The Seven C’s ~ A Poem by Liam

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

SEVEN C’S by LIAM

We must sail
the seven C’s.
Seven C’s
we must sail.
Seven C’s C every other C.

C1!
The C of certain T’s
C2!
The C of several U’s
C3!
The C of many B’s
C4!
The C of the doors

We have sailed
4 C’s, and
3 C’s must
we sail.

We must sail
the seven C’s.
Seven C’s
we must sail.
Seven C’s C every other C.

C5!
The C of jolly G’s
C6!
The C of TNT

We have sailed
6 C’s, and
1 C must
we sail.

But C-seven
is always very rough
Even in the
calmest of waves,
No ship has gone
there and returned
Many have tried
to sail there,
But they did not
even get past C4.
So the C’s that
we have seeked
May have been hard,
but we have survived!

So on to the seventh
of the seven C’s
Everyone will cheer
right now, as none
have gotten here
So to C7 here
we go, ho!

C7!
The C of no return

And we saw a
tidal wave
Rushing strait
towards us.
And it crashed into
the courageous men

But we survived -
The tsunami was a test
A test of courage of
which we had shone
All of them who even
got here, the tidal
wave drowned them
They were afraid -
the one problem
of which we
did not carry

We sailed back to the shore,
And fame was our prize
There was now one
who had ever survived
And along our trip we
gained adventure

So I’d say it was good!

We must sail
the seven C’s
Seven C’s
we have sailed
the seven C’s
Seven C’s see every
person of our ship
who have gained
fame and glory!

Spanish For You – A Review

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Hola!

This is how I am greeted each morning since we’ve had the opportunity to review the Spanish for You curriculum as part of Mosaic Reviews. We were sent the e-book version of the Estac iones (All about the weather) package for grades 3-8, which retails for 64.95$US. This complete curriculum came with a workbook, an e-book of flashcards/worksheets, audio files of the lessons recorded by the creator of the program, and an audio recording of native speakers reading the vocabulary. We also received lesson plans for each week. It looked easy to use and I was excited to print off the first few lessons to try.

Unfortunately, my students, ages 7 and 9, were not as eager about the program as I was. It may very well be because we’ve started so many language curricula over the years and have never kept up with them. We’ve tried French, Gaelic, Latin and other Spanish courses and the children have not become at all fluent in either of the languages. A new Spanish program was met with some groans. Frustration set in nearly immediately when we listened to the audio files because the narrator does not leave space for you to repeat the vocabulary words after her. I wasn’t always quick enough to stop the audio so they could repeat the words and they did not like that I had to keep going back. Using the other materials was easy and the kids enjoyed colouring and using the flashcards.

We stuck with the curriculum though our review period and have completed nearly 3 weeks. We had to break each lesson down into two weeks as we found that there were so many new vocabulary word that we needed more time with them. All in all, I enjoyed the program even if my children did not find it particularly appealing. I found that the program was well organized if you printed just what you needed for a week or two at a time. I’ve heard that they’ve made it even easier since we were given the material for review so it should be very straight forward now! I appreciated that they include both a native speaker and an English person with the audio files. Any programs we’re tried previously have had either one or the other and it is really nice to hear both! I also love that it jumps right in to Spanish that you can use and verb tenses and whatnot are thrown in as needed. There is nothing more tedious than conjugating verbs and having sentences that the children can learn and use immediately is a huge plus!

The only real downfall I see is that the vocabulary words are read straight through without space for the children to repeat them. It was frustrating for them and frustrating for me as well. There are times when I let the children do their lessons more or less independently with me nearby, but I was needed to pause the audio time and again. I strongly feel that if the audio was slowed down my children would have taken the initiative to turn it on from time to time throughout the day to practice. In addition, a few of the flashcards were a bit ambiguous, but that was no biggie for us and it didn’t affect our use of the curriculum.

