"Second star to the right and straight on till morning"

Math Rider! TOS Review

2012-02-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

Once again we have had the chance to review Math Rider, the intelligent math game! Math Rider is a downloadable math facts practice game that covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Your children will go on exciting adventure quests to help rescue the princess while mastering their math facts. Math Rider intelligently keeps track of the facts that are mastered and those that need work and adjusts to each individual child's needs. Parents can also view a grid that shows which facts are mastered and which ones still need work. Each ride last for only a few minutes and the quest is complete when all facts for one operation is mastered. along the way new story line is introduced and children are rewarded for their work.

The game is played easily by simply typing in the answer to the facts on each fence to be jumped by the horse, and then your child must push enter before the horse reaches the fence. If the answer is incorrect the horse stops and the real answer is shown and spoken, then the horse continues on. After each ride is completed you and your child can view a map of their quest progress showing them how far they have gone and how far they still have to go. Math facts are worked on one operation at a time.

Out of the many math facts games that we have tried the kids have enjoyed Math Rider the most. The story line and animation is fun and engaging and the rides are a good length for daily practice. Although there is a variety of backgrounds the rides are fairly repetitive but neither Buster or Sweetpea complained about that.

If you are interested in more info, or trying Math Rider for free be sure to visit their website.You can purchase the complete download of Math Rider regularly for $47 or for $37 if you buy before February 15th, and the program can be used for multiple students at once.

Access to Math Rider was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to head over to the Crew blog to read more reviews about Math Rider.

Kinderbach! TOS Review

2012-02-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

"Simply Discover Piano"

Kinderbach by Kari Gregor is a complete intro to music and piano for Preschool and Early Elementary children. We were recently given the chance to access their online version in exchange for this review. We had already had the chance to try Kinderbach last fall when I used a free 2 month trial code, so we have been able to go all the way through Level 1 and some of Level 2.

The program is made up of six levels, each broken into 10 weeks. Each week contains 4 short age appropriate lessons. You can choose to watch one lesson a day or even a few at a time. The lessons vary in length but many are quite short. Many of the lessons are also accompanied by printable worksheets that can be printed right from the lesson page or all at once for each level. The videos explain to the children exactly what to do with the worksheets.

Each video is fun and engaging for the kids and teaches them a little about music, notes, piano skills, rhythm, beats, loud and soft, high and low, and much more. Kids get the chance to work with a piano or keyboard every few lessons, and they also learn to use rhythm instruments.

Key placement and notes are taught using cute characters and catchy tunes! Dodi has become a household favorite around here. The kids remember very well where his house is between the two black keys, and they also can find the train station easily.

One improvement I have noticed since we tried it last fall is that you can now enlarge the videos to full screen, which makes viewing much easier. My husband has our old computer hooked up to our TV so we can watch it right on the TV.

All four of my children ages 2,4,6,and 8 enjoy Kinderbach and are learning things from it. My oldest finds some of it a bit babyish but he hasn't really complained.

If Kinderbach interest you at all you can access the first two weeks of Level 1 for free here! They also have some free samples of their worksheets for you to enjoy.

I will say that if you are looking for a full piano course than Kinderbach will probably not meet your expectations. On the other hand if you want a fun intro to music and early piano skills than Kinderbach is perfect for you! Since I have only seen the first two levels I am not sure how far you will get after all 6 levels, but I can imagine your little one will be playing some piano tunes.

Now I will mention one super silly complaint I have about Kinderbach. I wish they would put the login button on the right instead of the left because I'm always clicking on the wrong button.

You can purchase a year of online access to Kinderbach for $95.88(which equals $7.99 a month), or for $19.99 a month! Kinderbach is also available to purchase on DVD, and I believe as an IPAD/Tablet APP soon. Your purchase comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Be sure to check their website for discounts and Like them on Facebook for notification of sales and discounts which happen frequently.

Update: Karri just emailed me a discount coupon code for my readers. This code will get you 30% off of all Kinderbach products. Just type in this code TOScrew2012

Access to Kinderbach Online was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to head over to the Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew member are saying!

A Minnie Birthday!

2012-01-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

Buttercup turned 4 on Thursday!

She helped me make these cupcakes for her real birthday!

On Sunday we had a party with the extended family!

Buttercup is in love with Minnie Mouse, so that was the party theme.

The Crew!

Pinata!

Party favors!

Cake time!

Gifts!

Weekly Wrap up!

2012-01-21T20:20:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted one of these. We started back to school on the 2nd of January and school has been going reasonably well. Buster just finished unit 20 of Bigger Hearts and we have been having a great time learning about early US history and important historical figures. Sweetpea is in unit 9 of Beyond, and Buttercup is in unit 9 of Little Hands. I decided to put Drawn Into the Heart of Reading on hold for a little while and I just put all the books I want Buster to read before the end of 3rd grade in a bucket and am letting him choose what to read. He has really impressed me by reading 4 books in the last two weeks. Sweetpea is getting better at reading herself and is almost done with the third Christian Liberty press phonics reader. I just finished reading the 21 balloons to Sweetpea this week and she absolutely loved that book! Buster started basketball today and we will get back to swimming next month. Buttercup will be starting swim lessons too. For some reason I have not taken any pictures of school this month, so instead I will show you some pictures of the snow we had and you can see Buttercup's 4 year old pictures here. She will turn 4 on Thursday!

Buddy didn't like the snow on his boots.

After this we had to come in for some hot cocoa and watch Martin's I have a Dream Speech!

Buddy loves his new boots from Grandma and Papa!

For more weekly Wrap ups visithttp://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Look who is turning 4!

2012-01-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

A sweet little Buttercup!

We Choose Virtues! TOS Review

2012-01-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

We Choose Virtues is a complete Character training curriculum for elementary students.

"We Choose Virtues was created by Heather McMillan, my wife of 20 years, out of her love for children and her desire to see them reach their personal potential. As a preschool teacher and a children’s pastor, it concerned her how often she came across children whose lack of self control, honesty and perseverance was almost debilitating. How could they succeed in life without the skills that come from good character?"

The goal of We Choose Virtues is to instill values, Character, and good virtues into children from a young age. This is accomplished through colorful character cards, fun activities, goal charts, and more. We Choose Virtues focuses on 12 main Virtues: Diligence, Helpfulness, Perseverance, Gentleness, Contentment, Attentiveness, Honesty, Kindness, Self Control, Patients, Obedience, and Forgiveness. Each virtue is represented by a colorful cartoon character, and a explanation of what that virtue means. For example on the Diligence card it says, "I am Diligent. I start fast, work hard, and finish strong. I am NOT....slow to get started or lazy, and I don't quit early." They offer a whole host of colorful posters, cards, incentive charts, and teachers helps to guide you in teaching the 12 virtues. You have two choices for the products Faith Based(which includes scripture references), and non faith based(that contains just the character traits).

For the purpose of this review I was sent a set of the Virtue Clue cards featured above as well as a PDF of the other items pictures. The Coloring Book, Teachers Handbook, and Assessment chart. Sweetpea absolutely loves the virtue cards and had a great time picking a new virtue to practice each day. She even got all of the other kids involved and had them pick one as well. The coloring book was also a hit with Sweetpea because she loves to color. The book contains a picture to color for each virtue as well as a few worksheets. The Assessment chart is meant to be used as a way for parents to asses how well each child did at the end of the day with their virtue. As for the Teacher's Handbook I felt like I really could not do much with it because of the limited resources we were given and it seemed that much of it was geared towards a classroom setting. Non the less this is a 56 page PDF that explains how to implement and use their character training products. You will also find a plethora of fun activity suggestions in the Teacher's Handbook. If you want to find out more about We Choose Virtues be sure to visit their website. As far as product pricing goes you can pick up a set of the Virtue Clue Cards for $5.99+SH right now, they are normally $7.95, The Teacher's Handbook PDF is $4.99 or $19.99+SH for a hard copy, and the PDF coloring book is $3.00. They also sell a large selection of other products and complete classroom kits. The other products I received are free downloads always available.

I received The Virtue Clue Cards, and Teacher's Handbook Free of charge from We Choose Virtues in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To find out what other Crew members are saying visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

How Deep the Father's love for us!

2012-01-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross
My guilt upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power's, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Stuart Townend

Maestro Classics, Swan Lake! TOS Review

2012-01-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Yet again we had the opportunity to review a CD from Maestro Classics! This time we received The Story of Swan Lake. This 54 minute CD contains; The Story of Swan Lake(a fully narrated version of Tchaikovsky's ballet), Tchaikovsky's Life, Speed Metal Swan(The music modernized), About the Music, "Tchaikovsky Wrote A Great Ballet", Want to have some fun? Prepare to Perform, and "Tchaikovsky Wrote a Great Ballet" Sing-along. As you listen to the CD you will enjoy all of the music of Swan Lake accompanied by the story, Learn about Tchaikovsky life, and more.Maestro Classics has a whole line of CD's intended for children ages 6-12, and I believe Swan Lake would specifically appeal to girls interested in Ballet. Sweetpea loved it and recognized the songs right away from her ballet DVD's. Buster also enjoyed it because the story does have action as well. His favorite part of the CD though was Speed Metal Swan. Maestro Classics also has available on their website free Homeschool Music Curriculum to accompany all of their CD's.The Story of Swan Lake is a fun way to introduce children to classical music and composers!

"The Story of Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky’s greatest ballet score, is the tale of a prince who falls in love with a beautiful princess. The princess, however, has been turned into a swan by an evil magician, and only the prince’s love can break the spell. This narrated version of the classic tale for children is sure to delight all who love ballet and enchanting storytelling."
If you would like to here a sample of The Story of Swan Lake or find out more about the CD click Here! It is available from Maestro Classics as a CD with a small book for $16.98, or as a MPS download for $9.98. As a special this month if you buy the CD you get a free download of the Swan Lake Orchestral version. While you are visiting the Maestro Classics Website be sure to check out all of the other great CD's they have for sale. Also check out Maestro Classics on Facebook and Twitter.

The Story of Swan Lake CD was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review no other compensation was given.

To read what other Crew members thought visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Epiphany!

2012-01-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

We three kings of Orient are Bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star.

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, Gold I bring to crown Him again, King forever, ceasing never Over us all to reign.

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Frankincense to offer have I. Incense owns a Deity nigh. Prayer and praising all men raising, Worship Him, God on high.

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Myrrh is mine: Its bitter perfume Breaths a life of gathering gloom. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying, Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Glorious now behold Him arise, King and God and Sacrifice. Alleluia, alleluia! Sounds through the earth and skies.

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light

Real Homeschool Spanish, TOS Review!

2012-01-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish is a complete Spanish curriculum written by Homeschoolers for Homeschoolers. Dr. Karyn Williamson-Coria saw a need as a homeschool mother for quality, flexible, and easy to use at home Spanish curriculum and this curriculum is her answer to that need. The Spanish Curriculum is made up of 10 thematic units covering such topics as, Greetings, Colors, Animals, Family, Weather/Clothing, Body, Foods, and more. Basic Spanish Grammar is also taught along with phrases and vocabulary. The program is intended to be used for multiple ages within a family, and makes a great introduction to Spanish. What you get when you purchase is a Lesson book, an Activity book with printable worksheets, Answer Key, and Audio files that correlate to the Lesson book and Activity book. Within the Lesson book you will find Vocabulary words for the unit, Phrases and stories, and a plethora of activity and hands on learning suggestions. The activity book contains worksheets that correlate with all the lessons using a variety of puzzles, games, etc. to reinforce the learning. REAL Homeschool Spanish can take any length of time that is appropriate for you child. On their website they suggest anywhere from 1-3 years depending on child's age when you start. At their website you can find more info as well as a long list of links for extra resources. You can purchase REAL Homeschool Spanish as a download for $59.95 with the Daily Curriculum guide, or a hard copy for $99.95+SH.

