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Review: Fascinating Education

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Currently I am grading a highschool biology course, I’m doing pretty good on it but sometimes my students ask me a question that requires some research, ergo when I learned about reviewing Fascinating Biology put out by Fascinating Education, I thought, what a perfect opportunity for me to brush up on my highschool biology!! Thank you Fascinating Education for the opportunity to do so.You have been a good help to me.  🙂

About Fascinating Education
It was created by Dr. Margulies.  Fascinating Biology, is an online biology course, that comes with 18 lessons.  His goal is to break down the sciences into bite-sized, manageable chunks to increase the learning potential in his students. As you can see, each lesson is broken down into several components.  If you stop your video, it will pick up again where you left off when you return which is ever so handy.  Means you can just stop and not worry about having to start all over again.  Having each section clearly labeled also means you know where he is going as he moves through the lecture.

Each Lesson also comes with a built in glossary/vocabulary section.   If you highlight a word, it’s definition shows up below. This is a very handy feature.

How I used it.
One of the things I love about fascinating biology is that I can pick the order I want to do the lessons in.  For instance, one of my students was having a problem with understanding mitosis and meiosis… so I went directly to that section, listened and got the answer.  AND since we get a full course transcript it made it really easy for me to get the answer to my student, and help them find additional support online to help them gain better understanding.  Pretty cool eh?

The 18 lessons are as follows: 

  • What is life
  • Chemistry review
  • The cell membrane
  • Take in Nutrients
  • Take in Energy (four parts)
  • Grow
  • Reproduce (three parts)
  • Homeostasis (two parts)
  • Adapt (two parts)
  • Prokaryotes, Protists, Animals, Fungi
  • Plants

So other than researching areas of concern for my students, how did I actually use it?  
At night!  Seriously, hubby would go to bed, and I’d put in my ear phones and just listen.  I could work on other things, listen and do my brushing up.  It was great!   When an area was harder to understand I could stop what I was doing, rewind the video and listen again while watching the slides.  Then if I really didn’t understand I could pull up the transcript and read through it.  Have these two different ways to access the material I felt completely covered! 

I honestly didn’t really look at the tests a whole lot but I did take one and much to my surprise I pulled off an 80% which tells me that if you listen AND read the transcripts…you’ll nail the material.  The questions come right out of the script.. so honestly listen, read, test yourself if you like to.  BUT as an adult using it as a refresher, seriously its optional.  As a highschool student needing a transcript.. take the test.  🙂

If you do take the route of using the tests, as you go through your results you can easily see where you went wrong. Helps with the learning eh?  But seriously, unless you are you taking this for highschool biology credit, don’t worry about the tests unless you love taking them.  🙂

Taking the Chemistry course first is recommended, but if you choose to do Biology first they have a short chemistry course you can take first. Six lessons to make sure you understand the chemistry part of biology.  It’s called Chemistry Pre-course for Biology.  It’s a subset of the chemistry course and would be an added cost.

My thoughts:
I love love love how everything is covered in this biology curriculum.. the full course transcript, the ability to watch or listen to the video being taught, the slides, being able to jump around from lesson to lesson learning what I need to.  It’s great.  Seriously.  For the purposes for which I am using it, it has been a useful addition into my household. 

Fascinating Education. 
Fascinating Biology, along with a pre-course (6 lessons that cover the basics of Chemistry bonding methods) to help me brush up on my chemistry.
A full year subscription
Cost $79/yr
Pre-course Chemistry $20
Learn more here.

For the past few weeks I’ve been reviewing Fascinating Education along with 50 other reviewers.     We’ve been using these courses:
Fascinating Chemistry
Fascinating Biology
Fascinating Physics
Do check them out, and look over their sample lessons too!
I invite you to click here or on the image below to see what we had to say about them.

http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/biology-chemistry-physics-fascinating-education-reviews/

You can see my review of Fascinating Chemistry here.

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .

Review: Amelia’s Maze Adventure

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 Amelia’s Maze Adventure
Jane Gledhill
Lonely Planet Kids.
approximately 9 x 11
ages: 8-12 years
pages: 128

Amelia’s Maze Adventure is all about Amelia taking a trip around the world tracking down Lady Vivian Winthrop missing jewels.  Will Amelia ever find them?   She’s on a whirl wind tour!

 Don’t you just love a book where you can learn interesting facts about the world (and the places in it) while having fun solving a puzzle, in this particular case MAZES.

The mazes vary in difficulty from level one to five. Most of the mazes are clearly marked.

I love the sheer variety of mazes found in this book, from the simple block ones that most of us are used to, to the shapes of coral like this one.

