My Two Happy Homeschoolers

Old blog, new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 22:45:00 +0000

Believe it or not, I started this blog in 2008! I've gone through periods of intense involvement here, followed by periods of quiet absence. I seen my children go from carefree, curious toddlers to big kids, all while homeschooling and learning about mothering, Christian parenting and raising children with special needs.

I've realized now that I've grown out of this blog, so I've created a new one--one that focuses on homeschooling, yes, but also on other, more broad areas of life as a Christian wife. The Hidden Beauty of Home is about homeschooling, homemaking, biblical womanhood and motherhood in general, with a little on foster care and adoption thrown in. I'll warn you, I don't look at my blog stats, and I don't care how many people read my blog (but feel free to comment and share my posts!) so don't expect perfectly timed posts on perfectly engaging topics of the perfect length. Do expect to hear real thoughts on real issues, hopefully presented in a clear and relevant way. :) So please visit me on my new blog!

Jennifer

Belated Curriculum Post!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:18:00 +0000

To be honest, I haven't kept up with my regular blog friends since Little Bird was born. I have a very few I check often, but my long list on my feed? Not so much. But I do remember I always loved reading curriculum posts. You can tell alot about a homeschool by what curriculum they have chosen! Now we are over halfway through our year, and I don't think I ever did write a curriculum post! So, in case y'all are wondering, here's what we use:

Our core curriculum is Adventures in My Father's World. It's technically for 2nd to 3rd graders. I have a seven year old (nearly 8) and a six year old doing it. They are ALL over the place in the various subjects, so I really don't have them in any particular grade level. We all love this curriculum, and highly recommend it. My Father's World covers their music, art, history, Bible, and science.

That being said, we don't use their Language Arts or Math suggestions.

For math, little Bean (7) uses Teaching Textbooks 4, and so far we are pleased. Miss O (6) uses Christian Light Education 1 and so far, again we are pleased. Eventually, I plan to move her to TT as well. It doesn't start until 3rd grade, so for now, we are staying with CLE.

For Language Arts we use: Amish Pathway Readers, grade 3. Miss O reads them aloud, and Little Bean completes the corresponding workbook pages. We love the readers, but the workbooks is...blah. We will continue with the readers next year and leave the workbook aside.

Writing With Ease, level 1. It's ok. We won't be using it again next year.

All About Spelling. Little Bean finished Level 4 this year and Miss O is starting Level 4. So Bean is taking a break while O finishes this level, and then they'll enter Level 5 together (this will really cut down on the individual time I have to spend on spelling).

For handwriting, Bean is using a cursive workbook, but it's really not been helpful. Miss O is using A Reason for Handwriting. It's fine, but we probably will switch next year. She is nearly finished.

We use Heart of Dakota for book recommendations. And we get those at the library. :) HOD has some great book lists!

We also have Heritage History's CD libraries. We have their Young Reader's Collection and one other. The books on these CD's are all public domain, but beautifully formatted for you. These we use to supplement our history studies. Bean reads many of them on his own (daily reading time) and we read them together as well. Right now, he is reading Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, and together we are moving through Boys and Girls of Colonial Days. I highly recommend HH. It is a valuable supplement to any history program. The books are of a very good quality, and it is very inexpensive. I had a coupon code, and only spent $20 on two collections.

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I'm writing a family devotional!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:46:00 +0000

And I'm planning to share it with you all! :) Don't get overly excited, I'm not writing a book or anything, but a ten lesson family devotional on the fruit of the Spirit. Our church has been talking about the fruit of the Spirit recently on Sundays, and one day as we were heading home, I said something to Raymond about how we should study the fruit of the Spirit in our family worship time. He laughed, saying he was thinking the same thing. I love when what we learn in church can be expanded upon at home!

We found a devotion online and started using it, only to quickly find that it didn't meet our needs. It was too watered down, and there wasn't enough scripture explaining what each fruit of the Spirit really is. It was a great jumping off point, but every night I kept thinking that there was so much more we were adding to our study and I started wanting to rewrite it myself. So I am!

Hopefully there are those of you out there who read my blog and would benefit from something like this. I'm not sure how long it will take me, but I hope to finish fairly quickly. This is the first time I've ever attempted to write something like this, and I'm finding that I enjoy it very much and will likely write more in the future! The other aspect is learning to share files. Does anyone have advice on that? I had a dear reader offer to host my power cards (a very popular post on my blog due to pinterest), but I would rather host my own files so I guess I need to figure that out too!

I'm so excited to share this devotional with you all, and I hope some of you are excited as well!

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Why I homeschool, and the answer to an even tougher question

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:29:00 +0000

picture credit

I wrote a post several years back about why I homeschool. It was a good post, I think, and reflected my feelings at the time, and to some extent still does. But I think the question has changed now from why do I homeschool to why do I choose live the life I live-which includes homeschooling, but also so much more.

My homeschooling journey began before I even had kids, and for very practical reasons. I was in college, about to get married, and my fiancé and I had decided we wanted to serve as missionaries overseas. So I decided to study elementary education because for one thing, teaching is a common job for foreigners overseas, and secondly, when I had kids I could homeschool them myself (bear in mind this was long before I realized one did not need a teaching credential to homeschool!).

Later, when my first child was nearly 3, "everyone" was putting their kids in preschool and I began to feel the pressure to put him in too, at least part time. But after visiting several schools, something wasn't right in my spirit, and I knew he needed to remain home with me. There was no spiritual or deep reason for this; I just didn't feel "right" sending him off to school. So, with me he stayed.

He and his sister grew and learned, and soon, they had learned everything a kindergarten student would learn in school and then some. Now I felt I would be doing them a disservice putting them in school; how bored they would be! Not to mention the kids and teachers they'd be exposed to, whose values were often directly opposed to what we were trying to teach them. At this point, I knew we were homeschooling for the long haul, even if we stayed in the States. But again, no real spiritual epiphany here. Homeschooling wasn't an issue of faith for me, but one of pragmatics; keeping them home would be better for them academically, socially, and would support our value system.

Fast forward several years, and now I am the biological mother to a nearly 8 year old, a 6.5 year old, and an infant, and an adoptive mother to a 1 year old. We had been doing the homeschool thing for quite a while. My kids were smart, "ahead" for their age, and happy. And we all loved homeschooling. Homeschooling was a major way that we could be together as a family, and for us, family life has always taken center stage.

That is, except in church. After all in church, each one of my children was separated from me and from eachother, each learning something different from someone different. And this is where my homeschooling journey, and my why question changed.

I knew why I homeschooled--because sending my kids away from me didn't feel "right" (among other reasons). But if that was true, why did I send them away from me in church? And why did I delegate my and my husband's duty to train them up in the instructions of the Lord to the church? I read this: "So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home, when you are on the road, when you are going to bed, and when you are getting up". (Duet. 11:18-19), and this "Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord," (Eph. 6:4), and this, "Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children" (Joel 1:3) and hosts of other verses saying the same thing. Over and over again I saw that the Bible commanded PARENTS to train their children in the faith.