All in all, I think this is a very good Spanish curriculum. While we will probably leave it for now, I hope to come back to it over the summer. I hope very much to see a Spanish friend of ours (who has promised us some lessons) and I’d love to show her this curriculum. I’d also love to surprise her with the children able to speak some Spanish with her. I do think that this program will provide us with what we need to really be able to converse in simple sentences (at least about the weather – a great Canadian pass time!)

For the price, I do not think you can go wrong if your children are really eager to learn Spanish. There are also options for purchasing just the grade level you need for 39.95$US and you can choose the Fiesta package instead of Estaciones. There are a couple trial options and free printable mini lessons so I encourage you to go to the website and check out the different options that are available.

Apologia’s Ultimate Homeschool Planners ~ A Review

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Screen Shot 2012-12-31 at 2.50.33 PM When I was a teenager I was always happy to go back to school at the end of the summer. I loved my teachers and I loved my classes, but what I really enjoyed was the fact that we were supplied a brand new agenda at the beginning of the year. Oh, how I loved my agenda/day planner. I didn’t always use it, I wasn’t that organized of a person even back then, but I love the look and feel of a new book that was all mine to write in. I’ve even held on to my agenda’s from the last couple years of high school! As you can imagine, I was especially thrilled when I was chosen to review The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia as part of the Mosaic Reviews Team. Not only would I review the Planner for parents, my son would get The Ultimate Daily Planner for Students. We were both really excited one bitterly, bitterly cold morning when we went to get the mail and saw the package from Apologia waiting for us.

When we opened the envelope, we were immediately thrilled that we’d braved the Canadian cold, despite the fact that it had made my three year old cry. I loved the colours of the planner. I loved the feel of the cover. I loved the smell of the planner. Oh yes, it was love at first sight and I hadn’t even open it up yet! My son immediately took his planner upstairs and disappeared. He was over the moon to have such a tool for himself and only for him to use. I’m going to let him start with his review of Ultimate Daily Planner for Students.

I’d rate this planner as a 9.5 out of 10. The daily planner helps me a lot. I like how it has a daily (weekly) section and a monthly section! It also is handy that you can put in your own starting date so if you get it on February 10th or something you can start it then and not have to worry about skipping a 12th of the year or so. I also like how it comes with a ruler, stickers and a glow in the dark spiral part! Only thing I would have liked added is a notes section. I can use the Saturday/Sunday section for notes, but an actual notes section would be quite a bit better. I also find it handy that you’ve added an “about me” section at the beginning of the book. Very good book. I’m glad we got it!

Liam – Age 9

I think you can say it was a big hit with him. He forgot to mention it here, but he was disappointed that much of the trivia was American. He loves trivia and as a Canadian we have not studied American presidents and the such much. Obviously, this would be a plus for our American friends, but some general trivia for students not in America would have been fun, too!

As a Mum, I am thrilled that this planner got him thinking ahead and writing.

I don’t keep notes for my children’s homeschooling once they are able to do it for themselves and we’ve been trying to get Liam to consistently write what he’s done/what he plans on doing in a binder, so we have a record, for the last year or two. This daily planner has inspired him to finally do so and he has only missed writing in it once or twice since the day we got it. As we are pretty much unschoolers/laid back eclectic folk, I didn’t use it to plan with him, but it could be used this way and works in conjunction with The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. I couldn’t be happier with this planner. High quality and easy to use with lots of little extras to help out and make it special (how awesome is it that the spiral glows in the dark?).

I was equally happy with The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. While we don’t plan out homeschooling days, I find that I have to be extra planned in my household duties. I never really know what the kids are going to need from me in their studies/days and it is too easy to let the house fall apart if you aren’t organized. I don’t do well with chaos around me so staying on top of things is important. Therefore, I am glad that there are various way to organize this planner (by student, by day, by subject). This is what I chose to do:

I divided my day into categories (writing, housemaking, meal planning, Morgaine (to track her schoolwork as she isn’t writing well, yet), and other) and then scheduled in my goals accordingly. This worked well for me and helped keep me on track. I could see how this would be practical when actively teaching several children at once, in which case you could divide the planner into child/day or child/subject categories. Debra Bell gives several different suggestions in the beginning pages of the planner on ways to organize it.There are pages to plan your yearly goals for your children (both character and academic), monthly plan pages, Bible study pages, and much more. This is a well rounded planner that works well in my family and I can see it be a real benefit if we were busier especially. We’ve recently moved and have found ourselves short on activities, but I still appreciated the planner to help organize things around the house.

