Review

Review: College-Ready Writing Essentials™

September 9, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

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.

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? 🙂

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 🙂

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.

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

Review: Natural Disasters

July 18, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

Today I am reviewing a unit study called Natural Disasters by Love at Home Education. Today your whole family can learn about the natural challenges of our world with one complete unit study. Stay tuned to learn more.

What I am Reviewing

Natural Disasters.

Curriculum.
Images.
Recommended books and supplies.

Love At Home Education.

Earth, Geography, Science, Earth Science, Natural disasters, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Storms, Drought, Avalanches

125 pages, k-12.

What makes this K-12?

There are recommendations for videos, books, and writing for older audiences. Most of the experiments are geared towards Elementary and are then recommended to further expand knowledge for Junior High and High School.

Under the “Extra Resources” tab on the loveathomeeducation.com website, you can find Free photos, K-12 writing resources, Free vocabulary lists, Curriculum guides and the Recommended Books and supplies list!

The Details of Natural Disasters

Created by Love at Home Education. They bill themselves as a dinner-table friendly, all-inclusive family curriculum; that your high schooler, and kindergartner can learn together on their own levels.”

You will find their unit studies are written for elementary kids. They truly are.

To make this a middle school or high school curriculum you would need to supplement with video and text, adding additional assignment. I found very few suggested activities. I had hoped to find a list of videos and books for middle-to-highschool in the recommended books but did not.

The Layout

Five units make up this broad unit on Natural Disasters. Each unit is then divided into five suggested days. You’ll cover vocabulary words, do experiments, make at least one art project, writing assignments and more.

I happily did not find busy work such as word search, fill in the blank, crosswords and the like. My lad despises such activities! Go figure ’cause I always loved them.

You won’t find clutter filling the pages. There is information and activities but nothing cutesy or irrelevant. A wonderful thing for parents with youngsters (such as I raised) that were distracted to the point of hating curriculum that had such embellishments.

Now there is this neat file of pictures to help round out this unit study on Natural Disasters.

My Thoughts and Recommendations

The nitty gritty eh… can I recommend it? YES, for elementary kids, and perhaps middle school. I don’t really see it as high school level material. The lack of supportive materials and a simple increase in essay length doesn’t really do the job.

I think it could use some better overall layout. It would be helpful to have a table of contents and a written out suggestion of how to use it. I think it would be easier to follow the suggested layout if it was all written out in one area.

Review: Simply Music

July 15, 2019 By Annette1 4 Comments

Today I am reviewing for you a free to use program for you from Simply Music called the Music & Creativity course. It is their foundation course. Taught by Neil Moore who has a strong desire to help his students learn to play music right the first time.

What I Am Reviewing

Simply Music.
Music & Creativity – Foundation Course.
Neil Moore.
On-line, all ages, internet access required.
Video Based
piano lessons, online piano lessons, learn piano online
Reviewed for Homeschool Review Crew.

This course introduces you to Simply Music’s unique, playing-based approach, and has you playing great-sounding music from your very first lessons.

The Basics of Simply Music

The Music & Creativity Foundation Course (MAC) is a video based program. Through video Mr. Moore introduces all music, terms, styles, drawings etc to help you learn to play piano. He provides PDF’s to supplement the videos.

Three PDF”s round out the videos.

Reference Book – music, chords, pictograms, fingering
Music and the Art of Long term Relationships – outline of his theory behind playing music. 14 chapters. Challenging assumptions about music, encouraging everyone to have a relationship with music.
Practice Pad – keyboard you can print out to practice on

My original intent was to have my lad work through this music program. He is a complete beginner and has a vague interest in learning to play some sort of musical instrument.

I did manage to get him started but then life intervened in the way of a part-time job. Suddenly he found his free time quite truncated. Since he is only 13 years old (oops now 14) I didn’t want him to not be able to enjoy his summer as well, something had to give and that something was music.

Ergo I filled in the gap.

My free-time isn’t what I would like it to be either so I listened to the online piano lessons usually while doing something else. Pausing to check out his visuals, referencing his PDF’s as needed. I know how to play piano (rather organ/keyboard) so wasn’t too concerned about the mechanics.

It was easy for me, since I’m used to how music flows, to move out the music with my fingers. I could use his practice keyboard, my real keyboard, or just tap it out on my table. I have no pictures because taking pictures of yourself playing doesn’t work well when no one else is around. 🙂

The Details of Simply Music

One thing that Mr. Moore frequently referenced was stopping to think about what you wanted to play. Listening to the rhythm of the music and getting a feel for it in your head before you started to play. This would help you minimize any errors, which would save you time in the long run. You wouldn’t have to UNLEARN those errors first. I liked that.

