ArtAchieve Entire Level III (Online Art Class Review)

Last summer you may recall that I reviewed Level II of ArtAchieve. This spring we were given the opportunity to review another level, so I chose to go up to Entire Level III. This level is intended for students aged 9 and up, so my youngest is on the very earliest edge recommended for these lessons.

The third level includes the following lessons/supplies:

• The Hawaiin Frog - oil pastels
• The African Crowned Crane - fine tipped black magic marker, acrylics and paint pens
• The Chinese Horse: Drawing the Horse's Head - red paper, fine tipped black magic marker, gold paint pen (optional), charcoal white pencil
• The Face from The Gambia - drawing pencils
• The Pacific Northwest Totem Pole - fine tipped black magic marker
• The Eastern European Firebird- colored markers, colored pencils
• The Wood Carving from Kenya - fine tipped black magic marker, paint pens
• Kadinsky and Color Mixing - pencil, acrylic paint
• The Nine-Banded Armadillo - fine tipped black magic marker, shoe polish, glue, tacky glue
• The Russian Matryoshka - pencil, acrylic paint
• The Canada Goose - fine tipped black magic marker, watercolors, oil pastels
• DaVinci's Clock - cardboard, black acrylic paint, oil pastels
• Let's Make a Movie - (No power point version of this lesson) 

I gave him his pick of projects to try out and he chose to try The Chinese Horse project first. I tend to use the powerpoint versions of the lessons over the video versions, as this allows my son to go through the instruction at his own pace, advancing to each slide as he is ready to go. He most often accesses them on the iPad, but we do use the computer as well.

Here are pictures of his progress with this project, from the "Drawing Warm-up" (a staple of the Art Achieve Program) to the completed drawing.

The next project he wanted to tackle was The Hawaiian Frog, using oil pastels. Having enjoyed his time with the chalk pastels earlier this year, this was another version that he was interested in.

He once again went through the warmups and slides more or less on his own.

I reminded him to adjust the pressure on the pastels (Just like with the chalk pastels) so that he was drawing more lightly than his initial stokes, allowing the paper to come through a bit.

Just for the fun of it, I decided to do this one also~

My quick attempt for fun

Sample Screenshot of Powerpoint Slide for this lesson

I mentioned briefly in my first review that Art Achieve offers cross-curricular connections including social studies, science, and language arts ~ as an example, here is what is included for this particular lesson:

(Note: The "history" reading selection for advanced readers links to James Michener's Hawaii ~ definitely advanced reading! ) Because we've already studied frogs we didn't take full advantage of these go-alongs, but it is nice to know they are included. I will also mention that this information is found on the Lesson Description Page for each project as shown above, on the public side of the website. Somewhat counter-intuitive for me once logged in, as I would prefer to have all the information for the lesson located in one place.

I will add the same note here that I included in my first review: the videos and instructions in the powerpoints recommend some "Focusing" exercises, not speaking, and playing music while doing the projects. We found those to be take-it-or-leave-it recommendations, based on personality. :)

Once again, we have enjoyed the final product of these lessons, and expect that anyone who tries them will meet with similar success.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: ArtAchieve 
• Product: Entire Level III
• Ages: 9 years and up
• Price: $6 per lesson or $58.50

Visit ArtAchieve on their social media pages: 

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Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews  #artachieve, #artlessonsforkids, #homeschool #artclassesforkids, #drawinglessonsforkids

After the Elections are over... Saving money with Groupon

A quick little sponsored post before all the holiday craziness kicks in (you know, once election day is over, the merchandising will begin, right? Because that is the way it goes in America…). All views and opinions expressed are my own.

I can often be found scouring the ‘Net for the best deals that will stretch my pennies the farthest. I have found a few really good coupons on Groupon for stores and activities in our area, but there is more to Groupon than that. Have you noticed Groupon Goods? There are some great items being sold at discounted rates, in many different categories, and I have used them for a few years to pick up some Christmas gifts that otherwise wouldn’t have been in my budget.

One of these speakers was great for my Irish Step Dancer
Fit into her warm up jacket, and gave her good quality tunes to practice to.

I was surprised recently to discover that there are more items available than just techie gifts and things. For instance, if you are redoing your bathroom, this might be a good place to shop around for a little more variety than the local home goods store. If I had a great tub, this would be on my wishlist! :)

I saw some amazing shower heads and nifty sink faucets at reduced prices.

I was browsing through the rest of the site again and saw a lot of cute winter boots and rain boots for 60% to 70%+ off regular prices. Woot! 

Their tech department is the one I’ve been most familiar with and they still have some nice offerings. I saw a refurbished flexible fitbit for a price that is more in my budget... wonder if it would be motivating...? ;) 

As with any store, there are some great bargains to be had, so when you’re shopping at home with your feet in your slippers, grateful to not be reading any more election posts and memes, Groupon is one place to check out. 

