Exploring America - History Curriculum For High School Homeschoolers

Finding a good history curriculum for high school was one of the greatest challenges I faced when I was being homeschooled. It seemed like most of the good history books stop at the Civil War or World War II. What about modern history? It's hard to find a history book from a Christian perspective about modern history. Have you run into this problem, too? This difficulty has been overcome with a high school history curriculum from Notgrass Company. Exploring America by Ray Notgrass is an amazing curriculum that is exciting as well as educational. It begins with Christopher Columbus and ends at the present time. Each day is broken up into short concise lessons.

Sometimes history books seem to make the exciting events sound like nothing more than boring facts, Mr. Notgrass has an engaging writing style that makes the events come to life. There are also daily assignments that encourage the students to dig deeper. Sometimes they will read a document, speech, or hymn from American Voices, which is a 400+ page companion book that comes with the curriculum. Other times they will look up relevant Bible verses and also memorize verses. Writing assignments (including writing a research paper) are also part of the assignments. Students who finish the course will have three credits, one in history, one in English, and one in Bible. How's that for hitting 3 birds with one stone?

This book is essential for every high school student and will give them the tools to take an in-depth look at American history from a Biblical perspective. If you are looking for a really good American history high school curriculum look no further. Exploring America has filled a big gap in the history curriculum for homeschoolers. Exploring America is the best high school curriculum for American history I have ever seen! I wish it had been around when I was in high school.

Exploring America by Ray Notgrass

Reviewed by Amy Puetz

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Interior Stair Railings: Best Home Renovation Solution

Commonly, home owners and visitors admire the architecture of indoor railings, especially when the craftsmanship demonstrates expertise. This often leaves individuals debating the perfect method to improve the interior home decorations. Certain safety regulations exist and serve to help homeowners maintain the healthy qualities of decorative rails in the home. Examining different railing systems is also an optimum resolve to determine product quality.

This approach is required to ascertain that the best class of railings was selected. Although individuals focus on finding well-designed railings to decorate the interior bounds, it is fundament to select rails that are efficient in every way. Therefore, if the rails are installed to stairway systems, opting for designs that manage pressure well is the top priority. Moreover, the components used to setup the complete staircase should be depravities of the finest materials and the designs should coordinate well with the home's current furnishings. Nevertheless, safety and security are fundamental characteristics individuals should seriously contemplate, if one's objective is to buy the best interior railing systems. Whichever collection a person decides to choose, it is mandatory to secure products of superior quality. Given that the collections are available in distinctive colors, shapes, sizes, patterns, etc.; it is obligatory to measure the attributes of multiple designs from different manufacturers to select nothing but the best.

Nowadays, the designers of staircase railings even promote preassembled railing systems. These are easier to develop and don't require a high level of expertise to initiate and execute installation. The basics to completing the entire stairway setup require that persons follow the instruction provided by the maker. The preset staircase components are fitting for individuals with an interest to save time, as well as money. The effort needed to install the staircase is nominal, and one's skills should develop with time. The materials to debate usually include metal, wood, metallic, aluminum, vinyl and other suitable ranges. The choice depends on one's requirements, but the metal staircase railings are a better choice, when debating quality, reliability, durability and cost-effectiveness. Choosing a design is never hard, because many options exist, making it stress free to pick the right railings to buy.

The railings possibly require maintenance; therefore, buyers should always think over choosing the right product, by inspecting all the methods well. Determining the best solution is not demanding, when a person's knowledge on railings is vast. The difference with the railings manufacturers products has to do with the material types, strength of the structures, price and installation method. All these require assessment, when one's main prospect is to buy the best railings to enhance the home's interior realm.

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Valuable Long Term Care Planning Details

LTC insurance policies might be quite complicated and complex particularly to those who are not really familiar with its process and to those who are considered as first-timers when it comes to these kinds of policies. This is just one of the many reasons why it is important for an individual, and for their family members as well, to have proper and careful long term care planning.

