Life of Fred and All About Spelling

Please note that due to a large number of orders this month, several of the Life of Fred and All About Spelling titles are currently out of stock.  This mainly includes the Elementary Maths series - Apples, Butterflies, etc., and the first Level of All About Spelling.

More are on their way, but it may be a couple of weeks before we have them. 

Apologia titles are also depleting - we have now sold out of Physical Science, Marine Biology, and the Human Body;  Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.

If you wish to check on the availability of any title, simply send us an email to:  adnilpress@ozemail.com.au 

Enjoy the rest of the holidays! 

Linda.

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner

Today I have finished my plan for our homeschool year, including curriculum, extra-curricula activities, and reading lists (I will blog soon about all the resources we'll be using this year).  Normally, I type everything up on my computer, and print it all out - including a record page for every day of the year, then bind it all together in a book.

But this year, I have found something new!   I have discovered 'The Ultimate Homeschool Planner' by Debra Bell.  This planner contains most of what I would normally make up and print out myself - calendars, planning pages, goals, Resource lists for each student, weekly planners (which I will use as a record of what we actually do), reading lists, activity logs, and test records.  As well, there is a space for each week to record 'This Week's Memorable Moments', and 'Evidences of God's Grace'.  Each week also contains an educational quote, and the whole planner is sprial-bound with a plastic cover - perfect in case of those occasional 'spiills' that happen when you do school work at the kitchen table.

One downside, though, for those with large families;  there is only enough space allocated each week for six students.  Of course, as two of mine have now left home, this suits us perfectly!  But two years ago, this would have been a problem.

I have still typed up our timetables and complete resource list, which has been stapled and slotted into the pocket included on the inisde of the front cover.  Another one of these pockets is included on the back cover - so any 'extra bits' you need to add are kept safe & secure.

For the sixteen years that we have homeschooled, I have always made up my own record book - this is the first record book / planner that I have ever found that suited our needs.  As you can tell, I'm most impressed, and it's wonderful to have all the planning done so early in the year.

You can find 'The Ultimate Homeschool Planner' at Christian Book:

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner By Apologia Educational Ministries Designed for the busy homeschooling mother, help bring order---and less frustration---into your life. A user's guide will help you set everything up; a one-year planning grid, student goal setter, pre-planning guide, monthly planners, weekly planner, records, teaching tips, and a high school planning guide are all provided. Yearly planning pages provide room for vision-casting with your family priorities, a review of the previous school year, a goal-setter for character and academics, and timing grids. Weekly plans provide room to write in your Bible plan, battle plan, prayers, hospitality/outreach efforts, memorable moments, achievements, and evidences of grace. Schedule pages may be filled in as you see fit-both the vertical and horizontal axes are blank for you to fill in days and subjects as you prefer. Boxes along the facing page include room for notes, supplies, and appointments. The plastic covers include folder pockets on the inside for handy storage. Spiral bound.

Happy Planning!

Linda.

And, we're back!

We have re-opened this week - all be it with a couple of  'hiccups' - Bill having to attend the dentist for emergency work, and Linda down with yet another migraine - but, we are catching up with orders and emails, and we thankyou for your patience.

On the night before we re-opened, we had a lightning storm, and it seems it somehow managed to wipe all our phone messages.  Every one.  So, if you happened to leave us a message during the Christmas / New Year break, we no longer have it.  Please call us again or email us, and we will attend to your enquiry asap.

We hope you are having a wonderful New Year, and that 2012 will be a year of great blessings.

Linda.

Speech Boot Camp

Last week, we completed ‘Speech Boot Camp’, a public speaking course from the ‘Institute for Excellence in Writing’.  The course is presented as a set of DVDs and is purely a ‘plug in and go’ curriculum – very easy to implement.  The lessons learned can be applied not only to public speaking, but also to many different everyday activities.  I have to say, we enjoyed this course immensely, and I am incredibly proud of the effort my children put into the course, and the quality of their orations.

Speech Boot Camp consists of 4 x DVDs.  The teacher and student notes are printed out, and armed with a DVD player, a pencil, and table or music stand (we happened to own a lectern – but of course, this is not necessary),  you can began the course.  Originally, the DVDs were filmed over a 4-day period, and the students involved needed to write and present four separate speeches in that time.  However, the lesson plans break the course into 11 sessions (with an optional 12^th session), which can be done over the course of 11 weeks, 11 days, or however you choose to implement it.  We opted to do 2 lessons per week, meaning that it would take us 6 weeks.  Students are required to give 4 talks during that time:  a self-introduction speech, a narrative speech, and expository (or descriptive) speech, and finally a persuasive speech.  The time of each speech varied from 3 minutes up to 7 minutes, and students are required to write a key word outline, much the same as if they were writing an essay, and then present the speech in the following lesson. 

