This is the last day of the Blog Hop so I wanted to share with you a mini lesson and fun activity you can do with your kids!

Why don’t you make a small unit study to learn more about photography and as a final end project you can make a calendar using all that you learned? This would make a great beginning of the year study to get your family back into the swing of homeschooling as well as creating a useable calendar to write down field trips, assignments and appointments!

Unit Study Ideas: ( younger kids can make a lapbook and older kids can make a notebook or write more extensive reports)

Begin by researching the history of photography. Some suggestions are to visit your library or search Google. Here is a website I found with a quick search (http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm). (Note that some of the ads on this page might not be appropriate for children and you may need to preview it before letting a child view the contents. It looks like a site that has ads placed on it by the web provider and not the author themselves)

Next you may want to study the various photography composition rules in order to learn how to take quality images. I discovered a website that discusses and demonstrates the rules HERE.

You may also want to research how cameras work and find out more about the cameras you own.

Here are a few websites I found:

• http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4574398_cameras-work.html
• HowStuffWorks has some articles on how various cameras work and here is one about digital cameras: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cameras-photography/digital/digital-camera.htm
• Here is a youtube video about cameras:

You may want to discuss light and how it affects your picture taking. Maybe your camera has different features to handle the various lighting situations you may find yourself in while taking photos.

Also investigate the various special effect settings available on your own camera. There are also special editing programs available that allow you to alter your digital photos once you have them stored on your computer. I take photos with my android phone and even that has some apps available for you to use.

As a side project you may want to try to make your own pinhole camrea. Here is a website that explains how to do that: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/lessonPlans/pinholeCamera/pinholeCanBox.shtml
This one directs you to a pdf file that steps you through making one: http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Resources/Documents/p/pinholecameraworksheet.pdf

Anytime during your study you can discuss what types of photos you may want to take in making your calendar. Do you want to have some type of theme such as pets, or plants, or seasons? Or maybe just the photos that were your favorites once you begin your unit study?
Once you figure out what you want to photograph, you can start doing just that! Explore new ideas and try out new things you never had before.

When you are ready to create your calendar there are several websites out there that allow you to upload your own photos and print off calendars in your own home. HP has an area for this that I found. You need to choose one of the free options they have but it looks interesting! http://www.hp.com/hho/hp_create/calendars-standard_monthly.html

Well I will leave it up to you to make up your own plans for this unit study or you can just choose different areas of it to work on. Most of all have fun! I hope you enjoyed my 5 days of discussing photography with you! There is so much more to talk about but I think I will leave that up to you to explore the possibilities!!!

Now go check out the other blog posts in our 5 Days of … Blog Hop by clicking on the image below!

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Library & Educational Services, a Wholesale Supplier of Wholesome, Educational Books, DVDs, CDs, and more, has a wide selection of products as well great prices.  I have purchased from them and was very pleased with both the price and shipment of my selections.  They sell to

Library & Educational Services has provided me with two of the DVDs from the Go Science DVD series. The Go Science series is comprised of 6 individual DVDs with a total of 67 science experiments between them which are presented by Ben Roy.

My family received both volume 3 (Magnetism, Engineering, Electricity, and Design)  and volume 4 (Chemistry, States of Matter, and Life Sciences) to review as a member of the TOS Crew.

Each of the titles has a different running time and the ones we got had a running time of 45:42 for volume  3 and 43:48 for volume 4.   Each title is broken down into chapters each with a specific science demonstration that lasts a few minutes in general so that you can choose to watch one or more in one sitting and not need to view the entire DVD at once.  This makes it nice so that you can maybe choose a science experiment that pertains to something you are studying that day in your science curriculum.  That way you can use these DVDs as a supplement to your own science program and to get your kids motivated to learn more.  The DVDs in themselves are not what you typically would see in a detailed lab experiment.  Instead each  demonstration gives you a little taste of the science principle without a whole lot of explanation in some cases about the whys of what happened.  Some cases you will get some explanation but I believe these DVDs are more there to give your kids an insight into how fun science can be and to get them excited to learn more.  Also the other unique thing about these DVDs is that they also contain a spiritual message in order to connect the science demonstration to our Creator.  Ben Roy has a catch phrase at the end of each demonstration, “Every time we learn something about science we learn something about our Creator God!”
In some cases he makes interesting connections between his demonstrations and the Bible.  I love when science is shown as something that God  has created and there is even a Bible verse that tells us that God fully expects us to find out everything we can about His creations.  Isn’t that what science is all about after all? So many people try to separate science and God when they so clearly go hand in hand.