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner sells for 28.00$ US and the Ultimate Daily Planner for Students sells for19.00$ US on the Apologia website. Check back in a few days, when you will be able to see more reviews from my Mosaic Reviews team and be sure to visit Apologia to see more about these planners and the other wonderful Christian curriculum and resources that they sell!

Weekly Update – February 15th, 2013

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Well, the theme of the week was outdoor exploration. We took full advantage of the snow that was dumped on us over the weekend and I am glad that we did. I was surprised at how much my children actually enjoy winter when it isn’t minus a billion. During the first two weeks we were here, EVERY outing involved at least one child crying from the cold by the end. This week, I had a hard time getting them to come inside. Ruadhán especially loved it, and liked to dig and play “real life minecraft”. The big kids made forts, dug tunnels and threw snowballs. They also learned that snowball fights are a sure way to get someone upset so they probably aren’t a good idea. We’ve also taken a few strolls down the highway as a family. A Mama and her little chicks. The road is all but deserted so there’s not really too much risk to it. We got to see some logging trucks pulling off on the side today so the little one was especially thrilled.

I fell into a snowbank and got snow up my skirt trying to get this picture for you. I love that he is wearing a hat that I made that all my children have taken turns wearing over the last 7 years or so.

Liam is finally finishing up his unit on fractions in Math Mammoth. He has been working on it since early in the fall. Fractions are the first thing in math that Liam has ever had to give any thought to at all. Most often, in the the past, he taught ME tricks and patterns in math. Unfortunately, because fractions didn’t come as to him everything else, he assumed he was no longer good at math and gave up. He’s been plugging through since December so that he can get on to other subjects. If he shows interest in it, we’ll probaby start doing mental math again around the table. He used to pride himself on how easy he could get even complicated questions and it was clear, even yesterday, just playing Monopoly, that he’s lost that confidence.

Besides math, Liam has been working on developing a 2D version of Minecraft using Python. He has also spent sometime working on Game Maker on our little PC. He’d developing quite the knowledge base when it comes to various computer programming languages. His games also involve story lines and obstacles so it is decent all around educations. Liam has been reading the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony and I believe that he is on Book 30 since starting in December. I’d read them a number of years ago so could not remember them well and I just started the series over again myself and am a little shocked at the adult themes in the books. I think they are a little over my head but now I do know where certain questions he was asking me came from…hmmm. He loves that Xanth is a very literal world and works the same way as his brain does. He’s come up with a few play on words himself. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Blank-Its: Material that makes things go blank.

A character named D. Saster: Causes disasters wherever she goes.

Punpies: Puppies who are very good at making up puns.

Liam has also helped out a lot in the kitchen this week along with his little brother. We’ve done a fair bit of baking and he also helped me prepare a few suppers in additions to the breakfast he made us yesterday.

Morgaine has chosen to spend much of her time in her room drawing. She really has talent when she takes her time and I should share some of her work soon. She’s also spent a lot of time reading. So much so that I usually have to tell her to turn out the lights when I go to bed. She is having a harder time sleeping in now that she shares a room with her brother so she doesn’t get the time that she used to have in the evenings/night to work on her drawings and reading because she is too tired in the day with Liam being such an early bird. She has played school with Ruadhán many times this week and continues to be excellent with him. She is plugging along in her workbooks, having completed several this school year. She hasn’t shown a lot of interest in other subjects (history, geography, science). She tends to focus on the more creative subjects – art, sewing/knitting, and drama. She also spends are fair bit of the day just dancing around.

