Schoolhouseteachers.com and 19 gifts!! Good deal for this month!

Are you thinking about getting a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com ? Do you even know what it is? Check it out--it's a collection of a huge amount of classes for homeschooling families to use--plus a lot of extras, such as RightNow video, Brittanica, and more! You can see some of my past reviews for this site if you click on these links: (2017, 2018, 2018b, 2019, 2020). We have used this resource in many different ways in middle school and high school years, mostly for electives, though there are vastly more courses than we have utilized!

Right now there is a special running called 19 Gifts which will allow new members to not only purchase their annual subscription but also to receive nineteen additional gifts (all 19!) You can see the details by checking out https://schoolhouseteachers.com/may-19-gifts/ . Quite a value!

Looking through the free gifts, there are several that are of interest to our family! First of all, the pocket chess set :) This past year my family learned how to play chess and my 15 year old is quite good at it--she beats me most times and I learned to play years and years ago. A small portable chess set would definitely be used by her (and the rest of us, I suspect).

I also am very interested to check out the note-taking course by Sharon Watson (Writing with Sharon Watson: Teach Your Child to Take Notes eBook). My kids could definitely use some work in the notetaking arena, and I find it hard to know how to give tips on that, as notetaking feels like a personal style thing for me. I think that this eBook will help them develop their personal note taking skills. 

There's also an interactive Bible study game on 1 Timothy that I'm sure my daughters and son and I would like to try out as well.

Okay, so basically there are bunches of great freebies that you will get if you sign up for a new ultimate annual membership! Head over to https://schoolhouseteachers.com/may-19-gifts/ to check it out! :) This is good until June 1, so don't put it off! :)

A little logarithm tip

Are you teaching about logarithms today (or maybe learning about them)? I want to share with you a little tip that helps me with understanding logarithm problems and hopefully it will help you as well!

So basically a logarithm is kind of a reverse exponent, right? 

If you begin a logarithm lesson or problem by writing the following equation down, it will help you remember what is what:

Okay, so what does this mean for us? Well, log base 10 of 100 equals 2. We know that 10^2=100, so this will help us remember our pattern.

Let's try a problem using this pattern! Say you are solving for x and the equation is log x = 4 (remember that when there's no little number subscript below the log, the base is 10). Follow the pattern for an easy solution!

Okay, so how about natural log? The same! Just remember that natural log is a special way of saying log base e rather than a number. Go ahead and change it if it helps you to not get confused :) 

So given the problem ln x = .0144, you can just switch it to log base 3 and follow the pattern for a quick solution! :) 

There's my math tip for the day! Give it a try when you're teaching or working with logarithms and it should help you find the solution with less confusion.

First Form Latin complete set by Memoria Press -- my REVIEW

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.

When I hear the name Memoria Press, I automatically equate that with high-quality, easy to use curriculum for homeschoolers. I have reviewed several of their products before and I have purchased even more of their products personally for our homeschool--enough so that my kids are definitely fans of Memoria. The most recent product that I have the opportunity to tell you about is First Form Latin Complete Set, a rigorous Latin curriculum which (spoiler alert!) I would recommend if you want to teach Latin in your homeschool or co-op. 

Boom. Done. Recommended.






Haha, just teasing, of course I will tell you about the product and why it is that I recommend it! :) 

Are you a homeschooling family who values learning Latin? If so, this product is a really nice curriculum to use with your student or students. It can very easily be used with a group of students.

I was VERY intimidated to get this product for review, firstly because I do not know Latin (beyond what I know for scientific names of things in biological contexts) and secondly because I had heard about the conjugations and that seemed crazy difficult to me :) 

When I first got my set of the First Form Latin books and resources (DVDs, CDs, and flashcards) I opened the teacher's guide right up and began reading--and became even more intimidated!! :) The guide lays out how a lesson and a week of Latin ought to look. This included things such as recitation, review, Latin sayings, the actual "lesson", workbook pages, vocabulary, grammar, etc. I thought, how can I ever do this if I don't even know Latin? 

Well, I started right in and got going in the student text and the workbook. Hmmm, it started to seem a little more do-able to me. I worked through the workbook exercises for lesson one and noticed that it actually started to make sense to me. But how could I teach it, being so inexperienced myself? I remembered the CD and popped it into my computer to see what that was all about and it is the pronunciations of the words in the lesson! Excellent! That's a great help and can be listened to over and over (reading plus listening makes the learning easier). 

And THEN I had my moment of inspiration!!! :) Well, it probably was an obvious thing that I should have begun with, but there are instructional DVDs! :) Hmmm, well, let's check those out!

