Christian book publisher, Thomas Nelson, recently sent me a complimentary review copy of  The LightKeeper’s Daughter by Colleen Coble as part of their BookSneeze program.

The book came right around Christmas, in perfect time for me to take some time to kickback and do some reading just for me. And this book did not disappoint.

The Lightkeeper’s Daughter is set in the early 1900s, in a small rural town of Mercy Falls, set on the North Coast of California, and revolves around Addie Sullivan, a young woman, and her journey to find out who she really is, after a stranger revealed that the parents who raised her were not actually her biological parents at all.

With the help of the stranger, she gets a job as a governess for the family from which she is supposedly related, not disclosing who she thinks she is. And from there the mystery of how she came to be separated from her biological family and why is played out. And of course during this she falls in love with her young charge’s father.

This a Christian historical romance with a bit of mystery and suspense, which is right along what I prefer for light, relaxing reading. The book is set in a place where I have actually lived (Ferndale, CA), so it was nice to see how well the author weaved truth and fiction together.

The story was interesting and flowed well for me, to the point where I didn’t put it down while my family watched a movie in the same room. Perfect for light, escape reading, it’s a book that stimulates the mind to figure out the mystery and warms the heart with a little Christian romance. 

If you like a little suspense and a little historical romance, The LightKeeper’s Daughter is a good read, one that I would share with my mom and mother-in-law in a heart beat, and would even let my daughter read.

You can find The Lightkeeper’s Daughter at Thomas Nelson, on Amazon.com, on Christianbooks.com, or possibly even your local library

My 12 yo daughter is nearly done with Teaching Textbooks Math 7 (she’ll finish by Spring Break in March 2010) and my 10 yo son just started a few months ago.

So, when another homeschool mom asked me about Teaching Textbooks, as a possible homeschool math curriculum for her 9 yo son, I was happy to answer her questions.

One of these days I’ll write a full review, but in the meantime, if you are considering Teaching Textbooks as a possible homeschool math curriculum, I’ve pasted our Q&A here.  If you have additional questions about Teaching Textbooks, feel free to put them in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Does your son like it?

Yes, my 10 yo son  likes it. All the lessons are fully explained in video format, and all the answers are fully explained step by step, so if he misses something he can click the solution button and see where he went wrong.

He does not like that each lesson is so long, i.e., has so many problems (20 problems, plus 5 practice problems per lesson). He’s used to a much shorter program, but he has adapted by doing a 1/2 lesson per day or a minimum of 2-3 lessons per week.

Any ideas about placement?

The Teaching Textbooks  has placement tests for each level, I highly recommend using them. Don’t go by what you think is the grade level; it’ll depend on what math program you’ve used in the past and where your son is currently at.  The placement test does a good job helping you position the student in the correct level. 

Also, you can look at the table of contents of each course to see what’s covered and see if your son is ready for that level of work. In my case, Teaching Textbooks Math 7 covers fractions, decimals, and some basic geometry, which is a good transition from our elementary math program, which is weak in these topics (in my opinion), before they are ready for Beginning Algebra.

Though I have to say because we moved from a mastery-based elementary math program to Teaching Textbooks (a spiral based program), there was lots of overlap in some areas and none in others.

I did placement tests with my son a couple times over two years because he was strong in some areas and not in others, and finally when he was ready, I just moved him into Teaching Textbooks Math 7, and that’s worked well.

From my perspective, it’s a big change for me, they basically don’t need me for math anymore (yes, I’m a little sad about that). My 12 yo daughter periodically will have a question when she gets a problem wrong and can’t figure out why (and doesn’t want to view the solution on the computer.)

But other than that…there’s no prep, no lesson planning, no teacher time at all. Just setting boundaries and saying “go do your math”. Which of course is a huge time saver.

Is it all on computer?

Depends on how you do it. It can be done completely on the computer, though you need a notebook or something to work the problems in.

The text book also contains all of the lesson materials (except the step-by-step walkthroughs & solutions, which are only on the CDs).

Because of some issues we were having with my kids, we now require the kids to do all the problems out of the book on paper.

So what my daughter does is watch the lesson on the computer (rather than read it), then does the problems out of the book (in a notebook, so the book stays nice for later resale and younger siblings), checks her answers after each problem in the answer booklet, and then inputs her answers into the computer for grading purposes.

My son watches the whole lesson and the problems on the computer, but works each problem on paper, checks the answer, reworks as necessary, and then enters the answer into the computer, and moves on to the next problem.

Different kids, different styles. But either way I require that they don’t move on to the next problem until they got the one they are working on right (no use doing the whole set wrong and then going back and fixing it…)

What about the testing/grading…is it on the computer as well?

There’s a quiz after each chapter, which is all dealt with on the computer (or in the textbook, see above). All the grading is done automatically for you on the computer and it keeps a record of it all for you. (nice)

Update: The high school level Teaching Textbook programs do not include the automated grading.

