Professr In A Box...Financial Accounting

Learn financial accounting in 4 easy steps!

Watch the lectures
Complete the homework problems
Check the solutions
Take the exam

Professor in a Box, Financial Accounting by Michael P. Licata, Ph.D is the first accounting course for high School homeschoolers.

"Any homeschool high school student interested in a career in business or in someday owning their own business will benefit from this course.

All course content is incorporated into the lecture slides for each chapter. There is no textbook and no 40 page chapters to read. The course is comprised of 12 chapters which are covered in 28 lessons (including exams) and can be taken in either a semester format or over an entire academic year. Each chapter’s lectures include a discussion of important concepts and demonstration problems featuring step by step illustrations of how to work through the various types of accounting problems covered.

Course Objectives
The objective of Financial Accounting by Michael P. Licata, Ph.D. is to introduce students to the study of accounting which is known as the language of business. The main purpose of financial accounting is to measure and report the performance of a business to interested parties both outside and inside of the business. These interested parties use accounting information to make a variety of decisions such as:

• Investors - Deciding whether to purchase or sell a company’s stock.
• Bankers - Deciding whether to lend money to a business.
• Managers – Making day-to-day business decisions such as whether to increase inventory levels, or to spend more on advertising.
• Students will learn to prepare and interpret the four basic financial statements - income statement, balance sheet, statement of owners’ equity and statement of cash flows. See below for detailed Learning Objectives by Chapter.
• Any homeschool high school student interested in a career in business or in someday owning their own business will benefit from this course."

I received this course free to review for the Homeschool Crew.

This course is a kit with 4CD's, a syllabus, pencil, calculator and a list of course contents.
Professor in A Box is designed primarily for high school students who have a basic math understanding, and an interest in learning accounting.
The lectures are a slide presentation given by Michael, who has a pleasant voice. These presentations are clear and understandable. They are lectures and we did get bored, and interest wondered, we solved this with note taking to keep us on task...after all this is what will be done in college! :)
Now I am no math wizard, or even into accounting, but in my opinion Professor in a Box is a REALLY GOOD course!
After you complete this course you can choose to take the CLEP test, and if your student passes they will have 3 college level credits!

To view a sample chapter click HERE
To view the lesson plan go HERE


Professor in A Boxis currently on sale ( as of 11/29/09) for $134.99, regularly $149.99. Free Shipping!

If you would like to see what other crew members have to say click HERE

Exploramania: GyMathtics DVD

AS part of the CREW we received the DVD GyMathtics for review.

Exploramania uses exercise mixed with learning for a fun multi sensory approach.
The Gymathtics DVD is a 30 minute exercise routine that incorporates math facts and learning into the routine. It includes four sections:

Shape Stretches Warm Up: Stretch your mind and body with line, circle, and polygon stretches.

Counting Calisthenics: Aerobic movements work your heart as fun counting concepts work your brain.

Pattern Power: Growing and repeating pattern exercise combination's challenge minds and strengthen muscles.

Well-Being Wind Down: Relaxing stretches cool down the body and open the mind to think about healthy lifestyle choices including the Nice Wave Stretch and Big Dream Stretch.

My youngest ones 2, 5, 8, and 10 really enjoyed this DVD! They were challenged with the exercises and they are still enjoying the program! I love hearing them repeat the math concepts long after the DVD has been put away!

Here is a video that shows it best.



The GyMathtics DVD sells for $24.99 And it is well worth it!

If you would like to see what other CREW members have to say please click HERE.

AVKO Membership

AVKO is a non profit organization that was founded by Don McCabe. AVKO specialises in helping with the teaching of reading, spelling, writing and typing especially those with dyslexia. AVKO creates materials and books using a multi-sensory approach, combining the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic approaches. By using all of the sensory styles AVKO products can teach to any type of learner.

As a CREW member I received a membership to the AVKO site for review. Membership opens up a lot of resources especially for those using the sequential spelling program, which AVKO also sells. I did not receive this program, just the membership, and we currently do not use this spelling program. This site contains a great deal of helpful information like the book STARTING AT SQUARE ONE which will:

• Teach your K-1 students reading, spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding (optional) as the alphabet is taught.
• Lay the foundation for your student's literacy: phonemic awareness and word attack skills are learned from the very beginning of the reading process.
• Teach your older students the phonemic awareness and word attack skills that they never fully learned while first learning to read and spell.
• Use the completely decodable words as the letters are taught for additional practice in
  
• handwriting, reading, and spelling.

