Sunday, June 30, 2013

Moving Beyond the Page; art, history, geography, and literature


We love unit studies and combining subjects so we were very excited to review Moving Beyond the Page with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  Selecting just the right units to do when you are moving outside your current plan can be tricky, however Cameron took inspiration from a recent review we did featuring Impressionist Art  as part of Art Cards and decided he wanted to study more Art. I chose Charlotte of Giverney, a literature based study and Europe a complementary Social Studies unit  for him.
Charlotte in GivernyThe literature unit we received as an online unit but received the books to complete the unit as well.
While Cameron wasn't sure about so much reading, he did find the stories entertaining and was able to make the artistic connection to the stories. The unit came with spelling lists that we soon found out were above his spelling level, that is the beauty of homeschooling, I can now work on our weak areas in spelling.
We received the title book as well as an art book kit based on the works of Monet where, Cameron is able to try his hand at some of the inspiration.
The title story is written as a journal, as I read the book to Cameron and we looked over the pictures it really started to come alive for both of us.
There are 7 lessons and a final project related to the story, however combined with the spelling/ vocabulary words and the complimentary Europe unit we combined it is actually an in depth unit study.
Charlotte of Giverny Moving Beyond the page is targeted at 8-10 year olds and retails for $29.83 in the format I received.
Europe
The Europe Social Studies unit we received in print form came with the unit plus 2 story books and also had the same target age range of 8-10 years old. I liked the variety of activities in this unit, however the print quality of the student maps was very disappointing. I actually pulled out other black line masters of similar maps to have Cameron use. I want him to be proud of his work and set the expectation for neatness, when the maps he is writing on are blurry at best, it makes it hard to expect him to write neatly.  Other than the print quality, the content of the program is reasonable. The Europe unit in print with 2 story books retails for $32.89. Since we are working toward studies on the middle ages next year, elements of this unit study including the story books will resurface next spring and then as we work toward early modern history the we can revisit the artistic literature unit with both boys , by that time we should be able to review the spelling lists without any troubles.

I am going through the list of units that Moving Beyond the Page carries and seeing if I can work anymore in to our goals for the next year or so and have found a couple that would make fun units to have for breaks in our Classical plans. I am looking forward to reading the reviews from the rest of the Schoolhouse Review Crew as we all selected different units, I would highly recommend reading more of these reviews to see which ones might fit into your homeschool.


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Pickled carrots ? sure why not!

I seem to have an abundance of carrots, so why not pickle them?
I decided to go with a simple Lacto-fermented method using dill , garlic, white pepper, carrots, and a salt water brine.
I made 1 quart jar and 1 pint jar with the simple recipe and stored them on the shelf in my pantry with a dish clothe under them. I burped them every other day so they wouldn't make a mess.
After 2 weeks of moderate temperatures the pint jar had grown a mold, but the quart jar turn out perfect.

I have used the pickled carrots in potato salad and sliced on a grilled burger (I am out of regular dill pickles)

The flavor is really good and since I used whole carrots in the quart jar the seem to have kept their crunch. I moved the jar into the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation.

Next round I am going to use a bail style glass jar (I have domed lids for them bail jars) hoping I won't have to burp them as often that way.

Next round of carrots will also include shredded carrots and ginger in hopes of a kraut flavor and texture.

Sunday Scripture 6/30

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Unionvale Homeschool

John 14: 6, 16
6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father , but by me.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever.

James 5:16b
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.


The verses at first glance have little connection, but as I struggled with some things this week and studying the lesson this week, I felt comfort no only from the divine Comforter  but also from the knowledge that Christ is The Righteous man that not only prayed for us , but also hears our prayers. We are connected through his knowledge to him. He shared with us all that we need and we can go to him with our struggles.


Friday, June 28, 2013

Summer Chicken salad wraps

I love summer garden lunches, especially when it includes using leftovers.

Summer Chicken Salad Wrap:

Best Foods Mayonaise2 cups shredded chicken (I used left over chicken from the previous night's dinner)
1/4 cup Best Foods Buffalo Mayonnaise (can use regular as well)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Several Large leaves of garden lettuce (Romaine works too)
2 Burrito sized flour Tortillas (I have used the multi grain or mixed flavor ones as well)

Mix chicken, cilantro and mayonnaise today. Lay each tortilla out placing the leaf lettuce in the center.
Loosely measure half the mixture on to each wrap.
Fold and roll the wrap and  you have a crazy good summer chicken salad wrap.

