A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Language Arts

No Reading Allowed

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raincoast FTC

I don’t know if you remember a book I reviewed last year called P is for Pterodactyl.  It is an hilarious alphabet book.  No Reading Allowed: the Worst read-aloud Book Ever is much in the same light.  I WOULD NOT call this a read-aloud book at all!  🙂 Though it would be so much fun to try!

no reading allowed review

What I am Reviewing

No Reading Allowed: the WORST read-aloud book ever!  Written by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter, it is hilariously illustrated by Bryce Gladfelter. Running at 48 pages, you’ll find clever word play on every page.   I received an advanced reader’s copy from Raincoast Books for this review. (You’ll find my amazon affiliate links throughout this review). Published by sourcebooks explore, this picture book is geared to children 4-8, but honestly…I think anyone could enjoy this book.  You’ll find that it’s a fun romp playing with words. 

From the Cover:

You can’t believe everything you hear! A single word can have many different meanings. And sometimes two words that sound alike can be spelled completely differently. Ptolemy the pterodactyl is back to show us all how absurd and fun language can be when homophones, homonyms, and tricky punctuation are at play!     No Reading Allowed allows children and their parents to laugh together while also learning something new.

The Details for No Reading Allowed

As you can see, the illustrations fit really well with the words and how cleverly words can be written to show different things EVEN THOUGH they sound exactly the same. 

Many of the clever sentences are full page, but variety is provided with some pages having multiple sentences on them. 

The font is large and easily held in front of a group for reading, but it’s seriously just a run read to do.   

It would be fun to read a sentence to a group of children (without showing them the images first) and then have them draw out what they think the sentence said.  Would that be hilarious to do?  Seeing all those different interpretations?  What a great way to introduce to children the variety of words we have within the English language? 

Should you get No Reading Allowed?

if you want to read a fun book with some budding authors, or some younger children, go for it.  If you are just looking for a quick and easy read that shows you different interpreations for the same sounds… YES. 

No reading allowed: The WORST read-aloud book ever is a great read, an interesting approach to showing children the fun of the English language.  Using humour to teach helps children see the fun there is in making a mistake with spelling when all they hear is a word spoken.  It helps them to learn to use context to understand what is being said.  A fantastic book, add it to your library today! 

Create Your Own Secret Language

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raincoast FTC

Don’t you think it would be great to be able to create your own secret language or have the tools to break codes others make?  Imagine you are an archaeologist and you discover hieroglyphs, or other languages on a wall, wouldn’t you like to know if it’s safe to go forward?  Create Your Own Secret Language gives you the steps you need to learn this important skill.

create you own secret language review image

What I am Reviewing

David J. Peterson wrote this beginner’s guide in codes and ciphers for middle schoolers just this year. Create Your Own Secret Language helps the reader to invent codes, ciphers, hidden messages, and more.  Carefully illustrated by Ryan Goldsberry.  You will find 144 purple and white pages broken into 3 sections containing several smaller sections.

One: From Letters and Numbers to Ciphers – 10 subsections
Two: From Ciphers to Codes
Three: From Ciphers and Codes to a Language.

I am delighted to review this MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group book on behalf of Raincoast Books.   

table of contents for create your own secret language

The Details – Create your own secret language

Hidden messages great us as we crack open David J. Peterson’s latest book for middle school readers. Can we figure it out?  How ever will we learn to decode this message?  

First, let’s learn a bit about how language works, some sounds are soft, others hard, and yet others can be sung.  It may be that for all languages, we can use that information to help us decipher other languages.

Using actual made up codes with plenty of space for decoding, the author helps the reader learn to decode these odd codes. 

sample page from Create your own secret language

Actual practical example create the perfect opportunity for the reader to put into use the steps they are given.   The decoded message is always provided so the reader can double-check their efforts. 

 You will learn about substitutions, numeric or picture codes. The fun continues as you discover the fun of sound based codes, scytales, and glyphs.  Learn how to make interesting scripts based off of shapes and positions.  How can a block turn into the symbol of a sound or letter?

Along the way you’ll tighten up your knowledge of the parts of speech and the differences in how the letters of our alphabet sound. It’s rather neat how it fits together… create a new language and learn your own better!

Should you Get it?

I see so much potential in Create Your Own Secret Language by David J. Peterson.  A great addition to a history study on battles and coding, a way to explore your own language and using it to create code, or even using math to create code.   It could simply be a fun summer book for a child to work through, leading to the confounding of their parents!  🙂   It’s a fun, well-made book that should delight many a 10-14 year old. 