At once I realized why sending them away from me each day felt so wrong. Could it be that God was commanding parents to train their children at home? No, he doesn't specifically say to homeschool, but it does say to teach them His words, each day, all throughout the day, and wherever we go. How could I do that if I sent them to school each day? The kind of school didn't matter, whether private, Christian, public, Montessori or any other. How could I train them and admonish them in the Lord while at the same time relinquishing my authority to another person who may or may not share my values, and who definitely isn't commanded by God to teach MY children? The truth is, I couldn't. So yes, I began to see that homeschooling was the only way I could follow the commands to train my children in the Bible. (For those of you whose eyes just bugged out of their heads when I used the words "only way"and "homeschooling" in the same sentence, please rest assured, my beliefs regarding this relate only to our family. I'll let the Lord lead you and yours how He sees fit!!).

Now here comes the but: For many years when my oldest children were small, my faith took a back seat to keeping house, changing diapers, and just staying afloat. Yes, we homeschooled, but homeschooling alone does not a disciple make. Oh no, plenty of people homeschool and have no faith, or like us, homeschool, and teach the Bible, but don't integrate it into every facet of life, as these verses command. To put it bluntly, my faith, though strong, had gone flat. It was who we were, but it had little to do with what we did and how we raised our lovely children day by day.

Then, I saw this movie, and it changed me. So I showed it to my husband, and it changed him too. This movie made me realize that while homeschooling is great (for those wondering, this movie doesn't mention homeschooling at all, this is just what I learned from watching it), alone it doesn't suffice for the kind of child training I now felt God calling us to in scripture. Homeschooling, education, had to take a back seat to discipling. And the life of our family had to integrate our faith in every way possible. After seeing this movie, in the words of my husband, "we could not turn back". Our children needed to worship with us when we sat at home, and when we went to church, and when we walked on the road, and every other time.

This was the beginning of our venture into family integrated churches--churches where there is no Sunday School, no nursery, no age segregated activities. Just families (and singles, and young marrieds, and widows, and children) worshiping the Lord together. And at home, the expectation is that the fathers would lead their families in daily discipleship.

As it always seem to go, one new thing leads to another, and another. And it was no different with this venture into a family integrated church. Prioritizing family worship every.single.day. is something that family-integrated churches really believe in. I wish all churches would encourage this more, but, I digress. The point is, that was something we had never done before.

Months before, I had started reading this blog and more specicially, these posts, and was SO incredibly inspired by the dedication of this mom to have daily family worship time. My husband has caught the vision too.

Yes, it's new. It takes practice. And we are having to hash things out as they come. But the truth is, I have never felt more like I am doing just exactly what God is calling me do. And that is why I homeschool, and that is why I live the way I do. :)

Long time, no blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:28:00 +0000

The truth is, once I had our Little Bird, my life basically got turned upside down. She is 10 months old today, and I'm just starting to feel like life is normal again. I don't really even know if people are still visiting my blog. I know once I had Little Bird, my online time drastically decreased. In case any of you all are still around, here's what's been going on around here:

Little Bird was on her apnea monitor for about 3 months. They never really said what caused her ALTE, but the more I reflect on it, the more I'm convinced that she was choking on mucous and couldn't clear it and so stopped breathing for a bit. She is a very healthy 15 pound crawler now. :)

Our little foster daughter Mimi (18 months) is VERY close to being our forever daughter. I don't wanna be overly optimistic, but I'd say another month and she'll be officially ours. At that point I look forward to sharing her story and her name (we got to rename her) with my readers!

We are still homeschooling! Did you really think we'd ever change that?! ;) We are using My Father's World and we are enjoying that. I did recently change Little Bean (age 7) to Teaching Textbooks. He tested into the 4th grade program, but rest assured he is NOT a 7 year old fourth grader all around. He excels in some areas and he needs alot of improvement in others. Miss O (6) is the same way. She is reading at a 3rd grade level in the Amish Pathway readers, but is "behind" in math. We just switched her to Christian Light Education for math and are repeating 1st grade math (she is nearly done with Right Start's 1st grade book).

We have four kids, and for someone like me, that's large. So it's been quite an adjustment! Hence, the lack of blogging. Actually, this past 10 months has been a lack of much of anything for us. We pulled the kids out of boy scouts and American Heritage Girls and 4-H. We made it to family reunion and down to Tulsa for holidays, but it's hard. I love my family though, and YES I want more children. Now, whether that's through natural means or adoption or both, who knows! Once Mimi is adopted, we plan to be respite providers for the foster kids in our agency for a while, then eventually switch to emergency foster care, and then probably back to regular foster care. And now that things are calming down, I am considering a homeschool co-op for next fall.

One thing the Lord's been speaking to me personally about is biblical womanhood. I started thinking about what a godly woman should look and act like. I think it may be somewhat different for everyone. But I'm learning that God has given us women some wonderful guidelines in his word about this subject as well as biblical women to look up to and emulate. And I have been feeling blessed as my eyes are opened and my heart is changing when it comes to this subject. More to come about that.

I'll leave you all with that! I hope someone reads this, lol! I know I've missed interacting with my readers since I left so long ago!

Large Family Tip--The Family Closet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:20:00 +0000

The title says it's for large families, but really, if you have a kid(s) who can't seem to keep their dresser drawers tidy or a house that isn't conducive to gathering laundry, a family closet might be right for you.

I learned of the family closet shortly before Birdie was born because I was flipping out about having 4 small children to care for and was looking for ways to make daily living more efficient. The family closet is one of the things we have incorporated into our lives since Birdie came around, and it has worked out very nicely and cut down on my laundry duties as well as made it easier for my big kids to keep their clothing tidy and accessible. One of the benefits of the family closet is that everything is hanging, so you have less folding to do. Another is that everyone keeps their clothing in one place (and ideally in or near the laundry area) so that when you put your clothing away or gather dirty clothing, you only have to visit one location. I would have ours in the laundry room if I could, but our laundry room is ridiculously small. Maybe some day we'll remodel and make it bigger! Another benefit for larger families is that it eliminate the need for dressers in the bedroom. This is great for room sharing or tight spaces. It also frees up bedroom closet space for other storage items. And one of the benefits I have seen in our own lives is that it avoids the messy dresser drawers my kids tend to have.

Step one was to limit the amount of clothing my kids had out. My kids have grandparents on both sides that spoil, spoil, spoil them! So they have way too many clothes. I got some boxes, just basic moving boxes, but you could use something fancy if you like, and I labeled them by gender and by size. I wish I had a picture, but they are stored in Birdie's closet and she is sleeping right now! I limited them to about 5 to 10 shirts and shorts/pants and one jacket. I limited socks, undies and pajamas too. One way to get good use out of all the clothes they have is to rotate them monthly or as the seasons change. Here in Oklahoma, the weather changes from day to day, so I do have to make sure to keep at least a few of each season out just in case. I don't really limit the baby clothing because babies don't get into their clothing needlessly the way my big kids do, and because babies go through alot more outfits per day.

Step two was to gather my materials--a good sized closet (but you can use your mud room, laundry area or any other place that a shelf can be installed), a shelf--I purchased Closet Maid shelves at Target for around $12 dollars each, and hangers--both pants and shirt hangers. The only other thing you need is bins and laundry baskets. I wanted fancy cute bins, but I also wanted to keep the project cheap, so I used plastic bins that had previously been used for our Workbox System. You need a bin for each child's socks and a bin for each child's undies. And you need a laundry basket for each child, or if you have many children, pair them by age groups or genders, or however you like. This is just how I do it. I also have a shelf and dresser in the closet, but only because I had no where else to store it, so in it went. I chose a few pairs of jammies and each child has a jammie drawer. It's messy. But I can handle one messy jammie drawer per child. You could hang jammies too, but I didn't think it necessary since jammies don't really wrinkle in a messy drawer the way day clothing does. And since I didn't have enough pants hangers, the shelves have the baby's pants and a couple of the big kid's pants/shorts. If I had more hangers, I wouldn't use that shelf at all!

