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Having spent the better part of the past few days working on making sure “The Artist” would be able to get the prescription filled that he needs, I have once again come to realize that bureaucracy exists for the sole purpose of making our lives miserable.

“The Artist” is listed on my husband’s insurance, and we are required to do mail order prescriptions, so we get a three month supply. If we fill at a local pharmacy, we pay quite a bit more, for quite a bit less medication. Well, that’s what ended up happening yesterday, once we finally got it all fixed.

The prescription provider wanted a pre-authorization from the doctor, but we were never notified ahead of time. for the record, they never have given us a heads up, either. So the doctor himself spent time on the phone trying to get through to the correct person at the subscription provider, only to be routed from place to place. Our doctor had never received a request for a pre-auth, either, by the way.

Finally, my husband called the place where our prescriptions are filled, and got through to someone. She gave him a good phone number to get right through to the correct department. Then, she faxed a request to the doctor, and they faxed the information back yesterday afternoon.

However, yesterday morning, our local pharmacy still couldn’t get the short term 30 day prescription to go through, so i called. Again. I spent some time explaining (again!) what was happening, and the lady put me on hold for a while. I don’t know what she did, but when she came back she had gotten the pre-auth accepted and gave me a number for it just in case. I was finally able to go to the local pharmacy for the 30 day supply, which he will need to hold him until the 3 month supply is received through the mail, processed and sent to us. BTW, that 3 month supply? $20.00. The 30 day supply purchased locally? $35.00, because that’s how our plan works.

Don’t misunderstand, I am very thankful that we have insurance through my husband’s job, and I still disagree with socialized health care. But really, couldn’t there be a better way to let a patient know they will need a doctor’s pre-authorization? In this day and age, a simple computer generated message via email, text, or phone to say “before your next fill, you will need a pre-authorization from the doctor.” That would be so much better than, say, going to fill your kid’s prescription, and finding out right then that it is needed. What this causes is worry over the patient being jerked off a needed medication, when that is not safe. This needs to change.

I have to say right away, I personally think that the company Institute for Excellence in Writing is pretty awesome, and *I* thought it would be just great to learn with their Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, I was NOT so very sure about the kids. As you know, I have all boys. Boys? Poetry? I didn’t know how well that mix would be.

First, here is what Institute for Excellence in Writing provided to us for the purpose of this review:

• Spiral bound Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization teacher’s book
• An attractive case containing five CD’s which have all of the poems and speeches for each of the five levels in this course
• 7 audio MP3’s
• The DVD “Nurturing Competent Communicators”
• downloadable e-book of the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization Student Book

The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization teacher’s manual is very thorough!

Institute for Excellence in Writing very generously also included in our package a spiral bound copy of the student book, which you may, if you wish to have it already pre-printed and bound, order here.

Right off the bat is a blue page with special instructions for the owner of this curriculum to go to the IEW website and log into our account. At that time I was able to check off the e-resources I wanted to download. It gives full instructions as to how to get exactly which resources we would be using with the Linguistics through Poetry Memorization course of study. This is where we were able to download the seven MP3’s:

• Nurturing Competent Communicators
• Mastery Learning, Ability Development, and Individualized Education
• Ten Thousand Times and Then Begins Understanding
• On Listening
• On Speaking
• On Reading
• On Writing

As the owner of this course of study, we were  also able to download the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization Student pages for personal use only, within our immediate family or classroom. I believe strongly that this is an extremely generous copy-wright policy.

I found it very interesting when reading the Teacher Manual to see how much I had never really thought of. the author Andrew Pudewa, begins by talking about why memorization is very important, especially in this day and age when students are not being taught to use it very much anymore. I don’t know why it is considered useless, given that every single child I have ever known can recite or sing lyrics from a song or a commercial they heard years ago, and in the case of at least a couple of my kids, recite lines from cartoons or movies that are so old I don’t even remember them!

Not only do we read about the “why” of memorization, we read about the “science” of memorization. It helps with brain development. I learned this a long time ago with my oldest child who was born with brain damage as a result of his birth mother’s alcohol consumption. When I would break Bible verses up into sections and give them a cadence such as one might hear in a poem, he could do it. He memorized the whole of Psalm 23 when he was quite young because we did that.

In the course Linguistics through Poetry Memorization, the whole idea is to begin with the first poem in level one (there are five levels), which starts with short, enjoyable poems. This way, one can begin at any age to gain mastery. This plan is similar to the Suzuki plan for music instruction, something I became familiar with through friends who’s children learn with that method.

To teach the program, the teacher and the student(s) recite one poem together several times a day. They can use the audio CD to recite along with, which will help with correct pronunciation. Using the downloaded student book allows for each student to put together their own book of memorized poetry into a notebook. I like this because then they each have the pre-printed  chart for checking off all poems memorized to date. In order to remember previous poems, whenever a new one is started, and recited several times a day, all previously learned poems should be recited at least once per day. Hey, I just realized that this method also will cause ME to learn all of the poems and speeches to mastery, won’t it! How nice!

Another positive about having the downloadable student pages is that several poems come with a coloring page for those who may enjoy personalizing that poem.

We like very much that there is a wide variety of poems and speeches to appeal to all of us. There are poems for the young, poems I enjoy, and definitely poems my boys can enjoy, too! I imagine this course will take us a good long time to complete, but I like that, myself. We enjoy things that we can take our time with, and really dig in deep. I think  in the end, we will (including me!) have learned and memorized all 20 poems in each of the first four levels, and the twenty speeches in level five!

To see what my crew mates thought of this wonderful resource, please click the banner below.

As always, I would just love it if you joined me on all of my “journeys Through Life”! Simply go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information, then you will always know when a new post is here. Hope to see you come on board! 🙂

So, yet again our dear “Mr.Loquacious”, the guy who seems to believe he is indestructible, proved not to be.

THIS time, while on a trip to a local park with the boys next door, he managed to injure himself on some exercise equipment. It seems that he tried to get off of it without bringing himself back to the ground, and the metal bar conked him a good one on the right side of his head.

So, we spent several hours in the E.R. after having done exactly the same thing, exactly two weeks previously when he flipped head over the handlebars of his new bike.

Alas . . . the life of the mom of a daredevil boy!

So, “Mr. Loquacious”, our most dare-devil kid once again thinking he must be indestructible, wiped out on his new bike and had to go to the emergency room yesterday. Thought this time he really might have fractured something or sprained it, but it turned out to be very deep bruising. He sure was in substantial pain, though! They x-rayed the injury, and we went home with a sling and a prescription for pain medications.

As always, I’d love to have you join me on all of my “Journeys Through Life”. Just enter your email into the subscription box at the top of the blog, and you’ll be notified when there is a new post!

As always, I would love to have you join me on all of my “Journeys Through Life!” Just enter your email into the subscription box, and you’ll be notified whenever there’s a new post!

Longed for, and long awaited!

“Mr. Loquacious”

“The Puzzler”

They are so happy! Their birthday isn’t actually until May 1, but we got the bikes and had nowhere to hide them, lol!

As always, I’d love to have you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just enter your email information into the subscription box at the top of the blog, and you’ll always be informed of anything new! I sure hope you will! 🙂

1. Quick Reference Guides (spelling rules, phonogram, etc)
2. Spelling rule flash cards
3. Grammar flash cards
4. Basic phonogram flash cards
5. Advanced phonogram flashcards
6. Morpheme flash cards
7. Phonogram game cards and game tiles

We were also blessed with the Essential Readers, which came in download format. These are great for the struggling older reader, and the one thing I think may convince “Mr. Loquacious” to continue with this. He has an issue with reading “anything that doesn’t interest me, or is to babyish”, but, he’s also resisted formal learning for as long as we have had him, so almost 6 years given that we adopted him and his twin in 2009.

My own personal opinion is that this is a very structured program, whereas I am NOT a very structured person, lol! However, if it works for him, and we can continue without argument, I can force myself int more structure if need be.

To read what other review crew members think, please click here!

 

As always, I would love to have you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Please just go to the email sign up box at the top of the blog, enter your email, and you will always know when something new is going on! 🙂

Linking up at:

http://totsandme.blogspot.com/2016/03/wordless-wednesday-march-2-2016-wlinky.html

As always, I would just love to have you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life!” Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, enter your email, and never miss an update!

“The Artist” has been working on HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections, another terrific product from the company Home School in the Woods.

He has especially been enjoying this one because this is an election year, and it will be his first time being a voter!

Home School in the Woods is a quality company, and I really like that the Lap-Paks they have can be purchased as downloads. This allows them to be used for more than one child in your family, including being able to wait and use it again with a younger child who may not be ready when you buy it for an older child. 🙂

Other than supplies such as file folders, double sided tape, some fasteners, card stock, paper and optional colored pencils, every thing you will need is in your download, ready to print, cut, assemble and write information into. Below, you can see the supplies that we began with, to use with our downloaded information:

In fact, many of the small informational booklets give you the choice of printing out the insides with lines to write on, or already typed text for those not ready to write in the provided space, or who, like one of my boys, have difficulty writing or printing.

There will be sections requiring that the student look up the needed information that is provided in a printable text. It can be printed as 8 1/2 x 11 pages to keep in a notebook or as is our preference, as a small booklet, which can then be kept in a pocket we make on the back of the Lap-Pak.

Here, you can see “The Artist” working on some of the projects:

Below, you can see how he is keeping the individual projects from being lost of ruined, until such time as they are all completed. At that time, the actual Lap-Pak will be assembled, and all of the separate projects placed into it. This is one of the best parts of doing a Lap-Pak, because it is all contained into one unit, and the student cements the knowledge he has gained every single time he goes back to look at it. We do like this kind of learning!

I have even been able to print out things as needed, and let “The Artist” loose to work on his own. I had to go out for a while, and asked his dad to have him work on some of the projects I had printed out, and to please take some pictures while he was working. I came home to find out that not only had he taken some good pictures of “The Artist” working, Dad had also gotten some very good pictures of the process, too! I had not even thought to get a close up picture of him putting projects into the large freezer bag, which I feel is an important idea!

All in all, we LOVE Home School in the Woods! The Lap-Paks are wonderful, a d quite full of great information. They are not in any way complicated to use, and I can easily recommend them to anyone, home-schooler or not. 🙂

Here are some more places to check out Home School in the Woods:

Facebook

Google+

Pinterest

Twitter

As always, I would love to have you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, enter your email, and you will be notified whenever there is something new here! I’d also love to have you go and give our Facebook page a like. See you there!