Study.com CLEP & DSST ~~ A New TOS Review!!

Since I have a high schooler, I have been looking for options that would help her meet her goals. She's been taking some dual enroll classes at a local technical school as well as doing our regular studies at home. So when we had an opportunity to receive a 3 month subscription to Study.com to check out their CLEP and DSST prep materials I thought this might be an opportunity for her to study a new language, like she's been wanting.

So what is CLEP and DSST prep materials exactly??

CLEP stands for College Level Examination Program. At Study.com there are 32 courses (subjects like College Algebra, Western Civ. I and II, Spanish Level I and II, Biology, and English Literature to name a few) that you can sign up for which include video lessons and prep tests to get you ready for taking the CLEP exam. This exam allows you to earn college credit in a faster way and at home. You do still have to pay to take the exam, but this might be a more financially economical way to afford college and you could take one class at a time to really focus on. You do also want to make sure that the college(s) you are looking at going to will accept the CLEP exam so that the credits you take will actually be added to their college transcript. The lessons are taught by an expert in the field and there is an "Ask the Expert" feature if you have questions about the material you are studying. You can work on this on any device that can attach to the Internet so that makes it easy to use even on the go!

DSST stands for DANTES Subject Standardized Test and was originiated by the United States Department of Defense as another way to get credits by examination tests. This once was just for military members and their families, but is now open to everyone. They offer 30 different exams that cover 6 differet subject areas - English, math, science, business, history, psychology, and health. Business Math, Ethics in America, and Technical Writing are a few of the courses available at Study.com. DSST's are very similar to CLEP exams and really the difference is in your choices for the multiple choice questions as well as the amount of time you have to take the final exam. Once again, you really want to be sure that your school of choice will accept this type of test for credits so you don't waste time or money doing them. These are set up similarly with short video lessons followed by self assessments.

Both of these courses will take between 15 and 20 hours to complete which is certainly less time then a traditional college course. When we started this I asked Arianna what she may be interested in and of course she picked a new language. Since she had no prior interaction with Spanish I didn't think we would need to start with a placement test. I was not sure if she would be able to accomplish a brand new subject in just 3 months and she has not really gotten that far in, so we may have to add another month or so. That being said here is her Dashboard. You can see everything that's going on at a quick glance.

Dashboard

You can do the modules in any order, but she is working from the beginning. You will see your progression as you work through the chapters. You will also see your test or quiz scores.

Short Quiz

Graded instantly

You will also see the goals that you have for each week to be accomplished. At the bottom of each lesson you will see a full transcript of what is being taught to you in the video. This is great for your visual learners so they can read the lesson as well as watch or hear it.

Lesson Summary

Video lesson on Hay

Transcript of lesson on Hay

Then after each lesson there is a short quiz. At the end of each chapter there is a 30 question test.

One feature my daughter liked was the ability to take notes while watching the video. She could type them up and save them. They are also time stamped to where that note is from within the video so you can quickly find where that was if you need more review on that note.

Notes on the right hand side and time stamped so you can find them in the video.

Right now on the progress board it shows my daughter as being behind. Her other in class college dual enroll classes got her a little stressed and with the unexpected death in our family we spent more time travelling than we had anticipated. However, college classes are over next week and she will spend a bunch more time this month and next working on her Spanish so I have no fear that she will get a majority done in the 3 month subscription we have been granted by Study.com. One thing I realized (after the fact) was that you could set up email reminders to help you stay on track. I will need to set those up so she gets regular emails. She has a tendency to forget or work on something longer then she really planned.

Because the courses are self-paced she can take as long or as little to complete the course. I knew that since she had no experience with Spanish it might take her a little longer, but she has had a good bit of Latin and has been working on French for a few months as well. Having that as a background I figured she'd catch on to Spanish in a flash. I expect she'll be doing more in the course now that her other required college classes will be complete and she can focus better.

Recent activity

I also think that the basic monthly fee of $39.99/month is not that bad if we have to pay for an extra month or two so that my daughter can get a language credit for college. That's a lot cheaper then a traditional college course. We will be looking at hopefully taking the CLEP exam for Spanish before the end of the year.

All in all I believe Study.com has been an asset for my daughter. It has allowed her to work on another language and start really prepping for college. I think that as a homeschooler CLEP and DSST are true assests in our aresnal as parents to help give our high schoolers a good foundation in college. And it can be a more financially economical way to get college credit before "going" to college.

You can find Study.com on Facebook and Twitter.  I hope that you also read how other Crew members also used Study.com in their homes by clicking the link below.

All About High School Transcripts ~~ A New TOS Review!!!

When we first started homeschooling we (really I) had mapped out a 12 year plan. Yes, you read that correctly. All 12 years. Most of my friends and family thought I was crazy! But if we were going to do this I wanted to know the whole story from the beginning to end and know that we had the resources available. One thing I have not really thought about was the high school nitty-gritty. Not the subjects and material that needed to be covered, but how you would put it all together so that if my child wanted to attend university that they would have the paperwork necessary to accomplish that end goal.

Which brings me to my new favorite resource for when you homeschool high school -- Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High School Paperwork by Janice Campbell. In this wonderful 138 page resource gold, published by Everyday Education,  you will find EVERYTHING you need to create your very own high school transcript, customized to fit every detail for each student individually. My review of the fourth edition of this invaluable product has helped me have a lot less stress about starting to build our own transcript for my now 10th grader.

Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High School Paperwork is broken into 6 sections. I will tell you a little bit about each of these as well as what is new with this latest edition.

So you have Part 1 - Meet the Transcript. This is exactly what the title of the book leads you to think the entire book is about, the nitty-gritty of that teeny piece of paper that puts 4 years of work onto one sheet filled with numbers, grades, and other details to help your student stand out among thousands. This chaper is all about the what and who of transcripts and an overview.

Next is Part 2 - Plan with the End in Mind. This section tells you what your student should study in high school and even gives you a sample of high school requirements. Now, every state is different, but generally all students will have to complete a certain amount in the 'normal' subject areas. Mrs. Campbell even goes on to discuss standardized tests, skills and habits your high school student, how to be successful in college, and some things your teen can do while they are in high school like volunteering, dual-enrollment, or starting a micro-business. This section was chock full of great information, some of which I hadn't even thought about.

Now we move on to Part 3 - Keep Simple Records. This is the chapter with which I really needed some help. Thankfully in this section there were plenty of ideas on how to minimize what you keep while still having a full overview of 4 years of school. Since moving recently I had a rude awakening of just how much paperwork we still have. Now that my eldest in high school I'm not sure I need to keep 3 boxes of her school from her entire career! She also teaches us about class profile sheets and subject worksheets, as well as how to name your classes. There's even a special (new) section on special needs records, transcripts, as well as resource recommendations.

I printed out the subject worksheet for Fine Arts to keep track of her musical studies.

Part 4 - Grades, Credits, and the GPA is exactly what it sounds like. Tis was also quite a helpful section since my daughter has dual classe that get grades from a local community college, but then our "together" school as well as other subjects she does on her own, like French. It even had a section for those of us who are a more relaxed homeschool family and unschoolers. I was also thankful to see some information on HOW to grade, complete with a writing rubric. The grading scale, granting credit for honor classes, and how to compute the GPA are also included here.

Here's a class profile sheet that I used to write out her A&P class and lab she took at a local college back in SC. I also have her syllabus for the class and lab. I put them both on one sheet to streamline.

Another of the beauties of this book is that Campbell has truly thought of everything. In Part 5 - Create the Transcript she literally gives you the step by step instructions on how to create YOUR transcript! Like she tells you to open up your document go to file, then new, and so on telling you the exact measurements of the tables you will create so that you will get the format of transcript that you are wanting. She also includes several samples of each of the three types of high school transcripts - vertical, horizontal, and check-off formats. Mrs. Campbell even includes a section about Diplomas!

I used the blank transcript in the back of the book to start to write down all of what she's accomplished for high school. I also added what I think she will be doing in the near future so we have a quick overview of what is left.

At the end of the book Part 6 - References, Resources, and Reproducibles has a glossary, resources for planning and learning through the high school years including testing, and then forms which are both reproducible (like those for reading, as well as the class profile and subject worksheets I mentioned earlier.) There is even blank transcript forms that you can print out and then use to 'keep track' of what your student is doing/has done or you can type the information onto the form. However, I think that her step-by-step process of how to set up a transcript form on the computer was very easy to follow. I did print out one so I could wrap my head around which one would work best for us and I started to write in the subjects/classes my daughter has already completed in the past (almost) two years. Ack, just 2 years left!! I am so glad that I had the opportunity to review this book.

I know that I will be using it again and again. It is definitely a resource you will want to have in your aresnal. You will feel more at ease that you can conquer the high school paperwork with Janice Campbell's Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High School Paperwork. I urge you to read other Crew member's reviews by clicking the link below. You can also check out Everyday Education on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller by YWAM Publishing ~~ A New TOS Review!!

