Orange Marmalade Mama

Growing Up Wild

2012-11-14T08:23:00.001-06:00

It is my last review with the Schoolhouse Review Crew- and what a way to end the year! Growing Up Wild has been my children's favorite DVD we've reviewed this year by far. Miss J is researching round houses and how soon we can leave the country and my boys are begging for a lego loft. I'm not sure that the Wild family had inspiring lego loft envy as their main goal in producing these video's, but it sure has created a lot of chatter around here! ;-)

Growing Up Wild is a series of 5 DVD's chronicling the life of the Wild family living in Papua, Indonesia. The Wild Brothers - Hudson, Morgan, Kian and Asher take us through their days and give us a picture of what living in a remote jungle as a missionary family is like. My children were captivated by the music, the scenery and how this family lived. I love that their last name is Wild and they have 4 boys - poetic, I think!

Each DVD has 3 episodes, each about 15 minutes in length and costs $18.99. You can purchase all 5 Volumes for $80.99 - a 15% discount. There is also an accompanying CD-Rom for each DVD with an Activity Guide, turning this into a curriculum full of fun and engaging products. One activity mentions making a solar oven, so my uncle is going to help us with that the next time we visit. My children and myself have spent some time researching the alternative ways that the Wild family receives their electricity and water. We live out in the country and some of this information is valuable as we try to become more self-sufficient.

These DVD's have been engaging, inspiring and educational for our whole family. I think the kids have watched them a dozen times or more and it has sparked a lot of conversation of what we could live without and what we really view as necessities. It was a great reminder of what is really important in this world...serving God, serving family, serving others. Our lives have been enriched for having spent a bit of time with the Wild Brothers and we look forward to watching the rest of the DVD's when I am able to purchase them! These are excellent for family viewing, educational purposes or to give a heart for missions to a church family or organization.

You can learn more about the Wild Brothers and their family at their website and see what my Crewmates had to say about their experience with Growing Up Wild by clicking the link below!

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**DISCLAIMER: Any products reviewed by me as a member of the Schoolhouse Review 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.

Primary Arts of Language Reading & Writing

2012-11-12T09:52:00.000-06:00

Miss Paya is 5.5 years old and loves "doing Kindergarten". She was so excited to have a review product that was all her own and the fact that it was going to teach her to read and write made it even more exciting! We have used many of Institute for Excellence in Writing's materials in the past and have always been so pleased with their customer service and materials. We are currently using Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization, The Phonetic Zoo and we have also used Teaching Writing with Structure and Style and Student Writing Intensive. So, I have quite a bit of experience with IEW and couldn't wait to get my hands on their newest early learning offering - Primary Arts of Language Reading & Writing!

We received a huge box of materials and initially I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of stuff and information! One thing about IEW - their focus is on teaching me how to teach, not just what words to say to go through the motion of teaching. There is an inherent internalizing of their materials and philosophy as a teacher that is necessary before I really understand what direction they are going in and how I will use that in teaching my children. This means that after the initial learning period as a teacher, this program is very open & go, but I didn't find that to be the case right out of the box.

We received both the Primary Arts of Language: Reading($69) and the complementary Primary Arts of Language: Writing ($89). Each of the sets contains a DVD-Rom with an introductory video given by Jill Pike, author of PAL. The DVD-Rom also contains all of the student materials in PDF form and various audio's with further teacher training. I spent time organizing the materials and then watching the video's. I do not recommend trying to begin using this program without watching those initial video's. Jill Pike does an excellent job walking you through each component of PAL, how it is used and how to introduce it to your child. After that I read through the Teacher's Manuals and started to gather our supplies and put together the Phonetic Games. I chose to put together all of the 35 games before we got started with the program. I am not very good at working on the fly and knew that if I didn't have things put together when we sat down for a lesson, then it probably wouldn't happen! You can see I re-purposed an old scrapbook file box for our PAL materials. The Class Journal, Games, Teacher's Manuals, Phonetic Farm Folder and printed student materials all fit in the box.

After all of the prep work we were ready to get started! The daily schedule doesn't vary a whole lot from day to day, so once we got into a rhythm, our learning time was predictable and Miss Paya was able to gather materials and take charge of some of her learning. I love that PAL encourages early independence in the student's learning.

There is a possible daily schedule printed in the Reading Teacher's Manual in the first lesson. I chose to keep to that schedule pretty closely. We would start by reading the poem "September", make an entry in our Class Journal, practice our printing from the PAL: Writing student materials and read a story. I would let Miss Paya take a break and play for a bit while I worked with her older siblings before we would sit back down and finish the lesson. We would work through "Foundations" - this is where she would learn new phonograms, play games using those phonograms or sight words, play the Card Game and then spend time playing the Phonetic Games by herself. We would also go on a tour through the Phonetic Farm, reviewing previously learned phonograms, read words from our index cards and then practice our phonograms through dictation. Generally the first portion of our lessons would take about 30-45 minutes (Little Bit would sit with us to read a story) and the second portion was about 20 or so. She would work through the games by herself while I worked close by, so I wasn't always needed for the entire lesson period. There were times that the time commitment would almost feel like too much in our school day, but after I started having Miss Paya's older siblings take over reading the story and playing the games with her, it freed me up to help someone else with their math or spelling. The double bonus to that set-up is that the older kids get built-in practice reading aloud and reinforcing their phonograms!

Primary Arts of Language holds to a different philosophy of teaching to read than I have used in the past. There were parts of it that I really liked and parts that I wished were a bit different. First, PAL teaches some sight words, but teaches the phonograms within the context of those sight words. I really liked that the phonograms were taught within the context of sight words, like "ow" in yellow or "ee" in green. However, I wish that it started with teaching the sounds of all the letters first, so that when Miss Paya was introduced to the "squealy ee's" in green, she would have recognized the /g/, /r/, /n/ sounds, too. I have mixed feelings about teaching sight words at all, but I do think that the way in which they are approached in PAL is about the most helpful of any other sight word program I have encountered.

I absolutely love the printing boxes used in the PAL: Writing portion to teach beginning handwriting. It was so much easier for Miss Paya to make correctly formed letters in a box than try to stay on a small line at first. She was so proud of herself when she would complete a few perfectly formed letters easily! The letter stories used to introduce each letter are funny and helped her remember how to form the letters. The method of handwriting instruction is my favorite, too, as it teaches a form of letters that makes reversals very difficult since the "d" is taught making the circle part first and "b" is taught making a line down first. The letters are also taught with a continuous stroke that makes cursive instruction later on much easier. I love that poetry memorization is built into the program and that there are printables of each of the poem's. I would make several copies and we would mark the words, underlining phonograms and marking vowels making them much easier to decode. I used them with Mr. Lego and Mr. Fix-It as well, so everyone was learning the same poem and learning to read them very well. PAL: Writing uses All About Spelling to teach beginning spelling skills, but we hadn't gotten far enough into the program to begin using that component. I do like the AAS teaches all of the phonograms up front, though, so I may go back and spend some time teaching those to Miss Paya and then continue with the analyzing and marking of the sight words in PAL:Reading.

Overall, I am very pleased with the content and instruction in PAL. For me the initial learning curve was a bit much, since it is just so different from any way of teaching reading that I have seen in the past. I do like the way the lessons are presented in the Teacher's Manual, but almost wish there weren't so many components to shuffle. I understand why the publisher chose to separate the Reading from the Writing component, but I would have much preferred having all of the lessons in one Teacher's Manual. The Phonetic Games are a perfect and fun way to solidify the skills being learned during the lessons and since many of them can be played independently or with a sibling, that made them even more appealing to Miss Paya. She has thrived on being able to take control of some of her own learning. She is eager to sit down to her lessons each day and now that I feel I have gotten my head around the direction the program is going, we will continue to use it to teach Miss Paya how to read!

To see what my Crewmates thought of their experience with Primary Arts of Language, click the link below!

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**DISCLAIMER: Any products reviewed by me as a member of the Schoolhouse Review 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.

You Can Sew! by Modesty Matters

2012-11-08T09:25:00.002-06:00

There are many things that I love about homeschooling, but one of my favorite things is being able to have the time to teach my children more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. One of those things is to share my love of sewing and crafting. I was so excited to be able to review You Can Sew! by Modesty Matters. I know how to sew, but to be able to break it down into easy steps for my children to learn had been sort of difficult for me. I would forget certain tips and they would get confused and we would all be a little bit frustrated. You Can Sew! has been such a wonderful blessing, allowing the children to learn to sew in an organized, step by step way.

The curriculum comes in a sturdy cardboard box for storage and includes a 3-ring binder with the student text, the DVD lessons, the CD-Rom with patterns in both child and adult sizes. There are 65 video lessons that walk you through the basics of supplies, determining fabrics, practicing stitches and learning the ins and outs of a sewing machine and instructions for completing a pin cushion, apron and simple skirt!

I had originally thought that this was something that Miss J (12) and I would do together, but Mr. Lego (11) and Mr. Fix-It (8) wanted to learn to sew as well. It has made our progress a little bit slower than I originally thought, but we have had great fun learning all about the tools of sewing, making our pin cushions and working on our Apron's. We have been out of town a lot and some illness has hit our family, so we aren't quite finished with the apron's yet.

I have had the children watch the DVD lessons together and then work through any of the assignments, like comparing prices of sewing supplies, the different types of fabrics and their uses and practicing stitches. This has broken down the steps to sewing exactly like my Home Ec class in High School and has made teaching this skill to my children so much fun. The pace has been just right for all three of my children, even though all of them wanted to jump into sewing elaborate projects right from the start. I well remember feeling the same way when I first learned to sew, but these beginning, simple projects are perfect for learning all of the basic skills necessary to put together a bigger project later. Miss J has already called her Grandma to get send her some vintage dress patterns from her Great-Grandma so she can make some vintage dresses and the boys are excited about the possibility of a supplement to the curriculum available just for boys that will include patterns for pajama pants!

