Review of Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1)

In this age of technology it is becoming more and more important for students to learn some basic programming skills so I was thrilled to be able to review Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1) from Code for Teens.  Ever since our family joined the Home School Review Crew a litte over a year and a half ago, I have wanted at least one of children to learn to code, if for no other reason than to be able to help with our blog.  Our seventeen-year-old son carries the torch in this area.  He is willing to take the time and energy to learn to code in order to help me.

With software engineering being among the fastest growing career paths around today, I feel like I would be doing our youngest son a disservice if I did not expose him to coding.  The Code for Teens website states, ” This book is written with the goal of teaching young teenagers to code without ANY parent or teacher involvement. Important concepts are introduced gradually with ample review and many drills and small challenges to ensure that the child understands the concept fully before moving on.”  I loved the idea of my son being able to work independently.

The book was written by Jeremy Moritz and illustrated by his wife Christine Moritz.  I have to say I absolutely love the illustrations.  You can read the introduction and first chapter here on the website just above the superhero looking graphic.  Because JavaScript is the most common language for computer programming, students learn about it in this book.  The book is basically designed for anyone who has at least a sixth-grade reading leve- so basically older children and teenagers.

The book contains an introduction, a section for parents, and then starts off slowly and builds through ten chapters that cover a variety of topics and include such chapter titles as “Hello World!”, “Time to Operate”, “Comments on String Section”, “Projects Galore and More”.  The book also includes a conclusion, answers and a glossary.

Each chapter includes reading, activities, a quiz, key concepts, and drills.  The very first chapter required our son to find the average age of our family using coding.  He really enjoyed this.  Starting with chapter 2, the review is cummulative.  In Chapter 2, the learner works on a project which builds on the concepts introduced in the chapter.

So far our son has completed Chapter 2 and is working on Chapter 3.  Because he already has coding experience, he felt like the book started off a little bit slow for him.  However, a child with no coding experience will probably find this book perfect.  I had him glance through the book and he stated chapter 5 begins to reach a level that will hold his interest more.  You can find Code for Teens on Facebook here.

So far our son is really enjoying the book and I am enjoying seeing what he is creating.  Even though we are off to a slow start, I  can not wait to see what else he learns.  Code for Teens is worth checking out for your own family if your family is interested in learning more about computer programming, coding, or JavaScript.  If you would like to read reviews by other members of the Home School Review Crew, click here or on the graphic below.

 

 

 

Review of Progeny Press’ Perelandra-eguide

 

Progeny Press makes earning High School Literature credits easy with high school level study guides such as  Perelandra – eGuide.  When I saw the opportunity come up to review this product, I was thrilled.  I thought my science fiction loving 17-year-old son would possibly love reviewing this product.  When looking for literature curriculum, I want products that include Christian values and beliefs.  I also prefer literature guides that utilize an entire book, rather than ones with a lot of pieces and parts from different literature choices.  I also prefer ones that have lessons plans and involve critical thinking skills. For this review we received the e-guide for Perelandra.  This means we received a downloadable study guide along wth the downloadable answer key.

Progeny Press is a Christian company that provides literature study guides and e-guides for Kindergarten through twelfth grade. They offer a variety of selections and choices.  The guide we received included activities ranging from vocabulary terms to critical thinking questions to essays and more.  I really loved the study guide included vocabulary, reading comprehension, anaylsis and more.

Because I typically prefer to know what my children are studying and learning about, I decided to work through the Perelandra – eGuide myself before having my son start it.  While I am very familiar with C.S. Lewis, this series was not one I had really heard of , so I was interested in learning more about it.

 

I felt like we were at a slight disadvantage because we had not read the first book in the series.  So I really wish we could have gone through a study guide for the first book in the series before beginning this one.  My recommendation would definitelty be to familiarize yourself with the first book in the series before beginning the guide.  For convenience, we decided to download the actual book for Perelandra by C. S. Lewis on our Kindle app so we could take it wherever we happened to be going. I also downloaded the e-guide and the answer keys on my iPad in iBooks so we could travel with it as well.

 

The guide is meant to be completed in about eight to ten weeks.  Since it is summer here in the United States we went at a slightly slower pace.  We decided to read the chapter(s) in the book before we worked on the questions in the e-guide.  So one day we would read and then we would take the next few days to complete the vocabulary or other questions in the e-guide.  I encouraged our son to take his time with the analysis questions.  If you have a student who finds answering in-depth analysis questions, you many need to provide extra guidance for your learner.