Now that you know what it is I will tell you what I thought of it! From what I have seen and used I will say that this is a well thought out and easy to use curriculum. In the first unit we were learning Spanish greetings and they suggested using puppets or dolls to introduce the words and phrases. This was a huge hit here and all of the children wanted to put on their own shows daily after me. They also had a suggestion for learning the greetings to the tune of Where is Thumpkin, and this was also a smashing success. As far as the worksheets they were a bit much for my children. I would say that they are more geared to 4-6th graders. Also I found some of the audio to be somewhat low quality, but I believe the audio is more intended for parents to listen to prior to introducing words. The only other complaint I could think of was I'm not overly found of PDF's. I like to be able to flip through the book right in front of me, but that is a personal preference. You could always print and have it bound, or buy the hard copy. I do also want to give a shout out to them for having excellent customer service! We will definitely be making use of this curriculum in the future most likely as the next step after our current Spanish curriculum!

R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other Crew Mates are saying head over to the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Christmas 2011!

2011-12-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

Wow I can't believe Christmas 2011 is pretty much over! We had a wonderful Christmas weekend, but this week is basically a blur. I have been sick since Monday night and so far two of the kids have been sick too. I'm really hoping that we are able to have a good New Years weekend! Anyways I wanted to share with you some pictures of our Christmas!

Last Thursday we had some fun learning about Hanukkah!

My husband is the champion Dreidel spinner!

On Friday the kids were in charge of Dinner, and dessert! They made pizza and cupcakes!

They put on a wonderful Nativity performance for us! I told them earlier in the month that they would do one on the 23rd and that they had to plan it all themselves. Buster was quite the little director.Mary!

I forgot to take a picture of Sweetpea as the angel.

After the performance they each sang a song for us. Sweetpea has been practicing The Christmas Shoes all month(she loves that song), and she completely floored us by singing the entire song all on her own without any music. It was beautiful and it brought tears to my eyes!After the performance we drug out a couple of the kids mattresses, and they got to sleep in the living room. We watched the Nativity Story and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent at my mom's house.

Christmas Crown from the crackers!

Present time!

After we left there we went to my Sister in laws house for a bit.My husbands cousin sewed these dresses for the girls!Sweetpea with cousin S, and M! Unfortunately Buttercup was hiding behind the tree.

Christmas morning we got up bright and early.

I searched high and low for this music box!

Baby Jesus makes his appearance!

The girls got some new ornaments.

Waiting at church for Buster's play.

The play was super!

After church it was on to my in-laws house!

Christmas story with Moogy.

Advent week 3/4!

2011-12-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

6 ‘ But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come a Ruler

Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

Matthew 2:6

The Advent season is coming to a close, and we are drawing very near to Christmas! I hope that you are all able to spend time with loved ones and makes some memories! We had a beautiful weekend full of lights, and this week we have been blessed to be able to bless others, through Angel Tree and Caroling. We went Caroling on Monday evening and the kids loved it. they can't wait until next year! It was such a blessing to see them filled with joy to spread the message of Christ's love and to hand out some packets! Here are some pictures of things we have done!

The kids put on a Christmas Parade for us! This was completely their own idea.

The girls turned our candy canes into hearts! Once again this was their own idea.

What a beautiful way to symbolize Love!

My husband cut out some wooden ornaments, and the kids painted them! Buddy was very precise with his.

We put on a shadow puppet show of the Nativity! Daddy read from Luke and Matthew and I moved the puppets. I had never done anything like this before, but I think it will become a new tradition.

The kids did one for us afterward!

We drove to the coast for some Christmas lights!

It was the most perfect of nights! Not too cold, and not wet.
After enjoying the lights we walked up to the ocean in the dark. It was so amazing to be able to see the power of the waves by moon light and to see all the stars. It has been awhile since I have see so many stars without any light to drown them out.

The boys trying to bunk together.

The next night we went to a light parade! It turned out that the best part was watching two groups of deer spontaneously leap down the center of the street while we were waiting! God's creation is a wonder. Buttercup also caught a teddy bear that was thrown from a fire truck. She has been carrying it around ever since!

On Sunday we went to a Safari for some lights and fun! The kids got to make houses.

And we saw a little animal show!

Yesterday we went to my sister's house and made these candy Nativity's! I found the idea on Pinterest, and I loved it!

Buddy's

Buttercup's

Sweetpea's

Buster's

Yummy!

Three more days!

The time is drawing near!

Right now we are just finishing up a few things for Christmas and will do a little baking. Tomorrow the kids will do a Christmas performance for Mommy and Daddy, and then we have plans to bring out their mattresses and watch the Nativity Story together on Friday night. It is so nice having Christmas on Sunday this year. We will have a Celebration at my parents house on Christmas Eve starting at 1, and still have time in the evening to draw close and remember Christ's gift of love. On Sunday morning after our gifts are opened we will be going to church and Buster is going to be in the Christmas play. For lunch we will visit my in-laws!

Merry Christmas!

"Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14 “ Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Luke 2:10-14

World's Greatest Stories, The Prophets! TOS Review

2011-12-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

Today I get the chance to tell you about a wonderful line of CD's called The World's Greatest Stories! These audio CD's bring the scriptures to life for children! George W. Sarris does all of the reading directly from scripture using multiple voices, music, and sound effects. Currently they have 6 CD available for sale, The Prophets, The Life of Christ, Beginnings, Joshua and Esther, Joseph and his Brothers, and Defeating the Giants! We received The Prophets(NIV) for review and it contains the story of, The Blazing Furnace, The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel and the Lions Den, Elijah and the Prophets of Baal, and The Prophecy of Jonah.
"Actor George W. Sarris brings to life in the mind's eye the characters and events of some of the most treasured stories in all of history. The texts of all of the stories are taken directly, word for word, from the Bible. They are told, however, using the art of a dramatic storyteller, incorporating carefully chosen music and sound effects. The result is a very exciting story that comes straight from the words of Scripture."

I really did not know what to expect when I put the CD in to listen, but let me tell you the children loved it! George is a extremely talented story teller and it is amazing how he can bring the verses to life with just his voice! All 4 of my children were completely captivated and listened intently. We listened to the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal the other day when we were driving to the coast. It was so fun to hear the kids commenting, laughing and really getting into the story. You can purchase all 6 volumes directly from their website in either NIV or KJV for $7.95+SH each. If you are at all interested in resources for teaching Bible stories to your children please visit The World's Greatest Stories website and listen to the sample audio clips they have available. I do not think you will be disappointed!

The World's Greatest Stories, The Prophets was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other Crew members are saying visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Thoughts on Advent/Christmas!

2011-12-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

As I sit here in the silence right now I wish I was more poetic and inspiring, but despite the fact that I am not I would still like to encourage you all to take the next 10 days and truly focus your hearts towards the one that we are celebrating and anticipating this Christmas season! I love the idea of Advent and the meaning of of the Latin root Adventus which means Coming! When we celebrate Advent we are remembering the first coming of the Christ and anticipating and preparing for his eventual second coming! What more perfect time of year is there for us to set aside a time to focus on Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love; The Hope that was given to Israel for their coming Messiah and that we have in the second coming of Christ. The Peace that we can experience in Jesus and the eventual Peace that will come upon the earth. The Joy that was experienced when the angels proclaimed His birth and the Joy that we find in our salvation. Finally the Love that came down to earth as a babe and became a living sacrifice for our sins! This year more than any other has brought much reflection and joy to my own heart! I find it so important to teach these things to our children, and in doing so I am really starting to see it beginning to sink into my own children's hearts and minds. It is such a blessing to hear the thoughts that come from the mouths of babes! This week Buster was doing a science notebooking entry and the verse he was asked to copy was:

"There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots." Isaiah 11:1

Immediately after reading it his eyes lit up and he said, "Mom that's our Jesse tree verse."

He got it! It is sinking in!

I'm so glad I decided to add a Jesse tree to our Advent this year. It is so important for us to remember and to learn how the old testament ties into the new, and how God had an entire plan worked out from the beginning.

One of my all time favorite things about Christmas is singing Christmas Carols! I'm so blessed to be able to sing these along with my children and to hear their sweet little voices. Last Sunday during our wreath lighting we sang a few and it was so sweet seeing Buddy rest his little face on his arms and just take in the music. I wish I had captured that moment with a photo, but it will forever be in my heart!

He is wearing his newborn baby hat here!

May you all be blessed this Christmas season as we are blessed, and may you be a blessing to all those around you!

Snowflakes,Cookies, and St. Nicholas! Oh My!

2011-12-14T23:39:00.000-08:00

We have been continuing with our daily Advent activities, and I thought I would share a few with you here! On December 6th we celebrated St. Nicholas day. The kids remembered to put out their shoes and I stuffed them with chocolate coins and one real one dollar coin each. Yes they knew that I did it, but it is still fun.

We also took the opportunity to read about St. Nicholas! He was an amazing man, and I would encourage you all to read about his true life! We have a book I bought last year from Voice of the Martyr called The Story of St. Nicholas. More than reindeer and a red suit.

We made paper snowflakes with coffee filters!

Tonight we made my Grandma's soft sugar cookies! I had a lot of help!

Yummy!

They each took turns cutting!

Next came the frosting and sprinkles!

This was messy, but it was a blast!

When we were done we watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and enjoyed the results of our labor! Even though Charlie brown is tacky and somewhat annoying, it always warms my heart to see a cartoon that actually proclaims the true meaning of Christmas! This week we have also been blessed to enjoy some drive through lights, I took the two big kids to a local production of A Christmas Carol, and we went to a drive through Nativity! Buster and Sweetpea loved the Christmas Carol play and I was so happy with how mature they were. It was also so wonderful to see the expressions on my kids faces when they got to see the Nativity story acted out! Buttercup absolutely adored it!

Fractazmic! TOS Crew Review!

2011-12-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

Are you always on the look out for fun ways to reinforce or introduce math topics? If you are, you will want to visit the I See Cards Website! We recently received the card game Fractazmic from them to review. Last year we had the opportunity to review Pyramath so I was already familiar with their games, and Buster is always excited to try out a new card game. Fractazmic is a fun and easy card game that teaches how to add like fractions. The instructions are short and to the point and were very easy to figure out. Here is a run down of basic game play:

First you need 2-4 players 6 and up. Next you pass out the cards, and players take turns either drawing a card from the deck or discard pile. The object is to make a hand of fraction cards that make a 1. There are 3 sets the Sixteenths(red), the twelfths(blue), and the tenths(green). Any combo of fractions can be used within a set to make a 1. When you make a hand you set it aside, and play continues until someone runs out of cards. The player with the most hands wins. For additional ways to play visit http://www.fractazmic.com/

What I like most about this card game is the helpful pictures that make learning fractions fun and easy. I also like how easy and fast game play is, which makes it an ideal addition to a busy school day! You can also play an online version of Fractazmic here!

You can purchase Fractazmic and other fun educational games from I See Cards! Fractazmic costs $6.95+SH. For more info visit their website!

Fractazmic was given to me free of charge from I See Cards in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

If you want to read what other crew members have to say about Fractazmic visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Advent week 1!

2011-12-04T16:00:00.001-08:00

Our Advent Season has gotten off to a great start!

My husband got our new calendar done just in time for the first, and the kids helped!

They each painted 6 of the boxes!

The kids get to open up the boxes they painted with a special key!

We are still trying to decide what to put in the center.

Inside the boxes are candies, one of these books, and a note with a daily activity! So far we have, had my husbands Aunt and Cousin over for turkey dinner and watched Christmas carol, went to a walk through live Nativity and celebrated my birthday, the kids got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's while we went shopping, and today they got to unwrap some new ornaments as well as hang up a Nativity in their bedroom.

We also started our Jesse Tree on the 29th! I hope your Advent is going well too!

See my previous post for more about what we are doing for Advent!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-12-04T14:40:00.001-08:00

Yes we are still going with our lessons here and keeping busy! I gave the kids the week of Thanksgiving off, and we started Advent on Nov. 27th! We have two more weeks of regular school before Christmas break Buster will be half way through his curriculum at that point! Here are some pictures of some of the things we have been up to:
The kids made some thankful trees!

and some hand print turkeys!

Spanish Lessons! You can read my review of El Espanol Facil here!

Buddy and Sweetpea did a bunch of preschool learning!

Sweetpea practicing her spelling words!

Buster working hard at adding and subtracting money!

Buttercup learned the letter F this week!

Buster had fun this week reenacting some Revolutionary War battles!

My birthday was Friday, and the kids made me a cake!

Here is more about how our Advent season is going!