The curriculum is $159 and is meant to be a 12 week course, although you could certainly take your time and spread the lessons out a bit. They encourage scheduling the sewing class every day to finish in 12 weeks, but we weren't able to get to it 5 days each week. I tried to keep to about 3 lessons per week. We were able to complete more than 1 lesson per day in the beginning, since they were short video's and easier work. The video lessons are very well done with nice background music and good quality lighting and sound. There have been times in the past that we have used video lessons, but they weren't very professional and had a lot of lighting and sound problems. I was very impressed with the quality of these lessons. The kids and I are really looking forward to finishing the rest of the projects as winter sets in and we don't have so much outdoor homesteading work to accomplish this fall. They have recently released the You Can Sew! Quilting Edition and I am excited to see it. My children all love curling up with blankets through the winter and I think it would be neat for them to learn how to make their own.

I have been thoroughly impressed with You Can Sew. For some families, the price of $159 might seem a bit high, however, I really feel like the amount of information, the quality of the video's and the included patterns makes it well worth the money. Miss J is excited about making matching skirts for she and Miss Paya and having the knowledge to be able to sew will be a skill that all of my children can use their whole lives. I am thrilled to be able to share this valuable skill with my children and so thankful that Modesty Matters has made it easy to teach!

Journey's of Faithfulness

2012-11-07T08:16:00.001-06:00

Miss J and I have had the pleasure of growing closer together and closer to God through Sarah Clarkson's newest book, Journeys of Faithfulness. I still reference Sarah's book, Read for the Heart for reading material for our family and encouragement for me, so I was particularly excited about seeing what she had to say to young girls and mothers in Journeys of Faithfulness.

Journeys of Faithfulness ($13) is published by Apologia/Wholeheart - those wonderful folks who bring us science materials, apologetics courses and my other favorite homeschooling book, Educating the Wholehearted Child. You can find the Table of Contents and Sample Chapter on the website, too.

The book is divided into 4 sections, each one telling stories of faith, love and courage through the lives of Mary & Martha, Mary, Mother of Jesus, Esther and Ruth. Sarah's way with words draws you into the lives of these faith filled women with stories that encourage, challenge and share God's love with you. After each short story is a devotional, bible study and a "journey journal" where you can write down your thoughts. Miss J and I would read a chapter together, go through the devotional and then bible study. The book is meant for girls 12 and up, but I have been so encouraged as a mother and in my own faith too! Sarah shares stories of her growing up years with Sally and Clay, and the example that she sets encourages me so much in my parenting adventure.

Miss J and I have been caught up in the stories that Sarah has written and haven't been able to put the book down until we have finished each story. We have read the story on one day, the devotion on another and then do the bible study, finishing one chapter a week. This has given us time to mull over what we have read and then come together again with new questions and insights. The bible study questions have been springboards for getting into the Word and discussing how we can apply His word in our lives. We are looking forward to encountering more faith-filled lessons with Esther and Ruth in the next weeks!

My crewmates have also had the opportunity to review Journeys of Faithfulness, so be sure to stop by the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to see what they had to say!

Activity Bags - Reading Games and Travel Games

2012-11-05T07:29:00.001-06:00

The Activity Bags series was created by two homeschooling mama's who needed a way to keep their little ones busy while they taught their older children. I can certainly relate to that feeling, as I have had a toddler in the house every year since I began homeschooling! They have been in business around 10 years now and have allowed Mom's from all over the world to participate in "swaps" and take home activities to keep their little ones busy.

What exactly are Activity Bags?! Quite simply, these are a series of independent activities that your preschooler or toddler can do by themselves. These bags keep your little guys busy (and out of mischief) while you are busy, too! Activity Bags has expanded their line of Games in a Bag to include Reading Games, Math Games, Science Experiments and Travel Games.

Our family was chosen to review the Reading Games in a Bag eBook and Travel Games in a Binder eBook. Each of the Activity Bags eBooks are $15, although some of them are bundled for extra savings. You will also need the Coordinator Handbook eBook if you are going to coordinate a Activity Bag Swap. I participated in an Preschool Activity Bag swap several years ago and we still have several of the activities for Little Bit to play with now! I participated with 10 other mama's and each of us created 10 each of two different activities, so when I came home I had a large sack full of 20 different fun activity bags for my children. It was much more fun (and less hectic) to create 10 of the same activity than try to create 20 different ones. I received the benefit of 20 different fun things to do, but only had to shop for two. The cost of the materials is minimal and each of the eBooks is careful about spreading out the cost over all of the participants so one person isn't stuck spending a ton of money while the other one is just making black & white copies. The Coordinator Handbook and instructions for making the activities are clear and straightforward making it easy for everyone to participate and create the activities.

I also own Science Experiments in a Bag and have completed several of the activities but have yet to coordinate a swap for them. However, after receiving the Reading Games in a Bag and Travel Games in a Binder, I am now working on coordinating a group of mama's to create all of these in a swap after Thanksgiving! As I was assembling the a few of the activities for the Reading Games and Travel Games, I really wished that I was doing 1 activity for a swap 20 times, so I highly suggest participating in a swap. It is so nice to put in the effort of creating 1 activity 20 times and getting 20 different games when you get home, than trying to keep track of all the parts and pieces for 20 different activities. We did enough of the activities in both books for me to know it will be worthwhile to coordinate a swap so I don't have to create all of them myself!

Reading Games in a Bag contains 20 different activities for beginning readers. I would say most of these activities are for ages 5-8 or so. Skills being strengthened by these activities include phonemic awareness, phonics, sight reading, syllabication, eye tracking and more. One of our favorite activities was Beginning, Middle, End. Each bag had the beginning of a sentence, the middle of a sentence and the end of a sentence. Mr. Fix-It would use these "silly sentences" to practice reading while Mr. Lego would use them to solidify subject/predicate and basic sentence structure rules. They would crack themselves up reading their silly sentences and would try to out-do each other on the humor! I love anything that gets my kids learning and laughing! Miss Paya enjoyed Find the Sound. I printed off a "Beginning, Middle, End" page and placed 3 small cups in each space. I handed her some bingo chips and then asked her a series of questions "where do you hear the /a/ sound in apple?" She would place the bingo chip in the correct "beginning" cup. There are two pages of questions, but this can easily be added to by using current words they are learning or spelling words. The only supplies needed to create the Reading Games were page protectors, sandwich bags, contact paper or access to a laminator, dry erase pens and card stock.

Travel Games in a Binder is the Activity Bag eBook that I was most excited to get my hands on. We don't travel often, but when we do the trips usually mean 10+ hours in the car (one way!). That is a very long time to keep children busy! If you coordinate a swap with 20 people, you will go home with a binder full of 56 different activities to keep kids busy in the car with 2 dice, a blindfold and a dry erase marker! The supplies needed are a 1" 3-ring binder, pencil pouch, dry erase marker, heavy duty page protectors (don't skimp!) and copies of the various activity pages on cardstock. As I coordinate this swap, I am having each participant bring their own 3-ring binder rather than have 2 people each buy 10 binders. I just felt like that was a lot of money, since we can't take advantage of any back-to-schoo sales. Besides, as homeschoolers, many of us have more than enough 3-ring binders laying around!! I have printed off several of the activities for the children to use while we run errands, but I am waiting until our swap is complete to have a full Travel Binder. This will be done just in time to go on our next trip home to see family! There are so many different games for all ages. Tic Tac Toe, Hangman, Mad Libs, I Spy, Drawing prompts, Songs, Mazes, License Plate search and so many more. Some of them are team activities to get the whole family involved and some are meant for children to do on their own. I have purchased activity books with similar activities, but the paper just doesn't hold up as well and they get torn and messed up in the car. The binder will be much more sturdy and the activities re-usable! I can't wait to have a binder full of fun things for the kids to do that I can just keep in the car. These are also going to be perfect for errand days or when we have doctor's appointments.

I have enjoyed enjoyed all of the Activity Bags eBooks that I have used over the last few years and think these are an excellent supplemental resource for homeschooling families. You can receive a huge sampler pack from Activity Bags in exchange for filling out a short survey to see if these are something that will be helpful to your family!

Don't forget to see what my Crewmates though of their experience with Activity Bags by clicking below!

Sugar Creek Gang from Beloved Books!

2012-10-31T09:51:00.002-05:00

Our family was incredibly privileged to be able to review Volume 1 of the Sugar Creek Gang from Beloved Books. When I asked my children if they wanted me to put our name in for the chance to review this product the 3 older children were all unanimous and said "Yes!!" Mr. Lego had been really ill for a few days and so it was such a blessing to share with him that one of his favorite things would be arriving shortly. It completely made his day! After I told them we were going to receive it, the boys spent the next days checking the mail, waiting not too patiently for them to arrive!

Sugar Creek Gang was written by Paul Hutchens in the late 1930's as a series of wholesome Christian adventure stories for boys and girls. Beloved for generations, these books have been released as dramatized audio books to be enjoyed by the whole family. Each of the stories weaves together the Gospel, Christian living, science, poetry, hymns in exciting and adventuresome stories!

Each of the 6 volumes of the Sugar Creek Gang audio cd's contains 6 stories and more than 100 hours of wholesome entertainment. Volume 1 contained the stories The Swamp Robber, The Killer Bear, The Winter Rescue, The Lost Campers, Chicago Adventure and The Secret Hideout. You can purchase each volume for $54.95 or just the first story, The Swamp Robber, for $4.95 with free shipping. They also offer the entire collection of 6 volumes for $279.70, a $50 savings over purchasing individually. While the $54.95 price is a bit more than I usually pay for audio books, these have been so wonderful and enjoyed by my children so much, I think it is worth it. Use discount code: SUGARCREEKGANG-20 for 20% off your entire purchase of Sugar Creek Gang audio's from Beloved Books.

My older children have listened to all 6 of the stories included in the Volume 1 set multiple times since we received them. They passed them back and forth from room to room until Mr. Lego took them on a car trip with his grandfather. Miss J and Mr. Fix-It were so disappointed that they couldn't listen to them until he got back. Their favorite story has been "The Winter Rescue". When I told Miss J that I needed to finish writing this review she said "Oh, Mom! Tell them we love these stories and that we want you to buy all of the rest of them!"