Other benefits to an AVKO membership include:

• Discounts on AVKO printed materials
• Hundreds of dollars worth of FREE e-books (PDF)
  • The Patterns of English Spelling (All 10 Volumes) with Word Families in Sentence Context
  • To Teach a Dyslexic
  • Starting at Square One
  • The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
  • The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
• Access to the Member Only section
• AVKO Newsletter with freebies, discounts, resources, and promotions
• Access to Don McCabe's most popular workshop recordings in MP3 format.
• Supplemental Curriculum Materials including word games, worksheets, activities, and more!
• Access to Pretests and Placement Tests
• Access to the Answer Keys for the Unscramblers and Family Reunion exercises of the Engaging Language Kits

I would most likely not purchase the AVKO membership. this website might be of greater value to those families that need additional, support, information, and resources for their special needs learners, or those that may be using the sequential spelling program. It is definitely a good value for all that you receive, it simply does not meet any needs in our household.
The cost for a one year membership to the AVKO website is $25.00.

If you would like to see what other CREW members had to say please click HERE.

American Heritage Education Foundation

American Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty is a FREE American history curriculum offered by the American Heritage Education foundation. I received a copy for review for the CREW.

The American Heritage CD contains lesson plans for K-12, divided into 3 levels, elementary, middle school and high school. These lessons are based around the themes of freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility. Each of the lessons focuses on an event, person, icon or document to demonstrate one of the themes. This is a supplemental curriculum so it has a lot of games, activities and worksheets, but not a lot of information. These lesson plans were written more toward a classroom setting so the activities are really not practical to a home school. Though a homeschool could easily use the worksheets and puzzles. Also since this is written to public school teachers there is a section at the end of each level that discuss how to teach religious expression in a public school!

We homeschool to be able to give our children a history that is God centered, so these lesson plans were not the best fit for us.

If you are interested at seeing this curriculum you can get the CD or an instant download at their website for FREE.

If you would like to see what other CREW members have to say please click HERE.

Bright Ideas Press

I love science and music they are probably my most favorite subjects, but teaching them has been really difficult for me....that is until now!!! I received as a gift from BRIGHT IDEAS PRESS, Christian Kids Explore Biology and A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers to review.


Christian Kids Explore Biology is user friendly, hands-on, elementary science curriculum, that includes all the kids 3-6th grade to study together and with a bit of adjusting you could even include the younger ones. The teaching lessons are done in a conversational style that is engaging and interesting to the children. All you need to teach is in this book. The lesson, which has beautiful coloring pages, are not simple coloring pages but beautiful works of art! Also included are review sheets, writing assignments, vocabulary lists, memorization lists, supplemental book lists and at the beginning of every unit a materials list of all you'll need to do your hands-on projects. Plus many more in the appendix.

We are really loving this biology program. First it is truly Christian and the kids are learning about God's world from a biblical worldview. There are 35 weekly lessons with teaching two times per week. We spend the first day teaching the lesson and doing any of the "Discovery Zone" which are little extra ideas or thoughts to help the kids understand the topic, I then would suggest some of the books from the supplemental resource list for our library trip or any we had at home. There is an included daily reading sheet that the children fill out as they read and research on their own. For my little girls 8 and 10, the year long Animal Kingdom Book that they are making is the highlight so far! For me its that they are LOVING biology so much that they beg me to do it DAILY!!!!!

If you would like to see a sample week click HERE
The Table of contents HERE

Christian Kids Explore Biology book: $34.95




We are also using A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers.

A User-Friendly, One-Year Curriculum for Grades 4–8

Christian, Creative, Chronological

Why take the time to “Crack the Code” of Classical Music?
• Music is from the Lord. He created it, and He created us with the ability to both make and appreciate music.
• “Classical” music is uniquely part of our Western civilization.
• Research suggests that both listening to and playing classical music aids brain development.
• Even rudimentary exposure increases one’s level of enjoyment and understanding.

This course provides a close-up look at famous composers, their music, and their times, with special attention to character traits and Christian testimony (or lack thereof). Even the musically challenged will enjoy this course! It’s perfect for grades 4–8 but is easily adaptable for younger and older students. Minimal teacher prep will return maximum enjoyment!