Upcylcing and reusing for healthy seasoning

I love making my own seasoning and mixes , sometimes I make too much of a good thing.
Thankfully though, containers are reusable!
reuse
The larger size Parmesan cheese shaker holds my shredded dehydrated garlic (I also have one full of shredded dry coconut). The smaller jar is a Ball quilted jelly jar with a smaller Parmesan cheese shaker lid. I have been saving the Parmesan cheese lids from the smaller size containers for about 6 months (begging friends to save them too). I have 6 on hand now and hope to have 3 or 4 more by the end of the summer. I love that I can use the container as a shaker or spoon larger amounts out! 
I can combine a variety of dried herbs to create my own mixes, dry rubs, seasoning, etc... and not use as much salt in our diets. Bring on the dry herb mixes of late summer.


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Zaycon Deals in bulk, chicken, beef, bacon, and more #sponsored

How does Zaycon Foods manage to provide such high quality super fresh meat and produce to its customers at such low prices? The answer is strength in numbers. And not our numbers, yours!
Zaycon Foods can sell its products at bulk rate prices to individual consumers and families because our unique sales event business model brings lots of people together, adding all their purchasing power into a combined bulk food purchase. And when you buy as part of a group that’s committing to such a large purchase, the power is in the hands of the purchaser! It’s the ultimate group buy in terms of both price and consumer empowerment.
You can pre-select exactly what you want to order from a given Zaycon sales event – sometimes you may want to stock up on our amazing meaty back ribs and sometimes it might be all about the Zaycon bacon – and then, on the day of the sales event, you and a whole big bunch of your neighbors will find yourselves in a nearby parking lot watching as an entire tractor trailer’s worth of high quality natural food is unloaded into all of your cars! You will be amazed at how quickly one of our refrigerated trucks goes from being filled with natural, fresh chicken or hundreds of gallons of grade A non-homogenized milk to being empty and back on its way to the farm!
A Zaycon Foods truck sales event often lasts less time than you would spend on a trip to the grocery store, yet you will leave with a whole lot more food than you’d get at the market, and for much better prices, too!
When you use the Zaycon Foods sales event as your preferred place to purchase meats, milk, and any of our other fine products, you get advantages even beyond the bulk pricing that comes with our special sales model. You also have the peace of mind of knowing exactly what you’re going to get! A trip to the grocery store can involve wasted time wandering around looking for various foods spread out across the store; at a Zaycon Foods parking lot meat truck delivery (or milk or berries or fish delivery, too!) you have pre-ordered your foods, so all you have to do is show up and wait for our friendly staffers and volunteers to load up your car. 
Also, unlike in the grocery store, the prices you will pay for a Zaycon Foods product are locked in on our website, so you will know how much you are going to spend before you have committed to a purchase. 
At a supermarket, you might pay one price for chicken on one day, and then a higher price on another day. With Zaycon, you decide that you want to order a case of our fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts, you check the price and then you commit to it, knowing that from that moment on, we are committed to getting you your fresh, natural food!
To Get Started Click on this link

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Save 20% Off Any Order at Three Lollies, Natural Nausea Products. 


***this is a sponsored spot, I will receive and post a review of the above product. Thanks to USFamilyGuide for supporting our blog****

Friday, June 21, 2013

Monsters University preview night with my guys. #monstersu

Monday evening we took the boys to preview Monsters University at Regal Cinemas at
Bridgeport. While the boys were not excited about having to wear the 3D glasses to see the movie, they were pretty stocked about seeing the movie itself. I gave them coloring pages and the Monsters University ID cards to design on the drive to the movie. They wore their ID cards with pride.
I also splurged and gave them bottle return money so they could buy treats at the theater.
When we arrived at the theater the local Radio Disney station was all set up with a booth. It was pretty crowded, but the little Radio Disney Mobile was parked off to the side and perfect for a photo op. (note I was bent over leaning into the boys, I'm not that short honest)
We headed in to the theater and picked out some pretty good seats (ironically my husband let me know if was the same place we sat last time we previewed a movie and will likely be the same spot the next time.)
Once our seats were selected I took Nathan to pick up popcorn and snacks (junior mints for N and reeces pieces for C). I forgot how expensive candy and popcorn are, yikes!

We had to wait for almost 45 minutes for the movie to start since we had an early arrival time, thankfully Cameron has his coloring page to work on . We chatted with a couple fellow bloggers and waited for the show to start.