 

You can find Progeny Press on social media at:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/progenypress
Twitter: https://twitter.com/progenypress
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/progenypress
YouTube: https://youtube.com/progenypress

All in all, my son and I have been very pleased with this product and are glad we had the opportunity to use it.  You should definitely check it out for yourself.

If you would like to read more reviews by the Home School Review Crew of this or other products by Progeny Press, click here or on the graphic below.

Review of Math Refresher for Adults from Math Essentials

If you need to brush up on your Math skills, I recommend checking out Math Refresher for Adults from Math Essentials.  Math is one of those skills that you either use or you are bound to lose the skills you have learned.  As the mother of four and with two teenagers we are still homeschooling currently, I know I need to keep up with my math skills.  So when the opportunity to participate in this review came up, I was thrilled for the opportunity.

This is the second product we have reviewed for Math Essentials, and I expected to be impressed.  The company designs products to be used for home or school.  This is a perfect book for adults who want to brush up on their math skills, prepare for any type of test involving math skills, or anyone else who needs a refresher.  For example, college bound students or those going back to school after an absence may find this book useful.

This book works for those with a math phobia, those who have forgotten the math they have learned, those who want to help their children with homework, those re-entering the work-force, those needing to take placement tests (such as for entering college after an absence from school), those needing to improve their math skills and others with similar goals, objectives and needs.

The book includes whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents, geometry, integers, charts and graphs, word problems, along with pre-algebra algebra topics such as expnents, square roots, order of operations, properties of numbers, scientific notation, ratios and proportions, number lines, the coordinate plane, graphing equations and more.  Here is some pictures of the table of contents:

 

The wonderful thing about Math Refresher for Adults is that the learner can use it any way necssary.  For example, I started at the beginning and am working my way straight through the lessons.  On the other hand, if a student just needs to brush up on certain skills, it allows him or her to just work on those particular subjects.

While this is not meant to be used as a consumable workbook, I did much of the work in directly in the book for the first part of the problems.  For the bottom section of the book, I used notebook paper to do the work.  Having been a math teacher many years ago, I always required my students to show their work.  I can not and will not expect less from myself.  Here are some of the pages I did.

 

All-in-all, I have to say I really enjoyed this product.  I felt it did an excellent job of reviewing the necessary math skills an adult should know.  I was very pleased with the order of the topics and the amount of problems in each assignment.  I like that I can jump around if needed rather than having to work straight through the book.  My husband plans on using the book to brush up on his math skills as well.

In August of 2017, our family reviewed another product by Math Essentials called No-Nonsense Algebra, you can check out our review by clicking here.  I hope you will check out Math Essentials and the products they offer for yourself.  You can find Math Essentials on social media on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook.com/math.essentials/

If you would like to read more reviews by other members of the Home School Review Crew, click here or on the graphic below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 10, 2018

This past week our son started working as a Certified Nursing Assistant.  He seems to really be doing well and enjoying his work.  Because of the 4th of July, we did not have band or piano lessons.  We celebrated Independence Day with a quiet day at home.

Here are some tasty dishes we had during the past week.  We had spaghetti with homemade sauce, stuffed shells, manicotti, and shrimp kebabs.  All in all it was a good week of eating.

 

Over the weekend, we got in contact with a Primitive Baptist Church in our area and decided to attend there this Sunday.  Here is a picture of the hymnal they use.  The church is having a four-day meeting this weekend, so we plan on going to the meeting Thursday night.   One of my favorite things about attending a Primitive Baptist Church is that all the singing is acapella.  So the harmony of voices tends to be amazing.  This church was no exception.  It was the first time in over 4 years that we were able to attend a Primitive Baptist Church and we look forward to returning to visit.  Only our youngest son was able to attend on Sunday, but it was still a wonderful time.

One of the other good things about Primitive Baptist Churches is the way they welcome visitors.  Although we did not know anyone when we walked in, we walked out feeling like we were part of their family.  The other good thing is that when they serve a meal (which they did after the services), everyone is always welcome to come and the food is always amazing.

So what has been going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew have been up to, click here or on the graphic below.

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Lately I have been on a real recipe cooking kick.  I want to eat different things and add some variety to our meal plan.  So over the last 7 days, I tried two different recipes that were new to our family.  The first was Brunswick Stew, which I made using a recipe I found online and then tweaking it.  As part of this recipe, I also experimented with making a Carolina-style Vinegar based barbecue sauce.  Now normally, I would not need to do this becacuse my father-in-law makes the absolute best homemade barbecue sauce ever.  However, livng in Texas for the past two years means our supply had ran out and we have not have the means or opportunity to restock.  I have to say it turned out really well.  I used a mixture of pork and chicken along with lima beans, corn, potatoes, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, the barbecue sauce and some spices.  I have to say it turned out amazing.

