My Homeschool Grades Review

Create professional looking grade reports and high school transcripts within minutes with My Homeschool Grades.  This program is probably the easiest, most flexible grade keeping tool you'll ever use!

After signing up for an account, with a click of the mouse, add your students, add their classes and extra curriculum activities.  There's even an option to recreate past grades for a given student.

Now here's the fabulous part - the totally customizable screen in the set up area.  My Homeschool Grades has a listing of some popular curricula in the 'Choose Publisher' pull down menu.  If yours isn't on the list, just  choose 'other'.


For example, we are Math-u-See users and this curriculum was listed in the pull down screen.  Clicking on this option and then the corresponding level will bring you to an input screen with areas for all lessons, tests and even applicable honors pages.  But what if you didn't do every lesson or skipped around in the book?  No sweat!  Just erase that particular line.  "Poof!"  It's that easy!

Another great feature is the flexible grading area.  Besides the pass/fail feature, My Homeschool Grades recognizes letter grades, percentages AND fractional grades.  Here's the kicker - you DON'T have to chose how you input them upfront.  So, if Johnny scored an 85% on one sheet and the next one an 18/20, you just enter it without converting the score!


Here's a look at a simple final grade screen for my 4th grader using pass/fail for the grading system:

This is how my 9th grader's classes and activities look after I have inputted all the necessary information:

My 9th Grader's Activities section:

Here's a look at my 9th Grader's transcript.  My Homeschool Grades also offers you the ability to input classes for 1/4 - 4  credits plus choose yearly, semesters or quarterly and even dual enrollment!

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed using My Homeschool Grades.  It truthfully is the easiest, most straightforward grade tracking / transcript making program I've ever used.  I can see how this revolutionary program will save many a homeschooling parent time and sanity when it comes to grade reporting!

A Lifetime Membership is just $49.99 and is well worth it!  But, don't take my word for it, click HERE to try a 14 day free trial for yourself!

Check out what other Mosaic Reviewers are saying about this product (Live link coming soon!)

Free Printables to Help With Your Planning Needs!

It's that time of the year again!  Time to brain storm, get organized and start planning the next school year.

Here are some great calendars and printables for your homeschooling needs from Free Printable Online.  While you are visiting their website, don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter!


Some calendar styles include:

For more free printables, ranging from worksheets and lesson plans, to cards, calendars, invitations, crafts, coupons, coloring pages, music, activities and more, please check out www.freeprintableonline.com today! 

For more free printables, ranging from worksheets and lesson plans, to cards, calendars, invitations, crafts, coupons, coloring pages, music, activities and more, please check out www.freeprintableonline.com today! 

For more free printables, ranging from worksheets and lesson plans, to cards, calendars, invitations, crafts, coupons, coloring pages, music, activities and more, please check out www.freeprintableonline.com today! 





And, choose from a wide variety of other printables:

For more free printables, ranging from worksheets and lesson plans, to cards, calendars, invitations, crafts, coupons, coloring pages, music, activities and more, please check out www.freeprintableonline.com today! 

For more free printables, ranging from worksheets and lesson plans, to cards, calendars, invitations, crafts, coupons, coloring pages, music, activities and more, please check out www.freeprintableonline.com today! 

For more free printables, ranging from worksheets and lesson plans, to cards, calendars, invitations, crafts, coupons, coloring pages, music, activities and more, please check out www.freeprintableonline.com today! 

For You They Signed Character Concepts Curriculum

For You They Signed is a unique character building curriculum from The Learning Parent.  Author Marilyn Boyer has combined her wonderful book of the same name with flash cards in order to help teach and reinforce the character qualities of our founding fathers to your highschooler.


Quite some time ago I had the pleasure of reviewing For You They Signed:
The Spiritual Heritage of Those Who Shaped Our Nation, which details each of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.  (Please read my in-depth book review HERE!).  This absolutely fascinating book can easily stand alone but is made that much better with the combination of the downloadable ebook and flash cards.

"Curriculum comes with a set of flashcards- one for each of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Your young person will learn what each signer looked like, as well as which character quality his life exemplified and a Bible verse to learn as well. What a great way to retain information you are learning in For You They Signed!"

This year we will be studying Early American History in depth with our 10th, 7th and 4/5th graders.  I can not wait to revisit this time period using this curriculum as my 10th grader's bible study/character building spine.  Though the younger kids will be listening too, I know for my oldest, it's going to be a fantastic year!



Check out a sample HERE.


Disclaimer:
I received a set of flash cards free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

South Africa - You Can Help Change Lives Too!

For over a year, my big-hearted nephew Sean has been working as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural South Africa.  He has poured his heart into the youth of that area working to make positive, lasting changes in their lives.

His latest endeavor is a week's long science camp in his village of Ha-Lambani for 70 fifth graders.  Many of these children have little to no hope of a bright future.



Sean writes, " These kids have never done a science experiment, been in a science lab or have had any quality time spent on exploring their world through the sciences."

What to help?

Check out more about what Sean is doing and how your donation - which will buy a shirt for YOU and one of the children attending science camp - can help.

Girls of American History: American Revolution / Felicity Review

Last school year we studied Modern American History. In addition to learning the facts of that era, I coupled my daughter's history/literature learning with the American Girls from the 1900's. It was a year filled with the fun of historical literature and so many hands on crafts and time period learning experiences. Though it may not have been the usual method of learning, it was certainly memorable!

Through various friends, used curriculum sales and the internet, I've wound up with quite a collection of American Girl  paraphernalia from paper dolls, craft and recipe books. Oh, and don't forget all the books giving you a glimpse of life during that time period!



Looking ahead to this coming year, I choose Girls of American History Unit: American Revolution / Felicity to review. The Felicity set takes place in Colonial times circa 1774.





These guides from Girls of American History help you piece the pieces together in order to get the most out of your study! They currently have Kaya, Josephina, Felicity, Kirsten, Addy, Molly and Kit.


As a homeschool mom to five kids, Author Justine Gamble created this series to accommodate various learning styles and abilities. She follows the pattern of "Read it, Hear it, See it, Write it and Do it."


Each flexible unit includes a weekly schedule, list of books, craft resources, field trip ideas, party ideas and more! This isn't an total curriculum, but a VERY useful guide to "add depth, interest, interaction, crafts and a historical perspective into a particular time period."


To complete our study, we need a few of the regular 6 book American Girl set.  Fortunately, these are easily found at most libraries. Using the neat included schedule, I can easily plan on covering one book a week from the series PLUS at least one time period craft. Craft suggestions include: cross stitch, clay marbles, fancy folding fans, billboquet and more. We will also study the 13 original colonies, George & Martha Washington, Betsy Ross, Benjamin Franklin and other historical figures. Extra reading, character studies, and a link to lapbook templates are also included.


I am very satisfied with the content and layout of this guide. Since it will fit in perfectly with our Tapestry of Grace Year 2 curriculum, I will be saving this until we hit the Revolutionary War time period. I will also be blogging about Felicity, crafts made and the use of this guide in action in our "Weekly Wrap Ups".

Check out samples of the Kaya and Josephina guides HERE.

Disclaimer:

I received a copy of this guide free of charge in exchange for an honest review.