04/06/2016

Are your kids interested in film animation? {Review}

Film Animation for Kids

Stopmotion Explosion Review

For as long as I can remember my 11-year-old son has been talking about making his own movie. He has all these ideas in his imagination of talking animals and bad guys and how some superhero is going to save the day. As he grew older, I’ve allowed him to explore some coding and learning how to create an app. Still, he persisted that he wants to be able to make a video. Imagine how excited he was when he found out he could create his own film animation! We were thrilled to receive the Stopmotion Explosion Animation Kit to review.

The Stopmotion Explosion Animation Kit includes a Quick Start Guide booklet, a Stopmotion Explosion Animate Anything and Make Movies book, a webcam and a CD-Rom. We started off my reading through the Quick Start Guide. This booklet walked us through what stop motion movies are and how to get started making our own!

Although I consider myself slightly technologically challenged, there was only a slight (and I mean very slight) learning curve for me. I put the CD into the computer’s disk drive and the installer automatically starts. It took me a minute to locate the program once it was loaded. Soon, there were cries and cheers as we saw that the camera actually was hooked up and working (this was also super easy). I read through the booklet to my 11-year-old and pointed out that there were multiple tutorials to be watched to get more explanation and information. These were easy to access on the Stopmotion Explosion website. There is info on lighting, focus, camera resolution, and a problem-solving section. There are also detailed instructions for both Windows and OS X. Finally, he was ready to get to work!

The book titled, “Animate Anything and Make Movies” by Nate Eckerson, which was also included in the kit, is divided up into 17 chapters. This book is packed full of pertinent info for a future film and movie maker. Some of the chapters that we enjoyed were Chapter 3: Creating Stories, Chapter 4: Building Sets, Chapter 8: Animating, Chapter 9: Flight, Chapter 10: The Art of War, Chapter 11: Sound, and Chapter 12: Video Editing. My 11 year old told me his two favorite chapters were chapter 10 and 11. The first chapter even gives a short history of film! In certain chapters, they mention apps and software that can be downloaded for free in order to achieve certain special effects. I love that in addition to a short overview of what the chapter is about they give step by step instructions to all sorts of things that your child will want and need to know to make a finished product. While I read most of the book aloud to my son, he and my 8-year-old daughter were able to read a lot of it to themselves as they were working.

As far as making an actual movie, my son thought it was pretty easy. He just set up a mini figure or character and then pointed the camera at it. Once that was set up he clicked a button called “grab” on the computer software and then moved the figure a little bit and then hit “grab” again. He repeated this until the scene was complete and then clicked the “Make Movie” button. Once you do that the movie is nearly done. In fact, if you want to have a silent movie you are done! There is another step to adding sound and video editing.

What My Son Thought:

I asked my son what his thoughts were about this product and he told me in his own words what he liked. Here it is:

The how to on “onion skinning” was fun.
The info on extra apps for video editing and sound – I really liked using Windows Movie Maker.
I like how they make people appear to “talk”.
I thought it was pretty cool when they showed how to do “action moves” in the book.
I like the different images that pop up that can be used as part of your movie. Some of them were like looking out of a telescope, a cloud to look like you are thinking, or the one you are falling in love. Those make it really fun!
I like that the camera can rotate to be used in any direction. We can also zoom in and out through the computer and the camera will follow along.
It looked like that the mini figures were doing everything all by themselves – like how my minifigure could take off his hat all by himself.

Would I Recommend This?

Yes! I definitely DO recommend Stopmotion Explosion if your child is at all interested in film animation I think this could be an excellent addition to your homeschool day. I love that at my son’s age after the quick tutorial (with me reading through the guide) he was able to do most of this by himself. This is something that would be easy to incorporate into your school day and loads of fun for years to come!

Take a sneak peak into one of my son’s video creations!

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04/04/2016

The Fast Way I Taught My Kids the Times Tables {Review}

The Fast & Fun Way I Taught My Kids The Times Tables

{Times Tales Review}

Are you searching for a way to teach the times tables to your kids and a fun and exciting way? Is math boring for your kids? I want to share with you an amazing program we have found. We have been using this fun program called Times Tales from The Trigger Memory Co. to help my son and daughter learn multiplication.

What is Times Tales?Times Tales is a memory learning program created by Trigger Memory Co. It is essentially a collection of stories that tell the times tables in an easy to remember format. First, the characters are introduced. There is a butterfly (who is a number 3), Mrs. Snowman (who is really a number 8) and Mrs. Week (who is a number 7), among other number animations. The Times Tales are divided up into two parts.

Part one is about 30 minutes long and tells the characters, the stories, and then provides a memory time when the kids get to play a quiz show to see if they memorized the stories. The stories are fun and silly – there are always two characters (which represent the numbers) and then there are two numbers that are illustrated and then typed on the screen for visual clues (those are the answers.)

