Christmas 2010!

We had a very blessed Christmas this year, and here are some pictures of the fun!

Beautiful light display at the coast!

She loved singing with the carolers!

We really enjoyed our Advent time this year! Especially the wreath!

Singing Carols!

Gingerbread Houses!

The kids made these crowns for our Christmas play we did for daddy!

Birthday cake for Jesus! Sweetpea helped me make it.

Hanging with cousin T at Grandma and Papa's!

Hat and gloves!

 

Christmas Jammies!

Buddy sitting with Auntie B!

The girls got new dolls from Grandma!

The boys!

All four in their Christmas Jammies!

The girls!

My husband made the girls a doll house!

Buster with his new to us DS!

Buddy's car rug!

Little rocker!

Look out for Spiderboy!

Buddy loves the sound!

Buster with his cousins K, an G!

Sweetpea's New ballet outfit from Moogie!

The girls dancing with cousin S!

I hope you all were blessed this Christmas Season and Happy New Year!

JJ Heller - What Love Really Means (Official Music Video)

I love this song, and it is too good not to share :)

Weekly Wrap up!

Week 20/21:

We have had a busy couple of weeks, and I have a bunch of pictures to prove it! Buster just finished unit 19 of Beyond, and Sweetpea finished unit 13 of Little Hearts. Buster read The Drinking Gourd, and Abe Lincoln's Hat. Both of which led us to some interesting discussions about slavery. We also finished Stories of the Pilgrim's. We are all excited and ready for a 2 week break.

The Little Ones!

My cousin married my mom's best friend's daughter!

It was the first wedding my kid's have been to, and I was pretty nervous. They actually behaved rather well, and it was a lovely night!

Buttercup was sure that the bride was a princess, and she was at a ball.

We had fun celebrating St. Nicholas Day, and learning about the real St. Nicholas from this book!

Buttercup loves cutting!

And sticking!

Buster's nativity scene.

A bunch of heroes!

Buddyman!

This is what happens when you turn the TV off! It had been on far to much at the beginning of the month, so we cut back a lot this week!

Buster loves to read to Buttercup!

Sweetpea loves lining things up!

And Buddy, well he is just cute!

and ornery!

Baby Jesus!

Stacking time!

Playing a new game we found at Salvation Army!

Tracing like a big girl!

Tomorrow we are gonna finally start our Christmas baking! I hope you all our having a Blessed Christmas Season with your loved ones!

I posted my final Review for the year last week, but stay tuned for a flurry of reviews in January! We are currently reviewing some great products, and I can't wait to share about them with you!

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

Apologia, Good Morning God! TOS Review

We really enjoy using Apologia's elementary Science series, so I was excited to be receiving a product from them to review. A few weeks ago the kids were excited to open a package from Apologia that contained their brand new book "Good Morning God". This book is super cute, and contains a great story about how we can learn about, and worship God throughout our week. "Good Morning God" I a sturdy hard back book that contains really nice soft colored illustrations, as well as some black and white sketches. The story is told from the perspective of a little boy, and goes through a complete eight days of the families routine. It starts out with Sunday, and ends on the following Sunday. It is meant for kids 1-8, and all of mine enjoyed listening to it. It is sweet, funny, and repetitive, which little kids love! It also contains a note to parents at the beginning, and in the back it has questions and activities to go along with each day. The book can be read all at once, or you could read one section per day, and do the corresponding Questions and Activities. One other thing I like about this book is that it is very homeschool friendly. It refers to doing school at home, playing in the back yard with siblings etc. "Good Morning God" Was written by Davis Carman, a homeschool father to 7 children. You can purchase it from Apologia's website for $14 dollars. I also was able to find it at CBD, and Amazon. The also sell a coloring book to go along with it for $4 dollars, and I'm sure it is cute even though I have not seen it. "Good Morning God" would make a nice addition to any home library.

Pros:
Biblical
Beautiful
Fun
Helpful info for parents
Homeschool Friendly

Cons:
The only thing I could think of would be the price, but it is nice quality, and comparable in price to other new books.

I received "Good Morning God" form Apologia free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

For more reviews check out the Homeschool Crew Blog!

A picture a day!

The kids all worked on a picture together while I read today!

Picture a day, and Advent list!

Ok so i decided to copy my sister, and post one picture a day until Christmas! I could not choose between these two:

Sweetpea playing with our Little People Nativity!

Buddy re-arranging ornaments!

I also wanted to post the list of activities that will be going in our Advent calendar. These are always subject to change, and we have already completed the first one:

1 New Christmas Movie(Veggie Tales It's a Meaningful Life)

2 Mommy’s birthday(the kids can help daddy make a cake)

3 Christmas Shopping

4 Go to Safari, My cousins wedding

5 Christmas with my BIL, and SIL who are visiting from Mexico

6 St. Nicholas day(I will be putting gold coin chocolates in the kid's shoes, and reading this book)

7 Bi-Mart night Festival of Lights

8 Take Pictures for Christmas cards

9 Make Ornaments

10 Make paper Snowflakes

11 Journey through Christmas (a local church does a neat drive through nativity)

12 Timber truckers light parade

13 Hot Cocoa special, and read Christmas stories(I'm thinking fancy hot chocolate with choices of candy canes, whip topping, Christmas peeps etc.)

14 YMCA Festival of Lights

15 Buy Food for food bank

16 Buy Angel Tree Gift

17 Wild lights

18 Shore Acres

19 Bake Cookies to Share

20 Drive around and look at lights

21 Gingerbread Houses

22 Make Fudge for family

23 Christmas play(the kids are practicing some carols to sing for daddy)

24 Christmas Eve(at my parents)

25 Christmas Day(home in the morning, then go to my in-laws)

Master innovations, The Master Ruler! TOS review

Master Innovations is a Christian company that creates and sells math manipulatives. I recently received their Master Ruler starter set to use and review. Included in what I received was two rulers(standard, and metric), a measurement full color poster, and a measuring workbook to be used with the rulers.

The Master Ruler is not your standard ruler. I have never seen anything like it before. The standard ruler is 5 rulers in one, and the metric is 4 in one. They are made of sturdy clear plastic and connected by thick plastic rings. With the standard ruler you can measure inches, 1.2 in., 1/4 in., 1/8 in., and 1/16 in. The Metric provides decimeter, centimeter, and millimeters. The workbook is 24 pages long and contains a measuring chart, instructions, fun worksheets that use both rulers, and an answer key. It is geared to a wide range of students, so some pages are easier than others. All three of my big kids were able to enjoy the worksheets, and rulers. 

Buttercup coloring butterflies!

Sweetpea measuring and coloring her butterflies!

Buster trying the ruler out!

My kids love math manipulatives, and the Master Ruler is definitely one they will continue to use and enjoy. Even my husband found it useful the other day for a project, and told me how cool he thought it was. You can purchase Each Master Ruler from Master Innovations for $9.95, and the workbook is $15.95. They can also be purchased as a kit for a discount. Master Innovations also carries other products: Master Clock, Master Fractions, Master Angles, and educational posters!

Pros:

Fun

Educational

Hands on

Multi age

Reasonable price

Cons:

I really can't think of any

The Master Ruler starter Kit was given to me free of charge from Master Innovations in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Visit the Homeschool Crew blog to find out more about the Master Ruler, and other Master Innovation products!