Keeping Summer Fun and Educational

If you're apprehensive how to accumulate this summer educational but fun for your homeschooled kids after creating added plan for yourself as teacher, summer classes are a abundant abstraction to explore. Maybe you just haven't had time to clasp in an art chic and your adolescent is absolutely absorbed in art, or conceivably you've consistently capital them to acquaintance aggregation sports, but it just hasn't fit into your academy year--summer is the time! Conceivably you wish your adolescent to yield a chic to ample a specific aperture in their learning. I talked to a mom afresh whose adolescent was not accomplishing so able-bodied in their SAT math, and they absitively that summer was a abundant befalling to yield an SAT basic class, because somebody abroad would do the absolute teaching and mom would get a bit of a break. No amount your needs or your student's interests, there's abiding to be an absorbing chic out there for you!

Summer is aswell a acceptable time for your accouchement to accompany or anatomy some array of club, or do some affectionate of advance work. My bedmate and I formed for a continued time at a bounded accouterment bank; but there are aswell aliment banks and vacation bible schools out there searching for volunteers. As an added bonus, these things are absolutely accessible for your student's all-embracing portfolio if they alpha applying to colleges.

Another abundant summer action is to animate your adolescent to accumulate a journal. I apperceive a lot of humans who are acknowledged with this. While they ability not accept account autograph during the academy year as a subject, their accouchement are accommodating to account every day during the summer. This can absolutely advice acceptance with their autograph skills, and is a fun abstraction if you're accomplishing biking of any kind-- whether camping, visiting some altered breadth of the country, or just blockage home.

Whenever you do any anatomy of summer school, bethink to abduction the acquirements your accouchement do and about-face it into academy acclaim on their transcripts. Some accepted summer credits cover concrete apprenticeship and anatomic apprenticeship (which artlessly agency that they do some work). If you calculation these credits, bethink that amid 120-180 hours of plan is one credit, and 75-90 hours of plan is advised a bisected a credit. For instance, maybe your apprentice is in an orchestra or a choir during the summer. You can just appraisal those hours and say, "it looks like they're traveling to absorb ten hours a anniversary in class, for the eight weeks of summer, which would be eighty hours, which is bisected a acclaim experience."

Learning About Animals Is Fun

If you're accouchement are into acquirements about animals, this educational software about animals is traveling to accomplish their day. They can use the software to advice them apprentice aggregate that they wish to apperceive about animals. It's a abundant way to amuse their concern about animals. You will acquisition that there is a lot of educational software on the bazaar today, but there is none that is as advisory and accessible as this.

You wish to accord your accouchement all of the advantages that you can if it comes to learning. This is an advantage that they will be so beholden for. This educational software about animals will acknowledgment all of the questions that they may accept apropos animals. It's not alone educational, but it's fun too. They will not even apperceive that they are learning. Application this educational software will be added like a bold to them.

As a ancestor you will be so admiring at the way they adore acquirements from this software. You will acquisition that they are spending hours acquirements about animals instead of watching TV or arena video games. It's the absolute apparatus to advise and absorb them. They will be allurement you if they can use the software instead of traveling alfresco to play or watch a movie. You will be afflicted by how acquisitive they are to apprentice with this educational software.

There aren't abounding items out there that can absolutely affect a ancestor if it comes to teaching their accouchement new information, but if they alpha application the educational software about animals, you will be impressed. It will be one of the greatest ability that you accept anytime accustomed to your children. It will not be continued and they will be teaching you about animals.

This is the ideal allowance for your child's altogether or Christmas present. It's aswell a abundant allowance to accord to your accompany who accept children. They will be beholden of how abundant absorption that you took in their adolescent to accord them such a admirable acquirements tool.

Every adolescent loves animals and they adulation acquirements about them. Whether they appear from the boscage or the farm, kids just adulation animals. You accouchement will be able to apprentice about acreage animals, boscage animals, rainforest animals, ambrosia animals and even animals of the sea. They will be able to accessible their minds to so abounding altered kinds of animals that they will break absorbed for hours.