Following that is another quiz show to see how much they remember of their times tables. There is even a bonus section of division problems. Provided with the digital download set was part 1 and part 2, a set of printable flash cards, a set of printable paper dice, some crossword puzzles (to help assist your child in memorizing the stories) and several quizzes.

Who Did I Use This With?I used this with my 8-year-old (3rd grade) daughter and my 13-year-old son who has autism and developmental delays. My daughter is right on the brink of memorizing her times tables so I thought it this would be beneficial for her. In her math book, she has done 0’s, 1’s, and 2’s and this program really does 3’s-9’s. So she was the perfect grade level for this curriculum. My son is working on about a second grade level in math and at the time of starting this knew very little about multiplication but he really wanted to learn.

How Did We Use It?(Note: I’m sharing with you my family’s creative way we used this program. I look for ways that makes learning fun for kids with developmental disabilities and other learning disabilities. You don’t have to follow this same pattern if you use this product with your children).

Day 1:

We started off by watching the video Part 1. I would pause it periodically to make sure my son understood. We would repeat the stories often. We would watch the video on one day and do some follow-up work during the rest of the week.

We watched the Part 1 from beginning to the end and I was so happy when I got to the game show section. I had no idea this was part of it but my son LOVES games shows. In fact, that is one of the best ways to get him to learn. I let them play along with the game show, pausing the video to allow them to answer the questions the host asked.

Day 2: We did flash cards together. These flash cards are easy to print and cut out and they were perfect for extra practice. There are two different sets of flash cards for part 1. Some have the pictures of the characters and some have the actual written numbers. This provides good visual clues to your students.

Day 3: We practiced with the provided crossword puzzle and the quizzes.

Day 4: We created our own game show with the provided dice. We re-created the game show “The Chase” which my oldest is in love with. If you aren’t familiar with this GSN show, it features 3 contestants who one by one go head to head against the British genius known as “The Beast”. There are three rounds. Round 1: one minute worth of questions between the host and the first contestant which determines how much “money” you are eligible to win. Round 2: Head-to-head, one-on-one with the “Beast”. Round 3: All the contestants in one final round against the Beast.

So … if you followed all that you will be interested to know that I played the host, my 11-year-old math obsessive son played “The Sheep” (his animal of choice), and there were two contestants (my 13-year-old and 8-year-old). I set the timer for 1 minute on my mobile phone and asked a bunch of questions (many of them from the crossword puzzle they had just completed). However many questions they got right determined how many (pretend) thousands of dollars they could win. When they went against “The Sheep” – I would ask the same question to both kids and they both had a chance to answer.

If the contestant child gets it right they move down the board toward the finish line. If “The Sheep” gets it right he has a chance to catch the contestant. In the final part of the show, both contestants had to work together to remember their times tales and division facts!

That was a rather long explanation to a rather fun day! The kids didn’t even know they were learning and memorizing. This was especially beneficial to my oldest son. He tends to not want to sit for long but this captured his interest big time.
The next week we started over with Part 2!

Does it work?

My 8-year-old daughter memorized her times tables through the use of this program! She got 100% right on her final quiz. My son will need more practice, but he has started the process of learning his times tables and has quite of few of the math facts memorized, now. Also, this program gave him a launching off point and some really, really great memories of how fun “school” can be!

What are my thoughts?

I think this is a fantastic program! This truly makes learning the times tables fun! Anything that makes math fun is a winner, in my book. You can break it up into even more days if your child has memory problems or can’t sit for long. I really like that they include division, as well because the one you associate the three numbers for multiplication, it makes it especially easy to complete the division problems. I think that part was good for my daughter who thought division would be super difficult. I think she had a light-bulb moment at the end of this program. This program is especially good for visual learners, kids who struggle with math, or kids who have learning disabilities in general.

To follow Trigger Memory Company on Social Media Click Below:FacebookTo read more reviews on Times Tales please click the banner below:

Times Tales by the The Trigger Memory Co REVIEW

04/02/2016

Autism Turned My Son into a Superhero {Autism Awareness}

Autism Turned My Son into a Superhero!!!

by Ben Mills

OK… do I have your attention?

The month of April is now officially recognized as ‘Autism Awareness’ month. A big part of the movement for ‘Autism Awareness’ is the “Light-It-Up-Blue” campaign which is primarily sponsored and marketed by the largest autism organization in the world, Autism Speaks. The blue puzzle piece pin has become a common accessory during the month of April. This awareness effort is very similar to what the Susan G. Komen Foundation has done with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October and the barrage of pink ribbons that are worn during that month.

I am a father of 6 children. My oldest is a 13-year old named Adam. Adam has multiple disabilities and falls under the “autism spectrum.” We noticed Adam’s autism at an early age. Over the course of his life, Adam has received physical, speech, occupational and ABA therapy to help with his mental and physical disabilities. I will discuss the “autism spectrum” in more detail later on, but Adam falls somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. He is not high-functioning like people with Asperger’s and he is not severely disabled like those autistic children that are unable to speak and really function at all in society.

Over the past several years, there has been a growing movement from some parents with autistic children as well as some researchers and doctors that take offense to Autism Speaks’ primary mission which is “dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism.” The “anti-Autism Speaks” crowd says that we should be focused on “autism acceptance” as opposed to “autism awareness.” These may seem like similar efforts, but it is basically the difference between seeking a cure for a debilitating disorder and simply accepting autism as some sort of “evolutionary” development.

I recently stumbled upon a blog post titled “Why I don’t support Autism Speaks (which is why I don’t ‘light it up blue’)”. In her blog she makes the point that Autism Speaks supports eugenics. That’s right… EUGENICS. Eugenics is commonly understood as the justification that the Nazis used in order to exterminate Jews in an effort to create a better ‘master’ race. So basically her premise is that because Autism Speaks seeks to research and treat disorders caused by autism, they are essentially trying to eliminate those “people” that actually have autism. She states, “They want to eliminate autism. I’m not going to support anyone who wishes my sons could have been prevented.” Apparently she has confused the goal to eradicate a disorder with the eradication of the “people” that are inflicted with the disorder.

Furthermore, she states, “Genetic therapies, genetic testing – I don’t in general have a problem with those, but trying to direct the course of human evolution – that leaves me queasy.” Essentially she is saying that autism could in some way be a furthering of the evolution of the human race.

Let’s delve into how ridiculous this is. Unfortunately, despite what my title suggests, my son does not have superpowers. He is not capable of growing razor-like claws out of his knuckles, he is not capable of shooting laser beams out of his eyes, and he is not even able to shape-shift into the likeness of others before returning to his original blue-colored skin. The X-Men all had these “evolutionary” advances, but to my chagrin, it appears that was in fact just the plot of a comic book series.

Autism is not an evolutionary development. Autism has existed for a long time. It is only recently within the past 30-40 years that we have learned more about it, but rest assured, this is not some ‘up-and-coming’ evolutionary development into some “super” new subset of human beings. That’s not to say that autism is not growing and becoming more prevalent… It is. And I am not one to claim that I understand why that is happening, which is the exact reason why we need organizations like Autism Speaks in order to raise money for research and treatment.

Unfortunately, much of the understanding that most Americans have about autism comes from the movie ‘Rain Man’. Rain Man was a man with Asperger’s that was capable of amazing mental feats and was able to use those abilities in math in order to win a ton of money by counting cards at the blackjack table in Las Vegas. WOW… I’d love to have a guy like that around!

Sadly, this is not an example of what autism looks like for the large majority of families that deal with autism and live with autism day in and day out.

Autism has become a catch-all term that is used to define an incredibly wide variety of neurological disorders. Do you know why that is? Because we still don’t fully understand it! There has not been enough study and research into understanding the causes and treatments for autism. I’ve met autistic kids that seem like any other child but may just have some social abnormalities. I’ve also met autistic children that are wheelchair bound and are incapable of eye-contact or speech. That’s an incredibly wide spectrum. Let’s not pretend that autism is some mild evolutionary quirk. The truth is, we need to learn more and study more in order to first understand it, and then figure out how to treat it.

My son will likely never live on his own. Adam will likely never drive a car. Adam will likely never develop beyond the educational level of a 3^rd grade child. THIS is the reality of autism. Do I love Adam?… Do I ACCEPT him?… of course I do. However, would I love for him to be able to live a life that my other 5 children will be able to live? My goodness… YES!

I’ve cried for my son more times than I can count. I pray for him regularly. I don’t cry and pray because I don’t accept him or think of him as less than my other children… I cry because I love him and want his crippling disorder to be healed.

I understand that some people cope with autism by pretending that it is some sort of superpower. I get it. I don’t judge you. I’ve been there. However, let’s not pretend autism is anything other than what it is… a DEBILITATING NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER.

For me, I will continue to support Autism Speaks and all other autism organizations that support the research and treatment for autism. So I encourage you to ‘Light it Up Blue’ and give to autism research.

04/01/2016

Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Weekly Planner and Yearly Printable

Last year I wrote about our journey in Charlotte Mason Homeschooling and how we created our own version of Charlotte Mason Homeschooling. I wanted to quickly share the printables with you which are free to download to anyone who subscribes to our website (for free). Just click on either or both of the pictures below to download these planning sheets. If you need the password, scroll to the bottom of this page.

