I’m sure that someone might have wondered about the changes around here:  the look, the name.  Well, with all the things that have happened over the past few years, and mainly the last year, I’ve taken stock of what defines me and my family.  Does homeschooling define who we are?  The answer to that question is a resounding, “No!”  We are defined by our life and experiences, and sometimes, those experiences seem like a roller coaster of ups and downs.  This is life.

Many times over the last year, I have truly wondered about why things happen.  But you know, we can’t let these things rule our lives.  Rather, we must pick ourselves up and find our way to a new life, and that is what we have done.  A couple of weeks ago, we loaded up and moved over 1300 miles to a new life.  A place we have never lived before, and we feel that this is a new chapter in our lives; hence, a new look and name to the blog.  Does this mean that we are no longer homeschooling?  No.  We will be homeschooling, and I will continue to blog about that.  However, I will be including more Disney and other theme park information.  Since we now live near a couple of amusement parks (unfortunately not Disney), we will have the opportunity to spend some time at the parks and exploring destinations in our new state.  The kids have made a list of places they want to visit, so it looks like we have quite a few things to do over the next year and beyond.

I hope that you will stay with us here at This Roller Coaster Called Life to see all the neat places we plan to visit!  Invite your friends to join us, too!

I love homeschooling, but I really dislike the record-keeping end of things.  I’ve tried just about every computer program out there, but I haven’t found anything that suites me long-term.  Most programs don’t work with my Mac, and I don’t like pulling out my PC just to input the day’s work.  Several of the record-keeping software that I have used are cumbersome.  In fact, one came with a thick book explaining how to use it.  Who has time to read a manual to learn how to use homeschool software?  Believe it or not, I always go back to my paper planner…until now.

When I work with homeschool record-keeping, I just want something that simply does the job for which it is intended.  In this case, I want something that is easy to learn, easy to use, and won’t take a lot of extra time.  My Home School Grades fits the bill!  It is so easy to set up a student and curriculum!  I set up a “test” student in order to show you how simple this is.  See the cute chalk drawing?  It can be left as is or changed to your child’s picture.  See how it shows me where to add a class?

This is the screen that you will see after pressing the “add a class” button.  I simply chose the options in the drop-down menus.  My Home School Grades is constantly adding new publishers and specific classes.  If the publisher isn’t in the list, it is easy to do a custom class, as I’ll show you in a little bit, but first, let’s tackle a publisher that is already entered.

Math U See is already in the system, so I was able to choose Epsilon in the menu.  See how all the lessons and tests populate?  To enter a grade on a lesson, you can put a number (like 95), a letter grade (like A), or a fraction (like 19/20).  How easy is that?

You can even choose how to weight the lessons versus the tests.  The total percentage has to equal 100%, so if you wanted to weight 50/50 like I do, you could.  Or you could choose any split like 63/37 if you wanted to.

If the publisher isn’t in the list, you can choose “Custom/other” and enter your own information.  It is easy and doesn’t take long at all!

You can even enter activities!  Does your child take piano lessons, sing in a choir, or go to Girl Scouts?  This is a great place to document that.

Like most other things in this program, this is really simple to do!  It’s also a great way to display your child’s activities and make them a part of the permanent record.

When it’s time to get that transcript together, it is so easy to do, too.  Just click a button that says “Transcript”, and the transcript will appear.  You will have to adjust the settings if your child is younger than a Freshman, so the classes will appear.  Can you see the test student’s grades and classes?

The activities print on their own page, so it is up to you whether you want to send the activities in with the rest of the transcript or not.

I’m sure you are jumping up and down with excitement about how easy and complete this program is, but there is more!  This is not device specific.  Yep, that’s right!  It can be used on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.  The pictures you see above were taken on my iPad because my iPad is my preferred method of using My Home School Grades.  Also, this was developed by homeschoolers for homeschoolers.  What would you say if I told you that this was designed by a 20 year old homeschool grad?  Well, it’s true!

I am working to set up my kids’ curriculum, so we will be all ready to start a fresh year with My Home School Grades.  At $49.99 for a lifetime membership, this is a great deal!  If you are not convinced yet, head over to their website that I linked to and watch their “how to” videos.  This is simply the best record-keeping I have seen in my 8 years of homeschooling!

Disclosure:  I received a free membership to My Home School Grades for the purpose of this review.  I received no other compensation, nor was I required to give a positive review.  All opinions are mine! 

I sit here watching the news coverage of the tornado in Moore.  I used to live in Oklahoma.  In fact, my family moved from Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago.  That wasn’t the original plan.  We had considered a move to Oklahoma City near where the tornado touched down the day before.  We regularly drove through Moore when we drove to certain parts of Oklahoma City.

As I listen to the reporters talk, I realize that there is still hope.  There is still hope that survivors will still be found.  Whatever happens, we know that God is still with us.  In times of trial, He will protect us under His wings.  If He sees what happens to the sparrow, I know that He is watching and caring for us.

The Waterproof Bible has much stronger pages than a normal Bible.  Well, they feel stronger because they feel almost like plastic sheeting.  There are a few things that I will do to test a Waterproof Bible, but I’m not willing to try to tear the pages even though they should withstand it, somewhat.

While I couldn’t bring myself to try tearing the pages, my daughter was happy to help me demonstrate how resistant the pages are to liquids and such.  Here, she is getting ready to pour a spoonful of coffee with creamer on it.

Can you see how it just beads up?