Blessings~

Middlebury Interactive Languages~ High School German (Review)

We were fortunate this fall to receive the offer to re-review  High School German I  for Middlebury Interactive Languages. You may recall that I reviewed it last fall, but due to various constraints we were not able to continue it for the 2nd semester, so my son was not able to receive a full language credit for the course. With a second chance to check it out, I am hopeful that he will be able to complete the full course so that I can give him credit this time around. :)

As a refresher, the course *is* interactive, and hits a number of learning styles, with exercises in listening to native speakers, recording auditory answers, and watching videos. Not entirely immersive, but close. Each unit has a similar layout in that they introduce new vocabulary, grammar patterns, culture videos, speaking and writing activities, reading and listening activities. The units have a variety of interactive exercises to help reinforce the vocabulary and grammar concepts.  There are also pop quizzes and tests which are automatically graded.

Here is a look at the first semester objectives. you can see the pop out where I clicked on Unit 3 to show what would be learned that week:

The lessons are accessed a couple of ways.
Via a calendar (which still doesn't have the ability to be adjusted to accommodate personal homeschool schedules, as we weren't able to access the program until after the lessons had "started" on the calendar, so started out "behind." I'd also like the ability to move lessons over a day to account for field trips and holidays ~ homeschool teacher access to the calendar is still on my wishlist,)

You see that you can click on the calendar date, from there click on the Unit Lesson, and the list with checkboxes and lesson slides show up. If the lesson hasn't been done, the student simply clicks on the slide and it begins. The green checkmarks are for the activities that have been completed.

The other way that the lessons can be accessed is through the table of contents. Here you can see the "Tips to Become a Successful Online Learner" slide from the introduction. As with the calendar view,  the checkmarks on the left of the screen show which activities have been completed. The bold letters show the current slide. You can also see that I randomly clicked on Lesson 2 to open up the menu and check to see which activities were done.

If you want to check on the student grade, you also have that option, via the dashboard:

If you click on the "grade-book" link on the left hand side it opens up a list of the quizzes and tests that have been taken with their grades. You can then click on the "Grade Report" button on the left side to see the student grade average. 

So far my son is still reviewing the lessons he went through last fall, but he definitely has a better handle on the language at this point, and it shows up in daily conversation, which is fun. He enjoys the breadth of the activities, and the fact that they aren't all exactly the same.

I think this is a great way to learn a language, and with a few little tweaks (ie: calendar access for the homeschool teacher), I think it would be fantastic!

The Elementary and Middle School courses look like they would be great also. It is worth noting that they suggest going straight to High School German II if the student has completed Middle School II.

  

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Middlebury Interactive Languages
• Product: High School German I 
• Ages: High School
• Price: $119/semester without teacher support. There is also an option *with* teacher support for $294/semester (not included in this review).

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

Educeri Lesson Subscription Service (Review)

Members of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew were recently given access to over 1000 lessons (with options for K-12 learning), via  Educeri .......  Educeri a division of DataWORKS  and their  Educeri Lesson Subscription Service.

This is a fairly unique product, in that the powerpoint style lessons aren't really written directly to the student, but prepared for the teacher to use. Obviously this is well suited for a classroom scenario, but it can be used in the homeschool as well.

There are hundreds of lessons in math and language arts, which means multiple lessons for most grades. The science lessons are more for middle/high school, and there is currently just a smattering of art, music, and even a couple for PE. What this means is that this could be a good resource for someone who is running into problems with a particular subject, and would like to see it from another approach. OR it could be used to rabbit trail, following the interests of the child.

Many lessons are correlated with common core (helpful if you live in a highly regulated state that would like to see those correlations), and others are not. Because I'm not overly fond of common core, I mostly to look at other lessons, particularly when it comes to math. ;) Here is a screenshot of a lesson I decided to use with my 4th grader, to help him check his multiplication and division answers:

The slide starts with nothing where the red numbers and text are. As you talk about the problem and walk through step-by-step (by clicking the right arrow at the bottom), the words or numbers in red show up in order. If you want to emphasize something you can use the pen or highlighter to show that. In this slide I circled a few things and drew lines and symbols to help explain what was going on. That's a pretty nice little feature! :) 

Some (but certainly not ALL) of the lessons also include printable student handouts for practice.

One of the other features of the site is the searching ability. If you aren't able to find a lesson that coordinates with what you are looking for, you can send a request for that lesson.  I filled out a request for a lesson multiplying double digit numbers by double digit numbers (copying the style of another lesson title), and although I wasn't able to locate it myself, I received a reply email with a link to the lesson I was searching for. My understanding is that if the lesson doesn't exist, your request will likely go onto a list of possible future lessons.

I am looking forward to using some of the language arts lessons when we get to metaphors and similes. The history lessons look like they are mostly for middle and upper grades. I find it interesting that they include lessons on the origins of the major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Confusionism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism) as well as lessons on various cultures and the causes of specific wars.