Ahhhhh!!! :) (cue the angels singing Hallelujah!) The DVDs are an actual teacher teaching the Latin class! From the first part of the lesson (hello students, hello teacher -- in Latin) through the lesson (explaining about each of the sections that the lesson covers--the grammar, the conjugations, the new vocabulary words, how they are used, etc.), the reviews at the beginning of the lesson, everything! :) There are also the drill lessons, for practicing the translations of Latin to English and English to Latin! Hooray!! 

The teacher goes through the drill selections with the student, translating between English and Latin.

And the teacher is so upbeat and calming and kind-sounding!

Memoria fans will recognize the setup of having a student text as well as a workbook. The student text introduces the material to the student, with two facing pages per lesson (and some review lessons as well).

The student workbook is spiral bound (which makes it so much easier to write in!) and is filled with all kinds of exercises for the student to do to help in their learning/retention of the material. 

It might seem like a lot of writing work, but the course is set up to complete one lesson per week, so there's definitely plenty of time...plus, by writing the material, the student will learn so much more thoroughly as they experience the information not only verbally or audibly, but also through writing it.  That is one of the things I really love about this approach to learning Latin--the way that it incorporates all sorts of learning styles and methods into a student learning the Latin language. 

There is even a set of already-made flashcards for the student to practice vocabulary, phrases, and more. 

Oh, there is a phrase per lesson that the student learns, as well, which is pretty cool. It is so easy to learn phrases that you hear over and over again...and it will expand the student's vocabulary without them even noticing (for instance, how many of us non-Latin knowing folks know what Veni, vidi, vici means, even if we don't know Latin?!) :) The drill/memorization/repetition of the different forms of the words is super helpful as well--I didn't know if it would be annoying :) But it is actually really helpful! The first set you learn helps you to remember all of the endings that you need for the other base verbs!

Grammar is covered, which will help a student with English grammar as well. A little bit of geography and history are thrown in, as well as some Latin roots of English words. This is a very thorough curriculum, so easy to use for the parent/teacher. 

I definitely recommend this curriculum to homeschooling parents who would like their students to learn Latin. If you are intimidated by the thought of teaching a classical language that you do not know, the First Form Latin Complete Set is the curriculum for you! It hits all of the learning styles and will reinforce with review and drill. It is well-written and the DVD lessons are well-made. It is not babyish at all, yet not too advanced to use with a younger audience. I think it would be great for families with multiple students to use concurrently. The tests/quizzes and instructional lessons are also downloadable, which adds to the ease of use.  

If you would like to read more reviews of this product by other homeschooling parents, please click on the link below! There are a few other products that reviewers will tell you about as well, including the sets for Prima Latina, Latina Christiana, Second Form Latin, Third Form Latin, and Fourth Form Latin. Click the link below and you will be able to read all about them!

No-Nonsense Algebra -- my REVIEW

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.

Okay, so let me begin this review by saying that I LOVE algebra :). You can basically make sense of the world using algebra. I understand that this is an unpopular view, but seriously...it's amazingly powerful.  Anyhow, I had the opportunity to review a math program through Math Essentials called No-Nonsense Algebra. My kids are beyond basic algebra by this point, but I do tutor in algebra and have seen a wide variety of algebra curricula and definitely have opinions on them!

The No-Nonsense Algebra program consists of both a physical book/workbook and video lessons which are available online.  The book is non-intimidating in its size and font size and has 10 chapters and 95 lessons. The lessons are grouped into thematic chapters (like polynomials, rational expressions, etc.) and there are video lessons that teach the student the information in almost every lesson.  
Each lesson has a small review section of problems, and at the end of each chapter there is a review of the concepts in the chapter which includes problem types from each of the lessons in the chapter. There are also little helpful insets interspersed between chapters (I especially liked the one entitled, "What about the problems I get wrong?" which encourages students to be careful and figure out how to look for mistakes--and then how to learn the material better if the topic was not fully understood.)

Each lesson is two pages -- introduction to the topic, helpful hints for solving that type of problem, and examples.

I really appreciate this note about examples that the author put into the introduction:

I agree that it is so important to write down the problem and physically work through it guided by the example explanation -- then jumping into the actual problems is much more familiar. 

There are around twenty problems per lesson, which is pretty short. Lessons focus on one skill with a few review questions at the end. I think that the book is written with the thought that the student will work the problems in the book, but I would recommend doing the problems on other paper, because although there is room to work the problems on the book page, often the student needs extra space to work the problem (at least in the way that I teach it--writing out every step as you go). 

