Blog Archives

Books we read together

8/31/2014

My lad and I have read books together since he was just a wee one. We used to snuggle on a bed together, then we graduated to snuggling on the couch, now he plays on the floor and I lay on the bed and I read. Sometimes I can convince him to read to me (but not very often). :)

So what do we read?

Anything and everything. :) So let me catch my breathe for a moment and I'll see what I can show you about our books.

click image to go to other blogs for more books to read. :)

Any post about chapter books would be remiss without talking about the Warriors series. Erin Hunter wrote these books about the clans of cats. Fascinating well written series. Has some odd grammatical things at times, but easily read over. We've gotten a friend hooked on them as well. The lad's goal.. OWN THEM ALL!!!!! (and he has the money to get the last series). :) Everyone loves them who listens to the tale. Also has the side benefit of allowing discussion about how to have faith, how one might lose faith, how the faith of the cats often mirrors that of the First nation folks, and such like. One could be bothered by it or use it as a teaching tool.

We've read... A nest for Celeste, Treasure seekers by Nesbitt, Island of the blue dolphins, and the Riley Mae books (written for girls, but my lad likes the mystery).

We've gone through the Junior Clue club books (one chapter a day). Animal Ark (easy read books these).. there are tons, we've only read rabbit, guinea pig and cat ones.

We've been reading the Illustrated history books that we got for free off the Kindle. The lad really likes these books and generally asks so many questions I need to ask him to make a choice.. talk and research or listen and get ready for bed? He usually chooses getting ready for bed as it means MORE books to read. :) I don't know if they are still free but we downloaded at least 10 not that long ago. :)

We are reading Danny Orlis and the Sugar Creek gang books as well. Sometimes they make us laugh, sometimes they make us think and something they just seem .. well.. "MOM? Why didn't they just go to the police?" It's like the obvious answer sometimes eludes them.

OH! I almost forgot.. The Borrowers. We have about five in the series and they provide enjoyment and wondering.. hmm.. if I were small how would I get around, how would I do .... (and the list goes on).

Anyways, we don't always read for learning.
We often read just for fun as that's part of the joy of learning to read right? Having the FUN of it. :)

Managing Computer Game Time

8/31/2014

Unlike many folks, I don't worry a whole lot on generic screen time. We do a fair amount of homeschooling on the computer and The TV.. well.. it's just on.

I live with a man who works in front of the TV unless he's working outside the house and trying to turn it off goes against his grain, so we work with it. (or around it)

BUT I have learned that I MUST manage my son's game time. I must.
If I don't the following will happen
1. he'll get moody
2. he gets demanding of I NEED TO BE THERE NOW.
3. he'd spend his entire day on the computer playing.
4. he won't sleep well.

so as much as my lad (and his father) like playing minecraft... we need limits.

click image to go to source: CT news briefs

So this is what happens in OUR house.

1. all chores need to be finished.
2. all animals must be fed.
3. all homeschooling must be done
4. Lunch must be done.

If not.. no minecraft until send things are accomplished.

THEN he gets to play for one hour.
He likes that.
Then he needs to do something different.. reading, playing a game, helping with stuff, doing something active and involved. Minimum effort involved of one hour doing something. (we often play a game, go for a walk, play with snakes etc)
After that.. he can earn additional time to play.
One hour of work = 1/2 hour of play time. SO work for two minutes, earn one minute.

This works for us.

NO game time after 7 p.m.

One night a week he can play on his tablet while reading books and that's usually on a Friday night.

Some days.. if it's rainy or dad has a day off or whatever he gets extra time cause he and dad play together. talk talk talk, whatcha' doing now? I love the conversation I hear. I feel sad sometimes that I can't play with him or even watch them play it makes me feel ill. So sometimes he catches a break and he is EVER so thankful on those days. THAT I like. :)

Knowing the rules has removed the angst of "can I play, can I play, can I play" which was driving me crazy. Driving me crazy has one of two results: 1. I yell STOP IT and can be unfair. or 2. sure go do whatever (cause I just want it to stop). Neither is conducive to settled home environment.

It's gives him the freedom of working out when playing works best.

It gives him room to do some negotiating. "Mom, I couldn't play today because of _____" can I play for 1.5 hours tomorrow without having to work?"

My usual response is.. NO attitude and good homeschooling and you've got a deal.

Makes for a much calmer house. And I have much less angst cause he's not asking ALL THE TIME if he can play. Things are established and it's working out well. :)

Pray tell ... .. how do you manage such things in your household?

