A Net in Time

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Highschool

Medici Heist

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product Medici Heist through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and it is so much appreciated. 🙂

Take a trip into the past with Medici Heist.   Back into Italy in the days of the Medici brothers and political upheaval, where revenge, friendship, and family are all put to the test.  Secrets abound, and difficult situation raise ugly heads, and through it all, a bit of history is revealed. Medici Heist keeps you on your toes wondering who will win out in the end. 

Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan

General Info for Medici Heist

Title: Medici Heist
Author: Caitlin Schneiderhan
Publisher: Square Fish
Pages: 432
Intended Audience: grade 9-12, 13-18 years
Genre: Renaissance Historical Fiction, Young Adult, LGBTQ, Historical Romance
Available formats: Kindle, Hardcover, Audio, Paperback
Received: ARC Paperback
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Author and the Story

Ms. Schneiderhan loves Terry Pratchet books and grew up on them as a 13 year old.  They remain as part of her adult library (I don’t blame her at all).  She’s also an writer for the TV show Stranger Things. 

In Medici Heist she brings us into the world of Florence in 1517.  The Medici brothers rule Florence getting richer while the poor get poorer (with the church taking part in the wealth distribution). Into this world of opulence and intrigue drops in Rosa Cellini, a con woman with a mission.  She wants to steal the money back!   She assembles a rather motley crew of skilled misfits including a tinkerer, a fighter, and a master of disguise.  Artist Michelangelo even plays a role.  But the Medici’s have their own crew, and this crew has it’s own problems.  What will happen?   You’ll have to read to find out!  🙂 

Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan

Taking a Closer Look

Mystery presented to us within the historic world of the Medici brothers in Florence, Italy.  We know the Medici brothers are wealthy, and wanting to become more wealthy and getting more money through the church would be helpful to them.  Helping the church sell indulgences may be part of their biggest pay out yet!

But we have a small problem.  There’s a lot of political unrest, more guards are needed to keep the people under control, and unbeknownst to the Medici brothers there’s a lady out for a payout of her own with… just a touch of revenge mixed in.  She’s assembled a crew and as the story progresses we get to hear them all. 

Clear up warning… some of the stories are hard to listen to.  Brutality and hardship abound in the lives of the crew.   Pain is managed and not always talked about, until it is. 

Character Development Pivotal

Relationships within the crew are flexible and not always as clear cut as one might wish.  Same gender relationships are part of the mix.  I was admittedly surprised by one of them.  

Good character development and lots of history is included.  One can well imagine being in the heart of Florence in 1517.   

I do have to admit I didn’t quite get all of the Michelangelo stuff.  He was an important figure but I had too many unanswered questions about him.  Part of that is of Michelangelo’s historic relevance right?  You expect bigger things and more details about him and his work.  It’s kinda hard to explain, but of all the characters, I found his development the weakness.

Ms. Schneiderhan’s writing style is easy to read, with a compelling desire to find out how the story ends.  Will Sarra’s prediction that her tinkering skills will be needed with the wagon?   Khalid’s past… will it catch up to him in a solidly bad way for him?  Does the life Giacomo lived through prevent his future from becoming a reality?  Will Rosa get her revenge or will that desire jeopardize everything?   These questions will fuel the desire to finish the story.   You need to know the answers eh? 🙂

I received an ARC copy to review, so I don’t know if the greyscale artwork will remain as such in the final review copy.  There are three distinct parts of this tale with the artwork remaining consistent for each part.

Should you read it?

Other than the one surprising to me same gender relationship that kinda spoiled the ending for me, I enjoyed this read.  I loved the history, the mystery, and the interplay between not only the main characters, but the little add-on ones as well.   

As a former homeschooler I would want my highschooler to see just how accurate the author was in depicting Italy and the Medici brothers in 1517.   I don’t know my history well enough to tell you how accurate it all is.  🙂  But the sights and sounds feel historically accurate. 

I enjoyed the story of Medici Heist, the stories of the crew drew me in, then the events they were going through swirled around me.  Their life stories brought the struggles and dangers they were to life in a tangible way.  Well-written and interesting. 

