"Game of Your Life" Family Movie Night Review

It's time for another Family Movie Night!  "Game of Your Life" will air on Friday, December 2, 8/7c on NBC.    Here's a little synopsis....


When industrious high school gamer Zach Taylor lands a prized scholarship to the prestigious Digital Institute of Game Design (DIGD), his future breaks wide open. The opportunity to study under gaming legend Marcus Bentton and alongside the country’s most creative minds will certainly propel him into a successful career as a video game designer. That is, if he can pass the infamous freshman project that eliminates more than half of the class within the first three months.
Paired with brilliant yet socially awkward teammates Phillip and Donald, the trio persuades Sara Ramirez – a determined and striking team leader with whom Zach has a history (and possibly a future) – to join their team. Working off-campus in the teched-out Lincoln Alley loft, the four set out to involve the entire campus in a quirky new social interactive game. But as the group becomes entrenched in the project, Zach learns that his father Billy, a widower, is facing growing financial woes at home. To help out, Zach accepts an opportunity to work directly with Marcus Bentton on a secretive side project that seems too good to be true. The effort requires nearly all of Zach’s time and energy, which he should be devoting to the project. Struggling to keep it together, Zach is torn between his responsibility to his team, his admiration for Bentton and a chance to help his father.
Everything comes to a breaking point when Zach’s team threatens to remove him from the group and the deceptive truth behind Bentton’s project comes to light. With the guidance of Professor Abbie Lambert, Zach must make a decision that not only affects his future, but the lives and livelihoods of the people around him as well. It’s a revealing story that recognizes the magnitude behind the choices we make and the importance loyalty plays in making good decisions.

Enjoy this official trailer....

Game of Your Life - Talks with Nathan from Moms4FamilyTV.com on Vimeo.

So, my family gathered together on the couch to watch this movie last night.  My son, who is a typical 11 year video game lover was excited because of the storyline.  Hubby and I were excited to have some good family entertainment.  The movie was clean and wholesome.  We loved the obvious portrayal of family values, loyalty in friendship, evidence of forgiveness, commitment, and the overcoming of personal struggles.  Overall, the movie was as promised....a great family movie.

We were a little disappointed in the acting.  The main character, Zach, did not seem sincere or believable at times.  I was left feeling like....."hmmmm, I can tell he is trying to act.  It doesn't seem natural".  I felt the same way about the female teacher's character, Abby.  Also, the filming was a bit "C" rated at times.  I'm not sure if it was because I viewed the Director's cut or what, but sometimes I felt like I was watching the quality of a home movie, rather than a TV movie.

The movie is definitely worth your Friday night time in the living room!  Pop some popcorn and cuddle up with your loved ones.  Family Movie Night is coming, so don't miss out!  "Game of Your Life" will air on Friday, December 2, 8/7c on NBC.

See what others are saying about Game of Your Life by visiting their Facebook page or Twitter!

College Prep Genius VocabCafe REVIEW

OK, so my son is only in 6th grade.  That doesn't mean that I'm not already thinking about high school, SAT's, and college preparation.  Is that weird?

I don't care.  I'm going to do it anyway.

When I saw that I had the opportunity to sign up to review VocabCafe from CollegePrepGenius I did my cyber-wave and jump with the hopes of being picked!  Voila!  Here I am!  Let's see if my acrobatic efforts to get noticed were worth the sore muscles.

VocabCafe is a series of books (currently four) that are modern novellas containing 300 SAT-level words.  Each chapter contains a selection of vocabulary words interjected into the storyline.  These words are in bold and their definitions are at the bottom of the page they are on.  At the end of each chapter there is a review list of the words used.  The four titles and descriptions in the series are as follows:

 


IM for Murder
Operation High school
Planet Exile
Summer of St Nick






All four books are written with the modern teen in mind.  Although the target age group is middle school to high school, I think the themes would be most appealing to an 8-10th grade student.  With that being said, the vocabulary words were very challenging.  So, it seemed that the theme and the task of the words were not well matched.  I received the following information along with the books....


“***A WORD ABOUT CONTENT – These books were written with an intended audience of high school teenagers, although many parents find them appropriate for their middle school or younger students.  As a family-based company, our goal is to make a quality product that can be enjoyed by everyone.  Thus, these stories contain no magic, sorcery, swear words, illicit situations, nor do they encourage negative behaviors.  However, we recommend that parents should read every book that they give their children (not just ours) to make sure the messages coincide with their beliefs and standards.  The VocabCafe Book Series does contain boy-girl relationships (non-sexual), mild violence, and mature thematic elements.”

I read this before reading the books and was very encouraged.  Although I'm not the literature police when it comes to what my son reads, I do try to weed out books that offer themes I feel he could be sensitive to, would dive into areas that are inappropriate for his age, or that may negatively influence him.  After reading this disclosure, I was put at ease.  Still, I thought I would read them on my own before handing them over to my 11 year old son.  I'm glad I did.

Matthew is an avid reader and he does read at a high school level.  However, the storylines were too frequently off of the moral compass that I like to have as part of his reading.  Things like teenage dating, lying, disobedience and rebellion without consequence, and some phrases or words that I would deem as inappropriate in our house (ie:  freaking instead of the other popular cuss word).  I would not label these books as wholesome literature if that's what you're looking for in your reading.  For us, some good conversation while reading them was in order.  It certainly allowed us to dive into the Bible to find the scriptures that conflicted with the storylines.  Wonderful lessons learned :) 

With that being said....I thought the concept of these books was GREAT!  Boosting your vocabulary can be a boring and fruitless effort if all your doing is making flash cards and trying memorize words you'll probably never use in real life.  Interjecting them into a story will definitely increase the retention level.  Sure, sometimes the word seemed oddly placed.  I mean, if you were going to hold a "vote" among a group to make a decision wouldn't you just say that?  Well, in Planet Exile they will hold a "plebiscite".  OK....sure!  The reality is that most of the words on the SAT are words that no typical human being uses.  But, alas, our student must know them in order to score well and they will find them in the VocabCafe series of books.

If you would like to order these books, you can get them for $12.95 each or the complete set for $38.85.  That's a buy 3 get one free kind of price!  Just visit the website by clicking here.

Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how we used the product within our family.  I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.

Grammar Police.....knocking on my door

If I wasn't laughing so hard you may hear the Grammar Police pounding on my door.  But, alas, my jolly outburst has been heard throughout the neighborhood.

Today's Daily Grammar review worksheet had the question....

The three articles are ______, ______, and _____.

OK, so for all of you grammar gurus out there.....the answer is a, an, and the.

Well, if you are an 11 year old boy who retreats into his darkened hiding fort when his teacher (Moi!) says it's time for grammar then this may be your answer.....

Sports, News, and Cartoons

Yes, my dear readers....as I left my son to complete his worksheet this was his best answer.  When I burst out laughing and he asked me why, I pointed out his answer.  He could not, for the life of him, see why I was laughing.  When I explained it to him he just said....

"Whoever wrote this needs to say what they mean! 
Articles are in the newspaper, too, so my answer is right!"

Could I argue with him?  Yes, it was a grammar lesson so one would assume that the answer that was being sought would be related to grammar and not journalism.  But, well, you know what they say about assuming...

 

I'm always asking Matthew to think outside of the box and he has taken my advice!  He thought outside of the grammar box, right where he would like to be.  Unfortunately, learning proper grammar is a necessary evil.  At least Grandpa thinks so...