For more Weekly Wrap Ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Great Commission Languages! El Espanol Facil!

2011-12-04T13:47:00.001-08:00

This school year we have been focusing on Spanish fora our foreign language using a bunch of little resources. I was very excited when I was chosen to review El Espanol Facil Junior Level from Great Commission Languages. I had actually looked into buying this particular curriculum last year but never did. Great Commission Languages creates Language courses in order to provide people with resources that they can use to further the Great Commission. A quote from their website, "Great Commission Languages (GCL) officially released our first product in December 2004. Owned and operated by Marie Filion Sherwood and Peter Sherwood, we are a homeschooling family (since 1996) committed to providing quality language products to both the homeschooling and general education community. We personally are evangelical Christians (see our Statement of Faith); our products are unapologetically written from a Christian perspective. Extensive cultural information, as well as scripture verses in the foreign language in question, is provided with all our products in the hopes it will assist those desiring to carry out the Great Commission. Having said this, we would also like to point out that our products are not Bible curriculum per se, and the scripture memorization components are optional." I love the heart of the authors on this!

El Espanol Facil, Junior level is a 34 week curriculum created for K-3rd graders, and can be used for as many student at a time as you desire. When you purchase you receive a spiral bound guide that contains all 34 lessons, a list of activities for each lesson, and samples of the weekly coloring pages. You will also receive two discs. Disc one has the audio for lessons 1-12 and disc two has audio for lessons 13-34. Both discs contain accompanying worksheets for the lessons presented. You can access these on your computer. Students will complete coloring sheets, and worksheets for each lesson as well as create a Libro Soy Yo book. There are also a variety of activity suggestions and lapbooking ideas tied to the book The Ultimate Lapbook Handbook. The junior level focuses on vocabulary, phrases, and proper usage. Formal grammar is introduced in Level 1.

Now perhaps you are wondering how it worked for us? I will give you a rundown of how we are using El Espanol Facil! We do Spanish first thing in the morning after breakfast. This is one subject that is done as a group, and everyone gets involved even the littles. I created a binder for the two big kids divided into two sections, Coloring/worksheets, and Libro Soy Yo! Each day we listen to the audio for the weekly lesson. The audio is a short story between Belicia and her dog Chichi. It is done in part Spanish part English! After the lesson a list of vocabulary words from the story are repeated with their English translation. I had the kids go through all the vocabulary audios every morning after listening to the lesson. So this week they listened to week 1-4 vocab words. I also have them repeat the words after they hear them. We then do 1 of the listed activity choices. The kids especially like the week we learned Hide and Seek in Spanish(Las Escondidas). We played Las Escondidas, counted in Spanish, and the person searching said Donde Estas! I also like the section called Cultural Notes that gives some cultural info each lesson.

The kids working on their Mi Hermosa Casa page!

I'm happy to report that we all love El Espanol Facil(The Easy Spanish) Junior level! If this curriculum interests you be sure to visit the Great Commission Languages website where you can learn about all the Spanish and French curriculum they have to offer. El Espanol Facil Junior can be purchased directly from their website for $69.95+SH!

El Espanol Facil, The Easy Spanish Junior was given to me free of charge in exchange for honest review. No other compensation was given.

Don't forget to visit the Homeschool Crew blog to see what other thought about Great Commission Languages products. Crew members had a chance to review both their Spanish and French curriculums.

Advent/Christmas!

2011-11-29T18:04:00.001-08:00

The Christmas Season is upon us and we have jumped right in! My husband put up our outside lights on Thanksgiving morning so they would be lit for the kids to see when we got home.

Buddy was in awe of them and he fell asleep like this!

We set our tree up on Friday evening! Yes it is quite fake.

After daddy put on the lights the kids decorated it all by themselves!

Buddy really got into it!

They did a great job!

Daddy has been working like crazy to get a new Advent calendar made before the first, and he has quite the audience!

Our old one that he made is getting too small.

Sunday evening we started our Advent wreath!

We lit one candle, read a verse and a devotional, sang carols, said a prayer, and had some goodies!

It was a very wonderful evening!

One other thing we did was had the kids draw names so they could play Christkind for one another. I found this idea by reading an article about Maria Von Trapp's family Advent traditions. Basically each kid drew a name and is supposed to secretly do kind things for that person throughout the Advent season, and I will have them pick out a gift for that person as well. It has been so sweet to see them so excited to find ways to be kind!

Tonight we will start a Jesse Tree Devotional, and on the first we will be opening the little doors for treats and daily activities I have planned!

How is your Advent/Christmas going, and what plans do you have in store?

A couple of things!

2011-11-21T22:46:00.001-08:00

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is in 3 days! I intended to post a Weekly Wrap Up on Friday but I got busy sorting through the kids clothes, my laundry room and our coat closet. It is amazing to me how much clothes, coats, and shoes we have accumulated. We have some very generous friends who are always passing down clothes to us. It felt great to completely go through all the shoes and clothes and take out everything that was too small for all the kids. I now have two bags that I need to donate. I was also able to fill their drawers with things new to us that fit. I only had to buy for Buster, because he was very low on things that fit him. I decided to give the kids this week off of school so I'm spending it in preparation for the Christmas season. Last week we did school as usual and the kids had their last day of Co-op for the fall! We ended with a Thanksgiving feast, and the girls decided they should dress up:

No I did not sew these things we had them. The bonnets came from my sister and cousin, and the dresses were mine. My mommy made them many moons ago!

The kids occupied themselves by playing duck, duck, goose while the moms got everything ready!

We ate and then the kids shared some things they had learned.

I had to take Buttercup to the bathroom when Buster's group went up so I missed them.

I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

I will try to write a post soon about our upcoming Christmas/Advent plans!

Airplane Birthday!

2011-11-21T22:25:00.001-08:00

Our little Buddy turned 2 on the 9th and on the 13th we had an airplane birthday party!

He loves airplanes and had been talking about his airplane cake for weeks. My husband and I made this cake for him:

He was so excited when he woke up and saw it!

I hung up some maps and made this banner for decorations!

We used my husbands old RC plane instead of a pinata. Inside the treat bags were foam airplanes, and airplanes made from candy(smarties, gum, and life savers.):

Cloud punch and airplane Jello!

The kids all made passports!

Cake time!

Finally he opened some gifts!

Math Mammoth! TOS Review!

2011-11-16T22:31:00.001-08:00

I was given the choice of any one of the dozens of Math Mammoth PDF downloads for this review and I chose one from the Blue Series called Multiplication 1. This worktext is intended for grades 2-3 and covers all multiplication tables from 0-12. Multiplication 1 has 2 sections. In section 1 students are introduced to the concept of multiplication through repeated addition, illustrations, grouping, and number lines. The concepts of multiplying by zero, word problems, and order of operations are also taught. In section 2 Parents will find 2 pages of instructions on affective oral drilling and memorization skills(The author Maria Miller suggests doing 2 short drilling sessions in a day for optimal brain function.) After the instructions the multiplication tables 2-12 are taught and drilled. The tables are taught easiest to hardest instead of in order, and students will fill out a multiplication table as facts are mastered. At the end of this 99 page book you will find flash cards for all of the facts. Math Mammoth books are written as worktexts, so there is no separate teachers manual. All of the instructions are written directly to the student, so they can be done as independently as students are able and parents desire. Maria does have some video helps available at her website for parents and teachers.

Math Mammoth sells a multitude of math books for grades 1-6 including their Light Blue series(full grade curriculum), Blue Series(Single topic books for grades 1-6), Green Series(Single topic books for grades 3-7), Golden Series(Single topic books for grades 3-8), Make it real learning, and States by numbers. All of the books are available as a download, or in print from Lulu or Currclick. Multiplication 1 can be purchased as a download for $5.00, or in print for $9.20. If you get the download version you can print as many times as needed within your own family!

Buster was assigned to this review, and I chose this particular book to be used as supplementary practice. He has learned most of his multiplication tables already with our regular math curriculum, but it is always good to have extra practice and drill. Buster did not complain at all about doing this worktext. For the most part he found it easy to follow and understand on his own. I rarely had to explain it to him. The only sticky spot was the number lines. I am not a big fan of them and they tend to confuse Buster for some reason. One other complaint I would have about the pages I have seen is that they are a bit crowded and not very pleasing to the eye. That is merely a cosmetic issue. The math instruction itself seems very solid and thorough. The best part about Math Mammoth is the price and I will most likely be looking into a few more of these worktexts in the future to be used as supplements!

Be sure to check out the Math Mammoth website for more info, and to request your 300 free sample pages! You can also contact Maria Miller, she is super helpful!

I received Multiplication 1 free of charge from Math Mammoth in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to visit the Homeschool Crew blog as well to see what other have to say about Math Mammoth!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-11-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

I have a birthday party coming up on Sunday and I really need to actually start getting ready for it! We were able to get pretty much all of our regular school work done, but I'm just going to show you pictures of some of the fun we had. Last Saturday I found this adorable coat for Buddy, and we took some pictures for his Airplane Birthday card!

My kids look adorable in a row, and soon they will be 2, 4, 6, 8!

We stuffed our OCC Shoeboxes on Tuesday!

On Tuesday night I didn't want to stop holding my beautiful 1 year old boy!

On Wednesday Buddy turned 2!
We had a cake, but his party will be Sunday.

Today my dad went with me and the kids to our Veteran's Day Parade! We also met up with my brother in law and his four kids, and my husband took a late lunch break so he could come for a bit too.

Watching the marching band!

Sitting with Papa!

They released a bunch of Orange balloons for the victims of Agent Orange.

After that my camera battery died! It was a great parade though and lasted about a hour and 22 minutes. It was to cloudy to see the flyover though.

Visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to read more weekly Wrap Ups!

Keyboard Town Pals! TOS Review

2011-11-11T20:39:00.001-08:00

The latest online learning program that we have been reviewing is called Keyboard Town Pals, Learn to Type In One Hour! The makers of this program say that it will teach your child to type in 1 hour without, speed timed-tests, counting mistakes, grades, delete button, or boring drills, and endless exercises. Instead it has 8 fun and interactive 6-7 min teaching sessions. You can do them one at a time or in two 30 min chunks. 30 minutes for each hand.The instructions are led by a large sunny character, and all the letters are represented by puppets who live in the three streets of houses. One house for each letter on the keyboard. Each puppet is given a name that helps children to remember the letter associated with it.

The lessons are systematic and progress quickly into getting kids to type simple words. Once your child has completed all 8 lessons they can take an assessment to see if they have mastered the letters or if they need more practice. If more practice is needed they can go through the 8 lessons again.

Now you might ask how it worked for us? I assigned Buster to this particular program since Sweetpea was doing a different program we were reviewing. Buster found the puppets, music, and sunshine a bit babyish. He is definitely not one to say that easily. In fact he enjoys many things that one would think could seem babyish to an 8 year old. I found the instruction to be thorough and well thought out, but I do not think most children are really going to learn typing in 1 hour. I can't see that many would want to repeat the same thing over again to learn it completely. I also felt that the price is a bit steep for what you get. The program says it is geared toward children 7-10, but can be used as soon as children can identify letters and use a keyboard.

You can purchase Keyboard Town Pals "Learn to Type In 1 Hour" web based or on CD for $39.95. It is available in English, Spanish, and French. They also have a program for even younger kids called "Little Hands Can Type". If you are interested in learning more visit the Keyboard Town Pals website! There you can read testimonials, learn more about the program, and watch sample videos.

Keyboard Town Pals, Learn to Type In 1 Hour was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to check out the Homeschool Crew blog to read about everyone's experience!

Ooka Island! TOS Review

2011-11-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for a fun, online, interactive, complete reading program! If so Ooka Island might be just for you! Ooka Island consists of two parts Ooka Island Adventure, and The Ooka Book Path. It is designed for children 3-7. In Ooka Island Adventure you child will enjoy 24 levels of fun 3D learning games that focus on phonological development, blending, and reading words. The Book Path contains 85 leveled interactive E-books that contain language rich text and are divided into three levels; Emergent, Beginning, and Fluency. Children earn new books after playing games, and the books can be read to them at first and then on their own.

