Wits and Wagers Family! TOS Review

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!

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

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!

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?

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