So what did I think about the Go Science DVDs we received?

Pros:

• I liked that the science demonstrations were short and most of them were fairly exciting experiments.  I could tell Ben Roy was generally enthusiastic about science and about God.
• I was excited that he connected science and God rather than separated them like most people try to do.
• I believe that younger elementary kids would enjoy these DVDs and think it would instill in them an enthusiasm to learn more about science.  They would make a great addition to a younger child’s science lesson.

Cons:

• The volume level on the DVDs between different chapters is often inconsistent. Sometimes the volume is quite loud and other times it is very soft. This is just merely inconvenient unless you may have a child with sensory issues then it may matter to you a little more.
• While the DVDs are suggested for ages 6-14, the actual presentation method, tone and character is more geared toward lower elementary ages.   While my 13 and 9 year old enjoyed watching some of the demonstrations, they both thought Ben Roy was teaching towards a younger audience.   Both of my kids would have liked to have a little more information about  the whys of the experiment.   Some of the experiments did give some information and others told you nothing at all.  You can see what I mean for yourself in the following video:

You can view what is included in each of the volumes of the Go Science series HERE on the Library & Educational Services website.

I would recommend these DVDs as a supplement to younger children in order to get them excited about science and so they will want to find out more about what they watched.

You can purchase individual volumes for $8.97 or $47.95 for the entire set of all 6 DVDs at Library & Educational Services website.

I suggest you check out what some of my fellow Crew members had to say about the various Go Science DVDs  on our TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: I was provided  free copies of both Go Science DVDs in order to provide my honest review of it for my readers  as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew   All opinions are my own.

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Day 4 of the 5 Days of … Blog Hopping and today I am going to talk about lap books, timeline notebooks and notebooking!

Lapbooks are file folders that contain homemade mini books about subjects your children are studying.

Notebooking is educational journaling or scrapbooking. This could be anything from written narratives, timelines, copywork, reports, lists, drawings, maps, observations and photographs.

Many people use various methods of homeschooling and the above items are often used in many of the methods people teach with.

Some examples of how you could use photos with your homeschooling would be to take photos of your science experiments If you do any type of nature notebooking, you could have your child take photos of your hikes and explorations and include them with their observations. If you do timelines of your family history, you could include photos you have of family members along with the information about them. Let’s say you do a notebook on Colonial Williamnsburg. If you were to visit there you could include the photos of your visit along with historical information that would be pertinent to those images you took. Well you get the picture! Right? Photos make everything more personal and when you do that the learning often sinks in and takes hold more than reading somethign from a textbook or using stock photos that have no personal relevance for you and your kids.

If you ahve never notebooked or used lapbooks in your homeschooling you truly are missing on an an experience. There are many good websites out there devoted to getting started and they are only a google search away!

Come back tomorrow to see what I have to say about photography on our last day of our blog hop!

First go check out the other blog posts in our 5 Days of … Blog Hop by clicking on the image below!

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It is day 3 of the blog hop and today’s focus on photography centers around using photography as a storytelling tool.

What do I mean by this? Well actually several things. For younger kids, you can use the photos you take in order to get them to start telling their own stories without the stress of having to read words, know spelling and worry about writing. You can take a series of pictures from a vacation or an event you attended together and let your kids imagination and memory take over to tell you a story.