Typing for Beginners

In this age of technology and added focus on computers one of the a lot of important abilities a being can accept is the adeptness to calmly use a computer. No one needs to be an able but a basal compassionate of the Internet and chat processing software is a basal accomplishment in just about any abeyant career. With this comes a charge to be able to blazon calmly and accurately. This agency application all fingers, actual spelling and punctuation in a appropriate address and all after searching at the keyboard. For a beginner, such as children, acquirements to do this is a alarming task. But for years, accounting software for accouchement has enabled kids of all ages to apprentice the all-important accounting skills. Programs like Mavis Beacon use amateur as a teaching apparatus while ones like Turbo Accounting focus on earlier beginners and use accepted drills and apprenticeship after the kid-friendly focus.

Mavis Beacon has continued been upheld as one of the arch pieces of accounting software for children. From the cartoon to the adjustment of apprenticeship and testing the affairs is geared against the accounting abecedarian of a adolescent age, or at the oldest, in their teens. Even the capital awning of the affairs is advised like a academy classroom. As the abilities are taught, the apprentice is again activated through games, camouflage the actuality that they are demography a analysis and putting the apperception at affluence while learning. These Mavis Beacon accounting amateur are advised with array in mind. There is little alliteration and the objectives and cartoon frequently change, befitting the alpha typist from accepting bored. While some of the Mavis Beacon accounting amateur in fact veer into added ball than acquirements territory, all are still geared against arrive some key abecedarian accomplishment accompanying to the keyboard.

For the earlier alpha typist who artlessly wants a basal crash-course abstraction in typing, Turbo Accounting is the affairs of choice. Compared to added affairs choices it is as basal as it gets. Menus are simple and simple to accept and the instructions are the same. There are no absolute amateur or absorbing deviations from the lessons. The typist is artlessly accomplished the abilities and again activated in able methods such as re-writing samples of plan or ability acceleration accounting drills. The additional ancillary of Turbo Accounting lies in the ability of its lessons. Not alone are there drills for anyone from beginners to avant-garde typists, there are aswell specific abilities tests for annihilation from circuitous chat acceleration to contest absorption on alone fingers.

All Educational Software offers educational software for all ages and all learners from Toddlers and Preschoolers to Grade School, Middle School, and High School. As well, it covers all capacity including math, accent arts, science, music, apprentice to type, software for the deaf, and abounding more. The programs are advised to be fun as able-bodied as educational and in abounding cases hotlink educational agreeable to academy curricula.

5 Tips To Make Your Guitar Mixes Rock!

Now I know there are thousands of variables involved as well as opinionated ways of doing this, that's why I'm going to tell you 5 tips I use to make my guitars stand out to help make my mixes sound huge!

1. Double Track Your Rhythm Guitars:

You can easily thicken up the sound of your mixes by doubling your guitar tracks. Yes I know this is not really a 'mixing' tip but when you use both guitars in the mix it can beef up your guitar tracks. PRO TIP: You can even play around with changing the tone slightly on the second track to add even more emphases on certain characteristics of the playing. Say you want one to be more beefy and use another for note clarity. Just one of many ways you can use that to your benefit.

2. Pan Those Tracks:

The next step is to pan those rhythm guitars you tracked. I like to start at hard panning them both, one left one right. If they are sounding too separate bring them more to the middle, 70-80 is a good area where I like to put my guitars, especially for the slower parts. Faster more intricate playing can benefit from going all the way left or right. Panning these guitars helps separate the sound and clear up the middle for other instruments (i.e. kick drum, bass guitar) that need to be there. Turn that pan knob and immediately hear the results.

