Big Universe Learning
I was recently introduced to Big Universe Learning. This unique learning website is designed for students in grades K-8. It offers on-line books in a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, from 24 different publishers. Some of these books include an audio option for students to read-along while the book is being read to them. On-line quizzes are provided for many of the selections as well. In addition to on-line reading, Big Universe Learning provides the capability for students to create and share their own on-line picture books with other Big Universe users.
As I explored the site, I thought of some great uses for homeschoolers. First, everyone knows that homeschoolers love the library, right? But many of us have a love/hate relationship with the library. For many, overdue fees are a considerable problem. I found books on many non-fiction topics available at Big Universe that could save you both a trip to the library, and fees if you forget to return the book on time. This would work well particularly for times when you’re not looking for a specific title, but just more information on weather, George Washington, or knights for instance.
I also think the on-line quizzes are useful. Though homeschoolers often use atypical methods of assessment, having a student take a quiz on what he has just read does help them to pay attention. Also, poor scores could indicate that reading comprehension is a skill that needs more focus. And with 4 children, I’m very happy to find independent educational activities for them.
Then there’s writing. I struggle with teaching writing. It’s one of my goals for this school year to spend more time on writing. Big Universe Learning provides a fun way for kids to practice writing while creating on-line books. There is no need for software, everything is ready to use on the site. There are tutorials demonstrating the steps in the process, but it’s really simple anyway. The hardest thing is choosing from the thousands of available images available for the books!
Home subscriptions to Big Universe Learning are available for $8.95/month. (There is a 26% discount if you subscribe for a whole year.) Is the price worth it? Well, I’ve learned that price and value are very subjective. We personally spend well over that per month on purchasing books (on average over the year). I don’t pay library fines because our library doesn’t charge for overdue books (please don’t hate me!), but I’ve heard of many people who regularly spend that much on fines. The good news is that Big Universe offers a 7 day FREE trial so you can check out the site and see if it’s something that your family would use. You can’t get any better than free!
Disclosure: I received a free 6 month membership from Big Universe Learning in order to write this review. I was not compensated in any other way. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Filed under Product Reviews | Comment (1)Weekly Wrap-up: The Beginning
I am happy to report that we made it through our first week back to school. Overall it was a very productive week.
We managed to do Latin, Greek, English, and Math everyday.
My younger 2 kids are very happy with Song School Latin. I thought it would be a hit, and I was right! My older daughter started First Form Latin by Memoria Press. I think this will also be a great fit for her. I got a chuckle when the DVD instructor used the word y’all for the 2nd person plural verb conjugations. I have no problem with that! My older son picked up in Latin Alive 1 where he left off at the end of last year. Thankfully, this chapter was on numbers, so it was something he could do fairly easily while we also did daily review of the rest of the book.
Elementary Greek 3 started with a good review of the alphabet and pronunciation rules. The next few weeks will also be review which we definitely need!
For English my older son is starting Analytical Grammar. While I can’t say that he is loving it, I am very impressed with the program. I think he will love it when he doesn’t have to do it everyday! My daughter is continuing with Rod & Staff. There were a few tears shed with the first writing assignment. But I didn’t give in, and she did the assignment. I haven’t started my younger son on English yet. I’ll probably work through First Language Lessons with him this year, but we’re focusing on reading, phonics, handwriting, and spelling first.
Math is going great for my older son. He loves Life of Fred. This year he’s doing Algebra. I purchased the Home Companion as well as the text, and it is fantastic! It has extra problems and has scheduled out the reading for me. My daughter is continuing with Singapore 4B. I had hoped to finish it over the summer, but well…not as much school got accomplished over the summer as I had hoped. (i.e. none) But that’s ok. Younger son is starting Math Mammoth 2A. He is a very difficult child to teach. I know he knows certain things, but it’s so difficult to get him to answer a simple question at times. Working with him has been my biggest struggle this week.
I also started Apologia General Science with my older son. So far that is going well. I need to do some more work with scheduling that. I am reading along with him, which I’d rather not do, but my husband and I both agree that he will learn the material better this way. I’m just struggling on balancing the needs of everyone. What else is new?
Next week we add in Tapestry of Grace Year 2 Unit 3. Also, my older daughter is going to be doing some activities with my younger daughter. Speaking of my younger daughter, she has been very good at entertaining herself this week.
Plus, she’s always good for some comic relief!
Finally, I am absolutely LOVING the library cart I won from Guidecraft and Homeschool Creations! It’s great to have everything in the dining room, but still have the ability to easily move it out when I want to.
So how was your week? You can read more Weekly Wrap-ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Raising 4 Godly Men. (I’ll update these links after their Wrap-up posts are published.)
Filed under Home life, Weekly Report | Comments (9)Vanishing Act by Liz Johnson
Nate is an undercover FBI agent whose job is to find Nora James before the mob does. Unfortunately Danielle keeps distracting him from his mission. Danielle is a pretty auto mechanic in the college town of Crescent City, Colorado. In Nate’s search for Nora, Danielle keeps turning up, and she’s always in trouble. He knows he should not allow himself to have romantic feelings for anyone. With his family history of broken marriages, Nate thinks it’s best to avoid relationships altogether so that no one gets hurt. Unfortunately, he’s having a hard time remembering that with Danielle. Plus he should be focusing on finding Nora!
Vanishing Act is published by Steeple Hill Books as part of its Love Inspired Suspense collection. The book is considered inspirational romance, but like most of the other books of the genre, I didn’t find it to be overwhelmingly Christian. There are instances of prayer and church attendance by the characters, and the the “good guys” behaved morally. I do appreciate these qualities when they are woven into the story, and I think the Liz Johnson did a good job of that.