As for me, I’ve found this week really long and rather draining. The outside play has done me a world of good, but in the house, I’d rather hide in my bathtub than do hands on projects with the kids. I’ve found the cause of my tiredness so I hope that in the coming weeks I’ll get my energy back up. The warmer – I hope – days should help, too. I received my grade for my neuroscience class from Coursera – 97.3% and my first certificate of achievement. YAHOO! I’m also continuing to work on my Think Again: How to reason and Argue course. It is EXCELLENT and I wish everyone would take it. One of the teachers is a total delight and the other, while less entertaining really knows his stuff (and captivates Liam). The course is officially done, but I’ll have to work hard to meet the extended deadline for finishing the material. I had to take several breaks over the the 3 months the course has run and I find myself only about two thirds of the way done, with 2 our of 4 exams still to go. So you’ll know where I’ll be this week!

All in all, I’m beginning to get back into normal life and I think that the children are adjusting well, too. We will see what next week brings.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Weekly Update – February 8th, 2013

Posted on February 8, 2013 by mamamanuscripts

We’ve survived our first week alone – give or take a couple days.

This week was about learning to just relax in my skin a little. I took a bath in the middle of the day just because I could. Instead of stressing about getting the house all organized, I decided that my goal was to get it a little cleaner, more organized than the previous day. Taking it a little chunk at a time I’ll still be able to get it all organized by the time Mike arrives to stay and I might even be able to come up with a daily plan to keep up with certain areas. I’ve taken to going to be early and reading. It is nice and it is also something that I want to keep in the habit of doing.

Ruadhán is doing well. He is adjusting to the new place, but is still a little clingy. He doesn’t shut up (eek, can I say that about my child? Talks a lot doesn’t quite seem to cover the constant chatter). Here’s a little gem from last night:

Ruadhán yawns.

Me: You might be getting tired.

Ruadhán: I’m not tired. I’m just stretching my mouth so I can say real important big words.

Yep, you have to love him.

I’ve decided that for the rest of this year we’re going to keep a relaxed approach to homeschooling. Yes, it will be over a year where we’ve taken things slow, but there have been many changes and there’s a lot to be said for taking the time to adjust and explore your new area.

This week Liam pulled out an old science experiment book so we did an experiment on sound waves (which is what we’d been studying in our last science course until the book vanished into thin area). We also did this:

What is he doing?

Homemade ice cream, of course! It was good for a first attempt. It is too bad that so much leaked. I wonder if we can use a mason jar next time.

We have a few little friends sharing our home with us.

Do you think we’ll have hundreds come the spring?

I had Liam write a small research paper on ladybugs because he hasn’t looked anything up in an encyclopedia in months.

I asked Morgaine to write a creative story but then she wrote a factual text instead about when I found a fly in my coffee cup!

There are supposed to be images of these things, but I do not have a camera that is very dependable at the moment and I have no desire to fight with it for the next 45 minutes.

Morgaine was very proud to have read Pompeii: Buried Alive because it is a Step into Reading level 4 book. There are days when she easily reads and other days when she struggles through ever single word. She spent a lot of time dancing around and making up stories this week. She is AMAZING with her little brother, though her and Liam have their moments! She is prone to tantrums and this week has been pretty good over all. *fingers crossed*

Liam is fascinated with computer programing so we had him restart a computer programming course he start earlier this year, Code Academy. He has been focusing on JavaScript. He has been using Python on Khan Academy and has created a whole bunch of programs (some are his own and some are spin offs from other’s codes). He has been asking intelligent questions on the site and giving other programmers feedback that has been helpful. While I don’t have a clue what he is doing, he seems to know a lot. He and Morgaine have also been watching a lot of videos from MIT + K12. Lots of cool videos on a variety of topics. I’m actually not sure what we are going to do when we go to limited downloads. Videos will certainly be out and we do a whole chunk of our learning that way!

Well, that’s about it. I’m about to head odd to have a picnic (interior picnic, of course) with the kids and then hear out for a cold excursion to the mailbox. Have a lovely weekend!