3. High Pass Filter Your Guitars:

OK yes, I know this is situational depending on the tone/style of guitar you are tracking. But in most times I mix I like to roll off some of those lows to clear up the bottom section and help your guitars not 'fight' so much with the bass and kick drum. I like to start in the 100,200k area and roll it off accordingly to the mix. Let your ears do the work, roll it off as you listen to a section and when you hear the guitars start to'thin out' back off a hair and Voila! You now have cutting clear guitar.

4. Did Someone say Plug-ins?

Yes you read that correctly. But dude, I thought you are always preaching 'crap in crap out, get it right from the source and you wont have to fix anything come mix time??!' Yes you are correct. I do live by that, but remember music and mixing is an art form. There are rules, but there are not. Weird right? I like to look at using plug-in's like using salt when cooking. You don't want to add too much because it will taste bad, but using just enough will make whatever your eating taste much better! Don't be afraid to add a little compression, or tube saturation/distortion to give your tracks get a little more omph! Experiment, you might find something you really like!

5. EQ Subtraction

The last tip here is my all time favorite, and yes it does play off of tip number 3. Subtracting EQ in certain bands is an ideal way to let other instruments in your mix cut through in return making everything (including your guitar tracks) sound bigger, cleaner and overall better. Especially with high gain guitar tracks cutting some of the lower (or) higher mids out is a good way to tone it down and get your guitars working in cohesion with other primary instruments. Don't be afraid to get the scalpel out and start cutting EQ like your a mad surgeon. Just remember to do it while you are listening to your mix, never solo your guitars and start cutting that would not be pretty.

The Oath of the Horatii

The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David is both an excellent example of French Neoclassical painting (click to read more on Neoclassicism from the Met) and of a very strong composition within a painting.  David chose this subject for his first royal commission.  Neoclassical themes had been popular since the Renaissance and in the mid-18th century
Neoclassical art is defined as a style that was strongly influenced by the art and history of ancient Greece and Rome.  While at the French Academy David won the Prix-de-Rome and spent several years in the city during which time he was strongly influenced by Ancient Roman art and architecture.


The Oath of the Horatii is an interesting story, the battle between the Roman Horatii family and the Curiatii family from a neighboring city was told by the Ancient Roman author known as Livy.  The Horatii brothers are swearing allegiance to Rome on the swords that their father is holding up.  All are ready to die to defend their country.

The Oath of the Horatii, Jacques-Louis David, 1784, Louvre, Paris

This is an enormous painting measuring nearly 11 feet high by 14 feet long and the figures were shown as life sized. The focal point for the viewer is the raised hands and swords of the oath, even if the viewer doesn't know the story it can be easily inferred that this is a dramatic event. 

The setting is very sparse and the sparseness works well in framing the events and not detracting from the figures.  To the right we can see the women of the story, their mother and sisters, who are obviously in despair.  This foreshadows the events to come and serves as an interesting counter balance to the strength of the brothers.  One of the sisters was engaged to a man from the rival family and she knows that someone she cares about will most certainly die in the battle.

Why would such an ancient story, one that wasn't a frequent theme be painted in late 18th century France? 

There were several reasons that Neoclassicism became popular at this time.  Visually it was quite a contrast with the frivolous Rococo style that had currently been in fashion.  It was favored by royalty as Neoclassical work reflected the power of the Roman Empire.  It was equally favored by both the American and French Revolutionaries as it tied into themes of self sacrifice and the Roman Republican period.

The ruins of Pompeii were rediscovered in the mid 1700's and in the following years the site was excavated; this led to a new understanding of and enthusiasm for Roman culture.  The 18th century is commonly referred to as "The Age of Enlightenment" and many of the great intellectuals and philosophers were influenced by the rational philosophies of their Classical counterparts.

The Tennis Court Oath, Jacques-Louis David, c-1791, Louvre, Paris
pen drawing with sepia ink wash

While The Oath of the Horatii was commissioned by the French King, David was actually very much on the side of the revolutionaries in the 18th century.  He created the above drawing of the Tennis Court Oath, where nearly 600 members of society gathered less than a month prior to the storming of the Bastille and vowed to remain together until a French Constitution was written.