I've included some pics so you can get an idea of what it is like. Maybe the family closet is something that will work for your family!

Last review for a while

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:34:00 +0000

For the past two years I've been on The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew, which consists of a group of homeschooling parents who receive products and write reviews about them. I've received hundreds of products, some of which I liked, some I loved, some were so-so, and some I really didn't care for. And through it all, I've shared my thoughts with you! I hope I've helped some of my readers learn about new products that they may like for their homeschools. Since I started on the Crew, my family life has gotten busier and busier. My oldest was diagnosed with Autism. My middle child developed severe reflux, which caused frequent nighttime vomiting. We moved across the country and then purchased our first home. We became foster parents and are now in the process of adopting our drug-exposed foster daughter. And then we had our Little Birdie, who scared us to death with her ALTE (life threatening event) and who is now on an apnea monitor. And through all of this, I reviewed products. TOS may have been the one thing in my life that didn't change over the last two years.

Now though, it's about to. I present to you today, my very last review for the Crew (...at least for this year). For my last review, we were sent a DVD and accompanying PDF file of lesson plans by a company called Dive Into Your Imagination. Our DVD is called What Makes a Fish, A Fish? and is presented in a documentary style, geared toward children in PreK or K, but certainly entertaining and educational for those students who are older. Set to playful music, information about what makes a fish a fish is presented to the viewer in simple, consise sentences and with pictures of real ocean fish to accompany the information. After the main portion of the video, children can continue watching to learn more about scuba diving and what it entails. The DVD itself is only about 30 minutes long, long enough to have a bit of worthwhile content, but not too long to lose the attention of a small child.

Anne Crawley, the founder of Dive Into Your Imagination never saw the ocean until she was in college. Growing up near the Pacific as I did, this is fairly unimaginable to me! But Anne began to have this passion to help children enjoy and discover the wonder of the ocean, and that's how the company began. Through her DVDs and corresponding lesson plans, Anne attempts to interest children in the ocean and its' creatures.

The DVD alone is educational, fun, and well made. I (and my kiddos) especially enjoyed the narrator's simple explanations and the video footage of unique fish and their habitats and survival skills. See some sample chapters here. Little Bean, my oldest, LOVES fish, so he was really into this product. What makes these DVDs stand out though is the instructor guides. that come along with them. Our guide is nearly 300 pages and includes what basically amounts to a unit study on fish which is integrated with the content of the DVD. The lesson plans are laid out in a step by step manner, and untilize different educational tools (graphic organizers, anticipatory sets) that remind me very much of my time in college studying education. Lessons cover a wide variety of subject areas, including Language Arts, Science, Geography, Math and Character Education. There is a lesson corresponding to each chapter on the DVD. The lessons are not some after thought, thrown together to make the product more educational; rather, it really shows how much time and effort was put into making these lessons educational, interactive and engaging for the students. From what I can gather from the website, the instructor guides are purchased separately from the DVD. Each DVD costs $19.95, and the print version of the instructor guide is $299. There is free shipping through out June using the following link: http://www.anniecrawley.com/store/

Would I recomend this product? Sure I would! Is it essential to your core homeschooling curriculum? No, probably not. But if you like unit studies, and want something super organized and easy to implement that incorporates technology and includes a variety of content areas, and you want to learn about fish, then this product may be what you are looking for!

What Makes a Fish, A Fish? isn't the only DVD this company sells either. Crew members had the chance to review several other titles as well, including Who Lives in the Sea? and Dive Into Diversity. Click here to read what other reviewers thought. Visit the company website to learn more about these products.

I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review. I am not obligated to give a positive review, and all opinions are mine alone.

911, a little bird and the scariest day of my life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:59:00 +0000

You probably remember my quick post a while back saying that I had my baby. Now with a few minutes to spare, I wanted to share her story...well her story so far, that is.

This is our newest little one. She was 7 pounds 6 ounces at birth, and 19 inches long. We call her Birdie because she has stick-up feathery hair and she makes little bird claws with her hands. :)

On March 31st, my water broke at 5 in the morning. I was 37 weeks 5 days. I went to the hospital right away, though I wasn't really having bad contractions. They said I had to go in because my water was already broken. In admitting, I explained that I wanted to vbac. I already vbac'ed once before with my surrogate pregnancy, so I knew the drill. But this time, they said I had to stay in the bed because there was a risk of a prolapsed cord. I was worried I wouldn't progress in bed, but there was no reason to worry. I arrived at the hospital at 8, and she was born around 2 pm that same day. I'm proud to say, she was my 3rd birth without pain meds of any kind. Natural birth is so empowering; but it is so intense as well.

Birdie appeared healthy after she was born. The nurses did monitor her oxygen saturation in the hours after her birth because in their opinion her lips seemed somewhat blue. But it was normal and they stopped monitoring it after just a few minutes. In our post partum room, Birdie kept spitting up some junk, and the nurses said it was amniotic fluid, and nothing to worry about. We took her home the next day.

On April 2nd, I sent my husband to the grocery store, my kids to the pool with their grandparents, and I stayed home with our foster baby (8 months) and Birdie. I put our foster baby down for a nap, and fed Birdie. Then I laid her on my bed to change and swaddle her. As I swaddled her, she spit up some. So I stopped to wipe it off and then resumed swaddling her. She spit up again and then instead of choking the spit up out, she just stopped moving, her mouth wide open, but no sound coming out. At first, I didn't even notice, but she became very still and I turned her and panicking, I said, "Are you breathing???".

In that moment I realized she was not. The area around her mouth was turning blue. I flipped her onto her tummy, over top my arm and I started firmly patting her back and crying, screaming, "Someone help me!". She became even more blue. I laid her on the bed and started using the bulb syrnge to clear her throat, alternating patting with sucking out her mouth. By now, her whole face was blue and she became stiff in my arms. I grabbed my phone, and dialed 911. Screaming and crying I gave them my address and they promised to send people to help.

After being on the phone for a little bit and continuing to pat her and suck out her mouth, she recovered and began breathing again. By the time the paramedics came, she was breathing normally.

Still, we went to the hospital. We stayed for 4 or 5 days (it's all a blur now). My husband needed to be with my older kids, so I was on my own most of the time there. We had a wonderful team of doctors and nurses caring for her. They felt, based on my story that she needed to be tested for apnea and reflux. So she underwent both a ph (reflux) study, and a sleep study on the same night.

The ph study involves taking a tube and inserting it through the nose and into the stomach to measure stomach acidity. The tube was connected to a box which had buttons on it for eating and not eating, lying flat and sitting up. Each time I moved her or fed her, I was to record it on the machine. She was not allowed to eat more than once in a three hour time period, and not for more than 30 minutes at a time. This study would last 24 hours.

The sleep study was more involved. I thank God I had my husband with me that night or I may have had a breakdown. This is what she looked like during the sleep study. Actually, this was only the half of it. I don't have a picture of the full amount of cords she had glued to her body. It was 6 hours long (through the night).

The sleep study involves connecting her to wires which allow the doctors to monitor all kinds of information regarding her sleep. Birdie had 30 wires connected her to head, and 13 connected to her chest, legs and feet. Her head was wrapped in gauze to prevent the wires from moving. Another wire was strung underneath her nose and abover her mouth. The sleep people needed 6 hours of recording time, 4 of which needed to be of her, sleeping in a crib, untouched by me (as I could disturb the monitors). This was extremely challenging, both logistically and emotionally.

We were realeased a couple days after Little Bean's 7th birthday. Yes, I missed my son's birthday.
:( Birdie came home on a home cardiac and respiratory monitor that she wears 24 hours a day. It's a little box that is connected to wires (yes, more wires) that are connected to her chest. If she stops breathing for more than 20 seconds it sounds an alarm. If her heart rate is too high, it sounds, too low, it sounds. So far, it has only gone off once, for apnea.

We took her to her two week check up a week ago. The doctor told us the sleep study was normal for her age. The ph study had not sent her any results yet. So we are still waiting on that. But, the doctor heard a murmur when listening to Birdie's heart. So tomorrow, we go back. Hopefully to hear the results of the ph study, but also to have an echocardiogram done on her. She may have a hole in her heart.

The doctor said that 30 percent of babies have holes and many grow out of them. But some don't. And given that she has had an ALTE (Apparantly Life Threatening Event) we are walking on the safe side and will see what the echo reveals.

So that's my story. We'll see where it leads from here.

Bible Program

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:40:00 +0000

When I think about what I want my kids to know about our faith, two things come to mind: 1) I want them to have a good understanding of reformed theology, and 2) I want them to know the Bible, through and through. When planning our Bible curriculum for the coming years, these two goals are always in the forefront of my mind. I chose a really great catechism program to give my kids a sound education in reformed theology, a three part series we are in the process of finishing now. And I chose Classical Academic Press' God's Great Covenant to use after our other program to take them through the Bible step by step.
SO, when Classical Academic Press sent me a copy of New Testament 1, I was thrilled. In the past we have used their Latin program and thoroughly enjoyed it, and having looked at the books in person at the teacher supply store, I knew this was a program we would be using for years to come. Classical Academic Press sells all kinds of programs, from logic programs to Bible and language programs. God's Great Covenant, is a newer program, consisting of a two part series on the Old Testament and (I believe) a two part series on the New Testament. From what I can tell on the website, the second part of the New Testament has not yet been made available.

Each set comes with a student workbook and a teacher's guide. The guide has a copy of the workbook, but also, much more--notes and teaching helps fill the margins to help you give your student a deeper understanding of what is happening in the text. The student book has a range of activities for the students to comeplete that aid in memorizing and understanding the materials. Also available are audio files of the Bible stories and map and timeline sets to compliment what you are studying. Overall, this is a very thorough Bible program.

Here's an example of the student workbook. As you can see, the workbook contains different activities such as muliple choice, true and false and matching. The questions are directly related to the lesson you have just taught.

Below is an example of the teachers manual. The smaller section is a copy of what is in the student book, and then the margins contain areas for personal notes and also teaching tips and explanations of the material in the lesson. These helps are really great for helping the student really dive into the material.

The NT bundle is $56.95 and includes both the teacher and student books and the audio files. The teacher and student books range from 22 to 29 dollars depending on the one you order. See more about their pricing here.

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Autism Awareness Month

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:10:00 +0000

April is Autism Awareness Month, didja know? We received an Autism diagnosis for Little Bean about a year and a half ago. This month, I'm over at Confessions of A Non-Domestic Housewife talking about my road to accepting Little Bean's Autism diagnosis.
Autism is Beautiful

Last year, shortly after learning that Little Bean had autism, I wrote a post about grief. I wrote about how I had met a friend for coffee whose daughter also has autism, and about the stark contrast between her and I, between her child and mine. No, her child wasn't necessarily more high functioning, and no this friend didn't have access to better services than Little Bean did at the time.

What she had that I didn't have was something else altogether.

Healing.

Acceptance.

Peace.

And much more.

She was okay.

A year and a half ago, I never thought I'd be okay again.

Hop on over to Angela's blog to read the rest of my story.

Christian Kids Explore Earth And Space

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:46:00 +0000

I'm always looking for a good science curriculum for my kids. I know I want something that covers all the areas of science: biology, physics, chemistry and earth and space, and I know want something engaging and hands-on. But I can never quite find the right curriculum for the job. So when I was given the chance to review one of Bright Ideas Press' science books, I was super excited.

I chose their Earth and Space book because the topics (think rocks, Little Bean's favorite) were those that I thought would interest my littles. They like all science, but I thought the topics in this book were an especially good fit for my kids.

Each of the four Christian Kid's books is a full year's worth of curriculum, designed to be used twice a week, and is a mix of reading and hands-on activities. The materials needed for the activities are those you would usually have on hand. For instance, in the first unit, you need things like scissors, markers, dental floss, a globe, modeling clay or dough and a camera. Each lesson has a similar format, beginning with a teaching time and then followed by one or more activities to comeplete with the student and cement learning. The sidebars are space for additional notes and also feature definitions of the main terms. Review is built in as well as ideas for activities for younger students.

Earth and Space costs $34.95. Please check out their other materials on the website!

Please note: I was given this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine and I am not obligated to give a positive review.

Fabulous Fractions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:20:00 +0000

AIMS Educational Foundation is a company dedicated to providing quality educational products for students of all ages. I love their motto: I Hear and I Forget, I See and I Remember, I Do and I Understand. Isn't it true? When our students are actively engaged in their learning, that's when true understanding takes place. And with that goal in mind, AIMS has created educational materials that are appropriate for both in home and in school use.

I was sent a lesson book called Fabulous Fractions. Given a choice between several titles, I chose Fabulous Fractions because Little Bean, my 3rd grader has shown great interest in fractions of late. I thought I'd capitalize on that interest with a great resource such as this one. I was NOT disappointed!

Fabulous Fractions has over 180 pages of lessons and activities related to fractions, developing an understanding in the student of what fractions are and how they are used and represented in mathematics. This book is geared toward 3rd grade and up, OR those who are ready to learn about fractions. Little Bean is on the young side, but he is very bright and would enjoy most of the activities in this book.

I have reviewed for AIMS before, and what I like so much about their materials is that they aren't just lessons and worksheets, but hands-on activites that the student can actively participate in and draw conclusions for himself about the concepts being presented. Some worksheets are included, but the majority of what you find in this book are engaging activities that enhance the learning for the student. Fabulous Fractions also includes games, which I love. The purpose of having so many hand-on activities and games is to bring this completely abstract concept into the concrete so the child can better understand the material. A physical copy of Fabulous Fractions costs $21.95. A pdf version is $19.95. Either one would work great depending on your needs and desires in terms of printing and storage.

AIMS sells a wide variety of educational materials, both books and sets of manipulatives, etc. So be sure to check them out here.

