I Spy #37

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Each week Lysha at A Camera and a Cookbook shares a set of prompts for photos. On Saturday she invites participants to share their photos in the I Spy 2021 linkup. I took very few photos this week and relied on a little luck and a couple of last minute shots to satisfy the prompts.

- golden hour - I tried a selfie during golden hour and it was not good. I did like this view though.

- action item - Among all the many action items this week, figuring out lesson plans was the most time consuming.

- change - It's past time I take all the spare change I've gathered to the bank.

- cell phone - Total luck! I occasionally find that I've accidentally taken a screen shot on my phone. This week I got a screenshot of my cell phone's home screen on Wednesday morning and decided to go with it for this prompt!

- your choice - Happy Fall! 

iSpy 2021 is hosted by Lysha at A Camera and a Cookbook. The idea is to challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone and do something different with your photos. Anyone can participate by taking five new photos during the week that fit the prompts. Link up during the week and have fun! 

This post will also be linked at Wordless Wednesday hosted by Life on Chickadee Lane.

 

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Vooks - Kid-safe Streaming Library (Review and Giveaway)

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What if you could entertain and educate your child with animated storybooks? Sounds good, but of course you'd want to make sure it was safe, and you'd want to encourage reading and learning too. I've recently been introduced to Vooks and it ticks all the boxes for safe and fun storybook learning for kids. Read on - and be sure to enter the giveaway of a one-year subscription to Vooks at the end of this post!

Vooks is a streaming library, of ad-free, kid-safe animated storybooks. An entire library of positive themed storybooks, brought to life with quality narration and sounds. The site is trusted by teachers and enjoyed by millions of children around the world. The interactive reading system helps encourage the love of reading, and I'm certainly on board with that! Vooks strengthens literacy and vocabulary, promotes independent learning, and develops strong values like kindness and friendship.

Vooks offers more than just the storybooks. There are also free, fun, printable lesson plans. Vooks lesson plans offer discussion topics, activities, and more. 

100% kid-friendly and parent-approved!

Here are a couple of the titles for elementary and preschool aged kids that I thought were really cute:

But First, We Nap by David Miles and Darya Dremova

Unicorn (and Horse) by David Miles

A page from Luis and Tabitha by Stephanie Campisi:

And there are so many more titles to choose from! These stories should keep my four-year-old granddaughter entertained for quite awhile!

There are lesson plans to go with the stories, and some themed lesson plans as well. Perfect for homeschoolers!

For example, the fifteen-page pdf of suggested lesson plans around the theme Caring for Others/Kindness includes coloring pages, discussion questions (along with the time stamps) to go along with a book, worksheets, a lesson on rhyming, and more. The Lesson plan to go along with individual books like But First, We Nap include questions about the story, suggested activities and lessons, and a story summary. These are perfect for elementary age students, and some of the activities would be fun and educational for preschoolers as well.

My thoughts: It didn't take me long to fall in love with this charming resource and even though I don't have little children at home any more, I do have a granddaughter who loves books and also loves videos. Since she loves having people read to her, I'm sure she'll like this site where she can follow along with the book as it's being read to her, and she won't get frustrated by ads popping up in the middle of the videos. And bonus, the grown-ups won't have to worry about the ads or that she'll see something inappropriate. 

The narrators of these stories do a great job too. The voices are expressive, and they read slowly enough for beginning readers to be able to follow the printed words on the "page". I also love that there are visual cues to help kids follow the words - they darken or are bolded as the narrator reads them. The narrators do different voices for the different characters in the stories, and there are subtle sound effects and background music.

Try it free for 30 days! Go to www.vooks.com to sign up.

Membership: Purchase or gift a membership at www.vooks.com. 

Follow Vooks on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, on Instagram, and on YouTube.

Vooks is generously allowing me to host this giveaway of a one-year subscription to Vooks. (The same giveaway form appears here and on Just A Second)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hashtags: #VooksMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork #vooks #betterscreentime #vookspartner

Disclosure: Many thanks to Vooks for providing this product/product information for review. Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

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How Do You Make a Four-Year Plan for High School?