The movie started with a short that was really unique, it even caught the boys' attention. Check out the clip below for "The Blue Umbrella"

After the short, the movie started right in. I have to tell you it was some of the best animation and adaptation my husband has ever experienced. He talked about how real things appeared most of the night on the way home and even after we got the boys to bed. He was impressed.
The boys loved the story and even talked about the story line on the way home.
This mom loved the underlying morality of the story line.
The movie has a lot of action, awesome animation, fun music, adorable monsters, a even teaches some consequences for your actions in the end.  I love the idea that even the unnoticed, unloved, underdog  characters come out on top. (opps was the a spoiler???)
You can check out a clip or better yet , just go check it out in the theaters. It opened today (June 21st) in theaters just about everywhere. It is a great family friendly film.
Disney Pixar
Opening Date:                  Friday, June 21st
Rating:                                 G
Running Time:                  103 Minutes

Synopsis:        Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. “MonstersUniversity” unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

Screaming with laughter and fun, “Monsters University” is directed by Dan Scanlon (“Cars,” “Mater and the Ghostlight,” “Tracy”) and produced by Kori Rae (“Up,” “The Incredibles,” “Monsters, Inc.”). The film opens in U.S. theaters on June 21, 2013, and will be shown in Disney Digital 3D™ in select theaters.


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Geography, History, and Art oh my

 We received for review a complete Geography I program from Memoria Press for review in our homeschool. Since Geography wasn't something we had focused on other than location of the continents and oceans I thought this would be a good thing to add in. We are currently studying the ancients and Geography I covers the Middle East , North Africa, and Europe which is a perfect fit of the Ancients.
We started our with just reading the Student Text and talking about the worksheet. I would ask the boys to point out certain areas on the map in the text instead of writing it to begin with, then I had Cameron start writing in the Workbook. Cameron isn't a fan of workbooks, so I decided to add some extra fun to studying about ancient Israel, Ancient Iraq, and Ancient Syria.
I incorporated our history studies, a couple of Bible stories, some sidewalk chalk, and a small group of Playmobil characters and horses (might have had a cow as well) for outside school.
This collection of elements worked together with 2 little boys for a fun school day. We traveled with Abram and Sarai from Ur to Canaan after we drew and colored the map on the back patio. 
Something as simple as the maps included in Geography I inspired a cross curricular activity that was fun and kept my boys engaged for 45 minutes. What a simple thing. 
The complete set costs $48.00 and includes the text, the workbook, the teacher's guide, and the United States Review set (student book and teacher's book) for grades 4-8. Due to copyright rules for this book, if you have more than 1 student using the program,  you will need to purchase an additional student workbook which retails for $11.95 for each student. 
The program is easy to follow and integrates well with a variety of programs and learning styles. I was able to easy incorporate the program into our current Classic approach to history but can also see how it would work into a unit study as well as hands on learning with the workbook as reinforcement. 
We will continue to work the program into our current Classical History Model over the summer and into the fall as we work through the Middle East and North Africa and arriving in Europe sometime around January. It may seem like a long journey but my boys seem to be embracing the classical history with activities to help them remember the geography and events that help form the modern world we live in. 
The schoolhouse review crew reviewed this product as well as Prima Latina a program I am looking forward to reading reviews on as I am wanting to add Latin in the fall for the boys. 
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I love Memoria Press' motto, "Saving Western Civilization One Student at a Time", in our case it is two students but still , it really is that easy to save history by teaching the true history to our children. I gratefully support companies that are willing to go that extra mile in the education of our children. 

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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Playing with cards and Playing with Art with Birdcage Press


Birdcage Press We are working to incorporate more art images into the boys world. Thankfully, we received a new review product that helped facilitate that, Art Close Up: Museum of Modern Art Cards from Birdcage Press
   Once we received our package from Birdcage Press, Cameron immediately opened them and started playing matching memory style games by himself. Once he made a match he would look over the full picture card and ask me about the artist or the piece of art.
Inspired by the games we have actually started an artists study notebook. We have continued to play with the cards putting the full picture cards into timeline order and trying to put the up close pictures in the same order without looking at the full picture cards. Another activity we found fun, grouping the cards by style.
Unionvale Homeschool
Art Close Up: Museum of Modern Art Cards is a set of 48 matching cards, the size of playing cards, laminated and full color featuring pieces from the Museum of Modern Art  designed for ages 5 and up. The set of cards retails for $10.95 and can be purchased directly from Birdcage Press
My boys are really loving the cards and trying to come up with more games to play with them. For now though, memory match, timeline builder, and style grouping will do. The game inspired us to find a few more art style games and activities for the Montessori shelf and we are adding several of the other sets available to our homeschool wishlist and even a field trip to the Portland Art Museum later this summer.