For older kids you can use photos as a story starter to get them to start brainstorming and beginning to write. This also takes the stress off of having to think about ideas out of the blue for writing projects because they already have that experience to fall back on so it is less stressful for them. Sometimes having to come up with ideas is the hardest obstacle to writing. One of our favorite writing curriculums, that we reviewed this year for the TOS Homeschool Crew, uses photos in their lessons and this is what helped my daughter to love writing more than she had in the past.

You can also just have fun with it and take turns with your family members having everyone create their own story about what happened that day. Not only are you sharing that experience again but you are creating that bond with each other as you take the time as a family to tell your own story and relive it. In today’s society, families seem to have so much going on in their individual lives that they don’t spend as much time talking and spending time with each other. What better way than to spend time sharing memories and reliving those fun times together?

Come back tomorrow to learn more about how I use photography in our homeschooling!

First go check out the other blog posts in our 5 Days of … Blog Hop by clicking on the image below!

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For the last several weeks I have been using and reviewing the Judah Bible curriculum with my kids. First of all maybe I should let you know what the Judah Bible curriculum is all about. The curriculum was developed in order to instill a comprehensive understanding of the Bible and to develop Godly character so that you can apply God’s word to your daily life. It follows the Principle Approach of education.

What exactly is the Principle Approach?

Basically the philosophy of he Principle Approach is a way of teaching and learning that puts the Word of God at the heart of every subject and teaches the student how to think and learn. This is what the main goal of our homeschooling is all about for our family. As Christians, we believe that the Word of God is our main focus and we want our kids to be educated on how to think and learn for themselves to be better prepared for life on their own as adults. To learn more about the philosophy of Judah Bible curriculum you can view information on their website here.

First of all let me tell you what you receive

Whether you choose the print version with CDs or the downloadable online version, you will get the Judah Bible Curriculum K-12 Manual, the Elementary Notebook Ideas booklet and Eight-lecture Teacher Training Seminar on CDs or in mp3 format.

Of course the main text is the Bible itself and the manual along with the lectures are what you use to implement this curriculum.

If you go to Scope and Sequence page on their website here. you can view the scope and sequence and see not only the schedule of what passages you will study but also the main themes you will study at each grade level. Through each year you will cover the following main themes from K – 7th grade then again from  7th – 12th grade.:

• Creation
• The Plan of Redemption Begins
• Kingdom of Israel
• Kingdom of God
• Early Church

What I didn’t know prior to reviewing this curriculum is that it is not a lesson based curriculum but more of a teacher training program.  As the teacher you need to go listen to the lectures in order to learn about the principles and the methods as well as the content that you will be teaching your kids in this program.  You also are to create a notebook as you will have your kids do while they they study God’s word using the outline provided within the Judah Bible curriculum.  You can see where this is not a hands off type of curriculum but one in which the teacher will need to do a significant amount of work to learn and prepare in advance prior to teaching your kids.  It is one in which the teacher must first learn the material for herself then come up with ways to present it as well as what you will have your kids do within their notebooks.  You are provided with some basic ideas and suggestions along with providing you with a key worksheet where you and you children fill in the  key individuals, key events, key institutions, and key documents for each theme.

I admit I struggled with this program in the beginning because I was not expecting it to be mostly a teacher training program so I was looking  for something that wasn’t there in the first place.  I was looking for how to implement the program rather than how to learn the concepts and material myself in order to teach my kids the Bible.  I already essentially have been doing that so I spent a lot of time before I understood that was what the Judah Bible curriculum was all about.  Yes it is a good approach to learning the Bible and if you do not already do this in your family it is a good resource for beginning that in your home.   Since our family already has a view that Christianity is a lifestyle and that the Bible is our main focus for our lives, that makes the Judah Bible curriculum not so much something new to us.  You can see why I struggled with this program up front.  It was because we already were doing basically what the Judah Bible curriculum was trying to teach us to do.

What you do get is a good outline of what to study and when along with some ideas of how to teach and study the Bible.