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No matter how long we've been homeschooling, we are curious about how other homeschoolers do things. And homeschoolers who are newer to the game obviously have lots of questions! This series will try to answers some of the questions homeschoolers ask each other. Questions about how we handle some of the little details and about our opinions on different aspects of homeschooling. Questions that we all might answer differently because what works great in one family might not work at all in another.

This week I'm taking on a big concern:

How do you make a four-year plan for high school? How important is it? What goes on it?

This question starts coming up when your student is in Grade 7 or so, and it's generally assumed that by sometime during your student's Grade 8 year you'll have this four-year plan done. But I have the impression that a lot of homeschool moms aren't really sure how to go about it, or are more worried about it than they need to be. Hopefully I can help a little!



The four year plan is nothing more than a broad road map to help you get from freshman year to graduation without missing anything important. Ideally, you want to start thinking about your four-year plan before your student starts Grade 8 in order to plan for any high school credit courses he or she will do in that year. But if you don't actually get the plan started until sometime during the eighth or ninth grade year - no worries!

The first thing you'll need to know is the required courses and credits for graduation in your state, jurisdiction, or umbrella group. Once your student has an idea of what they want to pursue in college and which colleges they would prefer, you can also find out what courses and credits would be required to get into that program. Following are the current requirements for graduation that we've had for my daughter's graduating class:

English - 4 credits (must include Literature and Creative Writing) 

Social Studies - 3 credits (US History + 2 others)

Math - 3 credits (Algebra I + 2 others)

Science - 2 credits (Biology + 1 other)

Bible - 2 credits

Phys.Ed. - 1 credit

Technology - 1 credit

Fine Arts - 1 credit

Health - 1/2 credit

Electives - 5-1/2 credits

Total Credits = 23

When we know what we need to cover, we can plan a practical way to spread those credits over four years. Some students will do credit courses in Grade 8, so it could be five years total. Some students will plan to graduate early, so their credits could be spread over just three years. Start by spreading out the core academics - usually one English credit each year, one social studies and one math credit each year, and so on. You'll probably want to divvy up the work so your student doesn't wind up needing to take nine credits in one year. Some families prefer to do the heaviest course load in ninth and tenth grades, leaving more time for part time jobs and career specific electives later on. Other families spread it quite evenly.

Planning a good mix of courses that your student enjoys and merely tolerates each year is also a good idea. Loading up one semester or year with a bunch of courses your student is taking only because the credits are required is tough. It's almost always better to spread them out. Another factor to consider is the timing of the courses relative to writing the SAT or ACT or college entrance. Having Algebra fresh in your student's mind will be helpful when they write the test. Completing a course in senior year that is specific to their college major may give them momentum, or they may be able to take that kind of coursework at a community college as a dual enrolled student.

There are quite a few place online to get a four-year plan template. It will look something like this one available for free at the HSLDA website:

Other places to look include: DonnaYoung.org and the extensive record-keeping and planning helps at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. 

As you work on the four-year plan, I strongly recommend you use pencil. Things change. Be flexible! You can get a bit of an idea how Kennady's plan changed  over the course of a couple years, and it changed again after this:

I started by assuming an English composition course each of the four years, a History or Social Studies course in the first three years, and a Math course in three out of the four years. We added the Sciences and Electives as we went along. Doing it in pencil made it easier to revise and update, and  getting started early helped us avoid a lot of surprises. It's no fun to wake up in the middle of your kid's senior year to the realization that he still needs an entire Fine Arts credit and another Math credit!

You can see that there are some things crossed off or written over in that plan, for various reasons. I originally thought Kennady would do the required Health class during her Grade 8 year, but that didn't happen so it got moved to Grade 9. The Brit Lit course she wanted to do in Grade 10 was just too ambitious, so it wound up being a half credit of Lit instead of a full credit. Algebra kicked her butt and took much longer to get through, so we stretched it out. We didn't plan on doing an Art course, but she did so many quality art projects one year, including the entire design of a stage backdrop, that I felt she should get credit. We added electives in her junior and senior years because there were classes at the co-op she wanted to take that weren't part of our original plan. And when all was said and done, she arrived at her senior year with something like twenty out of twenty-three credits, but she still needed another Math, another Bible, and a US History. So between those three required credits and the courses that she simply wanted rather than needed to take, she is doing a very full course load this year and will graduate (if memory serves right now) with thirty credits. 