The second new recipe I tried was stuffed shells, which we had for dinner last night.  They turned out really delicious.  We served it with spagetti and meat sauce.  I just wish I could find an amazing lactose-free mozzarella cheese, so our oldest son could partake of the amazing tastes with us.  Here is a picture.

 

On the subject of our oldest son, he did his orientation on Friday and began working as a Nursing Assistant on Saturday.  He works four days on and then has off two days.  So he worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and will have tomorrow (Wednesday, July 4th and Thursday, July 5th).  He seems to really like it.  So we will see how things go.  With him leaving the house at around 5:15 to 5:30 in the morning and not getting home until around 3 in the afternoon, I have not gotten a picture of him in his new scrubs yet but I will.

So what is going on in your life?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to see what other members of the Home School Review Crew are up to this week, click here or on the graphic below.

Review of The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective

Looking for homeschool art history curriculum?  Let me tell you about The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective created by The Master and His Apprentices.  With a daughter who loves everything about art, I am always on the lookout for new art programs that will inspire and motivate our daughter.  For this review we received the downloadable version of this curriculum.  We received Print/Photocopy rights for our family.  I really appreciate this feature.  It means if our older sons wanted to do this program, they also could.

The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective offers a product that is suitable for adults, high school students, parents and artists in a wonderfully inspiring program.  For this review, we received the Digital Edition of the Textbook and Teacher’s Guide.  With the textbook being 380 pages and the Teacher’s Guide being 116 pages, I decided it was in our family’s best interest to download the textbook to our iPad and then print out the Teacher’s Guide.   I made this decision because the textbook contains a tremendous amount of artwork which is in color.  I felt like reading the textbook on our tablet would work fine for our family.

The course is designed for a chapter a week.  My original intention was for our daughter and I to work through the course together.  Even though I claim a limited to non-existent talent in art, this course really excited me.  This course is meant to be a full high school credit when completed.  I love that there is no nudity or other objectionable material included.

The Teacher’s Guide includes what to read, discussion questions, student worksheets, exams and more.  It includes instructions for teachers in classroom settings, Home school parents, record keeping forms (including attendance and grade sheets),a syllabus, terms to describe art, Art History Paper Instructions, weekly discussion question worksheets and exams along with an answer key.

 

I decided the best way to approach The Master and His Apprentices was for my daughter and I to read the textbook on our own and then discuss the worksheets and other questions in the Teacher’s Guide.  This Christian Art History textbook covers an introduction to art, Creation, Ancient Cultures, Classical Antiquity, Middle Ages, the Renissance, and Baroque Era & Beyond.  There are also appendixes that includes essays, a period chart, a timeline, pieces by location, terms to describe art, and even an index.

Because of some things going on in our life for the past few weeks that involved me doing a lot of driving, I decided to have her ride with me and we discussed the material orally rather than having her complete the worksheets by hand.  I felt this gave us the opportunity to go more in depth than what would have happened on paper.  Now that life has settled down, we will probably use a combination of oral and written formats for the worksheets.  Then after we were home, she filled out the worksheets.All of the questions for the worksheets are open-ended rather than multiple choice which I like; since it makes her think more. For the exams there are matching, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, and short essay questions.  The first exam comes at the end of Chapter 7, so we are not quite there yet.  Here is a completed worksheet.

 

As our daughter and I worked through the chapters, I feel like we both enjoyed a greater appreciation of how art and history work together.  We also loved the variety of artistic works included in the textbook.

 

 

You can find The Master and His Apprentices on social media at the following links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Master-and-His-Apprentices-245504999349223/
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/themasterandhisapprentices/boards/

My daughter and I are really enjoying The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective.   So if you are looking for a homeschool art history curriculum, check it out for yourself.  If you would like to read reviews by other members of the Home School Review Crew, click here or on the graphic below.

Thoughts for Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Last week our oldest son completed his Certified Nursing Assistant training on Friday. Now all he needs to do is pass his state certification exam. But in the meantime, he had orientation on Friday and starts working on Saturday.

Last week our youngest son helped with Vacation Bible School. So my primary role last week was that of driver.

 

So what has been going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

 

Review of Persuasive Writing and Classic Rhetoric: Practicing Habits of Great Writers from Silverdale Press LLC

Making sure that my high school students learn to write well requires me to choose curriculum that teaches students how to write well and Silverdale Press LLC does that with their Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers program.  I felt this program would be a good fit for our 17-year-old son.  The program is designed for students ages 14-18 years old.  We received the downloadable program, which inlcuded:

• Lesson Book (235 pages)
• Workbook (consumable, 202 pages)
• Reader (111 pages)
• Answer Key (68 pages)

Silverdale Press LLC is based in Winchester, Virginia.  The company was founded by Joshua and Jill Hummer who parent four young children and are advocates for homeschooling.  Their goal is to help homeschooling parents educate their children with excellence as well as confidence.