You can view a powerpoint presentation to learn more HERE on their website as well as view the other information to give you a good understanding of the Judah Bible curriculum in order to decide whether this is something for you and your family.

You can purchase the Judah Bible curriculum from their website for $44 as an online/download version or get the print version with the audio CDs for $74.

I suggest you check out what some of my fellow Crew members had to say about the Judah Bible curriculum on our TOS Crew blog to get a well-rounded view of this product.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of the online/download version of the Judah Bible curriculum in order to provide my honest review of it for my readers  as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew   All opinions are my own.

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I recently joined Super charged science’s e-science online site and it is incredible.
Just wanted to share that they have a science e-camp that looks great too.
Here is the information and a link to learn more.

Click the link below to get all the details before it’s too late:
—> summer e-camp link

If you’re not familiar with e-Camp, here’s the scoop.

e-Camp is an all out totally fun AND educational online
science camp.

If you want to keep your kids’ learning this summer, but you
also want it to be totally fun, this might just be the answer.

Imagine having all the fun and excitement of a live-and-in-
person summer camp, but being able to have your kids do
it on their own schedule…

(It’s set up so they can do it on their own – just set them
up and they’ll be engaged for hours).

Plus, as a parent, you can feel good because even though
they’re having a total blast, they’re actually learning good
solid science.

The kind of learning that really relates to the world around them.

Rather than try to explain it all, I’ll leave that to Aurora herself.

I have seen her stuff, and I can tell you that she really over-delivers.
Last year over 800 people enrolled in e-Camp in less than 4 days!

Today and tomorrow are the last days to enroll for summer 2012.

Click the link below now to learn more and to enroll:

–> science e-camp

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It is day 2 of the blog hop and today’s focus on photography centers around homeschooling.

In Ohio where I homeschool, our homeschool regulations call for us to provide a year end assessment when we turn in our notifications for the next school year. One of those options is to have a portfolio assessment done by a teacher. Whether or not you have that requirement in your state or if you do another assessment option instead, you can always choose to incorporate photos into your record keeping.

So for today I will discuss how you may use photography either to use within your child’s portfolio or merely in a scrapbook you keep for yourself of your child’s progress over the year.

First of all if you have science projects, recitals or performances, sport activities, or if you unschool and don’t have workbooks and such that you keep on certain subjects, then photography may be a saving grace for you.

What better way to show that your child is fulfilling their physical education requirement then to have photos showing them participating in a sport?

What about when your child does hands on science? Participates in a science fair? You may have a lab book to show but what better way to show that your child is really learning than to have pictures demonstrating what they have done?

Well you can’t show a paper to indicate they are working on learning the piano or acting in an Easter drama unless you have a photo right?

Photos are a great resource when your kids create things that can’t easily be brought in for an assessment or kept so that you have that memory.

Also what a great way to remember all their art work and projects they work on without having to store the originals after a year or so!

Well by now I hope you can see how photos of your child’s work or activities can enhance either a student portfolio or help you to easily keep a record of your child throughout their school years.

When your child starts doing science lab work, they can take pictures of the experiments and include them in their lab reports. Next year my oldest starts high school level scince and we intend to do this for her lab reports. Also if they are trying to keep a portfolio of their work to get into different programs then this is something your child will definitely be doing for themselves.

The possibilities are endless!

Come back tomorrow to learn more about how I use photography in our homeschooling!

First go check out the other blog posts in our 5 Days of … Blog Hop by clicking on the image below!

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Our family loves to take pictures. We love to be able to have a visual record of what we experience in our life together.

As homeschoolers we also like to have a record of things we do while we are in “school” mode. Maybe you already do this too or would like to start. The next 5 days I am going to show you just a few ways we use photography in our life and maybe give you some new ideas for yourself or maybe get you started on that journey too!

Today we will start with the obvious. Taking pictures of your trips. Whether they are local outings or family vacations, what better way to share and remember that special time — with pictures of course!

There are several ways you can even do that.