Please note: I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine, and I am not obligated to give a positive review

Had my baby, need advice!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:55:00 +0000

I'm going to try to make this quick! Some of you may remember, I was pregnant with a little baby girl. She was born on March 31st! She was 7 pounds 6 ounces, and appeared to be very healthy. We took her home on April 1st. On April 2nd, she stopped breathing and turned blue. It Was the scariest day of my life. I called 911, and she was admitted to the children's hospital here. Long story short, we don't have any results yet, but she was sent home on a cardiac and respiratory monitor. It's a little machine that plugs into the wall and has cords attached to her to monitor periods of apnea. It's not real portable, so basically when I am tending to her, I have to be in one place, I can't just carry her around or use a sling or what not.

You may also remember that I have my two olders, ages 5 and 7 and our foster baby (who is most likely going to adoption) who is 7 months old. Our foster baby is not mobile, and is developmentally delayed, so she still needs a lot of attention. And of course, we homeschool. We are on break right now, of course, but we can't be on break forever...

So, I'm breastfeeding. I was not sure I wanted to at first because I knew it was so much more work than bottle feeding (that's my opinion, especially when you have another infant already bottle-feeding, what's one more?!). But I am, and I'm finding it hard to continue because it's so time consuming and because she pretty much has to stay in one place. I have a hard time occupying my 7 month old when breastfeeding for so long. On the other hand, I don't want to feel guilty for quitting either.

What do you all think? Is it realistic to continue? Can I homeschool, take care of a 7 month old, and breastfeed a child on an apnea monitor? And if so, how do I do it all?? Help!

Amazing Animals by Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:34:00 +0000

Amazing Animals by Design is a simple children's book that introduces kids to the idea of intelligent design. Using the unique characteristics of zoo animals, Debra Haagan, the author, brings to light the fact that just like animals, humans were made in complex and specific ways that allow us to function, and most espescially, that there is an intelligent being behind our design--God!

This is a full color picture book, 24 pages long, and available in both paperback, or as an ebook. The paperback is $8.99 and the ebook, $7.99. Both are available for purchase here.

Geared toward elementary aged or younger, I found this book to be a great starting point for discussion regarding intelligent design. Especially since many children raised in Christian homes tend to take from granted that God created everything, the benefit to having a book like this is that it causes one to stop and notice how it actually makes sense that the world was created by design (versus randomly). A child can know that God designed the world because he's been told that, but it is crucial to his growth as a Christian that he understand how that statement actually holds water in real life. To me, that would be the greatest benefit to adding a book like this to your collection.

If you like this book, feel free to check out Debra Haagan's website, blog and facebook page as well.

Please note, I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I am not obligated to give a positive review, and all opinions are mine.

Almost Done and large family organization

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:13:00 +0000

Our house is almost done. We went to see it yesterday and they were laying the tile. It's painted, and bricked already. The sod is down. We are due to close March 15th! I'm so excited! I wish I had pictures; they are all on Raymond's phone though!

So I started thinking about large families and how to run the home more efficiently. When it was just the two kids, it was pretty easy. I did laundry when needed, dishes when needed, cleaned when needed...I had free time. Since adding Mimi to the mix, and now expecting another little bundle, I am anticipating that I will be far to busy for my own good. I'm starting to gather ideas to help cut down on chores and maximize my time. So if you have a large family (and coming from a family with 2 kids including myself, I think 4 IS large) please feel free to give me some advice!

One thing I'm thinking of doing is a family closet. We have this incredibly strange and long closet in our new house that probably wouldn't work too well for much. It does have a light. I plan to put a rod in there at the kid's height and put all their clothes on the rod, divided off by child. Below that, I'd put plastic hampers for each child for their dirties. And above, on a shelf, baskets for socks and undies. That way, when I do laundry, I can put all the clothes away in the same place and gather all the dirties from the same place too. 3 of the kids rooms are upstais, and one is downstairs and the laundry is downstairs, so I think this will really cut back on folding and putting away, and on gathering laundry and going up and down the stairs all the time. Not to mention, the kids wouldn't make messes of their dresser drawers like they do now. Plus, since the house we are in right now is pretty small, the kids have been using my and Raymond's dressers (and I've been storing my clothes under the bed in a plastic bin) and don't have dressers of their own. Which means if I do the family closet idea for the kids, I won't have to buy dressers for each of them when we move.

That's just one idea. But I have more ideas brimming in my head. I plan to share them as I have time. If you have one and would like to share with me, I'd be so grateful!

Reading Eggs Review

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:39:00 +0000

Miss O, my rising 1st grader, had a chance recently to try out an online reading program called Reading Eggs. Miss O hasn't had the greatest success with online programs, just because she tends to get frustrated with the technical aspects (mousing around, using the keyboard, etc). But Reading Eggs was one program that she typically enjoyed using (I say typically because we did have a few problems with her getting frustrated with not understanding how to play some of the games). We also had an annoying problem of having to reset our password every single time we logged in. It didn't affect program use, and I never contacted them about it because it was easier for me just to reset it every time. I'm not sure if I was the only one having this problem, but it wasn't a huge deal.

Reading Eggs is a reading program that is for beginning or emerging readers, and it is online. Reading Eggs will take a child from no reading to a third grade reading level, using 12 levels (or maps) that cover 120 reading lessons (ten per map). Each lesson contains at least 5 different activities for the child to complete; some lessons contain as many as 12 or 13 activities. Usually one lesson would take Miss O 15 to 20 minutes, so the activities are pretty short. Some activities are really only seconds long, others are a few minutes long.

The lessons are presented as locations on a map. The child chooses an avatar, dresses it, and then the avatar guides them through their map (level) to complete the lessons. Any lesson can be repeated, and any game can be played as many times as the child would like. If a child misses too many, the program will prompt them to re-do the activity. At the end of 10 lessons, in order to move to a new map, the child takes an assessment.

There is a reward component to the game as well. The child earns "eggs," which are like money that they can use to redeem or buy things for their avatar or for theim "home". They also earn a new character after each completed lesson. They can go back and look at their characters at any time. There is also a playroom area, which is free (meaning it doesn't cost eggs to play there). There are lots of little games, like painting, puzzles, musical games, stories, etc. They are semi-educational, but are totally optional and are just for fun for the child. Miss O always liked playing in the playroom or purchasing items with her eggs after finishing the days' lesson.

One thing I really liked about Reading Eggs was that you can start your child at their reading level. We've used some online programs where the way they are designed, you have to start your child at the very beginning. Reading Eggs gives you the option of having your child take an assessment and placing them at the correct level according to the results of that assessment. Miss O was placed on map 8 (of 12). She is currently on map 9.

Another thing I like about Reading Eggs is that a free trial is available. There are also codes you can find online (though I personally haven't tried this, I know many others have) to give you a few extra weeks of trying out the program before purchasing. If you like it during the trial, you have the option to subscribe. Pricing is as follows: monthly--$9.95, 6 months--$49.95, 1 year--$75.00. There is also an option to purchase book packs. Read more about those here. In addition to the Reading Eggs program, there is a companion program for older students called Reading Express. We didn't use this program, but my understanding is that it focuses more on the other aspects of Language Arts--spelling, reading comprehension and grammar.

I was given a subscription to Reading Eggs free of charge in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine, and I am not obligated to give a positive review.

First Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:42:00 +0000

Growing up in Southern California, snow has always been a magical thing of mountain vacations. For my kids, that meant that at 5 and 6, they had never seen it in real life. So when we moved to Oklahoma last year around this time we hoped to see snow right away. Alas, it didn't happen that way, though it was bitter cold outside (at least it felt that way to us beach people).

