Mood:  a-ok

Families Again

Here's another way to become a fan of Families Again on facebook. Just press on the button above. Please tell others about it as well. If I can ever get my link problems taken care of, I'll post the above badge over to the left as well.

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Mood:  a-ok

I have been debating what to do since all of the changes have been made on Facebook. For some reason, my blog posts aren't always showing up when I write them. Someone recently suggested adding a Fan Page. Now, I'm not trying to get a big head or anything like that. I don't think I am anyone worthy of having "fans". However, I do know that a few of you do read my blog, and use the Facebook links to keep you updated as to when I post something new. My Fan Page should help to do that. All you have to do is become a member, and, I think, you will be notified of all of my posts since they will all go to the Fan Page. You can also just link to the Fan Page and check it daily to see when I have posted something new. I would love it if you would join, and, if you think that my blog is worthy, invite your friends to join as well. Just press on the Families Again badge above and it will take you to the page. Thanks!

Attention: Boy am I confused. I accidently created a Facebook Group  and a Facebook Page. It's the PAGE that I want you to join. If you already joined the group, that's ok, but please press on the picture above again. I've reprogrammed it to go to the right thing now. The new Families Again Facebook Page will have all of the posts for both of my blog conveniently on one page. It should make it easier for those of you who are on Facebook and like to check out  my blog periodically. Sorry for the confusion.

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Mood:  a-ok

The TOS Homeschool Crew just got a new graphics program to review. I've been trying to get used to it and my Thursday's Child badge above was my first creation. As you can see it's not the greatest, but it's a start. I'll have to work with it some more to see if I my creations become a little better. We'll see.

I've been thinking somewhat about what to say in this week's Thursday's Child post. I have bragged on Marcelo, and have talked about Mwende. By the way, I still haven't found a sponsor for Mwende yet. I would love it if someone would choose to sponsor her. If anyone is even remotely interested, please let me know by emailing me at tink38570@yahoo.com, or by leaving a comment below. 

Getting back to what I was going to write about. When I joined Compassion Bloggers, they said that they would send a suggestion each month for a blog topic that has to do with Compassion International. I haven't gotten this month's suggestion yet, however, so I went looking for something on YouTube that I could post. I wanted something new, that I hadn't said before. Maybe a different aspect of Compassion International. I found this. I think you will enjoy it. It has a very surprising ending. Have fun watching!

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Mood:  energetic

I know that many of you take a few days to think over the new meme question before you answer it. I really feel bad that this one is late. Soooo, here's what I'm going to do. This week I'm posting not one, but two questions and I'm going to give you an extended time to answer them. One is going to be a regular question, and one is going to be a Hot Topic question. You can choose to answer one or both, but there are a couple of rules for posting your answer this time.

• If you choose to answer both, they need to be seperate posts.
• When you post your answer on the Mr. Linky, please put in parenthesis the question number that you answered. For example ~ Tim @ Families Again (#1)
• You have until midnight on Feb. 8. To post your answers. That gives you a week and a half for one or both questions to be answered.
  
• Remember, you can post at any time between now and then, so you can post one answer in a couple of days and then the other a few days after that.

OK, now the questions:

Regular Question (#1): Who makes the financial decisions around your home? Do you share in making them? Are there ever any disagreements?

Hot Topic Question (#2): There has been a lot of heated discussion on The Blog Frog (Don't know what it is? Ask your wife.) about homosexuality. As a matter of fact, the president just mentioned it in his State of the Union address. What do you think about homosexuality? Is it right or wrong? Why do you feel so?

Actually, both of the above could be Hot Topic questions in some households. Should be interesting. If you don't agree with someone's answer, don't shoot me. I'm only the messenger . Let me remind you of my regular rules as well:

1. This is a man's meme, so the answers must be the answers from a man. Either the man can answer on his blog, or a wife can interview her husband for her blog. However, if the wife puts it on her blog, she must stay true to what her husband said.
2. You are encouraged to put one of the Men's Monday Meme buttons found to the left on your blog. Just copy the code below the button of your choice. The more folks who link, the more readers you may have to visit your blog.
3. You may answer the question any time during the week up through next Monday. After you answer the question, add the address to your post to the Mr.Linky below. If you could, please only add the direct link to the post to make it easier for readers to find the entry.
4. My answer along with a new question will be posted next Monday. The new Mr. Linky will be added at midnight Monday night.

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Mood:  not sure

Believe it or not, I do remember a day before computers. Hmmm ~ maybe I am historical after all?!? I used to love to type. I would get out my mom's old college manual typewriter, and begin a novel or some such thing. Of course I would have to hunt and pick to find the correct keys. Then, if I made a mistake, I would have to use one of those old white out pencils to cover over the mistake so that I could correct it.

In high school, I was a college prep person, so I didn't have to take all of the business classes like book keeping etc. but all college prep kids did have to take a couple of semesters of typing. I loved it, and loved the way that it improved my skills so that I didn't have to hunt and peck anymore. 

Nowadays, of course, typewriters are obsolete. Everyone has a computer, and even toddlers are using them. Kids in elementary school are now taking keyboarding classes so that they can learn to type correctly from the start. I had been looking for something like that for my kids. I had even searched the internet for free keyboarding programs that they could use. When I found that, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was getting free downloads for Keyboarding for the Christian School and Keyboarding for the Christian School Elementary Version from Christian Keyboarding in order to try out and review on my blog, I was thrilled.

Both of the courses are well written by Leanne Beitel and are essentially the same, except for one main difference. The Elementary Version, written for for fifth grade on down, is more colorful, with a colored picture of the keyboard row that you are using for that lesson. It also has larger type, and is spaced differently so that it is easier to read. That makes it spread over two pages whereas the Regular Version, for sixth grade on up, is all on the same page. 

Both begin by teaching the proper posture typing and proper way of holding your fingers. They start by using the main middle row keys where your fingers naturally set and then advance to the outer keys and the rows above and below. The Elementary Version finishes with teaching the student how to use the bold, italic, underline and

center keys. 

The Regular Version, however, goes much, much further. It goes on to teach the student how to type a cover page, reports, letters, tables, and more. One slight word of caution, though, both courses use Microsoft Word as their basis. This only matters, though, when it comes to the special functions, and, even then, Microsoft Word is the standard for word processors, and most other word processing programs are very similar.

Keyboarding for the Christian School and Keyboarding for the Christian School Elementary Version are just what they say. They are Keyboarding courses that are Christian in nature. That is probably what I like best about this curriculum. From day one, there are encouraging and relevant Bible verses at the top of each page of the Elementary Version, and verses scattered throughout the Regular lessons. Better yet, when the student gets to the point of typing sentences - Lesson 18 on both - they don't just type regular sentences, they type Bible verses!

These courses are exactly what I was looking for. It's something that reminds me of the typing course that served me well when I was in high school but, is very Christian in nature. Both Joshua (Elementary Course) and John Allen (Regular Course) are really enjoying using this. I'm really excited that they are learning keyboarding a lot earlier than I did. I would definitely recommend this course for homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike. 

The elementary course is currently priced at $12.95 with the regular version priced at $15.95, but the website is offering both courses for $22.00. AND, there is also a $5.00 of coupon code for any order of $12.95 or more. Christian Keyboarding also offers other specialized keyboarding courses for things such as creating tables or columns. You can find it all by just clicking here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. As usual, you can find out what the other TOS Crew members are saying about this product by clicking here. Happy keyboarding!

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