Generally, my children would listen to these during quiet time, so I didn't listen to all of the stories, but when they started bringing them in the car to listen to on our way to town, I was able to listen to a few as well. I really love how the young boys can get into scrapes, but always learn a lesson and handle themselves so well. They are trying to live out their Christian faith and be kind, helpful and honest. These characters have set a great example for my children and myself. I highly, highly recommend these for Christian families!!

Be sure to click below to see what my Crewmates thought of their experience with Sugar Creek Gang!!

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Crossbow Education - Reading Rulers

2012-10-26T10:20:00.004-05:00

Crossbow Education produces learning tools for children with Dyslexia or that suffer from visual stress. They also have many other helpful educational learning tools and games. We received the 10 pack of Duo Window Reading Rulers ($16.95) for review. I really wanted to be able to review this product for Mr. Lego, my struggling reader, but ended up using it myself!

The Crossbow Education Reading Rulers provide those that have "tired eyes" or suffer from some visual stress while reading some relief. The Rulers are matte on one side and glossy on the other and come in 10 different colors. We received the sample pack to see which colors felt the best as we were reading and then we can go back and purchase more of that particular color. The Duo Window means that there is a small window strip at the top of the ruler for reading one line of text at a time or a large one inch area at the bottom for reading more than one line of text at a time.

The Reading Rulers (and full size overlays) are glossy on one side and matte finish on the other. They reduce glare, improve focus, and the rulers assist in tracking words and following single lines of text. They come in 10 different colors, so you can choose which color is most helpful. Depending on the surrounding light, some days different colors might work better than others.

We received this in the mail and as soon as we sat down to do some schoolwork I had Mr. Lego try them out. Only he wasn't nearly as cooperative or excited about them as I was. He is 11 years old now and knows what he needs and what he doesn't...thankyouverymuch. Ha! So, as much as I wanted to try it out with my struggling reader, I didn't get him to use it as much as I would have liked. He tends to be a wee bit stubborn. I wish I had had these available for him a few years ago, as I think they would have made tracking much easier for him and they would have been very helpful. It is kind of like the pencil grippers that I am requiring my younger children to use, but can't get Mr. Lego or Miss J to touch with a 10 ft. pole. I know the pencil grippers would be helpful for them, but they are so stuck in how they do things already, they don't see the benefit. I am not giving my younger kiddo's that are just learning how to write an option. The same will go for these reading rulers. My younger kids will just start using them as they are learning to read. Even if they don't have any visual stress, the small window for tracking one line of text at a time is incredibly helpful for beginning readers in my opinion!

So, I couldn't get Mr. Lego to use them, but I knew I had to put these through their paces. So I started using them while I was reading on my iPad. Oh my!! I want to get the full overlays and just tape it to the top of my iPad while I am reading books in iBooks or on the Kindle app! It has made such a huge difference in how long I can read on my iPad compared to reading on my eInk Kindle. I was actually thinking of selling my iPad to get a Kindle DX because the glare from the screen just tires my eyes so quickly and I can't read for very long. Unless it is Facebook, then I don't seem to have that problem. ;-) My favorite is the matte side, as it completely removes the glare that bothers me so much and the blue and the pink seemed to offer the most contrast making it so much more comfortable to read. Moving it up and down on the screen proved to be a bit tricky, since the movement would make the screen move or sometimes turn a page, but the full overlays would eliminate that problem. Crossbow Education also offers a "virtual overlay" in a Windows and Mac edition that is supposed to help with visual stress from reading on the computer.

I am going to continue to put these in front of Mr. Lego and hopefully one of these days he will see the benefit. In the meantime, Mr. Fix-It and Miss Paya will each get one in there school supplies to use while they read aloud to me and I am going to order a pack of the full-size overlays to use with the iPad. I wish I would have had one of them a long time ago!!

Click the banner below to see what my Crewmates though of their experience with Crossbow Education's Reading Rulers!!

Dayspring Christian Academy - The Pilgrim Story

2012-10-17T10:01:00.001-05:00

Our family has found itself emerged in early American History these last weeks, thanks to Dayspring Christian Academy's The Pilgrim Story. The Pilgrim Story is an online history course covering the Pilgrim's search for freedom of religion. Dayspring Christian Academy is a private school based on the Principle Approach. This method of education has a very unique and specific purpose - equipping young men and women to help restore America to her gospel purpose, thereby helping to fulfill Christ's Great Commission.
This course comes from a decidedly Christian viewpoint and actually requires the student to view America's history through a Christian lens. This has been perfect for our family, but for those that don't hold to a providential view of history, that would be a problem.

The Pilgrim Story is meant for grades 3-6. I used it with all three of the older children, Miss J in 7th, Mr. Lego in 5th and Mr. Fix-It in 2nd. I didn't require Mr. Fix-It to do as much writing, but he did sit in on all of the lessons and participated with the discussion.

The Pilgrim Story is $99 for 6 months of access to the program. There are 5 Units in the Pilgrim Story that set the stage for the Pilgrim's landing in America. First you learn about the religious and political background that led to the Pilgrims searching out a new homeland, then follow them on their journey that eventually leads to America!

The 5 units are:

The Introduction, Preparation, The Journey, The First Winter, Years 1621-1623. Each Unit consists of 3-4 lessons and a Unit Test. There are many printables for each lesson, including Student Note Sheets, Map Activities, Vocabulary sheets, Quotes and Principles. Each lesson takes about 45 minutes or so to complete, making this easy to fit into our schedule a few times a week. We aren't hurrying through this at all as there is so much information and so many things to discuss, we have enjoyed not rushing through it. At the end of the course, the instructor Mary Stauffer takes the students on a virtual field trip to Plymouth, MA.

My children have loved, loved, loved this course. In fact, as I was telling Miss J that I was writing the review, she said "Did you tell them we loved it and can't wait to see what other courses they will come up with?!" They were eager to prepare their student notebooks and listen to the lessons. I have been blown away by how much they are retaining from this course and then discussing amongst themselves and with others after they have learned something. For instance, my daughter and I were discussing her grandfather going to Geneva, Switzerland and she piped up that Geneva was where many religious men fled from England and gathered to translate the bible into English, creating the Geneva Bible. This is significant because all common men and women of England could read the word of God in their own language.

The lessons are in an audio visual format with a narrator telling the Pilgrim Story while a slide show presentation is being played. My children really thrived with this format and were able to follow along. They really loved the theme music, too! Before each lesson, I would print out all of the maps, vocabulary sheets, note sheets or extra activity pages for the lessons and place them in their notebooks. When they would sit down for their lesson, the narrator would remind them to have their notebooks and materials ready and then they would get ready for the lesson. The only thing that I would have done a bit differently, is to have all of the printables in one file so they could be printed all at once. This hasn't been a big deal, but it would be more convenient!

This is my son's notebook. I used one of the gorgeous Principles printouts to use as the cover. We have collected several of these Principles as we have moved through the course. This course is so much more than just learning American History. It has given my children concrete examples of godly living and how to apply those principles in their own life. They are able to see, through the example of those who have gone before, exactly what happens if you follow these principles and what happens if you don't. They are able to learn these principles and then through our discussion we are able to discover how they can use these principles in our family and in different situations they come across.

I set up the notebook with 5 tabbed dividers, one for each Unit.

This is where the children do their lessons. I have all three of them sit in front of the computer and they are able to follow along easily. Miss J helps Mr. Fix-It complete his student pages. I am able to work with Miss Paya on her work and listen in to the lessons, too. This has been mostly independent for the children, except for our discussion time later. There are also writing projects included, but I am only having Miss J complete those essays.

I have really loved the format of this class and it has made the older children's history time much more productive than I would have ever guessed. I do hope they come up with some similar classes, as we will sign up for them in a heart beat!! This is the second course that I have reviewed that uses the Principle Approach to education and I am more impressed than ever. I really do need to research and learn more about this method to use in our homeschool. I love the biblical principles that are taught and how they can be applied in my children's lives (and mine!) This course has been wonderful for our family and I highly recommend it!

BeeYouTiful Wellness Pack

2012-10-08T08:05:00.001-05:00

Our family was privileged to receive a Wellness Pack from BeeYouTiful to review over the last few weeks. I was so excited to receive this particular set of products because I have boys..and that means a lot of bumps, bruises and other "Owees". I was also looking forward to receiving this because of our excellent experience with Tummy Tune-Up last review Crew. We had a trip planned for the Feast of Tabernacles (in fact we are still at our resort) and I knew we would be surrounded by a lot of people and a lot of germs. First, let me tell you a bit about what we received and then what I though about each of these products. Although, my first thought is to just send you straight over to the website and tell you to just pick one of everything!

This is a picture of everything we received in our set.

We received one of each of:

2 oz. Miracle Salve ($15) - a wholesome blend of coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, organic plantain, organic comfrey root, propolis, organic calendula flowers, lavender and rosemary

Lip B.A.L.M. ($3) - a moisturizing blend of grape seed oil, shea butter, beeswax and either orange or peppermint essential oils

Ow!-Ease ($15) - a healing blend of Extra virgin olive infused with organic chamomile, organic calendula, organic St. John's Wort, organic arnica, cayene, coconut oil, beeswax, lavender essential oil, rosemary essential oil.

Berry Well ($19.75) - a blend of Raw Honey, Propolis and Echinacea

BeeYouTiful Views DVD ($3). - a video featuring Stephanie Tallent (the owner of BeeYouTiful) sharing how she uses various BeeYouTiful products in her home.

I immediately opened everything to see how it smelled (yummy!), read all of the labels and then set it up in our First Aid cupboard and just waited for an opportunity to try it out. I knew I wouldn't have to wait long and within a week had used each and every product at least once. Gotta love living with little ones and boys that aren't so little but still prone to accidents!

