It has been our delight to again review for Essential Skills Advantage.   We have had the pleasure of reviewing The Complete Home Learning Suite is an online program designed for students in Grades K-6 to focus on reading, spelling, language arts, geography and science.

My son and I have reviewed Essential Skills Advantage (ESA) before, and always find it a useful program for doing some learning and testing of subjects we often don't really concern ourselves about. 

Imagine my delight when I learned that ESA now has geography classes as well AND they have a whole section on Canada!!!  My son was much intrigued and spent his entire time with the complete home learning suite in this area.

So just what is Essential Skills Advantage (ESA)?

ESA is a supplementary program for grades K-6 with over 14,000 lessons.  It is an online learning opportunity that reinforces skills taught, and helps student discover skills they have yet to possess.    In other words.. it's asks questions LOTS of questions, and through those questions children learn what they do and do not know.   It's not a bad system, I like it as points out areas that may need more attention paid to them, or in the case of my lad... helps him learn some pivotal facts about Canada.   Facts that until now have seemed unimportant to learn.

Science is K-3, Geography grades 4-6, Reading, Language/Grammar and Math are for grades K-6.    I have to admit, that my son chose what he wanted to do with this program.  He was very focused on "MOM!   They have information on Canada!!!"   And what does a homeschool parent do when their child is excited about something?   They let them run with it.  :)

Under Canadian Geography you will find these categories
1. Provinces and Territories
2. Provincial and Territorial Capitals
3. Other Major Cities
4. Bodies of Water
5. Physical Regions
6. Biomes
7. Time Zones
8. Natural Landmarks
9. Human Landmarks

If you want to know what the unit is about, you can press on unit description.

The units move forward as you complete each lesson.   I find that you can't really move forward well unless you have answered the question correctly.   Two different noises indicate whether you are correct or not.  All you need to do is answer the question, and the next in the series will pop up if you are correct.  If you answer incorrectly you get one more chance to get it correct and then it moves on to the next question.   I appreciate this aspect as it means your student need to think before they blithely check an answer.

My son always liked seeing this screen. It would mean the end of the unit he was currently studying... what student doesn't like to see the end to learning and questions eh?   :) He was occasionally disappointed if he got a poorer grade, but I was surprised!  Not doing well on one segment proven to be an incentive to do better next time.  See?   Check out the great improvement!

So.. what do we think of ESA?

• Well, I love how easy it is to use. 
• Login and student identification are easy to manage,
• My son could run it without help.
• If you need to use a pen/paper it will tell you.
• It advances on it own.
• One section naturally leads to the next.

What Does my Son think?
"I like that I am learning more about Canada mom".
"It's easy to do and it makes me learn things if I want to do well on it."
"I still don't remember how to spell some of the names though..."

As you know, I have reviewed this program through the TOS crew board, others have also reviewed it, and if you click the image below you can read what others have to say.

Social Media Links:
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skillsadvantage/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkillsAdvantage @SkillsAdvantage
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/SkillsAdvantage
Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BuyESA/posts
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skillsadvantage
Blog: https://learnwithesa.com/blog/

Sins of the Past is one book holding within it, three books.   Three romantic suspense novellas, by three noted authors.

Three women, three secrets, three mysteries to solve.
I have to admit, I've been a fan of Dee Henderson for quite a while, and have read Dani Pettrey books before.   Neither let me down.  Lynette Eason fit in well with the other two authors, all write with a similar style.

Dee Henderson wrote "Missing".   In this novella an elderly mom goes missing, her sheriff son worries it might be connected to him, but works with the local cops to figure out what happened to his mother.

Dani Pettrey wrote "Shadowed", where an open water swimming competitor was murdered and a fellow competitor works with the police to figure out what happened.

Lynetter Eason contributed "blackout" about a young lady who suffered a memory loss due a traumatic event and is starting to remember more about it.  This causes the perpetrator to come after her.   

My thoughts:
I have to admit, the editors did a good job fitting these three novellas together.  Similar styles, similar type of books, they fit like the fingers of a glove.

I did struggle with reading three short books in a row.  Due to the nature of the subject matter it was easy to have them all run together.   The Dani Pettrey book surprised me with who the guilty party was, this was probably my favourite of the three.

If you like romantic suspense books, Sins of the Past will fit the bill quite nicely.  