The video lessons that go along with each of the lessons (most of them) are available online and they are great explanations of the concepts that are covered in each lesson. The lecturer uses a board as well to write out the problems as he talks through them. It is very helpful for the student to view in addition to reading the introduction to the lesson in the book.

I feel like the range of topics that are covered are appropriate for a first-level algebra course. I do prefer a bit more review and the one thing that I did not really like was that word problems are not covered until the end of the book, in the last chapter. Doing algebra for math's sake is good enough for some students, but other students like to see the application of the concepts right away...and I do believe that using the concepts in a word problem type setting throughout the course makes it more natural to be able to translate word problems into math equations.

The answers to the problems are in the back of the book, so you can check your answers.

I like this book, this teaching style. It's clear, clean, concise, and the videos enhance the learning process. I think that a parent who does not feel strong in algebra could utilize this well to teach their students algebra. I believe I will use this book with one of my tutoring students and will recommend it to others as a starting algebra book. I do think that the postponement of word problems is not really doing any favors, and would recommend adding them in throughout the course. But all in all, this is a quality math instruction course.

If you'd like to read other people's thoughts on this book, please check them out here.  This same company ( Math Essentials)  has several other products that our group is reviewing. Last year I reviewed one of them ( Math Refresher for Adults) . If you click on the graphic below, you can read other folks' reviews on the No-Nonsense Algebra as well as the Math Refresher for Adults and Mastering Essential Math Skills Book 2 Middle Grades/High School. 

Beyond the Stick Figure Art School (online) -- my REVIEW

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.

Online courses are very helpful, especially if you live in a rural area, have limited transportation, would like the option of many many courses, and multiple other reasons. We had the opportunity to try out an online art program called Beyond the Stick Figure Art School  which on its website is promoted as an art program which can be used by an entire family (ages 5-95). My 15 year old daughter worked with this course, which I will tell you about! :)



The Beyond the Stick Figure Art School is an online purchase, meaning that when you purchase it, it is available for use by your family for all time. The topics covered include drawing courses (three different levels) as well as pen and ink drawing lessons, watercolor lessons, acrylic lessons, and 3-D design lessons.
The lessons are in a video format, with the lesson on a video and worksheets for the student

to download and utilize. The student listens and follows along with the instructor. The course is intended to be very independent (does not need a lot of direct parent support) for the student to complete. The lessons are in a row, meaning that the student must complete the first lesson in order to go on to the next lesson. The teacher is very clear about what supplies are needed and which types in particular she would like the students to purchase and use. 
The lessons begin with very basic things like drawing lines, curves, circles, and more. They progress into different manifestations of these lines, with students practicing these multiple times. 

Students also color in shapes/patterns with markers, along with the teacher and then finish by themselves. 

The seemingly random shapes that the students practice drawing and coloring will come together to form a completed picture, sort of like if you were to take a picture and draw a grid over it and then draw a blank grid and then copy it section by section. 
After the drawing section, there are courses on pen and ink drawings--learning techniques and then tracing a picture, transferring it onto art paper, then drawing on it using the traced lines and enhancing it with watercolor. The watercolor lessons go beyond the watercolor used in the pen and ink and allow the student to learn to use watercolor more thoroughly.
There are also sections in acrylic painting and 3D art, but we did not get to those. The lessons have a rubric which allows the student to self-reflect and gauge their participation and progress (which is a neat thing).

So...my thoughts. I did not care for this art course, nor did my daughter. It was very basic and quite tedious. For a 15-year old to spend lesson after lesson drawing curves or tracing shapes and then coloring in with markers was not what we were looking for in an art course. The videos are very clear, but very slow and the videos are made in a way that you cannot increase the speed to watch at an accelerated pace...and the sound quality was very quiet (we tried on different devices and could not get the sound loud enough -- though if you are using it with headphones it is fine.) A student may not skip ahead, even to see what is coming next, unless they click the "mark as complete" button -- which for sticklers like me is an issue (marking something as complete when I haven't actually completed it-- yup, I'm weird that way!), so this made it difficult to even try out some of the later sections of the course ((to clarify -- we DID use this skip method, even though it felt wrong to me haha)) so we were able to go beyond where my daughter balked at drawing yet another abstract shape and coloring it again and again and again to see what was further on in the course. 
Perhaps a younger student would like this more. It is definitely easy to use, the expectations within each lesson are very clear, and there are a lot of lessons! The self-reflection rubric is also a really neat tool to incorporate into the curriculum at different places.  However, I really cannot in clear conscience recommend this course. 
There are many people who DID like this course, and to be fair, you really should check out their reviews! I am quick to tell you that I am often not on the same "wavelength" as other homeschoolers...and you may like to read these reviews in addition to mine. Please click on the graphic below to read more reviews on this Beyond the Stick Figure Art School! 

