Homeschool Planet

When two of my friends who quite honestly are vastly different told me that they used Homeschool Planet I thought that was interesting.  I should have stopped right at the moment and realized that this was something I needed to take notice of.  Instead, I foolishly delayed looking into it.

But luckily, I am no longer foolish.  This spring I took the plunge and did a free trial of Homschool Planet.   Within 3 days I purchased a year subscription which they added on to my 30 day trial.  It changed my life. Truly!

The Homeschool Planet is an online planning, calendar, and scheduler.  It is a way for you to post the lessons that your students need to complete AND more importantly at my house, know whether people have actually completed them!

I love this!  I pull up my view and say things like. . . Why is math not completed?  I am confused as to why you have not done that for two days?  Hmm, it looks like you will be doing math on Saturday.   I also say things like, WOW!  You completed all your work today. Look at how close we are to the end!  I am so proud of you!

The other part that has been powerful for my students is that it has the feature of moving all the assignments forward.  My students began to understand that not doing something adds it on to the end of the year.  It was a good visual reminder.

You can also add music practice, track grades, put your vacations in, send your students an email with their assignments, and much more.

So this would be a great time to try a free trial.    I HIGHLY recommend it.

Create! A Girl's Guide to DIY, Doodles and Designs by Ashley Mays

Ready, set, create! Whether you’re an aspiring artist or a just-starting-out doodler, Create! A Girl’s Guide to DIY, Doodles, and Design is the perfect book to inspire your creative side. From coloring pages to quick-and-easy crafts—like photo frames and duct-tape bags—and everything in between, this full-color book from the trusted Faithgirlz brand provides step-by-step guides to more than 50 fun and easy projects. Learn how to make your own DIY projects, create one-of-a-kind jewelry, and draw like a pro. Perfect for individual use or for sleepovers, birthday parties, and more, Create! is sure to bring out your inner artist.

I saw the cover of this book, and I had to know more!  Create is a crafting books for girls ages 8-13.  The book includes décor crafts, frames, duct-tape projects, jewelry, designs, doodling, and coloring.  The book includes crafting ideas with pictures, step by step directions, and ideas to elaborate on the crafts called “Jazz It Up.”  It is part of the Faithgirlz series.  

My girls are crazy about this book, and it already looks well loved.  They like the variety of the projects included in Create.  The book includes projects that you can easily do with supplies at your house, and other projects that require some basic supplies you would get from a craft store.  I told them to start with what they were able to do and make a basic list of what they would like to buy.   That has worked very well.   I felt like the crafts were realistic for this age group.  

The pictures are wonderful and give you a good idea of what the craft will look like when completed.   I enjoyed looking through Create and my daughters have spent hours gazing at the book.   It would be a great gift with a few supplies from the book included. I would highly recommend Create to anyone with tweens.  

  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review

Some pictures of the crafts made by my daughters.  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Psychology Nerd Guest Post by Dr. Tim Rice

I found Tim Rice's  site one day and was intrigued with his perspective and his textbook. I asked Dr. Rice if  he would  write a guest post for Ohio Homeschool Assessments, and he graciously agreed to.  Please welcome him!  PS At the end of the post there is a special discount code for his text.  

Psychology Nerd Guest Post 

I’m biased. I admit it. I have a strong favorable bias toward psychology. You might call me a psychology nerd. I love psychology and I think every Christian high school student should study it. I’ve made a career of teaching psychology from a Christian worldview perspective.

You may be biased, too. You may have taken psychology in college and encountered professors who believed that the Christian worldview had no place – who ridiculed Christianity as unscientific, irrational, or silly. You may think teaching psychology, and doing it from a Christian perspective, is difficult or not important.

Teaching psychology’s subject matter is not difficult. There are many inexpensive (or free) resources to help students learn the content.  Bringing your Christian worldview to class is easy too. You can do it. It means simply to help students understand and interpret psychology’s subject matter via a vis what the Bible says.

