I love Libraries.

I love the smell of paper as it ages in a book. I love the quiet hum of adventure that I feel when we walk into our local library. If I had a million dollars, I can envision a room in my home with walls lined from floor to ceiling; containing good wholesome books for my children to read. I would pass hours, if not days, there…… tucked under blankets, sprawled across sofas and wing backed chairs, traveling to places that only my imagination can go.

Trouble is, books cost money and for many homeschooling families, like mine, that live on a budget, cost is the single most prohibitive part of building that cozy homeschool library that lives in my mind.

That is why I would like to share with you a website; one that hopes to help me build that library of my dreams. They offer quality new and used living books, at bargain prices. I can search by curricula, and find books for Five in Row, Tapestry of Grace, Beautiful Feet, Sonlight, Ambleside Online ( that’s the one we use!) and more. They have a wide selection of Vintage & Hard to Find Books, to compliment your child’s learning. I really enjoyed looking around their website. It was easy to use, and very easy for me to find many of the books I have spent HOURS online looking for in the past.

Their newsletter, is short and too the point. It isn’t overly cluttered with information making it hard to see what it is you might want to know more about. Best of all, IT’S FREE! They included a free e-book and activities to do with your kids during the month, along with a bit of encouragement.

With their FREE Membership, I have the opportunity to earn book points and stretch my homeschool dollar. I receive notification of great sales, before they happen, which is important to families that have a budget. I have access to their book search feature for help in finding that hard to locate book. There is also a way for me to bless others, I can buy from their Helping Hands section, and part of the proceeds will be given to Compassion International.

I hope that you will stop by Homeschool Library Builder in the month of May to receive 25% off everything in the entire store, and start building your library today!

**** Disclaimer *****

This review was written as a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew. I received access to Homeschool Libraries Newsletter in advance of their May Sale. I was also offered a promotional code to use for an additional discount should I choose to purchase a product from their website.(though not required as part of this review) … All for sharing my opinion about their website with you. No compensation or physical product has been received for this review.

do you have time for a cup of coffee and a chat?  Good.  I am in a chatty sort of mood.

So, since we last talked, my kid sister tied the knot.  She is a married lady now, and I tell ya, it is still weird to see her new last name pop up on my phone!  The wedding was beautiful and she was an even more beautiful bride than you could imagine.  It rained the whole day of the wedding…. she stood in a puddle saying her vows….. and she was giddy, just over the moon happy to be marrying Brent.

After we got back it was time for me to work on Ladies Retreat for church, and as always it was a great time.  I really didn’t want to go when Friday came around….  I had lots of work to do, my house was icky, I had been fighting a cold all week…. and I just really wanted to stay in my sweat pants and hibernate….    My husband hugged me and kissed my forehead and gently indulged my little whining fit.  While he was gently kissing my head….  he told me I needed to go, especially because I didn’t want to.  There would be things I needed to hear.  He was right.  There were many lessons I needed to learn.

You know how you can just get down?….  how sometimes walking the Christian faith seems so hard?  You know how you can look around you and see the successes of your friends and neighbors and wonder why it is that you struggle?…. their life seems so easy.  That was where I was last week.  Down.  Gradually getting tired of the struggle….  Not understanding the bigger picture, wondering what it was the God has in store for us; wondering why it is when you seek God’s face on things and circumstances don’t seem to change…..  just wondering why, why…. why.

God used the Retreat as a big reset button.  I was the field mouse in the Little Bunny Foo-Foo song, and I needed a bop on the head.  Right out of the gate, in our first devotional, I saw my need.  My need to abide with Christ.  I had been doing it ( and not very well, mind you) on my own.  I was like Asaph in Psalm 73 complaining to God about the fortune of those around me; when what I really needed to do was go into the Sanctuary of God and spend some time with Him.  I was like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, with Christ walking right beside me and I couldn’t even see it.

So that is what has been going on with me… Everything is still going on, work is still there the laundry is still a big pile, my husband is still out of work, we are still going to lose our house even though we have never missed a rent payment….  my perspective is just better than it was last week.   …. and that is a good thing.

How’s it been for you?  What have you been up to?  What has God been teaching you?

The love of science is strong in this house.  Especially  the visual, hands-on, gooey, amazing kind.  Trouble is that mom doesn’t always know where to find those great experiments…  but thanks to ScienceandMath.com, I do.

Volume 1 of Amazing Science! was a perfect fit for this family.  Some days I do not have time to do experiments with the boys.  They have time to watch them, I just do not have the time to collect the parts, clean the kitchen, find all the safety goggles, and get it done. Ya know??    With this DVD set, my boys can watch 23 different experiments anytime they want, and learning more each time they review.