MaxScholar, 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.

MaxScholar, using the MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software, is a complete reading program, helping YOUR students read and write better. A reading intervention, that also includes phonics, reading comprehension, and spelling words.  This multi-media, online program provides encouragement to your student in the way of games and other interactive elements.   Come see what I am talking about won’t you?

MaxScholar Review

What I am Reviewing

MaxScholar is a reading and phonics program that will help students learn how words are put together, letter sounds, and how to read a story or essay.  They use a systemic approach starting with Kindergarten level and working their way up.

When you start the program you need to take a test to help place you at the appropriate level.  I had my son take the test to see where a typical ninth-grade student would place, and that was level seven.  My review will be based upon what he would see. 

MaxScholar Logo

Teacher Dashboard

Parent/Teacher and Student each have their own login and password.  The teacher dashboard looks like this.  From it you can look at your class/students, see their reports, check out the scope and sequence and much more.  

In the teacher dashboard everything is readily at your fingertips. 

You can monitor student progress.   Also you can pull up class reports, reading reports or phonics reports. You can also look specifically at a particular student. 

It takes a bit of time to set multiple students, but it’s not onerous.  If you change something and don’t like it, you can go back and change it again.   

Read through the scope and sequence for each section. This way you can see what is coming next and be able to help your student where needed.  

Make backend changes to the student’s workload, like removing the need to highlight text, getting rid of all kindergarten material (like practicing letters), and remove access to games if needful.  This is where you fine-tune the program to meet the individual needs of your students.

Student Dashboard

Students have a dashboard of their own.   They can choose where they want to start.  If they start with three main areas, they will find it helps with the games they can play. 

With MaxWords: helping you build words from roots, prefixes, suffixes, and spelling rules. Delve into the Latin and Greek roots. 

Then MaxPhonics: four sections helping you understand the sounds of the English language.  PreK, Alphabet, Blends and Digraphs.

Along with MaxReading: Choose from four chapters, that open into different books.  Practice your reading comprehension. 

There are three main areas to focus on.  MaxPhonics, MaxReading and MaxWords.  Each area allows to you choose what you want to do.  You might want to in MaxPhonics work on blends, in MaxReading take up inventions or reading about places, and MaxWords lets you learn a list of new words, choosing the category you want to learn from.  The sheer variety of options means that a child isn’t forced to read something that they aren’t at all interested in. 

From there you can branch off to MaxMusic, MaxBios, MaxPlaces and MaxVocab.  Each of these areas assesses different parts of learning to read.  For instance you will be understanding verbs in MaxMusic,  comprehension with MaxBios and MaxPlaces, and focusing in on words with MaxVocab.  

Each new section you enter presents you with a tutorial explaining what you need to do.  Read a passage, highlight words, drag definitions etc. 

Take your time, responsive grading

One of the things I love is that you can take your time.  I found no timers or countdown clocks for any marked work.  The only timer I found was for the challenges where you are encouraged to read through a list of words.  I never found meeting the timeline difficult, but for students who might read slowly, or who lack confidence, this might prove to be more of a challenge then they want.  Those students can also choose to have the word list read for them. 

You will find that each area covers somewhat different things.  For instance MaxMusic let’s you read the lyrics of various songs, and then focuses on finding the verbs hidden within.  Later on, it will see what nouns, adjectives and adverbs you remember. 

Everything that is graded gives you immediate feedback. 

Refinement through Change

I noticed a change to the system with one game.  Hangman changed!  They reinvented it maintaining the name but better focusing on enabling students to learn new vocabulary.  The change made playing hangman a great deal less frustrating to play while maintaining it’s intent – testing new vocabulary!  I rather like seeing how programs refine themselves. 

Recommendation

A MaxGuru Pack subscription gives one child twelve months of access and includes all the different Max programs for $279/year.  They even have a free trial program for 15 days.  Try it out!

MaxScholar has been specifically created to help students with a variety of learning disabilities. MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software addresses various issues by teaching the grapheme/phoneme connection through visual, audio and kinesthetic step-by-step instruction.  The creators very much want your students to succeed with their early intervention program.   Their programs are systematic, explicit and multi-sensory.  They have the best of various research-based methods to help your students learn. 