Absent

Yikes, I have not been faithful in posting much, not even weekly lately. We have purchased a house and moved and it's a bit of chaos around here! Between packing/moving/unpacking (all without help, of course, since the corona virus...) and homeschooling and tutoring and having college kiddo home trying to do finals and no internet and and and...

A bit of chaos...

 But God is good, God is faithful, He is our strength!

Fermentools -- my REVIEW

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.

I am a canner. Many years ago I learned (from library books!) how to can foods to preserve them for enjoying later in the year. I've canned sweet stuff (jam, applesauce, etc), sour stuff (pickles, dilly beans), spicy stuff (cowboy candy, hot and sweet peppers), veggies, prepared foods (soups, meatballs), and lots and lots of meats. I have always heard about the health benefits enjoyed by those who ferment, but had not ventured into that arena of food preservation...until now! :) I was excited to hear that I had the opportunity to review a fermentation starter kit by Fermentools .

I haven't really known people who ferment, so I haven't been able to ask for advice about fermenting, and that might have held me up from trying previously. This easy Fermenting Starter Kit looked pretty easy to use, and with a website to teach me what to do I was raring to go!

I received my kit, which contained a bag of finely ground salt (Himalayan sea salt), a glass weight, a stainless steel top with a hole in the middle, a rubber gasket for the steel top, two stoppers (one with a hole in the center and one without), and an air lock.  These tools are made to use with a regular wide mouth canning jar, which I have many of, so I could get started right away!There was a mini instruction guide as well, and a little bag which held all the tools.

Our semi-lockdown from the corona virus had just begun when I got my tool kit, but I was glad to see that I had a cabbage in the fridge so I could go ahead and begin with sauerkraut. There is a recipe on the instruction guide which came with the kit, but you can also find the directions on the Fermentools website, fermentools.com. 

I got my cabbage out (it had been in the fridge since who knows how long, so was kind of oldish...) and jumped right in! Thankfully I have a food processor so I could cut up the cabbage very easily, just as if I were making coleslaw or something. Then I added the salt to the cabbage and the next instruction was to pound it and/or squeeze it until the juices were released and there were enough to cover the cabbage. Well, I had to figure out how to do that...

Here was my solution, to use a glass and a wooden spoon for the first part. It felt like a long time to be mashing the cabbage without much liquid...but I kept at it. Eventulally I began to see liquid and then I moved to squeezing the cabbage interspersed with pounding it...till I had enough liquid out.

Next I packed it tightly into a wide mouth quart jar and thankfully there was enough liquid in it to cover the shredded cabbage. I added the glass weight (which fit perfectly into the wide mouth jar and held the cabbage down under the liquid). 

This was covered with the gasket followed by the stainless steel lid.

I put the stopper with a hole into the center of the lid and fitted the airlock (with water in it according to the instructions) and tightened it with a jar ring.

The instructions said to let it ferment in a dark cool area, so I found it a place in my cupboard and left it there for ten days!

After ten days I took it out of the cupboard, removed the lid and seal and it actually smelled like (mild) sauerkraut! Yay!! :) Now it can be stored in the fridge and eaten. 

As easy as that it was finished! Before I tried this system I had been kind of afraid of two things. One was the trying to keep the vegetables submerged in the brine. Years ago I had tried sauerkraut and had used a bag of water to submerge it and it kept escaping. The glass weight fits so nicely into the wide mouth jar that it is easy to keep the veggies submerged. The other "fear" I  had was the exploding, haha ;) The airlock in this system helps to avoid that. Basically the airlock is halfway filled with water and allows carbon dioxide which is produced in the fermentation process to escape while not allowing atmospheric oxygen to enter the jar. I think that mine "burped" some brine too (see the 2nd to last pic...you can see salt crystals ... I'm guessing some of the brine came up and out as well and evaporated) but it doesn't let oxygen into the jar.

I have only tried the sauerkraut to this point, but I am looking forward to trying lots more ferments. Looking on the Fermentools website is very inspiring and makes me want to try so many other fermented products! The beets look enticing...and I definitely want to try fermented pickles...and my family wants fermented mixed veggies...so many options! I cannot wait for garden season--I think I will probably purchase a few more kits so that I can have several things fermenting at once.

I definitely recommend trying this product! It definitely took away my apprehension about home fermenting! It is very reasonably priced, as well--and from now through June 30, 2020 you can get 15% off your order with the coupon code CREW2020 which will make the cost even more reasonable!

To read about how more reviewers used this product, please click the link below: