Free Music Software

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Andy Harris
www.aharrisbooks.net
www.TOSMagazine.com

This month we look over a number of wonderful free tools for creating and enjoying music. Quite a bit of excellent free software is available.

Audio Mixing With Audacity

The most straightforward class of audio tools involves recording and manipulating sounds. Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) is a marvelous tool for this job. Use it with a microphone to record music or speech, import audio in wav, mp3, or ogg formats, and manipulate the sound waves directly. Once you have recorded or imported a sound, you can tweak it in hundreds of ways: add digital effects play it backwards, cut out parts you don’t need, and much more.

Audacity is a multi-track editor, which means you can record several different audio samples and place them in layers for interaction. (more…)

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Geography, World Missions & Comparative Religion

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Just For Fun

Published with Permission
Written by Mary Hood
www.archersforthelord.org
www.TOSMagazine.com

Whenever you are deciding how to approach an area of study, it helps to think through your goals. When teaching geography, my own goals have very little to do with memorizing the names of countries and what they import or export. For me, it all begins with helping children develop a sense of adventure.

When my youngest son, Steve, was about 13, we traveled from Georgia to California by car. It was just the two of us, camping all the way. From Georgia to Fort Worth, Texas, I was on familiar ground and was completely within my comfort zone. However, heading out of Fort Worth, preparing to cross the desert for the very first time, I fully expected Apaches to come swarming out of the hills, due to a penchant for cowboy movies during my childhood. I was scared, but I went anyway, and was I glad I did! (more…)

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Updated: We Are Not Alone

Biography, Classroom Help, Informative, Just For Fun

Published with Permission
Written by Katharine Trauger
http://katharinetrauger.wordpress.com

Turning her back on wealth and marriage, loving the poor, pioneering in statistical graphics…who was this famous home scholar?

As a young wife, you rise early to arrange the daily tasks for your large housekeeping staff.  Your three-story home with over twenty fireplaces needs someone to see about all that fuel and the accompanying ash and dust. Then there is the approaching holiday in Italy—you must plan for all who will attend you during the trip, as well as for those who will stay behind with the estate.

You are Frances Smith Shore, or, you would have been. However, your husband’s great uncle willed him all his wealth if he would but carry on the elderly man’s name and coat of arms. Who could know how prophetic this name change would become in the life of one of your daughters? (more…)

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