I took this book with me on my vacation to the beach. I found the book to be a perfect vacation book. It was entertaining and fun, but not too deep. The suspense was enough to keep me reading, but it was not so scary that I couldn’t put it down. The characters were likable, and I enjoyed both the mystery and romance aspects of the book.
You can visit the author’s website at www.lizjohnsonbooks.com to find out about her past, current, and upcoming projects.
On the Nightstand:
Murder with Puffins by Donna Andrews
Call the Sabbath a Delight by Walter Chantry
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Jesus You Can’t Ignore by John MacArthur
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the author for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated, nor required to post a positive review. The thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Filed under 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Product Reviews | Comment (0)First day of school
Today was our first day of school for this school year. My kids are a 7th grade boy, a 5th grade girl, a 3rd grade boy, and a PreK girl. I’ve missed out on posting for the last two weeks of the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop, but I decided I couldn’t miss Day-in-the-Life Week, since that is my blog title after all.
So here is today.
5:45 am – Husband got up. I tried to sleep a little while longer, but sat up and read my Bible at some point.
6:45am – I picked up computer, checked e-mail and did a little bit of HSB work.
7:05 am – Little one comes downstairs, crawls in my bed and promptly falls asleep.
7:15 am – Realize I’d better take a shower. Older daughter is eating breakfast. Try to print out assignment sheets from laptop. Wireless fails for some reason.
7:45 am – Grab a quick drink of Carnation Instant Breakfast.
7:50 am – Get Little One out of bed and rush to the van to pick up oldest son from Cross Country Practice. Little One in still in pajamas.
8:20 am – Back from Cross Country. Try to print out assignment sheets from desktop. (Why oh why didn’t I do this yesterday?) Yell upstairs for son to wake up laptop so I can retrieve the files.
8:40 am – Tried and tried and couldn’t get the software to load downstairs. Go back upstairs and start coffee. Successfully printed out the assignment sheets from laptop.
9:00 am – Call everyone to the living room for prayer and catechism. Little One can’t find her blankie (what else is new?)
9:20 am – Send 2 youngest downstairs to listen to music. Go over Greek with 2 oldest. Send older daughter to work on English and Greek while I go over English and Algebra assignments with older son.
9:40 am – Younger son comes up and wants to do Latin. I send him back down with the Song School Latin CD to listen to the songs.
9:50 am – Son back so I go over a little bit of Latin with him. He tries to make Little One leave the table. Check on older son. Not making much progress on his English.
10:00 am – Go over math with older daughter. Start Explode the Code with younger son. Check on older son. Still working on English assignment.
10:30 am – Trying not to bang my head against the wall while helping son with Explode the Code. Decide to switch to his math. Help daughter get started with her Latin. A few tears shed (by her, I managed to not cry today.)
10:40 am – Older son finally finished English and asked what he was supposed to do next. What does he think the assignment sheets are for? Younger son doing math with me, older daughter still upset over Latin. Older son did a short Roman numeral lesson in Latin and moved on to Algebra.
11:30 am Daughter finished with her seat work. Younger son still working on math. Older son finishes math and reviews Unit 1 in Latin Alive.
11:55 am Son finishes math. I run to check e-mail.
12:15 pm Fix lunch, eat, send kids to do chores. Worked on laundry and made bread dough. Helped younger son finish Explode the Code. Another session on the computer.
1:45 pm Read science with oldest.
2:00 pm Decide I must lay down. Laid down and read a book. Interrupted multiple times so I never actually went to sleep.
3:00 pm Worked on laundry. Transferred bread to loaf pan. Told everyone to get ready to go to violin lessons.
3:45 pm Left for violin. Dropped off kids at in-laws (except older daughter). Took daughter to violin, had lesson, picked up kids, came home at 5:15.
5:15 pm Made dinner.
6:00 pm Ate and cleaned up.
6:45 pm Folded laundry
7:00 pm Checked e-mail and started writing this blog post.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (11)The Jesus You Can’t Ignore by John McArthur
Since my husband has summers off, he has a little more time to read in the summer than he usually does. After I received The Jesus You Can’t Ignore to review, he started reading it before I got a chance to read it myself. Since he was keeping me from reading the book, he agreed to write the review as well. He did such an excellent job, I might have to see if he’d like to write more!
In The Jesus You Can’t Ignore, John MacArthur gives a much-needed reminder to all of Christendom that Christ was not simply a loving, meek, and mild savior, but the God of Eternity and the Ruler of the Universe. He chastises the many Christians who have latched onto the unbiblical message of peace at any price, as well as those who focus solely on finding common ground with other groups, while ignoring all areas of disagreement. MacArthur straightforwardly denounces this practice, and backs up his advice with countless Biblical passages showing how Jesus went out of his way to confront the Pharisees and other false teachers, despite the fact that they shared many of His beliefs.
This timely book is a must-read for every professing Christian who is serious about the advancement of the kingdom and the preservation of sound doctrine in an age of confusion. MacArthur does an excellent job making his point about Jesus’ hatred of false teaching and of sin, while not forgetting His immeasurable love of the sinner. MacArthur reminds the reader that Christians are not perfect, as Jesus certainly was, so they must focus on judging the outward expressions of false teaching, and not try to judge the inner thoughts of another’s mind. This book may anger some who have gotten used to following the doctrine of appeasement, but MacArthur’s concise and brilliant exposition of Jesus’ unyielding confrontations with false teachers should definitely not be ignored.
Disclosure: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.
Kristen