If you still need the password click here:

04/01/2016

Creating a School Schedule {That Works For Your Family}

Creating a School Schedule

That Works for Your Family

One thing that I’ve learned throughout our homeschooling journey is that our school schedule needs to change with the ages and stages of our growing kids. When you have little kids and are homeschooling older kids you need to take account of the ages of all the kids in your home. We have gone through different seasons of using one school schedule and then later realizing we need to change it. It doesn’t mean that the schedule failed (or that we failed) but that it worked for a time and then we saw the need for a change. Here are some different schedules I’ve used throughout the years:

School Schedule #1

1.) School in the morning

When I was pregnant with my fourth, I was homeschooling my two older kids (2nd grade & Kindergarten) and my 3 year old daughter tagged along with us. We schooled at the table and in our living room and she sat there right along with us and learned. This worked for us for quite a while. Sometimes she would get into stuff – but I always provided busy boxes and allowed her to sit there with us during the most of the school time. We would get done with school by around noon. The afternoon was our rest time.

School Schedule #2

2.) Early Morning & Early Afternoon

Last year, when I was pregnant with our sixth baby I needed a change. I formed an idea that ended up working beautifully until the baby was born. My older kids and I woke up around 7 a.m. and went downstairs. We did about an hour and a half of schooling and got the majority of our left page of Heart of Dakota curriculum done. Then we would break for breakfast around 8:30 – 9 a.m. The children would work for about an hour independently while I tended to the two smaller kids. Then they would take a break and after lunch I would do my one on one time with each kid (usually math and language arts). The only reason I stopped this schedule was because I had a newborn and was not getting enough rest to wake that early!

School Schedule #3

3.) Afternoon Schooling

Recently we’ve tried something I call “my upside down day“. I really had to give up my ideals of starting school early and then having free time or nap time. What I have realized with having a baby, a pre-schooler and a child who is just starting kindergarten. I needed to scrap my idea of morning school except for my kindergartener. I work with him in short bursts during the morning – in between some chores and housework. Our afternoons are filled with school for the older kids. This allows the baby and preschooler to take their naps and my 5 year old to have some quiet time while the older kids and I get our school work done in quiet.

Steps to creating a routine:

Make a list of needs & wants. What I recently started doing is create a list of all we need to get done in the week and what we would like to get done.

What are your prior commitments for that week? Fill these in first to see what is left. If you find you have too many commitments you might need to start saying “no” more often.

What field trips do you want to do? My good friend just told me how she makes a “bucket list” for the year with her children. They pick things they really want to do and then she makes time in their schedule to make it happen. Maybe sit down with your kids and make a list of all the fun outings they can think of and figure out a plan for doing some of them. It might be weekly, monthly, or once a quarter – it might even been as a special reward.

Pencil in how things will work and give yourself a week or two to try it out. Don’t worry if the routine doesn’t work right off the bat – give yourself some grace as you try something new.

Try to find balance that works for you . Example: could you do one park day a week after you get your school done? Maybe one field trip at the end of each month. Do one outing for the littles and one for the bigs each month.

Make time for friends. Find outings that include other homeschooling families and then invite them.

Make time for yourself: Maybe it is a quiet hour in the afternoon where you can rest, read, or sit and write some letters. Find some time for yourself in this busy season.

There should be a time for chores, a time for school, a time for silly play with the littles, a time for rest in each homeschool day!

What kind of school schedule do you use for your family? Leave a comment below.

Find more tips for your homeschool:
Dawn @ Double O Farms
Dawn @ Guiding Light Homeschool
Debbie @ Debbie’s Homeschool Corner
Desiree @ Our Homeschool Notebook
Diana @ Busy Homeschool Days
Diana @ Homeschool Review
Elyse @ Oiralinde: Eternal Song
Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness
Erin @ For Him and My Family
Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy

5 Days of Tips for Homeschooling Parents

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Are your kids interested in film animation? {Review}

Film Animation for Kids

Stopmotion Explosion Review

The Fast Way I Taught My Kids the Times Tables {Review}

The Fast & Fun Way I Taught My Kids The Times Tables

{Times Tales Review}

Autism Turned My Son into a Superhero {Autism Awareness}

Autism Turned My Son into a Superhero!!!

Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Weekly Planner and Yearly Printable

Creating a School Schedule {That Works For Your Family}

Creating a School Schedule

That Works for Your Family

School Schedule #1

School Schedule #2

School Schedule #3

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Stopmotion Explosion Review

The Fast & Fun Way I Taught My Kids The Times Tables

{Times Tales Review}

Autism Turned My Son into a Superhero!!!

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School Schedule #1

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School Schedule #3

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