Review: Wherever the River Runs

8/31/2014

Wonder and amazement, simple living, deepened faith. Kelly Minter talks of her life and calling among a forgotten people.

It was my pleasure and delight to read through Minter's book "wherever the river runs". It is a story of faith and life and hope and a people needing God and seeing God in action. Just a lovely book to read. :)

Lines like "No one has ever seen me before. God sent you to see me." speak to God in action despite who we are or where we are or the circumstances of our life. Living on a flooding Amazon river and God sent Kelly to see a boy who needed to be seen. A boy who needed to know that the creator God knew he existed and that it mattered.

Stories like that just fill me with amazement at how God works.
We plan our lives.
We know what we want to do.
And behind it all is God at work.
This just reinforces to me that my life has NOTHING to do with me...it has EVERYTHING to do with God.
This book shows God in action as Minter is transformed through her journey and work in the Amazon.

This is a book about a call to change, a call to action, a call to let God lead us on and to remember that it's about him. Not about how we change or act... though that does matter, it's a call to see God in action and to want to be part of that action in the way God would have us be. :)

Product Details
Received: Wherever the river runs
Author: Kelly Minter
Publisher: David C Cook
Pages: 249
Reviewed for :FlyBy Promotions

Books read on vacation

8/31/2014

I thought I'd take a moment to talk about some of the books I read while we were on vacation in July. This will not be a complete list (as I read children's books as well). But it will be a good part of my list. :)

I found this book to be a fascinating read as I followed the separate lives of a special agent and some geriatric men with interesting skills.

The interplay and the mystery totally fascinated me and kept me reading through a day (while the boys were out fishing).

Excellent book. If you like a good mystery with interesting characters, this will suit you nicely. :)

It has been a while since I read a good Dick Francis novel. This one was compelling. I found myself wanting to know the old man's secret (who was the cornish boy). The characters were interesting, centered around the horse track, I found myself even wanting to watch the movie the main character was developing. :) Good book.

I think I have read every J. Kellerman book out there, and have liked all but one. One just freaked me out. This one did not. It was a good read from the first page.

Good mystery, Alex Delaware working with Milo, being excellent on the case. Figuring out what the involvement of another therapist is all about. And in the end.. the bad guy is caught.

No freaking out of me! :) A good thing that. Who needs bad dreams? :)

I haven't read a whole lot of Iris Johansen books, but if they are all like this one, I'll be looking for more of them. Silver was a fascinating character, Kerry an interesting one, the bad guy was very bad and I just wanted him to be caught and quickly. Just the way a good mystery novel should be don't you think? :)

This is the first Krich novel I've ever read, and it was as billed "a novel of suspense". I found myself learning information I had before. I found myself intrigued by the "why" behind the story line. Just an interesting book to read.

The characters were good, quite believable, and we find there are hidden facts behind characters. Dead or alive.

The good is just well written and I will hopefully be back for more.

I have to admit, I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I wasn't constantly comparing this Temperance Brennan with the TV show. It was a total distraction for me.

None-the-less, a well written book, with intriguing characters with an ending and reasoning I didn't expect.

Throughout the story we find Tempe trying to extricate herself from an unwilling imprisonment. So everything in the book happens before she was kidnapped. It was an intriguing way of telling the story.

I finally FINALLY found the first book were Eve meets Roarke. I've read Robb's other books with these characters and knew there was a story behind it but hadn't found the first one. Now, I know the story and my life is complete (not really) but it's good to know the start of it all.

The book itself.. a good mystery. We know who the bad guy is from the start, and now it's just a matter of tracking him down. Dealing with political pressures, finding about family sins, and watching good police work in action. Good book.

Later today I hope to make a list of what I am currently reading, for reviews, for pleasure, with my boy and such like. We'll see how the day goes on shall we? :)

Review: New Orleans Requiem

8/29/2014

I received a kindle version of New Orleans Requiem by DJ Donaldson. It was sent to me on behalf of Astor and Blue.

I have to admit to being a bit .. perplexed as to how to write this review. The book surprised me in the ending, and I enjoyed the surprise, but I felt unsettled when I finished, like the ending wasn't quite enough or something along that line.

The style of writing was straight-forward. The careful building of a case against an individual after a series of killings. The fitting together of all the pieces when you learned who the true murderer was. It was all quite snug in retrospect, but I was left feeling like there should have been something more. I find myself turning back to the book for see if I missed something, but I haven't.