Each lesson consisted of Mr. Moore teaching us how to learn his program. Seeing the music, learning hand movements, learning to listen, and learning how to diagram music.

Then learning how to translation that rhythm (so seeing the pattern that emerges from a sentence/line of music) into hand movements.

This video will help you understand this concept better. 🙂

The set up of the Music & Creativity Course helps you to know exactly where you are in the lesson.

You do need to tell the computer when you have completed each lesson so that you can move on to the next one. Marking it complete does not stop you from being able to redo the lessons, it just acts as a bookmark for when you next access your course.

I found some lag in moving from one lesson to the other. It wasn’t overly long but it was notice-able enough that I paid attention. Mr. Moore takes his time to explain how he wants us to think about music and gives us a variety of genres to provide interest. Blues, classical and contemporary pieces are some of what he plays. “Dreams Come True”, “Eliza”, “Christowel”, and “Black is Blue” are among the titles used.

My Thoughts and Recommendations

My Recommendation is easy. It’s free! Mr. Moore has a love for helping students learn to play music. It’s is easily accessible as long as you have an internet connection. Use it! It is an excellent way to evaluate his course to see if you want to upgrade. The upgrade itself is not expensive making it very doable.

If I could change anything: I would like a written transcript of the videos right with the videos. I would rather read what I need than listen to a video. My son likes the video but would like to have at least the main points witten along with the video. He says that would be helpful to him when listening to know what to pay attention to.

Check out the Reviews for Simply Music

45 members of the crew have reviewed the free program Simply Music. I urge you to click on the image below so you can read them.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/simplymusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simplymusic
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/simplymusicinst/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplymusic/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/simplymusic

I Love You, Funny Bunny

April 25, 2019 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Are you looking for an adorable picture book to share with your littles? I love you, Funny Bunny is a sweet picture book of a parent talking with their little one about how much they are loved. This book would be so lovely to share with your youngsters, or give a parent to share with their loved ones. Let me tell you why.

What I am Reviewing

I Love You, Funny Bunny.
Barbara Herndon
Sean Julian (illustrator)
Zonderkidz
24 pages, Jacketed Hardcover
Reviewed for BooklookBloggers.
Picture book, age 3-5,
Beginner reader, Parent, child, preschool,

I Love You, Funny Bunny tugs at the heartstrings as it celebrates the special bond between a parent and child.

Illustrated by Sean Julian, I Love You, Funny Bunny is a perfect picture book to cuddle up and share with the Funny Bunny in your life at naptime, at bedtime, or at any other time of day you and your little one need some extra snuggles. Boys and girls will have fun turning the pages to discover all the ways this parent bunny loves little Funny Bunny.

“I love you, Funny Bunny, from your whiskers to your toes.
I love the way you hop around and wiggle your cute nose.”

The Details

Full colour images are enclosed within a jacketed hardcover book. The pictures are large with lots of details. Sean Julian did an excellent job at illustrating the fun that a parent bunny can have with their child.

From cuddling with a book, to making art, walks and talks hand in hand and just plain enjoying each other. It is a fantastic book to share with each other. The stunning images will give you lots to talk about as you read the rhyming lyrics.

You not only get to see bunnies going about their daily activities but also see flowers, butterflies, paint, frogs and ponds and so many other things. I loved reading books with my lad and finding all the things that captured his interest. This book has lots of illustrations and objects to do that with.

Recommendation

I read this book and I think birthday parties, baby showers, grandchildren (not for me personally yet), and gifts for nieces and nephews. A lot of fun for the littles (and their parents) that surround us in our lives. Share I Love You, Funny Bunny with them won’t you?

Review and Giveaway for Raincoast Books

February 20, 2019 By Annette1 14 Comments

Oh oh oh!!! I have a great review and giveaway for you today. Let’s welcome in spring!!!! Two lovely books and a stamp kit! Do note that this giveaway is only for my fellow Canadians 18+.

Anyways, let me tell you all about the Animals of the Savanna, In the Forest, and Stamp Bugs.

Animals of the Savanna

The first of the two nature sticker activity books, Animals of the Savannah is a romp through the Savannah of Africa. You get to meet lions, leopards, zebras, baboons, secretary birds, boa constrictors and more.

Each page has a variety of activities to go with it. Sometimes it involves attaching stickers. These stickers are found on a two-page spread in the middle of the book. Other times the reader is invited to colour, to finish an image, or change something about an animal.

Each page introduces you to small details about the animals found on the page. “Baby baboons are covered with black hair. They spend the first months of their lives clinging to their mothers. They play with each other and have fun pulling each other’s tails. The whole troop spends the night in the same tree.”.