The experiments cover Heat, Electricity, Chemistry, Physics, and more…..  I really recommend them for the busy homeschool mom.  They are a bargain!  Regularly priced at $24.95, they are currently available for $19.95! You can purchase a download of the experiments for even less!  ($17.99)  This would be perfect for tranfering them to your teens iPod or iPad, or other tablet device, and taking Science on the go with you!

Our whole family from 4- 40 enjoyed watching and learning from these well done, easy to understand video experiments.

Please!!!!  If the quality of this DVD set is an indicator of their other products, you will want to go and check out the many other Math and Science products they have available on their website.  Algebra courses, Chemistry courses, Geometry….  Go and see for yourself the quality products they have.  

Visit the TOS Homeschool Blog to see what other families are saying about Amazing Science!

Now, if you will excuse me… my 4 and 9  year old have been bugging me to ‘burn’ money, and I need to go to the shop and find some copper pipe

****disclaimer****

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a copy of Amazing Science! 2 disk DVD’s, free of charge, and solely for the purpose of this review.  No other compensation has been received.  All the opinions expressed above were based on our actual use of the product in our homeschool.

There is a sweet story… one that shares love and hope throughout the ages…. the greatest story ever told… about Jesus the Son of God, come to earth, to live among his people…..

This is the story that Classical Academic Press tells in their Bible course God’s Great Covenant… New Testament 1 The Gospels.

I am in love with the story of Jesus and how the history of the Old Testament foretells and heralds His arrival. If the whole picture of Scripture is new to you or your child, I heartily recommend that you read all of the introductions in this course. Classical Academic Press has done a wonderful job of connecting the dots through their historical, political, chronological,geographical,and religious introductions.  They even give a glimpse of daily life as you meet Simon, a fictional boy in a fictional town in Israel.

Each unit weaves through the major themes of each gospel. covering it from historical, cultural, chronological perspectives.  Even though this book is the 3rd in a series,  it stands alone quite well.  You do not need to complete the first two editions to benefit from this study……  but the quality of research that has gone into this curriculum, makes me want to go back to the other two and fill in some of the blanks.

The Teachers edition is simply amazing. The research and background included with each lesson and story time pages, help you enrich the learning beyond what your student  would read independently. I really recommend that the bulk of this curriculum be read together, otherwise you might miss some great nuggets of information.

As you can see there are numbered footnotes, and plenty of spaces for you to write your notes.  The Teacher’s Edition also contains the answers to all of the worksheets and Mapping activities.

There is virtually no prep time needed for this curriculum, beyond reading through the material ahead of time to grasp the notes and research that has been provided, before you read the selected passages with your child.

Hunter has really enjoyed our time working with this book.  He has one and so do I, so we sit at the table and share the reading.  We then discuss what we read, then work on memorizing the main themes and passages for that lesson .  The worksheets are helpful in re-enforcing the material, but the bulk of learning is done through a narrative approach.

God’s Great Covenant: New Testament is geared for the children in the 3rd or 4th grades, but it can be easily adjusted for use with younger or older children. 

The Student Book is priced at $26.95.  Teachers Edition is $29.95.  Combined you can purchase them for $56.95, and that includes an Audio Book download. ( which is great for those days when you need them to read a little bit on their own! )   Make sure you stop by their website to see all of the books in the God’s Great Covenant Series, as well as the additional teaching resources that are available for it.

Other members of The TOS Homeschool Crew reviewed this product in their homeschools, to read all of the reviews please visit the Crew blog.

****** Disclaimer*******

As a Member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received the God’s Great Covenant : New Testament Bundle, free of charge, and solely for the purpose of this review.  No other compensation has been received.  All of the above opinions of this product were based on our family use of it in our homeschool setting.

Writing.

It is one of those things that we want our children to do well. Have any of you run into a child that just detests the written word?  You know, the child that cries, whines, feigns the flu, begs to clean their room, ….. anything to get out of having to write you a well formed sentence, or heaven forbid, a paragraph.

This aversion to writing can creep up early and for my son (4th grade)  it is because writing something down takes too much time.  He would rather be playing than writing me a paragraph about the book he just read.  I remember with my older two children that in the middle school years we spent many hours learning how to write.  My goal was for them to be able to articulate themselves well upon their arrival into college, and with one in college at 16, I guess I did alright.

I would like to share with you my experiences with a new writing curriculum, geared to students in the middle school years.  The publishers of God’s World News and WORLD Magazine have developed a very engaging writing program.