As the parent of two sons who hae already graduated along with our 17-year old son, we also have a 15-year-old daughter.  However, we decided to just use this program with our son at this time.  I know at some point in the future I will use this program with our daughter.

The program is designed to be completed in four days a week for 36-weeks.  So it is a full-year program.  Our son does not particularly care for writing so I was not sure how he was going to feel about doing this program.  But he seemed to do alright with the assignments.

The course begins by discussing what persuasive writing and rhetoric along with providing a profile of rhetoric for Patrick Henry.  Each weekly lesson includes reading material found in the Lesson Plan book and the reader along with pages in the workbook.  The course also covers habits of great writers, invention, subject, sources, taking notes through statements of facts, an introduction to style, punctuation and even what real writers do and more.  Pictured below are the table of contents.

I loved the fact that our son could basically work independently.  Every assignment is clearly laid out in the Lesson Plan book, so it did not require a lot of preparation or time on my part.  With the answer key, our son was able to check most of the work by himself.  However, I did try to discuss what he was reading and working on with him. Here are some pictures of the lesson plan book.  The parent can play as much or as little of a role in this course as they want.  However, I feel it is important for parents to at least monitor their student’s progress.  At the beginning of each lesson learning objectives are laid out along with important terms and a schedule.  I like how each week includes a writing assignment.

 

The reader includes readings on people such as Patrick Henry, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchhill, Sarah Josepha Hale, Benjamin Franklin, Eleanor Roosevel and more.  Each weekly lesson focuses on one of these important people.  The length of the reading assignments varies.  I will say so far our son seemed to think the reading assignments were appropriate in length.

For each day of every lesson, the student will be using the student workbook to answer questions, define terms or complete writing assignments.  I love this daily interaction with what the student is learning.  Obviously the length of time needed to complete the workbook pages varies.  Defining terms or answering questions takes less time than actually writing.  We also appreciated the variety of tasks each day.  Here is a sample of a completed workbook page.

I have to say our family has enjoyed using  Silverdale Press LLC ‘s Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers program.  So check it out for yourself.  If you would like to read reviews from other members of the Home School Review Crew for this program or their White House Holidays Unit Studies, designed for ages 5-18, click here or on the graphic below.

 

 

 

Review of Memoria Press’ Classical Composition I: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set

When I think of Classical Christian Education I think of Memoria Press so I choose the Classical Composition I: Fable Set  and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set to review with my daughter. For many years our family has strived for a Christian Classical Education for our children and finding the right Christian Classical Curriculum for our family has been essential to us.  That is why I was thrilled for our family to have the opportunity to review these two products.  Our 15-year-old daughter expressed excitement upon receiving these products.  These courses are recommended for grades 4-12, and I think these recommendations are perfect. Of course, the older the student, the more in-depth they will go and the higher the expectations will be.

The one thing I love about Memoria Press is the variety and quality of products they offer.  This company has been a favorite of our family since we began homeschooling.  So it seemed a natural progression to try their Classical Composition courses.  Classical Composition I: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set and we have enjoyed them so far.  The sets we received included both Teachers guides, both student workbooks, both sets of DVDs and a lesson plan booklet that covers both courses in a 34-week layout.

I love how the lesson plan booklet lays out everything in detail for each day, plus includes a checkbox for each day so I could mark off things as we completed them.  The lesson plan book also means if something happened and I was not around, our daughter could grab the lesson books and know exactly what to do.

We were so excited upon receiving these materials we just jumped right without utilizing the DVDs.  With the assistance of the teacher guide, we were able to figure out exactly what needed to be done, especially with the help of the Lesson Plan booklet.  We started off by reading the Teaching Guidelines at the beginning of both the Teacher’s Guide and the Student Workbook.  These clearly lay out the requirements, expectations, and layout of the assignments.  From the fables themselves to variations, outlines, narrations, paraphrases and even writing a final draft is described in detail.

The Teacher’s Guide also includes an advanced rubric for grading the student’s work.  There are even optional grammar requirements.  I found this extremely useful since we could utilize those requirements to help cover grammar instead of needing additional material.  There is also an introduction to the Fable Stage that describes imitation and suggestions for starting the writing journey.