While the retail price at first seemed a bit high for a set of cards, the more we played with them and the more inspiration gained from them the more I am seeing the true value in the set of cards. Birdcage press carries a wonderful line of art cards as well as art books, and even history , nature, air, and space activities. Members of the Schoolhouse Crew reviewed a variety of the art cards and several other activities from Birdcage press, you won't want to miss their reviews as well.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Dishes , prewash or No? #sponsored

No longer  thanks to Cascade Platinum Pacs.
 New Platinum Clean.I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Cascade. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating







Honestly, dishes are one thing I HATE doing with a passion. Thankfully most days I can get my husband to load the dishwasher and the boys will unload it. Lately though, I have my oldest unload the dishwasher and my youngest load the dishwasher. With that in mind, he doesn't pre-rinse or pre-wash anything, I'm lucky if he scrapes off the chunks and he is very creative in loading the machine.
Cascade Platinum Pacs were something I thought wouldn't work in our dishwasher, I was skeptical at first, but after a week of using them I have noticed that the whole issue with pre-rinsing or washing is not an issue. I no longer have bits and pieces left on dishes making them look as bad as when they went in. Clean dishes makes it easier to put them away, less frustration and makes putting dinner or even a basic lunch together nicer.  1 little Pac does so much work that I don't have to and the dish washer smells fresh and clean afterwards. (being on well water, it can be a mystery sometimes.) While I received this first package as part of this campaign, I will be watching for coupons to purchase more and the value is there for me in simplicity and quality
The Pac looks so small in the soap dish, but it really packs a punch.
Want to hear the best part of this deal??? Cascade is having a #MyPlatinum Instagram contest. Visit the main page to learn more about entering your photos for a chance to win!! You will want to use the hashtag #MyPlatinum and be sure to tag @My Cascade when you upload your instagram photos.

Thank you again to  Mom Central Consulting and Cascade for the opportunity to try this new product out and share our thoughts we you. While this was part of a sponsored campaign, all opinions are honest opinions of myself and my family.
Unionvale Homeschool

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Christianity Cove Tween a Rock and a Hard Place plus the Lord's Prayer

We received two different products from Christianity Cove  for review with the boys. Christianity Cove provides Sunday School lessons filled with games, activities and real life lessons for a variety of ages.
Tween MinistryThe first product we received for review Tween a Rock and a Hard Place , is designed for 9-12 year olds and helps parents and Church teachers discuss some of the tough topics with tweens. I love the thought on the webpage "Jesus isn't intimidated by tweens and neither should you be". Since I don't have a problem talking to by boys (ages 7 and 10) about issues I was hoping for something a little bit more that I got. While we did find some good discussions born from the e-book we received. I really felt there could have been more to the program. Unfortunately, I can't offer suggestions for what needs to be different as I have simply fallen back on the basics of the Bible to find answers to the majority of questions and issues that have arisen with the boys. While my boys aren't perfect in their behaviour, we have found that a dialogue and a reminder of behavior works the best for the issues. I know that may seem like I live in a bubble and believe me I don't. I have told the boys stories that are real and straightforward about the hard stuff in life.  If you are having trouble talking with your tween (by the way , that label is one that has never sat well with me, I wish I could come up with something different.) about the tougher issues of the world this can be a useful tool for language and activities to open doors. The e-book retails for $29 on the website.
The second book we reviewed, Lord's Prayer Lesson Pack retails for $19.99 and is filled with 14 activities to help your children understand the Lord's Prayer. We used this both our boys although I can see using it with slightly younger students and even older students (age 5-15 I suppose).  We did find several of the activities and discussions useful with the boys although they seems to really do well with copy work and breaking it down line by line.
I taught Sunday School to a variety of ages (3-14) for 4 years where I was always looking for inexpensive activities to teach the foundations of faith and this would have been very useful in that setting. The crafts and activities would really fit well into a Sunday School program. Looking back through my files I actually found some of Mary-Kate Warner's materials  that I used in Sunday School. I could also see these activities be handy in a larger family but with only 2 boys, it took some tweaking to make the activities really work , and as I was tweaking I realized I could show the boys the importance of prayer without the activities but with simple words and reading the surrounding text from the Bible. Again, I'm not saying this isn't a good program, but for us it didn't work out. Both my boys know the Lord's Prayer from simple practise and use each week, saying it in Sunday School and thinking about the meaning as we say it.
Christianity Cove has a variety of programs available online, if you teach Sunday School you are bound to find something useful on their site. The crew reviewed several of her programs and share their thoughts.