Psychology is often defined narrowly – the study of the brain and behavior. Some people think psychology is all about mental illness, counseling, and psychiatric medications, but psychology is much more. A Christian approach to psychology begins with the belief that we are created in God’s image and likeness. Psychology is the study of God’s grandest creation – you – your joys, sorrows, memories, ambitions, identity, personality, will, morality, development, and more. It’s the study of your heart, soul, and mind. As such, the Bible has lots to say about psychology.

In every psychology class students learn about psychology’s major schools-of-thought – behaviorism, Freudian psychodynamic psychology, humanistic psychology, and evolutionary psychology. Each is a type of worldview that makes specific claims about human nature – what it means to be human. When we compare psychology’s worldviews to the Bible, we see that the Christian worldview is not silly. It is the most logical, internally consistent, and meaningful framework for understanding everything, including psychology.

I’m biased. I love psychology. I believe that every topic points toward God. We need not be intimidated by psychology. We should prepare our students to boldly bring their Christian worldview to psychology college.

Besides, psychology is an easy A.

If you use the code "Becky" at Dr. Rice's Store you can receive 10% off your purchase!  There is an especially good deal on the book and workbook currently!   I own them both.  :-)  

Dr. Rice is the author of Psychology: A Christian Perspective, High School Edition and Homeschool Psych: Preparing Christian Homeschool Students of Psych 101 and other works. He has introduced thousands of students to psychology from a Christian perspective through his textbooks and in his live online classes. Tim and his wife Tina are 26 year veterans of homeschooling. You can reach Dr. Rice at www.homeschoolpsychology.com

Guest Post: The Beauty of Units by Michelle Sager

I worked with Michelle's family for many years and always loved seeing her unit studies. When she told me about her current project, I asked her to share about it on Ohio Homeschool Assessments.  Please Welcome Michelle! 

The Beauty of Units

Schools sometimes call them “thematic units”.  Basically, a Unit Study is a flexible study of one topic that encompasses some, most, or all of the scholastic subjects (language arts, math, science, social studies, art, physical education).  Some Units are hands-on while some are strictly virtual; some are literature based while some are based in math, science or history.

We were lucky enough to discover Unit Studies fairly early in the research phase of our journey to homeschooling.  We didn’t understand their importance right away (another story for another time), but our children enjoyed learning with them so much, that we quickly grew to love them!  So much so, in fact, that we began turning everything into a Unit Study – chemistry, biology, anatomy, fiction and non-fiction books, the Olympics, movies, Girl Scouts, and family trips (even a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada!).  We became an eclectic homeschooling family. I think the term eclectic fits our family better than relaxed, since every day is different, and there are many days where the learning is quite intense and doesn’t seem relaxed at all.

Why We Love Unit Studies

My family’s love-affair with Unit Studies began in October of 2008 with a free sample from http://www.everythinghomeschooling.com/.  We wanted to inject a little bit of fun into our routine and found a Unit on Autumn and fall leaves that included literature, writing, math, earth science, chemistry, spelling, geography, vocabulary, art, hiking, computer knowledge, and probably a million other things I can’t remember!

• We went to our local park to collect different leaves, then my children used the computer and some library books to identify the trees by the leaf shape and created a scrapbook of the identified leaves.
• We used a map to find the peak color-change times in our country and in the process learned the location of all 50 states.
• We went back to the same park to estimate and count the number of leaves per branch. That information was then used to guess which types of trees carried the most leaves, and which environment was more leaf-producing; a closely packed woods or a carefully landscaped park. 
• There was an entire day spent studying photosynthesis, leaching the color out of the leaves with rubbing alcohol and coffee filters, learning which leaves contained which chemicals.
• We looked at tree rings, seeds, bark, animals that rely on trees for food and shelter, and anything else they wanted to study.
• We made some stained-glass leaves with wax paper, crayon shavings and an iron, read and wrote poetry about autumn, and had a lot of fun!
• The children found a locally produced video at the library about autumn in the Smoky Mountains.  At the time, the Smoky Mountains were in our backyard, so we took multiple hiking trips into the park, and identified trees while we hiked.
• We even took pictures of it all and created a family website to share our “schoolwork” with out-of-town family. It was a fantastic week!

