A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

  We recently had the privilege of using online art lessons by ArtAchieve , and Little Princess (age 7) is an especial fan. ArtAchieve offers lesson in 5 different levels.  Every lesson is available individually for a small fee (and level 1 has at least 5 lessons that are free) or various discounted bundles.   We enjoyed the opportunity to explore the bundled plan Entire Level III .  Level III has 13 lessons (at the time this post was published).  It's easy to what they are by clicking this link .  Once a lesson is purchased it is added to "Your Account" under "Your Lessons." Each lesson title has a small "+" sign next to it, and clicking that shows what resources are available for each lesson. My kids discovered quickly that they enjoyed the PowerPoint presentations more than the videos.  I think this was because they didn't have the sense of having to pause an activity that would otherwise move on without them. Rat...

College is very expensive.  Getting college credit from home is a much better deal.  That's why we were so excited to have the opportunity to use SpeedyPrep . Our family learned about CLEP exams last year when a friend took his first one, passed it, and received 6 credits for Analyzing and Interpreting Literature at the university he plans to attend next year. We were stunned! We asked every question we could about CLEP exams, and decided that preparing for and taking CLEP exams would be a wise decision for most of the students in our family. The question was--How do we prepare? Enter SpeedyPrep . SpeedyPrep is an online, subscription-based, drill program. Each exam for which SpeedyPrep offers preparation is subdivided into focused subjects.  For example, Rose Red has been working on American Literature .  Preparation for this course is divided into 18 study sections.  Each section includes "flashcards."  The flashcards are question...

CompuScholar, Inc. offers interesting, engaging, practical computer science courses.  My Super Star (age 14) is enjoying Digital Savvy , a preparatory course for future information technology courses. Some years ago, Super Star (age 14) expressed a real interest in coding.  Knowing that computer skills are empowering, I half-heartedly allowed her to work on that for a while, but I eventually cut her off because she was so young, and I have strong opinions about the amount of time children spend in front of computer screens. She's not a child anymore, and her interest in computers and technology has not waned.  I've had a desire to find a way for her to re-engage in this interest, and this new class by CompuScholar, Inc . fits the bill. Before signing up for the course, we browsed through the information on the CompuScholar, Inc. website.  We were able to open the course syllabus and see whether the material covered would be appropriate for Super S...

"Start copying what you love.  Copy copy copy copy.  At the end of the copy you will find yourself." --Yohji Yamamoto This seems to be the guiding principle behind the online art lessons available at Creating a Masterpiece .  We had the privilege of receiving access to these interesting and challenging projects via the monthly plan .  Our relationship with Creating a Masterpiece changed over time, so I've chronicled our experience in journal format. Week 1   Lessons in Ink:  The Cardinal Nature Angel--age 9 A few days ahead of our scheduled art day, we chose to do the ink drawing of the cardinal from the Beginner menu.  It was awesome to click through the supply information and find a suggested supply amount for 1-6 students.  I compared what we already owned to what we needed and made a painless order from Blick right from the Creating a Masterpiece website. That was really convenient! Pixie--age 15--with her non-dom...