On the adventure map children are led through 10 different game areas that continually increase in difficulty. Sweetpea liked The Cake Factory, Alphabet Mountain, and The Cave of Sounds the best. Players earn coins from all the games they complete that can be used to buy things for their avatar as well as free play time. At first game play starts out at the earliest levels of phonics, but it adapts to your child's skill levels automatically. Parents can monitor their child's progress by logging into the Ooka Lighthouse. If you want to learn more about Ooka Island you can check out their website and you might also find their You Tube channel helpful. You can see free samples of a few of the e-books here.

Above you will find a 30% off coupon for a one month subscription to Ooka Island,

and below is a chart of their regular pricing:

Overall Sweetpea enjoyed Ooka Island she liked the games, and the books. She was also able to easily navigate the program on her own. One feature of the game is voice recognition for sounds. We do not have a microphone, so we did not get to try this feature. Sweetpea was still able to play all the games anyways. I really appreciate Ooka islands emphasis on Phonics and can see that for many children it could be a very effective tool for learning to read. As long as your child is able to perform basic mouse skills they should be able to play. Personally for me the price is a bit steep but it is comparable to most other programs of its kind. Ooka island has an advantage though because it is such a large program, so you get a lot of bang for your buck!

I received a subscription to Ooka Island in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other crew members are saying about Ooka Island visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Pumpkin fun!

2011-11-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

We carved our pumkins a few weeks ago.

Buddy loved playing with his!

Buster had a pirate and Sweetpea had Tinkerbell!

Buttercup loves Minnie Mouse, and Buddy had Kermit!

All four lit up on the porch!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-11-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it is already November! This school year is really flying by. The last few weeks we have had some fall fun, Sweetpea started her 1st grade work and she also turned 6. I will break down some of our progress by student and subject.

Working on his Science notebook:

Buster: He just finished unit 12 of Bigger Hearts!

Bible: He has been learning about Wisdom, Perseverance, and Self-Control. As well as memorizing Proverbs that go with these traits.
Math: He is learning to multiply and divide by 6, 7, and 8. As well as multi digit multiplication and division. There was some big time frustration with some of these concepts for a week or so.
Handwriting: Buster is learning cursive and he very much enjoys Cheerful Cursive
Dictation/Spelling: We finally finished AAS 2, and he is also on the 28th dictation passage in Bigger Hearts.
Grammar: He learned about Nouns, Verbs, and now is working on Pronouns.
Reading: He has read The Storm, Treasures of Pelican Cove, and is now reading Jeremy: the Tale of an Honest Bunny.
History: We studied Benjamin Franklin, Slavery in the Colonies, and George Washington's Early Years. Each week he has timeline and history notebook entries to do. Last week he was supposed to find out what countries his ancestors came from so I had him write a list of countries for my side and daddy's side. I also printed out a world map for him to glue in his notebook and color in all the countries. Today he did an entry for George Washington and I had him follow the illustration from Draw and Write through history book Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots.
Science: With daddy they have been learning about Whales, Narwhals, and Seals. Along with Bigger Hearts he learned about some of Benjamin Franklin's adventures, and is now learning about John Audubon and birds. He also does a Science notebook entry weekly and an experiment/notebook entry as well.
Storytime: I have been reading Farmer Boy to him and he loves it. I was quite impressed with his narration he gave the other day. It was on a day I was supposed to write it down and I could barely keep up with him.
Hymns: He learned Oh God our Help In Ages Past, and is now learning Amazing Grace. I'm really surprised how well he enjoys the hymns!
Poetry: We read a new poem each week and learn about Rhyming, Stanzas, Repeated words, Rhythm etc.
Vocabulary: He has vocabulary once a week and he is learning about 3 words a week that come from our history text. He copies the meanings of the words onto an index card and draws a picture of it on the back. He then puts each word alphabetically in a file box.
Geography: We have talked about climate zones, and how maps are a view from above.
Art: For some reason the last couple of weeks we have skipped the art projects probably because they tend to fall on Co-op day and we are too rushed.
Co-op: Last week each kid in his group was given a colony to learn about and bring back some answered questions. Buster was given Connecticut and he really got into it. It is amazing that he didn't mind writing when someone else asked him to.

Building an edible bird nest:

Sweetpea learning about ocean currents:

Sweetpea: She is on Unit 3 day 3 of Beyond. Right now she is doing it 4 days a week.

Bible: So far she has learned Psalms 4:8, Galatians 6:9, and 1 John 4:16. She loves the CD Hide Em In Your Heart Vol. 2 that goes along with her Bible.
Math: She is doing Singapore Math 1a, and so far it has been a breeze for her. It started out with learning number words and this week we have been learning number bonds. I love Cuisenaire rods for this.
Phonics: She is on page 90, and she has been practicing the sounds: ing, ang, ong, ung, ink, ank, unk, and long a. She also is doing book 2 of Explode the Code, and Reading Pathways.
Reading: She finished her Christian Liberty Press phonics reader book 1 and is reading book 2 right now. I'm happy to say that she is reading excellently lately! Hopefully soon she will be able to start the Emergent Readers.
History: For history we have read about the settlers of St. Augustine, and Jamestown. This week we started studying the pilgrims.
Science: She also is learning about Sea Creatures with daddy, and we do a fun science experiment/activity along with Beyond.
Storytime: I finished reading George Washington by Ingr and Edgar D'Aulaire and am now reading their Pocahontas book to her.
Spelling: She is doing the 1st spelling list in Beyond and is doing great with it.
Poetry: Right now I'm reading a poem a week to her and she likes to act them out. She also copies about one line a day for copywork.
There is also a rotating box that covers Geography, Art, History activity, and Timeline.
So far I feel like Beyond is a perfect fit for her and she is really enjoying it.

Doing her copywork, and making a map:

Buttercup:

She finished her first Rod and Staff preschool book and started the second. She also is up to letter E in Little Hands to Heaven.

Buddy:
He started begging for his own school books so I gave him some dollar store workbooks and he likes to get them and his crayons out and color. Other than that he loves his board books, and airplanes. He also likes to try and join in with Spanish lessons and anything else he can.

Everyone:
Spanish: For Spanish the kids watch a Salsa episode or a Speekee episode every morning, and we started ¡El Español Fácil!, Junior Level. So far I really like it!
Artists Study: We have been learning about impressionists and reading about and looking at pictures by Monet. Right now we are reading Linnea in Monet's Garden.
Composer Study: We are using Meet the Great Composers right now and the last composer we learned about was Haydn.
State/President study: We didn't get to it this week, but last week we covered Andrew Johnson, and New York.

Wow! This looks like a ton but I was trying to run down about 3 weeks of work because it has been awhile. How is your school year going? Head over to http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/to link up and read more wrap ups!

A Flower Fairy Birthday!

2011-11-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Look who's 6!

Sweetpea turned 6 on Monday and she had a Flower Fairy party on Sunday the 30th!

My mom bought the girls The Complete Book of Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker, The Fairy ABC Coloring book and A Flower Fairy Alphabet CD over the last couple of years and Sweetpea loves them. The poems and pictures were always a favorite of mine too. Sweetpea decided she wanted a flower fairy birthday about a year ago and she even worked on coloring the whole flower fairy alphabet so she could hang them up for the party!

Here are some pictures of the party prep followed by a slideshow of the actual party:

First I made some sparkly playdoh for party favor thank you gifts. I got this idea from Pinterest which is were I got many of the ideas below!

I used this recipe and added glitter.

When it was done I put each playdoh ball into a ziplock bag and added these cute tags that I printed out!

Sweetpea wanted the kids to make fairy houses at the party and to go with them I made fairy dolls out of doll clothes pins, pipe cleaners, and these wings that I printed out and the girls colored them.

Here are the pins with pipe cleaner arms.

After the girls finished coloring I laminated the wings and glued them to the backs on the pins. The pattern for these wings and the fairy houses we made came from here.

Here are some lanterns I bought at the dollar tree in the summer and some of the alphabet pictures Sweetpea colored.

I bought this flower banner at the Dollar Tree also and I made the flower balls out of tissue paper.

One more Dollar tree special trapped in a jar.

Some inspiration for the flowers on the cake came from here.
The girls really wanted to help so they joined me for candy dipping. I cut a bunch of different candies up and they dipped them in various colored sugar crystals.

Buddy even joined in!

Sweetpea also helped me assemble some of the flowers. After the flowers were done and drying the kids went to bed and my husband and I finished the cake:

I ordered the fairies from Rainbow Resource. They are by Safari Ltd.

She loved the cake in the morning!

During the party the kids made their fairy houses. I collected this milk jugs and cut the doors and windows ahead of time.

The kids drew on them with markers and put stickers on them.

The finshed houses!

The party was a blast and we were blessed that my husbands brother and his family were in town from Mexico!

Wits and Wagers Family! TOS Review

2011-10-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Let me start this review out by saying my kids are huge board game fans. So much so that Buster had a board game themed birthday party this last summer. They were excited when we received Wits and Wagers Family in the mail from North Star Games to review. It sat on our shelf for a little while before we had a chance to play it I figured like most games I needed to spend some time reading over the instructions in order for us to actually play it. Finally one evening I put the little kids to bed and pulled out the game for the rest of us to play. After looking at the instructions I was happy to find that it is a super simple game to play and it only took a few minutes to explain it to everyone. The game box says it is for 8+ and 3-10 players, but if your kids can write numbers and understand the questions they can play. My 6 year old was able to play easily. She didn't always understand the questions but it didn't matter. Wits and Wagers consists of a Score Board, a stack of trivia questions, 5 small dry erase boards, 5 dry erase markers, and 10 meeples(small wooden men used for your wagers). Each person or team is given a board and a marker. Someone reads the trivia question such as "How many times can a hummingbird flap its wings in 1 second" and then everyone writes their guess secretly on their board. All the boards are then lined up from smallest to largest number after the permanent 1 board. All players are then given a chance to place their meeples on the ones they believe could be closest to the answer without going over. 1 large meeple wager equals 2 points, 1 small meeple wager equals 1, and you get 1 point for writing the closest answer. After all wages are placed the answer is read and points are given. Play continues until someone reaches 15 points. Wits and Wagers is a super fun family game and it would be a fun party game too. Buster and Sweetpea love it and have asked to play it pretty much everyday since I opened it! Wits and Wagers has a retail price of $19.99 and can be purchased from a variety of online stores or local retail stores. The link for purchasing this game on North Star Games website take you to Amazon which has it for $15.23 right now. North Star Games has created a whole line of fun family games so be sure to go check out all of their other games too.

Wits and Wagers Family was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

For more reviews head over to the Homeschool Crew blog!

Flower Fairies!

2011-10-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to the park last Sunday afternoon so I could get some pictures for Sweetpea's birthday card. Here are some of my favorites:

"Where are the Fairies?

Where can we find them?

We've seen the fairy-rings

They leave behind them!

When they have danced all night,

Where do they go?

Lark, in the sky above,

Say do you know?

Is it a secret

No one is telling?

Why, in your garden

Surely they're dwelling!

No need for Journeying,

Seeking afar:

Where there are flowers,

There fairies are!"

Cicely Mary Barker

Educating the WholeHearted Child! TOS Review

2011-10-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

I recently received the book Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson from Apologia Educational Ministries for reviewing purposes. I was very surprised when it arrived how big of a book it was. Apparently it is the 3rd edition and there are over 100 pages of new material as well as many revisions added to this edition. For some reason I had never heard of this book before even though the original was written in the early 90's. I set about trying my best to read this entire 376 page book before writing this. I'm happy to say that for the most part I was able to read just about all of it. Educating the WholeHearted child is a parenting and home education book all in one that covers a huge range of topics. It is divided into 4 sections, Home, Learning, Methods, and Living. You will find wonderful info contained in each section for every part of the Christian Homeschool life. In the first section Home, the authors focus on God's design for the home and family, discipline, common homeschooling myths, encouragement to follow the holy spirits lead and calling in our lives, and more. I really appreciated reading their views on discipline and was inspired to contemplate this topic more. In section 2 Learning, topics such as, common home education methods, the WholeHearted Learning Model, turning your home into a learning environment, building a home library, and personalities and learning styles are covered. In this section I love the emphasis on whole/living books, and found their WholeHearted learning model to be very compatible to Charlotte Mason and other similar methods. I personally didn't agree with them that Heart of Dakota falls under the unit study category and felt it should be under the whole/living books heading. That is just a personal pet peeve and didn't really change my opinion of the book. As far the the WholeHearted Learning model they show this with a simple sketch of a home that contains three overlapping circles. The picture has learning divided into 5 sections; Discretionary Studies, Discovery Studies, Disciplined Studies, Discussion Studies, and Discipleship Studies. Also contained in section 2 is a personality test that the Clarckson's created. It was fun to read through it, but I wasn't really able to peg my own children down to well into the personality categories. Section 3 Methods delves deeper into the 5 WholeHearted learning model categories and is full of tons of helpful tips and hints as well as some book suggestions. Finally section 4 Living has a section speaking directly to Fathers and Mothers about their individual roles in the family as well as info on family time, home management, and scheduling. At the end of the book you will find a section called Postscript that contains a final encouraging chapter, book lists, and several helpful forms.

