Archive for December, 2009

Getting Ready To Home School

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

When it comes to your children, you want the best. Home schooling is your chance to shine, as not only a parent, but as a teacher. By keeping your child at home, you are able to conduct their lessons in a timely and efficient manner and help you child to stay on track with their education. To make sure your child’s home schooled education is successful, there are several things you can do.

The first, while it may be obvious to some, is the most important. You want to make sure that you and your child are on the same page. You’ll need to sit down with your child and explain the steps that will be taken to ensure their education is successful.

Setting up a scheduled time for their education is important. Just because they are receiving their education at home does not mean they do not have a schedule. In fact, with home schooling, it is very important that your child does have a schedule and it is up to both you and your child to stick to the allotted time. Before you start, talk with your child and discuss what is the best time of day to start. Some children are best right after breakfast and others do better at learning after they’ve been awake for a couple of hours. The wonderful thing about home schooling is that you know your child and how their personality and disposition will work throughout the day.
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Concentrating Sunlight for Energy

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

One of the consistent problems with solar platforms has been the inefficient conversion of sunlight to electricity. New technology and strategies are dealing with this issue.

Concentrate, Concentrate

Traditional power generating plants work by using a fuel, often fossil, to heat a liquid until it expands or turns into a gas. The pressure or gas than rotates a turbine, which cranks up a generator and produces the massive amounts of electricity we all take for granted. This is a time tested method and is used in coal, nuclear, hydropower and most major power sources. The concept is now being transferred to solar platforms in an effort to get more bang for the buck out of these clean energy platforms.

The problem with solar is sunlight is converted to energy at a rate of 10 to 15 percent efficiency, a truly uninspiring number. Put in sports terms, the best batter in baseball would have a batting average of 150, a quarterback would complete 1.5 of his attempted throws and Michael Jordan would have missed 9 out of every 10 dunks. The numbers simply aren’t pretty.
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Busy Schedule? Consider an Online College For Nursing

Friday, December 25th, 2009

When deciding on a master’s degree in nursing, consider an online college for nursing. It may be the answer for those who have reservations about returning to school. The biggest concern for most people is the time they will have to devote to attending classes, finding time for group projects, homework, and taking tests. School can be stressful when trying to balance it with other areas of one’s life. Raising families, working full-time, and taking care of others can leave a person with little time for an education. But an online master’s degree in nursing may help a person be able to complete all tasks during the day.
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A Beka Home Schooling

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

The A Beka curriculum is a very popular choice for many homeschooling families. It is also used in quite a few Christian schools across the country.

The A Beka Books were developed at Pensacola Christian College. They are based on experience and information gathered over a period of fifty years in the classrooms of Pensacola Christian Academy by many writers. They are unique in that they do not use any currently published works for their curriculum, but instead research and develop their own. Dr. and Mrs. Arlin Horton are the founders of A Beka Book, and the series is named after Mrs. Horton, whose first name is Rebeka.

The A Beka home school curriculum is fundamentally Christian based. The main goal of this program is to ground children in the Christian faith. Every aspect and subject points toward the Christian worldview. It is a workbook based curriculum and is very detailed. It goes step by step through each concept and is very comprehensive. This is a good curriculum for those home school families who are very organized or need a highly structured program.

There are three choices when working with the A Beka Book home school program. There is the A Beka Academy DVD option, which provides two options. The first is the Fully Accredited College Preparatory Program in which A Beka keeps all of the records. The second is the Non-Accredited program in which the parent keeps all the records. Each covers the exact same material. The only difference is the price. Basically, in addition to the workbooks, the DVDs feature teachers who help to explain the subjects in greater detail.
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