This book was reviewed for Nuts about Books, it runs at 378 pages.  Published by Bethany House.

Let me introduce you to the concept of Five Minute Friday.   Every Friday (well, at least MOST Fridays) Kate gives word prompt, and bloggers from all over the place, take five minutes, normally on a Friday *but sometimes on Saturday*, to write on that word prompt.

The rules are simple.
Write for five minutes.
Link up.
Encourage those who have linked up before you. 

I find it fascinating at the different twists a single word can mean to different people.

This week the word is CHEER. I do hope you'll join us.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, Good medicine a cheerful heart!" this ditty often runs through my head.

But it sums it up doesn't it?

Cheerfulness.   it does a body good.

So when I think of "cheer" I think of my lad, who when he completes a task that HE is pleased will ask over and over what I or his dad think.   Then one sees this little smile,  not a puffed up smile, but a "my heart is glad smile".

Which causes me to think back to a conversation I had with a mom a couple years ago.  I had told my lad good job for something, nothing thinking of those around me, but of him and his immediate need for affirmation, and this mom commented "why on earth are you praising him for that?"  

My response was "he did a good job, so why shouldn't I tell him so?"

The response I received surprised me.  "I think it's best to reserve praise for things that truly deserve praise, and that didn't truly deserve praise, it was too little of a thing."

That comment has sat with me since, making me at times, to second guess myself.  I can see the danger in praising a child, or anyone, too much.  They can get a swelled-head and think too much of themself, but if a person has been struggling with something.. even a seemingly small thing... should they not be cheered in that "win"?

Is it not a good to thing to give cheerful medicine to a heart?    I think so... the small things matter indeed.

"What would you rather do son...play Sunya or do your multiplication pages?" asks an inquiring mom.    "Sunya, can we play Sunya mom?"  

Sunya Publishing sent me and my son their math game called Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing, ages 9+, which my son and I have been enjoying for the past couple of weeks.   It's a game he takes along when he visits with Gramma who says "this is a fun game to play". 

Sunya Publishing is a company with a desire to help children learn their math facts in a fun, family oriented way.   Can you make math sentences using the cards in your hand?   Can you help your mom or your sister or brother if they are struggling to make a sentence?   Can you tell if someone has made a mistake?   Get rid of the cards in your hands first but don't forget to say Sunya!

Sunya® (the "u" pronounced as the "oo" in the word "book") is a word from Sanskrit, the ancient and classical language of India. Our modern number system was invented in India 1,500 years ago. This word means “empty or void of any quantity.”

Family fun and cooperation, with a friendly spirit of competition, while you practice your math facts, this sums up Sunya.

Isn't it a lovely purple colour?   The book that I received was filled with instructions about how to play Sunya.   I found it best to just kinda dive in.  Give each person four cards, make a starter sentence with either multiplication or division, and then see if you can make a new math sentence, taking away the lower cards as you go to add to your take from pile.  Help each other out.   Once you get used to playing, then reading through the rules to refine your playing methodology works really well.    :)

The book I received was mostly done in black and white, but it had a couple of colour pages (just so we could see which we preferred).  I have to admit, I thought that the black and white worked just fine, but it was a nice break to have to odd full-colour spread.  I can totally see them using the full-colour spread to introduce a new chapter in the book OR as the start to a new method of playing.   Just to make certain sections stand out a bit.

We received the Sunya book which teaches you all the rules and methods to play, a  number line, a set of number cards, and some riddle/quiz cards for fun.   I have to admit, when my lad first met the riddle cards he was unimpressed, thinking the cards were out to get him until he caught on!     Then, like many 10-11 year olds that I know that like to pull a good trick, he worked his best to catch me out... every time he won a round "MY TURN MOM!"   :)

One of the riddle/information cards talked about a diamond star.   My lad wasn't sure if the information was correct so we did a bit of research on it and found out that yes it was!   The lad was suitably impressed.

I wanted to show you the difference between the coloured pages and the black and white.  I admit the coloured looks good, but the black and white keeps it simple and plain and is MUCH preferred by my lad.

I have to tell you how much Gramma and My son LOVE playing this game together.  My son visits gramma every week and normally they play chess, go for a walk, finish schooling and just enjoy spending time together.   Chess has currently been replaced with Sunya.   Gramma WILL NOT let me take a picture of the two of them playing, so here's one from when the lad and I were playing.