See my related posts: 

Homeschooling High School - Planning and Preparing for Success

Homeschool Essentials for Graduating: A High School Plan

How do you plan ahead for those high school credits? Leave a comment and let me know what works for you - or leave a homeschool question you're curious about.

This post is part of the May 2019 Homeschool Collection on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

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 ©2006-2019 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/ 

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Homeschool Resources Spotlight - SchoolhouseTeachers.com

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you!

This week our new members of the Homeschool Review Crew are sharing their reviews of the Ultimate Annual Yearly Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com as we get the 2019 Crew year underway. Since we always find something we can use at this all-in-one homeschool resource website, I thought I'd shine a spotlight on a few aspects of the site.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a resource that just keeps growing and expanding all it offers to homeschool families. It's a curriculum and resource hub for all things homeschool. You'll find curriculum for all subjects and grade levels, of course, but there are also record-keeping resources, a vast Video Library that includes the Drive Thru History series, and the World Book Resource Library. The World Book Resource Library is a great research tool for students or for homeschool teachers, and one pretty neat thing that I've started playing in that area of the website is the interactive timeline tool. There are over 400 timelines already there to choose from, or you can make your own on almost any topic using the 12,000+ events available. 

There are now more than 400 courses for homeschoolers from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. And there are additional resources in the Just For Parents section, Focused Learning Centers, High School Help, and Help with Special Needs sections as well. 

Our family has really only scratched the surface of this extensive resource over the years, but every time I've gone looking for that extra something I needed, I've been able to find it there. It's been a go-to for art ideas and instruction, for example. 

This year, I am having Kennady complete the Money 101: Seminars in Personal Finances course for her Consumer Math credit. Yes, we'll be tweaking it a bit, since she has another textbook and is also taking a personal finance course at church, but the core of her study will be this media-based half-credit course.

I've printed out the course lesson plan and downloadable student manual, so all she will need to do is go down the list and follow the instructions. The lesson plan has a daily task list to check off as she goes. This particular course relies on the recorded lectures available on the website, and the student listens to the lesson and takes notes, and then completes the accompanying worksheets and assignments. It focuses on practical application of personal finance in areas like budgeting, savings and debt, earning and investing money, and paying for college. 

A related course that was added recently is Personal Finance in Bite-Sized Chunks. Another instructor covers similar lesson material but it's presented for the student to read rather than listen.

I am teaching US History in a co-op setting this year, and sometimes need lesson material I can use in our classroom time, rather than just review the textbook the students are using. SchoolhouseTeachers delivers. I found the course United States History: Exploration to Present Day helpful, as it has a text that I can draw from, along with links to videos and photos so we can make use of other media in class. 

sample text from United States History course

sample text from United States History course

And this week in our co-op class, we were discussing the building of the Panama Canal. I remembered that the Introduction to Architecture course I've referred to a few times had a lesson on the Panama Canal, so I pulled up that lesson which provided a little extra study on how the canal was designed and constructed. It included links to videos and photos, so that proved very useful as well.

sample page from Intro to Architecture course

So if you're looking to switch up some of your homeschool curriculum in second semester, or if you're looking for some extra unit studies or short courses to add into your line-up, SchoolhouseTeachers is worth a look. Right now there's a special price offer. For the month of February, you can use the coupon code ONEDOLLAR to try your first month for just a buck, or use ONES to get an entire year for $111.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership gives you access to all courses in all subject areas and for all grade levels, plus lots of other resources too!

SchoolhouseTeachers is currently offering an extra special for followers of the Homeschool Review Crew bloggers, so if you're ready to go for a full year membership, use the Coupon Code CREWFOLLOWER to get that year for half price - just $90 for the year.

You can follow SchoolhouseTeachers on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

And please do visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog for more information and to read the official reviews by our new Crew members.

 ©2006-2019 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I have done my best to provide accurate pricing and links at the time this post originally appeared. Please be aware that these may change.