Overall I found Educating the WholeHearted Child to be well written, informative, encouraging, and full of great info. While I do not agree with everything it contains, I found enough gems contained in it to make it worth my while to recommend it to others. I especially like this quote from Chapter 6 page 122, "You will not use all the methods we use or in the way we use them because your family is different and unique. It's not about duplicating what God has done in our family but about discovering what God wants to do in your family. That will be the best way for you." I feel like this quote basically sums up this book for me. One other thing I liked about this book were the countless quotes and verses referenced in the sidebars as well as the In Our Home sections. It is so helpful to get a glimpse of how they implemented these principles in their actual home. You can purchase Educating the WholeHearted Child directly from Apologia Educational Ministries for $22.00. Some helpful links if you want to learn more about this book: Table of Contents, and Sample of Chapter 1.

I received Educating the WholeHearted Child from Apologia free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:
Well Written
Informative
Christian

Cons:
I can not think of any.

Head over to the Homeschool Crew Blog to see what everyone else is saying!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-10-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

The biggest school news I have to report this week is Sweetpea has finished all of her Kindergarten curriculum. Next week we will jump right into first grade. She is super excited. Other than that school has been going by smoothly and for the most part we are getting everything I had hope to done. I did discover a new website this week that I wanted to share with you all. It is called Salsa Spanish and it is free. The kids all love these episodes, and we even had to have some chocolate caliente this morning!

Sweetpea made a picture of a butterfly life cycle!

She even dressed to match.

Buttercup wanted to join in so she made a butterfly!

Fall is here, and we went to the pumpkin patch last Saturday! It was a gorgeous fall day so we figured we better go before it gets too muddy and soggy.

Hay ride!

Sweetpea's Pumpkin!

Buster's

Buttercup's!

Buddy's!

Endless pumpkins!

The next day we went to the other local farm for their corn Maze!

How is your fall going?

For more Weekly Wrap Ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-09-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been three weeks since I posted one of these. The last time I posted we were about to start a vacation week, which turned out to be not much of a vacation. We had plans to get some stuff done around the house but were only able to do anything for 2 days of that week. My husband ended up getting a nasty cold followed by a back ache, and a stomach flu. The girls were both also sick with a stomach bug during that week. The next week after that we were back to school full force, and it turned out to be a really good school week. This week also went well! So September comes to a close with 3 weeks of school accomplished, 1 week of not so much vacation, 2 niece birthday parties, a bunch of football practices and two games, and the start of fall co-op. I can't believe tomorrow is October! Sweetpea will be starting her 1st grade work in about 1.5 weeks, and she will be 6 on October 31st. She is super excited and already planning her Flower Fairy birthday. She also will be moving up to the 6 and up swim classes starting Tuesday. Her instructor wanted her to move up even though she isn't 6 yet because she had mastered all of the 4-5 year old classes.

Buster loves flag football!

Waiting for pictures, he's number 8!

Buttercup making a D!

We had some fun with tape on the floor this week!

Shapes

Hopscotch!

Doing his daily independent story problem!

Meet Lady Liberty!

Sweetpea loved this activity!

I signed up for a free two month trial of Kinderbach!

The kids love it and have done it everyday this week.

I started putting together a fall play bucket!

Hours of entertainment here!

For more weekly Wrap Ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

AIMS Education Foundation! TOS Review

2011-09-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

I received a book from AIMS called Getting Into Geometry to review! The book is for grades K-1st and covers basic geometry concepts such as: 2D Shapes, Composing and Decomposing Shapes, Symmetry, 3D Solids, Spatial Relationships, and Playful Practice! Each one of these topics has a bunch of worksheets, games, activities, songs and even stories to go along with them. The books is quite thick and is 264 pages! Included in your purchase of the book is a CD that contains all of the necessary printables so you can print them off of your computer without having to photocopy. So basically the teacher prints the pages needed for the lessons, and follows along with the directions in the book. All of the worksheets are also contained within the book so you can see what is used and needed. There is also a list of needed materials at the beginning of each lesson.

I did some of the lessons with my 5 year old and 3 year old and they both loved them! I think many of them can be adapted perfectly for preschoolers as well. The book is packed full of fun worksheets and hands on activities to teach geometry. I did find Getting Into Geometry to be more geared toward classroom use, but it can be easily adapted for home use as well. AIMS Education sells a wide variety of books and manipulatives for elementary covering math and science topics. The book with CD "Getting Into Geometry" will cost you $24.95!

Here the girls are working on the first lesson:

Shape Sense!

Second Lesson:

Making Models!
I adapted it a bit because we didn't have any straws.

I received "Getting Into Geometry" free of charge from AIMS Education Foundation in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:

Fun

Hands On

Multi Age

Reasonably Priced

CD for printables

Cons:

Geared towards classroom teachers.

To read more about this and other products from AIMS visit the Homeschool Crew Blog today!

Before Five In A Row, TOS Review!

2011-09-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

You may have heard of the curriculum Five In A Row Before, but have you heard of their preschool curriculum called Before Five In A Row?

Before Five In A Row by Jane Claire Lambert is a unit study guide created for 2-4 year olds. The book contains 24 mini units based on classic children's picture books. The units are similar in feel to the Five In a Row Curriculum but even more laid back and less scheduled. The idea is to read enjoyable picture books with your preschoolers while introducing them to early learning skills. BFIAR introduces you child to such skills as Art, Science, Bible, Music, Math, Health, Language, and many more. The suggestions are simple and can be easily followed. Also you can pick and choose which activities you want to use for each book. Some of them build from book to book and are carried on throughout the guide. In the back of the book you will find a 40 page section just for parents. It contains a bunch of helpful info on early childhood development, toys to inspire imagination, and fun activities to do with your preschoolers.
I was excited to be able to give this book a try. It is one that I have heard about many times but never seen. I have seen Five In A Row, so I had an idea of what to expect. We happened to own 5 of the picture books needed. All of which are favorites of my children and quality stories. For us I found the guide just a bit to open. I prefer something more laid out for me of what and when to do it. Also I found some of the discussion topics to be above where my 3 year old is at. She enjoyed some of the art projects and more hands on type things though. If your looking for a gentle start to school that is very laid back than this might be just for you. You will not find schedules or even a guide of how long each unit should take, but you will find a book full of jumping off points, dozens of fun activity suggestions, and some really great picture book suggestions.
You can purchase Before Five In A Row from Rainbow Resource for $35 dollars! They also sell literature packs of all the books needed. For more info you can visit their website.

Before Five In A Row was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:
Fun
Gentle
Full of good preschool ideas

Cons:
A bit pricey
No schedule

To read more reviews visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

A day at the beach!

2011-09-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

We decided we needed one more beach day before the weather turns bad, so on Labor day weekend we headed to the coast!

On the way we stopped at a tiny town that has a small butterfly garden.

Buttercup loved the butterflies!

We had to go to our favorite garden at the coast! Shore Acres State Park!

The pond was lovely in the sun!

The roses were gorgeous!

We then headed down to the little cove beach below the garden! I love the coarse sand on this beach it is so pretty!
The littles had to get buried in it!

Last we headed over to Bastendorf beach and the kids played for a few hours until the sunset. It was a very warm day for the Oregon Coast!

Buttercup and Buddy stayed by me and dug in the sand!

They loved looking at their tall shadows!

Buster and Sweetpea are crazy and got drenched in the ocean with daddy!

When they got too cold they had fun building sand mounds.

It was a magnificent sunset!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-09-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

Weeks 8 and 9!

My husband is on vacation this week and things are starting to get really busy around here with activities starting up again. The kids started back to swim lessons after taking August off, co-op started back up last Thursday, and Buster decided he wanted to give Flag football a try. My husband and I know almost nothing about football so this will be interesting. Neither one of us are into watching sports except for the Olympics. For Co-op this fall we will be studying some Spanish and Learning about Colonial America. School is going well and we are all really getting into a nice groove with our schedule. This week the kids are getting a break though because we are doing some work around the house this week. I decided to give Buster a story problem to figure out on his own every morning and I am getting them out of the Singapore math Challenging word Problems books. Buster really enjoys trying to figure them out first thing when he gets up. Here is a basic run down of how our school days go in Pictures:

We start the day out with exercise! Using either GoTrybe, Praisemoves kids, or Wii Fit. After exercise the kids watch Speekee with breakfast.

Buster does his seat work with me first. Bible, Hymns, Math, Handwriting, Grammar, and Spelling/Dictation.

Here he is practicing his All About Spelling words.

Next Sweetpea does her seat work and Buster usually does some computer learning.
Sweetpea does Bible, Math, Handwriting, and Phonics. She Just started Reading Pathways and she loves reading the Pyramids. Here she is getting a bit of help from her dolls.

She loves building things with her math manipulatives.

Buttercup likes to do some seat work while Sweetpea is.

She did an excellent job coloring in her Rod and Staff book last week.

Buddy doesn't want to be left out so I usually give him some paper and crayons or some manipulatives to play with at the table.

When the kids are not doing school with me they are playing.

The girls could spend hours doing this, and they do!

After lunch Buddy goes to bed for a nap and Buttercup does her Little Hearts with me. Buster reads his DITHR book while we ware doing it and Sweetpea does some computer learning games.

Next I do read aloud time with Buster. We do one storytime book, History, Science, Poetry, and he finishes Drawn into the Heart of Reading. Sometimes I get him started on his project or notebooking while I read with Sweetpea. For her Read aloud time we do a storytime book, and a history reading. After this we finish Busters and Sweetpea projects for the day then Buster and I work on his Science. Once all of this is done we do one group thing per day. Monday is composer study, we read about a composer and then listen to some of his work. Tuesday is President/State Study, we read about one President and one State. Wednesday is Artist Study, right now we are reading through some of the Come and Look With me Books. The kids all gather around me, look at the pictures, and answer the questions. I picked up a neat artwork memory game that we play sometimes too. Thursday is Drawing, when we get to it I have the kids pick something to draw from Draw Write Now, or Draw and Write Through History. Friday is nature study, and when we get to it we just take the kids for a nature walk and bring the nature journals so they can draw what they want.
After school the kids play, and help with chores. They had a blast husking corn the other day.

Buddy got his toe bonked by the door and Buster decided to soak his foot when I was out of the room it was super cute!

Well that is a basic run down of our school days!

I hope everyone else is having a good school year as well!

http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

R&R Games, Pig Pile! TOS Review

2011-08-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

The Homeschool Crew is back for another voyage and for my first review of the 2011-2012 year we got the chance to check out a new game from RandR Games called Pig Pile! This game is the winner of two awards Detroit News Top Ten Games, and Toy Tips Recommended. Pig Pile is a fast paced game that reminds me of Uno meets Pass the pigs. It is designed for 3-6 players and for ages 7 and up! The game consists of a colorful deck of cards that contain pictures of pigs, a different pig for each number from 1-12. Game play is fun and continues until all cards are played. The pile of pigs come in as a way to keep score. RandR Games offers a whole line of original family and educational games.

My kids are big into board games so I was excited to receive this as our first review of the year. I found Pig Pile to be a bit confusing at first as there are a lot of rules to learn. Once I figured it all out we had fun playing it. Just be sure that you fully read the instructions before beginning and you should be fine! The game is said to be for 7 and up, but my 5 year old was able to play easily. In fact she even beat my dad last time they played. You can purchase Pig Pile from RandR games for $15.95, and RandR Games was kind enough to give me a 20% off coupon code to share with my readers. If you want to use it simply enter CREW20 when you make your purchase! The code is valid until the end of 2011.

