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It's birthday celebrating time in my house! We spent a beautiful weekend in Warm Springs, GA and next week we're off to Hilton Head, SC! With so much going on, I'll leave you with a preview of our Warm Springs weekend post! Have a great week! 
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 When we began exploring the program, my third and first-grader started by creating their characters. My homeschool room was pure giggles as they fiddled with the drawing tools and made some silly-looking characters. These characters essentially become the avatar throughout the program. This online program allows for interactions with others in comments and game competitions but is handled in a safe, effective Coppa compliant way. Teacher/Moderators give students feedback on their work and children are encouraged to complement other’s writings. Parents can easily monitor their children's work and interactions by logging into the Parents Dashboard, where each assignment and comment is laid out by date. The Parent Dashboard also provides students’ scores so parents can quickly identify areas a student is struggling in.  There's no shortage of activities for students to do, and new content seems to appear weekly! My students began playing different games and discovered neat writing prompts. Night Zookeeper hosts over 1,000 different games that focus on spelling, grammar, and sentence building. A favorite we found involved selected the word that was spelled correctly to cross a river of hot lava! When a student is feeling creative, they can check out the “create” section, which offers a wide array of writing prompts. A few specific instructions are provided, and the rest of the words are left up to the student. Here, my son was challenged to compose a 40-word poem, use two adjectives, and use the term “persistence pays,” in it:  The “Lessons” feature provides structured, class-like learning. The lessons we watched began with a video and develop into a writing assignment. My students could choose between a Night Zookeeper lesson, which explained the concept of the story world, or as lessons that dives into animals. At the end of the lesson, it’s time for the student to demonstrate their comprehension by writing a report. This is accomplished in a dialogue format, which is a great step by step way to write a thorough recap of their learning. My third grader was asked to complete sentences to form his report, while the first-grade level was simpler and more material was provided through the story characters.
Overall, Night Zookeepers developed a mystical story world to engage young learners and help them develop their writing skills. It’s filled with great learning games, lessons, and creative prompts. Our time one Night Zookeepers challenged my son’s reading comprehension, helped build his parts of speech recognition- all while having fun! This program felt very unique in its online focus on creative writing. The interactive feedback from teachers was a helpful tool to build student’s confidence and guide them on the right- or shall I say “write” path! I’d recommend it to families looking for a magical journey into creative writing! They're currently offering 50% off which you can access by clicking the image below.  I love a good deal! And, I love fast and free next day delivery a la Amazon Prime! This week has been our first week getting back into the rhythm of homeschooling after our move, so I decided to surprise my kids with some fun activities for them to end their school day with. Since they feel like major scores, I decided I’d share them with you, friends! For my 8 year old son, I found Giggleway Solar Power Science Kit.  I was apprehensive because we’ve tried kits before that are supposed to introduce kids to something like coding- and then the kit doesn’t work, mom and dad struggle to make sense of it, but the pieces are just plain wrong. THIS kit was AWESOME! My 8 year old was able to assemble a Solar Powered Windmill on his own, with little assistance from me, and he still has two more builds to complete. The kit was $4 off, and there was a coupon for an additional percentage off so we paid $18 and it was well worth it! My daughter loves to paint, and I’m eager to start a garden in our new home, so I ordered Dan & Darci Paint & Plant Flower Growing Kit  This kit was on sale for $24.00 (a $10 savings), and had an additional Amazon coupon to clip to save $7. It comes with everything that you need to grow marigolds, cosmos, and zinnias, plus paint to decorate the planter. My daughter had a blast painting and planting- and I'm looking forward to some lovely flowers in our new warmer climate! Last but certainly not least, I ordered a Paint by Sticker book for my 4 year old.  She loves stickers, and I thought this was a great educational tool to help her learn to recognize numbers while playing!