It does something that other writing programs miss.  It engages the students by allowing them to write about real things they experience everyday.  This isn’t a curriculum that has them writing about bugs, or the weather, or their favorite color; this curriculum has them writing about what messages an advertisement is trying to send them.  Rather than teaching adverbs and adjectives by just explaining the written words on the page,  Write with WORLD uses pictures and asks the student to describe what they are seeing as specifically as possible…. then building to the point where sentences are used to create vivid visual images for the reader. It approaches writing from a journalistic point of view, while teaching grammar and mechanics in a very conversational style.

If you would like to see the full table of contents the curriculum covers, you may find it here.

I used Write with WORLD with my 4th grader.  He has very little writing composition skills.  The material that we covered together was a bit of a reach for him in some areas of reasoning, but he met the challenge head on.  I might have had to rephrase a few questions for him from time to time, but with discussion and working together he was learning, and excited to learn more….  he would often say, “ Mom, can we do the writing one now?”

I think that this curriculum would be great for those families with children in grades 4-9.  It would be very easy to work on this curriculum as a group.  The daily capsules (lessons) are quick, and require very little pre- prep time.  You could spend about a 1/2 hour a week prepping for the weeks work, and it would be easy for you to ask an older child to skim through the teachers book and gather what might be needed. The book often refers a student to find an article in WORLD magazine to work from, we do not subscribe to that magazine, and had no trouble at all finding alternate articles or photos from other sources.

View a Sample Lesson

I would like to offer a suggestion to the creators; providing a table of contents or a materials list for the teachers book stating how many articles or other things we might need for each lesson, would certainly improve it’s functionality for busy homeschool parents. 

Pricing is currently set at $95.00 for the student and teacher book.  Both are NON- consumable, a student uses a separate journal to record their work.  Non- consumable books tend to take the sting out of the price, you know you can use it again with another student or sell it later to recoup some of the cost.

I encourage you to wander over to the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog, and see what other parents are saying about their experiences with Write with WORLD.

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as a TOS Homeschool Crew Member, I was sent Book 1 of Write with WORLD’s middle school writing curriculum.  I was sent this book free of charge, solely for the purpose of this review.  No other compensation has been received. 

You really can’t be too careful these days with your kids and the time they spend on the computer. In our home we have found that even with the computer in the main living space and rules in place to attempt to ensure the monitoring of all of our children’s time on the computer…… things have happened, it only takes a moment….

I really believe that adding a computer monitoring system is the only way for parents to be completely able to track what their children are doing with their time on the computer as well as the Internet. We are not physically able to monitor them 24 hours a day. We have to leave the room to change the laundry over, wash the dishes, or tend to a sibling….. it is those times we need to have something that watches for us.

Action Alert is a down loadable software that runs in the background, giving you eyes inside your computer for those times yours are turned. It records the keystrokes of the computer user and plays them back for you in a DVD/video style(maximum protection version).

Action Alert has two different types of protection available.

Free, which is 100% free! Many parents feel this level gives them the amount of protection and peace of mind they need. It includes a web filter to ensure safe searches, website blocking that prevents access to a constantly updated list of websites, time use controls – it even sends texts or e-mail alerts when dangers are detected. All of this PLUS free tech support where calls are taken at our Arizona based support center by thier friendly staff.

Maximum Protection, this version is available for a one time fee of 29.99. It gives parents a much more complete set of tools to see the details of the missteps their child or teen took online, or in some cases provides usable evidence of interactions when they were targeted by a wrong doer. Try the 100% free version and see if it meets your families needs, from the moment it is installed, Action Alert’s technology goes to work recording the computer activity of your protected user. If needed, you can activate Maximum Protection, at any time, and watch everything that happened like watching a DVR. You can also set this version up to work with multiple computer user accounts customizing time allowances and site blocking.

The only question that remains is, will you use it?

In our home, it is a need item; not a want. The use of this product has proved to be of a value beyond it’s listed price.

I suggest that you take a tour over at the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog and see what the many other families that used Action Alert are saying about their experience with the product.

*****

Action Alert sent a free download link for their Maximum Protection Software to select members of the TOS Homeschool Crew. No other compensation has been given.

WEDDING WEEK!!

Woody and Jessie are finally tying the knot.  I mean really, wouldn’t that be the next great sequel for Pixar?  ….  If they decide to make that movie, they can contact me through this blog and I will let them know where to send the check

My first memories of the man who will become my new brother~in~love, are of him as a very small child.  I remember his parents far more.  His mother’s contagious smile is etched into memories from my childhood.

Eventually work took his family to live in several other states….  and life moved on.