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Monday, June 10, 2013

OCEANetwork Anchored in Christ Conference coming soon! #sponsored

Oregon homeschool conference logoI can not wait for the upcoming OCEANetwork Conference. In less than 2 weeks my husband , the boys, and I will journey into Portland to the Oregon Convention Center to join other Oregon homeschool families for the annual Homeschool Conference in exchange for my blogging before and after the conference..
This year's theme "Anchored in Christ" is fitting as our homeschool mascot the sailor and our school theme of a journey with Christ at the helm align with the theme perfectly.  I have already printed a list of the exhibitors and vendors along with a Conference Workshop Schedule. I am working my way through the vendor list making notes of who I want to talk to about their program along with a list of products I am searching for.
This year, OCEANetwork has a wonder children's tract with Stories from Bruce Isham and science stations throughout by Twin Rock Science Camp. Nathan is looking forward to the various science stations after last year's sea star dissection.
Our plan is to take the boys on Friday and then just Mike and I on Saturday, that way we can attend more of the adult encouragement workshops on Saturday and also the Used Curriculum Sale together without the boys having to be juggled.
So Friday looks like 3 stories by Bruce Isham for the boys , a lunchtime Exhibitor's workshop maybe 2 (can't decide between Institute for Excellence in Writing and Doorpost for Friday), 2 Heidi St. John workshops for Mom, General Session with Norm Wakefield, and 1 undecided session. Of course, this could all change once we arrive on Friday.
Saturday is looking good too. I found a Jon Dunagan workshop for Mike to attend first thing in the morning while 1st session is still undecided for me. Also the General Session in the morning looks good, but you can't go wrong with a message from Dick Karman. lunchtime will likely be a screen of Overruled! from Parental Rights.org followed by 1 of 3 workshops that seem like they will speak to me. The last workshop session has several workshops that I want to attend, I may have to step up and purchase the CDs or MP3 downloads after the conference.


Online registration has closed for the conference but you can still register by the door for $60 for yourself and your spouse. Children are $10 each.  You can also purchase an Exhibit Hall only pass $15 for adults and $10 for children.
I am looking forward to blogging more about the conference and even posting to Facebook and Twitter during the conference.




Sunday, June 9, 2013

Let's make a Web page with Motherboard Books

I am excited to share our latest review with you. We received the e-book Let's make a webpage from Motherboard Books for Cameron to use and explore more in his computer programming/ webpage design elective for the year.

This 60 page e-book retails for $19.95 and is recommended for children ages 8-12 and is set up to cover in a shorter period of time, not a full year as it is a project based book.
The book came with the recommendation to download a free trial program called Coffee Cup, I decided to download a different program that did not have a free trial on it, and so I had to tweak the instructions with Cameron slightly. I didn't have a problem tweaking the instructions, but I am kind of an IT geek and studied web design including Java and HTML in college. If you aren't comfortable with tweaking things within the computer world, I would recommend downloading the free trial from Coffee Cup so that it will align with the book.

Cameron enjoyed the freedom web design gave him unlike the previous computer IT program gave him. He was able to work with pictures from his own camera and write about those pictures. He even had the opportunity to test his page live using our blog, although I did not publish his page yet (I'm waiting for the ok from a couple of parents whose kiddos are pictured).
We decided to not include sound on his page as that is one thing that turns me off from many pages and blogs is sound that I can't turn off. We did talk about embedding objects including players where the music or sound could be turned off.  This book has led to his understanding of my blogging and page design a bit more as well as an appreciation when I get frustrated with formatting or HTML coding.
I appreciate e-books like Let's make a webpage not only for the project based learning but for the skills it reinforces such as keyboarding and basic computer skills along with the HTML. It also incorporates project skills including planning, outside issues (photo releases), and problem solving. Cameron also found that a web page can be an art project that includes color, layout, and aesthetics.