Pig Pile was given to me free of charge from RandR Games in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:
Fun!
Family oriented!

Cons:
A bit tough to figure out game play.

To read more reviews of this and other games visit The Homeschool Crew Blog!

Tot school, Preschool!

2011-08-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Buttercup is 43 months and Buddy is 21 months!

Here are some things they have done this month:

Buttercup learned about Noah's Ark and made this rainbow!

We visited a flag memorial!

We went digging for fossils at the local museum!

They panned for Gold!

We had a beach holiday!

Buttercup looking cute at Fort Clatsop!

Buddy tried to run into the waves!

Buttercup danced on the beach!

Learning about shapes!

Letter C!

Making Abraham's tent!

Buster's baptism!

2011-08-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today during our church service in the park Buster told us he wanted to be baptised afterward in the river. I spent a little time talking to him to make sure he understood it and my husband talked to him about it as well. Strangely enough I had decided to grab the cameras today before we left which I never do for church. It was a blessing to see this today!

My husband even got to help with the baptism!

Such an amazing and beautiful event in my firstborns life!

Weekly Wrap Up! HOD

2011-08-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Weeks 6, and 7:

The last two weeks we have continued to do school at a bit of a slower pace because of some summer time activities. Next week we will be going full speed ahead. The weather here has finally turned hot and we have been taking the kids to the park a lot but trying to go when it has started to cool down.

Buddy is getting so grown up and it is really fun to here him talking up a storm. He is such a sweet little boy.

Sweetpea's handwriting is getting better all the time! We use these little whiteboards pretty much every day they come in really handy!

Dog pile on Buster!

We had a hot dog roast with my brother and his kids while they were down for the Summer!

The girls hanging with cousin S at Moggy and Gumpy's!

Birthday Party for Cousin E!

The Birthday boy!

Popsicles on the porch!

Having fun with a geometry book I'm reviewing!

Sweetpea was supposed to learn a new chore as part of her HOD work.

She chose mopping!

We also made a horse as an activity!

For More Weekly Wrap Ups visithttp://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-08-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

Week 4, and 5!

Last week my husband was on vacation and you can see a few things we did at the beginning of the week Here. Half way through his vacation week we headed to the Northern Oregon coast for a family vacation. By family I mean my entire family, my parents, and all my siblings and their families. It was crazy and a ton of fun. There were 14 children there from age 1-16! Three families stayed in a rental house, my parents stayed at a hotel, and we stayed at a cabin at Fort Stevens state park. We were able to reserve one of their brand new deluxe cabins, and let me tell you they are deluxe! It is almost like cheat camping! While we were there we spent a bunch of time at the beach, hung out at the rental house for meals, went down to the Seaside boardwalk for rides, visited the wreck of the Peter Iredale, went to Astoria, drove across the long bridge to Washington(just for fun), went to Fort Stevens, visited Fort Clatsop, flew a kite, and saw the sunset! We were also able to get a picture of all of my parents grandkids together. Since there was so many pics I put them in a slideshow for you. This week I was somewhat exhausted from our vacation, so we did some school but not as much as usual and I didn't really take any pictures.

For more Weekly Wrap Ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Flags, Museum, and Panning for Gold !

2011-08-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

I had two wisdom teeth taken out on July 27th so we had a short school week, and last week my husband was on vacation. In light of that I have a ton of pictures and things to post about. I will post a few more later.

The last Saturday in July we went to a really neat veterans memorial that was a field of flags!

After the flags we took the kids to the museum again because they had given us a free family pass at the field trip. The museum just recently added a dig pit!

The day after this our church had a Gold Panning day!

Buster found several crawdads, but no Gold!

Daddy found a few flakes of Gold, and he had a lot of help!

Preschool Corner/Tot School!

2011-07-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Butter cup is 42 months and Buddy is 20 months!

For Preschool this year I'm using Little Hands to Heaven.
The last two weeks Buttercup has been learning about letter A, and B. She is also learning about Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah's Ark!

Buttercup really enjoys her Rod and Staff ABC preschool books!

Buttercup and Buddy dancing to their Singing Bible CD!

Painting!

We made the letter A out of blocks, because I didn't have any masking tape!

Going for a nature walk!

Heading for the playground!

Buttercup dancing with daddy!

A says Ahh! buttercup loved learning the A sound, and she drew this one herself. I love the wet set try method from Handwriting Without Tears!

Drawing time! These little boards came from Miller Pads and Paper!

Buddy loves the counting bears!

I brought out our Noah's Ark when we read the Bible story!

Buttercup lining up the pairs of animals!

Painting the letter B!

Now she is painting the ocean!

Buddy had to join in!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-07-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Week 1, and 2:

Ok, so I know that last time I posted I said I didn't know when we would actually start school, but my Rainbow Resource order arrived the afternoon after my sons sleepover. Once I saw the last two books I needed I couldn't help myself. We started school on July 12! The last two weeks have gone pretty well other than adjusting to a bit longer school days. So far I really love Bigger Hearts For His Glory! It is even better than Beyond, and a perfect fit for Buster. Sweetpea is finishing up Little Hearts right now, and I started Little Hands with Buttercup. She loves having her own special school time. I took a picture of each of them on the first day:

Buster 3rd grade!

Sweetpea K/1st,

still not sure what to call her.

Buttercup Preschool!

Buddy Tot school!

So far everything I picked is working great except for Latin For Children. I decided to hold off on that for a bit because it was too much for Buster still. We will continue with Song School Latin for now.

The girls love their Rod and Staff work books. Buttercup has the ABC ones and Sweetpea has the GHI ones.

Buddy keeping busy during school!

Buster playing checkers during a break. My sister made this.

We went for a nature walk/hike!

The kids did some journaling!

The falls!

Buster got to play some catch with dad!

Game time with Papa! Buster was happy he showed up during grammar.

Sweetpea playing the Reading kingdom!

I also subscribed to Speekee, and GoTrybe again this week!
I will post a separate blog of Buttercups week.
For more weekly Wrap ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Buster's 8th Birthday!

2011-07-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

Buster will be 8 on Tuesday! I can hardly believe it myself. Yesterday afternoon we had his party at a park!
He requested a board game birthday and a chess cake. He loves playing board games especially chess!

Here is the cake:

Buddy thought the cake was the Pillsbury dough boy!

Birthday boy!

Playing games!

Buster with cousin E, and K! All three are 8.

Gifts!

Buttercup, and Buddy swinging with Moogy and Gumpy(aka my in-laws)

Some of the big kids came over for a sleep over after!

This is our first ever official sleep over!

Watching the original Little Rascals! They all loved it, and I was surprised my kids were the only ones who had ever seen them.

Playing Mario!

I think I may need a nap or a coffee now!

4th of July fun!

2011-07-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I had every intention of starting our new school year this month, but we have been too busy and I'm still waiting on a couple books from Rainbow Resource. I also am scheduled to have some wisdom teeth removed on the 27th, so if anything school will be fairly minimal this month. The kids have been reading and doing some of their learning games though. Here are some pictures from 4th of July weekend:

Hanging with cousin M and S!

Smores!

Fireworks by uncle M!

Park Time!

My sister and her family came over for dinner and fireworks on the 4th!

Fireworks at the park!

How?

2011-07-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

How exactly you might ask do we home educate our children? My main teaching method and style is Charlotte Mason with a bit of Classical, and Eclectic thrown in for good measure. I f you want to learn more about Charlotte Mason online here are some good sites; Simply Charlotte Mason, Charlotte Mason Research, A Charlotte Mason Education. As far as reading materials on Charlotte Mason you should be able to easily get your hands on her original works, our library even has them. My all time favorite Charlotte Mason book though is A Charlotte Mason Education by Karen Andreola. Karen is a wonderful Godly women and she also has an excellent and encouraging blog Moments With Mother Culture. One other book on the Charlotte Mason method that I found helpful was For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.
As far as school goes we try to keep our book learning between the hours of 9-2:30 or so. That is not to say we are doing seat work this entire time but we do exercise, seat work, read alouds, reading, educational games, lunch, educational shows, and pretty much all of our other school work during this time. My husband generally gets off at 2:15, so we try to be done by then. In the afternoon the kids play, and in the evenings we have swimming, or sometimes sports. My husband does some extra school with the older two kids a few evenings a week. He is reading through some of the Apologia Science books with them, and he also does a bit of History readings, sometimes stories, and a bit of guitar lessons. Here is a copy of what the schedule I made for this coming school year looks like. I do not follow a timed schedule and only really use this as a daily guide, so I do not forget things. At times we will skip the extras, but I try to always get our main curriculum done(Heart of Dakota).

This is just a basic idea and is subject to change as the year progresses.

If you want to join in on this weeks blog hop simply post a similar blog, and then come back here and link up with you direct link. Be sure and add a link back to this post so others can join in.

2011-06-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

Last week my husband was on vacation. We spent the first 3 days working on our yard and painting trim, while the kids went to VBS. On Thursday we headed to Portland and were there until Sunday. We visited the Oregon Zoo, went to the Ocean Network Home school Convention, relaxed a bit at the hotel, swam, and visited a few parks including Washington park, and the Rose Garden. I took a bunch of pictures, so I thought a slideshow would be best. Near the end of the slideshow you will see a picture of the things I bought at the convention. You will also see a picture of the boys with Voddie Bauchman, and the girls with Susan K. Marlow, Author of the Circle C Beginnings books. Sweetpea enjoyed the first one we reviewed so much that I bought the whole set at the convention. Susan was so nice and she autographed them all.

Why?

2011-06-29T00:11:00.000-07:00

I did not realize how difficult this post would be until I actually began to think about what I would write. I'm so not one to bring up or talk about something that could be controversial or to stir the pot so to speak. I'm going to give this the best effort I can, so here it goes. Why do we home school? Well here are the reasons as best as I can articulate them over the internet:

1. First in foremost in our decision is the examination of scripture, by which we learn that it is the duty and obligation of parents to teach, instruct, and disciple their children in the ways and the admonition of the Lord.
"4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4"

"6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:6-7"

2. Second we believe that it is imperative as parents and guardians of our children for us to be very careful of who we put in authority over our children, since all education is really discipleship. Disciple being derived from the Latin word Discipuli for student.
"A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Luke 6:40"
^"1The fool says in his heart,"There is no God."
They arecorrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good. Psalms 14:1"
3. Number three we need to be aware of who we allow our children to congregate with, and therefore who they are influenced by.
"20Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,

but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
21 Disaster pursues sinners,
but the righteous are rewarded with good .Proverbs 13:20-21 "
Not to say that everyone in the public schools is a fool, but we also learn from scripture that:
"15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
The rod of correction will drive it far from him. Proverbs 22:15"
and we all know that discipline and correction in the public school system is sorely lacking today.

4. We desire for our children to receive a high quality and personalized education. How can an education possibly be personalized when you have ratios like 1 to 20 or even 30. Also you do not have to look far to read and find out about how public education is failing our nations children. I just read an article last week about how little 12th graders know about our nations own history.

After much prayer and thought we came to the conclusion that the best way for us to fulfill these commands and goals is by home education. My husband and I are both on the same page about this and 100% behind this decision. Home Education is not something that just occurs between specific hours of our day it is a complete lifestyle for our family. These four reasons are merely the tip of an iceberg for us in our decision.

If you want to join in on this weeks blog hop simply post about Why you home school, and then come back here and add you direct link. Don't forget to link back to this post so others can join in too.

Where is the Why?

2011-06-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

I know you are all waiting with baited breath for me to post this weeks blog hop, Why! You will have to wait a bit longer since I'm currently sitting in a hotel room after attending a fantastic home school convention with my family for the last two days. We will be heading home tomorrow and I will be posting the Why post as well as pictures of our vacation.

Where?

2011-06-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

Where?

This is the fourth entry of the June Blog Hop I'm doing. Today I'm going to tell you about where in our house we home school. At one point we had a nice little school area in the laundry room, but we have slowly moved into the dining room. The kids do most of their seat work here at the kitchen table. We also have a computer for the kids to use, and a folder full of educational games next to it. One extra thing you might notice is the educational placemats. I'm a geek and think they are super cool.