As we began the actual lessons, our daughter expressed some distaste for reading out loud, but she is my introverted child.   So I really was not surprised by this.  As we moved through the exercises together, she really seemed to enjoy the lessons.  From writing down synonyms to writing outlines, variations, and paraphrases, she enjoyed all the activities.  She even enjoyed writing the final drafts.

The lessons on the DVDs are very well done and enjoyable to watch.  The information is presented in a way that is easy to follow along with what is being taught.  When the videos should be paused for the students to complete assignments, they are told to do so. Brent Vaden, the instructor on the DVDs, has the perfect voice for these DVDs.  He speaks clearly and is easy to understand.  Although I decided to watch the DVDs with our daughter and participate with her in the lessons, I feel she definitely could have completed the assignments on her own – especially with the help of the DVDs.

The lessons in both sets are designed to be spread out over 5 days a week for a two-week period.  This ensures there is time for doing variations (where the student changes the words from the original fable),  does an outline,  does a narration, and writes a final draft using paraphrases which genuinely fit the original story.

In Classical Composition II: Narrative, the layout of the materials reflects similarities to the Fables course.  The student watches the DVDs, does a reading, variations, paraphrases, outlines, additional variations and then writes a final draft.  Again the final draft is created on a separate sheet of paper. Brett Vaden provides the instruction for the DVDs, and he does an excellent job of teaching. the

All the work is done by the student in the consumable workbooks except for writing the final drafts, so this is a grab-and-go curriculum other than having the ability to watch the DVDs.  My daughter and I both are glad we decided to review these products.  If you would like to read additional reviews of Classical Composition I: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set or of other products from Memoria Press, click here or on the graphic below.

Review of The Critical Thinking Co.’s Critical Thinking Detective Book 1

As the mother of three sons ages almost 22, 19, and 17 along with a daughter who is 15, I recognize the importance of critical thinking skills.  We have always loved The Critical Thinking Co.™ so I jumped at the opportunity to review Critical Thinking Detective Book 1  for our daughter.  As the youngest of four children, logical thinking is a must for our daughter.  In order to counter anything her brothers might send her way, I knew this book would be very helpful for developing her reasoning abilities.

The Critical Thinking Co. offers a variety of products from mathematics, logic, test prep and more for toddlers through high school.  So there are plenty of options to choose from no matter what your need is.  The Critical Thinking Co. has been serving students and their families since 1958.  On their “About Us” on their website they state their mission statement is: “The Critical Thinking Co.™ is committed to developing students’ critical thinking     skills for better grades, higher test scores, and success in life. We do not teach through drill and memorization or teach to the tests—we empower the mind!”

Through the years, our family has used a variety of products from this company.  We have always found the materials to meet our family’s needs.  We have talked to representatives from the company at several different Home School Conventions.  So I truly was thrilled for our daughter to review “The Critical Thinking Detective Book 1” which is meant for grades 4-12.  I feel this grade spread is a good representative of the ages who would be capable of doing this work.  You can get the book as either a printed book (which is what our family received) or as an e-book.  Personally for something that involves critical thinking skills and figuring things out, I prefer a physical copy.  But I can also see the benefits of having it as an ebook.

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Our daughter is an artist by nature and talents, but I knew she would benefit from this book.  I also knew she has the ability to reason and deduce things courtesy of her older brothers.   I knew I wanted our daughter and I to work on this book together.  So we began by reading the section that tells about the book and then the section that tells how to solve these cases along with the hints.  Then we moved into the first case which dealt with a car thief.  I knew it would be helpful for our daughter to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to brainstorm with while trying to solve the cases.

I love how the sentences are numbered which made it easy to demonstrate what sentence proved the innocence or guilt of each suspect.  For example, in this first case, our daughter was able to see who was wearing dark pants and which suspects were not over 6 feet tall.  Basically, we determined who was innocent by their statements in order to finally determine who was guilty.  I found it helpful that the book reminded us that the the stories and the statements made by the suspects all were true.  This helped eliminate any confusion when trying to determine guilt or innocence.  I know if our daughter had done this book when she was in the 4th grade, that would have been very helpful.

The Critical Thinking Co. has provided the following special offers for you to utilize:

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You can find The Critical Thinking Co. on socail media at:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCriticalThinkingCo
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• Twitter: https://twitter.com/criticalthinks
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I have to say we really enjoyed working through this book.  I am sure we will do more in the future.  So check out The Critical Thinking Co.™  and Critical Thinking Detective Book 1  for yourself.

If you want to read reviews by other members of the Home School Review Crew including reviews of Critical Thinking Detective Book 1, Understanding Pre-Algebra, or Vocabulary Riddles Book 1, click here or on the grahic below.