The Girl Who Wouldn’t Read

Posted on December 12, 2012 by mamamanuscripts

Well, about two or three years ago, Morgaine decided that she didn’t want to read. Liam is a voracious reader. Everyone thought she would be just like him. Her father worried. Was I damaging her by not pushing it? Did she has a learning disability? What had it been so easy for Liam to learn? How would she ever learn ANYTHING?

I left the opportunity open and books around, but she showed no interest whatsoever in learning to read. Then one Sunday morning, she picked up a paper and wrote out some words. They were spelled perfectly and she could read them but she insisted she was spelling and not reading. She DID NOT want to read. So we occasionally started practicing “spelling”.

It became a common question to ask as Morgaine neared grade one, “So, is she reading, yet?” The attention she got for not being able to read was quite significant. She thrived on it. I did begin to worry a little as Morgaine loves attention more than anything else. Would she ever read?

All of grade 1 went by. Morgaine occasionally looked at a book, but try to read, not much. She struggled to read the books needed for the summer reading program and only did it because I insisted that she could. Come September, she started to read, and read quite well. However, she insisted that she hated reading and if anyone said anything about reading she’d say, “I CAN’T READ!”

Well, my little girl, you CAN read (and you actually like it because I’ve caught you reading FOR FUN!).

Poetry From the Nine Year Old

Posted on September 19, 2012 by mamamanuscripts

Liam, age nine, came to me with this little poem he wrote.

What if we read?

What if we read while we sleep,
Sleep while we eat,
Eat while we walk,
Walk while we talk,
Talk while we dance,
Dance while we hear,
(hear someone talk,)
Hear while we think,
Think while we say,
That we would do everything at the same time,
every day.

Penpal Kids Club – Review and Giveaway

Posted on June 5, 2012 by mamamanuscripts

My older son loves to connect with other children. He also intends to be a world traveller. Last year we had the chance to be introduced to Pen Pal Kids Club when it was pretty new. We loved it then so when we were given the opportunity to review it again this year we jumped on it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much time to use it as I would have liked but from what I see it is as wonderful as it was last year for connecting kids around the world and teaching them about various cultures and locations at the same time. I am so glad that we were given a 3 month membership so that not that things are settling down here we’ll be able to explore it more.

Until then here’s a little bit more about Pen Pal Kids Club:

- Encourages a love for learning about other cultures
- Helps children embrace similarities and differences
- Kids can write and receive digital postcards from around the world
- Postcards are translated into 7 languages:

English
French
Spanish
Italian
Japanese
German
Chinese

- Advertiser-free site with built-in parental controls offers the ultimate in online safety

-TRUSTe Children privacy certification

About Pen Pal Kids Club from Shelley Aliotti the Creator and Founder:

The concept of Pen Pal Kids Club started when I was a kid…like many kids back then, around the world, I had a Pen Pal – Michi from Japan. Through her letters and mine we shared, learned and forged a unique friendship. That relationship, and fun, stayed with me as I grew, married, became a mom and now a grandmother.

In 1995, I decided to share this experience by creating My Pen Pal Scrapbook. I traveled to schools, groups, organizations and more. My Pen Pal Scrapbook made it easy and safe to share, learn and create friendships for life…worldwide.

I am proud to say that the original My Pen Pal Scrapbook has been read throughout the world. We are very excited that Pen Pal Kids Club has become more interactive, exciting and…much easier to use. Now as a global website, kids can Explore,Play and Share – within a completely safe site…from any computer! Kids are able to send digital postcards to one another and, with the speed of the internet, they can quickly see, that despite their physical and geographical differences, they are all much the same inside.

At Pen Pal Kids Club there will be no outside advertisers, members or hidden traps – this is a completely safe site. We sum it up by saying that, by joining Pen Pal Kids Club now, your family will begin safe, new adventures in Exploring, Playing & Sharing – in your home…and around the world! At Pen Pal Kids Club, on this virtual global playground, children everywhere will find that “The world is just a friend away.”

I do have the pleasure of giving away a 3 month membership to one of my lucky readers. To enter all you need to do is leave me a comment and tell me if you have ever had a pen pal and what that experience was like for you.