Right here is our calender. Sweetpea is in charge of marking the days since she is our current K/1st grader.

Here is one of my bookshelf that my husband built me last summer. On this shelf I keep picture books, Dr. Suess books, extra books, easy readers, and some chapter books. On top of it is where I keep paper, art supplies, teacher supplies, pencil sharpener, pencils, scissors, dry erase markers, erasers, hole puncher, stapler, a basket of our school CD's, and DVD's, our All About Spelling board, and a US map. Up above on the wall is a Presidential timeline.

This book shelf is where all of out Heart of Dakota books go(those in use, and those I'm collecting). It also has all of our other school workbooks, art books, music books, science books, state, and president books.
On top of it are all of our math manipulatives, markers, glue sticks, file card boxes, note books, loose worksheets, and my NOOK. Above it is a magnetic dry erase board.

We also use the couch and living room quite a bit especially for read alouds. The little kids, or those who I'm not currently working with tend to play in the living room. It is attached to our dining room.

Other than these two places we use the kids bedroom, and the rest of the wide world as our classroom.

If you want to join me this week simply post a similar blog about Where you home school, and then come back here and link up! Be sure to use a direct link and add a link back to this blog in your post. This linky will be active for 7 days and you can add to it at any time.

Summer/Spring Fun!

2011-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

We have been on Summer break for almost 2 weeks, and yesterday the nice weather finally kicked in. We have had a very wet and dreary spring here, and literally had 23 days of rain in May, and pretty much the rest of the days were overcast. In light of that last week we had to think of some creative ways to entertain ourselves. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Buttercup loves to dance so she had fun dancing! We all had to join her as well.

Sweetpea Decided we should have a play and everyone dressed up!

I'm not really sure what the play was exactly intended to be about but it slowly morphed into a version of Tangled!

Buster trying to be a villain!

So frightening!

Grandpa forgot his hat after game time on Wednesday!

Buster had an idea for the kids to make things out of paper.

I set out paper, cardboard, scissors, glue, tape, and markers. They had a bunch of fun creating.

Buster took this picture of the fort he made!

Sweetpea made a drawing of the family!

Since it was too cold outside the kids did some swimming in the tub with finger paint, and shaving cream.

We ordered some caterpillars in the mail!

The butterflies began hatching last weekend while we were at Busters soccer tournament!

We released them into our yard this week!

Right now the kids are outside enjoying the 70 degree day and it is supposed to be a lovely weekend. We will have to enjoy it from our house since our mini van is in the shop for a little body work.

When?

2011-06-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life"
Charlotte Mason
For the third week of my blog hop I'm going to talk about When we home school.

Since learning is a part of our lives everyday you could say that our school is always in session, but as far as book work we school from July-May. In general we take the month of June off, and about 5-6 weeks throughout our year. Right now we are on our June break, and the kids are still required to spend 20 minutes reading daily. So far this month Buster has read one book about King Tut, two about the Titanic, one about Ben Franklin, and now he is reading a book about the Civil War. Other than that I try to allow them time to play, discover, and explore outdoors. They will also have VBS this month. On the 23rd-25th we will be going to our state convention as well as the Zoo, and Science museum.

During our school year we school 5 days a week, and the only holidays we break for are Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If you want to join in simply post a similar blog and come back here and link up! Be sure to add a link back to this post so others can join in too! Stay tuned next Thursday for Where?

This Linky will be active for 7 days! Feel free to join at any time.

What!

2011-06-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

What!

This is the second entry for the blog hop I'm doing called Who, What, When Where, Why, and How! What we our using is definitely my favorite topic as I'm totally into researching and picking curricula. So with out further ado I will tell you what each of my children is using for the 2011-2012 school year:

Buster 3rd grade

Bigger Hearts For His Glory, in its entirety.

With storytime selections: Ben and Me, Snow Treasure, Farmer Boy, Balto and the Great Race, The Indian in the Cupboard, Concord Cunningham, By the Great Horn Spoon, Esperanza Rising, and The Whipping Boy!

Including Cheerful cursive, Singapore Math 3a/3b, and Rod and Staff Grammar 2.

He will also be using Latin For Children Primer A

All about Spelling level 2(the last few units), and 3.

Draw and Write Through History Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots.

Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Level 2/3

Sweetpea K/1st

She has 8 weeks of Little Hearts Left that she will be finishing when we start back up in July.

In September she will start

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory!

With Singapore Math 1a/1b

Storytime Selections: George Washington, The Twenty-One Balloons, Little House in the Big Woods, The Cricket in Time Square, The Railway Children, If You Sailed on the Mayflower, If you Were A Pioneer On the Prairie, The House At Pooh Corner, All of a Kind Family, and A Children's Book of Virtues!

She will also be using Song School Latin,

A Reason For Handwriting A,

Phonics Pathways, Explode the code,

and All About Spelling 1!

When she is ready she will start the Heart of Dakota Emergent Readers.

Buttercup Preschool:

Little hands to Heaven

and some Rod and Staff workbooks.

With Daddy:

Apologia Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures of the 5th day, and A Child's Story of America!

We also have a bunch of art and music resources we will take advantage of:

Draw Write Now, Come and Look With Me, Meet the Great Composer's, Artistic Pursuits book 2, Great American Artists for Kids, books on impressionists, art cards, Wee Sing America, and Classical Music!

We will be continuing our State and President study when we get to it with these books: Our Country's Presidents, States, Don't Know Much About the 50 States, Don't Know Much About the Presidents, Yo Millard Fillmore, and Yo Sacramento!

The kids all keep a nature journal, but I pretty much leave them up to their own devices on that. I simply bring them with me when we go on nature walks and let them draw what they choose.

As far as educational games and movies go we use all of the Leap Frog DVD's, Singapore Math games, Reader Rabbit Games, Jumpstart Games, School House Rock, Spanish Games, Planet Earth, Talking Fingers, The Reading Kingdom, Big IQ Kids, Wordy Qwerty, and what ever else we get our hands on or strikes our fancy!

PE:
I really do not think of this a s a subject because it is just part of our life.
The kids do swim lessons, soccer, basketball etc.
At home right now we are using GoTrybe Wii Fit, and Nickelodeon Fit!

If you want to join in simply post on your own blog about what you will be using for next school year and then come back here and add your direct link! Please add a link back to my blog so others can join in too.

This linky will be active for 7 days and you can add at any time!

Update: I decided to drop Latin for now and we are focusing exclusively on Spanish! We are using Speekee, Salsa Spanish Episodes, and two Spanish Curriculum's that I am reviewing.

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

2011-05-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

I just want to clarify that these post are meant to be one topic per week for a total of 6 posts! Also when I put the linky's up they are active for 7 days, so you can link up any time during those 7 days.

Who?

2011-05-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Buster is 7 and will turn 8 in July! He is going into 3rd grade this coming school year. If I could sum him up in a five phrases I would say he is fun, outgoing, inquisitive, active, and thoughtful of others.

Buster's favorites:

School subjects: Reading, and Science. He really enjoys being read to and reading himself especially if it is about history or adventure. He also loves nature and learning about it.

Color: Green

Book: Stone Fox

Sport: Basketball, Soccer, and Swimming

Activity: Playing outside

Game: Chess

TV Show: Swiss Family Robinson(cartoon)

Movie: Star Wars

Sweetpea is 5 and will turn 6 the end of October! Technically she will be in Kindergarten this coming year, but she will be working at a 1st grade level! If I could sum her up in a five phrases I would say she is playful, a deep thinker, energetic, smart, and tender.

Sweetpea's Favorites:

School Subjects: Math, Science, and Projects.

Color: Blue

Book: The Adventure's of Reddy Fox

Sport: Soccer and Swimming

Activity: Playing with her Barbie House

Game: Dominoes

TV Show: Swiss Family Robinson, and Little Women(both cartoons)

Movie: Tangled

Buttercup is 3 and her birthday is at the end of January! She will be doing preschool this coming year! To sum her up in five phrases I would say Buttercup is shy, whimsical, a silly heart, sweet, and sensitive.

Buttercup's Favorites:

School Subject: Drawing and painting.

Color: Purple

Book: Go Dogs Go

Sport: Soccer, Swimming

Activity: Coloring, Swinging.

Game: Candy Land

TV Show: Caillou, Swiss Family Robinson

Movie: Tangled

Buddy is 1 and will be 2 in November! He will be playing this coming school year and I will try my best to get him to do some Tot School things. To get to know Buddy in five phrases I would tell you he is cuddly, ornery, playful, shy, and full of fun.

Buddy's Favorites:

School Subject: Taking books off the shelf, and Playdoh.

Color: Not sure

Book: He seems to have a great fascination for Primary Language lessons, and Anne of Green gables. He is always pulling them off the shelf and carrying them around. Luckily he is quite gentle so far.

Sport: Kicking a ball

Activity: Playing, climbing, running, and swinging.

Game: Making a mess

TV Show: He has no interest in TV

Movie: Same as above

My two sons!

and my two daughters!

If you want to join this Blog Hop simply post a similar blog of your own and then come back and add your direct link below! If you need more info about what these posts are all about go here.
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Blog Hop!

2011-05-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder that I will be posting the first blog in a 6 part series called: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How tomorrow! The first one is called Who and it is a chance for all of us to introduce our students/children. Feel free to post a picture of each of your beautiful babies, their ages, what grades they will be in next year, and a little about their personalities. After you have posted that to your own blog come back here and link up to mine. Be sure to add the direct link to that post and not a general link to you blog. Also please add my badge or a link back to mine so others can find it too. I hope that many of you will join me! For more info on this blog hop/meme check out this post.

Top 10! TOS Reviews

2011-05-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

Well the 2010-2011 Homeschool crew is coming to an end in a fews days, and I thought it would be fun to list for you my Top 10 picks from this year. I posted my last review on Friday! So here are my Top 10 favorites! They are not listed in any particular order because I couldn't decide. Click on the images to go directly to their website, or the Titles to see my full review!

Read Write and Type

This program by Talking Fingers is excellent for teaching typing, reading, and spelling! Buster really enjoyed and completed the entire program.

Song School Latin

All of my kids loved this program! In fact we liked it so much that I went ahead and bought Latin For Children Primer A for Buster to use next year!

Speekee

Speekee is one of my absolute favorites of this year! The girls adored this program and I was blown away with customer service we received from the creator of it Jim! I'm thinking of subscribing to it again soon.

GoTrybe

Daily exercise is something that is critical to good attention during lessons especially for Buster! GoTrybe helped provide that for us in a fun way. We will most likely sign up for a one year subscription when our review period ends.

Artistic Pursuits

Artistic pursuits makes art lessons so fun, while being educational at the same time!

Yesterday's Classics

What is not to love about 225 books!

Circle C beginnings

My daughters both loved the book we received from this series, and the free go alongs that you can find at their site make this series even better! I'm excited that they will be at our convention and I look forward to purchasing the rest of the books!

Big IQ Kids

I'll have to admit that when I first saw this program I was not overly impressed, but after Buster using it for awhile and finding all the ways that I can customize the lessons, I think that it is an excellent homework review site!

Aesops Fables

Sweetpea has so much fun reading these books!

Little Reader

I was pretty skeptical of this program at first, and I still do not see it truly teaching reading. I do however find it to be very well done a lot of fun for Buttercup! I'm also very impressed with their amazing customer service!

Stay tuned for more info about the 2011-2012 Homeschool Crew that will set sail in July!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-05-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

Week 39, and 40:

The last two weeks we have been doing school but fairly lightly. I decided to have Sweetpea take a break from Little Hearts For His Glory. She will finish the last 8 units when we start back up in July. Sweetpea has pretty much just been working through her math book and doing Phonics Pathways. She finished her Handwriting Without Tears K book and started A Reason For Handwriting A. She also continues to do The Reading Kingdom. Buster finished Stone Fox, and Read Dolphin Adventure. He also completed a book project for Stone Fox. Right now I'm reading Little House on the Prairie to him and he loves it. We have also been enjoying watching the first season of the Little House TV show. All the kids are really into it now. Other than that he is just doing Big IQ Kids, Wordy Qwerty, and some math practice daily. We only have one week left until our summer break!