Fully accessible on any computer or tablet.  If you use it on your phone you’ll find yourself scrolling around the screen a bit, but it is still fully usable. 

As I played around with the various programs I found that overall they worked well.  I occasionally ran into glitches (the drag and drop word definitions) but overall everything worked well.  The responsive feedback and the ability to see where you went wrong was fantastic. 

If you are looking for an online program, that will support your student through kindergarten up through highschool, you’ll find MaxScholar a helpful, highly researched and well-executed program 

Links and Invitation

Social Media Links for MaxScholar are:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxScholarLLC/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxScholarLLC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxscholarsoftware/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MaxScholarLLC/pins/

60 People from the Homeschool Review Crew took the time to check out MaxScholar on your behalf.  I invite you to check out their reviews. 

MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software {MaxScholar Reviews}

Add in Your life

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Aren’t you delighted to see me back after a summer away from talking about how to be a better writer?  What can I say, it’s been great to take a break and focus on other things for a while.  To add to the experiences in my life.  What experiences did you add in your life?

My life over the summer was filled with a teen busy landscaping and visiting friends, a hubby working, visiting a friend from CA, and gardening. We took in the beach and some sights and kept ourselves entertained well enough.  🙂  Even a week away for camping was found. 

Anyways, I’ve kept up one of my joys over the summer of participating in Five Minute Fridays.  Almost every week I partake and turn a one word prompt into a poem.  It allows me to do what I’m going to be talking about today.  Insert my life into my writing.   Letting a world flow through your mind until it strikes a chord…using the chord from my life to respond to a simple word prompt.

add in life (making your writing come alive)

Insert My Life in Writing?

Write what you know, it’s an adage that writers are often told.  In every book I read on writing it’s repeated: Write what you know.  It doesn’t mean that you have to tell your life story, but you use your life and what you know into the stories that you tell. 

For instance, today my lad was telling me about a character he would like to create.  A cat, who is a warrior, but is only good with a crossbow.  He doesn’t fight well hand to hand, has no knife, or other weapon, just his crossbow.   He would be about two feet tall but highly effective.  Not a talker, just a crossbow expert.

I told him this character sounds like a fascinating fellow and would love to know more about him.  Is his whole race of people the same or is he an odd-ball?  What causes him to not talk much?  That question caused the thoughts to spiral.  It’s SUCH FUN!

We took the time to explore a bit where such an idea came from: his cats, the games he plays, his friends, his interests in life etc.   All helped him spawn this imaginative creature. 

Warrior cat

Don’t Short Change Yourself

It’s hard sometimes you know, to figure out how the events, thoughts, conversations etc of your life, can add depth to your writing.  The things that we do, the very conversations, and fun, and even the sorrows that we experience, these are the well-spring of our well-written work. 

Regardless if our focus is on poetry, on non-fiction or creative writing.  If you take the time to add in your life, your writing will be full of meaning and experiences only YOU can create, because only you have lived your life.  Don’t discount your experiences in any way. 

Live your life, live it well.  Use your life to make what you do even better.  Take your love of fishing to show the excitement of a child catching their first fish.  Use your confusion over the right outfit to wear to showcase the angst of getting ready for a date.  Apply your laughter over a night out, your disappointment in a movie, your fear at stepping outside of your comfort zone, the smells of campfire and how different that is from burning rubbish.  Growing up on a farm or growing up in town…they bring a richness we can’t always fully grasp.  Choose your words wisely, sift through your memories, and share them well.  Therefore enabling help us see the world more clearly. 

add in your life experiences

Review: College-Ready Writing Essentials™

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Are you looking for a program to help your students get ready for college level writing? Look no further!  BetterRhetor has come out with a college writing course for your high school students.  Help your students succeed with  College-Ready Writing Essentials™ (CRWE)! 25 lessons to teach your children, your students what is expected of them in a college level assignment.  This review is of the full package of CRWE. 

College ready writing essentials BetterRhetor

What I am Reviewing

BetterRhetor.
College-Ready Writing Essentials™.
William Bryant, PhD.
I reviewed the full package.
Reviewed for: Homeschool Review Crew
Age: highschool (junior/seniors), graduated highschool, early college.

Writing, college, writing essentials, college readiness, student success, academic writing

You can learn more about Mr. Bryant at his website. 

BetterRhetor

The Details of College-Ready Writing Essentials™

25 lessons are presented to the student in this online writing program.  It specifically targets the skill of writing a college level paper.  These 25 lessons are divided into five sections. 