Addition entries (please leave a comment for each).

1) Like Real Life: Unscripted on facebook and tell me about it.
2) Follow me @mamamanuscripts on twitter and tell me your twitter ID so I can follow you.
3) Tweet/retweet about this giveaway and let me know.
4) Blog about this contest and give me your link (3 entries) – Don’t forget to comment 3 times for this one!

Comments close at 1pm Friday, June 8th, 2012 and a winner will be drawn at random.

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I blog with integrity and will not endorse a product that I would not feel comfortable using within my family. My blog posts reflect my honest opinions of the products that I choose to review.

When it Feels Like we Haven’t Gotten Anywhere

Posted on June 3, 2012 by mamamanuscripts

Officially, another school year is coming to an end. I’m getting ready to write my end of year reports to the department of education and am looking over what I wrote last year and what my goals were for the year. Liam accomplished above and beyond what I set out for him to do. Morgaine, well Morgaine, it seems hasn’t quite progressed as far academically as I imagined she might have.

What do I do in this case? Is it time to start panicking? Some might thing so. What if she never catches up? I choose to see things a bit differently. Perhaps, she was very busy learning other valuable lessons this year. Maybe it was more important for her to spend time nurturing her baby brother. She spent many a day immersed in colouring and using various art techniques. She explored our yard and grew things with her own two hands. She danced and sang. She was a free spirit. She was happy.

Sitting her down at a desk and forcing her to do thing that she isn’t ready to do, likely would have been disastrous. It would likely make her feel stupid. It would have made her hate learning. So we let things move along more organically. We remind people that she isn’t really reading yet. There are times when we want to say, “If you could just read…..” but we hold our tongue and read the menu, or the book, over and over again. We’ve caught her tried to read and progress has been made so we are gentle and we wait and we know that when her time comes she will learn to read and it will all be okay.

Fractazmic ~ A Review

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mama Manuscripts

Product:Fractazmic
Company: I See Cards
Price: 6:95$US
Ages: Grade 1-8
Players: 2-4

We LOVE games!

What we LOVE even more are games that teach and entertain and the same time.

What we LOVE even more than that are games that teach MATH and entertain at the same time.

Yes, it’s no surprise that we LOVE Fractazmic by I See Cards. When I found out we would be receiving it from the TOS Homeschool Crew I was quite excited because we’d reviewed Pyramath from the same company last year and it ended up becoming a family favorite.

Fractazmic is a basic card game where you try to make “hands” that equal one (1) by adding fractions of the same suit (there are 3 suits). Player take turns drawing cards from the deck or the discard pile and trying to make hands. The player with the most hands when someone runs out of cards in the winner.

This game is simple to play, yet it can be challenging. I’ll admit that I ended up using the picture aids from time to time when playing with my son. I’m not so good at mental math and usually have to write things down because I have a hard time keep track of numbers. My son (8), on the other hand, didn’t have any issues with this after he played a few times. He learned how to play with his grandfather (a lovely way to spend an afternoon) so he was a real pro when it came time to play with Mum. We haven’t played with more than two players but I think that it would make it more challenging and worry that there may be some issues using all the cards in our hands with more players but I’d don’t know for sure. You may want to check out more TOS Homeschool Crew reviews to see what other members are saying about games with more players.

For 6.95$Us this game can be fun for the whole family (and did you know you can win FREE packs online by playing the online version?). The younger members can join in by using the picture clues on the card to play or you could help them by making a conversions chart for them and it is still somewhat challenging (or just a good review) for older family members, too. I’m sure that this will be a game that we will pull out frequently when we are looking for something a little different to do for math. I invite you to check out their website to find out more about this game, learn about other card games the company sells to make math fun (Pyramath, Prime Bomb, etc.), or play an online game of Fractazmic.

**Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how we used the product within our family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.

Mama Manuscripts

Balancing the Wild and Wonderful World of Parenting with a Passion for Writing

Tag Archives: homeschooling