• 32 Weekly Lessons • 26 Bios of Famous Composers • 6 Eras of Music Explained • Easy-to-Use Comparative Timeline • Easy-to-Use Maps • Composer Info-Cards & Game Directions

• Note-taking Pages • Quizzes • Answer Keys • Listening Suggestions • Intricate Coloring Pages • Resource Books

I love music it is a big part of our lives, but I know very little "about" music and especially the composers of classical music this book is awesome! We started in Ancient music and music in the Renaissance , then moved on to cover the Baroque Period. As we study our composers we are creating a Folderbook as suggested in the introduction, this is a great hands-on project that allows the kids to keep 'track" of their work, and have a convenient review of what they are learning! The kids love creating their composer info cards (kind of a composer trading card) . The lessons are meant to be taught on day 1 which utilizes a selection of the composers music (there are selections suggested) then through the rest of the week we listen to these selections of music and work on our cards, maps and folderbook. This is a very easy to follow curriculum, and we are learning so much. Again I have to say this is a real hit with us and we will continue to follow the rest of the musical periods.

If you would like to see some sample pages click HERE

Paperback book: $34.95
CD-Rom book: $29.95

If you would like to see what other CREW members have to say about these programs and other Bright Ideas Press products that are being reviewed click HERE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET ISABEL!!!

Everytime we think of you, we thank God,
and pray for you with prayers of joy.
For God began a good work in you,
and will complete that work in years to come.

Our prayer for you now is this:
that your love grow richer
in knowledge and insight of every kind,
that you learn by experience
what really matters,
that on the day you appear before God,
God welcome you as a flawless gift,
a rich harvest of praise,
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

(cf Philippians 1)

May the Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord shed his light upon you,
May the Lord look upon you kindly
and give you peace.

We love you so much!!!!!!

ACT Advantage Discover program

I received as a member of the CREW a gift from ACT Advantage their Discover Program To Review.
The Act Advantage Discover Program is:

A career planning system developed for professional career counselors and used by millions of students to develop a comprehensive career path.

DISCOVER is jam packed with career tips and uses a proven developmental guidance process to help students:

• Assess interests, abilities and job values.
• Explore occupations, majors and schools.
• Build an education plan that relates to career plans.
• Improve job-seeking skills and develop a resume

I used this on my oldest daughter 17, we were rather curious as to how this would work because she has felt the Lord telling her to remain under the cover of her Father till she is called into a mission Field, her hearts desire. So she started with the assessments, then she looked into the careers that came up as high interest for her. It revealed what we would have guessed at and some that were not at all "her" idea of interesting.

This program has so much information contained within it, everything from a "birds eye" view of finding a career down to the details of resume writing! It can be daunting at first few looks but they have all the help/guides you need to focus and find out about the career choices available, what each one will take education wise and the colleges to choose from!

My daughter had fun seeing what careers this program thought she was suited for, but in most cases it was far from her personal interests. Unfortunately this software and company are secular and there was little there that was faith-based career wise. We also believe that GOD has a plan for our lives and that he is leading and directing her steps even in a "career" choice she only needs to listen and follow Him.
ACT Advantage Discover is a helpful resource but it is not the only thing we would rely on.

Act Advantage Discover: Price: $19.95 for a three-month license, $24.95 for a six-month license.

If you would like to see what other CREW have to say about this program please click HERE.

ABC Teach

As a member of the homeschool CREW I received a one month, free trail membership to ABC Teach.
ABC Teach is an online resource for tons of printable worksheets, activities and tools for the homeschool Mom! They have ABC Tools that will help you generate custom worksheets like:
Handwriting
Word Search
Crossword Puzzles
Spelling
Sudoku
and may more!
Some of the things you can search under are:
Subjects
Themes
Flashcards
Clip art
Learning Centers
and that's just a few!
There was so much to offer at this site I spent hours browsing and printing! I found fun worksheets that my 3 little guys did for learning the alphabet and counting, cut and paste, and learning their colors. I found Ancient Egypt in the themes section and a mummy crossword to go along with The Magic Tree house book one of the kids had gotten from the library, and a pyramid math game that they enjoyed. There is just so much this site has to over!!

A one year membership runs $40 and you can print out as much as you want. The materials run from Preschool to 8th grade level. This is well worth the $40 for a year and they are always adding new material. Some of the material are free for you to try.

If you would like to see what other CREW members have to say about ABC Teach please click HERE.





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