Each of the activities has a circle in front which indicates the type of activity. A pencil crayon for colouring, and a bird for other actions.

In the Forest

Another in the My Nature Activity Book Series is In the Forest. In the Forest is laid out just the same as Animals of the Savanna. Sticker page in the middle with options to colour, draw, sticker and otherwise interact with different forest elements.

Readers are given the option to test their knowledge at the close of the book.

In the Forest doesn’t just focus on one type of forest, but features animals from forests around the world. This means you’ll find ponds with frogs, pandas in a bamboo forest, and strawberries in the undergrowth.

Stamp Bugs

The perfect compliment to this sticker activity books is stamp bugs. 25 stamps along with 2 stamp pads, allows children to create a multitude of bugs to complement their studies of forests and the Savanna.

This kit comes complete with an instructional pad to kickstart ideas about bugs to create. The cleanly cut stamps feature bodies, legs, and antenna giving the creator a good variety of bugs to imagine.

These three items are geared to ages 5-8 or so. They would make a lovely addition to any sort of nature study, or simply just to amuse children who enjoy nature, or stickers or colouring. The sticker activity books are made on a sturdy paper that will hold colour and stickers well. Once the stickers are placed on, they won’t come off again.

Stamp Bugs: 25 stamps and two ink pads
Barbara Dziadosz
Princeton Architectural Press

Animals of the Savanna – My nature sticker activity book
In the forest – my nature sticker activity book
Olivia Cosneau
Princeton Architectural Press

Reviewed for Raincoast Books

Now for the giveaway. It’s open to Canadian residents only, 18+. Thanks.

Win great product to delight and educate the young ones in your lives.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Introduction to Robotics and Automation

February 15, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

My son has an enjoyment of robotics, he’s taken a few courses over the years. Last year he was fortunate enough to be able to an engineering course at a local business and was able to build his own robot. This was almost the best thing ever. 🙂

This year I was looking at course from Innovator’s Tribe and offered to do a review in exchange for the course. Mr. K agreed! WOOT WOOT! I want to tell you how much my lad has been enjoying this course.

The course: Introduction to Robotics and Automation.

Course Description

This exciting course introduces students to the modern world of robotics. Using interactive lessons and exciting hands-on activities, students will learn how to design, build and program a virtual robot.

30 hours of learning material right at your fingertips. Easy login, Sidebar for lesson placement, units of study and encouragement to try something more.

What you Get

A self-paced, self-contained, completely on-line (except for hands-on projects) that your student can do completely on their own.

Occasionally you will be directed to a video outside of the course. Videos such as the one below. One of the things I like about these referrals is that they open the door to viewing other videos on robotics. My son would often tell me the things he was learning about.

The layout of each lesson is really obvious. This is on the things my son really liked. He knew what kind of lesson it was going to be just by checking the sidebar. Lesson variations are: Multimedia, quiz, text, and video. Activities are clearly labeled.

The page is laid out in such a way that you can see where you are in the lesson by checking the sidebar, while your lesson plays on the mainscreen.

Since this is a self-paced course, my son wanted to do all the book learning first. This isn’t unusual for him. He likes to learn the material well before trying it out in real life. At this point he has completed all the “Book-learning” that has been created (there is more to come).

Over the next three or four weeks he hopes to complete the hammer-bot and water clock. He is hoping we can find some Arduino to work with. He says it is really interesting and he wants to do it all himself. So I have a project to complete.. FIND SOME!

Our Thoughts

From my son: I found the course fun. It was enjoyable. I learned names for robotic components which I really liked. Knowing this kind of information is great. I would happily take another Mr. K class because he is good at explaining things and making them interesting. How the lessons are done with the different slides is good. And how they have videos in the slides. The web-page isn’t complicated, it’s easy to use.

From Me: When they say this is a self-directed course, it’s exactly that. My son would say “I’m doing innovators!” And off he’d go. If I asked him what he learned about (sometimes 15 minutes later, sometimes an hour later) he’d tell me, sometimes prefaced with “I’m sorry, I got interested in learning so I was watching other videos”.

Do we recommend this course? Definitely. Just like the first course we took from them called Thinking Like An Engineer. Well taught courses that engage the learner in a variety of formats to work with all learning styles. Great teacher too!

Introduction to Robotics and Automation.
Innovator's Tribe.
Mr. Kroeplin (teacher)
Grades 5-9
On-line
Self-directed, robotics, automation,

Review: For The Temple

February 13, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

For The Temple is a story I have been listening to for the past three weeks. Heirloom Audio is the producer of this captivating and dramatic tale, telling the story of the first-century Jewish revolt from the perspective of a fictional young Jewish man, John of Gamala.