We have had the pleasure to read another wonderful story from YWAM Publishing called Christian Heroes - C.S. Lewis and it was a deeply touching biography of his life. This is not the first book we've read from authors Janet & Geoff Benge and I do not think it will be the last. They wove together the life of C.S. Lewis as well as the life of his works and showed how truly he was C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller. This book is part of the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series, which also include Corrie ten Boom and Amy Carmichael. They also have the Heroes of History series, which include people like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington to Ronald Regan and Ben Carson. Last year we were blessed to review the Heroes of History - Billy Graham and it was truly enlightening. We also have reviewed another of the Heroes of History series with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I can't wait to read more of these books!! I know my children can't wait to choose their next one.

We chose C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller out of the large selectionwe were given because in our homeschool we have been reading through the books of Narnia. I also have been in a mom book club delving deeper into the man who wrote the Narnia series. It seemed quite fitting that we could also read about the man who wrote Narnia all together as a family. And so we did. WE learned SOOO much that we didn't know. I will tell you the thoughts of my children in a bit, but first I want to tell you more about YWAM Publishing.

YWAM is an acronym for Youth with a Mission. It is a large interdenominational Christian ministry that cover over 140 countries. They have short term missions to reach the lost. YWAM Publishing has a main goal to help Christians to make a difference in our world by publishing books which focus on evangelishm, homeschooling, prayer, discipleship, as well as mercy ministries. You can learn more about them here.

When you purchase one of these books you will also receive a downloadable unit study guide to help strengthen the book you have chosen to read. For this book we decided since we were reading a lot during our traveling over Spring Break as well as on an unexpected family emergency that we'd do some of the projects a little later. Instead we focused on some comprehension questions and then some family discussions that were spurred on from the content found within the 82 page unit study.  We plan to do a few of the projects - like the big quilt project, and then another watching one of the movies and then write a report.

Some of our choices for projects.

 One thing we learned very early on in our book was that C.S. Lewis was known as "Jack". That was the first time I had ever heard that his nickname wasn't even close to his real name. His brother Warren and he grew up in Ireland, Belfast no less! I was shocked. For many like me, may know him as a British writer. We also learned that he had endured a very hard loss in his early life, when his mom died at the age of 9.  After his mom passed, Jack's life was a whirlwind of boarding schools and the like and in 5 years' time had left Christianity to become an athiest.

Lewis was a prolific writer, writing over 30 books, which many know that is probably because of his group the Inklings. But it is also due to his strong relationship with the members of this group, one being J.R.R. Tolkein, that he found his way back to Christ. His life was fascinating. But it was also a great way to be a part of ones journey from a complete lack of faith to someone whose faith fills the written word in every one of his books and then touches millions. It is a fantastic biography that I know we will read again and again.

Reading the last chapters at home.

Answering questions in the car. Yes we sill have to raise hands.

After reading the final chapters, and specifically the last 2 paragraphs of the book, I was touched and brought to tears. This may be because loss and death that has happened not so long ago in my own life. But I know those words that it "had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story ..." helped bring me joy in my time of sorrow. I am so thankful that this was the book I have been reading.

Excerpt that really touched me. 

Also within the biography we learn when other books C.S. Lewis wrote were published and what was going on in his own life. It was a truly unique perspective for a biography that we all greatly enjoyed. I've added some other of Lewis' books to my own reading list.

Here are some thoughts from my children:

Seanan - I now want to read his other book Screwtape Letters. I thought he only had written the ones about Narnia.

Audrie - I liked it because it was all about C.S. Leiws and I really like him. The story is written well and I think little kids would enjoy it just as much as we have. I was sad to learn that his mom died when he was young. That must have been very hard. I didn't know he had fought in wars or had been married. That was cool to find out.

Arianna - I did not realise that he didn't have his own children or that he had gotten married. I like ow the author tells such details about his life and the "real" him. I'm looking forward to hearing his stepso, Douglas Gresham, speak at the homeschool convention we are going to at the end of the month. That'll be cool to see him and maybe meet him in person after reading this book. I've also put Screwtape Letters on my "to read" list. After I finish the Space triology. 

That is not all, but I don't want to spoil all the details. You can also find  YWAM Publishing on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. I do encourage you to click the link below and read all the other reviews, especially since there were 30 choices to pick from!!

 

Poetry & Short Stories:American Literature Set - A New TOS Review!!

We have loved our Memoria Press curriculum over the years, so we were very excited to receive Poetry & Short Stories: American Literature Set this time to review. My younger daughter (now 13!) loves poetry and since she had fully enjoyed Poetry for the Grammar Stage Set in the past we thought this would be the next step for us. In our move her beloved poetry book has been mislain ... probably in one of the MANY boxes, so we thought that getting a new poetry curriculum to try out would be just the ticket.