Decrypting Cryptocurrency

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Decrypting Cryptocurrency) through Jenkins Group, Inc. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

So my hubby has been learning about cryptocurrency from one of his co-workers.  This fellow has been kind enough to gift him with some crypto.   He’s been having fun learning and so has encouraged me to learn a bit as well.  So when Ascot Media asked if I’d like to review Decrypting CryptoCurrency I said sure!  I find it difficult to learn about blockchains, tokens and such, it’s a whole new language and I’m not as young as I used to be.  Magnus Carter takes his time helping new people understand the terminology and it is good!

Magnus Carter's Decrypting CryptoCurrency

Discovering more about Decrypting CryptoCurrency

Decrypting CryptoCurrency: Riding the data path to financial freedom was put together by Magnus Carter.  Magnus Carter started to work when he was 12 years old. As he matured, he discovered that not only do you need to work for money, you need to have your money work for you. And so he shares with us, some of what he has learned about working with Cryptocurrency. 

Running at 177 pages, you won’t find it a long hard read.   Legendary Products & Services, LLC in publisher provides lots of white space and clear headings to make the reading easier.  Nine chapters round out the pages, along with a big bibliography (149 entries).  This enables the reader to continue researching this fascinating field of currency. 

Don’t you just love when an author breaks down educational text into smaller segments?  Each chapter has many smaller sections often closing with a “fact” section.  This section brings clarity to specific concepts presented. 

Mr. Carter makes a point of telling us frequently to not invest money we aren’t willing to lose.  You need to carefully consider not only the possibilities but also the risks.  Crypto could completely take off and you could get a fair amount of money out of it.  BUT, just as with stocks and bonds, you need to consider, what happens if I lose my money?  Crypto really is just another way to make money. 

Magnus Carter takes his time helping new investors learn the lingo of cryptocurrency.  There really is a lot to learn about how blockchains work, what a token is, and what the different styles of crypto are etc.  Crypto is all digital and the different types are developed to solve problems or do specific tasks. Take your time reading, go over it again until you have it straight, and then consider if you want to invest. 

I use Wealthsimple and Coinbase.  One of the things I love about Coinbase is that you can earn crypto simply by doing their learn-to-earn activities. But for ease of use, I like Wealthsimple better.  🙂   I have risked very little!  🙂 

Add it to your shelves?

As I’ve only done a wee bit of research into cryptocurrency I can’t tell you if Decrypting CryptoCurrency is a fantastic book or not.  I can tell you that Mr. Carter has helped me gain a broader understanding of this new financial tool.   He walks the reader through everything he can think of and has therefore given me more peace of mind. That’s worth something yes? 

Just as with any method to making money, only risk what you can afford to risk.  Just as you’d take your time buying a house, investing in a business, or finding stocks and bonds.  Take your time.  There are a fair number of scams out there, so research, study, and then make a wise investment. 

I will most likely have my lad read this book for grade 12 just so he has a firmer understanding of this new market.  Part of preparing him for adulthood eh? 

So Many Beginnings

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (So Many Beginnings) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.

Did you like the book Little Women?  If so, So Many Beginnings is just the book for you.  This particular book is written with an African-American point of view, during the American civil war.  You’ll find yourself immersed in the lives of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy along with their momma, and their own twists of the character. 

so many beginnings

The Basic Details

So Many Beginnings: a Little Women Remix. This is the second in a series of remixed classic books.  These remixes allow you to enjoy a classic book from a different perspective.  It’s a rather neat idea.   Bethany C. Morrow  does a really good job of copying the form and story of Little Women.   Fiewel and Friends, published a beautiful hard-cover book, for the 13-18 year old range, with 304 pages. 

Learning more about So Many Beginnings

Just as in Little Women, in So Many Beginnings you’ll find Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.   Four young ladies and their momma living our their lives.  Meg a teacher, Jo a writer, Beth a sewer and often sickly, and Amy a free-spirit.  We are led into the drama of their lives. 

