So, I am having new banners made for my blog/facebook etc.  Getting buttons and what not done as well.  :)

So here is what my designer has come up with.  What do you all think?

Design one

Design two

Design three

Design four

Design five

This is what my original banner was

So I've given myself two hours to consider this week's word prompt.
The word is Fear.   You can find the prompt on Friday's on Kate's blog.  Rules are unedited writing for five minutes on the word prompt.  Link up.  Encourage the person who went on before you.  :)

Fear can mean different things to different people.  It can be an impetus to spur people on.. cause they have the attitude of "I am NOT going to let fear stop me".   Or it can be what stops people right in their tracks.

The problem is figuring out which is the proper response to the fear you feel.

Should you stop in your tracks and beat it out of there?   For instance, if you are in a place where you are being physically intimidated by large scary people... beating it out of there might be a really good move.  :)   If you are on safari and have a rhino charging at you.. Running away a good idea right?

But what if it's the more subtle things like... sharing your faith (with the neighbour you are trying hard to get along with), being honest when it's easier to lie (yeah, that's a great haircut), giving details about a personal struggle in your life that you know will help someone in their struggle, but fear of being too vulnerable can put a dampener on that.

Fear can motivate us to act.  BUT often it just simply stops us.

In raising my boy child I have learned that when it comes to doing something new, fear often stops him.  He is learning that trusting his folks to see him through is not a bad thing to do, it's still is hard, but positive outcomes are helping him.

God does that for us to.
When we are honest, when we are vulnerable, when we try to share our faith.   God supports us in that and sees us through those small steps so that we can make bigger steps right?   Just as I help my boy, so my God is helping me.

And that is a good thing.  It's a reasoned response to fear.   That's what I want to do you know... have the reasoned response that says YES, this is scary and YES, I can talk to God about it, and YES... he will see me through one way or the other.   And it will be okay.

What say you?

I have to admit, thinking about writing about Plato is like AH!!!!!   I can't fit him into one blog ... especially one of moderate length!!!!   But try I shall.

Plato was a man who had his hand into a whole of pies in life.   Interested in a whole lot of things.

Plato’s enthusiasm for mathematics, astronomy, and musical theory appears everywhere in his writings, and he also displays a far from superficial knowledge of the medicine and physiology of his day.   (source)

But today we don't speak of all his interests, only of that of his interest in philosophy.   Plate thought that the real world was full of ideas...these Ideas contained the ideal forms of everything.      When we are born we have these Ideal Forms within ourselves.    But the world we live in is a world of senses.  These senses have within them imperect copies of the Ideal Forms.     Nothing in this world is perfect, all we can do is recognize the imperfect copies that we see.   Everything therefore is basically shadows.

Now I have to admit that I read that and I think of scripture where we know that what we have now is a dim shadow of what is to come.   Isn't it amazing the Plato as a philosopher grasped this thought.   This thought that we aren't perfect.  We can't be.  We all have the knowledge of God within us, but we aren't God, we aren't perfect, all we can do is strive after that...and then in the life to come... God will grant us new bodies and we shall live perfectly with him.  In the meantime we are living in a world not our own, that nothing is perfect in because of the influence of sin in our lives.

Living in a world where we can't count on our senses means we have to count on our logic or reasoning.   

Plato was careful how he documented his thoughts, writing in such a way that he left no definitive conclusion.  He wanted to force people to think through the ideas on their own.   Having a dialogue was crucial to learning and he developed the logical argument.

Plato, unlike Socrates was literate and wrote books : The Republic, the Symposium, the Phaedo,  the Theaetetus; the Parmenides,and The Laws.

There is much much more to Plato, but this at least gives you some ideas about how his philosophical approach worked.  :)

For More about Plato, check out these resources:
Plato Facts.
SparkNotes.
Plato Works.

My son has recently discovered Cacti and HE wants to be responsible for taking care of them.   Thusly we have some cactus in our house.     We started with these two, but one grandson, convinced his gramma that he needed more AND a pot... so we have three more (but I don't have a picture of them yet).

I think it's interesting.  My hubby doesn't talk about his growing up years a whole lot beyond the occasional comment here and there.