The last time we reviewed items from BeeYouTiful, we reviewed the Tummy Tune-Up (which I have reordered) and the Lip B.A.L.M. My daughter immediately snagged that Lip B.A.L.M and loves it, so I made sure I snagged it this time and keep it in my purse. I like the mint flavor better than the orange, but it is so smooth and creamy and lasts a long time with each application. It has become my favorite Lip Balm.

I won't go into all the gory details regarding my daughters untimely meeting with her elbow and the closet door hinges, but suffice it to say it was one of those "Do we take her in for stitches or can we make do here?" Not to mention her elbow was swollen from the run-in. I cleaned up the gash as best as I could and then applied the Miracle Salve to the open area. I then carefully applied the Ow!-Ease around the swollen area without getting it into the open wound, according to the directions. Within a short time the swelling had decreased significantly and by the next day after a few more applications of both products there wasn't any visible bruising and the wound had begun to heal nicely. I thought for sure that she would have a big bruise after that nasty fall. Later, I had one of those lovely "let's see how much I can break in one day" sort of days and busted a crockpot dish on the floor. My foot was in the way for some of that and ended up getting cut. Again, I cleaned the wound and applied Miracle Salve and within a day the wound had begun to heal quite nicely and healed quickly. There have been a few other run-ins that required the Miracle Salve and each one has healed quickly and hasn't seemed to itch as much as they usually do as it healed. I have been very impressed with the Miracle Salve and will keep it on hand in my First Aid Kit.

Next up is the Ow!-Ease. I used it as stated above, but I have also used it more times than I can count on my 3 boys. The toddler has taken a few spills and given himself a goose egg or bumped knee and it has been amazing how quickly the bruising and swelling has gone down. The best example was when Mr. Fix-It was running down the front steps and somehow ended up going down the stairs on his backside rather than his feet. He came in and already had visible bruising. I applied the Ow!-Ease multiple times that afternoon and by the next day I couldn't even tell where he landed and he didn't have any pain. We were both impressed since this wasn't the first time that this has happened and in the past he has been sore for some time.

And now, the piece de resistance...the Berry Well. Let me give you a bit of background. We keep the Feast of Tabernacles, so every year for 8 days we spend with other Brethren celebrating this Feast. And every. single. year. we get sicker than dogs. Miserable, want to go home early, miss all the fun sick. I was determined that we would not get ill this feast if it was the last thing I did! So, a few days before we left, I started giving Berry Well to everyone. We didn't mind the taste at all, sort of an earthy berry sweetness, and we are over half-way through our trip of being in a large group, kids playing, shaking hands with people and we are all well! Little Bit has had a bit of a sniffle the last day, but I just gave him more Berry Well and he hasn't succumbed to any cold or flu at all. We have used another Elderberry product in the past, but not with this good of results. I think the added raw honey, propolis and echinacea give the elderberry the boost it needs to really help strengthen our immune system. This is another winner product that I will keep on hand at all times.

The BeeYouTiful Views DVD is done by Stephanie Tallent and shares how she uses many of the BeeYouTiful products in her home. I was glad to have the extra tips and tricks that she shares, although many of the things I had heard in my natural healing studies elsewhere. I was happy to discover a new way of creating garlic poultices, though, as I hadn't had good results with my method in the past! This should come in very handy as we go into the winter months. I think it is well worth the $3 to have that information at your fingertips in an easy to understand format! You can click HERE to scroll down and see a clip!

I have already used a lot of "natural health remedies" in the past, but BeeYouTiful has several that are priced as good or better as others I have tried and we have had superior results with them. The Berry Well and Tummy Tune-Up come to mind immediately and the results we have had with the Miracle and Ow!-Ease have been excellent as well. I have been incredibly blessed to receive these products to review and will continue to purchase BeeYouTiful products to help my family! My Crewmates received either the Wellness Pack, the Skincare or Makeup, so be sure to click through to see what they thought of their experience with BeeYouTiful!

Children in Church

2012-09-21T08:41:00.002-05:00

Our church is very, very small so for the last 7.5 years our children have worshipped with us every Sabbath. There have been Sabbath services when I would have loved to have a nursery so I could actually listen to a sermon un-interupted, but we are now beginning to see the fruit of those many Sabbath's as our older children are beginning to take notes during sermons and I am seeing them apply those principle in their lives.

Recently Mr. Lego, Mr. Fix-It and myself were working on a project out in the hen house. It was terribly hot and Mr. Lego had begun to feel a bit unwell. My mama sense told me that perhaps this ailment had more to do with not wanting to work in the heat than actually feeling poorly, but I suggested that he go inside and rest and that Mr. Fix-It and I would finish up ourselves. He trudged off with shoulders slumped only to return about 5 or so minutes later. He said that he remembered what Mr. John had spoken about at church that Sabbath - about persevering and putting one foot in front of the other to do what needed to be done. Mr. John was speaking more of a spiritual foot in front of the other, but Mr. Lego decided that he would do what Mr. John had said and persevere and do what needed to be done. I was so proud of him for making a good choice and even more thankful that he had been listening to the sermon! There have been more and more instances such as these in our lives and I know it is because my children are hearing the Word each week with us. Granted, many times it looks as if they are spending more time fidgeting and drawing, but more listening must be going on than I am aware of!

Children In Church ($12) was written by Curt & Sandra Lovelace who clearly have a heart for discipling parents and families. They make an excellent argument for the benefit of having children attend worship service with their families in the first few chapters of the book and then provide practical tips to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone - parents, children and other church-goers throughout the rest of the book. The kind and encouraging spirit of Curt & Sandra shine through every page of this book, leaving me feeling built up and edified. While I didn't need to be convinced of the benefits of allowing children to attend worship service, I was greatly encouraged and re-inspired to make the most of every Sabbath opportunity to share God's Word with my children. The later chapters were most helpful to me, as it gave me clear and concrete ways to help my children get the most of their worship experience as well as myself. I learned that it doesn't have to be "juggle/shuffle/rustle/shhh..." during church! I learned that I can help my children become better listeners and observers of the worship experience. Just like in other areas of my life, I come to this place of keeping children in church with us and feel terribly inadequate at helping them get the most out of the church service. Sandra is that lovely Titus 2 mentor that comes alongside and gently shares her wisdom gleaned from years of parenting her own children and mentoring others. She suggests that parents use the Church Bulletin to discover what the theme of the sermon was and at that time the children can draw the sermon. She gives an excellent example of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. She has the children draw a mountain and then draw stick figures of the various characters in that particular story. She also suggest having older children who are able to write to copy the scripture references from the sermon into a notebook. Just these two bits of practical wisdom have made our worship experience so much sweeter! My children already enjoyed sketching during church, so this just helps them focus their efforts in a way that will benefit them so much more! I am ever so grateful that Curt and Sandra have decided to share their wisdom with those of us that are choosing a different path in raising and discipling our children.

Children In Church has 10 chapters:

1-Bringing Them In, 2-Understanding the Elements, 3-Counting the Cost, 4-Laying the Foundation, 5-Getting Ready, 6-Packing the Bag, 7-Drawing the Word, 8-Preparing a Plan, 9-Facing the Challenges, 10-Growing as Disciples. There is also a "Note to Church Leaders" in the back.

This book has been such an encouragement to me as a mom and has given me many practical, easy ways to make the worship experience with my children even more enjoyable and rewarding! I highly recommend Children In Church for every parents home library, whether a homeschooling family or not.

Children In Church is being published by Great Waters Press, the publishing arm of Hal & Melanie Young's ministry, Raising Real Men. I had the pleasure of meeting Hal & Melanie at our local homeschool convention a couple of years ago and am still so thankful for the wisdom and encouragement they shared there. (You must listen to Melanie's talk "Sanity's in the Freezer! It is brilliant.) Not to mention how encouraged I was by Melanie after one of her talks when I was crying about how to handle my rather rambunctious boy. I feel as if Sandra would be just as warm and encouraging should I ever have the pleasure of meeting her, too!

Curt & Sandra Lovelace

Hal & Melanie Young

Family Time Fitness

2012-09-19T10:07:00.000-05:00

While growing up and attending public school, recess was the most beloved part of my day. I loved the fresh air and being able to move at my own pace for a little bit. P.E. class on the other hand was this mom's idea of torture. Oh. my. Running for no reason? Getting slammed with playground balls during a "friendly" game of dodgeball? Shudder...not my fondest memories of school, that is for sure! So, my idea of Physical Education (aka P.E.) at my house is sending everyone outside for an hour so I can have a minute (or 60) to re-group before the next subject/activity/chore that needs to be done. But to actually willingly participate in such activity...nah! There is always something better to do than exercise, IMO. However, when we were chosen to review "Fitness 4 Homeschool" by Family Time Fitness (key word there "Family"), I decided I need to be a part of the children's Physical Education program. They even made it sound kind of fun in their introductory materials. And, (gasp!) did you know that P.E. actually increases brain activity in children and adults?! That shuffling, hopping, jumping and running improve coordination, strength, balance, endurance and mental acuity? And for this mama - I need all the help with mental acuity as I can get. You know, since I can't remember something for more than a nanosecond. ;-)

We received the Fitness 4 Homeschool Core -1 Curriculum to review. This program is meant for grades K-8th grade, but my little guy had fun trying to keep up with his siblings and I regularly got schooled by my children, so I'd say it is perfect for all ages! The program is meant to be completed 5 days a week for about 1 hour each day, but we averaged around 3-4 days a week. We received this when it was sick hot (think 100°+ for weeks at a time) outside, so many times we adapted as best we could for indoor activity. If I weren't such a wimp when the temps get above 90°, then we would have taken this outside more often, but alas...that just isn't me. Now that it is cooling off a bit (Praise the Lord!) we are heading outside much more often. My kids are ecstatic as this is their favorite activity of the day, by far!

The lessons are designed to take about 30-45 minutes each day with an additional outdoor activity that provides another 15 or so minutes. This gets us well within the suggested 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Until reading the introductory materials, I didn't really understand the importance of structured physical activity. I assumed (wrongly) that sending the kids out to run, jump and otherwise burn some energy was just as effective as training them in structured physical activity. These structured activities work on balance, agility, coordination, rhythm, mobility and flexibility. This has been key for Mr. Fix-It! It is amazing how much more focused he is after our lessons. Sending him out to run helped, but there is something about him concentrating on keeping his balance or coordination that has really helped him focus during his other school lessons.