It's a bit odd that.

Do I think I would read more of the Andy Broussard/Kit Franklin mysteries? I don't know. See I wonder if part of my issue was with the format I received, a kindle book that kept having breaks in the flow from the "headers" of pages being inserted improperly into the text. This meant the flow of reading was continually interrupted.

It was neat to have the surprise at the end. I appreciated that and then the tying to pieces altogether so I knew how they fit and why it made sense now.

Overall a good book. A good medical, forsenic mystery.

Go check it out for yourself. You'll find it at amazon below.

Five Minute Friday: Reach

8/29/2014

This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.

Just write.

Also, the most important rule is that you visit the blog of the person who linked up before you and leave some encouragement. That’s the most fun of all, and the heart of this community.

click on image to go to link-up

This week the word is REACH.
Three
Two
One
GO... 610
Reach.. when I first saw this word I thought to myself Reach??? What in the world can I talk about with reach?

So I defined it.
Reach.
stretch out an arm in a specified direction in order to touch or grasp something.
This of course made me think back a book the lad and I have been reading where when God made the animals, he made them to eat the plants of the field. EVERYTHING ate plants. Not just critters like cows and rabbits, but critters like lions and spiders and so on.
Everything ate plants
And then....
Eve reached out and grabbed the fruit.
She passed it over to Adam.
Sin.

Sin changed it all you know.
Sin changed our bodies to need more protein than most plants can provide, meaning meat becomes a necessity.
Sin changed the shape of teeth to make them more fit to eat meats.
Sin changed it all.

Amazing how one act of reaching for the WRONG thing changed the entire world.
People hate, steal, lie, are cruel to each other and animals.
Animals eat each other instead of what they were originally designed to do.

Sin. That's what it boils down to. The sin of reaching out for the wrong thing.

615
END.

R is for Rabbit #abcblogging

8/29/2014

I mentioned to my son that I was on R for the alphabet this week.
"Mom," he responded "you should do your post on Rabbits".
I replied that I really didn't want to, that I'd think of something, and he pleaded with me to change my mind, that I really SHOULD do a post on rabbits, so here I am, doing a post on rabbits. :) In exchange, next week he's going to do a post on Snakes.. so stay tuned. :) One of the things I do is raise rabbits. :)

Four meat cross boys and a wee polish boy.

I have been raising rabbits for a long time. I raised them when I was a child, took a break during my college early work years, and then started up again when I got married. I like rabbits.. they are such a multi-purpose animal. Good for food for people and critters, good for showing, pets, competition, companionship, being a service animal, fur/wool, just a very useful animal. Good as livestock or a pet.

I maintain a website here, called AT Home Pets. I put a lot of work into that website trying to make it highly informative and useful for a variety of people. Not sure if I have succeeded or not, but it does draw a fair amount of the South Western Ontario rabbit traffic. :)   Makes me happy. :)

So what can I tell you about rabbits?
1. NOT everyone makes for a good rabbit owner.
Believe it or not, there are some people out there who need to learn how to own the rabbit they have (and in some cases would be better suited never owning a pet). They tend to think of rabbits as being docile snuggly critters. Well .. they can be. But they can also not be. God gave them teeth and claws and powerful back legs and they most certainly know how to use them.    So if you are a shy, or hesitant person, before long the rabbit says "I"M IN CHARGE!" and a rabbit that thinks that it is in charge is a rabbit that can become a terror to live with (and then people bring them to me to deal with). :)   Often being handled by a confident person helps the rabbit to chill out and become the nice rabbit that it is supposed to be. :)   Confident firm hands with a quiet spirit is what you want for a rabbit owner.   Shy, nervous people need to develop confidence and surety when handling their rabbit.

2. Rabbits are NOT vegetarians.. they are herbivores.
A common error that folks make is thinking that rabbits choose to be eaters of plants and vegetation.. they don't choose to do so, it's the way they are designed. ERGO they are herbivores.. so they should eat the foods that herbivores eat NOT that of human vegetarians. So one needs to think green or woody when feeding rabbits. Thinking carrot greens, not carrots. Apple branches.. not apples. Uncooked oatmeal vs.. animal crackers or oatmeal cookies. A plain basic green pelleted feed, rather than pellets with coloured bits and pieces in it. And rapid changes in diet can be dangerous for rabbits, throwing their gut flora out of whack and potentially killing them. Mine get nothing from the cabbage family of plants as it causes some (not all) rabbits to bloat and since there is such a huge variety of greens in the world, why risk it? They eat the following fresh herbs: parsley, basil, oregano, cilantro, sage, savoury. They eat all types of grasses: timothy, brome, twitch, lawn grass, white clover. They eat various "weeds": plantain, chicory (with the blue flowers), dandelion, queen anne's lace (without flowers), prickly lettuce, mallow and so much more. They eat my bean plants, pea plants, lettuces etc.