Just like with how other insurance plans work, LTC policies need a lot of time and patience before one can fully comprehend the benefits, advantages, and other terminologies that come with it. An expert may be hired in order to help those who are willing and interested to avail their own LTC insurance plan. These individuals or LTC authorities may give light and helpful advices to those who seek guidance before they confirm their plan purchase.

Aside from the insurance agents who are usually the ones who help the public with their LTC plans queries, there are also the so-called elder care experts who underwent trainings and other related studies regarding LTC insurance policies. They can give some pertinent tips and information that their clients can consider when availing their own policy.

They can give suggestions on what nursing home or adult day care facility is the best or most suitable to address and treat their health issues. Aside from this, they can also act as liaison officer between the confined insurance owner and their relatives who may be away from them of live far from where they are currently confined.

They can also recommend the most appropriate type of LTC insurance plan that fits his health and LTC needs and his financial allocation as well. This is on of the most important steps in long term care planning because there are several kinds of LTC plans that, although offer almost the same services and facilities, very in amount and have different terms of how they would pay their policyholders' LTC needs.

Below are some beneficial and useful tips on what to consider if an individual is seriously considering of buying an LTC plan:

1. Choose an insurance provider with stable and credible status in the insurance industry. Because of the expensive monthly premiums that one has to pay for, he would not want to invest on a company that cannot assure him of getting all his LTC needs in the future.

2. Ask for LTC policy quotations from different insurance companies so that the individual can choose the most reasonable price but does not necessarily compromise the quality of services and facilities that he can get.

3. Buy an LTC plan as early as possible. This is one of the major ways on how to get cheaper and lower monthly premiums. Other factors that could help a person avail of cheaper policies may be discussed further with his insurance provider.

Insurance agents or hiring an elder care specialist would surely help an individual with his long term care planning by acquiring more important details and factual information rather than getting other data from unreliable resources. Also, they can help them reduce the time of planning, thus giving their clients more chances of getting lower and budget-friendly policy rates.

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Why Opt for LED Under Cabinet Lighting?

We spend a lot of time, effort and money in making sure that our house is well constructed. After that, we also spend our energy on making sure that the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and each and every part of our house is well decorated. Besides, we make sure that all the rooms are illuminated with the help of the best lights and bulbs available in the market. The kitchen is one of the most important rooms of our house and we cook and store our food in that room. Usually the cabinets in the room are used to store food and other edible substances.

Because of the fact that the cabinets are used to store items that can directly affect our health, we must ensure that they are kept in the best possible conditions. This is why, people should opt for LED under cabinet lighting so that they can easily keep a watch on the food items kept in the kitchen cabinets, and also keep the area clean at all times. Besides, LED cabinet lighting will offer you many more advantages such as:

Quality- the quality of the light emitted by these lights is way better than that emitted by sodium lamps, traditional fluorescent or incandescent lamps. The LED puck lights will emit warm light that will not only brighten the room but will also help in keeping it warm all the year round.

Pollution- when you opt for LED under cabinet lighting, you are actually helping the environment as these lights do not pollute the environment as much as the traditional lamps. They are eco-friendly and they do not have any harmful effect on your health.

Durability- usually, the LED puck lights last for 10 to 12 years, when used for a period of about 12 hours on a daily basis. Thus, they are highly durable and will act as a long term investment. Other lamps are not as durable as they are, in comparison and so you should opt for LED under cabinet lighting.

Savings- opting for LED under cabinet lighting will help you in saving a lot of money in energy bills as these lights consume only about 20 % of the energy consumed by the traditional sodium based lamps. Thus, you will be saving a lot of money months after months, by opting for LED under cabinet lighting.

Finally, the LED puck lights are easy to maintain and you will only need to keep them clean to ensure that they last long.

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6 Winter Energy Saving Tips You Should Know

According to the EPA, nearly half of a family's yearly energy costs are spent on heating and cooling their home. Many parts of the country are currently reaching for the thermostat and cranking up the heat. The costs associated with chilly weather can skyrocket if you aren't careful. This winter you can be simultaneously kind to your bank account, AC and heating system and the environment by practicing a few of our favorite free or inexpensive wintertime energy-saving techniques.