Fitness 4 Homeschool - Core 1 includes:

260 Lessons - that is 5 lessons for each week of the year!

Startup/Training Guide for Parents

1 page summaries of each lesson (this makes it nice for printing)

200+ Video Demonstrations of exercises (thank goodness!)

Assessment tools

Encouragement emails (although we didn't receive these)

Scope & Sequence

The Startup/Training Guide is essential to the program and gives teaching tips, materials lists, options for printing lessons and links to the Assessment tools. The materials are all sent in PDF format that is formatted for use on a computer, iPad or other tablet with clickable links. This makes it easy-peasy to access the demonstration video's on YouTube.

The Lessons are divided into 13 Modules of 20 lessons each, making it easy to print-out only what is needed for a month at a time.

There are several things that are needed to use the program:

Bean Bags

Jump Ropes

Hula Hoops

Playground Balls

Foam Balls (for indoor play)

Cones (or other markers)

Measuring tape (for measuring distances)

Stop Watch (we used my sons watch)

Exercise Mat (we used towels)

I already had small beanie babies and knit bean bags, so we just used those. I found a great deal on beaded jump ropes on Amazon which have held up beautifully (after I bought cheap ones at Wal-mart that broke the first time out) and I need to find a better hula hoop. The dollar store ones just aren't holding up. Not that a better hula hoop will help this mama ever know how to do it well, but at least the kids will have fun! I didn't know they even made "playground" balls available for the general public, but they are awesome! I found ours at Wal-mart for less than $5. We live in Missouri, so we used large rocks as our markers. ;-)

Each lesson plan contains:

Skills Taught

Equipment needed

Suggested Recovery Time

(this is letting you know how much time between reps..30 seconds to 1 minute, not how long it will take you as mom to recover from doing the activities each day!)

Warm Up Activity

(leg swings, rocking horse, single leg balancing, jumping jacks, etc.)

Activity/Game Play

Cool Down

Outdoor Activity

The main Activities and Game Play were some I remember from P.E. when I was a kid - the Crab Walk, Jumps, Wall Push-ups, Lunge Walk (ouch!), and Bear Crawl.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with Fitness 4 Homeschool and will continue to use it in our homeschool. The Core 1 program is available as a downloadable PDF curriculum for only $57, making this an incredibly affordable option for families! Much better than the local YMCA P.E. Class that requires a gym membership and only meets once a week. They are releasing Core 2 in January 2013 and we will be purchasing that to continue our P.E. program! Family Time Fitness also offers a Platinum Program that contains workbooks for grades K-5, Core 1 and when it is released, Core 2 for $137.

The Historic Expedition of Lewis & Clark - Marshall Publishing

2012-09-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

Our family was excited to receive "The Historic Expedition of Lewis & Clark" DVD from Marshall Publishing. The 35 minute DVD follows Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they embark on their 2 year, 8,000 mile journey across America and back. The movie isn't your typical movie with actors and such, but rather a narrated story with classical music in the background and still images, map drawings or video of re-enactments that are used to enhance the narrators story. The narrator follows Lewis & Clark as they encounter bears, nearly starve, commission Sacajawea to join them on their adventure and eventually meet the Pacific Ocean with great joy. They spend time on the West Coast organizing their data and preparing for the return trip home. Amazingly, only 1 person perished on the great adventure.

My children and I learned many new things about the Lewis & Clark expedition that we hadn't heard before, like that they nearly starved and ended up having to eat some horses during one part of the voyage. Or that they were so young when they set out. I was particularly surprised to learn that they were only in their 20's when they were sent on this great adventure. For some reason, I had this idea that they were much older than that.

We watched this as a family and everyone except Miss Paya (5.5) and Little Bit (2.5) stayed engaged the whole time. The two little ones would wander in and out as we watched, but it didn't hold their interest as much as it did my older children. They all commented that they enjoyed the DVD, although the narrators pronunciation of Sacajawea was completely different than anything any of us had ever heard before. It took us a bit to reconcile that as we were watching, but eventually it stopped sounding so odd. Incidentally, there are two spellings and two pronunciations for Sacajawea (Sacagawea), which was something else we didn't know! The parts of the DVD that showed the re-enactments with the boats and canoes on the river were much more interesting to watch than the parts that were just still images being narrated. Some of the still images used were gorgeous pieces of art and I would have loved a resource guide to be included so we could look up some of the artists that created them. Miss J said that she thought it was o.k. and enjoyed the information being presented, but it wasn't as visually stimulating as others historical films she has seen.

It was neat to watch the voyage as it went through the St. Louis area as we have family there, so many cities and areas were familiar to the children. We also learned that both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were governors of the Missouri Territory. At the end of the DVD, the narrator shared what happened to the members of the team after they returned home. I had no idea that Meriwether Lewis had come to such a tragic end (either murdered or suicide) but was thankful that William Clark enjoyed a more kind life after his great adventure. Sacajawea also died very young at only 25 years old.

All in all we were very pleased with the content and production of the DVD. This would make a great supplement to any American History studies or for those specifically studying the Lewis & Clark expedition. Normally $24.95, it is currently on sale for $19.95 which seems pretty typical for educational documentaries of this sort. I liked this well enough that I am making notes to use some of their other titles in our studies later on. My older children are 12.5, 11 and 8 and I felt like it was appropriate for those ages, although I can see my daughter "aging" out of this resource in the next year or so.

Speekee TV!

2012-09-14T09:07:00.001-05:00

When we were given the opportunity to review Speekee TV again, Miss Paya was so excited! She has fond memories of Speekee from my first voyage on the Schoolhouse Review Crew, where she first fell in love with Speekee and Jim. You can watch the video of 3 yo Miss Paya watching Speekee and singing along in my first review. She is now 5.5 years old (gasp!) and still enjoyed Speekee as much this second time around. This time she watched it with Little Bit who is 2.5, and he is just as enamored as Miss Paya. He has been running through the house (nekkid, since we are potty training) yelling "Hola!" to everyone. It is hilarious. Between Speekee and a daily dose of Dora, he and Miss Paya are well on their way to speaking Spanish. It amazes me how much they have retained and use around the house at different times.

Speekee TV has 10 episodes set in various places familiar to young children the world over. The park, the cafe, the market, the train station, a birthday party. The video's are spoken in Spanish with both English and Spanish Close Captioning. The first time we reviewed Speekee, we would watch the video's and then finish one of the corresponding activities, although at the time Miss Paya was a bit too young for many of them. This time however, Speekee TV has added "FastTrack" weekly emails, 4 weeks of activities for each of the 10 episodes, that I receive in my inbox each week. These emails have a link to the Speekee TV website with all of the needed information for that weeks activities. Rather than having access to the "Scheme of Work" meant for public schools, I receive these FastTrack emails giving me additional activities and ideas on how to carry out what we are learning in the video's into our everyday life. These weekly emails gave me more concrete ways to incorporate the vocabulary into our day. For example, in Week 4, we were instructed to watch the "El Parque" episode. Speekee tells the children at the park to "Cuidado" (Be careful) when they bump into each other at the park. So, Miss Paya and I would pretend to bump into each other and say "Cuidado", or when she was jumping on the trampoline, I would say "Cuidado" to her. There are also downloadable worksheets to go along with the FastTrack activities. This particular worksheet has Miss Paya counting the number of slides. I didn't print them off, but we would look at them on the computer and she would tell me how many slides or swings she would see in each picture. She still isn't at a point to be able to write her answers, so it made more sense to follow along and allow her to answer verbally. If I had been using this with my older children, then I would have required them to write out their answers. So, I would point at the picture of 3 slides and she would answer "tres toboganes" or 1 swing "un columpio". We have both slides and swings at our home, so there is ample opportunity to use the new found vocabulary. Not to mention "Cuidado" is part of our everyday vocabulary now!

Speekee is meant for children 2-10 years and costs $7.50/month or $60/year. At our house, my older children didn't enjoy Speekee nearly as much, as they felt it was too "babyish", but it has been perfect for Miss Paya and Little Bit. We were given a 6 months subscription to Speekee TV for review purposes. I feel like the addition of the FastTrack weekly emails has really made our learning with Speekee even more productive and will continue to use it in our homeschool. Not that I could *not* use it anyway, as both Miss Paya and Little Bit ask for it by name on a regular basis!!

Ten Girls from History by Golden Prairie Press

2012-08-31T10:28:00.000-05:00

Golden Prairie Press was began by Amy Puetz, a homeschool graduate with a passion for history. She has turned her love of history, sewing, costuming and writing into a publishing company offering many historical books for young and old alike. We were given the opportunity to review "Ten Girls from History" over the last several weeks. We were given an eBook version ($15), so I was able to easily add it to my iPad so Miss J could read it.

Ten Girls From History was originally written in 1917 by Kate Dickinson Sweetser, so it is in the public domain. Not wanting to lose the value of these 10 short biographical stories, Amy Puetz has preserved the heart of the original while updating the grammar and some language to make it more accessible to the modern youth of today. These are not illustrated books, but having the interactive Table of Contents and Glossary does make this nicer than other versions that I have seen. While I love the book, as did Miss J, I would have a hard time budgeting $15 for 1 eBook in our homeschool budget. A print book, maybe, but I try not to spend that much for updated classics in an electronic version.

Ten Girls From History includes inspiring stories from some of our favorite people from history. When I first showed Miss J the different choices available, she was most excited to discover that their were stories about Clara Barton, whom she played in last years co-op performance, Louisa May Alcott, Molly Pitcher and Dorothy Quincy. She made some new friends through the reading of this books as well, learning about Cofachiqui, an Indian Princess, Elizabeth Van Lew, Ida Lewis and 3 more. These stories are inspiring and uplifting. They have inspired her to learn more about other women that she finds fascinating, like Beatrix Potter. She was excited to learn more about Clara Barton than she had previously known. She said the stories were well written and easy to read.