When we received Poetry & Short Stories: American Literature Set  it came in a box with three books -- a teacher guide, a reading text, and the student guide. The teacher and student guide are basically identical EXCEPT that the teacher guide has all the answers for the questions. In the case of subjective essay type questions those don't have answers since they are generally up to the student's interpretation. The reading text is divided by author and the longer pieces have their paragraphs or stanzas numbered for easy recall while discussing questions or answering questions from the lessons.

Included in Poetry & Short Stories: American Literature Set are 14 authors starting with Washington Irving and Poe all the way throguh Longfellow and Holmes and ending with Amy Lowell and Robert Frost covering some of the most influential American authors (and even a sample of some British authors at the end of the book) of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Each author has one to three of their works and each is set up in the same way in the guide.

Before you delve into the studies of these wonderful writers the student will find a step by step plan on how to use the study guide with the text. Then there are notes on how to mark a book, how to read so that you find the 'central one idea', and how to use the trivium to find the "heart of a work" which namely is the 'central one idea'. This discovery will cover four stages: Pre-Grammar (Preparation); Grammar (Presentation); Logic (Dialectic); and Rhetoric (Expression). If you are familiar with classical education or with Memoria Press you will have heard the terms. But since the student may not be as immersed in the terminology, the author of the curriculum, David M. Wright, takes some time introducing the terms and defining them as well.

These first 10 pages make take a little time to go through and would be best to be done together with your student. I know that my daughter wasn't ready to digest all of this info all at once so we took our time and read through this introduction together. Then we were told to read the "Introduction to American Literature" in the text and to mark the text in the way they were taught after reading "How to Mark a Book". This was a completely newway to study for my daughter, but she seemed to both understand and enjoy doing it this way. It helped her focus her reading on what she needed to find next in the text while answering the comprehension questions.

Marking a book

The rest of the lessons in the Student Guide continue in a similar fashion and are divided into the four sections. Your student does some Pre-Grammar/Preparation to try and think about the Central One Idea of the poem or short story.

Then they enter the Grammar/Presentation stage of discovery of the essentials by reading notes, definitions of hard or unkown words, and comprehension questions. Then your student reads the texts and uses what they've learned to mark the text in key places.

Definitions

Reading Notes

Comprehension questions

Next is the Logic/Dialectic stage where your student will reason with the facts, elements, and features of the story. Using Socractic discussion questions the student will hopefully beging to uncover and find the 'Central One Idea' of the text.

Lastly is the Rhetoric/Expression stage where in their own words the student identifies the Central One Idea andshows their supporting points that helped them come to this conclusion. There are also some essay options for your stronger reader/writer students that require 3 to 5 paragraphs on the topic.

The set is recommended for grades 8 and up so I knew that it might be a little stretch for my daughter, since she is only 13 (and working at a slightly lower level) and she has had some trouble with reading, some of these concepts were very difficult. We took a few weeks for each of the stories we worked on. The introduction also took us about 2 weeks to complete. I did not want to push her when she was either not ready or not comprehending the new concepts. She loves poetry and I did not want to have her struggle with the reading push her away from the love of the words in poems or these amazing short stories.

Audrie working on answering questions

I also decided we would not necessarily go in order after the first lesson of Rip Van Winkle from Washington Irving. Being from New York, I was very familiar with both of this author's works, so that made teaching it fun for me. We also talked about when we go to visit New York to go "see Rip and Sleepy Hollow" (fun fact - my uncle actually built log homes in Sleepy Hollow community). We ended up jumping on to To Helen by Edgar Allen Poe after Rip, but plan to go back to Sleepy Hollow in the near future. But before we do that one she has her eye on A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I can't wait until we get to reading some of Emily Dickinson and of course one of our favorites The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

The text

These poems and stories are all the full version, not anthologies where you only read excerpts. For a more complete overview there are tests for each selection that you read as well as an answer key for the teacher in the very back of the teacher guide. We have not decided how we will use these or if we will at this time.

Test answer key

Test

We have discussed purchasing another student guide book so that my 10th grade student could join in on these studies. I think that with them working together it might make it a little easier on my younger daughter so that she could discuss the questions with another student, not just with mom/teacher. And since literature is really my "thing", I hope that they will enjoy learning from these authors just as much as I have.

We have truly enjoyed all of our Memoria Press curriculum and look forward to continuing with Poetry & Short Stories: American Literature Set.  There were many other products being reviewed this time by other members of the Crew including Latin, other books of poetry in their collection, as well as their Classical Phonics program. I encourage you to check these all out by clicking the link below. You can also find Memoria Press on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!