Well-developed characters fill the pages. I found that I understood Jo better in this book than I did in the original Little Women classic.  You won’t find a lot of adornment in the pages.  Occasionally a page break could be found. 

This is a lovely book to hold in your hands with a comfortable font.

The familiar storyline draws you through.  You’ll find the characters a bit different, the style is the same, but the story takes a different turn in areas.  

Should you Get it?

I have to be honest.  As I was never a fan of Little Women, I approached this historial novel with some trepidation.  I wasn’t wildly enamoured, but I know so many people who LOVED Little Women, that I wanted to tell you about this read.  This book would SO suit that audience.   Honestly, if you love the style and story of Little Women, Bethany C. Morrow will NOT disappoint you in this novel. And just so you know, wildly enamoured or not, overall… a good read. 

What did I like?  I loved the different perspective. My enjoyment of the historical aspect, of seeing the world out of African-American eyes, was significant.  I love learning about different aspect of wars that I didn’t know about before. To see a side of history, with some of those little things that make history come to life, that I so much appreciate. 

So many beginnings is rift with those little details. 

So…. if you are a fan of little women… read this book.  You’ll enjoy it.

If you want to see a side of the civil war that perhaps you haven’t seen before, read this book. 

And/or if you want to catch a glimpse of freed slave lives in the 1860’s, you’ll see it here. 

Progeny Press’s Frankenstein E-guide

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DISCLAIMER. I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Do you know what Progeny Press does well?   They make study guides for books.  The goal?  To help children/teens think critically, with a faith emphasis, about the books they are reading.  This saves homeschooling parents so much time!  They do all the work for and it’s great! Progeny Press’s Frankenstein E-guide helps your high school student dig deeper into this classic work

Progeny Press's Frankenstin Eguide

The Details about the Frankenstein E-guide

You will receive a 79 page downloadable file that you have one year to download.  Within the pages of the guide you will discover information about the author, pre-reading activities, note to the instructor, a brief synopsis of the book studied, background information as well as study question.  These study questions cover vocabulary, various literary techniques and discussion questions.  The PDF e-guide can be editted or printed off depending on what works best for your student.  It sells for $21.99

So what do you get from Progeny Press?

I love all the before you get the the study material.  It’s fantastic to have a biography of author, as well as historical information and more. It all helps to get the most out of a study don’t you find?

I also love that the PDF’s are fully editable.  How fantastic for a student to simply fill it out online negating the need to print it off.  In our house, anything over 30ish pages means we send it out for printing (old printer) … and not having to have that expense is wonderful! 

Specific Elements

I also have never thought about doing pre-study, studies.  Seeing some of the warm-up options encourages me to try these with some of the books I have planned for my lad this year.

Each lesson contains vocabulary lessons.  I appreciate that these vocabulary lessons aren’t the same lesson to lesson.  Sometimes they look at a word in context, other times fill-in-the-blanks, and yet others something like the synonym study below. 

As you progress thru Progeny Press’s Frankenstein e-guide you will discover various literary techniques.  Some of these techniques are : In context, dictionary, characterization, allusion, foreshadowing, adjectives, Gothic novel, versimilitude, compare/contrast, metaphor, and contrivance.  Many other techniques are studied as well.  I’m amazed at just how much they cover and I think you will be too! 

Digging Deeper

Plenty of opportunities are provided for students to dig deeper and think deeper about what they are reading.  Frequently students are encouraged to add faith into the mix.   In the introduction, instructors are encouraged to have a thesaurus, bible concordance, dictionary and Bible easily at hand.  In this manner, students are encouraged to apply their worldview to the materials they interact with. 

You know what’s rather nice?   Essay options!  It’s hard to come up with an essay topic on a book study (been there, done that).  It’s tough.  Progeny Press takes that pressure away by providing several options for students to choose from.  They can discuss critique Shelley’s writing style, or consider the moral framework of the book, or even write about what Frankenstein offers current biologists!  More than 10 essay topics are provided. 

