Art Time

Pop got the girls this paint kit at the hobby store. It came with several pictures to paint. Some of them were paint by number others just has a rough outline. It gave a few tips on how to mix colors and a simple color chart. The girls worked on these for a couple days this week for art class. My oldest did the rose and my youngest did the Lion. Not to shabby for a 9 and 7 year old. 

Roses are red violets are blue I painted this just for you Momma!

Yes I know he is side ways but I cant get the picture to rotate so you'll have to turn your head.

Photo credit I have no idea I found it on Facebook.

Can anyone guess what we got today.....Yup that's right we are now the proud owners of two 20ft cargo containers. They are not in their permanent location yet though. The driver was unable to off load them on the pad next to the shop where we wanted them. So we will have put them on logs and roll them up there with the dodge. So for now this is their home at least tell I get a couple trees cut down. So why do we have cargo containers you ask. I bet you all are thinking I am going to use my craftiness to make a container cabin right. WRONG its just storage for all the parts I have taken off the truck and the mustang so I can have some room in the shop to actually do body work and start assembling things. It will more than likely house the lawn mower and probably some other random junk that we have sitting around the needs a home.

Readers in Residence Volume 1 by Apologia Educational Ministries Review

We are excited to be reviewing once again for  Apologia Educational Ministries.  We will be reviewing Readers in Residence Volume 1 (Sleuth). This is a reading comprehension program that includes literature, and vocabulary. It will help students recognize the different elements of literature. Build vocabulary as they gather up clues from their reading, Identify figures of speech etc. This is designed to be used by 4th to 6th grade or those that are a little behind in reading and can sometimes be used special needs students. We received both the student book and the answer key.  The student book is in color and very fancy for a student book. 

To use this curriculum you will need to purchase three books. Sarah, Plain and Tall, Charlotte's Web, and Because of Winn-Dixie.  These are all great books so I was excited to see them used. All of them can be found on Amazon or at a local library. If your local library does not have them they are all very affordable and I found them for around 2 and 3$ each. It does recommend you use certain editions as the curriculum does refer to specific page numbers at times and it makes it easier for the student to find the passage if they are using the same edition so the passages are on the same pages. 

My oldest who is finishing up her 4th grade year was the one to use this curriculum. She has not finished it yet but we are well into the curriculum. The beginning of the book gives a suggested weekly schedule of 4 days per week for 32 weeks. Some of the lessons are a little longer than others but over all its not a bad pace. You might need to slow it down a touch if you have a struggling reader. A little box is provided so that the student can check off the days lesson. The lessons are very well laid out. The schedule tells her where to go to find what she is to do for the day. She simple reads the lesson information and then completes the reading assignment if their is one and or the writing assignment. The writing assignments are usually questions or some sort of chart that go along with what they have been reading. Some assignments for the day have more questions for them to answer  than others. Some days she is finished in an hour others it takes her a bit longer. Their is a small dictionary in the back of the book with vocabulary words that they will learn while completing this curriculum. She like the dictionary and has found it useful for more than one assignment. At the end of each module the student will use a rubric grade or assess how well they have done on that module. Instructions are included so they know how to use the rubric. They are also given a checklist that is a great help for keeping my kiddo on task and on track. If you take a look to the left you can see some samples of different pages that are in Readers in Residence. 

My oldest is my avid reader, she will read anything I put in front of her, she will do it with a smile and usually lots of excitement.  She was a little intimated when she saw this book, its huge and she is not a fan of writing. I had to give her some encouragement that it was mostly reading with some writing mixed in. I sat with her for the first few lessons to be sure she was understanding what she was expected to do. After that she comes to me with questions and I check in on her to see if she has questions. I then review all her work after she has completed it for the day. I see her vocabulary improving and her ability to figure out the meaning of a word by using the information in the text around it. She doesn't mind the writing as much as I anticipated. She says" the lessons are easy to understand they just make since." The charts have been a great help for her to identify the different parts of the story and to see how a story flows. She found the charts fun, many of them are colored and that just adds a little fun to it. She has enjoyed the book selection and was eager to read them. As soon as she saw the books her eyes lit up. She recognized two of the books as ones she had been wanting to read. She said "but I have already read Charlotte's Web." I explained that it was ok to read it again and that she would probably learn some new things the second time around.