DD13 just wiped it away with nothing left behind.  No damage done.

Then, I wondered if something in soda might cause any problems.  Well, problems other than being sticky, that is.  No, the soda wiped away, too.  In fact, I used soap and water to wash the sugar off.

When I made supper that night, my daughter suggested that we put some of the creole on the Bible.  It was a little greasy and definitely spicy.  I wondered if the greasy nature of the food would cause any issues with it, but…

there wasn’t a bit left on it at all.  It wiped away clean and clear.  It is amazing how resilient this Bible is!  In fact, it has been read in the bathtub, too.

While the Waterproof Bible can be used by everyone, it would be a great choice for someone who spends a lot of time outside.  Maybe, a biker, a camper, or a military member would be grateful for the gift of a Waterproof Bible.  A Bible that would withstand the weather and terrain that a person like that would be in all the time.

The Waterproof Bible comes in a full Bible size and a New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs edition.  It is available in English Standard Version, King James Version, New International Version, New King James Version, and New Living Translation.  Prices vary, so please check the websites for pricing.

Disclosure:  I received a New Testament Waterproof Bible for the purpose of this review.  I received no other compensation, nor was I required to give a positive review.  All opinions and testing of pages are 100% mine. 

Do your kids have any great plans for you for Mother’s Day?  We are in the middle of moving, but my family has promised to make it up to me later.  While Mother’s Day is only celebrated once a year, our children know how much we support and encourage them every day of the year.  The Mother’s Day clip from Monsters University shows just how much of a part moms play in a child’s everyday life.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Monsters University comes to theaters June 21, 2013.  You can follow Monsters University on Twitter and Facebook.

My son is very visual, so the Time Timer concept works great for him.  When he was in Occupational Therapy, his therapist had a large timer with a disc like this, and she used it to help show how much time was allotted for each activity.  It seemed to work well for him.  I didn’t realize that Time Timer had timers like this that would work great in the home/homeschool setting.  This new version has a protective lens over the red disc, and it has a handy carrying handle for DS10 to carry it with him as he transitions from activity-to-activity.

It also has an audible alarm that sounds when the time is up.  The best part is that the alarm volume can be adjusted.  So many timers have one volume, and that is set at loud.  Many times the sound of a loud alarm will startle DS10, so the ability to lower the volume of the alarm is a great asset on this timer.

If you have a child who is having a problem with the concept of time or a child who has issues with transitioning from activity-to-activity, a Time Timer might help you, too.  Even if you don’t have problems in your classroom, a Time Timer is an awesome way to just stay on schedule.

Disclosure:  I received a Time Timer PLUS for the purpose of this review.  I received no other compensation, nor was I required to give a positive review.  All opinions are 100% mine.

KidsEmail offers parental tools that allow the parent to set safety parameters to monitor what their children send and receive and block unwanted content.  I was able to set up my kids’ profiles to only accept emails from approved senders and to send me copies of what they sent and what they received.  Since I limited who they contact to certain people, I’m not as concerned about the images and links that are sent to them.  However, if I allowed other people to send them emails, I could activate a control that would block all images and links.  Make sure you click on the picture above, so you can see it clearly.  This is a message that I sent from an “approved” contact address.  It came to me as a copy but went into my son’s account at the same time.

The above email was sent from an account that was not on my son’s “approved” contact list.  This is an email that I received to my parent email address.  This email is giving me the chance to approve the message, so my son can see it, or reject the message altogether.  I could also set up the account, so the sender would get a message saying that the recipient is a child and the message is awaiting approval from a parent.  It really is a cool setup!

Now, the kids’ side…  While the kids could access their email on the computer, they prefer using the app.  It is a really clean design and easy for them to use.

The part that I like is that there aren’t any ads and not many distractions.  It is a simple email tool for them to use without having to worry about unwanted people spamming them with unmentionable products.  I know you know what I’m talking about.

The only problem that I have had with KidsEmail is that the kids can’t send emails to each other.  I emailed support, and they thought they had it fixed, but it wasn’t.  I never pursued contacting them about it again because of other things going on.  It’s not a deal breaker, but I wanted to mention it in case your kids were ones who would absolutely have to email each other.

I highly recommend KidsEmail for families who are ready for their kids to join the email/internet world in a safe way without the chance of predators or spammers getting to them.  There are a couple of different pricing plans.  Make sure to check it out because they currently have a special of up to 6 email accounts for 13 months priced at $38.95.

Disclosure:  I received a subscription to KidsEmail for the purpose of this review.  I received no other compensation, nor was I required to give a positive review.  All opinions are 100% mine.

As the release of Monsters University gets closer, we have been seeing more trailers and more graphics come out.  I think the coolest of these is the Monsters University Student ID! Who would have thought that we could make our own student ID.  Well, not really our own but make our own monster to be on the ID.  What would your ideal monster be?

You can click on the image above to download your own PDF of a Monsters University Student ID, so you can create your own Monsters University monster.

You can also download a game called “Pin the MU Badge on Archie the Scare Pig”.  There are two sheets to this PDF.  Think of Pin the Tail on the Donkey with a Monsters University theme to it.  If you want to make it last, laminate the game sheet and the game pieces and use a glue dot on the back of each game piece.  That way, your child can use it over and over again.

Monsters University comes to theaters on June 21, 2013.  Not long to wait…

And if you are waiting for PLANES, that comes out on August 9, 2013.  Would you like some PLANES-themed coloring sheets?  Check out the button below.