Have you scored any great deals on Amazon recently? I'd love to hear about them in the comment section! Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. Every now and again, I come across a curriculum that not only inspires my children but inspires me and reminds me of why I embarked on the journey to homeschool. This week, I’m excited to share our experience using the Wisdom Wonder Project! We checked out their Little Wonders Kindergarten Program, but they offer an array of different levels from junior kindergarten to second grade. For our first month of the Kindergarten Program, we received a downloadable Literature Unit, a Block Play unit, along with Little Masters Art Program. For ease of use, I printed and bound them.  The Literature Unit consisted of a weekly book to read accompanied by activities to bring the story, and learning to life. In September, we read “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” which we were quite familiar with, “King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub,” a new-to-us story that we were able to find on YouTube, “A Sick Day for Amos McGee” and “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.” The stories were so fun, and each had a variety of activities. The Literature Unit seems to be the foundation of the kindergarten program, with one book per week and eight accompanying activities. We strove to do three to four of the activities with each story. For “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” we took a nature walk to a high place, just like Harold climbs up a tree to get a better view, and we made fun purple collages inspired by the story, painted with water colors, and made purple snacks!  Though I intended to use this program with my 4 year old, all of my children enjoyed participating in the crafts and activities- even my 3rd grader! Part of the September Literary Unit also involved memorizing a lovely stanza of the poem September by Helen Hunt Jackson. My kids enjoyed reciting it after me, and I was pleased to have committed it to memory as well! Each week has additional recommended books to read, a feature that I love as it’s like having a homeschool mom friend to point out the best titles in the children’s section of the library!
This program reminded me of my first years of education in a Montessori classroom. With the emphasis on art, creativity, rich literature, and developing formative math skills, the Wisdom Wonder Project is a beautiful curriculum to inspire a love of learning in small children. Simply put: I adore this program! Wisdom Wonder Project is a great fit for homeschool families looking for a classical, literature rich foundation for their emerging scholars! Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew checked out the Wisdom Wonder Project, and you can see their reviews by clicking the image below!  My emotions have been running on high and I've been fueled by adrenaline and espresso. Moving is brutal. Our landlord required us to paint the house before we left, and with 20 foot ceilings and 4 kids running around, this has been insane.
Plus, there's no break from work, no break from school, and never a break from being a mom. I'm thankful that an end is in sight, and soon, I'll emerge on the other side of the chaos. Until then, you can follow our journey south on Instagram! I hope your week is going better than ours! xo This week, I'm pleased to be hosting a guest post from a talented student at Fiveable. Fiveable offers free AP resources for students looking to deepen their learning. The following was written by one of their students about AP Literature point of view.
AP Lit: Point of View by Dylan Black In literature, point of view is an incredibly useful device that authors can use to portray their stories in different ways. In AP Lit, you must know how to identify which point of view a passage is in and what this tells about the story. Let's go into some points of view. 💮 First-Person Point of ViewThe story is told from a character within the narrative. ✨ Keywords: I, me, our, we, my ⚫️ Effect: First-person P.O.V. is effective in creating a speaker's persona. By revealing their inner thoughts and feelings, complex characterization is achieved. In the first-person point of view, the main character is directly addressing the reader and acting as the narrator for the story. For example, from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: "Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece – all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round – more than a body could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out." As you can see from this passage, Huckleberry Finn is using a conversational tone and a very specific dialect which is emphasized especially by Huck Finn's use of words like "I", "we", and "me". 💮 💮 Second-Person Point of View - The reader is put in the story. ✨ Keywords: You, your, yours ⚫️ Effect: Second person P.O.V. is used when the author is trying to call attention to something. By directly addressing the reader and putting them in the story, they convey meaning unambiguously. The second-person point of view is certainly the rarest and most likely you have not seen it very much in literature. However, one place you most definitely have seen it is in "Choose Your Own Adventure Books". In these books, the author will state things like, "You run down the football field, the wind in your face, and catch the ball cleanly between your hands". This point of view is especially useful in these scenarios because it pulls the reader in. Rather than it being a character facing these issues, you the reader are the character! This creates more emotional attachment from the reader and creates a more compelling novel sometimes. 💮 💮 💮 Third person point of view - The story is told from the perspective of an outsider. ✨ Keywords: They, them, it, he, she You've likely read many stories whose use of a third person perspective gave you a broader idea of plot and character. Some of these may even be featured on your May exam! In light of this, it is important to note that third person point of view can be recognized from the use of the "they/them", "he/him", "she/her" or "it" pronouns. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🌷 Objective = The speaker reports as a neutral observer. The narrative is presented without interpretation or bias from any of the characters. 🌼 Limited = The speaker knows only one character's thoughts and feelings. This one-sided perspective is usually, but not always, reserved for the protagonist. 🌹 Omniscient = The speaker knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters. The outside nature of the narrator typically leads to greater reliability ⚫️ Effect: Third person P.O.V. is common, though with the variance between its three different forms. Stories written from this perspective can come off as distant, but they allow for a complex plotline as more information is available to the reader. Congratulations! You now have a basic understanding of the three main points of view. However, in order to keep honing your skills, read as many texts as you can and be sure to analyze along with identifying elements of the text. Good luck! This article was written by a talented student for Fiveable. Visit Fiveable's Website where you will find an extensive library of study guides, trivia, and livestreams. If you would like to take a class to prepare for an AP test, sign up for Fiveable's Courses. Our move is in full swing, and I all I can say is it's brutal. Paint, boxes, spackle, it's everywhere... as is my brain! For this weeks post, I'll send you to a past article I wrote about 5 Tips for Moving, advice from a less stressful time. But, I know that is a few short days [hopefully] we'll be on the flip side of moving, in a new house, with a big backyard and our biggest challenge will be finding the hairbrush again! Catch ya on the flip side of the move!  Every now and again, I come across a curriculum that not only inspires my children but reminds me why I chose this journey. This time around, it's the Wisdom Wonder Project. We're using their kindergarten level and it;s rich literature base and activities brought me right back to my own kindergarten Montessori classroom, something I've long to implement in our home school. Today, we read Harold and the Purple Crayon, then made a purple collage and talked a bit about the letter H. My 4 and 6 year old daughters so enjoyed the lesson, as did I. Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. Reading Eggs has been a staple in our house since we began homeschooling in 2017. My children have loved their time exploring Reading Eggs lessons, adored Mathseeds , and I've been able to watch them grow in leaps and bounds as they play. We received a one year subscription from Blake eLearning Inc and my three oldest students were thrilled to dive back into Reading Eggs! On day one of the review period, my son remarked, "This is the best learning day ever!"  Reading Eggs offers material for children 2-13. My 8, 6, and 4-year-old were able to explore different areas of Reading Eggs and learn at their individual levels. My students would work through a lesson 3-4 days per week. My four-year-old used readings Reading Eggs Junior, which offers simple letter lessons as well as tons of educational games and videos. There's not an activity that she doesn't like, and every morning after breakfast, she asks to play Reading Eggs! Reading Eggs Junior’s material is suitable for pre-k students like her, but students aren’t limited to what they can access, so she’d also venture into the Reading Eggs and Mathseeds Lessons, which begin at a kindergarten level. One activity I encouraged her to practice involved sorting blocks to spell three letter words. It was a perfect exercise for her as she understands what letters say and is beginning to form words.  My 6 year old used Reading Eggs and Math Seeds starting at lesson 50 for first grade. The lessons seemed fairly simple for her, but I wanted to start her there for some fun extra practice. Online learning hasn't been a particular strong suit. Whenever she gets something wrong she informs me that the computer isn't working correctly- so that's how my day is going... nonetheless, she enjoyed the diverse learning games each lesson presented. My 8-year-old was able to use Reading Express after having completed the entire Reading Eggs and Math Seeds program in the past three years. Mathseeds just "clicked" for him, and spurred him on a lifelong love of numbers. He was able to cruise through at his own pace and complete years of math at a quicker speed. Here's his proud "graduation" picture!  Reading Eggspress, designed for students 7-13 introduces children to real book, with comprehension questions and spelling practice. Older students are also able to enjoy the library of online books of every topic imaginable! Whenever students complete a map at any level, they take a quiz and earn a certificate, which is proudly displayed on the laptop and then we print it and stick it on the fridge! Reading Eggs also sends parents email reports that go over what their child has learned and accomplished in the last map. Since our last review of the Reading Eggs Workbook last fall, the program has expanded with new areas to explore! One change we noticed was that each lesson closes with a quiz, this is helpful to keep students from guessing their way though the maps, rather than learning. Mental Math is another new area for students to practice new math equations. There's an option to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Fast Phonics has also been added to help students master reading words!  Ultimately, our family gets so much out of our Reading Eggs subscription. From practicing words in Fast Phonics to learning entirely new math concepts in Mathseeds, and of course the step by step instruction reinforce with learning games to teach children to read with Reading Eggs! I highly recommend this program to homeschool families who are looking for proven, engaging, online learning for their students. To check of the rest of the Homeschool Review Crew's thoughts on Reading Eggs, click the graphic below! |
  
Alexandrais an author, blogger, and homeschooling mom of four, giving her excellent credentials to run her own circus one day! 
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