 10 Day Free Trial

How is Simply Coding Set Up?

Once you login as parent it is easy to set up student accounts.  You do each need your own email. 

When students login they are greeted with an overview page.  This shows them which courses they can do.  Some courses require prerequisites so you won’t be able to do them until you have completed the necessary courses. 

On this student overview page you will see your victories and any uploads you have done.  Victories are completed lessons. 

simply coding student overview

Once you select your course you will be lead to your work area.   On the left side of the screen will be the course outline.  

The main part of the screen will be for the lesson.  The lessons aren’t all presented the same. 

For instance with the Digital photography course I was presented with a series of videos. 

With the Intro to Websites, there were a series of slides to go through with video that pulled up on the side. 

My son has been working through JavaScript Game Design. He tells me that it’s presentation is the same as the intro to websites course. 

The lad working on making a pong game

The My Progress button on the overview page gives you a quick snapshot of where you are in the different programs.  For instance, you can see that I have made 8% progress in the Digital Photography course. 

Live Teacher Sessions actually shows how to create small games.  The teachers will demonstrate what you need to do to recreate the game.  Currently they have 20 demo videos available with a promise of more to come.  What a great way to learn practical application of skills eh?

How Did We Use Simply Coding?

The trial of these online coding classes that we received gave us access to all the classes Simply Coding provides.  It was marvellous to have so many options available to us. 

We could choose from four categories

  • Coding
  • Media
  • Tech Essentials
  • Tech4Kids

My son was immediately drawn to the JavaScript Game Design course.  He is planning to work his way through the entire selection of coding.   Since I didn’t use this course I’ll be letting him tell you what he thinks of it.

My lad says: 

“Logging on was very easy, and the lessons are well arranged and easy to access.  The quizzes are simple to use and access.  You are able to take the quizzes again, and you are graded immediately.  I think that the program could be better if rather than using a code library it took the time to teach you how to code the various functions yourself.”

What about me?

As for myself, I’ve been dabbling.  

I started with Intro to Websites, but then moved on to Digital Photography 1 as my focus for the website course just wasn’t there.  This video-based course is rather interesting and makes me realize the shortcomings of the camera that I actually have!  🙂 

I love the immediate feedback on quizzes. 

 They have a course on learning to use GIMP!!  I’ve been wanting to understand GIMP a bit better so I’m going to work on that course.   I’ve done some work with GIMP in the past but I’m still a novice.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to truly create my own images instead of having to rely on programs such a picmonkey or Canva? 

In starting the GIMP program I’ve discovered a small issue.  The demonstration model is a different version than what I downloaded.  So finding where everything is a bit more of a challenge.   BUT HEY!  I created my first GIMP image!   

I’m not the fastest learner with some of this stuff so I’m hoping between their program and my stick-to-it-itiveness I can master GIMP!  Wouldn’t that be a good thing? 🙂

Should you Get Simply Coding?

If you want to improve your skill and knowledge in creating media or computer programs, this program will suit you very nicely.  Spending 3-5 hours each week should get you through the bulk of the materials within a year. The variety of options available means you can find just the right course for your students.

My lad says:  

“I have used other coding programs that go more in-depth that I prefer.  I like how easy it is to use Simply Coding but I wish that it taught more in-depth coding.   Not sure that I would recommend it at this point.   Perhaps as I get further into the lessons it will teach harder things.”

Answering quiz questions.
One of the games Simply Coding provides

Social Media Links

Facebook. 

Youtube.

Read the Reviews

Can you believe that 65 members of the Crew reviewed Simply Coding?  We all got to choose our own courses to try out.  So you have GOT to read the reviews to get a really good feel for this online computer science program. 

Click on the image below to go do some reading.

My Teaching Library – Crew Review

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DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

DO NOTE that affiliate links are used throughout this post. 

For the past few weeks I’ve been granted access to a program called Download Club.  This is a club put together by My Teaching Library where you can download product to help you in your homeschooling journey.   But get this… they not only help in your homeschooling journey but in your personal life as well!  How cool is that!?!?!?!

My Teaching Library

What I am Reviewing

My Teaching Library is an online resource is chockful of downloadable PDF’s.  You’ll find worksheets, lapbooks, notebooking pages and more homeschooling resources. You’ll find resources for students in PreK-12.

You have two options.  Purchase a subscription to the Download Club or buy individual courses.   An individual course will run a gambit of prices, or for a year do one fee and download anything you want.  There is also a lifetime subscription as well that, if you were planning on homeschooling for a few years, would be an excellent cost-saving option. 

As part of the Download Club you’ll find mazes, puzzles, wordsearches, unit studies, textbooks, and more.  You’ll find some random videos as well. 

How Does My Teaching Library Work?

Once you login into My Teaching Library you’ll be able to choose from a variety of educational resources.  If you click on the tab you can choose by grade, subject, or any of the miscellaneous topics. 

That will lead to a subject area where you can click on a product to learn more about it. 

All products that you purchase end up in your downloads cart.  You click on the purple button to download the product.  Everything I looked at came as a PDF.  I could then save it to where I wanted it on my computer.  You can then print it off if you’d like.   

How we used the Download Club

Most files I didn’t print off. 

I shared the Holocaust one with my son to make the reading of the stories easier.  Fascinating case stories for us to discuss and learn from. 

I struggled with French Cookery.  The highlighted links in the text didn’t seem to work so I needed to manually search for what I wanted to try out.  Most the recipes didn’t have oven temperatures so it was a bit of guesswork to choose a recipe to try. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the Marine Science study. I really only used the student edition.  Reading and then answering questions. 

The History of Music surprised me.  I thought it was something different than it was.  Going through a textbook via PDF simply didn’t work well for me.  700 pages with footnotes.  I tell you I learned a lot!  And much of it was fascinating reading, it’s just hard to read as a PDF and then needing to find my place everytime. I’m just not as organized as I need to be.  🙂 

My goal was to read some poetry with my lad.  UNFORTUNATELY a 15 year old lad isn’t always into poetry.  🙂  I quickly learned to avoid the longer poems.  This shorter one he didn’t complain about listening too.  🙂 

Perhaps my dutiful lad found something of himself in it?   I don’t know, but he was quiet after listening to me read.  Quiet is good no?

Should You Get It?

This is a bit of a mixed bag for me right?  I had really looked forward to the History of Music and the French Cookery.  Finding incomplete instructions in the cookery PDF was frustrating. The more text-booky feel to the music history left me feeling meh, EVEN THOUGH I learned a ton! 

But I enjoyed the poetry (even though my son was less than enthused). The marine science book was excellent! (I look forward to finishing it) And the scenarios in the Holocaust PDF were sources of excellent conversation with my lad.

Given my varied reaction to the materials I used, overall I’d say it’s worth your time.  For $45 a year annual membership, or $225 for a lifetime membership, it’s not a bad deal.

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