We love how adaptable Unit Studies are; how creative our children could be; and most importantly, how much they enjoy learning when we used them!

Add and Subtract

There were some parts of the Unit that our children would find boring – so we skipped those.  There were some additional things we could do – so we added those. Unit Studies can be as simple or as complex as you want or need.  (As simple or as complex as your children want or need.)

Multi-level Unit Studies allow children of different ages to learn the same topics at the same time. They are adaptable to your children and your location.  We were blessed to live in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains during peak color-change time and took full advantage of it. We even managed to “sneak in” some Tennessee state history during one of our trips to the woods.

Where Are the Units?

There are many quality Unit Studies out there for a nominal fee or even free.  We found many Units that we changed rewrote, added to, subtracted from; made into whatever our children needed.  We also used some Units ‘as-is’. There are a LOT of resources out there.

Publishers’ websites usually have Teacher Guides available as a free download and can help you turn a novel into a Unit Study.  Lapbook templates and notebook pages can help you create a Unit Study on just about any topic.

What Makes a Good Unit?

A good Unit is engaging and helps your children want to learn.  The topic is not the most important part – if your children are learning and they want to do more learning, then it was a success!

This is far from a complete list, but we have used, adapted or created Unit Studies based on:

• Literature -  The Long Winter, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, The Hobbit, Romeo & Juliet, The Indian in the Cupboard, Anthem, Atlas Shrugged, The Hunger Games Trilogy, 1984, Fahrenheit 451…
• Seasons -  Autumn, Winter
• The Winter Olympics 
• Animals
• Government & Elections
• 50 States
• Girl Scout Badges
• Our own community when the Grandparents came to visit
• Science -  Anatomy, Chemistry
• Holidays -  Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving
• National Whatever Day -  The National Holiday-of-the-Day or Person-of-the-Day
• Trips -  Indianapolis & St. Louis, Colonial Williamsburg (w/ Jamestown & Yorktown), Hilton Head Island (w/ Savannah), Las Vegas
• Join our Eclectic Family

Now that we have almost completed our homeschooling journey, I am working to make our original Unit Studies available to others, complete with ideas for adapting the Units.

Begin with a free course in How to Create a Unit Study (with a Sample) – the sample is a study on Bats.  This course shows you how to create a Unit Study with any topic:

https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Vpd

The first Unit I have completed is a trip to Hilton Head Island and Savannah.  This one is perfect for turning a family vacation into a learning experience:

https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Vt2

I am working on the rest of the Units and other courses as fast as I can!  

Full Disclosure

Becky’s freestyle assessments are PERFECT for eclectic homeschoolers like us!  My family has used her services since the 2010-11 school year when we moved back to Ohio.  It was a question she asked me a few years ago that prompted me to offer our original curriculum and Unit Studies to others.  So, I must say THANK YOU Becky for encouraging me over the years!

An eclectic home educator for 10 years, Michelle believes engaging your children in the process of planning, developing, and evaluating their own experiences will cultivate a lifelong love of learning. 

Eclectic learning lets you incorporate life into learning instead of dividing life from “school”.  This means all learning, such as family trips, chores, videos, music lessons, family game night, and the dinnertime discussion about the museum you visited last year all count as “school”.  You can help your children see how things fit together.  Since life doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it isn’t divided into subjects and it only makes sense to learn-as-a-whole.

Operations Manager and Editor for SpearPoint Solutions, Michelle is also a contributing author to the book, Living a Wealthy Life: Stories of Gaining an Abundance in All Five Forms of Wealth.