I agree with Miss J's assessment. The stories are very well written and create a picture of the events in your mind as you are reading them. I love that the stories inspired her to want to know more about other people she has encountered in history. They are the perfect pace and length for reading aloud, too, although Miss J preferred to read them herself. There is the included Glossary with many of the definitions from Webster's 1828 Dictionary. The glossary terms are bolded throughout the text, so it is easy to jump to the glossary to find the definition of the word. There were several words that I had to look up myself (Brevet, anyone?!), so I was thankful for that addition to the text.

Golden Prairie Press is having a Back to School Sale for 20% off many of her titles through September 1st. She also has a print version available for Ten Girls From History that is on sale for $20.

I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist!

2012-08-22T10:15:00.002-05:00

Usually, as I have reviewed items for the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I pick things for the children to use, however in the case of Apologia's I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, I asked to review this one purely for myself. There isn't a day that goes by that I am not thankful to my Creator for our provision, for the relationships in my life, for the many blessings that I experience on a daily basis because of Him. However, there have been times when I haven't felt prepared to defend my beliefs very well. I just "know what I know", but depending on who you might be talking to, that "gut-feeling" doesn't cut it as a significant reason for belief in God.

Apologia sent us both the book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist ($16) as well as the accompanying workbook ($33) to review. The workbook is meant to be used along with the book as a High School level apologetics course. The Schoolhouse Review Crew has previously reviewed Apologia's apologetics series, What We Believe, which is geared for students ages 6-14. This newer course will round out the selection for older students and adults alike. You can see the Table of Contents for the book and the Table of Contents for the workbook on the Apologia website.

The course is meant to be completed within a school year by taking two to three weeks to read each chapter and then work through the accompanying study questions and assignments. This is not easy reading with a lot of fill in the blank type question and answers, but requires a lot of thinking and wrestling with the information given and then being able to own it for yourself. Click here to see a sample chapter from the book and here to see a sample chapter from the workbook. They are both for Chapter One, so you can get a good feel for how the book is written and how the workbook is set up.

This has been a difficult review for me to write. It is easy to explain how many chapters are in the book and how the workbook is set up, it is entirely different to try to articulate what the careful reading of just the first few chapters has been like for me. This has been a difficult read for me, requiring me to really think and ponder and chew on and digest before I moved on. And that is just reading the book, not to mention working through the workbook exercises as well. I can see why the authors suggest a pace of 2-3 weeks per chapter, as it has certainly taken me that long to feel comfortable moving on to the next one. Meaning, I'm not even close to finishing this book, but I am anxious to keep working through this study, as it is opening my eyes to things I had never pondered before.

For example, I have been going through a sort of exploring of all that I thought I have known for quite some time. Not a questioning of the existence of God, nor His place in my life, but more of how I am supposed to live out my faith and what He expects of me. How do I know what is true? Within the first 20 pages, I was being challenged in my thought process, one that I hadn't even fully realized I held, that no one religion has the truth, that all religions are simply different paths up the same mountain. If that is true, then what is truth?! How can we know? I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist attempts to answer this heavy question.

In the introduction, the authors walk you through a 12-step defense of Christianity. These 12 steps are based on their seminar "The Twelves Points That Show Christianity is True" that they have been conducting across America since 1996. These 12 steps begin with the question of Absolute Truth all the way to the conclusion that the Bible is really the Word of God. I think the thing that I have gained most from my reading of I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist is a renewed desire to know that I know what I know. In the Introduction, it is stated that Scorates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. The authors feel like an unexamined faith is not worth believing. They remind us as Christians, that we can't just "have faith", but that we are commanded to know what we believe and why we believe it. Commanded by our Creator to be able to give answers for our faith and our belief system. That is something that I have sorely neglected of late and that this book has reminded me that I need to rectify. It isn't enough to say "I Believe", I am commanded to know. They even discuss the fact that "Christians" are sometimes the greatest deterrent to Christianity, that we don't make a very compelling reason to believe at all. We can be hypocritical and quick to jump on the "feel good" aspect of Christianity without doing the hard work of living it out, every day in front of people. To really show ourselves approved. Gosh, I could turn this review of a book into a modern day critique of Christianity as a whole, but it isn't really the time or the place. Suffice it to say, that if more Christians followed the commandment to be able to answer for their faith, which this book is incredibly helpful, maybe we would have a better reputation.

I mentioned the 12 steps before, each chapter or chapters covers these various steps. Chapters 1 and 2 cover the first 2 steps. 1)Truth about reality is knowable. 2) The opposite of truth is false. Then chapters 3-7 cover the 3rd step, It is true that the theistic God exists. This is evidenced by 4 arguments. Each of these 5 chapters cover these arguments. The book tells you what each chapter will cover and the workbook offers Key Topics to help you organize your thoughts.

I have never studied apologetics before, so I can't give a scholarly analysis on how this compares to anything else out there regarding this subject. I can say that it has renewed my zeal to study the word of God, to *know* what I know and has shored up my faith in places I didn't know that I was weak. Please, take the time to read the free sample chapter available on Apologia's website and work through the workbook pages and let me know what you think!

Vocabulary Spelling City

2012-08-20T09:18:00.000-05:00

This is another one of those reviews that I just want to say "Go sign up, NOW!", but I will go ahead and share with you why I feel that way! Ha!

Vocabulary Spelling City is an online spelling and vocabulary practice website that you can completely customize to your students. There is a FREE membership that is easy to sign-up for and begin using or a Premium Membership, which is what my family has been using. A Premium Membership allows me to create specific assignments for each of my children either individually or as a group. For instance, Miss J is studying words in a different level than Mr. Fix-It and Mr. Lego. So I can create an assignment with higher level words for Miss J and then a different assignment for Mr. Fix-It and Mr. Lego who are closer to the same level. This has made creating a dependable program of review of their spelling words so much easier to implement in our homeschool! We have used the spelling lists in the Writing Road to Reading via The Phonics Road for our spelling program, but I have struggled to offer sufficient review on a regular basis so they can practice what they are learning. Creating word lists in Vocabulary Spelling City has eliminated that problem and made it so simple to give them more practice!

You can see that I created spelling lists in the program and then I can go in an create assignments that use those lists. There are around 20 different activities that I can choose from to create an assignment. Mr. Fix-It has been the one to use this program most extensively the last few weeks and he and I have been exploring the different activities and discovering which ones are most helpful for him. I like that I can choose either vocabulary oriented activities or spelling activities. Since Mr. Fix-It nearly always knows how to use his spelling words in an appropriate sentence, but really struggles with consistently spelling them correctly, I choose to give him more of the Spelling Activities. These are game based activities that he plays to practice his spelling words. He has really enjoyed all of the different activities so far and has been retaining that knowledge to use in his writing later. I really feel like having Vocabulary Spelling City has helped him get that extra review and practice he has needed to move his spelling words from short-term memory to long-term memory!

Other than the time it has taken for me to enter in our own spelling lists, this has been incredibly easy for us to add to our homeschool day. There are already pre-loaded spelling lists in Vocabulary Spelling City, but I love the option of completely customizing it to our spelling program. I like that I can check Mr. Lego's progress and re-assign certain lists if I think he needs extra practice. Oh, I can't remember which game it was right now, but I happened to be walking by when he was playing and realized that he was just clicking until the computer gave him the answer, sort of by process of elimination, so I have now started having him work on Spelling City when I am at the school table working with one of the other children so I can overhear and supervise his work. He hasn't been as happy with that arrangement, but it has kept him from taking the easy way out! It hasn't required me sitting with him, but I can hear by what is going on if he is really studying or being lazy! I love that Mr. Lego has gotten additional practice with his spelling words while freeing up some of my time. Previously, I always felt like he needed more practice, but I ran out of time during the day to oversee that extra practice time.

The Premium Vocabulary Spelling City membership is only $29.99/year for up to 5 children in a family. I feel like this has been an incredible value and will not hesitate to continue our membership when our current one expires!

This Week In History

2012-08-15T09:38:00.001-05:00

My children have gotten a kick out of checking my email the last few weeks waiting for the next edition of "This Week In History" to arrive! Each week, there are a weeks worth of new ideas to explore, new people to meet and new events to learn about. This email is set up in a user-friendly way, giving basic information about each item along with additional links for my children to explore.

I also received account information to sign-up to be able to access "This Week In History" on their website, but we have found it easier to keep them in a folder in our email inbox and my children can access them without a password whenever they want. We have used the website when we were looking for something specific since the site is searchable by date, topic and key word which makes this resource even more valuable. Now, when Miss J was studying about Italy she learned that Florence Nightingale was named for Florence, Italy where she was born and that April 15, 1452 Leonardo Da Vinci was born.

I am sure that a lot of this information could be scrounged up on the internet for free, however, as a busy homeschooling mama, I really, really, really like that it is all in one place and already done for me! My kids are happy they don't have to wait for mama, too. All of the clickable links have been pre-screened by Rachel DeMille, so I don't have to worry about what they might come across while using this resource.

Missouri became the 24th state in the Republic on August 10th, 1821. We spend an entire afternoon printing off the coloring pages, word searches and maps and learning about the state that we live in. We also learned more about George Washington Carver, Daniel Boone, Walt Disney (I didn't know he grew up in Kansas City!!), and Eugene Field.

Rachel DeMille, the author of This Week In History, sent us a note to help us gain the most from the materials. I appreciated her sense of humor and grasp on the average homeschooling mama's day!