My next experience with Brent was as the worship leader for Redwood Chapel, the church my family had attended since before I was ever a gleam in anyone’s eye.  I was back in town often between Dec 2008- Nov. 2009, my dad had been diagnosed with brain cancer and we were in Ca. for about 6 months of that year. Brent played the piano and his desire to minister and worship the Lord were evident in the songs he chose and the passion he showed in his playing.  For me, those moments in church, singing praises to my King through all that was going on with Dad, sometimes not even being able to sing, but just to stand and lift my hurts, with tears streaming down my face, to the Lord…. well, it was beautiful.

Dad passed in October 2009…. and he left a family reeling with pain and full of mixed emotions.  We knew God was good and had a plan for all the pain we felt….we were just waiting to see what would happen.  I remember seeing or hearing someone tell me that Brent and he had been praying for our family as we walked through the grieving process, and I think back to that comment and I find it pretty amazing that Brent had been praying for Amy even then.

Not long after, Brent contacted Amy and asked her if she would like to go for a Hot Chocolate.  She came and asked me if I thought she should go… and it didn’t take but a moment for this big sister to tell her “YES!”

I have a very strong memory of Brent at my dad’s memorial service.  We were there early as a family, Tayler was practicing her flute, Brandyn his trumpet, we were setting up some tables with memorabilia…. and very early, before the other guests began to arrive….. sat a lone Brent Williams.  He didn’t try to come and sit with the rest of the family, I guess he was trying to keep a respectful distance and give us some space….  I will never forget the look on his face……. It was as if he was trying to get to know this man that he had missed knowing on this earth.  He was trying to understand this man that we loved and who was an amazing influence on this Amy-girl he was interested in.

He came to Thanksgiving that year, we broke him in with a huge game of bingo.  He survived being hung on, and gassed out by all the children after the big meal.  Any guy that can handle kids he has just met farting all over him…. is Uncle material for sure!

We headed back to Washington, and Amy and Brent worked on getting to know each other better.

He went with us on our grand family adventure to NYC in 2010.  THAT trip was full of sandpaper moments for us all, and it great to have been able to share that trip with him.

In July 2011, he popped the question…………

and well,  this certainly looks like a yes to me!

And in less than 8 days……. the married life of Brent and Amy Williams will begin.

So, Brent……. in my role as unofficial family ambassador, I heartily welcome you to the family.  Amy is my baby sister and I know that you will love her and cherish her.  I commit, as your new sister to support you both as you journey through life.  Jody and I will lovingly hold you both accountable to God’s standard of marriage; one full of love and forgiveness.  May 1 Peter 3: 1-7 be emblazoned in your hearts and lived out as a testimony of God’s unfailing grace.

From all of us…….

Even Dad….(who I know would say you were a “Neat Guy”)

We love you.

&

Welcome to the family.

I did a random google search for American Composers; I was looking for some great Movie/Show Tune composers….  and about half way through the list I realized many of them were transplants to the U.S. not natives…

I stumbled onto Karl King.  A Bandmaster and Composer from Canton, Ohio.  He was an only child and a self taught musician.  He was eleven when he used the money from his newspaper route to buy himself a coronet.

Other musicians in the Grand Army Band of Canton would help him learn how to play brass instruments and he only had 4 piano lessons and 1 harmony lesson in his whole life!  He learned to compose music by studying musical scores.

One of his most famous pieces is pretty iconic.  Listen, tell me if you start craving peanuts and cotton candy after you hear it.  I am certain it will make you smile and take you down a memory lane or two.

Here is another one that made me smile and made us strut around the kitchen keeping time.  Can you imagine how fast those brass players fingers are moving and how their lips look after playing this song?  yeesh!

After the circus life, King settled down in Iowa where he directed the Fort Dodge Municipal Band for the next 50 years.  He died in 1971 at the age of 80.

He composed over 300 works comprised of galops(yes, that is spelled correctly,it is the forerunner to a polka), waltzes, overtures, serenades and rags.  In addition to that number of works he also wrote 188 marches and screamers.  The music of Karl King has a very distinct sound and it is said that he did for circus marches what  Sousa did for the patriotic marches.

I hope you enjoyed what we learned this week about a composer from Ohio.

Link up and share who you have studied this week

“Really? I mean, have you heard them lately?  I don’t think they need much practice……. They argue nearly every moment of the day!”

To fully understand the title of this book, you must read the rest of it…… an Introduction to Informal Fallacies.  This book is much more than the squabbles over who is going to play with what toy, or sit in what seat in the car.  The arguments discussed in this book are very much about instilling a love of logic and critical thinking.