Answer Key

The answer key is provided under separate file for Progeny Press’s Frankenstein E-guide.  This means you can either provide it to your students for self-correcting, or use it to keep answers private until after grading. 

As your students study Frankenstein they will be able to further discuss moral issues and deepen their character and what they value.   Issues/values such as motivation, pride, friendship, guit, ambition, revenge and more. 

The wide variety of activities and writing assignments will provide motivation and prevent boredom.  You will find a well-written study including drama, research and discussion. 

Since having a Christian worldview is important to Progeny Press authors, you will find it present throughout the e-guide.   I appreciate the extra depth added to the literature study. 

What do I think of Progeny Press’s Frankenstein E-guide?

Well done.  After reviewing Progeny Press’s Frankenstein E-guide I’m thinking to add it to my son’s Language Arts program (which I’m currently in process of developing) for this coming January.   I love the variety in questions and discussions, and I find the options for essays varied.   My son would easily to be to take a couple of the topics and write up a three page essay for me.   If he really liked it I’d have no problem rounding out his senior year of study with a good number of them. 

Social Media Links: Progeny Press

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/progenypress
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/progenypress
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/progenypress
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/progenypress

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Read the Reviews!

41 Reviewers members of the crew checked out these literature studies.

Progeny Press Literature Study Guides

Biochemistry/Microbiology

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DISCLAIMER. I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Do you have a need for some science?  Perhaps like us, you need to round out a health portion of a physical education course.  Or perhaps you need a reminder or even an introduction to science topics?   My son and I have been working on the Biochemistry/Microbiology half-semester courses from Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science.  The combination of video along with worksheets has worked well for him.  I’d like to tell you more about it. 

Biochemistry/microbiology

What have we been reviewing?

Self-Paced (recorded) Online Classes by Greg Landry for grades 7-12 grade.  Of the five courses available we chose the biochemistry/microbiology course.    Mr Landry conducts his online classes with the goal of having students work at their own pace.  Mr. Landry teaches the video lessons himself.   Each class has a study guide which comes in PDF form.  Some pages are coloured which give additional information.   Learning which of those pages is coloured if you only have a black and white printer is initally a problem but it quickly becomes obvious.  🙂   This course is worth a 1/2 credit in high school science.

Students can communicate with Professor Landry via email if they have any questions during the lessons.  Tuition is $120.  As Mr. Landry teaches the lessons the students can watch him interacting with the whiteboard and pointing to graphics and what not. 

biochemistry/microbiology

How is it set up?

You’ll need to open an account with Canvas as that is what the lessons run on.  When you click on a class link, the lesson opens into a new window.  Seven classes were conducted in the Biochemistry/Microbiology course that we took.   The lad thought the immunology lesson would be interesting.    All the worksheets are contained within a single PDF that you can download and print off. 

Faith plays a role in how Mr. Landry conducts his life and leads his classes.   Scripture is part of the PDF lessons.   Lessons open in prayer and verses will be found in the PDF. 

All of your students can use the one course which means how ever many students you have needing to take a course, they can all take it at the same time.   So if you have students in grade 7-12, they can all take the labs and/or half-semester courses together!  You have a whole year to complete it in, so if your students work best on their own that’s an option as well. 

How is it put together?

Your students will find this a very easy course to navigate.   Once they get signed into Canvas each lesson opens up into a new window.   The video lesson does not start playing automatically, and my son appreciated that he could speed up the rate of play.  NO, I do not get how he can listen that fast, but it works for him, and he’s quite accurate. So whenever online lessons allow for that option he’s delighted!  🙂   The lesson takes centre stage as you can tell from the image below. 

Encouragement to Develop Good Study Habits

Students are encouraged to take good study notes, and my lad promised to get me a screenshot of his notes but he’s gotten rather busy.  It’s good to know notes were taken, but …. getting them in time for this review?  I don’t think it’s gonna happen!   The lad did ask me if it was okay if for filling out the worksheets if he could use the “coloured sheets”.   I asked him what he was talking about and why he would ask.  Apparently Mr. Landry tells his students to fill out the worksheets to the best of their ability and if they couldn’t to use the Coloured Sheets to fill out the rest.  The lad wasn’t sure if that would be cheating or not. 