Motherboard Books also has another program for the 8-12 age group, Logo Adventures covering computer based drawing and animation as well as several other computer focused programs for kids.
If you are looking for something that will help keep your children involved in computers so that they don't get lost in the technology jungle, but safely educate them I highly recommend Motherboard Books as a company to consider. You can also interact with Motherboard Books on Facebook and Twitter. On their homepage you can sign up for their email newsletter and receive a free Internet Scavenger Hunt to help students get comfortable searching the internet for information.
The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed 2 of the products mentioned in this post, click below to read their thoughts on the products.
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Thursday, June 6, 2013

Math Mammoth Green Series: Supplement and Review for multigrades

I love when I find a helpful program that is versitile enough to cover a variety of areas of math. Thankfully we were asked to review one such program. Math Mammoth by Maria Miller, green series is one such program.


We received 3 workbooks for Cameron to work on : Fractions, Geometry, and Statistics. All 3 had elements that we could use as they are graded for 3rd-7th for the most part. We were able to add a worksheet from each book to the mix of math each week.
The fractions worksheets inspired both boys actually to find fraction activities outside of worksheets and improved their understanding of fractions. We worked through 5 fraction worksheets before we got to a point that is was more than Cameron could handle. We will be returning to fractions through the summer and into next school year.
With sections on equivalent fractions, comparing , adding and subtracting like, simplifying , multiplying and dividing fractions and more it covers everything a student will need to understand about fractions over their school career and beyond.
The file includes 61 worksheets for $6.95 as a pdf download. I will be using the same worksheets with Nathan next year to firm up fractions on paper for him as well as continuing with Cameron.



Math Mammoth Geometry Worksheet Collection book coverThe Geometry section introduced several new concepts to Cameron and reminding me of my freshman year of high school Geometry class. We worked on angles, triangles and other polygons before he got overwhelmed (I think we all get a bit overwhelmed with geometry). These worksheets gave us an opportunity to use some new tools including the protractor We will be revisiting this one more over the summer with area and volume and pythagorean theorem coordinating some hands on activities to firm up the concepts as needed. This workbook is 91 pages with 83 worksheets and sells for $9.00 as a pdf download.  The Geometry set did a really good job breaking down the various  aspects of geometry in a way that we could work through. As we move into area and volume we will spend more time with these sheets to fully grasp each concept and the tools it teaches.


Math Mammoth Statistics Worksheets Collection book cover

Finally Statistics , while this is a concept you wouldn't normally expect to teach a 3rd or 4th grader I felt he could really gain a solid foundation. this set is really focused the majority for 5th-7th but we did get a strong start on graphs and data analysis. We will save the rest of the information on Mean, Median, and Mode along with Variation and Projects for next year. As a blogger understanding graphs and data is valuable.  This worksheet set includes 47 worksheets and retails for $5.25. I think I hoped he would understand more of the information, but I know we will be able to come back to it later on and include it in our math journals.

Overall these worksheets have added focused practice that Cameron needed in areas of math that were not as strong in our curriculum already.  I am very grateful for the bite size approach offered in Worksheets by Topic. Each of the topics has samples available on the various pages if you are interested in a particular subject.
 The Math Mammoth program offers full curriculum as well. We reviewed the light blue series previously  and will be bringing that one out for Nathan in the fall.

I really like the programs variety and flexibility, I can print what I need when I need it and if we need to work on a concept again , I can reprint that section.

Math Mammoth covers a variety of topics in the Green Series as well as grades in  the Gold Series .

There  is something for everyone with Math Mammoth.
The Crew reviewed some of the variety available and share their thoughts.

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Simple Lunch means happy kids

My boys love the snack wraps at McDonald's, but we live in the country and I don't want to drive 15 miles for a snack wrap, so I made my own version.
Unionvale HomeschoolI started with a few leaves of garden fresh lettuce, 3 small flour toritilla, 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese , and a bottle of Ranch salad dressing (happened to be Ken's)
I also used 3 Foster Farms chicken tenders.

I grilled the tenders on a cast iron pan with a little EVOO until they were done.
While the chicken cooked I prepped the wraps. Each wrap received a piece of lettuce, a drizzle of ranch dressing , and some cheese.
Foster Farms Chicken tendersWhen the chicken was cooked through  I added a piece of chicken to each wrap, folded and rolled the wraps and served to hungry boys. They didn't last more than 5 minutes after serving.

Two happy and satisfied boys means high marks for Mommy!
Unionvale Homeschool
Unionvale Homeschool