3. Rabbits often don't tell you when they are sick.
This summer I lost Biscuit to cancer and Triscuit to weeds sprayed with pesticide or something (at least that's my best guess as my neighbour neglected to inform until the following day that he sprayed). I saved a young doe who ate a piece of plastic because one day she looked "odd" and I couldn't see anything until I wedged open her mouth and dragged the plastic out. NOT FUN. I had a wee kit get a leg stuck (first time ever for that happening). Odd things happen when you have rabbits and you won't know you have a problem if you aren't watching them carefully. You need to watch for changes in behaviour (more quiet, less quiet), wobbliness, eye squinting, seizures, hunched over, grinding teeth, not eating and the big one --------- change in poop. If the poop changes you have problems.... smaller, larger, squisher, liquid, mucous.. any change warrants an IMMEDIATE trip to the vet. Generally speaking you have about three days to save them, sometimes less.. so sooner is better than later. :) MOST Rabbits, if fed and watered properly, won't have a problem in their life. They are made to be healthy little critters meant to be an easy food supply for a large number of carnivores. (this of course after the introduction of sin into the world).

My favourite girlie Biscuit. Still miss this doe. She was MINE all through.

4. Rabbits can be as easy or as difficult to care for as you wish.
In most climates (not all) rabbits can be raised outside 24/7.   In other climates they need specialized care (for instance in the desert where they need underground caves to protect them from the heat).

MOST of the people I sell rabbits to keep them indoors. They have plastic bottomed cages, with varying amounts of freedom. Some give them whole rooms or half rooms to call their own, some give them designated time out of their cages, and some don't give them any time out.   And in all those situations, if the rabbits are fed and watered and cleaned out properly, the rabbits thrive.

Interesting eh?   How adaptable rabbits are? I find them simply amazing at how adaptable they are. Some folks put them on a complete herbivore diet.. not pellets, just a variety of greens, hay and branches. The rabbits are healthy. Others feed them a touch of grains, greens, and hay. Still others feed just pellets and nothing else. Some follow my regime of pellets and then a choice of hay, greens or grains.

You can buy them greens, or take the cheaper route and grow your greens or find them growing wild (mind you watch for spray).    So many options and ways to provide care. It all works as long as you are mindful of the rabbits needs and health status. A diet of carrots and celery simply doesn't cut it (and I've rescued one too many rabbits raised that way).

Wire-bottomed, plastic bottomed, free range in your house with a litter box.   Colony style (well made) and living alone.. so many ways to house your rabbits. Be creative.. maybe you'll convert an old dresser into a living space like one of my clients did. :) it's all good as long as the rabbit is safe.

6. Owning ONE rabbit can cause you want to own MORE rabbits..
It's called rabbitosis. :) And if you do get inflicted with such a disease.. come visit me.. I'll have a rabbit to send home with you and then you can go visit my friends over at rabbittalk.com. :) And they'll help you raise them too. :) Cheers!

My son showing off his rabbit Peyton. The judge was very kind. :) He's the second lad in.

This post is part of Marcy's Blogging through the alphabet series. This week we are on the letter R. The anchor post isn't up yet.. I'm sure it's coming though. :)

Review: Dad's Book of Awesome Science Experiments

8/27/2014

Are your children interested in science? Are you a little leery of letting them experiment? Well, this book helps to put your mind at ease. If you have youngsters, take heart, Dad's book of Awesome Science Experiments is here for you. :)

About the author:
Mike Adamick (San Francisco, CA) is the author of Dad's Book of Awesome Projects (Adams Media, 2013) and a stay-at-home dad who writes for the Adventures in Learning science blog at PBS.org, The San Francisco Chronicle, KQED Radio, Disney's parenting website, Babble.com, and the Daddy Issues column on Jezebel.com. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, McSweeney's, Details magazine, The New York Observer, NPR, and other media outlets.

Our thoughts:
I received this book from Adams Media so that I could give you my honest opinion of it. :) It's science.. I love science. :) My son is nine, and we have done a lot of the experiments in this book already, there's a few that he hasn't so I been giving him the book as saying, which one would you like to do?