But this year, they did get to see snow! And they LOVED it! It was only a few inches, blown into the city overnight, but let me tell you, my two big kids had their boots on before breakfast yesterday. They were READY!

Update on "Mimi" our foster baby

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:30:00 +0000

BTW, Mimi is not her real name, it's just a nickname we have for her.

It's funny to call her our "foster baby" because in many ways she is like our own. At the same time, it's always on our mind that she isn't ours, so we have to keep ourselves mindful and at the same time allow ourselves to get attached to her.

She is 5 months now, and she is just a happy little lady! She is pretty attached to us too--if we leave her alone in a room, say in her exersaucer, she will start crying, then smile when we come back! She is a little social bug too, always laughing, smiling, cooing and in general being super cute!

Physically the experts say she is on target for her age (had her evaluated by early intervention), but personally, I disagree. She isn't rolling at all or even trying to, or trying to sit. She isn't grabbing things or holding toys. She can't support her body on her arms and still face-plants during tummy time. I'm not too concerned, but it's something we are keeping our eye on.

Her reflux is under control at the moment, and thus she has mastered the art of sleeping on a flat surface, finally! Just this week she started breaking out of her swaddle so we are now laying her down without a blanket too! Big girl! No solids yet, though we tried a couple times and she did fine, she also did fine without, so I figure, why bother if she doesn't really need it?

She is a big girl! I think she is probably about 20 pounds! Amazing since when we got her she was only 4 pounds 9 ounces. She drinks four 8 ounce bottles a day. And she sucks them down, boy! We've already had to switch to a convertible car seat since she was way to heavy to tote around in the bucket seat.

As for her permanency plan, we don't know yet. We have another court date coming, that may reveal more, but I honestly highly doubt it'll be very productive. We'll have to wait and see!

Live and learn

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:20:00 +0000

A while back I typed up my curriculum post for our new school year. I've always been pretty eclectic and have avoided "boxed" curriculums, like Abeka, Bob Jones, Sonlight, etc. And so every year I try to piece together the "perfect" curriculum package for my kids, based on my wants and their needs. After I typed up my post though, I read over it and I kept thinking how I wished we had something that was more cohesive, that wove the subjects together in a creative and fun way, and was less "choppy", for lack of a better word. The kids are doing fine with their current curriculum, and academically, they are progressing at amazing rates. In fact, I just got Little Bean's testing scores back and he did awesome!

BUT...we get lots of complaints about school around here. I hate that! It's so discouraging to work so hard on something have your work be under-appreciated and even sometimes just plain hated. :( So, since none of my choices were finalized yet (read: I had purchased nothing), I began searching for a curriculum that was both fun and more unit study in style to bring that elusive cohesiveness to our days.

What I landed on was My Father's World. I would consider My Father's World to be a boxed curriculum, as well as an overtly Christian curriculum. We have always incorporated Bible into our day, but with MFW, it's different--Bible is the base from which all the other subjects flow. So it's definitely something that we have never done before in any way.

MFW has packages for K through 12th grade, and built into the program is the ability to teach multiple grade levels from the same texts. They have a K program, a 1st grade program, a transitional program for 2nd and 3rd graders and then they begin a 5 year cycle through history before introducing fully independent work in high school. Being the busy person I am (and knowing I'll get even busier next semester with a new baby coming), I like the sound of putting both kids in the same program.

I chose Adventures, the transition program for 2nd and 3rd graders, though Miss O would only be in 1st because Little Bean will be in 3rd. I put in my order. I ordered my supplementary materials (MFW does not include Language Arts or Math). And then I started thinking more about what would happen if we continued using MFW for several more years. Miss O would, in essence be skipping 1st grade, and I'd be modifying Adventures for her as a almost 6 year old. Then she would head into the history cycle as a 7 year old! In my opinion, that's too young! Even Little Bean would be on the young side for the history cycle since he started K at age 4, and progressed quickly through lower elementary. I knew if the information was over their heads and I had to do a lot of modifying, this curriculum would not work for us. Who wants to hear me summarizing book and after book every day? I'd rather do something more suited to both their levels. The other option was to put Miss O in 1st and Little Bean in Adventures. Then Miss O would skip Adventures entirely and move on to the history cycle next year with Little Bean. But that really only solved my problem for this year. Both kids would be in the right programs for their levels this year. But I'd run into the same issue next year with Miss O being too young. Plus, I'd have to do two programs at once, and I didn't relish that idea!

SO...I've decided to back pedal (and isn't that the beauty of homeschooling? I can back-pedal when I want to, and speed up when I want to, according to the needs of our family!). I want to take this coming school year and make it a time of coming together as a family, learning to love learning, and enjoying school time together. I don't know if that's impossible given the dynamics of our family relationships or not. But I'm going to give it a try. And the way I'm going to attempt that is to keep Miss O in MFW 1st (on grade level), and take Little Bean back and have him to do 1st along with her. I cringe at the thought in some ways, and those that know him, know he is way beyond 1st grade work. But I know this will be good for him emotionally to be able to sit back and enjoy learning without having to think so much!

That being said, the math and Language Arts in first will likely be too easy for either of them. So we are sticking with Right Start for both of them and will continue with our current spelling and Language Arts programs alongside MFW. So from MFW 1st, the both of them would be doing art, music appreciation, science and history/Bible. We will hold off on Latin until we start the history cycle in 2 years.

So to lay it out for you:

Miss O will do MFW 1st, which includes Bible/history, science, art and music, and will review the phonics rules therein. On the side she will do Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Winning With Writing and All About Spelling (as needed). She will continue practicing handwriting, whether in HWT or in MFW, we'll have to wait and see what is needed. I'm hoping she will not need to continue with the Little Books, but she will if needed. We will also continue our current Bible program next year, as that is one thing the kids love doing!

Little Bean will be "held back" in MFW 1st with Miss O, and will do the Bible/history, science, art and music portions with her, with the expectation that he can do more copywork and writing and create higher quality pieces than she due to his ability level. He will do his own Language Arts, continue with cursive, and his own math at grade level. Yes, MFW 1st will be slow for him. But, I think he will love some of the aspects of the program, that really, are great for any age.

MFW is a unit study approach with a focus on "real" books (as opposed to text books). So we'll be doing lots of hands-on experiments, read alouds and craft and art projects throughout the year. Also, in the 1st grade program, each student illustrates and creates their own Bible notebook and does memory work. The days are purposely short, following the Charlotte Mason philosophy of letting little children be little children. I like (and need) that since I will not have much time for school with two babies under 1 in the house.

So I'm hoping this is the change we need to begin enjoying learning together and making the shift from a more eclectic approach to a more integrated approach to learning.

How about you? Any changes in the new year coming your way?

New Year, New Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:20:00 +0000

A few weeks back I was lamenting the fact that I just didn't have enough time to school the kiddos. After that post, I took stock of just how far we really are in this year's curriculum, and I realized, if we stay on track, we should finish up K and 2nd before Easter! I know, I still can't believe it myself. Course, this has led me on a hunt for what we will be doing next year. And now living in a state where homeschooling is much more popular, I can just swing by our local Mardel and actually get my hands on the curriculum I'm looking at for next year!

Much of it is staying the same, but there are some changes. Plus, this list isn't final...it's just what I've been interested in lately as I started doing research about what to use.