We were talking about my lad's sudden interest in Cacti and he came out with "I liked cacti when I was younger too.   Mom bought me some too."

It was neat.   A simple thing like buying cacti and I learn more about my favourite fellow neat huh!?!?!   :)

When my lad was out with gramma getting more cacti, I'm told he asked a lot of questions of the nursery people.  Learning how often to water them, how they grow and divide and how big they might get.    Mom was quite impressed with him, and the nursery staff were quite pleased (so I am told).  :)

What did they tell him?
- keep them in sun
- water them once every two weeks
- keep them in sandier soil
and "I don't remember the rest mom".  :)    Nine year olds eh? 

Caring for cacti needn't be challenging.   It's like caring for any other plant... water them when they need it, be mindful of pests, repot as necessary and enjoy them.

Helen Kim was born into a Christian home at a time when in Korea there were very few Christian families.   Not only that, her parents made the neighbours laugh as they were determined to send their daughter to school (when girls were normally not educated).

She was a bright student who attended the town's mission school and later went to Seoul to attend Ewha College.       She graduated from her college with honours, enough so that she was sent to the USA to finish her education.   She lived during a time of the Japanese occupation of Korea.

Helen studied with the intent to learn as much as she could in order to fulfill a promise to her father "that she would never forget Korea and would study how to help teach the women of her country".   She believed that Kora needed women well educated in a variety of things.   She was a bright cheerful girl who liked to have fun, make friends and satisfy her curiousity.   She was kind and helpful with those she met.

She became "an educator, stateswoman, churchwoman, and feminist intellectual"
(source)

One of the things I found interesting about her, is on the voyage over she was curious all the different foods offered, that she would order different things from the menu every night so she tasted a whole variety of cuisine.    I would find it hard to be that brave.  :)

Upon finishing her education (getting her doctorate at Teacher's college at Columbia University) she returned home to become a professor at Ewha collage.    When the USA entered the war to fight against Japan all the American missionaries had to leave Korea.  This left Helen as the leader of the college.  She found it a difficult challenge to continue to run the college as a Christian college and not get the Japanese upset with her.     She simply didn't leave the college day or night and she kept it open throughout the war.  

When ordered to take a Japanese name she chose "Amagi" as meant 'heavenly city' and she wanted that daily challenge to live as a citizen of heaven.

In 1954, Columbia's Korean alumni gathered at a ceremony in Seoul to mark the University's bicentennial. The New York Times reported that Kim, the only women among the 30 attendees, was praised by her fellow alumni "for perpetuating the traditional policy of free inquiry, free speech and free press."  (source)

Sources
Book: Missionary Heroes
Columbia
Boston University.

Is your student struggling to understand what a root word is?   Does he need to learn more words in general?    Does she need to figure out what a prefix and a suffix is?   If so, WordBuildOnline by Dynamic Literacy is just what you need.

Dynamic Literacy has come out with an interesting way to help children learn new words.   They do this by using games to teach prefixes and suffices to children, and by doing so also teach them some root words.    They do this, aiming at grades 2-4 with a program called WordBuildOnline.   Children older then this could easily use the program as well for doing remedial work.   It adjusts to the understanding of the student.

The program starts with the students meeting Lexi.  He remains their guide throughout their lessons.  Each lesson follows the same format with learning the meaning of the prefix or suffix, forming definitions, matching words with definitions, filling in the blank and choosing the best word usage.

Each step is clearly delineated.   As you complete each step you earn a reward (which is just to show your progress). 

As the student completes a lesson an email is sent to the parent.  It merely informed that a lesson was done without informing of how well the lesson was completed.

So what Do I think?
I have to be honest here...I'm feeling very mixed about it.
Is my son learning about prefixes and suffixes?   YES.
Ergo, is he learning new words?   Yes.
Is he able to extrapolate that knowledge?   He's has improved immensely.

BUT... one part of the learning process is writing the definition of the word... and one can write ANYTHING in those spaces and still get a "Stupendous" comment.    My son, being the nine year that he is, has a WHOLE LOT Of fun with this section making up odd sentences and phrases because he can.     While I support creativity in this house, I'm not sure about this particular aspect of things.

