"Second star to the right and straight on till morning"

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Weekly Wrap Up!

Week 15 and 16:

We have had a couple of crazy weeks around here, and I did not get around to a weekly wrap up last week. Instead I'm combining the last two weeks into one post. School is going well, and Buster is really getting into his reading time. Today he actually read two days worth of Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express just because he didn't want to stop. He has been practicing multiples of 3, and has them all memorized. Buster will be finishing All About Spelling level 1 next week, and is making some progress with his spelling. Sweetpea turned 5 on the 31st, and is doing better with school. I have been doing my best to tweak our learning time to her needs, and it is working. I have loads of pictures to share with you all:

Guess who turned 5!

The kids were pretending this was a canoe!

Buster made a St. George's cross flag. The flag flown by English ships such as the Mayflower.

Look who's walking!

All that walking wore him out!

Math time! We are doing a ton of hands on work!

Guess who will be 1 on the 9th!

Sweetpea had a Peter Pan party on Sunday!

Our latest cake creation!

Little fairies!

Pinata time!

The party guests!

Candy!

We made shadows on Monday!

We carved pumpkins

Pretending to be crows feeding Elijah!

Buster made his own ice cream!

Sweetpea loves her new skirt from grandma!

It is perfect for spinning!

Buttercup had to model to!

Stay tuned for buddies party pictures!

For more weekly wrap ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

PG Key! TOS review

In this ever growing technical world it is more important than ever to protect our children from the potential dangers of the internet. As we all know the internet can be so very useful to us especially as home schoolers, but it can also be a very ugly place. My children are fairly young and there internet access is limited in that I do not allow them to surf, and I am always right by them when they use it. As Buster is getting older I have been thinking it was getting time to look into getting some sort of filtering program. I was excited to be chosen to review PG Key. PG Key is a small jump drive device that you plug right into an available USB port on any computer and install. I had my husband help me, but we found it quite easy to install. The program itself has many features that parents can control. Such as adding key words that you want to be notified of, and blocking particular sites. From the limited searching I tried with it I was not overly impressed with it's filtering, or content blocking ability especially with image searches. PG Key does offer their own safe search that does seem to filter better than Google. The notification feature, and the activity tracking seemed to work quite well. Some other features it offers is time allowance, and access control. With the time allowance you can set a daily time limit for your children, and with access control the PC will not work unless the key is inserted. You can also set the PG Key up so that it only works on the kids side, and the computer can be accessed without it by using a password. I can see how this product would work nicely with responsible teens who would be kept in line by knowing mom will be checking up on everything they view, and will be notified of suspicious activity. For young children like my own I would prefer a stronger filter and blocking program. It is just too easy to accidentally click on or find inappropriate content, and I would rather prevent than do damage control after the fact. "PG Key" costs $49.99+ $8.95 shipping, and has no annual fees.

Pros:

Price is reasonable

Easy to install, and use

Activity tracking is very thorough

Cons:

Filtering and blocking did not meet my expectations

PG Key was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

For more reviews check out the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Weekly Wrap Up! HOD

Week 14:

We had a very full week of school, house painting, swim lessons, and a field trip.

Buster has been learning his multiples of 2, and by the end of the week had them all memorized. He really enjoyed reading Wagon Wheels, and even asked to read it sooner in the day than normal. He is continuing to use Talking fingers and made it to level 4.

Sweetpea has been having fun with hands on math, and is doing great with her phonics lessons.

Buttercup has finally started to have potty training success, and hopefully will be trained soon. She is also enjoying her "Little Reader" program, and trying to learn along with Sweetpea.

Buddy is getting so big! He started taking steps this week, and will take up to 3-4 steps before sitting. Here are some of the things we did:

Chili time!