The Story

G.A. Henty writes a tale with John of Gamala at the centre of it. It takes place during the years of Roman occupation. Political infighting and lawlessness ruled the day. In the end, the destruction of the Temple.

John ends up in the middle of a losing battle between Rome, greedy political groups and bands of robbers from Palestine. He makes and loses friends along the way.

John, a fictional character, maintains his honour and integrity throughout this conflict, eventually becomes procurator.

What you Get

How do I break this down for you? I could tell you that you get 27 tracks, cut into manageable sound bites running 4-8 minutes. I could say that they tell the story in a logical manner that doesn’t jump around from past to present.

But how do I tell you an Heirloom Audio story differs from, for instance, an audible story? Frankly, I LOVE listening to audio books. Listening to a good story while I fold the laundry is one of my greatest pleasure in the course of a day.

Heirloom Audio is more than one or two people reading a story. It’s a whole cast of people, retelling a story. All the voices and dramatic action make it a compelling listen, you just want to know what is going to happen next. They have a well-rounded cast that presents their parts well.

This audio comes with an excellent study guide with is formed out three basic sections: Listening well, Thinking further, and Defining words. I have to admit, I looked them over, but I didn’t really use them. As I looked through I found some questions I thought were good.

“John says that the first duty of any Jew is to protect the temple. Why should that be?” and “Some people are opposed to violence in books, particularly in books meant for young people. What do you think of this? Is it wrong to portray war as it is? Does it need to be portrayed graphically? Why can’t the author just say “Many men died that day?”

I listened to the audio as an adult, the study guide is designed for parents who want help talking their younger children through the storyline and its lessons. It can also serve as series of written assignments for older students. Each lesson is meant to go with each track.

I have to tell you, this study guide was well put together and worth going through if you have your family listening with you. It will also help you delve into the story of this battle deeper.

My Thoughts

Though I enjoyed listening to the story, I was completely lost. I listened to it twice all the way through, and then bits and pieces just to see if I could figure out the entire story. I know there was storm and boat scene, and I know there was a terrific battle. But try as I might I couldn’t connect all the pieces. I don’t know why. I have listened to Heirloom Audio tracks before and not had a problem, I own a few of them as digital recordings. But with For the Temple something just wasn’t working for me..

I’ve been thinking about who would this audio drama be good for. ANYONE, except perhaps not sensitive littles. Mind.. I’ve never had one of those in my house, so I’m not sure. I didn’t find anything objectionable.

It’s an excellent way to learn history, to see how political infighting from the Jewish leadership harmed the Jews as they fought to save the temple. How Rome got annoyed with bands of rebels making things hard for them. There is so much history in this story.

I strongly urge you to go check out other reviews. 🙂

For the Temple
Heirloom Audio
Digital Download,
audio drama, audio theatre, audio theater, radio drama, radio theatre, radio theater, audio book, G.A. Henty, heirloom audio, Christian audio drama, Christian radio theatre, focus on the family radio theatre, homeschooling, Christian homeschooling, homeschooling curriculum

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeirloomAudio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeirloomStories
Instagram: @HeirloomAudioOfficial

Review

Review: College-Ready Writing Essentials™

What I am Reviewing

The Details of College-Ready Writing Essentials™

Easy to read

PDF’s mean options

Thoughts/Recommendations

Read Other Reviews

Review: Natural Disasters

What I am Reviewing

The Details of Natural Disasters

The Layout

My Thoughts and Recommendations

Review: Simply Music

What I Am Reviewing

The Basics of Simply Music

The Details of Simply Music

My Thoughts and Recommendations

Check out the Reviews for Simply Music

I Love You, Funny Bunny

What I am Reviewing

The Details

Recommendation

Review and Giveaway for Raincoast Books

Animals of the Savanna

In the Forest

Stamp Bugs

Review: Introduction to Robotics and Automation

Course Description

What you Get

Our Thoughts

Review: For The Temple

The Story

What you Get

My Thoughts

Amazon Affiliate information

Tinker Crate Affiliate

Review

What I am Reviewing

The Details of College-Ready Writing Essentials™

Easy to read

PDF’s mean options

Thoughts/Recommendations

Read Other Reviews

What I am Reviewing

The Details of Natural Disasters

The Layout

My Thoughts and Recommendations

What I Am Reviewing

The Basics of Simply Music

The Details of Simply Music

My Thoughts and Recommendations

Check out the Reviews for Simply Music

What I am Reviewing

The Details

Recommendation

Animals of the Savanna

In the Forest

Stamp Bugs

Course Description

What you Get

Our Thoughts

The Story

What you Get

My Thoughts

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