Second: my son has a fairly rich vocabulary already.  When I ask him if he thinks he's learning new words, his answer is a very quick "NOPE, but I know about prefixes good now mom".  

Lately when I tell him it's time to do WordBuild he's very good at coming up with reasons why he shouldn't.  Like we need to read our books, or perhaps he should do his math, or MOM... I haven't done my history yet!      

So while the program has done what it says it will do (and done it well), and my son has gotten a firmer grip on what a suffix and a prefix are (kudos to Dynamic Literacy for that), I question it's long term usefulness in our schooling.

Product Details:
Vendor: Dynamic Literacy
Product: WordBuildOnline
Price: $30 per student.   BUT I have a discount code for you.  If you use the code anetintime purchasers will get 10% off wordbuildonline and 20% off the books.   Pretty neat huh?   :)
Age Range: 2-4 grade is the aim, good for older students as well.

Members of the TOS review crew are reviewing three different items.  Click on the banner below to learn more about them.
WordBuildOnline
The system automatically adjusts the level of difficulty of the content based on the student's performance.

WordBuild: Foundations, Level 1
This is a physical product that includes two student books and a teacher book.

WordBuild: Elements, Level 1 Set (Includes WordBuild the Game)
This is a physical product that includes a student book, a teacher book, and the computer game.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dynamic-Literacy/77106927761?ref=hl       Twitter: https://twitter.com/dynamicliteracy       
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/dynamicliteracy/

Two gifts to choose from the beginner bundle above, or the professional bundle below.  Which one will you get?   or will you look into getting both?

At the Beginner level, you sign up for a free chapter on composition from Katie Evans' The Key to Taking Pictures Like a Professional Photographer

At the professional level,  you can download Andrew Gibson's Mastering Lightroom: Book Two—The Develop Module.

Just so you know... we have a much bigger bundle coming up on June 22, but I can't tell you what's in them yet.   Do know that you will enjoy it!  (if you like take or need to use photography in any of your endeavors).   Good to know eh?   Good to learn more too!

So take advantage of the freebies above... you're sure to find them useful.  :)

This site is really cool.  :)   Mind if you look through the rest of the site it's rather neat as well... but watching the plant ones had me and my lad spell bound.

The touch-me-nots we were familiar with.   We met them in a big patch near my mom's house last summer I think it was.  It was amazing watching them shoot out their seeds.   My son had a lot of fun playing with them, seeing which ones would respond to how hard or how soft a touch, and seeing if we could guess if they were ready to spring forth or not.  (not all were).   Just a fun plant to play with.

This book is an interesting departure from the books I normally review for Nuts about Books.   Every other book I've read from them, fiction to non-fiction has had a decided Christian based theme in it.  This one did not!

It reminded me a lot of reading a Nora Roberts novel without the "let's jump into bed right now".   I was happy to not have that, though in some ways the relationship between Mac and Lisa sometimes seem to get in the way of the suspense of the novel. 

Was it a good read?   YES!   I would happily read books by Irene Hannon again, her characters are so real you could walk into the police station and immediately know who Mac and Lisa were.   You can feel the concern Mac has over those he cares about.

The nastiness of the bad character is palpable.   And the end result is not quite what is hoped for but what is indeed what is needful.   (Trying not to be a book spoiler).    But the suspense is real, even if it is a over a 20+ year old murder.   The evidence quickly points to three potential suspects and over time they start to die!   What is going on is the question that Lisa and Mac must answer.  Can they do so before it's too late????

So read this book, it's good.  :)

Product Details:
Received: trade paper back book
Title: Buried Secrets
Series: Men of Valor, this is book one
Author: Irene Hannon
Publisher: Revell
Pages: 364
Reviewed for: Nuts About Books

I have to admit that I like some of the options for layouts and what not... but I have to admit, I don't like how it washes out the colour of my photos.       The site is called Canva and it's fairly easy to use with lots of different options for layouts (more than any other site I've seen).  They have a host of pictures you can use (paying $1 per image) as well.  So give them a look and see what you think.  :)