Miss O, 1st grade (can you believe it?! She will be 6 this summer though.):

Math: We are finishing up Math U See Primer, and neither of us love it. She really didn't like Right Start much either, but I'm thinking of putting her back in Right Start A (technically a Kindergarten level) for 1st grade. She has been asking to do it, but I'd like to finish up Primer first.

Language Arts: This year I want to go with something a little more cohesive, that brings all the elements of Language Arts together into one curriculum. I'm looking at Learning Language Arts through Literature, and for Miss O, I'd use The Red Book, which is geared toward 2nd grade. Miss O is reading really well, and since this is a literature-based approach, I felt better putting her in the grade level she is reading at rather than the grade level she is "officially" in. This will be our core curriculum, but I'm supplementing with the following:

Winning With Writing, Level 1

All About Spelling, Level 2

Handwriting Without Tears, Grade 2 (printing)

Little Bean, Grade 3:

Math: Right Start, Level D

Language Arts: Learning Language Arts through Literature, The Orange Book (grade 4)

Supplimenting With:

Winning With Writing, Level 3

All About Spelling, Level 4

Handwriting Without Tears, grade 4 (cursive)

Together:

The kids will do several of the subjects together:

History: Story of the World Volume 2. We will continue using the activity guides and tests, as well as adding in a timeline of events. I would like to add in some notebooking later in the year, especially for Miss O, who thus far has not picked up much history.

Geography: I'd really like to incorporate some geography into our studies this year. I don't know if I will do a separate curriculum or something independent for them to complete or work it in naturally (not my strong suit).

Science: Science didn't happen as often as I'd like this year, so I'm taking the plunge and getting Real Science Odyssey. I haven't decided whether I'd like Earth and Space or Life yet. I'm thinking Life since the weather will be right to do outdoor experiments (like finding actual living plants and animals!). I plan to purchase the corresponding materials kits because knowing me, science won't happen if I have to go searching around the house for materials each time.

Latin: Sigh. I'm undecided. The kids love using Song School Latin, and I am thoroughly impressed with it. But Primer A, the next level, is significantly more expensive and I don't know if I can justify the cost. If I do, I'll repeat Song School with Miss O, using the activities in the back of the teacher's guide instead of purchasing a new workbook and start Little Bean on Primer A.

Bible: We are loving Kid's Quest Catechism Club, and have enough to keep us going at least partway through next year. After that, we will go to the upper elementary level, and learn the reformed catechism in its' entirety.

Art: I don't plan to purchase another curriculum because we have plenty to do in Artistic Pursuits Book 1 still. I do want to get an art calendar so we can start learning about the different styles of art and artists of the past.

So that's my plan! When we move, I'd like to get back to the workbox system too. All that being said, I'm due in April, so we will probably have "summer" break then and start up the new school year when things have gotten less hectic, probably in the beginning of the real summer!

7 months of gluten free

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:44:00 +0000

Believe it or not, we have been doing the gluten free, dairy free diet for 7 months! Feels like our new normal now. Initially I updated you all on how the diet has helped Little Bean with some of his behaviors related to autism. I don't think I have done an update in a while, but wanted to do one, and let you know how wonderfully this diet has helped him.

In the beginning when we would see improvement in a particular area it was always such an amazing thing and we really took note of it. As he settled into the diet, and the concerning behaviors diminished, we became used to the "new" him. (I don't want anyone to be offended by that statement. We love our little man no matter how he behaves, but I will say the "new" him is much more happy and well-adjusted than the him we knew prior to our diet).

Around Thanksgiving we took a trip to CA to visit my parents and family. My dear mom took great pains to see to it that the kids stayed on their diet while we were staying at her house. I know how overwhelming the diet can be in the beginning, but she did a great job of helping us cook a gluten free, dairy free Thanksgiving meal for them and purchased special foods for them as well. All week, Little Bean did very, very well. We got several comments from family saying how they have noticed the changes in him. We started this diet after leaving CA, so to hear that felt good; knowing that we weren't just imagining the changes, but others could see them too. Both Little Bean's great grandmother and his aunt commented on how he would give hugs now, without holding back. If you have an autistic child who doesn't hug, to have him learn to open up and enjoy that simple sign of affection is a great feeling.

When we got home that week, Little Bean regressed. We saw more of the self-stimulating behaviors, more aggression and problems with impulse control. It really scared me. I thought, "Are we really back at square one?" I wondered if the diet only works for so long. The days after his diagnosis, when his behavior was so terrifying were some of the darkest days of my life. I really thought that. ya know, in a few years from now we would have this huge, uncontrollable child who needed to be medicated or institutionalized due to his aggressive behaviors. I never want to go back to that. It took about a week, but eventually the behaviors went back to normal, and I can only surmise it to be one of two things: 1) maybe he accidentally ate something while in CA that caused the reaction (the only thing I can think of is coconut milk, since he had not previously had that), or 2) it could be that he has a problem with apples too. When we got back, the only fruit we had were apples, lol, because they stay fresh for so long. We were super busy, so the kids ate alot of apples that week since we couldn't make it to the store. Apples contain something called a salicylate (and that's about all I know about them! I don't even know if I spelled that right!) which children with autism are sometimes sensitive to. Berries and almonds have it too, and we have found that he has problems with both of those--he has not been eating those for a long time either. In any case, we stopped giving him apples and he has gotten back to his normal brands of gluten free foods, and we have since seen the behavior problems go away.

One thing that incident taught me was how the diet isn't therapy. Therapy theoretically will teach the child ways to cope that are more appropriate and pleasant. The diet is different. It diminishes his behavior problems, and enhances his ability to cope by making him feel better physically. But should the diet be interrupted, we realized he had not really learned how to deal with life in better ways, he had not learned coping strategies, he had only masked the problems with diet. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. If diet works (or when therapy doesn't, as in our case), then I think it's a valid option. Is it feasible to do it forever? I don't know. This is all food for thought, I suppose.

Fast forward to Christmas, and of course things got a little hectic again. It was our first Christmas in this part of the country and Raymond's parents and his sister's family came down. They have three boys, all 6 and under, and things were a little crazy (that's putting it mildly). Finally Little Bean freaked out started crying because they were all getting into his toys and wouldn't put them back in the right places. I think my sister in law and brother in law were shocked. They haven't been around him since he was small, and haven't really seen a lot of his autistic behavior. They watched as he slowly relaxed as his toys were put back in place and his room closed off for the night. Another reminder that the diet (at least for Little Bean) isn't a cure. He has autism and always will. But the diet helps.

Just before Christmas, Little Bean lost his first tooth. It had been loose for months, and the adult tooth had already grown behind. We were sitting at the table doing spelling when all of the sudden I noticed that his tooth was gone. How I noticed the moment it happened, I don't know. But I said, "Hey, where's your tooth!? Did it fall out?" And in that moment, Little Bean realized that he must have swallowed it. We were all cheering and trying to show him in the mirror the much anticipated missing tooth, but he flipped out. He started crying and hopped up from his chair and started gagging like he was going to throw up. I ran to get him a bucket because he really seemed like he would throw up any moment. Blood was dripping from his mouth because he was not swallowing and was all drooly. Nothing would calm him down. :( All I can think was the sensation of the blood and the missing tooth and the knowledge that he had swallowed an inedible object was too much for him. Eventually, he calmed down and wrote a letter to the tooth fairly explaining what had happened. She pays extra for swallowed teeth of course! ;)

I'd like to spend some time doing a post on what brands we have found tasty that are gluten/dairy free. I know it'll take a while to write up, which is why it hasn't happened yet, but hopefully will in the future. Anyway, that's where we are at right now with the diet, and no plans to change any time soon.