The curriculum does talk about your child participating in a book club. We were not able to do this as we live in a rural area and it just was not possible. So we varied a little and I just had her discuss the books with me or her NaNa as we have all read these books and are familiar enough with them to be able to have a discussion on them.

I was once again impressed with Apologia's curriculum and how well it covers everything that my daughter needed to learn for reading. I plan on ordering another copy when  my youngest is in 4th grade. Click the link below for some more Apologia Readers in Residence reviews written by other crew members.

Readers in Residence teaches your child how to Read to Learn. 

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Happy Easter!

    Happy Easter From My Family To Yours!

Image credit I have no idea found it on Facebook and it spoke to me.

Art Project

My oldest is in love with horses. They each get to decorate their side of the classroom with things they like. She has a few horse related items but not much. I found a similar idea on Pinterest and I set out to make one that was horse relates. I found someone who could make this sweet sticker for me and this is how it turned out. I got the block 40% off at Hobby Lobby and a the lights on Amazon although I could have gotten them cheaper at Hobby Lobby go figure. All and all not a bad looking decoration for under 15$.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History Set Review

The girls finished their standard history curriculum a couple of weeks a go. We were given the chance to try out this wonderful set from Memoria Press. We received, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set

and 200 Questions About American History Set.

These two sets go hand in hand and I highly recommend getting both of them. The 200 Questions About American History set is a supplemental but it added so much to the actual set that I felt it would be worth getting.

First I am going to talk a bit about The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic Set. This is basically a story about the birth of the United States and our government. It comes with a student work book that covers both The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Great Republic. It also includes a teachers guide.Then you have the actual text book. This was originally 2 books one was The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Other was The Great Republic. But because they work so well together they combined them together into a single bound book. The section of book you are in can be identified at the top of each page. The book is basically written as a story of sorts to help your child learn about our colonies and how this great country got started. The story is very easy to follow and seemed to keep the girls interest for the most part. My 9 year old seemed to be able to recall the information given in the story a bit easier than my 7 year old did. But over all they have been enjoying it.

The student books give a recommended weekly schedule. Which seems to be about the right amount of work for my 4th graders ability. It would be a tad to much for my 2nd grader to do on her own though. The schedule shows that this curriculum should cover 34 weeks of study. It has your child reading any where from 3-7 chapters a week. Not a big deal for my super reader but it might be a little much if you have a child that is not a fan of reading. If this is the case you can always do the chapters as read aloud's. We have done this on a number of occasions when one of the girls just didn't feel like reading. My 4th grader was the one to try out the work books. She is a big fan of work books and is usually the one to volunteer to try them out. She felt that the work books were simple and easy to follow when you used the schedule to tell you what questions to do. I felt that the workbook covered the information taught in the story well and the test were well rounded.

The teachers guides have a copy of the weekly schedule as well as answer keys these are very straight forward and I don't think they need a lot of explaining.

All the books and student books are black and white this disappointed the girls slightly. They don't care so much about black and white work books. But they do like to see pictures in their text book in color.

The second part of this Review is on the 200 Questions About American History. This is a set of flash cards a teacher guide and a student book. The teachers guide gives a weekly schedule as well as answer key and test pages with answers. These questions go along with chapters that your child will read each week. The flash cards are an additional way to study and help your child remember what they are learning. I divided the cards up in bundles and labeled them for the week that they would be studying them. The girls could then gab a pack and study them when were on the go. Flashcards are just a great way to build on what they have already been learning in The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic Set.The student book does a great job at reviewing information and the test help to show what information they have retained.

Over all we are very happy with the set and it should last the better part of a school year depending on how much you do a week and how long your school year is. Be sure to click the box below and see what other reviewers are saying about Memoria Press and its great products.

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