New "Time Engineers" Educational Game (Giving away 2 copies)

Last week, Happy Elf Mom wrote about Christmas Shopping  and was having a hard time justifying purchasing gifts that would soon end up in the toy bin or some other miscellaneous corner.

Coincidentally, I received a sample of an educational video game, that I know would be perfect for her kids.
Time Engineers is video game/learning tools.  If you remember Math Blasters, Where in the World is Carmen Santiago, and Learning Adventures, you will be glad to know that this game has made learning while

Homeschool update Nov, 2011

Video Transcript

I have so many things to talk about that I am going to go ahead and make an update compilation video.  So here goes:


It is November 21st.  So, my son graduates in April so we've done 4 months of the homeschool year with five months to go. We are almost to the halfway point and I find myself correcting some miss-steps that we took this year.

Major Miss-step: Using online schooling through the public school system for the first time in my son's senior

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, which can be difficult to do in Atlanta.

However, my daughter's homeschool drama club at Artios Academies is doing Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the musical.  I am telling everyone that will listen "you will be upset if you miss this."  You will.

Here's a teaser from the actual Broadway Show:
She is playing the older lady you see at 0:12 in the video. The role is Martha, a wise cracking former Broadway star. She has an amazing solo and a couple other fun songs. Her role is mostly comical. Of course, she's not the only kid in the play. There are others.

To find out more about the show, check out the facebook page and the White Christmas blog. 

Listen to me.  These kids are really talented.  This is not your school-type play.  They are pre-professional and serious actors competing regularly (and winning) in programs like Christians in the Theater Arts (CITA), Bob Jones High School festival and the GA Shakespeare festival.  THEY CAN ACT. 

So come on out and see the show.  You won't regret it.
Thursday, Dec 8, 7pm Friday, Dec 9, 2pm and 7pm Saturday, Dec 10, 2pm and 7pm

Thursday, Dec 8, 7pm Friday, Dec 9, 2pm and 7pm Saturday, Dec 10, 2pm and 7pm at Red Clay Theater Duluth GA
Tickets are available online at www.artiosacademies.com/gwinnett Adults: $10 Children: $8
For groups of ten or more, tickets are available at the reduced rate of $8 per ticket.
Please email lstill@artiosacademies.com to order group tickets and inquire about other group incentives! Everyone is invited!

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Black students not expected to excel... not in my school district.

 I will give the link here for you to read the article yourself in case I am mis-interpreting it.

As I see it, Gwinnett County wants freedom from state education mandates.  Such a mandate dictates things like required instructional time and class size.  To avoid these mandates they must create and sign an agreement with the state called IE2 contracts. 

So far, it sounds fair enough.  Meet reasonable benchmarks, set your own rules.  Cool. 

The details of the agreement are the problem. Simply put, They set acheivement standards of African American Students lower than that of White and Asian students.  Also, standards for hispanic students are set just above that of students with disabilites, and ESOL students are even lower than that.  

This is very telling.  Approximately 40% of white and Asian students are expected to meet benchmarks.  Meanwhile just 25% of blacks are expected to meet the same standards.  It just spirals down for Hispanic students.  

There is a mindset here that is troubling at best.  This tells me that my African American child is not given the benefit of doubt that he or she can meet the same standards of their white neighbor.  Meanwhile, they live next door to each other.  We may even go to the same church, and be on the same sports teams.  Heck, they may even be best friends.  But because my child is perceived to be less academically strong, for no other reason than the color of their skin,  they will surely not be given the same kind of attention in the classroom.... because... why bother?  We don't expect much of the anyway.

And people wonder why we homeschool.


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My first homeschool purchase

Happy Elf Mom asks what was your first homeschool purchase. Turns out I still have it, use it, and recommend it. It is the Kingfisher History Encylopedia I also checked out a ton of homeschool instructional and motivational books from the library, purchased a giant children's bible that my daughter takes with her when she babysits, and a childrens dictionary that I gave away to another homeschooling family when my kids graduated to a big kids dictionary.

These are the exact books I purchased at my first homeschool fair.
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I have little faith in the school's ability to protect our children

I don't feel our local schools (this school is in my general area) are so bad that this could happen to anyone at any moment, but the schools have a reputation of being unable to respond quickly to emergency situations. Just recently, my nephew was there when his friend died in a local school. He may have lived if the people in charge had reacted more quickly and gotten him to a hospital in time. FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE

Kids are what you feed them.

I'm not talking about food.



Transcript:

So, crime is running rampant in Atlanta Schools lately, but it's not the kids.  A former bookkeeper, at Jefferson High School, Stone Mountain, agreed to a 10 year sentence after being convicted of using a school card to buy more than $10,000 in products for her personal use. ...And this money was meant for school activities.  And before that Chyrokessia Rucks was sentenced to 15 years probation after