Interesting facts are learned from how camels can spit to how facts about Toyko. 

The facts are never long or overwhelming, just enough to give you a taste, which of course, can lead to future exploration.    

 I love the innovative mazes : turtles, snakes, tunnels, Mount Rushmore, vines, alligators, zebras and more.

My thoughts:

This is a rather cool book to use. Well done mazes that help you develop your spatial reasoning, fine motor skills, problem solving abilities and more.  It’s great to be able to complete a well done maze, and this book is full of them.   Go on.. go get it!   It’ll keep the youth of your family amused as you travel about this summer, and they will be learning as they go.   It would also be a wonderful addition to a whirl-wind tour of the world as the mazes are discovered all over the world as Amelia hunts for the missing jewels.

Amelia’s Maze adventure
Jane Gledhill
Lonely planet kids
approximately 9 x 11. 
Ages: 8-12
Pages: 160 

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

 Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca:  Amelia’s Maze Adventure

Amazon.com: Amelia’s Maze Adventure (Lonely Planet Kids)

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

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Y is for Yukon!

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Hello!   Welcome to the second last week of Blogging through the alphabet!   Can you believe it?  Wow… it’s been a whirl wind hasn’t it?

This week Amanda and I bring you the letter Y!

Since I have been bringing you all things Canadian during this alphabetic tour, this week I’m going to talk with you about the Yukon!

Think Jack London, Call of the Wild, Snow, tundra, permafrost, Inuit, snow, sun, frontiersmen, cold winters, sled dogs and the northern lights.

Or take a photographers viewpoint:

The Yukon is located up north.
It is host to Canada’s largest mountain, Mount Logan.
AND the smallest desert in the world (yes, under all that snow is a desert) called Carcross.

It is located right next door to Alaska (the USA) and the Northwest Territories.

The population of the Yukon is 33, 897 with 2/3’s of that living in Whitehorse.  Sparsely populated, with year round snow (even if in summer it falls sparsely), interesting animals (polar bears, moose, artic fox, stone sheep etc.), hunting, fishing, a large film and tourist industry, forestry and more.  

 

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Net In Time Schooling Blogging Through The Alphabet Grab Button Code:

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: The Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story

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So  The Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story: A Creative Writing Curriculum is an interesting program to me.  My son initially fought me hard on it, but I’ve never sen him have so much fun with a grammar/story program ever, nor have I seen him change his opinion so radically. 

I am impressed with the change.

So let me tell you more.

The Pirate’s Guide (or as we call it here “the Pirates”) is a creative writing curriculum that uses the story of a pirates to help students develop their own creative writing talents.  As a parent teacher I was pleased to see the clear table of contents for both the lessons and the exercises.

 My son enjoyed the exercises, simply having fun with them.  🙂

Pirate’s Guide is designed for children 11 and up to use independently.  And it is!  It’s not one of those curriculums that requires parental or teacher involvement.  I just told the lad.. do the next thing, one page or five…just keep working through it, and he literally does just as much as he wants often times bringing his lessons to me so I can see how he had fun with it.  🙂   It’s so good to see those grins and the sheer delight. 

Using a story narrative to teach the art of telling a story works really, really well. The exercises have the students picking out adjectives, verbs and more. Humour is injected into the exercises wherever possible, making the lessons “fun” as my lad likes to say. 🙂

Below my son had fun pretending he would be the only child at a birthday party, because you know, he had no friends or family at all.

All in all a well done curriculum for teaching children how to write creatively, and to write it well.  🙂  My lad wants to finish his way through it which is really good.

My Thoughts:

I’ve
only been able to preview the first 80 pages thus far, but I am looking
forward to making this part of his regular curriculum in the fall.  He
does it on his own, either a page a day or a whole unit of exercises.  I
leave it up to him and some days he’s really on a roll with it so I let
him fly.  Other days he’s just busy and just wants to put in his time. 
🙂 

My son’s thoughts:
It’s well designed
I like the way they teach the stuff in it.
The exercises are fun and easy to do.

The Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story: A Creative Writing Curriculum
Pirate Captain Yogger LeFossa
(S. Christopher Hansen and J.R. Fehr
Wondertale
www.PiratesGuideStory.com

Where to find it for your own students delight:
 Amazon.ca: A Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story: A Creative Writing Curriculum

Amazon.com: A Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story: A Creative Writing Curriculum

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

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Summer Schedule in our House

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So at the beginning of June I was starting to feel a tad frazzled.. okay.. honestly.. I was feeling frazzled at the beginning of May but felt like I needed to push through as this was a tough year for us and I felt like I NEEDED to get the lad through a few things…

Went on vacation (it was fun and a good break but VERY tiring).