I have to admit, that at age nine, if it doesn't explode or shoot off sparks or do something flashy, he's kinda like.. Oh, that interesting, but that's about as far as it goes. :) (sorry, that's just where's he's at right now). But he did manage to find a few that he was interested in. Here is one we did today. In this experiment he was to see if he could get a balloon to expand in hot water, and then see what would happen in cold water. He did it and said "meh", and then thought he'd punch it up a bit.. so he tried a few different things with it until he was done trying them out. :) It was a good morning.

BUT that is what I like with this book. It encourages children to simply try different things if they didn't like how it turned out, or it didn't work in the first place. Just try. Be safe, but try it out.

So what do you get with this book?
You the the following

30 inventive science experiments.
six main chapters:
have fun
chemistry (6 experiments)
biology (6 experiments)
Physics (9 experiments)
Planet Earth (4 experiments)
Human Body (5 experiments)

Each main section starts with a brief introduction as to what that section is about. The book is written in light-hearted manner, with LOTS of pictures and clear descriptions as to what should happen, and occasionally what you SHOULDN'T do. :)

clear pictures so you know what to expect.

Scientific reasoning is given. It's GOOD to know why something works.

A list of what is needed, with pictures to help non-readers know what to get.

"how to" do the experiment. Clear instructions with a picture of what it should look like.

Product Information:
Product: book, Dad's Book of Awesome Science Experiments.
Author: Mike Adamick
Publisher: Adams Media
Pages: 189
Price: $18.99 US
though currently it's a lower price at Amazon.ca. :)

Each chapter follows the same format, children are expected and encouraged to experiment a bit if things don't turn out quite right the first time. The biggest thing is to observe what happens when you do something, and to be safe while do so. Do I recommend getting this book? Yes, if you have young scientists in your household, get this book, give them the chance to observe the world and learn from it.

Review: Purposeful Design

8/26/2014

I would like to take a moment tonight to introduce to you a book I've been reading for Book Crash. It's such a nice book about creation. The lad and I have been deliberately taking our time reading through this book. One page, two pages at a time, just savoring this book. We learn, we grow, we continue to be absolutely amazed at the thoughtfulness and deliberation of our Purposeful Designer. The book: Purposeful Design, Understanding the Creation.

Jay writes in a way to engage both parents and children.   He has developed a curriculum to go along with the book. You can find this curriculum over at the Young Explorer's Clu b.    I have to admit, I haven't used this curriculum at all, we've just been enjoying the book on it own.

So what do you get?
You get a book full of colour photography, interesting facts and reasons why God designed the world as he did.   Take for instance ice.. with most substances when they freeze they get heavier.. but ice floats! (good thing eh.. otherwise we'd have frozen fish.. and who wants that?!) The lad was fascinated learning this.

Seven chapters. One for each day of creation. 91 pages long.   Hardcover, well put together.   A nice book that you could easily put out on your coffee table, or sit with in a bed at night and read with a child.    It lays flat nicely making it ideal to use as part of a curriculum (particularly if you use the lessons from the Young Explorer's Club). Downloading the curriculum is free of charge.

How did we use it?

Every night we would read a page or two, or sometimes three. :) Depended upon what we were learning about, how fascinated my lad was by it as well as what time it was. We learned about the perfection of the earth's tilt and the distance between the earth, the moon and the sun. We learned about apples, the rain cycle, the seasons, sunrise/sunset and so much more. It made for great bed-time reading and helped answer a couple questions the lad had about eclipses.

The book is set up in such a way that scripture opens up each chapter. Every day as given in scripture was written out at the start of each chapter. This opened each chapter on the right foot, reminding us just who our Purposeful Designer is.

Meeting the blobfish made us laugh out loud. The lad was "mom... look at that funny fish!" Mr. Schabacker had also pictured a few other funny fish to show God's sense of humour. :) The image to the left comes from this site.

Purposeful Design is a beautiful book written by Jay Schabacker. I can't figure out who the publisher is but I can direct you to the website. :) I honestly think it's a good book to get and go through with your children, or even if you have no children, just sitting back and reading through it, marveling at, sometimes laughing, and just enjoying learning more about our purposeful designer. You can go here to purchase the book for $18.95.