The Bible for auditory learners

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:09:00 +0000

Several weeks ago I was sent a portion of the Bible on CD to review. The CD is made by a company called The World's Greatest Stories, and isn't that what the Bible really is--the greatest story the world has ever known? Most of us want our kids to enjoy it, but often times we find that the stories are hard to understand when we read them to our children or our children read them by themselves.

The World's Greatest Stories puts out a collection of CDs for purchase that are word for word from the Bible. Read by George W. Sarris in a dramatic tone, these CDs DO bring to life those all important stories from God's Word. Not only were my kids enjoying them, I too was listening along and picked up on some details I had not previously remembered reading.

You can choose from KJV or NIV. I chose NIV for us, and was sent a CD on the prophets. My CD included the stories of Jonah, Daniel in the lion's den, Beltshazar and the writing on the wall, Elijah calling down fire, and the fiery furnace. Little Bean, my 6 year old LOVES to listen to audio books of any kind, but these were a special treat because they are read in such a dramatic fashion and include sound effects like the sound of a blazing fire in the story of the fiery furnace. Miss O liked this CD too, but Little Bean really seemed to favor it.

Each CD is $7.95. You can listen to samples on their website too! Other offerings include: The Life of Christ, Beginnings, Joshua and Esther, Joseph and His Brothers and Defeating Giants.

Note: I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review. I am not obligated to give a positive review.

Review: Vintage Remedies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:56:00 +0000

Vintage Remedies a company dedicated to teaching children and teens about natural living and a healthy lifestyle. They have a number of wellness products with this aim, and I was sent a copy of their Vintage Remedies for Kids curriculum, which is geared toward children ages 2 to 6.

Vintage Remedies for Kids is approximately 200 pages, and has 18 health and wellness topics to discuss with your child. Rather than a workbook, Vintage Remedies for Kids is more of a discussion guide with creative ideas to extend the learning for young children. Each chapter has a few pages of discussion that help the parent to lead the child into a conversation about a particular topics. Following that are some ideas to make the learning more hands on. For example, one day the kids and I discussed fruits, and then made a smoothie. We learned that smoothies are healthier than juice because you are eating the whole fruit (pulp). We also learned about what kinds of vitamins and nutrients are in different kinds of fruits. Other topics to explore include: foods that are not real foods, nuts and grains, how I grow, when I get sick, and many others.

While I thought there was quite a bit of quality information in this little book, along with some good ideas for making the learning come alive, I would have found it more appealing if it did come with more visual aids (pictures, of which there are none), and worksheets or mini books to do together. I don't want to have to put together my own crafts to go along with each lesson; I just don't have time for that! Vintage Remedies for Kids is $25.00.

I was also sent a book called The Kitchen Herbal. The Kitchen Herbal is a book that explores 18 different herbs, and their uses for health and wellness as well as for taste! The author, Jessie Hawkins gives a small history of each herb, as well as several recipes and information on how to grow and store the herb at home. Those who enjoy cooking and trying new flavors will likely enjoy this book, as it contains a wealth of information on herbs and their uses. The Kitchen Herbal is is $9.95.

Note: I was given this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review. I am not obligated to give a positive review.

2nd grade, fractions and geometry and a game called Fractazmic

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:11:00 +0000

As some of you know, we use and love our math curriculum, Right Start Mathematics. Little Bean is in Book C now, which is for second graders. He is doing quite well with it! Recently we began a series of lessons focusing on geometry and fractions. Little Bean has been using a 30/60 triangle and a T-square to construct various shapes and divide the shapes in parts. He is doing some comparing of fractions during this time too. While this has been very challenging for him, it has also been a great way for him to realize that real math problems are the kind that don't have an immediately apparent answer. He has really had to problem solve to figure out how to divide the shapes accurately.

I was excited when I was given the opportunity to review a fraction card game called Fractazmic because the opportunity came at the same time as our study of fractions did. Fractazmic is a card game with three suits (colors) that the players must collect and add up the fractions on the cards to equal 1. The trick is that the fractions don't all have a common denominator, so the student must convert the fractions to a common denominator in order to figure out how to make the cards equal 1.

Initially this seemed too difficult for Little Bean, who has only had a gentle introduction to fractions, and no introduction to conversions. But as we played, we utilized the illustrations on the cards to help us. For instance, one suit has pictures of eggs in a carton. To add up to 1, you must have 12 eggs. This he could understand, so we built on that, and used the game as our introduction to conversions. To start, we also played our hands open faced, so I could help him along. Later, in Right Start, he was briefly introduced to this concept by dividing triangles into fractions and comparing the sizes of the pieces.

Fractazmic is $6.95 cents (plus shipping). As a learning tool and a fun game, I haven't a complaint about it! The makers of Fractazmic, a company called I See Cards, has several other educational cards games, so if you like the looks of this one, be sure to check out their other offerings!

Please note: I received this game in exchange for my honest review. I am not obligated to give a positive review.

Big hopes for the bigger house...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:33:00 +0000

I have grandiose dreams of having a lovely schoolroom in our new house that is all organized and pretty and not combined with any other room. We'll see if finances allow for a fancy room like that, but regardless we will have the space!

Even with the space though, I'm finding it very difficult to run the house, take care of the baby, and school both kids. Things have really slowed down in the school department, which I guess is okay since they are "ahead" anyway for their age. But it leaves me feeling disorganized and scattered and questioning whether we even got anything done in a day (and dreaming of what I had pictured their school years to look like). Having a child on the autism spectrum only adds to the stress because he has so many special supports that need to be in place to have a smooth day. Add to that that we have some curriculum burn out (at least for me), and I'll say I'm not in the best place (as far as homeschooling goes) right now. I don't even want to think about what my life is going to be like when this new little one arrives at Easter time!

In the past we have used the workbox system on two separate occasions. We used it, loved it, dropped it, and then came back to it briefly. It does keep you on course, but it is SO much work, at least in my mind. By the end of the day, all I want to do is spend time with my husband and go to bed. I don't want to think about filling the boxes and making centers for them to do. But, I know I need to do something because what we are doing now (aka flying by the seat of our pants), isn't working. It was alright when we had a newborn on our hands, but Mimi is almost 4 months old now, sleeping through the night and (mostly) napping during the day. When I think about the last 4 months, I just keep thinking about all the wasted time....sigh.

We have found we can really only school when Mimi is sleeping. And right now she is sleeping alright during the day. But it means we have to break our schooling up into chunks with playing in between while I care for her. We aren't used that, so that's been an adjustment. The kid's toys are in the school room and during breaks they wreak havoc on the space and make it difficult for me to come back hours later and pick up where we left off! Unfortunately, I don't have another place to put the toys even if I wanted to move things around. I also don't like knowing I only have a certain amount of hours to get all their schoolwork done in a day, since we are only working while Mimi is napping. I end up having to pick and choose what we will get done each day, and never feeling like we got it all done.

I know, poor me! But I'm writing hoping someone will have some been-there-done-that advice for me. :) For the first time in a long time I'm feeling like I can't do this well, even though I'm trying! Help!