"Here are some ideas on how you might use This Week in History:

1. A week or two in advance (since you have it all together and you like to see how everything is going to shape up before it happens) you review the coming week's resources and consider how they fit with your interests, your kids' projects, etc., and plan how to use it

2. On the day of (since your week has been nutty and you haven't had time to plan what you're going to do), you get up and review that day's resources, print out a few pdfs and preview a few topics, and then invite the children to discover with you

3. In the moment (since you're an adventurous, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl/boy), you bring up the site and wander your way through it like a treasure hunt

4. Review the archives (available at the bottom of each week's article, or by searching by date or keyword) to explore for a date of interest, like a child's birthday, your wedding anniversary, or even some random date chosen by your child-of-the-day, and explore what is notable about that date

I loved her idea of searching the archives by date, so each of my children took turns looking up their birthday to see what was going on in history at that moment. When and if I ever get around to finishing up their baby albums, it would be fun to print those off and put them in their baby books!

All in all, I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of information found in each weeks e-mail. Our family received a years subscription to This Week In History for review purposes. This Week In History is $9.99/month, which for my family might be a bit of a stretch. I wish they would offer discounts for purchasing a years subscription at a time or bundle it for 6 months. There is so much information from all of the subjects - sciences, history, literature, architecture, medicine, the arts, that this could easily become a stand-alone History curriculum for your family. In that light, the $120/year doesn't seem like so much! My older two children have especially enjoyed having access to it and being able to search for things they are interested in!

Math Made Easy - Addition Made Easy

2012-08-13T09:53:00.000-05:00

Mr. Fix-It received Math Made Easy - Addition a few weeks ago and he immediately wanted to get started. The Addition book includes everything you need for 6 weeks of games and activities to master the addition math facts. There are over 45 reproducible activity sheets, cardstock game boards and pieces, and heavyweight cardstock flashcards.

What makes Math Made Easy - Addition so unique is that it capitalizes on the commutative property of addition to make mastery easy. After eliminating the 0's and 1's of math facts and then the duplicate facts (3+2 is the same as 2+3), you are left with only 36 facts to master. Ms. Glenda Brown James then divides those 36 facts into 6 weeks of 6 facts each, making addition mastery a piece of cake! The chart on page 7 of the book shows all of the math facts from 0-9 with all of the 0's,1's and duplicates marked out. Mr. Fix-It was excited that there were so few left for him to learn. After he took the pre-test, we got started!

I chose to take the book apart, make copies for Mr. Fix-It and assemble the games prior to getting started. It only took me a little bit to put things together and would have taken less time had I not chosen to laminate everything, but you know...I am not one to pass up an opportunity to use my laminator!

This is a photo of one of the activity sheets for the first week. Each week has 5 activity pages and a couple of games for re-enforcement. The activity pages are listed Monday-Friday. After Mr. Fix-It would finish the activity page we would play one of the games to practice the facts. His favorite was the Ice Cream Sundae activity. He would spin the dial, answer the problem and then move the spoon to check his answer.

Gumball Game!

Match the problem "bow" to the answer on the braid.

Ice Cream Scoop Activity

I created a special workbook for Mr. Fix-It of the activity pages and we were ready to get started! This kept all of the pages together in one spot and the games easy to find as well. This has been a super easy addition to our homeschool day and Mr. Fix-It has really enjoyed the worksheets and extra activities. We have tried many math fact mastery programs in the past and this one has made it into my top two favorites! This has been perfect for learning the addition math facts before beginning to use the times mastery computer program that we have. Math Made Easy - Addition is $24.95 and because it is reproducible makes it an excellent value for my family. I will continue to use this with Miss Paya and Little Bit when the time comes!

A place for it all...

2012-08-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Day 4 of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by the Schoolhouse Review Crew! Today is probably my favorite day! I get to show off our schoolroom!

I am incredibly thankful to have this space for our learning tools! The desk area below is for the children to do any of their work on the computer. We have a set of headphones so they can plug-in to work on Math Rider, Spelling City or any other programs we might be reviewing or using at the time.

This is our timeline, Little Bit's toy area and our Morning Board. I still need to do a post about that!

These are the main bookshelves. I have done some re-organizing, but haven't taken an updated pic yet. All of our math manipulatives, craft supplies and art supplies are also on these shelves. Each of the children has their own cubby for their school books and supplies as well.

The other set of bookcases. Many of these are reference books for myself as well as more reading books!

The steel door to the outside is where I keep our spelling tiles and more toys for Little Bit.

This is a new addition to our school room. This is the perfect size for Mr. Fix-It to do his schoolwork on!

That is it! The tour of our schoolroom! I can't wait to see everyone else's!

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Planning the 2012-13 School Year!

2012-08-01T13:56:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the 3rd day of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by the Schoolhouse Review Crew!

Planning, planning, planning - if I am not careful I can spend all of my time planning for school, cleaning, life and then not actually get what I want to finished. Does that ever happen to you?! I can never get my plans just so and find myself having trouble going from planning to doing. At any rate - along with re-thinking all of the methods, the curriculum, I am also doing some re-thinking of how I plan this year!

I am actually at a hotel, by myself, this very minute. I have some music going on the iPad, my journal, the children's end of year evaluations and my planners.

To prepare for this moment, I did a few things at home so as to accomplish the most in my time here.

First, I determined our school year schedule. I use a ruled yearly calendar from donnayoung.org to sketch out Holy Days, holidays and known vacation days. After those things are blocked out I figured out how many weeks were left to finish school. This year, I have a 40 week school year planned. We will work for about 4 weeks and then take 1 week off through-out the year, although there are a few time we have a bit longer break.

Next, I gathered up my weekly planner from The Confident Mom and sketched out our week. We are not returning to co-op this year, I am not taking any college classes this year and I am severely limiting my involvement in anything outside of the four walls of our home. I think this will make a *huge* difference in how much we get accomplished on a daily and weekly basis. I am looking forward to actually being home often enough to get into a routine! Because we don't have any outside commitments, I will plan Field Trips, Library and Errand days for Friday mornings and we can be home Friday afternoons to prepare for Sabbath. This will leave us Monday through Thursday to accomplish the bulk of our homeschooling projects.

Today, while I am in the hotel I am breaking down our goals for the children into a daily and weekly task list so we can stay on track and have a guideline of what we need to do each day and week so we can call our year a success next June! I will share more of those details in the next couple of weeks as I figure them out!

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Zane Education

2012-08-01T00:41:00.000-05:00

My family was excited about the opportunity to review ZANE Education in our homeschool the last few weeks. We received a Gold Membership with full access to all of their video's to review. ZANE Education had originally partnered with textbook publishing companies creating visual aid materials designed to teach the material per the requirements of a K-12 curriculum. Now, these same materials are available to everyone through the ZANE Education website. You can read more about their history HERE.

ZANE Education covers all major subjects, has over 1500 videos, various lesson plans, quizzes and curriculum planning guides available. There is more information here than we would get to in several years of homeschooling, I think. This is not a full curriculum, but does provide supplemental videos and quizzes for nearly every topic you can think of. There are literature videos for elementary grades, science videos for high schooler and art history, music and even religious studies. We weren't able to even scratch the surface of all that is available. We used this as an extra in our homeschool, especially for Mr. Lego.

I was especially excited to review these video's because they include The Missing Piece - or close captioning along the bottom of the video's. I was hopeful that this would be helpful for Mr. Lego and that he could read the words along the bottom of the screen while watching the video's and learning about things he was interested in. I thought this would serve two purposes - he would be reading while hearing the proper pronunciation of words as well learning about things that might be more difficult for him to read about. He was very excited at first, but was disappointed when he discovered that many of the video's are still pictures with narration, not full action movies. I do think the close captioning at the bottom of the video's is incredibly helpful for him, but he wasn't as engaged in the video's as I had hoped.

Miss J is wanting to learn everything she can about France and it's history before her trip next spring. She has watched several of the ZANE Education video's and has really enjoyed them and did very well on the quizzes. The lack of animation or action didn't seem to phase her in the least. She was frustrated that she wasn't able to enlarge the video's and make them full-screen thinking that they were a bit too small and I even though it made the close-captioning a bit difficult to read. It would be wonderful if ZANE was able to make the video's "full-screen" capable in the future so they could be seen by everyone on our computer.

While I have been grateful for the opportunity to use ZANE in our homeschool, I don't know that our family would be able to afford the yearly subscription of $197.89 or $17.99/month. There are also options of just purchasing all of the video's for a specific grade level ($142.89) or subject ($98.89) that would make it more reasonable, but for my children it would be difficult to narrow down a grade level for the various subjects.

If you have a visual learner who would benefit from close captioning and doesn't need a lot of animation or action to stay intrigued with a subject, then ZANE Education might be just what your family needs!

Homeschooler's Candy - otherwise known as Curriculum...

2012-07-31T09:24:00.000-05:00

After you have researched your method (please see yesterday's post about that) and you know what you need to teach and what your focus is going to be then you get to pick out curriculum!

This year, I am focusing on teaching me and reading books that will help me become a better wife, mother and educator. I can't give my children what I don't possess and I can't expect them to do as I say and not as I do. I have 5 little mirrors that God has given me to shine my reflection back at me - I want that reflection to be one of love, kindness, patience, gentleness, sacrifice, service and did I mention patience?! Lately it has been one of impatience, shortness, frustration and little grace. I am praying...a LOT these days, that God will just move me out of the way so He can complete His work. To that end, my curriculum includes some pretty hefty reading, pondering, wrestling, praying then starting it all over again. I am going to share with you a few resources that I am using to help me become better at the job God called me to do as well as a few choices for my children's school year.

Titus 2 University is organized by Misty Krasawski and includes articles by contributors like Sally Clarkson, Crystal Paine, Cindy Rushton and Sarah Mae. This is a 9 month series that touches on all of the topics close to this mama's heart - being a loving mother, a help-meet, a homemaker and of course - at the center of all of that - someone who lives their lives for God. She uses some really amazing books as the "spines" for each of the topics over the 9 months, like The Power of a Praying Wife, The Money Saving Mom, Hints on Child Training, The Pursuit of God and others. This curriculum is doing my mom-heart good!

The above stack of books are some of my very favorites in regards to homeschooling, although the one on the top from Lifestyle of Learning has really given me a lot to think on and largely influenced my post yesterday on homeschooling methods. Reading it has given me even more freedom in living our life and learning/education being a part of that - rather than learning/education something we only do during "school". The others are just inspiring to me as a parent and make me want to be more for my kids, although they certainly contain plenty of ideas on how to homeschool.