The lad continued his explanation that Mr. Landry would explain part of the material, but didn’t cover everything so the encouragement was to complete their education.   This means it wasn’t ‘cheating’ to use the coloured sheets to complete the worksheets. Every lesson has worksheets to fill out.  NOW, if I were wanting to test his knowledge I probably could have said “no worksheets, I want to see what you know”.  But given that not all the information was given in the video lesson I wouldn’t have liked that option without giving some good study time as well.    

Now as I stop to think about it, I could have easily assigned additional work in the form of a paper/essay.  Research something you learned about and present it in one of these 40 ways. 

What did we think of Biochemistry/Microbiology?

We struggled to find the time to work on this together.  With part-time jobs, our schedules didn’t often fit together.   So our goals to do this together and have mom/son time didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to.  The lad ended up watching the videos in random order Comments from the lad, a grade 11 student

  • One: “What if I don’t think drawing pictures will help me really remember information well?   Do I have to do that mom?  I don’t think highlighting words by drawing them big will help me remember them any better than just writing normally.”   We actually watched this lesson together and had a good discussion over the pros and cons of different studying methods. 
  • Two: “I covered this really well in my biology class already.  And the diagrams were simple, they didn’t go indepth on anything.” 
  • Three: “He didn’t give enough detail.”
  • Four: 
  • Five: “I liked this lesson and found it well done. Learning about bacteria and antibiotics, it was really interesting.”
  • Six: “He went off on a tangent telling a personal story, but otherwise he did a good job on the lymph system.”
  • Seven: “It was a decent lesson, but he only covered the basics”. 

Overall the lad and I decided that these would be a good homeschool science classes online for higher elementary or lower highschool students to take.  It would be good to do the study skills one in grade 9.   Other than lesson five most of the material he viewed he had already studied and would assume most grade 11 students would have as well. 

Greg Landry on Social Media

As far as I can tell, Greg Landry and his homeschool science courses are not on social media.

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#hsreviews #homeschoolscience #scienceresources #scienceexperiments #scienceiscool #homeschoolchemistry #homeschoolbiology #homeschoolscienceexperiment

What did Crew Members Review?

19 members of the crew reviewed different parts of Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science programs. 

  1. Virtual, interactive homeschool laboratory

– self paced online – start any time
– biology / anatomy and physiology
– chemistry
– physics

2. Self-paced 4th-7th grade one-semester classes…

– Young Scientist : Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Earth & Space Science.

3. Self-paced 7th-12th grade half-semester classes

– Exercise & Sports Physiology
– Biochemistry / Microbiology
– Embryology / Endocrinology
– Earth & Space Science
– Study Skills / Measurement / Lab Reports / Graphing

I do urge you to read the reviews by the crew.  You’ll find we all had varied experiences which will help bring this online homeschool science program to life! 

Self Paced Online Homeschool Science Labs

English Programs for High School

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I am gradually going through my tabs and pulling out ones I think might be helpful to other people.  I’ve been searching out English program to use with my teen, I hope to order something by the end of the month. Anyways, so getting on with this post… English Programs for High School and what I have found!  🙂 

english programs for highschool

Looking for the Canadian

Now, as a Canadian, I’ve been looking for Canadian resources to use with my lad.  Did you know that it’s fairly hard to do?  It’s amazing how difficult it is to find solid CANADIAN based language arts for high school students. There are a couple of things online, but nothing really specific. 

Now, it didn’t help there were books I really didn’t want my lad to study…. like Animal Farm and 1984, or whatever book it was by Margaret Atwood I was forced to read.  I definitely wasn’t interested in him reading Lord of the Flies either.  BLECH to all of it! 

I took the time to check out grades 11 and 12 of the Ontario Curriculum from the Ministry of Education. Mind, I can’t say it was a whole lot of help…I thought it would be more helpful than it was.. or maybe it was just my lack of understanding on what “needs to be taught” means in real world language. 