Is there a “lesson plan” or something that tells me how to get through it in a school year?

I’m not really sure. In Teaching Textbooks Math 7, there’s 118 lessons plus a quiz after each of the 18 chapters, so assuming 1 lesson a day for an 180 day school year, that’s pretty much how to get through it in a year.

You could look at the Table of Contents in the Teaching Textbook  you are looking at and see how it would break down. I set goals for the kids this way, based on where they are at, and how many weeks are left in the term, and how many lessons I think they can get through in a week and then term allowing for days off and slippage.

We’ve chosen not to try to complete it in a year. It’s taken my daughter at least a year and a half. There have been some chapters where she did a whole lesson a day, and others where a 1/2 of a lesson a day is fine.

But my style is to just let them go through it at whatever their pace is and not worry about what level they are in each year…just continuing on until they learn it. 

If you are working & homeschooling like I am, or are math challenged, or have a child who does best with visual or audio teaching methods, then Teaching Textbooks is a good, solid, and thorough math curriculum worth looking at further.

During October, I added what I had hoped would be a fun bit of schoolwork to my 10 and 12 yos schedule – the Halloween Creative Writing Elective from Connect the Thoughts (CTT).  Billed as a history/creative writing elective, I had hoped that the kid would learn more about the true roots of Halloween, and exercise  their writing skills in a fun way.

The Halloween elective is marketed for those 9 years old and up. And really in our experience, it is best of those who are comfortable writing paragraphs. The elective was a stretch for my 10 yo, who ended up dictating much of his work for this elective, but it was wonderful for my 12 yo daughter.

There are sixteen lessons, the first lesson and the last lesson are the history peices, while the other fourteen lessons are centered around how to write a scary story.  Connect the Thoughts has one of the few writing curricula that I like, and this elective does not disappoint from a creative writing perspective.

The history lessons cover the roots of Halloween, primary its Celtic history, and modern traditions like UNICEF, trick or treating, and Fall Festivals or Halloween Parties. As is standard in all CTT history lessons, the two history lessons include a geography component and vocabulary.

There is a list of suggested literature at the beginning of the elective, with suggestions for both younger students (9-10 yos) and for older, high school level students. But there isn’t any requirement in the curriculum itself to read anything.

Like all Connect the Thoughts courses, CTT Halloween is written for the student to use independently. All the lessons talk directly to the student. Materials wise, the only things the students need are a computer to type their stories on and to follow a few history links (celtic music and language examples), a world map (or one on a computer), and a globe. Everything else is right there in the instructions.

Primarily this is a creative writing lesson. During the course, students write two scary stories – Learning how to develop primary and secondary characters, plotting, and the structure of a scary story. 

My 10 yo son chose to write a story about two boys trapped in a world of all girls; while my 12 yo daughter, developed a more traditional scary story. Since her story is a little long to publish here, I thought I’d share just the beginning (unedited) as a sample of what the creative writing portion inspired:

Nightmare on Halloween by K.E.S.

Drake woke up on the floor. He groaned, his neck hurt from sleeping in the wrong position. He could hear his attic bedroom groaning in the autumn wind. he looked out the window someone was standing in the backyard staring up at the window, it was a man he was as pale as the moon, he wore a pitch black business suit his thick hair was the same color, but his eyes were nothing like Drake had ever seen they were red and they didn’t have any pupils or whites of the eye. Drake shivered the Man smiled to this, reviling fangs. Drake shut the drapes and ran to his bed tripping over Barren his Dalmatian puppy he had gotten for his 8Th birthday two months ago. Barren sat up sniffed the air and growled, he went over to the window still growling. Drake ran to him picked him up and took a peek out the window; there was no man in the yard. Drake sighed in relief and carried Barren to his bed and lay down and was about to go back to sleep when his alarm went off.

 When Drake was done getting dressed for the day, he went down stairs where his mom was making breakfast and his little 5 year old sister Nadine or as everyone called her Natty. Natty in her blue long sleeved shirt with pink butterflies and long thick jeans was trying to put a pink bow in her long red curls. Drake looked nothing like his little sister he looked like his dad with dark brown hair and a wiry figure.

 As Drake starting eating his breakfast he saw the same man staring at him through the kitchen window he was licking his lips with a forked tongue, Drake suddenly went very pale, he felt sick to his stomach.

 ”Mom Drake looks like he’s about to throw up!” screeched Natty, moving away from him as she did so.  

 ”Are you okay?” asked his Mom.

 ”Yeah Fine” Mumbled Drake still staring at the Man outside the window.

 Drake’s mother looked at the window and the man vanished instantly.

 On the way to school he kept seeing man in between buildings as he and Natty walked through the suburbs houses. Drake thought he was going insane so one time he stopped and pointed the man across the street out to Natty. When Natty looked at the spot where Drake was pointing it took only a moment for Natty’s pale skin to turn to white as paper, she opened her mouth to scream when the man smiled, but no sound came out when put a finger to his lips.