Now, onto curriculum for the children!! I hope you are not disappointed that I am not laying out a grade by grade detail of what each of my children will be using this year. Believe me, I have been planning, but I just kept going in circles and began to feel as if I was missing the big picture! It is like a perpetual Christmas - curriculum coming in, tearing it open with excitement, playing with it for a few days or weeks and then reality sets in and it isn't quite as exciting anymore! I think this is because teaching children is HARD WORK. Some days, it is really, really HARD. I'm not saying it isn't a blessing or a privilege, but those things make it meaningful, not necessarily easy!! Researching the perfect method or curriculum won't make teaching my children easier, my kitchen cleaner or get my laundry done. Having materials that work with your children will certainly help the process along, but it will still take HARD WORK, and effort, discipline and follow-through.

I am seriously re-thinking all of this curriculum mania along with methods. Somewhere along the way the books took precedence over my children's desires, gifts, and natural talents, or even their struggles. Maybe this curriculum will solve this problem and if it doesn't after a few days, then maybe *that* curriculum will solve that problem! And after a few weeks of that, then maybe something else will "click!" After 6 years of homeschooling (no one said I was a quick learner), I have discovered that consistency and discipline go a long way in solving problems, overcoming struggles and being successful at this homeschooling gig! I have also learned that there is no "perfect" curriculum and just picking something and then working hard will be of great benefit to me and my children!

Instead of spending so much time deciding on curriculum, I gave each of my children an end of year evaluation and then asked them some questions about what they wanted to learn this upcoming school year, what they felt they needed to work on and what they felt their strengths were. I took each of the kids into our study and visited with them for as long as it took to ask the questions, write down the answers and then discuss this next year. I can't believe all that I discovered about them and am excited about incorporating those things into our school year!

This is the first year that I've consulted my children and really asked them what they thought they would like to learn, what they wanted to do better at and what they felt their strengths were instead of referring to a method or a scope & sequence to tell me what to do. That means I have spent a lot of time the last few weeks going through our resources to gather up the materials that will best help each of my children reach the goals that they have set for themselves. We will use curriculum as a tool to reach those goals, but it has taken a back seat to the planning this year!

What the school table looks like as the children and I evaluate the different resources we have available and determine which ones would most help them reach their goals!!

I will share more about specifics in the next few weeks, but I wanted to share with you a flip-side to considering curriculum, methods and planning through this blog hop!

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2012-07-30T08:35:00.000-05:00

Are you a Classical homeschooler? Eclectic? Traditional? Unschoolish? Charlotte Mason? An "I don't know, I'm just trying to get through the day" homeschooler? For many of us, when we first began to homeschool, the first piece of advice given was to discover your Philosophy of Education. To decide "how" you would want to homeschool and from there make curriculum, scope & sequence and scheduling choices. The 2012-2013 school year will be my 7th year homeschooling and I think I have a new opinion on "Methods."

First, over the last 6 years of homeschooling I wish I had spent less time worrying about what method I wanted to follow, what I wanted to make my homeschool look like and just started teaching my kids math, reading and writing. Sure, different homeschooling methods might approach each of these skills differently, but ultimately, they just need to be mastered.

Second, history and science do not need to be mastered in the younger grades. Exposure is the name of the game and it is perfectly o.k. to learn about Abraham Lincoln before Augustus Caesar. If creating lesson plans, activities, and lining up coordinating resources means that the basics are getting ignored, then it is time to re-group and focus on the skill subjects! (Not that I have any personal experience with *that*, mind you!) Making sure your child knows how to read well and widely is critical!

Third, textbooks aren't evil and something getting done every day, even if it isn't the "perfect" program, is better than a "perfect" program that is sitting on a shelf for any of a number of reasons. I can't tell you the number of hours I have wasted researching the "perfect" curriculum, when just reading to my children from a large list of books and chanting the multiplication facts while we jumped on the trampoline would have accomplished a lot more!

Finally, I look back now and shake my head at the many lessons I have learned (am still learning!) and wish I could tell my new-to-homeschooling self that the privilege of spending time with my children, of watching that light go off in their minds when they first learn to read and the joy that they experience when they have mastered something difficult is so much more than "method!" That this opportunity is so much bigger than Classical or Charlotte Mason or Traditional schooling. That this homeschooling "method" is so much more about God teaching me, than it is about me teaching my children!

So, as I make my plans for the upcoming school year, I am focusing more on learning who these young people are that God has entrusted in my care and less about what a method says I should be doing. It feels so freeing to not have to hold myself up the standards of a particular method that I never seem to be able to meet!

What does God have planned for these children of mine? What do I need to do to love them and teach them and guide them into His plan for their lives? That is the method I am following this year!

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Jeepers Peepers Game by Super Duper Publication

2012-07-24T23:55:00.000-05:00

If you ask Miss Paya what her favorite game is these days, she will say "Peepers Poppers" - otherwise known as Jeepers Peepers by Super Duper Publications. My children grabbed this out of the box and were headed downstairs to play within minutes of the postman dropping it off. I heard lots of questions, guessing and laughter bubbling up from the basement for at least 45 minutes after they started playing! It was hilarious! It has been played countless times since we received it and is the first game that Miss Paya wants to play (every day!)

The glare is awful, but if you look close you can see the older kids playing in the background while the younger ones were playing at the other end of the table. Even the nephews had fun playing!

Jeepers Peepers is an Ask and Answer Question game that builds thinking, organizing, categorizing skills and problem solving skills. Each time we played I could see Miss Paya and even Mr. Fix-It gain skills is organizing their thoughts and asking a more logical series of questions to discover what was on their card.

I am so pleased with the quality of the glasses and cards. The cards are printed on a heavyweight laminated card that is very sturdy and the glasses are a nice thick plastic that have held up to my toddler and my older boys. There have been so many games that we have owned that just haven't been able to stand up to the vigorous play of my family. I am thankful that I don't have to worry about that with Jeepers Peepers!

Jeepers Peepers comes with 6 pairs of glasses, 101 playing cards, a small tub of tokens and an electronic spinner. While there are specific instructions for play that allow the children to earn tokens for correct guesses, my children have much preferred to just play for fun without "winning!" I think this might be my favorite part of Jeepers Peepers - it is one of the few games that all of my children have enjoyed playing and it hasn't become so competitive that it is no longer fun.

Jeepers Peepers is for grade K and up and is $29.95. The kids have loved this game and Miss Paya has a new favorite - she is always up for a game of "Peepers Poppers!!"

Map Trek Atlas by Knowledge Quest

2012-07-22T23:37:00.000-05:00

Map Trek is one of those homeschool curriculums that I have heard of before, but haven't ever had the opportunity to try, so I was thrilled to be chosen to review the new Map Trek Atlas and CD-Rom from Knowledge Quest. Our family has done mapping through the years with various history curriculum, but we've never seen history move through the maps like we have been able to see in the Map Trek Atlas. This oversize hardcover book is stunning! It contains the complete Map Trek series of gorgeous, full-color maps from the Ancients to the Modern World as well as US maps. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was when I opened the box! In the back it contained a CD-Rom of all of the full-color maps as well as blank maps for students to complete their lessons.

Each series of maps contains full lesson plans for each map, in 3 different levels! My younger children we able to finish the Level A exercises, while my older children were able to complete the Level B exercises and later we will use the Level C exercises. I love that I am able to use one map resource for all of my children for all of their schooling! Map Trek is $55 for the hardcover book and CD-Rom. I think this is an excellent value for an full color Atlas as well as printable maps for all time periods with lessons from First through Twelfth grades! This is a resource that will be referred to again and again through the years as we study, regardless of what curriculum we are using. I am so thankful that it is such a sturdy hardcover so it will last through the years. Not to mention that the book is so lovely, it is actually quite fascinating to just read...without a "spine" or a mapping assignment!

We aren't doing a lot of history this summer, except for Miss J. She gets to go to Paris, France next spring and has been busy reading and studying about France. We are reviewing another program for the Schoolhouse Review Crew that has educational videos and she has often pulled the Map Trek Atlas off of the shelf to find out where the video's are talking about. I have also been printing out many of the New World Maps for her that cover things like French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars so she can complete them after she has watched her video lesson. These don't take a lot of time to complete and have been an easy and welcome addition to her lessons. I like things that don't require a lot of planning to begin using them, and Map Trek has integrated into her routine seamlessly!

I am so thankful to have the hardcover version because it is in a prominent place on our bookshelves and I remember to use it more often. So many times, I will have maps and other resources on my computer, but because they are out of sight - they are also out of mind and I never remember to use them! The hardcover version of Map Trek has made it easy to find the maps that I want my children to study and then I can easily print them off using the CD-Rom. The CD-Rom contains blank maps for the children to complete the lessons as well as completed teacher keys for each of the maps.

Our completed French Revolution map!

I have also been using Knowledge Quests Curriculum Integration Guides (for FREE!) to print out maps for our upcoming school year. We are going to be using A Child's History of the World as our spine and Knowledge Quest already has complete lesson plans to go along with the book! It tells me what maps to use for which chapters and then gives the 3 levels of assignments to complete each map! How cool is that?! Along with her French Studies, Miss J is also doing a World History overview, so she and I have been going through her books and deciding which maps would be most helpful for which lessons and then printing them out. Which brings me to one thing that I wish had been included in the Atlas, an index of maps. Sometimes it has been difficult to find exactly which map I am looking for scanning through the Table of Contents. Granted, the TOC is divided into historical periods, which helps me narrow down where to look, but since the TOC isn't in alphabetical order it isn't always easy to find what I am looking for quickly. So far, we haven't been disappointed in what maps are available and I haven't yet *not* found what I was looking for! I will be so glad to have them all printed and ready to go for the school year!

I highly recommend this in the Hardcover version for your homeschool resource shelf. This is a book that I can see our family using over and over again through the years ahead of us in our homeschool journey!