Resources I Checked out

So I checked out these resources

As I looked at all these resources I started to wonder… could I use something and just do some substitution?   Find some questions online for my lad to consider?  SO that wondering led me toward…. 

wood person people office
Photo by Ivan Samkov on Pexels.com

So What Am I Leaning Toward?

I’m kinda leaning toward doing my own thing, based off a curriculum course I received in a ultimate homeschool bundle, or perhaps looking up discussion questions. 

The thought is, I would use it as a guide for the lad to read through some Canadian literature, both old and new.  I’ll be finding some Canadian plays the lad can read.  Perhaps read a classic Newbery book (or rather the Canadian option)… possibly reading Five Little Indians.   My friend Lori suggested that I add a book called Mrs. Mike to the list. 

I’ll be looking through the young adult winners of the CLA.  I’m hoping my friendly librarian will be able to help me winnow through them to see what might work for a 16 year old lad.  So I have a plan in mind, now to see how far I get with it!  (or well.. rather see how far my son gets with it!).  🙂 

What english programs for highschool have you discovered? 

Getting a Driver’s License in Ontario

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Did you know that we have a 16 year old in our household?   Being sixteen means jobs, driving, practicing life skills, and much more.  The lad’s been working at McD’s this summer and been enjoying the job.  Mostly he bikes but lately they’ve been giving him some later shifts when I don’t want him biking home.  Also winter is coming along when biking is a tad more difficult.   Getting his license is becoming more important!   It’s been a bit of a learning curve learning about getting a driver’s license in Ontario as things have changed since I was a teen.  🙂 

Getting a Driver's License in Ontario

Getting a Driver’s License in Ontario

So I don’t know how things work where you live, but here in Ontario we have graduated licensing.   One starts with a G1 and gradually works up to a full driving license. 

If you are at least 16 years old, you can apply for driver’s licence in Ontario. As my son is 16 we’ve been looking into this whole process.  He really has NO desire to get his license, so we are pushing him into it since it will be easier for him to do so living at home.   Just having a driver’s license is one of the easiest forms of ID and means that it’s easier for him to drive home for a visit (renting a car) should he ever move farther away from home. 

As a new driver he’ll need to practice driving at various times of day and in various situations, gaining valuable experience.  It generally takes about 20-24 months to finish getting your license. 

ThinkInsure helped me better understand the whole system as well. 

woman in yellow shirt writing on white paper
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Studying for the G1 Written Test

There are a number of options for studying for the road test. 

There’s the way I did it.  Reading the book over and over and over again until I more or less had it memorized.

And there are paid options such as

As well as some different free options

So we discovered this site that allows you to practice writing your G1 test.   It’s rather cool providing students with a variety of tests so they can practice their knowledge!   Wish I had had this before I wrote MY test!  🙂 

man inside vehicle
Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels.com

Use a Licensed School

When I was talking with the owner of one of the local driving schools she mentioned the need to be cautious.  As with everything in life there are always people ready to take advantage of people.  Since there is a bit of a learning curve in this whole process it’s easy to get fooled by people pretending to have all the credentials.   Therefore the Ontario government has made a list of approved businesses.  

He’ll be doing his driver’s ed through South Huron Driving School doing most of it online and then having a couple of lessons in person.   Just a matter of getting the funds together to make that doable.  

Doing driving school has a couple of advantages.  It means you can get your G2 sooner as well as often reducing your insurance premiums.  It’s also good to have a professional involved as it’s easy to develop bad habits when driving and you don’t want younger learners picking up those bad habits.  🙂 

My lad’s gramma is itching to get behind the wheel with the lad, wanting to teach him road safety and driving skills.  It’s something we are still discussing as her eyes aren’t want they used to be.  I’m glad we have the option of driving school!  

Getting a Driver's License in Ontario

How about you?

What are the new driver’s rules like where you live?  Do you have graduated licensing?  At what age can you begin driving? If you attend driver’s school does it help with your new drivers’ insurance?   Do they differ from getting a Driver’s License in Ontario?