  

One little rabbit trail that we took included a lesson that was a little over my 9 year old's head: "Trace the Principles of Democracy in Historical documents." We checked that one out because we were talking about Fort Knox, and had learned that there was a copy of the Magna Carta which sparked the question "What's that?" Have to love a lifestyle of learning!

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company:  Educeri .......  Educeri a division of DataWORKS 
• Product: Educeri Lesson Subscription Service
• Ages: K-12 resources
• Price: 30 day free trial, $7/month (Auto renewal) or $75/year (Auto renewal)

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

CHSH-Teach.com (Christian HomeSchool Hub) CHSH Download Club Annual Subscription (Review)

As a homeschool parent, Support Group Leader, Awana Leader, Church Musician, and general chauffeur to dance, baseball, youth-group, and any other activity, I don't have the time OR the energy to reinvent the wheel. I'm sure that many of you feel the same, and that's why sites like CHSH-Teach.com are such a boon to the busy homeschooling family. With over 50,000 pages of educational material, many homeschoolers are sure to find useful a number of ready-made worksheets, as well as forms and other pages to use for notebooking, lapbooks, journaling, and general portfolio-building.

While there are quite a few free resources available, in order to access the entire site, members of the TOS Review Crew were given an annual subscription the CHSH Download Club. In order to get a feel for the quantity of downloads available you may wish to peruse their catalog. You'll find the downloads organized in a few different ways:

By Subject:

• Arts, Music and Crafts
• Bible Related Resources
• Electives
• Health
• Language Arts
• Languages
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies

By Grade Level
Pre-K/Kindergarten
1st-3rd Grade
4th-8th Grade
9th-12th Grade (High School)

By Month (2 months at a time, with seasonal highlights)
General Organization and Classroom Helps
Miscellaneous including Curriculum Treasures from the Past, Fun Pages, and Lapbooking and Notebooking Units.

Sampling of some of the variety of pages/units available to download.

Because it was summertime during our review period, we weren't doing a lot of work that was required "extras," plus we spent two weeks on a cross-country road trip, so I actually mostly checked out some of the e-books available, rather than using worksheets.

I was intrigued by the "HomeEc" section of of the "Curriculum Treasures From the Past" and downloaded A Little Cookbook for a Little Girl. As many books printed around that time, the instruction comes in the form of a story about a young girl who wanted to learn to cook *now* not when she was older. Her mother, grandmother and aunts all work together to create a cookbook for her birthday with some of the "simple" recipes from their cookbooks.

How interesting (And what a history lesson) to read through this cookbook! While some recipes could be attempted today, some of them might be harder to alter, as the instructions are based on cooking over a fire, or possibly on a wood stove. I was also amazed at the recipes that were considered "simple" as some of them are nothing my graduate would like to attempt.

At any rate, it was a learning experience that gave a little glimpse into the practicalities of one of the basics of life (cooking) a little over a hundred years ago.
An excerpt discussing how to cook bacon. I especially love the way it ends... ;)
This is much nicer than bacon cooked in the fryingpan or over coals, for it is neither greasy nor smoky, but pink and light brown, and crisp and delicious, and good for sick people and little children and everybody.

I did take a peek at some of the other areas, and am sure that as we get our fall school schedule up and running there will be a number of useful items. These really only touch the very tiny tip of the iceberg as far as the pages available...

The Graphic Organizers file includes 80 different organizers as well as a number of examples, which is very helpful. There are generic organizers as well as author study sheets, graph paper, storyboards, language/grammar/writing organizers, science, reporting, and more. Pretty useful bunch of printables!

I was pleased to find a unit on Johnny Appleseed geared for upper elementary ages rather
than the usual first and second grade offerings. Johnny is a favorite of ours, as he shares a birthday with one of my sons, and got his start in Massachusetts. The unit found at CHSH-Teach.com has some information included that I had never read before, so will be new and interesting to my Youngest.


I am also looking over the High School World History course (Student textbook and Teacher manuals all available for download). School starts for us on Monday coming, so I haven't gotten that far with him just yet, but it looks very thorough. Part 1 covers 3100BC-1800's with 21 units and over 600 pages in the student text. The 242 page teacher manual includes Unit Focus, Suggestions for Enrichment, Unit Assessment, and Answer Keys for each unit.

I am very impressed with the quantity of resources presented on CHSH-Teach.com, and expect that I may find myself checking here first if looking for a resource for a specific topic.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: CHSH-Teach.com
• Product: CHSH Download Club  
• Ages: Resources to use for K-12
• Price: $25 Annually OR $99.99 Lifetime

Visit Christian HomeSchool Hub on the web at any of the following Social Media sites:
Facebook Group
Facebook Page
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+ Group
Google Business Page
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Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~