Bible Clubs and Week Long Fun

Bible Club Tuesday Morning

This week has been so much fun for our kids.  A and B helped lead Bible clubs all week.  C and D participated in a high energy camp, Xtreme Adventure, in the mornings through our church.  And E, F and G went to a Bible Club every morning.  Last night our church had Summerfest, which is basically a giant party to celebrate everything that happened all week.  Hope you have been having a great summer!

Bible Club on Wet and Wild Wednesday

The kids played Drip Drip Drop, Statues In The Park with the water hose and ran around in the sprinkler for added water fun.

Thursday was superhero day.

D in the petting zoo at Summerfest.

 A baby capybara - so cute!

G watching the animals.

 E with a cool balloon hat.

 

The younger boys riding the train.

 G waved the whole time - it was so cute.

Hope you have an amazing weekend.  I'm hoping to continue the fun and get some much needed projects done around our home.

Matific Galaxy Review

D has been enjoying fun online math games from Matific Galaxy.  We generously received a one-year subscription for her.  What is Matific Galaxy?  It is a fun and engaging online learning program with hundreds of math games and activities for children in K-6.  Kids learn at their own pace covering the full K-6 program while having fun.

With Matific Galaxy, children have access to over 500 activities which will help advance their math skills.  They receive immediate feedback which helps them learn when they miss an answer and helps build their confidence when they answer correctly.  We started D off on the 4th grade level.

D playing Matific Galaxy

How does it work more specifically?  It is a self-guided learning program where children can explore and learn on their own.  Each grade level has characters and multiple worlds that children progress through as they answer questions correctly.

The worlds that D is working through.

The characters are depixelated and students must solve challenges to earn pixels in order to rebuild their characters.  They also earn coins as well.  The problems are interactive and fun.

She started with Dusty.  Here is a character that needs pixels.

You must answer math challenges to earn pixels and repixelated your character.

Here are a few examples of math challenges that D has played.

Symmetry Lines

If the figure is not symmetrical you must select impossible.

Polygolf

Cut, Paste and Figure

 Ask a Monster

I really like this game because in order to answer the question of how many marbles Plony has, the child has to find out how many marbles Ziti has and then multiply by ten.  I like the critical thinking part.

Earning pixels

Characters get repixelated

Character complete

After Dusty was completed, the next level, Kai was unlocked.

You can win prizes

And earn coins

Some of D's trophies

More of the achievements possible

There is a parent zone that allows you to check your child's progress and achievements, set learning goals, send encouraging and motivational messages to your child, and see the skills that your child is learning.

You can see how your child is doing and it gives practice game recommendations.

You can send motivational messages to your child.

This was a message that D received from me.

You can see the topics that have been covered and their ratios to one another.

You can see how much your child has completed 17% completed.


54% complete

Matific Galaxy is great for homeschoolers and can also be used to support classroom learning and makes a great addition alongside math curriculums.  It works on desktop, as well as iOS or Android smartphones and tablets.

Click on the banner below to read what other crew members have to say about Matific Galaxy.

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Writing with Sharon Watson Jump In, 2nd Edition Review

I am enjoying helping C improve his composition skills with Jump In, 2nd Edition from Writing with Sharon Watson.  This program can be purchased as physical books or as a digital version.  We were generously given the digital versions for the Student text/workbook and the Teacher's Guide (both are needed for this program).

Student Book

Table of Contents for Student Book

Writing is not C's favorite subject and he struggles with knowing what to write.  Writing is hard for my son.  This is an easy to use program specifically designed for more independent learning with a conversational student book.  So, what does this mean?  C can grab our Ipad and dive in.  The student book is appealing and has color mixed in throughout.

This program starts out gently asking students questions about how they feel about writing.

One of C's worksheets

I like that it quickly shows students different methods for brainstorming:  the sticky-note method and cluster method.

C using sticky-note method

In this program, students learn story writing, poetry, nine types of essays, a research report, and more!  There are 98 bite-sized (not overwhelming) daily lessons.  The Student Book walks them through topic sentences, main ideas, in-text citations, and other building blocks of writing.  It has a light tone with a bit of humor and is engaging which suits C well.

Here, you can get a feel for the light-hearted tone of the student book.

I like that students get practice writing paragraphs before diving into essays.  Each essay assignment comes with a suggested writing schedule along with a checklist to help students proofread their work.  I really like how students are led through the process of proofreading with practical lessons.  This is such a valuable skill.

Writing Checklist

There is a digital lesson on the webpage on how to create a works cited page.  This is great because methods for citing sources often change so a digital form can be corrected and updated as needed.

 C reading a lesson

 

Teacher's Guide

The first page of the Table of Contents in the Teacher's Guide.

The Teacher's Guide has so much information to help make teaching writing as pain free as possible.  It shows how to evaluate an assignment which is super helpful.  It also has specialized grading grids to help make grading the essays easier!  It also includes sample schedules, answer keys, checklists and more!

There are flexible schedules so that students can complete the program in a year or take longer depending on their needs.  The incremental steps used throughout this course can help more reluctant writers and those that struggle with writing really find their voice.  I'm thankful that this curriculum has bite-sized lessons that walk students from thoughts and ideas to writing paragraphs and then through to writing essays.  This is a great program to help middle-school students improve their writing skills!

I plan on finishing most of this curriculum with C and then using it for D (most likely starting next year).  Want to know more?  Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of Writing with Sharon Watson.  As always, feel free to ask me questions too.

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