Once we got started playing I found it a very intuitive game to play, you can make it easier or harder depending on which cards you put into play.  You can make the zeros so you can only put them in the product but not as a multiplier, and other changes.  These changes are mentioned in the book rules, but honestly.. just play the game.  As my son likes to say "this is way more fun than doing problems to do my math facts"!

Sunya is game, published by Sunya Publishing, that we will continue to enjoy in this household. It's such a good way to practice math facts and to have fun with each other.   One of the things I thought as we played this game was how very easy it would be turn this into a additon/subtraction game as well.. I would just need to mock up the cards for it.  My lad thought that a marvellous idea, because then you could play it with anybody and that would be great!

It was VERY helpful to have the dots on the cards, this made it very easy to tell the 6 and 9's apart, and is just another way to engage the brain in learning.

Potentially daunting rules or not, it's a math game and I'm glad we just jumped in with both feet and got wet.   We've had so much fun playing Sunya in our household, I think that you will too. Jump in, fine tune it as you go and just have fun.  Check out what other reviewers had to say too.

"Dad's away, so ... let's pretend that it's summer and you don't have to do much school, sound like a good plan son my heart?"

Son: "But mom, I want to veritas press and veritas bible and ESA.. can I do that?"

What does a mom say to that?   "Sure lad, get 'er done."

Once the "I want to's" were done, my lad and I headed outside to get some work done.  My goal, to get some gardening done before it got too hot. 

Our biggest job was to put up the tomatoes.   This involved the use of a simple machine... a pulley!   Normally hubby helps as I simply don't have the arm strength to do it but he's not here, so I figured with some creative thinking and a lad's determination we could do the job.  it worked SO WELL I was quite amazed.   The lad was pleased as well, it took him a bit to figure out how to get the rope over the beam, I was so pleased he didn't get frustrated and stuck with it.

Watering the plants he just planted.   Oregano, thyme and rosemary into our herb planter.   The summer savoury and sage kept over from last year.

When gardening one meets all sorts of wee creatures, the lad thought he should catch some for "Columbus" his pet jumping spider.   Columbus, was apparently quite pleased with selection chosen for him.

Dahlia's all planted (we'll be selling some once they come up better), peppers planted as well.  The lad did one of the pepper bins by himself, he was pleased as he hadn't planted peppers before.   By this time he was looking flushed so I sent him off to put things in the garbage and then to rest in the house while I tided up the remaining bits.

We had a great time together, mixing dirt, talking and figuring things out.  It's good to share work with a helpful lad. 

Tales of those that have gone on before, inspire one to keep moving on in the journey.   I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed reading this book "bearing witness" on behalf of FlyBy Promotions.  Edited by Charlies E. Moore and Timothy Keiderling, this is a book containing snippets of the stories of saints who have gone on before, bearing persecution and they trust in the Lord God himself.   The full name is Bearing Witness: Stories of Martyrdom and Costly Discipleship. 

From the book cover
What does it cost to follow Jesus?   For these men and women, the answer was: everything.   They were ready to give witness to Christ in the face of intense persecution, even if it cost them their lives.

What do you get?
36 stories of saints from early Christian time through to modern witnesses.   36 stories of men and women who suffered for their faith in God.   Many died, others lived, all suffered for their faith.

Why is this important?
Our brothers and sisters, suffering for their faith should be remembered.   Doesn't mean they need to be made important than anyone else, but they should be remembered, they should be prayed for (the ones currently suffering) and they should be held up as an example to keep going on, to hold fast to one's faith in the Lord REGARDLESS of what happens to oneself.   Keep steadfast and sure is what they lives of these men and women call us to.     It's a reminder to us who have their life of faith relatively unchallenged what it means to HAVE faith, to know that it will be challenged, and that we should hold fast to God and his promises.

What did I think?
Thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I called me to mind my faith a bit more than I do sometimes.
Different people, men, women and youth... called by God to be his own, and suffering, sometimes horribly, as a result of that deep love for God and holding fast... it's a heart call to not mind the skepticism that can be thrown one's way for having faith.  To hold fast despite the "uh, that's not important" comments that one hears at times.

If you want to know more of those who have gone on before, those that are standing for God RIGHT NOW, this book will help you do that.  :)  Not always an easy read, but a good and necessary one.