I will admit, that logic and critical thinking were not a subject covered formally in my middle school years, at least not at the private school I attended.  It was however covered very informally with my dad.  He would take me places and introduce me to things, for the express purpose of thinking critically about it.  He WANTED me to pick business presentations apart and have me tell him where they were flawed.  We would discuss the way a presenter tried to sell one point or another; all the way home.

The book, The Art of Argument: an Introduction to Informal Fallacies, is just like those moments with my dad, it uses scenarios and advertisements from newspapers and other media, to teach your child to think critically about all the images and audio they are bombarded with each day.

It is written clearly and is very easy to understand. As I read through  the Teacher’s Edition I didn’t end up dazed and confused wandering the house with glassed over eyes, wondering what it was I had just read.  I understood it, and felt empowered to explain the concept to my 4th grader.  Yes, you read that right, 4th grader.  This book is marketed to Middle School children grades 6-8, however, with just a bit more conversation, and less book work, we made it very easy to understand for my 4th grader.  We review what we have learned as we shop around town.  We read billboards and ads in magazines as we are waiting to check out, and try to remember what fallacy they are representing.

Hunter also liked the Disc 1 that Classical Academic Press included as a sample of their DVD set.  It is a round table discussion on the fallacies that are discussed in chapters 1-6.  Since Hunter is such an audio visual guy, having this as a resource was wonderful, he could watch it over and over, each time absorbing more and more information, similar to when he watches the same television program 700 times.

I would offer up to you that if you choose to use it with younger children to take the information slowly, teach it in bite sized chunks twice a week, and talk about it often when you see something that would be an example in real life.

Pricing: Always make sure you check with their website for any special pricing.

Student Text: 21.95

Teachers Edition: 24.95

DVD Set (5 discs, covers whole book) : 54.95

Bundle (Student and Teacher Text + All 5 Discs) : 88.95

Watch a Sample video about : The Straw Man Fallacy

Make sure you visit the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog to see what other families are saying about this product and Argument Builder, both from Classical Academic Press.

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Disclaimer:

As a TOS Crew Member I was given a copy of the Student and Teacher Text and Disc 1 of the set, free of charge for the purpose of this review.  No other compensation has been received and I am only asked to write an honest review of the product.

To my rescue, comes the company Progeny Press.

They sent me two of their literature study guides.  Pride and Prejudice for my High Schooler and The Bronze Bow for those in Grades 6-8.  I primarily worked with Hunter (4th grade) on the Bronze Bow study guide, so I can testify that they are indeed appropriate for those in even younger grades than 6th.

My daughter, Tayler, a Junior in High School, enjoyed going through the lessons designed for Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  It is one of her favorite novels; she has read it for pleasure many times.  This was the first time she read it with literary analysis in mind.  She found the questions thought provoking and felt that they helped her to delve into the characters more deeply.  She really enjoyed working in the interactive PDF.  She could pull it up on her laptop and not have to carry around a large printed booklet to work from.

I especially appreciated the way it tied themes of pride, humility, control of one’s tongue to Scripture, and asked her to reflect on a possible different outcome of things if the characters had behaved according to Scripture.  It really puts this great work by Jane Austen into a whole new perspective.

Hunter and I worked through The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare.  First, let me just say that this is a wonderful book.  We are a little over half way through reading it and answering the questions in the guide.  I had never even heard of this book until this review and I am very glad we had a chance to read and review this guide.  The questions within the study guide are teaching him to pay more attention to the characters in a book; to ask himself questions about them, to infer, and predict.  It is also building his vocabulary.  For Hunter, we printed out several pages of the PDF file at a time to work on as we read each set of chapters.

The study guide draws from Scripture and asks you to read an compare a passage from the Bible with a section of the book.  We have really enjoyed reading the book and the time that it is giving us together as we work through the lessons.

Progeny Press offers you a chance to look at samples before you buy.  Pricing varies by what might be on sale, the grade level of the study guide, and the format that you would like to use.  For example, I received The Bronze Bow via email; the price of the file would have been $6.95 + $3.00 processing fee, bringing the guide to a grand total of $9.95.  The cost would increase if you wanted a CD or Booklet version.  Please make sure you check their store for availability and pricing that would best suit your family’s needs.

Honestly, $10.00 isn’t a bad price, not for something that I can use over and over and over with multiple children as they come along.  It really turns out to be a great investment in your children to help them better explore literature through the lens of the Bible.

Don’t just take my word for it, be sure to check out the many other reviews on the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog

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Disclaimer:

I received two study guides from Progeny Press, free of charge, for the sole purpose of this review.  The above opinions are my own and those of my family members who used the product.  We are not obligated to furnish a positive review.  No other compensation has been received.