  • Overview (one lesson)
  • Planning (lessons 2-11)
  • Drafting (lessons 12-19)
  • Revising (lessons 20-23)
  • Finalizing (lessons 23-25)

Two additional resources are provided.  A PDF of Key Terms, and bonus guide to the culture of college.  Using the students knowledge, skills, behaviors, and awareness to form a piece of writing to inform and persuade their readers.

Since my lad has a love of writing research papers I thought this course would be a good fit for him advancing into highschool.  He’s just in grade nine so I wasn’t sure if it would be too advanced for him.  He likes it so that’s a good thing eh?  🙂

College ready writing essentials

I love that this online course is so nicely laid out.  The lesson order provided on the left side of the screen, the made text on the right.  Part of me wished there was a video component, but my son wisely pointed out that having it all written down meant he could reread easily instead of having to hunt down the specific portion he didn’t understand. 

When it came to doing the lessons, my ninth-grade son said “It wasn’t hard to read, but it also wasn’t extremely easy.”  He took his time doing the lessons, I expected one lesson completed each week. In three weeks he easily got four lessons done before heading off to camp.  

Easy to read

College ready writing essentials

Sometimes when working on a on-line program it is difficult to maintain your progress.   This academic writing program allows you to save your progress, helping you to easily move forward from lesson to lesson. 

College ready writing essentials

CRWE is meant to be completed over the course of five weeks.  At 25 lessons that would be one lesson daily.  Go at the speed of your student. Some may need longer to complete each lesson.  My son commented “Younger students will want to read the lesson one day, and then do the assignment the next day.  Older students would have no problem doing it all in one day.“

The assignments for each lesson are found at the close of the lesson. These files open as PDF’s that you can either print off or store on your computer. 

College ready writing essentials

PDF’s mean options

The advantage of a PDF file is the option to print or not.  Your student can easily do all their work in a notebook, or you can print off each worksheet for your student to write directly on it.  They are done in black/white making it easy on the printer.  Since it’s a PDF there is no time limit on completing the work other than what you arbitrarily set. 

College ready writing essentials

CRWE is a self-paced course.  It is meant to be done over five weeks but you can easily stretch that out as needed. It is an online program and you are granted life-time access so you can use it with all family members.  Their goal is to help your students be better prepared for college level writing, utilizing all their skills in persuasion and information gathering. 

Don’t let your students be part of the 75% of young people not prepared for college. Learn more about this gap and how to address it at The Writing Gap.  Help them learn the skills necessary to succeed pursuing their dreams.  Let them write, and write well in the subjects of their choosing. 

College ready writing essentials
Sample worksheet

Thoughts/Recommendations

I asked my son what he thought of College-Ready Writing Essentials™.  “It has a lot of reading and I couldn’t do it as fast as I wanted to.  I liked it though and want to finish doing it“. 

I loved the responsiveness of customer service.  My son does his work on his own laptop and for whatever reason I couldn’t transfer over to him.  I wrote and asked customer service what to do and they happily set my son up with his own account.  My lad loved this!  His own account, mom can’t mess things up by checking future lessons and messing up bookmarks or whatever.  It was excellent in his mind, and for me as a parent, it was just the answer I needed. 

One of the benefits of the BetterRhetor program is they offer two levels, the full and the premium.  I can totally see the advantage of doing this program twice.  Once in grades 9/10 doing the full program then doing the premium package in grade 12.   Read the reviews, come to your own conclusions. 🙂

College ready writing essentials

Read Other Reviews

Did you know that 31 other members of the crew reviewed BetterRhetor?  Some of us reviewed the full package, others the premium. I know you don’t want to miss reading those reviews.  You can check them out over at the Homeschool Review Crew Blog. 

BetterRhetor

You can find BetterRhetor on the following social media accounts. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/collegereadywriting
Twitter: https://twitter.com/collreadywrite
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/collegereadywriting
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collegereadywriting

disclaimer HSRC

Choosing Words Wisely

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Do you know that early English poets were called shapers?   People who used “the stuff of language to create stories the way that God, the Great Shaper, formed heaven and earth.” (p.68, writing tools)   Isn’t that neat?  To think of yourself as a shaper, one who can build life into what we write. 

Think on that a spell.  What would you need to be that sort of writer?  Think of how God created the word.  He chose the order carefully, creating the structure before creating the life that fills it. 