AND wonderfully I am allowed to host a giveaway so that YOU TOO can own a copy of this book and learn to stand with those gone on before.

You can find more books on faith, society and the spiritual life at Plough Books and on Facebook.

Check out the details below

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and 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.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

Science Shepherd has been so lovely to have gifted me with a full year subscription to their full course on-line science program.  For the past few weeks we've been using their Introductory Science program.   This program comes with a physical workbook and teachers' answer key.  We have been doing level B which is aimed at 9-11 year olds.

As you can see the book is beautifully bound with large coil rings which helps it to lie flat or to be folded back for ease of use.  The teacher's manual is thin, and in black and white.  My son used it as a place holder as he did his lessons.   We never had cause to use it as the material was quite easy to learn and the worksheets followed the lesson plan closely.

Normally my son watches the on-line video lesson in full screen (as in recommended).  He very much likes that the lessons aren't all the same from day to day or even week to week.  Sometimes they had in video and/or activity days.   Most days are accompanied by a worksheet.

I have to admit, most of the time I left him to his own devices with this on-line science curriculum as it was very easy to him to set up and do independently.    I appreciated that it wasn't just the man talking, but interspersed in the video would be full screen shots of whatever they were talking about.

My son found it very easy to follow on where he was.  At the top of the screen they had buttons to guide through the courses, with a dark blue box on the current set.   Each video also showed images of where in the week they were.

The workbooks have a lot of white space giving them a clean and bright appearance with lots of room to make pictures or to complete assignments.   We really liked the coil bindings.  They are well made and very secure.

Recently my son was recovering from surgery and was on Doctor ordered house arrest.  He was getting a little stir crazy so I suggested watching Science Shepherd as a way to pass the time.   Due to not feeling well, he was less than enamored by the lesson activity.  I suggested he find another way to demonstrate the lesson.

 He was inspired to do the lesson using two loves: making videos and minecraft papercraft characters.   The object of the lesson was to show how things can be grouped with more than one category into units.  Though the video only shows one category, the characters actually demonstrate different categories as well...type and age.   It's one of the things I appreciate about the freedom to school at home and how easy it was to replace this lesson for one more attuned to my son's abilities.

Our Thoughts:
My son thoroughly appreciated the creation science behind this program.   God and his work is evident throughout the lessons.

He liked the videos saying "they are short and I learn something.  I like that they aren't the same all the time, and if I didn't understand something I could go back and listen again." Later on I heard him talking with his father about "I looked that up on youtube after I heard it on Science Shepherd.. did you know .......?"  I totally loved that he was inspired enough to dig deeper into subjects.

The workbook: I loved the look, feel and appearance of the workbook.  It didn't get a whole lot of use, my lad would simply answer the questions out-loud, or just tell me what the lesson was about and I'd quiz him a bit.  The teacher's guide was complete.

Science Shepherd is quite an affordable program, you can see the prices below.   Daily lessons for 35 weeks for only $35.00.... quite doable.  You can learn from the course without the workbooks, though they do enhance the learning without having to do the work of making up worksheets yourself.. and at $12-15 each...why bother? 

A bunch of us from the Crew have been gifted with this homeschool science course, please click the banner below to go read some of them.

You can find Science Shephard on social media

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ScienceShepherd/
Twitter -  https://twitter.com/scienceshepherd
Pinterest - ​ https://www.pinterest.com/scienceshepherd

Also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Erasmus was a humanist who said to know nothing is the happiest life.  He lived 1466 to 1536.  Erasmus was a writer, philosopher, scholar, linguist and more.   A dutch man born into illegitimacy.  He remains a source of controversy with people on both sides of faith arguing for and against him.

Erasmus was the second illegitimate son of Roger Gerard, a priest, and Margaret, a physician’s daughter.   He was born Gerrit Gerritszoon, but later adopted the name Desiderius Erasmus.  He is called Erasmus of Rotterdam due to his birthplace.

After his parents' death, Erasmus was forced to live with the monks for six years.  This experience did not endear the priesthood to him.  After leaving the monastery he because a teacher in Paris.    He later moved to England and spent most of the rest of his life living there.

Erasmus lived in a difficult time for people who didn't hold to all the teachings of the Catholic church.   He didn't agree with everything the reformers said, nor did he see the need for priests to not marry or for the laity to not be involved more in the church.  