David was clearly influenced by his earlier composition for this sketch, which he later turned into a painting.  The raised arms created another strong central focal point for the viewer.  Even without knowing the history behind the work the viewer can discern that an emotionally charges and dramatic event is unfolding.  Just as in the other work a symmetrical architectural background frames the scene.

The Oath of the Horatii, Armand-Charles Caraffe, 1791
Pushkin Museum, Moscow

 Armand-Charles Caraffe was a student of David's and he also painted a version of this theme.

Compare the two paintings, by looking at the two very different ways that the artists chose to arrange the figures we can see that the David painting is much more dynamic.  The theme of the Oath that the Horatii family took wasn't a common one and Caraffe would certainly have been influenced by David.  However by reversing the direction of the brother's hands the composition doesn't have as strong of a focal point.  Dramatic tension was also created in the earlier version by the use of chiaroscuro (modeling form with strong darks and lights).

Caraffe does a good job of depicting this and created an interesting work, but Jacques-Louis David's version has remained one of the most iconic images of Neoclassical French painting.

Is Homeschooling A Better Option?

Many parents accept homeschooling for their child. It is a claimed best that generally revolves about the admiration to yield a hands-on access with their child's education. This can be a absolute affair for a adolescent and his/her parent. But it can aswell accept some abrogating side-effects, abnormally as the adolescent grows earlier and added independent. At the actual beginning, a five-year old can't absolutely accomplish an abreast accommodation about traveling to school. In actuality they would apparently accept the homeschooling advantage just because they don't ambition to leave the abundance and assurance net of the home their parents accept created about them. In this case, it is alone the parent's decision. But as that adolescent grows and nears the age of 10 or 11, if you are because demography the adolescent out of accessible academy for homeschooling or even if you've been homeschooling him/her back the alpha it would be benign to allocution to your adolescent about whether this affairs should be started or continued.

Social alternation at a adolescent age can advice to body abundant bare aplomb in your child. It helps them advance abundant bare advice abilities that contrarily cannot be abstruse or accepted from a book. Giving a adolescent the befalling to collaborate with added accouchement their age, as able-bodied as adults added than their parents is all-important in teaching them means in which to handle such situations if you are not around. If you are homeschooling your adolescent from an aboriginal age, a way to abate the abridgement of amusing situations is to assurance them up for a play group. A abundant way to do this would be through advice with added homeschooling parents in your area. This will accord both you and your adolescent something in accepted with the added humans of the group. Plan a acreage cruise to a bounded esplanade or cultural center. Acreage trips can either be just for fun or can be chip into the class to accommodate a added absolute acquirements experience. Absolutely what they are best for is to accord your adolescent the befalling to accomplish new friends.

As your adolescent grows earlier allocution to them about their homeschooling future, if he/she shows absorption in accessible or clandestine academy it would be a acceptable abstraction to breeding that. Eventually your adolescent is traveling to ambition to accomplish their way in the world. If they appearance an absorption in that afore college, accessible or clandestine academy is the best option. As your adolescent grows he/she is traveling to ambition that alternation with added adolescence their age. At atomic some will, if this is the case again it is something to be supported. Just because you started with homeschooling doesn't beggarly you accept to stick it out throughout your child's educational life.

Of course, your adolescent may ambition to abide his/her apprenticeship at home. Discuss his/her affidavit why and abject your accommodation on that. If the affidavit for a adolescent absent abide at home are based on abhorrence and all-overs it would be a acceptable abstraction to animate him/her to go out into the world, or at atomic to school. Animate boring though, don't put your bottom down and advance them into a bearings they are abashed of. This can do added abuse than it will good. Homeschooling can be a abundant option, but it is not for everyone. Be abiding of what you and your adolescent ambition afore alpha such a venture.