As always with products from IEW, students are not just given topics and told to go away and prepare their talk.  Full instructions are given as to ‘how’ to go about the process, and as well, sample student speeches were presented on the DVD.  In this way, the students know exactly what is required of them.  They are given suggested topics, but the actual subject matter remains the student’s own choice, and we found that, even though there were only four of us completing the course, we came up with a wide variety of topics.  These included entertaining stories, cats vs dogs, digital cameras, and even ‘how to write a speech’.   Feedback forms are given out at the beginning of each presentation, and students are asked to provide comments and suggestions for each other.  This can become a little ‘dicey’, especially where siblings are involved, however, I found my children gave each other fair and honest comments, and offered praise and encouragement to each other. 

We learned much about speaking, preparing a speech, and standing before an audience, and we found the course to be fun and most educational. I think the worst moment we had in the entire course was when I began my descriptive speech with a joke, only to discover that by doing so, I sent myself into a giggling fit, and was almost unable to present the rest of my talk (Lesson learned – for me, it’s probably best not to use too much humour)!  During the final disc, Mr Pudewa introduced a singing teacher to speak about breathing, stance, and to give the students some exercises they could do to prepare themselves before speaking in front of an audience.  This was well timed in our case, for the following day marked the beginning of our Christmas Carol performances, and the hints and tips certainly did help!  And of course, they also helped as we presented our final oration to our little group.  I had hoped to video the favourite speech of each student as a final, lesson 12, however, my children disagreed, and so I need to be happy with just a photograph of each child.
 

All in all, we enjoyed the course very much.  Andrew Pudewa, as always, was most entertaining, often leaving us in stiches with laughter.  If there’s one person who knows how to engage an audience, it is he!  The programme was so easy to use, and at around 1 hour per lesson time, it allowed us to use the course, yet still have time to complete our other studies.  A quick read through of the teacher’s page was the only preparation time needed for the teacher – unless of course, you decide to join the class to present the speeches as well – in which case, you also need to find some time to write a speech before each lesson.  And I would encourage you to do so.  The lessons you learn about what to do, how to stand, how to speak, etc. will serve you well in any form of public speaking (or singing) that you need to do in the years to come.  This has certainly become on of my favourite IEW products, and without doubt, we will be using Speech Boot Camp again in the future.

Linda.

Foreign Language Added

The Clearance area of our website has just been updated, and now includes all sellout items in the Foreign Language section - including Memoria Press Latin, First Start French, Elementary Greek, and Trivium Pursuit Greek products.

There may be no further updates until after Christmas - time will tell, but it seems the 'busy season' has hit, so there is not much time at present for futher updates.

Linda.

Comments, Anyone?

OK, so I'm hopeless when it comes to gadgets and new toys for my website!

I was thinking the other day, how it's a bit sad that people can no longer type in comments or reviews on our site; the old site had an in-built commenting module, but the new site, which is built using a whole different programme, did not have the capability.

Google search...... and Aha! The same people who created my web building software have now put together a commenting programme, which, I found out, can be added to my site!

So I just couldn't help myself - and after a little outlaying of cash, an instant dowload and a trial, I now have the ability to add comment boxes on the Adnil Press site.

Only a few have been added thus far, but over the coming weeks, we'll no doubt be adding more. If you have any reviews or comments on such products as 'Australia, the Wide Brown Land for Me!', 'All About Spelling', 'Teaching the Classics' or 'I Love My Country', feel free to add your review. And if you have any reviews you'd like to add, but the pages do not yet have a comment box, please let me know; I'll only be too happy to add some more boxes.

God bless,

Linda.

Apologia Science

Apologia Science products have just been uploaded to our site. You'll find these under the 'Clearance' tab, and then in both the 'Elementary Science' and the 'Highschool Science' sections.

More Science books will be added in future weeks, including God's Design, Great Science Adventures, and books by John Hudson Tiner.

Please note we will be closed over Christmas and New Year - please see our home page for dates and details.

Linda.