 ”Who is he?” Squeaked Natty

 ”I saw him this morning when looked out my window.” Drake squeaked back.

 They were frozen as he came towards them; he was licking his lips and reaching out a hand with nails that looked like claws. They tried to run but it was like they were covered in hard cement. Suddenly a man on a bike was racing towards them and went strait through the man who was coming towards them, as the biker went through him all his body part deteriorated until there was nothing left but a skeleton. The skeleton collapsed along with the bike onto the street, the man smiled as if he had just eaten a chocolate cake.

 

Overall, the kids had fun with this. Again it was a stretch for my 10 yo to do this much writing, but my 12 yo was able to handle it with no problems. And even though it was a stretch for my 10 yo, this was the first time he’s been willing to write (or dictate) this long of a story (his was nearly 1000 words). Personally, I had hoped for more history. But as a creative writing elective, I am happy with the choice.

Note: I did cross out a few items in the last lesson that pertained to planning a Halloween party and/or celebrating Halloween in traditional American ways, as that’s not something we do as a family. But that was the only thing I needed to change.

CTT Halloweenis regularly $25, available only as a downloadable ebook. The curriculum has great sales and I was able to pick up this elective for less than $10. I can’t guarantee that you’ll find the same deal, but, if you are interested in a fun way for your kids to learn to write a scary story, I recommend picking up CTT Halloweeen while it’s on sale.

…Shannon

I don’t know about your kids, but my tweens love to gross me out with spooky or disgusting stuff. And of course that makes for an interesting Halloween delimma, that’s when all the spooky, scary paraphenalia is out on the shelves for them to dream about. Spiders down my back, slime coated handles, you get the idea…

But, it is fun, putting aside Halloween, to play around with them a little. So this year, I picked up a copy of JustNotMartha.com’s 35 Easy and fun Halloween Recipes ebook to see if there were any ideas I could use to gross out the kids.

But, my intended surprise was spoiled when the kids caught me going through the ebook and came to look over my shoulder. They had so much fun going through looking at the recipes and playing picking things to make just based off the names, like:

- Ewey Gooey Eyeballs
- Scrambled Brains
- Vampire Bat Stew

Even though, I’m not going to do these for Halloween, I found some great ideas for snacks and even meals in the recipe portion of the book.

There are 35 recipes total, ranging from appetizers and snacks, to kids-friendly entrees, and of course desserts. The two candied apple recipes were enough to have our mouths watering. For a sampling of some of dessert recipes, check out this video:

Even though the ebook is geared towards Halloween, the recipes are appropriate for a kid or tween party, just a fun family dinner, or even for a harvest party.

Several recipes use pumpkin (which is super nutritious), including Pumpkin Soup, “It’s the Great Pumpkin Pull Apart Cake”, stuffed mini-pumpkins, Cranberry Pumpkin bread, and of course instructions for roasting pumpkin seeds.

For those of you who participate in Halloween, there are four bonsus: 15 pumpkin carving templates, 5 Spooky short stories, one multi-chapter spooky story, and 7 ideas for halloween party fun, several of which are wholesome enough for a harvest festival or just a fun fall kids party.

With bonuses, the ebook is a hefty 175 pages, most of which are from the bonus stories. The recipe portion is 36 pages.

For $7, 35 Easy and Fun Halloween Recipes is a reasonable buy if you are looking for some fun kid-friendly recipes to try, even if you don’t do Halloween. But for those of you who do do Halloween, the bonuses make this ebook a great deal.

A friend’s son has jumped ship. At fifteen he has decided he would rather live on his own, than live by his parent’s rules. It breaks my heart. And terrifies me.  My sons (and daughters) are precious, and I love the people they are and who they are becoming. But,am I doing what I need to do to build them up, train them, and encourage them? I pray so, and pray often for guidance. My friend’s situation speaks to my heart but it also reminded me that there is a tool out there to help prevent this from happening.

A few months ago, hubby and I attended a seminar on Homeschooling the High School years. Here, the speaker shared her heart about a time in their lives when one of their sons “jumped ship”. She highly recommended reading the article series that help her and her husband to gain perspective and rebuild their relationship with their son.

The series is called Jumping Ship by Michael Pearl. It’s a five part series, long but definitely worth the read. But I have also found it challenging. Sometimes realizing our mistakes and our humanity is difficult; but providing our children with the best environment to grow and mature in is essential. Here are the direct links to the article (I’m not familar with any other content on the site, but I know these articles are worth a visit.):

Jumping Ship
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

If reading it online is a challenge, the author has created a book based on the article series. I found it on Amazon for $5 new, less used. Here’s that link:
Jumping Ship: What to do so your children don’t jump ship to the world when they get older

In the meantime, please pray for my friend, her husband, and her son, that they will all grow in faith and seek God’s will and plan.