• You can take pictures chronologically —-  every day take the time to snap several pictures of what you did that day.  Be sure to keep records of the date , time and place.  Some cameras have a time stamp capability.

• You can come up with a theme and just collect your photos that way. One trip to WDW I decided to take pictures of the food we had while on vacation.

• You can have each member of your family take their own set of photos from the same experience. That way you can see what is really important and of interest to everyone.  Since you are all taking photos of the same event or place you can really see what was special about it from  each person’s perspective.

• You can take pictures with your family in the picture so that you have a more personal view of your trip. Or maybe take pictures that are minus your family and only take photos like you would see in a magazine journal.

          OR Without    

• I  also like to have everyone write down some of their thoughts to go along with the photos so we  have captured not only the visual but the  ideas and personal views of our photos.  This makes it easy to scrapbook later.

Of course you also have to decide on how you will store and display your photos once you get back from your trip. Will you create a scrapbook using them? Or just just store them in a photo album or box?  Or will you create a CD of them or put them on your computer?

Our family has fun pulling out our photos and re-experiencing our trips together. We get to share our memories of what we remember and see how things might have changed since the photo was taken. Recently we took a trip back to Walt Disney World.   While we were planning for that trip, we brought out all the photos we had taken from our previous trips.  We  loved digging out those pictures and looking at them again. If they were in digital format we set them up as a slideshow on our pc and connected  our laptop to our TV so we could sit and view them together.

Well I hope this gave you a few ideas of how to enjoy and use photography for your family outings and vacations!  Comment here about how you photograph your trips and enjoy your photos afterwards!

Check back tomorrow for more tips on photography!

In the meantime check out the other Crew members and what they are sharing with their 5 Days of … blogging.  I plan on visiting all of them to see what they are talking about each of the 5 days this week .  It is going to be a great adventure!!!  Just click on the Crew blog button below to go straight to our main post and then select each of the crew members buttons from that page to read about all of the various topics being discussed!!!  Enjoy!

Filed under: Blog Hops, Home by Barbara
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Well this morning I had to go to church with just my kids since my husband was suffering from a serious bout of sinus headache/face pain. It was raining so I walked through the parking lot and got a bit wet. I went to Sunday School class. All of that is good til I got to service. Yes I know I seem to be alone in my desire to truly worship God by singing praises to Him and entering into His gates prior to pastor sharing God’s words but still this morning really annoyed me even more. A few older teens.. maybe seniors sat to the right of me across the aisle in the balcony. Whenever my teen daughter, who is younger than those teens, sits with friends they are respectful and pay attention to service, take notes etc. Well this morning there were these two teen girls.. they acted worse than little kids and I expect little kids to have trouble sitting still and being quiet. In fact the little girl sitting in front of them was better behaved then these two teen girls were. As I tried to sing and to worship God one of the teen girls was talking what seemed like all through our worship singing and the specials and through some of Pastor’s talking. Didn’t even try to whisper.. I stared at her and it didn’t even seem to faze her that she was being disrespectful not only to those around her but to God. I think I have seen them before acting that way but they normally aren’t as bad as they were today.

Sad thing is there are so many adults that act the same way during worship time. For me worshiping God is the time we fully enter into His presence and come before Him preparing us to hear His voice during service. I even believe people should do this at home in order to get with God on a daily basis. Evidently for many folks the singing at church is a type of pre-show time where you can talk, wander in late etc.. I never really get as much out of my time with God at church unless I am able to have that time with God before the preaching time. Unfortunately this is what our kids see as an example anymore and one can hardly blame these kids when they go to service and sit through complacently through it as if it is unimportant. Still such behavior is inexcusable but unfortunately not unexpected anymore.

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Starting May 14th a group of our TOS Homeschool Crew will be blogging for 5 days about various subjects from 5 days of adoption to 5 days of tutorials and how-to’s! Many many interesting and exciting topics in between.

My blog posts will center around 5 days of photography!

Be sure to check back and to go to our main Crew blog post to read what everyone else has to offer you during this blog tour!

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