He did see faith as a personal issue, one of a relationship between God and man and less of relationship based around church doctrines.  He wanted people to embrace "the true spirit of the Scriptures - simplicity, naivety and humility.   These, he says, are the fundamental human traits that hold the key to a happy life."   (p97 philosophy book)

After some time Erasmus divided his time between Brabant and England. 

He worked on a translation of the New Testament, wrote several books, pointed out the folly of people and the need to have a personal faith in God.   He walked a hard line of wanting to stay loyal to the Roman Church, and yet seeing truth in much said by reformers.   He couldn't commit to either fully... at his death he did not ask for last rites, which spoke to understanding of the need for personal faith above church doctrine.

Be mindful of who you are.
Know that if you know nothing, you can achieve happiness. 

Sources:
Britannica, Bio, History Guide, Standord, wiki.

Do you have a child who likes robots, or even have a child you would like to inspire to like robots???   Build the Robot by Steve Parker might be just the kit for you.  :)  

A book with robots to build!

The first part of this book/kit is loaded with information about robots, from what they are to what they have been used for to possibilities for the future.   The information gave us ample opportunity to discuss ideas such as what it would have been like to perform surgery from 3800 miles away using a robot...and therefore saving a person's life.

It gave me ideas for doing a class on robots with children for my co-op.. would just be fun to do some different things with them (making a robotic hand and what not)

At the close of the book there are three robots that one can make, a wiggle bot, a walk bot and a wave bot.  All pieces are cut out heavy board that just needs to be punched out.

Three motors are included which unfortunately for us were not well labeled.  The instructions called for motor A to be used, but the motors looked so similar to each other, we ended up using the wrong motor and had to take the whole thing apart again. (I would really recommend these motors be clearly labeled).  It was a bit frustrating, but in the end we managed to get it to work.

Interestingly enough, since the robot tended to fall over abit, it got my lad to thinking (based on knowledge gained)... if we could give it a knee, do you think it would work better?   How do you think we could do that?   What if we made it have heavier feet so it was slower, think that would work?   What if it had to work harder? or we could slow it down???

We did manage to try out the following
1. adding weight to the feet... it was hard to secure and seemed to not make any difference.
2. running it on carpet (didn't work)

But it was a fun activity and got my lad talking and thinking, so I'd be calling this a successful book.  

We have, as of yet, not found time to make the remaining two robots... perhaps next week when Dad is away for a few days.

The build a robot kit contains a 32 page book, three wind-up motors and the pieces to make three robots.

The material to make the robots is a very heavy cardstock?  Bookboard?  not quite sure what to call it, but it's quite sturdy and can take some abuse.   Some of the cutouts required the use of a toothpick to get the smallest pieces out.

We thoroughly enjoyed the end result of making this robot, my lad has brought it out a couple of times since making it to test it out.   We've learned it runs best with NO cats around, on the hardwood floor in the living room, with a relatively clean running area. 

He walks, he tumbles a bit, but we made him and it's all good.  :)

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.   A great book made by Steve Parker and published by Silver Dolphin Books.  Get it, inspire your children to be creative and think more about robots... it'll be fun!  :)

“He leadeth me beside still waters, He restoreth my soul.” Psalm 23:1-3

This lovely hymn, was written by Joseph H. Gilmore, who was born in Boston in 1834.   He died in 1918.

He was preparing to preach a sermon on Psalm 23 and got stuck on the line "He leadeth me". This was a sermon he had preached on several times before, but this time he was stuck on the enormity of the thought that "God leads us". 

After the sermon, he and some colleagues got into a discussion about God's divine guidance, and in the process Glimore wrote this poem.   Gave to his wife and promptly forgot all about it.

His wife thought the words would be a blessing to others, and so sent the words into "the Watchman and Reflector" where they were published.   William Bradbury saw the lines and put them to music, which led to their inclusion into a baptist hymnal.   Gilmore only learned about this when he went to preach a trial sermon at the Second Baptist Church in Rochester.

Gilmore taught for many years at the University of Rochester in New York and authored several books on literature.   He also worked as a professor of Hebrew.   For a while he as a pastor at a Baptist church in Fisherville, New Hampshire.   He penned text for a few other hymns, but none have had the enduring quality of "He Leadeth Me".

Sources:
Christianity.com. 
The Hymnary.
Cyber Hymnal.
Song Scoops.