Review: Essential Skills Advantage

8/26/2014

You know, I am SO blessed doing reviews for the Homeschool Crew? We just finished our subscription to one reading program and we were offered a different reading program called Essential Skills Advantage. Just when my son was looking for a change, we got right what we needed. Isn't it great how God works it all out? We have thoroughly enjoyed our review period withEssential Skills Advantage and plan to keep using this reading program for children. :)

Let me walk you through Essential Skills Advantage so you know what to expect. :)

First you have the login screen. There are two screens, the parental login and then a student login. The computer saves the parental one, but doesn't the student one. It would be helpful if they did, but I suppose if you have more than one child using it, you'd want the security of knowing they are doing ONLY their work and not anyone else's. :)

This brings you to another screen that looks like this. This is where the different categories are laid out. Changing categories is such as easy thing to do. We mostly used grade three, but we jumped around a bit using some grade two, some grade four. So easy to work with. We plan to use more areas as we continue throughout the year.
As you can see it offers the following

Complete Reading (offered for grades K-3)
Fun with spelling (1-3)
Vocabulary Builder (4-6)
Spell Master (grades 4-6)
Grammar (grades 3-5)
Spelling Stumpers (two levels offered)

Let's say you've chosen to work with grade three. This is the next screen you will see. As you can see we are half way through vocabulary builder. My son does three sections every day. Some take more time, some take less. It gives him a definitive number to focus on though.

Each section opens into another grouping. When you complete an area it lights up with stars. Those stars show how well you did. My son's goal is to get three stars under each category. The program works with the children giving them a warning blip if they choose the wrong answer, and often gives them a second try.

I chose one category and deliberately did a few things wrong to show you a feature my boy has really picked up on. Do you see the bar at the bottom? it has different colours: green, orange and blue? The blue shows the question left to be answered. The green is correct, the orange is incorrect.

When your child is done an area, they get a screen that shows their overall result.

If you want to see how you are doing in the overall area, you can click on the yellow star and it will bring you to a page like this. The stars show the score they go, they can see how far through the program they are with a numeric value and a bar graph.

I like that this online learning program has a variety of methods to teach the children.   You get yes/no questions, write in the answer, drag correct answer, click on the write answer etc.    In fact they have over 20,000 activities to keep children engaged and interested. Starting from kindergarten all the way up to grade six.

Our opinions:
I like the program. The variety of activities keeps in engaging for my son.   The instructions are clear.    I like that if he doesn't understand what is being asked he can click on the "?" mark in order to hear the instructions again. I like that he doesn't complain (unless he's doing reading comprehension) about doing ESA. He likes it and does well at it and it is good at helping him choose the correct answer. I like that he is learning to read even better.      I also like that it challenges him a bit. He likes to do things verbally and this program forces him to read out his answers, and then look for the answer if he doesn't know it (particularly in the reading comprehension area).

I did struggle with the "forced" to get 100% in order to advance that some of the activities have. There are pros and cons to this approach particularly if the default is the only other answer. Then it becomes a bit of a guessing game for the child, and are they really learning?   But on the flip side, for the child who is really focused on getting it right the first time, it gives them a boost to look a bit harder at the question being asked.   it worked both ways for my boy depending on the activity involved.

For at one of the activities I heard frustration from my lad. "MOM!   Why don't they put them farther apart?"    And when I checked I did notice it was true... some of the spacing is a little tight if you aren't steady with your clicking.   And when you KNOW what you meant to click on and you missed one boy child gets a bit frustrated and will wail "Mom, I know the answer, but the computer says I'm wrong!!!!". :)   So he's learning to exercise a bit more control.

My son's thoughts: "It's a good program, it's fairly easy, and there's really nothing I don't like about it. Sometimes it's a bit annoying, when it gives you really hard questions."

Product Details:

Vendor: Essential Skills Advantage.
Product: Their complete on-line program. Premium package.
Price: 14 day free trial, $9.99/month. if you sign up before October 1st, they will give you a 50% off discount of your monthly fee with the code TOS50.
If you would like to work with a sponsored version of the program (so has ads and missing some features) you can go to ESA Learning for a free version.
Age Range:This is idea for K-6 or for remedial work for older students.

A clarification from John from ESA.
"I did want to clarify that the content of the free program is the same as the premium program. The difference relates to the parent portal. No ads are displayed to the children. Ads are displayed on the sponsors landing page and in our weekly newsletter. Here’s an example of our landing page www.LearnWithESA.com/JohnLennie. Here’s an example of our newsletter http://bit.ly/1pcFs0b."

To read what other crew members thought, click on the link below or HERE.