I checked my camera card today and realized this is the only new picture I have taken.
Sweetpea working through a Peter Pan preschool pack I printed for her.

Besides doing school we planted our garden finally, and we have been able to enjoy some fun times at the park. Yesterday was the first day this year that I could say I actually felt warm/hot outside. I posted my last review for the 2010-2011 Homeschool Crew! I can not believe this year is already coming to an end but I'm excited to see what the next one will bring. This coming week I'm going to post my top ten favorite review items, and I will also be starting a blog hop/meme. You can read the details about it here! I would love for you all to join me. Be sure to check back to my blog on Thursday for the first entry.

For more weekly Wrap ups visit weird unsocialized homeschoolers!

Wordy Qwerty! TOS Review!

2011-05-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Last fall we were given the opportunity to review a program called Read Write and Type by Talking Fingers! That program turned out to be one of our favorites from this year with the Homeschool Crew. Buster really enjoyed it and when he completed it a few months ago he immediately asked if we could get the next level called Wordy Qwerty. I told hm I would think about it, so when the chance came for us to review Wordy Qwerty as well I jumped at it. Wordy Qwerty is similar to Read Write and Type in that it is a ton of fun, while learning to spell, and type this time. Wordy Qwerty is a bit more basic than Read Write and Type, and I think would not take as long to complete. When You sign in it is takes you to a game screen where your child can play a variety of games while the program takes him/her through multiple spelling rules. There is a total of 12 games, and 20 levels of spelling. You start out being able to play a few games at a time and as you progress through the program more and more games are unlocked.

As you can see in these screen shots there is a variety of games and ways to learn and apply the spelling rules. Such as choosing which spelling is right, popping balloons with correct spelling, filling in the missing words in a story, and more.

The biggest hit with Wordy Qwerty was the fun songs they use to teach the spelling rules. They are really catchy. Buster would be playing this at the table while Sweetpea was working on something else and they both would sing along. In fact the Jingles are so popular that they have made them available on CD, or by download on Itunes. You can here samples of them here!

You can also check out the scope and sequence of what your child will learn with Wordy Qwerty here. This program is designed for 2nd-4th graders who have finished a phonics program and are reading. Buster very much enjoyed it and I really like their approach to spelling because they teach the rules along with using repetition and practice in a fun way. Parents can also log in and to see their child's progress.

You can purchase Wordy Qwerty online or on a CD. The online price varies between $25-$71.25 depending on how many children it can be used for. The CD is $35 dollars but is not compatible with Windows 7. The Jingles CD is available for $10 dollars. You can also download a free demo of the product and if you do you will receive 20% off your purchase. To learn more visit Talking Fingers!

Wordy Qwerty was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:

Fun

Easy to use.

Teaches the rules of spelling.
Catchy Jingles.

Cons:
None that we saw.

Head over to the Homeschool Crew blog to see what everyone else is saying.

Mad Dog Math! TOS Review!

2011-05-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

We have reviewing a math facts program called Mad Dog Math this month! Mad Dog Math is a downloadable math drill program to help kids memorize and master the basic operations +-*/. Kids are encouraged to spend 10 minutes daily drilling facts using this program. Once your child has logged in by clicking on the green paw print, they can use it fairly independently. There are 4 levels that children can progress through as they practice. Level 1(addition/subtraction), Level 2(addition/subtraction at a higher level), Level 3(Multiplication/Division), and Challenge(mixed operations). Each level starts out with low numbers or fact families and you can either up the numbers or wait for the student to move through them as they master them.

As you can see in the image above there are four bones to click on, Time Me, Fetch, Stop, and Progress. The Time me bone is what you click on to start the graded practice. Parents can choose between 2 min., 1min., 30 sec., or No time for the drill. At the end of each round if the child has gotten no more than 2 problems wrong they can move on to the next set of problems. When you want a new set you can click the Fetch bone and a whole new set appears. If you need to stop the timer you can click stop. As the child masters facts they will receive club stickers for the 2min., 1min, or 30sec. club. To check progress you just click on the progress bone and a screen will appear to show which facts have been mastered.

Mad Dog Math is a pretty basic and straight forward game. One thing I liked about it is there is no mouse clicking or pressing enter required during the drills. All your child has to do is type the answer and it moves on to the next problem instantly. Buster is pretty burnt out on fact practice so he didn't really appreciate this game. Sweetpea really liked it and did much better at it than I expected, but she hated the timer and would freeze if I turned it on. I had to either have her do it untimed, which doesn't advance you, or choose no time limit. I think they need to have some longer time choices than 2 min. You can purchase the game download for $19.99(1 year), $29.99(2 years), or $39.99(forever). They also have a CD version available as well as a few other products. Be sure to check out their website for more info, pricing, and a free practice download.

Mad Dog Math was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:

Easy to use.

Essential math practice.

Cons:

Timed feature may intimidate young children.

Short time limits.

A bit pricey for what you get.

Head over to the Homeschool Crew blog to hear what everyone else thinks.

GoTrybe! TOS Review

2011-05-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

One thing that I have found to be very helpful to our school day running smoothly is to require daily exercise before we start. I'm always on the look out for ways to get the kids moving in the morning. It is quite hard to find kids exercise programs, so I was excited when I was chosen to review a program called GoTrybe. It is an online exercise program that allows you to customize daily workout routines for your children. When you register your child for the program they are placed into a trybe, Zoodoos, Trybe180, or NextTrybe depending on their age. Each Trybe has their own set of workout videos that can be used daily. Buster is in the Zoodoos trybe. Your child is also able to customize their own avatar that can be used for interacting with other GoTrybe members. Each day when you log in you are taken to your child's profile where you can customize your avatar connect with trybe friends, and do your daily activities.

You can choose Fitness(exercise routines), Nutrition(daily nutrition question), Motivation(daily inspirational clip), Wellness(daily wellness tip). When you choose fitness you are taken to a screen where you can choose and customize your exercise routine. Each time you choose one warm up, three cardio, one strength, and one flexibilty. You will find 25 warm ups, 63 cardios, 24 strengths, and 22 flexibilities to choose from. Also each trybe has a different set of choices. Once you have made your selections you can click start workout and the clips will play one after the other until your child has had a full workout. The clips vary in length, but you usually end up with about a 20 min workout all together.

My husband has a computer hooked to our TV, so the kids can follow the workout in the living room. The kids have gone through pretty much all of them, and there is a lot of variety in the routines. All of them are fun, upbeat, and active. I even joined the kids a few times, and let me tell you it wore me out. Each time you complete a routine or do any of the other daily activities points are earned that can be used to purchase fun clothes for your avatar.

One other feature of the program is kids can friend other kids, and have limited communication with them. We did not use this feature, because I fell my kids are a bit young for that.

You can sign up for a free trial of GoTrybe by using the promotional code GETFIT, and if you decide you like and upgrade it is $19.95 a year normally $39.95 a year. That is an excellent deal for what you get! From everything that I have seen I think this is a great program, and I'm considering paying for it when our trial expires. I'm sure the kids will be thrilled to hear that ;)! I personally have no complaints about GoTrybe. I have heard a few people say that the girl avatars are a bit immodest, but I have not really seen them. The avatars are cartoons, and really not a big part of the program unless you participate in the friend aspect. All of the workout instructors are appropriately dressed as workout videos go. I only signed Buster up, and really see no need for two accounts since the kids just workout all together anyways.

I was given a GoTrybe account free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:

Easy to use.

Customizable!

Many selections.

Fun!

Promotes healthy living.

Cons:

None that I experienced!

Head over to the Homeschool Crew blog to see what everyone else is saying!

My Blog Button!

2011-05-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to make one of these blog buttons for a long time, but have put it off because of the utter frustration I knew it would create. I was right about the frustration part, but here is the finished product! You can grab the code on the side bar. Man do I need to learn more about HTML!

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

2011-05-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

I had an idea come to me in the shower, and you know how great those can be. We are taking the month of June off from school, so I will not be posting any weekly wrap ups. I also will not have any reviews to post. I want to keep up my blogging anyways, so I decided that I would do a 6 week long meme/blog hop of sorts, and your all invited to join me. The first post will be Thursday May 26th, and the last June 30th. Here is how they will go:

Who: Share about who you homeschool. Their ages, grades, and a little about their personalities.
What: What do you use in your homeschool. Curriculums, games, educational shows etc.
When: What time of day, how many days a week, yearly schedules.
Where: What parts of your home do you use for school time. Please post pictures of where you school, and of your organization(shelves, boxes, etc.)
Why: Tell us all why you homeschool, and what led you to it.
How: Share what styles of homeschooling you incorporate, your daily schedule, and your favorite homeschooling books.

If this sounds fun to you please leave a comment here, so I know if anyone wants to join in.

Monki See! TOS Review

2011-05-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

We received a new baby learning DVD last month called Baby's First Words from Monki See! Baby's First Words is Volume 1 in a three part series of DVD's made by Monki See. Each DVD teaches babies to recognize and understand the meaning of common words. The DVD I received focuses on body parts, and other common words. Baby's First Words uses video, pictures, puppets, songs, and text to introduce babies to 40 different words. Each DVD is 30 minutes long, and the other two available are called All About Colors and All About Shapes. I was also sent one of their two books called Know Your Monkey, which has many of the words taught in it with silly pictures of the two monkey puppets, Skip and Howie. Baby's First Words is recommended for ages 3 months -2 years, and they recommend that you watch it frequently with your baby until they begin recognizing the words.

I can tell you that my 18 month old shows very little interest in TV, and wouldn't even look at it until we watched it this morning. Right now he is watching it pointing to his cheek and saying it along with the show. It is pretty stinking cute. My 3 year old on the other hand loves the show, and will sing along with it. We have not watched it daily, but have watched it several times together. As baby DVD goes it is well done and entertaining. As far as teaching reading well I really don't see that happening, but my definition of actual reading may be different than some. It is a fun way to introduce body parts and get little ones talking. The DVD also includes a parents guide that explain the DVD and how to use it.

Monki See offers a full line of baby learning products including DVD's, Flash Cards, and books. You can visit their website to learn more, and see their complete catalog. Baby's First Words can be purchased for $24.95 normally but is on sale for $19.95. Know Your Monkey costs $11.95 normally but is on sale for $9.95.

Baby's First Words, and Know Your Monkey were given to me free of charge from Monki See in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:

Fun

Interactive

Decent Price

Cons:

Possible inappropriate use of TV for young children.

A bit long for the intended age, I recommend watching in segments.

As always go to the Homeschool Crew Blog to read more!

Weekly Wrap Up!

2011-05-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

Week 37, and 38!

We have been very busy the last couple of weeks. My Sis In-law, and Brother In-Law were up from Mexico last week, and we had some fun with the kids at the local Safari. We also have been doing soccer, school, hiking, swimming, and all of the usual fun. Buster is working through Singapore math 2 Extra Practice book for some math review. He is almost finished with it, and then he will just work on the Challenging Word Problems book until our break. He is also reading Stone Fox along with Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. Sweetpea has decided she finally prefers Phonics Pathways over Reading Made Easy, so we have been using that the last few weeks.That is pretty much all I can think of to say before I bombard you with pictures!

Buddy playing with playdoh nicely, and not eating it!

At least for a little while.

Working on Latin!

Saying goodbye again ;(

Group hug!

The Safari trip! A super nice lady from our church treated us to a special trip through the Safari! She works there.

The Big Bear encounter:

The kids got to feed them.

Elephant Car Wash!

This was so much fun!

A little scrubbing.

Baby goat in the petting zoo.

Giraffe feed!

So Amazing!

Sorting Bears!

But not by color.

I'm not sure what she made.

My dad has been stopping by every Wednesday on his lunch break to play games with the kids!

Wednesday was a gorgeous day so week took a hike after my husband got off work!

Counting the lines!

Buddy, and Dad!

A tree uprooted!

Look daddy I found some bark!

Wildflower season!

Looking for frogs!

My two littles looking big!

All four crazies taking a break!

We made it!

The falls! There is so much water this time of year!

Sweetpea asked me to make her a daisy crown. I had forgotten how time consuming these were!

For more Weekly Wrap ups visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!