Invest in a programmable thermostat.

When it comes to energy efficiency, upgrading from your old mercury thermostat to a programmable one can save you the big bucks. When properly used, a newer programmable thermostat is capable of easily saving you anywhere from 10-30% on your energy bill. If you already have one or plan on installing one, have it set your home's temperature 10-15 degrees cooler when you're not at home than when you are for serious savings.

Seal any leaks.

If you're already aware of any cracks or gaps, caulk or seal them to prevent cold air from seeping in and warm air escaping out. Common places to find air leaks within your home are along doors, windows, in attics and where plumbing, electrical wiring and anything else come through the wall. For obvious reasons, caulk isn't the best choice to seal certain parts of doors and windows. To keep warm air in without trapping yourself inside, apply weather stripping to the parts of your home that need to open and close.

Close off empty or unused rooms.

If nobody's staying in your guest room this winter then don't waste money on keeping it comfortable. Close the vents to unused rooms so that warm air from your heater doesn't go to waste. Keep the windows and doors of the rooms closed as well.

Let the sunshine in!

During the day let the sunlight help in warming your home. Draw back the curtains and blinds when the sun is shining and close them at night to help insulate the room.

Keep your windows and doors closed as much as possible.

Warm air will quickly escape through an open door or window. Don't leave your door ajar when bringing groceries in from the car or hanging Christmas lights. If you can minimize your trips out into the cold, that'll definitely help. If you can't, just don't leave anything open longer than necessary.

Keep your fireplace damper closed.

In fact, unless you want more from your fireplace than the aesthetically pleasing glow and crackle, it's best that you don't use it at all. Fireplaces, by design, draw whatever warm air is in the room up and out of the chimney to stay alight. If you're running your heater and the fireplace at the same time your AC unit will have to work overtime and you'll probably still have trouble maintaining a toasty temperature.

If you're like us and don't want to see your money carried away with the winter winds, be sure to take these energy-saving precautions. For little to no cost you can reduce your energy consumption and save the environment, your wallet and your heating system any undue stress.

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What Does Energy Efficiency Mean?

For most people energy efficiency means putting the lights out when leaving a room, using the car less, or enabling energy saving modes on devices. Generally energy efficiency means to do more with less energy instead of wasting it as useless heat. On a broader scale it is not only a question of how to use electricity but also of how to generate and distribute it. Efficient generation of electricity is crucial to reduce greenhouse gases and fight the negative consequences of climate change especially as the world's energy needs are constantly growing.

Nowadays fossil fuels are still important to maintain a stable energy network. In the US 85 percent of the energy comes from fossil fuels. Therefore energy efficiency in fossil power generation should be fostered. Only about 35 percent of the energy generated by coal power stations results in electric power. Producing electricity at the highest possible efficiencies would reduce CO2 emissions dramatically. Gas turbines and combined cycle power plants contribute to use fossil energy in a more sustainable manner. Short startup times, low startup emissions and little use of water are important. Combined heat and power plants are among the most efficient methods to generate energy.

It is even more important to replace further fossil energy sources by renewable sources: by wind, solar and hydro power. Increased efforts are made to develop efficient wind turbines, photovoltaic and solar plants. Energy efficiency combined with renewable resources could really provide clean energy. Nowadays (2011) about 14.3 percent of the energy produced in the US comes from renewable resources.

Reliable and low-loss transmission of electricity is another aspect. High-voltage direct current (HVDC) is an environment-friendly transmission system. Another one is the so called smart grid.In connection with this intelligent electricity grid, electric cars play a major role. They have not only low emissions but can also be part of the energy system as they are able to store energy and return it to the grid.

Lowering the CO2 emissions of houses is another crucial point. 40 percent of the electricity is consumed by buildings. Buildings can nowadays become prosumers, which means that they produce and consume energy at the same time. It is even more important to reduce emissions and to improve energy efficiency in the industry. Electric drives and motors are responsible for 70 per cent of industrial energy consumption, so there are efforts to make them more energy efficient.

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