{Review} My Home School Grades

 

At this point in our homeschooling journey, I don't really give that many grades. Actually the only thing that we grade is math and that is mostly because Teaching Textbooks does that for me. But I have never actually averaged all those lessons and tests up into a final grade. Nevertheless, when I was given the chance to try out My Home School Grades all it took was one look at their website for me to be excited to try it out. 

About the Product:

 

My Home School Grades is a very simple web application (accessible on your computer, smartphone or tablet). It's a way to keep track of your children's classes, grades and activities and in the end produce a very simple, professional transcript of their education. You can find all sorts of how-to videos on their website to get you started, but really they aren't needed since everything is laid out and very easy to navigate. 

You start by entering your student(s). Then you can add all of their classes. You can enter the class name, grade level, how many credits, if it's an AP/Honors course, if it's a Pass/Fail course, school year, subject, etc. My Home School Grades also made it very easy by providing some of the most common curricula for you, and if you are more of an unschooler or use a different curricula you can use the other/custom listing. 

Once you've added a class you can start adding grades. Simply type in the lessons, test, quizzes and the grade. You have option of grading by letter, fraction or by number. Based on your account settings final grades will automatically be shown as Percent number, Letter, or Letter +/-. Some of the curriculum choices have their lessons already names and listed so that all you have to do is enter in the grade. You also have the option of entering just a final grade, as well as entering the grades for those classes earned through dual enrollment.

All of the calculating has been done for you. You can also weight the lessons, quizzes, tests and labs differently in order to calculate the final grade in a way you want. I also wanted to point out the flexibility here- even if you are an unschooler or don't use a lot of pre-made curricula, your child will still need some sort of high school transcript in order to graduate. You can uses these 4 categories- lessons, quizzes, tests and labs- as any thing you want. To you they can mean anything you deem an important part of their learning process and gauge of their comprehension.

You can also add all of your child's extracurricular activities and achievements. You can choose for a pre-populated list that includes categories such as work, community service, Scouts, 4-H, school, church, etc. You can add a name and description to the activity as well as listing any awards and references to go with it.

The second part of My Home School Grades is the transcript. They take all of the information you enter over the years and create a very nice looking transcript listed by grade level. You can choose to start the transcript at any level or just include the High School years. You can export multiple transcripts so you can include a comprehensive, all grades one for your files and a more official high-school only one for graduation and college applications. Also included on the transcript are the calculated GPA, points and credits for each year as well as at graduation.

My Thoughts on this Application:

Honestly, I loved it. It was easy to set up, easy to navigate, and easy to use. Some of the things I liked most:

• The fact that all the calculations are done for you. No matter how you enter the grades- fraction, percent, letter- in the end the grades are listed uniformly how you want them.
• The customer service is wonderful! Any problems, questions, suggestions, etc you have I have no doubt the creators of this program will do what they can to help. They truly want this to be accessible and useable for all homeschoolers.
• I loved the transcripts. It's part of who I am, but I have always loved the look of lists like these and I think their transcripts are done simply and beautifully with all the right information included. There is also just enough flexibility so that you can choose certain elements to include or leave out.

The only bad thing to come out of using this program is that now high school is very much on my mind. But I guess seeing as that next year is the last year before we move into high school I guess I should be starting to think about it a little more!

How to get it for yourself:

 

My Home School Grades is very affordably priced at $49.99 for a Lifetime Membership! At that price you will be able to use My Homeschool Grades for as long as you need to, for all of your children. It also includes any future upgrades and additions to the application. They also offer a 14-day Free Trial, so you can see for yourself how great this application is and how it will work for your family!

{Goat Milk} Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Cajeta Swirl

I am waiting on new cultures to arrive before I can make more cheese and we were getting a little overrun with milk. Yesterday I made a half a gallon of yogurt and used another half gallon of milk to make cajeta in the crock pot. We have made dulce de leche in the crock pot before using store bought condensed milk, but I wanted to try it with with our fresh goat milk.

It took all day to cook down, but it is so, so good. It tasted a little like a mix between caramel and butterscotch.

To Make Cajeta:

1/2 gallon goat milk
2 cups sugar
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
dash of cinnamon/ 1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 T water

You can make this on the stovetop (quicker, but more hands-on) or in the crock pot (much longer, but does not require constant attention). I went with the crock pot so I didn't have to stand and stir for hours.

Place the milk, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar in the crock pot and turn on to high. Stir every so often until the milk is hot and sugar is dissolved. Stir in the baking soda water. Continue cooking on high stirring every so often. I just stirred as I came into the kitchen, maybe once an hour or so. Keep the lid off since the goal is for the milk to reduce and caramelize. It took about 12 hours to thicken up to the consistency I wanted (like a sauce/topping) if you want it thicker just cook a little longer.

And this morning Annika and I made vanilla bean ice cream to go with our cajeta. Sometimes I make the more involved ice cream by making a custard with eggs, milk and sugar but today I went the simple route.

To Make Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (raw):

2 cups raw goat milk
1 cup goat milk yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Whisk all of this together and pour into a 1.5 qt ice cream maker and mix as the machine instructs. The key here is to have 3 cups of liquid. You can use a combination of heavy cream, whole milk, skim milk etc. The lower the fat the less creamy the ice cream will be. I choose 2 cups of whole, raw goat's milk and 1 cup of yogurt this time to see how the yogurt affected the consistency.

We also swirled about 1/2 cup of our cajeta into the ice cream just as it finished processing.

It wasn't quite all the way frozen by lunch time....but it was still really good!

Garden 2013: Finally Planting

 Planted:

80 tomatoes,  20 heirloom varieties
20 peppers, 8  heirloom varieties
15 eggplants, 4 varieties

300 peas, 3 varities
Kale, lettuce, chard, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower (all but the kale are doing rather poorly at the moment)
radishes and carrots planted in straw bales

 Herbs: Sage, Oregano, Lavender, Thyme, Wormwood, Curry, Rosemary, Calendula and 7 different varieties of basil
Flowers: Cosmos, Zinnias, Marigold, Sunflowers and a few different wildflowers

We stayed in the garden most of the day yesterday, and with this addition I was able to get a lot done. Annika (and the boys) played in the sand ALL day in the shade of the old apple tree. 

The first tomato....on one of the plants I started back in February.