He didn’t just say “let there be animals”, What he said was “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.”

Do you see how he chose his words wisely?  Describing what he wanted, where it was to come from, and giving us an image to hold in our minds’ eye.  As writers we need to do the same.   Just as we need to let our key words stand on their own, we need make sure we aren’t limiting our words to what is easy or “dumbed down” for our readers.  

As writers we tend to have a rich vocabulary, so we aught to use it.  Not to fill every space with a fancy word, because you don’t need big words to do the job.  You just need the RIGHT one for the space it occupies. 

choosing words wisely

How to Choose the Right Word?

There are several ways to choose what word you need. Perhaps these methods will help you to be choosing words wisely.

  • Use a thesaurus to remind you of options. A good thesaurus is worth it’s weight in gold.
  • Keep word and phrase choice that fits the context. Try not to be overly repetitive, search for words or phrases in your transcript that you use too often and switch them up.
  • Listen for what sounds right. Read your words over, let them roll through your mind.
  • The precise word isn’t necessarily the right word. Sometimes close it just what you need to fit the context and tone.
  • The most powerful words tend to be the shortest and most basic in the English language. Winston Churchill said: “Broadly speaking, the short words are best, and the old words best of all.” Frankly though, if the best word you can use to communicate your tone and point is a longer one, use it, and use it confidently.
  • Keep a list of descriptive words. Words that have caught your fancy, delight your mind, or just intrigues.
  • Seek out words that evoke an emotional response, they may be simple or complex. They need to fit the mood and situation.
  • Be specific where needed. Perhaps you need to say “Mountain Dew” instead of pop, or Malinois rather than dog.
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Be the writer you want to be. Search out and gather words to yourself. Expand your pool of usable words. Learn the history behind the words that interest you. Incorporate them into your language and your writing. Choosing words wisely will further your abilities.

Be a writer.

Join SchoolhouseTeachers.com and learn other writing tips, grammar, language arts, and so much more. It’s a great time to join for 50% off!

Write Better, Observe

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When is the last time as a writer you sat back and just watched the world around you? When have you last taken note of the birds that visit your backyard, the look of your neighbour’s curtains, or how a cat stalks after a bird? Observation is an important part of being an author, how are you cultivating those skills?

write better, observe

Write Better

The other day, hubby and I were listening to some book (the name currently escapes me) and simultaneously said “wow, that was a great description!” It was so spot on, and funny. I wish I could remember exactly what it was, but the description was so vivid, without dragging on, you could tell how well the author knew his subject.

As I stop and think about how accurate his description was, I realize that it was based on his ability to really see what was there. The question for me then arises, how does a writer learn to see what is really there?

Practice Observation

I was out doing a spot of gardening this morning, thinking about this post. I got to thinking that if I were to write about gardening I could talk about the chill of the earth beneath my knee as I knelt over the garden. The spindly white roots of the garlic and chives as I moved them into the white half barrel laden with compost and rich black earth. The red-brown of the earthworms as they are just starting to wake up from a cold winters sleep.

write better, observe

I would have to note the smell of the compost, slightly rotten and yet full of the odour of composting manure and straw. The sounds of the neighbours short-legged dachshund dog yipping loudly whenever I move, and my manure-making rabbits rattling their water bowls as they finish up their breakfast.

Holding on to these observations would help me if I were to write a factual article about transplanting chives, as well as add rich detail to a story about a gardener. Can you see how adding those details would heighten the truth of what you have to say?

Look for the Unusual

Sometimes we need to practice, to stop and really take note of the world around us. To do so, sometimes we need to look for the unusual. Like how would a caterpillar see the world, or imagine life if you were as big as a brontosaurus. You could take the vantage point of a child, a deaf person, or a super hero. Let your imagination take you as you look around. That beetle that you see, maybe it has an invisible rider seeing the world in a dizzying blur.

write better, observe

Go for the normal

Head out the mall and people watch. Observe their interactions, clothing styles, and manner of walking. Spot store clerks interacting with customers, notice random acts of kindness or unnoticed cruelty. Make note of other watchers, browsers, and the child all alone. See the elderly couple holding hands, the young pair whip arms wrapped around, can you see the growth in love? Watch long, look deep, make notes. Then go to the playground, the beach, the coffee shop and the gym. Do it again, and then again. Add details, colour and smells. Remember everything, add it to what you write, let the details bring life to your words.