Got back and just COULD NOT get back into the routine of doing school so I told the lad.. You are officially on Summer Schedule.

“What’s that mean Mom”? he asked curiously.

It means that when life is going normally you will do the following

1. Math.. choose one of three math programs, mix it up if you want or just do one. Matters not.  Just math, three days a week.  Choice of UnLock, Smartick or Kumon.

2. Veritas Press.  Finish up whatever course you are working on.  When it’s done.. it’s done for the rest of summer.  USE IT UP!  Three days a week.

3. Language arts of some sort.   Right now that’s Pirates.  He also has a book he’s writing, editing, spell checking etc.  Again three days a week.

4. Foodbank day.  Just be helpful.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Be helpful.  To that end he is packing and unpacking cars, stocking shelves, helping with dating goods, working hard on delivery days bringing things in and putting them away.   

5. Fridays.. art and STEM and reviews. 

That caveat is there that if we have a big review to do that he’ll help me out and we’ll work on things together. 

The understanding is there that if we have other plans .. it’s summer.. and school can and WILL fly out the window.  🙂  Vacation will happen, trips to the beach will happen, international students will happen, digging up the gardens will happen, yard sales and book sales and birthday parties, and visits with family and day trips out of town and so much more awaits us in Ontario.

WHY don’t I give him the entire summer off?   
He’s an only child, doing school for an hour, three days a week won’t hurt him, and to have fun building stuff together on Fridays doesn’t feel like school eh?   It’s good to keep learning eh?  Gives yah something to do, means you don’t forget things, and it’s an aid to your mental capacities.

The crew is doing a round up post… go follow along eh?

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

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .

Review: The Elephant Scientist

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Today I have a third book for you from the Scientists in the Field series, this one is The Elephant Scientist.   I have previously reviewed Pluto and Dolphins of Shark Bay.  This is an excellent book that taught me so much about elephants… in ways I totally didn’t expect!  🙂

Ever wonder how elephants know there is a storm coming?  When I read this section of the book I was totally hooked.

I so wanted to know if there was a possibility of being true.  Could elephants be linked with insects?  Could this trait be useful?   That’s the question.   So we delved into the world of elephant feet, elephant alarm sounds, and more.   Learning about elephant societies, the females and their groups, the boys and theirs.    Intermingled in the compelling words were a whole host of images, to draw in the reader (aimed at youth 10-12 years old).  The full colour images were stunning in their detail and observation of elephant life.

The pages are well balanced between text and images.

I was fascinated by the idea that they use the alarm calls of elephants to keep them from damaging the fields and gardens of farmers and homeowners.  We didn’t just learn about these two ideas, look what else you get to learn about.

Elephant Scientist is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Elephants, learning how they can tell them apart, how the males form groups, how the females live in matriarchal groups, their strong social interconnection, differences in how they respond to alarm calls and so much more.  A very interesting book.  🙂
My Thoughts:
 I have a firm appreciation for the scientists in the field series.  I love meeting the people researching these different topics, and Elephant Scientist is no exception.   A neat idea about elephants, the research to test out that theory, with helping elephants being the end goal. 

Elephant Scientist
By: Caitlin O’Connell & Donna M. Jackson
Images: Caitlin O’Connell & Timothy Rodwell
Series: Scientists in the Field
Pages: 80
Ages: 10-12 years
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
 Amazon.ca: The Elephant Scientist

Amazon.com: The Elephant Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series)

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

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Canada Book: Canadian Province Notebook

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 This is a different Canada book than I normally would post. This is a notebooking workbook that I have used off and one with my lad throughout our homeschooling journey. I haven’t USED the book persay, but I’ve used the ideas found within it’s pages. 

Let me tell you about “Canadian Province Notebook”.  

Filled with notebooking and workbook pages that will help you work through the Canadian Provinces. 

The book starts off with teaching students how to find and request letters of information from provinces.   Granted with the ease now of going to provincial website and simply connecting with their tourism department, having to write off for letters is a bit not as necessary I think.  Though the practice of learning how to write letters requesting help is a good one to learn. 

It also walks the student through how to use a bibliography and how to write cards with all the information on them from the books they use for a report.   It even provides a checklist for the student to use when writing their reports in the notebooking pages to make sure they’ve included all the information they need to and are on topic. 

 One of the features I like is that the inside front and back covers have the provincial symbols (except for the crests and flags) of each of the provinces and territories.  It is a touch outdated as it doesn’t have Nunavut in it.

Canadian Province Notebook
A Beka Book
42 pages
Notebooking workbook

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

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites