Morris Family Madness

Amelia's Baptism

2011-12-20T19:53:00.000-06:00

Amelia was baptized early last month by her Daddy, both boys gave talks and it was a beautiful time.

The Nutcracker

2011-12-20T19:45:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Peyton and Amelia had the opportunity to be in the Royal Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker. The Walton Arts Center was hosting the show and held auditions for children to be in the Party Scene. 42 Children auditioned and Peyton and Amelia BOTH got in!! One of Amelia's best friends also got in.Amelia got to be a girl in the party scene and Peyton got to be in the party scene and was a mouse! I have to say it was truly an opportunity of a life time. I wasn't able to get any pictures (wasn't allowed back stage) but my friend had the chance to help backstage and snapped a couple quick pics. If I get better ones later I'll post those too :)

Amelia and Katie getting dressed. Amelia's dress was too big so she had to be sewn into it.

Peyton is in the back right. Amelia is being sewn in so isn't in this picture.

Peyton... isn't he handsome ;)

Amelia waiting in the wings with Katie.

Peyton

Peyton on stage

Peyton and Amelia to his right.

Amelia's sweet friend Katie as a mouse.

Katie and half of Amelia and Peyton

Group shots

Amelia also danced in another Nutcracker this year as a Bon Bon :)

Happy Halloween!!

2011-11-01T09:12:00.000-05:00

Our School Year 2011-2012

2011-06-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

Some major changes are in store for us this year. Through much prayer and careful consideration I have decided to change everything we are doing over to My Father's World. I wrote something for a board I belong to detailing why I switched and I think I will just copy and paste.

I was doing a full out classical curriculum. I had hand selected every single thing we were doing and loved every piece of it. The only problem was.... at the end of the day it wasn't getting done We had too much fabulous, wonderful curriculum. It was too teacher intensive and too time consuming. I prayed about it and decided to switch exclusively to MFW.

Let me tell you this was an excruciating decision for me. I really loved what we had and letting it go was hard. I put away all of my old curriculum and cleared space for the new. Then I placed my order. I felt anxious about it and was unsure..... until it arrived.

Let me tell you it is wonderful. It is so simple to follow and well planned I am giddy. I have no more reservations because it is truly a complete curriculum. I have found no holes to fill or needs that are not going to be met. I can follow their plan with ease and confidence and know that my kids are learning what they need to learn. Even better is that they weave in character building throughout every day teaching our children to be the best they can be.

Another thing I love is that everything flows together so nicely. Before it felt awkward to switch from one subject to the next. Like the change was abrupt, but they make sure everything flows smoothly and your day goes nicely. I also truly feel that they have taken great care to not over-teach things or teach unnecessary things. There is no busywork or silliness. They teach what needs to be taught in the simplest way possible eliminating time wasted.
Really honestly I cannot be happier and my kids are ecstatic with it all. They are begging me to not take a summer break and just start school now.

I truly think this was the best move our family could make. Teaching 6 kids is a real challenge but having it all laid out for me and planned in the simplest way possible will be the difference between getting it done and not.

That said I would love to share some tips and tricks with you a dear friend was kind enough to share with me and show you what our year is looking like so far.

Here's our pretty shelf with everything we need on it for the year. Each grade level gets a shelf which works out perfectly.

First up is Annabelle's PreK I don't usually advocate doing school this young but honestly it's do school with her or pay the price ;) She loves to be involved and won't have it any other way.

I bought the MFW PreK Package and put it all on the top shelf in clear pull out drawers. That way it stays cool and forbidden. Something she can only do when we are doing school. I love their little activities and the cards they provide for ideas ( in the box on the right) What I love best is it's all hands on activities at that age. No worksheets or formal schooling. Just something to help them feel a part and work on fine motor skills.

Next up is Kindergarten. This is where MFW really shines to me. It is SO simple and just what Kindergarten should be. It should take about an hour a day and by the end of the year my little one will know her letters and their sounds, how to read 3 letter words and the numbers to 100. The rest of the time she will spend playing and exploring. There is no heavy work at this age. I am in love!!

I purchased the Deluxe Kindergarten set and the literature pack.

Here are where my friend's fabulous ideas start. First she recommended I put all of the stuff she will need daily in a box, bucket or some type of container. The puzzle is a bit large so that wasn't the easiest feat but I found the perfect container at Office Depot.

Here it is all inside...

And here's whats in the box... everything has been run through my laminator since I plan on using this for more than one year. What this box means is she can grab her stuff and we can do her school anywhere, anytime. What a blessing it will be to have some of our day be so easy. I have a tendency to focus on the big kids and not get the little kids school done. This should solve that and eliminate their hurt feelings.

Another great idea was using these great Nestle quick containers for the number work everyday. I added magnets to the back so they sit on the whiteboard.

Here are her Number box and picture box and Audrey's money container for 1st

Next up is First Grade. I purchased the deluxe first grade set as well.

Here's another fabulous idea. Instead of hole punching all of the sheets to put in the binder she puts a sheet protector for each week of school in their binder. Then slides a week's worth of work in each page. Ingeniousness I tell you, no more messy binders.

I also had my own good idea this year.... yes I come up with some all by myself.

We have a membership to audible and right now they have a summer reading sale. A lot of the picture book titles are less than a dollar right now! That said I went through and bought a lot of titles I already own and burned them to CD. I then placed them in the backs of their books and set them next to the CD player. That way while listening to the CD my beginning reader can follow along!

I also had to share this adorable little book I found that teaches kids to tie their shoes.

OK moving on to 3rd grade and Adventures in My Father's world.

I purchased the deluxe package and all of their recommended resources. Singapore Math, Spelling Power, and Primary Language Lessons. We will also continue to use Song School Latin.

The only extras I bought were to reinforce the states a bit

Last is year one of High School Ancient History and Literature. I bought the deluxe package, Apologia Biology with the MFW Schedule, Saxon Algebra 2 with the MFW Schedule, and logic. He will also be doing a free foreign language program through the library called Mango. Oh and we can't forget Seminary through church.... that worked out beautifully as they will be studying the Old Testament.

Oh and one last helpful tip from my friend...

Slide all of your worksheets for the year into a file so it is easy to grab when needed.

Our updated schoolroom

2011-06-13T20:11:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you but I like to look at other peoples schoolrooms. I like to get ideas and see how other Mom's make it all work. Here is my mostly finished schoolroom.... it still needs some final touches but it's functional for now anyways :)

Updated to show our 2011 version... still not quite finished but getting closer!

Here's our table where we do school and our mega shower-board whiteboard. LOVE the giant whiteboard.

Our School Computer. I have this one set up where they can only go to certain approved websites. Comfort for Mama's mind.

Science supplies on top and ahem... curriculum I should really let go of on the shelves.

Encyclopedias, Easy Readers, Some chapter books and our CD player, CDs and books with Audio included.

All of our curriculum for this year. Anna's is the top shelf, then Weylin, Peyton and Amelia, Audrey and

Avery 's stuff is on the bottom shelf.

My cabinet for my teachers guides and all of the random stuff I don't want the kids to touch

Some of our Math manipulatives and puzzles

Educational games inside the bench

All of the random school stuff, legos, pencils, crayons. etc etc etc TONS of stuff.... too much stuff lol

The big basket will be our book basket for the year.

That completes our tour... hope you enjoyed it!

Read for the Heart TOS Review

2011-05-27T01:16:00.000-05:00

We were so very blessed to be able to review the book Read For the Heart from Apologia.
This book is a guide to the best in children's literature and so much more.
From the Website:
A great book spurs the imagination in childhood, inspires our dreams in adulthood, and nourishes the soul with depictions of life fully and courageously lived. Among the greatest gifts you can bequeath to a child are a love for reading and a passion for books. But how do you sort through the many thousands of books available to your children to find those that are worthwhile? Apologia has the answer. Keeping Read for the Heart close at hand is like having a children's librarian for a best friend! Let Sarah Clarkson be your guide to the best in children's literature for your family. From timeless classics to modern favorites, from picture books to adventure novels to read-aloud favorites, more than 1,000 wonderful stories for young people are recommended within these pages. Now you can make great literature a lasting part of your child's life and education.

My Experience:
First of all let me say if there is only one thing you purchase because of my review please let it be this.
No other book has changed my views on schooling as much or been as helpful of a guide as this one book has been to me. This book goes so far beyond a simple guide to which books to read it's unbelievable.
Sarah Clarkson shares not only her knowledge and wisdom as an adult but also her very compelling experiences as a child growing up in a home filled with good books.
She not only tells you which books she recommends but tells you WHY. She tells you exactly what to look for in books in every genre. She gave me the tools to go through and look at the books we own and make an educated decision about which books are good for not only my child's education but their heart and soul as well.
I have read many a book-list and purchased countless fabulous books off of those lists but I myself felt helpless when it came to picking a book not on a list somewhere. This book empowered me to know what it is I'm looking for and how to find it. I have a whole new feeling of empowerment now as an educator and a mother to be able to find the books that will be best for my children.
After reading this book I went through the many, many books in our home and put each and every one to the test according to the knowledge I gained from this book. Let me tell you I thinned out our books by at least a third BUT I am so happy with what we now have. There is not a single book in our picture books that I wouldn't be happy to read to my children over and over again. There aren't any chapter books that will make me inwardly cringe when I see my 14 year old reading it anymore. I once thought that since family and friends had been so very generous with books for my children that I was required to keep each and every book.
After reading Sarah's book I knew that it was my job to weed out what I do and do not want my children to be exposed to.
Let me tell you what has happened since I took out the books that did not fit the criteria I decided upon. My children are reading more than ever. Every time I turn around someone has a book in their hand. A good book at that. A book that is filling their mind with good things, filling their heart with virtue and uplifting their spirit all at once.
Another thing Sarah has inspired me to do is to drastically cut out the electronics in order to allow more time for reading and imagination. I am still working on getting where we need to be on this one but let me tell you, soon I know I will see the tremendous fruits of this effort.
As for the actual books that she recommended, first we have loved every one we have read on her lists. Second unlike most book lists she doesn't simply give you the names of books to read, for each book she gives you the author, date of original publication, awards received if any, illustrator when applicable, the general age category, a short review of the book(my favorite part) and cautions regarding mature or questionable content when needed.
There are so many parts of this book that I would love to quote for you but let me just say, there are too many to include in this post so please if you are a homeschooling parent, not a homeschooling parent, a grandparent, or in any way involved in the educating or raising of a child I urge you to read this book and I promise you won't regret it.

Read For The Heart is available here for just $17.00
You can see the table of contents or a sample chapter there as well.

I received a free copy of Read For The Heart in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.

Happy Birthday Avery

2011-05-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

Avery turned 5 this week. Sweet little baby Avery. Isn't a baby anymore. Sweet little girl Avery.

Sometimes life isn't fair. Why can't we have babies and keep them as babies? Why do our sweet little babies have to grow up?

The only thing that keeps me going through this is what a sweet little girl she is. No one loves me quite the way she does. She is such an adoring affectionate little girl. I hope she always stays this sweet.

For her birthday she requested a Tangled party. Avery loves princesses and Rapunzel is her favorite at the moment.

I found a tutorial online for making a tower cake here. I thought the kids wouldn't like the pecan rolls so decided to use cupcakes instead....

Notice anything odd?? Yeah cupcakes... not a good idea. They crushed under their own weight. By the party the tower looked a bit like this....

The kids wanted to paint a tablecloth for Avery's party. I rolled out 2 strips of doctors table paper (thanks Renee) and taped them together then split it into 6 sections and let them have at it.

Anna's Square

Avery's

Audrey's

Amelia's

Peyton's

and Weylin's

I covered it in plastic and kept it there. I think it's so neat that they wanted to do that for her. We made a pretty purple sun banner.

We had plenty of good friends to share the day with us.

We even attempted to do flying lanterns although the wind had other plans.
Another day I suppose...

All in all we had a fabulous party.... until the end when the tornado warnings came and the party concluded with us and our guests huddled in the stairwell! Oh well every party can't be perfect.

Considering God's Creation TOS Review

2011-05-25T17:58:00.000-05:00

We were able to review a Science curriculum produced by Eagle's Wings called Considering God's Creation.
Considering God's Creation is a simple hands on approach to natural science for second to seventh graders.
This program contains 36 lessons that start with the basics of creation and go all the way to the creation of Man.
The topics covered are Creation, The Universe: Stars, Sun and Planets, The Earth, Non-Living Things: Rocks and Minerals, Weather, The Plant Kingdom, The Animal Kingdom, Animal Anatomy & Physiology, and Man: Made in God's Image.
Each lesson starts with a section entitled preparation. This section lets you the parent know what you will need to gather for the lesson. One of the great things about this program is everything is simple things you should already own. No need for fancy kits or special trips to the store.
Next is Vocabulary words for the lesson then an introduction to the lesson that relates the basic information that the children will be learning.
Next there is a song or poem to go with the lesson. The audio CD is included in the back of the teachers manual.
Then your child will complete a simple hands on Activity related to the lesson.
There is a section entitled bible reading which gives your child biblical reference to support the lesson being taught. Then they will complete their notebook pages for the lesson.
There are evolution stumpers included in each lesson to help reinforce your child's understanding that we were created by a higher being.
Review Questions follow so you can be sure that your child understood the concept.
Last is the Digging Deeper section with ideas on ways you can learn more.

Our Experience:
We really enjoyed this program. It is easy to use and a nice amount of information per subject. Not so much they get bored but enough so that they really feel they've learned a lot about the subject.
The notebook pages are done well and my kids really enjoy doing them. I really appreciate the fact that they teach the scientific information without a ton of biblical reference in that section, it stays mostly separated so that you can focus on one thing at a time.
I can say we will continue to use this program but I don't want to give up the program we are already using either. We will probably continue to use our main program and add this one as we want. My kids enjoy it and ask for it. I believe this will be our "we feel like doing extra science" or "we want to learn about something specific" program. Maybe even our "summer break is getting boring" science!
You can see samples of the program here.

Pricing:
Considering God's Creation includes the Teachers Manual, Audio CD and One Student Notebook. $29.95
Additional Student Workbooks are $13.95
They do allow photocopies within a family but the student notebook is so reasonably priced I honestly think it is probably cheaper to just buy the notebook.

To read my crew-mates reviews of this product visit the TOS Blog Here.

I received a free copy of Considering God's Creation in exchange for my honest review of the product.

Pearson Education Reading Street TOS Review

2011-05-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

We were given the opportunity through the TOS Crew to review the Reading Street program by Scot Foresman. Reading Street is a comprehensive reading curriculum originally written to be used in the public school classroom.

Reading Street covers reading different genres such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. It covers reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and writing.
There are two books for unit one, book 2.1 and 2.2. Each book has 3 units and multiple stories and activities in each unit.

The book is very nicely laid out with very nice full color illustrations. It is simple to read with large enough text for the not experienced reader.
If you chose to use this program no other language arts would be needed. This program has in it everything needed for second grade language arts.

Our Experience:
We love the look of this book with it's illustrations and easy to follow formatting. The stories are interesting and engaging and very well done. I would not personally use this book alone simply because I want my children to have quite a bit more grammar. I do like it though for reading and reading comprehension. Will we use it in the future? Probably not. Simply because it is very cost prohibitive in my opinion. If it were more affordable I would love to use this as part of my reading program in addition to living books. Another consideration for my is that the website is not terribly easy to use. If I were not reviewing this program, as a homeschooler the website alone and difficulty in viewing the samples would turn me away.

Cost:
Each Student book is $43.47 available here.

To see what my crewmates thought of this product visit the TOS Blog here.

I received a free copy of Reading Street 2.1 and 2.2 in exchange for my honest review.

Wordy Qwerty TOS Review

2011-05-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

We were blessed to get to review Wordy Qwerty for the TOS Crew. Wordy Qwerty is the follow up to the program that we reviewed earlier in the year called Talking Fingers.
Talking Fingers teaches the basics of typing and then Wordy Qwerty continues to work on typing but also works on spelling and reading. Wordy Qwerty is made for children approximately age 7-9.

Wordy Qwerty works with your child on six basic skills.
1 Patterns: teaches children spelling rules and patterns of spelling.
2 Karaoke: This section contains 20 fun and engaging songs to teach your child the spelling rules.
3 Re-cycler: Works with your child on the different ways to spell rhyming words and introduces them to the fact that not all rhyming sounds are spelled the same way.
4 Pop-A-Word: Works on those hard to learn rule breakers.
5 Write Stories: Stories are dictated to your child and they then type what they hear.
6 Read Stories: Just as it sounds with a twist, every once in a while there is a word missing and your child will have to fill it in.
Visit the website here to learn more about these six skills and the games Wordy Qwerty uses to teach them.

Our Experience:
My kids love this program. It is fun, engaging, colorful and easy to navigate. Both my 8 and 9 year old have been using it with much success. Their typing is improving as is their spelling. I cannot recommend this program enough. I have searched high and low for a typing product I love and this one fits the bill. Not only are they learning to type and honing that skill but they are working on spelling, reading and vocabulary at the same time. I also love that the hands are always available to show them which finger to use and how to move it. That limits my having to hover which is always a bonus.

Pricing:
Online Subscriptions start at $25 a year for one student
Home Edition CD is $35
You can also do the free Demo here

I received 2 free online licenses for Wordy Qwerty in exchange for my honest review.

Making Lemonade out of Lemons......

2011-05-20T18:20:00.000-05:00

It's raining yet again......

At first we were sad, the rain meant we couldn't go to ponies yet again. Everyone was bummed. We decided to turn our day around though.
First we covered things in chocolate.... chocolate makes everything better ya know ;)

Then the kids brought every blanket we own to the living room while I made a bunch of air popped popcorn with real butter and plenty of salt..... then we all settled in to watch A Little Princess.

Sometimes rainy days are actually the best days <3

Mad Dog Math TOS Review

2011-05-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

We were chosen to review Mad Dog Math through the TOS Crew.
Mad Dog Math is a computer facts mastery program. Mad Dog Math takes your child through drills for addition subtraction, multiplication and division. Each fact family is worked on until your child knows them all in 2 minutes, then 1 minute and finally 30 seconds before moving on to the next level.

From the Website

Mad Dog Math is a supplement to any math curriculum used in any classroom, home school setting, or any home situation. The basic facts are a very small piece of the academic pie, but a crucial piece for future success as children move on to higher levels of math.

We’ve taken the basic facts and broken them down into bite-sized pieces that any child can master. A child progresses through a series of timed drills at his own pace. With each success comes confidence; with confidence comes more success. Students, for the first time, feel empowered by their gained knowledge and are not intimidated by math ever again. Where students once said, “Math is hard; I hate math!”, they now say, “Math is easy; math is fun!”

There is nothing on the market like Mad Dog Math.

Our Experience:

At first I was hesitant about this program. I am not a huge fan of flashcard style drills and I wasn't sure I was going to like this program at all. I can say though after using it with my children I actually am fairly impressed.

It isn't just going through the facts pointlessly ( in my child's mind) it is challenging them to beat the clock, then to beat themselves. It was a little frustrating for my children at first because it is hard to get to that 2 minute mark at first, but now they actually are enjoying the challenge.

I like it because I can skip the math drills in our math workbook and just let them do this. I know it's mastered when they can hit that 30 second mark and I don't need to try to decide for myself how fast is fast enough.

As an adult that still has to count on her fingers often and takes 30 seconds to recall some multiplication problems it is very important to me that my children have their math facts down. I feel like this program can help them achieve that and I plan to continue using it until they have mastered them all to the 30 second level.

Pricing:

One Year License: $19.99

Two Year License: $29.99

Perpetual License: $39.99

To see what my crew-mates thought of Mad Dog Math visit the TOS Blog Here.

I received a free trial of Mad Dog Math in exchange for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.

Sharing some pictures

2011-05-16T10:26:00.000-05:00

Sweet Amelia... Growing up so fast.

Such a good big brother!

Good Friends

Easter Sunday

Some light reading ;)

Days 3 and 4's sewing

2011-05-13T19:26:00.001-05:00

OK so I'm super slow right now because I'm really quite sick, but darnit I've put in my hour a day... so what if I'm averaging one dress every 2 days...The point is I'm doing it right.

OK so DD fell in LOVE with this Snow White shirt, only problem was it was only available in a size 14. What's a mama to do but buy it and cut it up and make it something else That's cost effective right? At least it was on clearance.

Here it is Audrey's beloved Snow White Henrika... she couldn't be happier

And the obligatory twirl picture

Day 1 and 2 of Sewing Kids Clothes Week

2011-05-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

So far I have just sewn one dress.... I'm sick so I can use that as an excuse for my lack of productivity right?? It is one pretty dress though... wanna see?

Farbenmix Elodie
I made the version with pleated sleeves and an underskirt trimmed with ruffled tulle. I need to tighten the neck elastic so it's not quite so low cut.

I added some 3D butterflies to the top here... It's hard to see but I just cut out some butterflies and put them onto interfacing the sewed only the middle down.

What you don't want modeling shots of Avery doing a plie?? I guess we've taken a lot of dance photos recently so she thinks I always want Ballet poses ;)

Monki See TOS Review

2011-05-11T11:41:00.001-05:00

From the website:
MonkiSee is a fun and entertaining collection of baby DVD's that expose babies to upbeat music, original poetry, lovable puppets and real world images. The MonkiSee collection teaches your baby to identify their body parts, colors, shapes and more, all while learning to read. TheMonki See series is rich in language and has been proven to increase your baby's vocabulary.

The MonkiSee Baby DVD series is a fun way for your baby to learn necessary preschool skills such as color and shape recognition. The concepts are introduced in a fun and interactive way. Your baby will love to "monkey around" with the lovable Howie and Skip.

Each Monki See baby dvd volume introduces new concepts to your baby in a playful and entertaining way. The MonkiSee collection is truly learning made fun. You will be amazed at how much your baby learns in this enjoyable manner.

Guaranteed to be your baby's favorite series - the MonkiSee line of baby DVD's are products babies love and parents can feel good about.

Our Experience: We received the Baby's First Words video and the Know your Monkey book. The recommendation is to watch the DVD daily 5 days a week. We did not do that because honestly that is just more TV than we allow for our children. My daughter is 3 which is slightly over the recommended age for this dvd but she really enjoyed the movie. She asked to watch it several times and sang back the songs from it. She also enjoyed the book, which was basically a review of the movie.
I would recommend these DVDs purely for occasional entertainment for your toddler. I would not however recommend them to "teach your baby to read" simply because I do not believe in trying to teach children that young to read. The movies are sweet and catchy and fun for the 2&3 year age group.

Monki See is available for purchase here.
DVD's are $19.95 each
Books are $9.95 each

To see what my crewmates thought of this book visit the crew blog here.

I received a free copy of the DVD and Book in exchange for my honest review of the product.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

2011-05-09T19:35:00.002-05:00

This challenge came at the perfect time for me. I just finished all of the ballet stuff and

it's getting warm enough that my kids REALLY need some new clothing!

So the challenge works like this. You have to spend just 1 hour a day sewing

clothing for your children. That's it one hour for one week. Easy enough right? If you're like me you will end up spending more once you get started. So far today I have just about finished a new dress for Avery. If I get it finished tonight I'll edit my post to add the picture.

I'm terribly sick so we'll see if I get that far or not.

If you want to join in here's the link to the challenge.

Kregel Publications TOS Review

2011-05-06T08:03:00.001-05:00

We were blessed to receive a book from the Circle C Beginnings series by Kregel Publications to review through the TOS Crew.

The book we received was the first in the series titled Andi's Pony Trouble.

When we first got it my daughter fiercely insisted she did NOT want to read this book. I told her she had to go read one chapter before she could make any decisions about the book.
She sulkily went up to her room to read and I went to do my chores. Two hours later she emerged and asked me to buy the next book..... she had finished that one!
So it went one book at a time, she finished one and I ordered the next. The days in between were spent with her checking the tracking number and looking on the porch for her next book.
She has now read all of the books in the series and is working on the next series where Andi is a bit older.

She also did all of the activity pages offered here. There are coloring pages, puzzles, and different activity sheets to go with every book.

I also read the first book and was very impressed. The story was wholesome, simple and took the time to teach the children little lessons incorporated throughout the story.
Obviously we love this series and will read all of the Kregel Publications books we can.... we've even been loaning out our Andi books to friends so they can experience these great little books.
I highly recommend these books for your early reader.

At just $4.99 per book they are a great way to add to your young readers library.
The books are available for purchase from the publisher, amazon, or christianbook.com.

To see what my crew-mates thought visit the crew blog here.

I received a free copy of Andi's Pony Troubles in exchange for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.

Dress Rehearsal

2011-05-04T16:12:00.001-05:00

We had our dress rehearsal Monday night so I thought I would share a couple of pictures.
In other news we found out the hard way Avery and Annabelle are just not quite ready for their big stage debut.... oh well better we found out at the rehearsal than at the show ;)

Did I say a few pictures? I may have meant 21 pictures... hey, I'm proud of my kids, what can I say?

This is it....

2011-04-30T17:05:00.000-05:00

This is my one giant look at what I accomplished post. Let me get it all out once and then I'll be quiet. I must say though I am quite proud of all that I accomplished and seeing it all finished today felt good.
I made all of these costumes from scratch... even the leotards.

First up is the evil queen ( I didn't make the Raven that was Tonya's creation)
This costume was so tedious and detailed and I just don't have a good picture to show it unfortunately. Trust me though this one has a lot of hours in it.
Jalie 2915 on top nude lycra underneath stretch burn out velvet on top, self drafted (read just very gathered) tulle skirt, darkness costume underneath which I'll talk about in a minute. Simple arm sleeves just cut out and sewn down the sides. Crown was made from wire and beads by Weylin. I added some gathered tulle to the top and tacked a tulle bow into the front.

12 Tree Nymphs

Leotards and leggings are Kwik Sew 3661 on the bigger girls and the younger girls are wearing the Jalie Unitard 2105. Skirts are just pointed strips all sewn together and the arm pieces are the strips sewn onto fold over elastic. Crowns and masks were also made by Weylin.

9 Darkness
Girls costumes are Kwik Sew 3331 with spirals sewn onto elastic for their arm pieces. Weylin's costume is a Jalie V neck shirt, a Kwik Sew knit PJ pant cut off with elastic added into the leg and a McCall cape.

4 Sunshine
I somehow missed the group pose on this one. Ottobre leotard and Jalie 2915 tutu with double the tulle layers and a layer of chiffon on top. The hairpiece is just something I copied off one we had.

2 Rainbows
I made the two in the middle. Pink costume is Ottobre Leotard and just a gathered skirt. Purple one is the Ottobre leotard minus the sleeves cut just below the bust to add the skirt. For the skirt I used the top layer of the darkness skirt pattern.

Bunny
Kwik Sew Leo 3508 Jalie 2915 tutu

Raccoons
I made the bodies and Marilyn did the tails. Bodies are made from Kwik Sew 2711

I also made 2 guard costumes that didn't make it into any pictures.

That's 33 costumes in all.... whew I am so glad to be done. I loved every minute of it but I officially am worn out. Now it's time to clean my house and catch up on laundry ;)

That's all the showing off you'll see about the costumes, now be prepared for me to show off my kids as we go into show week!

Greek N Stuff TOS Review

2011-04-29T22:21:00.000-05:00

We received Hey, Andrew! Teach me some Greek! Level one to review from Greek 'N' Stuff.
This program is a simple introduction to Biblical Greek. It teaches the Greek Alphabet, How to write it and the sound each letter makes.
Each lesson starts off teaching the child how to write the letter, next it teaches how to pronounce it and the program includes a pronunciation CD so you don't have to know how to pronounce the letters yourself. Next your child will do a review of the letters previously learned and then an activity on the weeks letter. The program also includes flash cards to review the letters.
This program is very easy to use and laid out simply enough that my 7 year old daughter was able to do this independently. She does now know the Greek alphabet and it's pronunciation.

Our Experience:

We aren't terribly interested in learning Greek at this time. If we were this is a simple way to do it. Honestly though for our family things that are too simple can sometimes be thought of as boring by my children. This program really wasn't something that was a great fit for our family. We aren't really workbook people and this was a very sit and work type program. I know that is what works for a lot of people so if your children enjoy doing workbooks and you enjoy them then this would be a fabulous program for you. It requires little to no parent involvement and it is effective.

Level one of Hey, Andrew! Teach me some Greek! is available here.

There are many different products but what we received is

The Level one workbook $14.95

Answers only answer key $4.00

Pronunciation CD $10.00

Visit the crew blog here to see what my crew-mates thought of this program.

I received the products listed above in exchange for my honest review of the program, no other compensation was received.

Writing Tales TOS Review

2011-04-27T22:43:00.001-05:00

We were blessed to receive Writing Tales level one and two to review through the TOS Crew.
Writing Tales is a Classical Style Composition and Language Arts program. This program teaches children from approximately 3rd grade to 5th Grade.
Writing Tales lays the foundation your children will rely on to learn how to write successfully.

Writing Tales is split into 30 lessons each focused around a short story or fable. Each story is studied for two lessons and each lesson lasts a week.
The teachers manual clearly details what you should be doing each day of the week. The curriculum is very open and go and requires no figuring out when to do things on the teachers part.

Day 1 always starts with reading the story for the week. Then you will learn about the author of the story and discuss the story, main characters, the conflict and resolution. Then your children will retell the story to you orally.
Day 2 your student will work on copy-work and grammar.
Day 3 your student will work on vocabulary related to the story.
Day 4 your student will reread the grammar lesson and do practice grammar work.
Day 5 your student will write a rough draft retelling the original story in their own words.
**For clarity's sake I'm going to call the second week of the same story days 6-10.**
Day 6 your student will review the grammar lesson and reread the story.
Day 7 your student will work on spelling
Day 8 your student will have another grammar lesson and write their final draft adding their own creative touches.
Day 9 is more grammar
Day 10 the student will copy over their final version of their story and place it in a special place for safe keeping.

Some weeks their are also games or other fun activities but your student will consistently learn grammar, writing, spelling, vocabulary and do copy-work.

There is also another section in the teachers manual that lays out a plan for using this program in a co-op setting. It lays out what to cover in class and what to send home with your students as homework.

Our Experience:
I have used other writing programs and given up on them time and time again because they were just so confusing. Writing is not a strong point for me and teaching it up until now has been nearly impossible. This program changes all of that. It is simple, clear and concise. I am never left wondering what I should teach or how I should teach it. Writing Tales never requires me to spend hours trying to figure it out. Honestly I haven't even had to make a lesson plan. I open the book and do what it tells me to do, it's really that simple.
My children and I have enjoyed every story we have read and have all had fun using this program. No one sighs or moans when it's time to do writing and often they ask if we can do it first when I let them choose what order to do our work in. Best of all my dyslexic son is LOVING writing his own stories. This from the boy who avoids writing at all costs, the boy who would rather do anything else. Last week I told him he had to write his first two sentences and I would write the rest for him if he dictated it to me. He got so involved in his story that he forgot and wrote the whole thing himself!
Writing Tales will absolutely be a keeper for our family, I only hope the higher levels are finished before we need them.

Writing Tales is available here
Level one Teachers Manual is $24.95 and the Student Workbook is $19.95
Level two Teachers Manual is $32.95 and the Student Workbook is $24.95

But wait! Luckily the Writing Tales annual sale is coming up May 2nd through 9th and you can get writing tales for 20% off plus get free shipping, so if you are wanting to give this a try now is the time to do it!

To see what my crew-mates thought of Writing Tales visit the Crew Blog here

I received Level One and Two of Writing Tales in exchange for my honest review of their product. No other compensation was received.

Nutrition 101 TOS Review

2011-04-21T06:57:00.001-05:00

We were blessed to receive an E-book from Growing Healthy Homes called Nutrition 101: Choose Life.
Nutrition 101 is an information packed health curriculum that you can use with your entire family from preschoolers up to the adults in the family.

Nutrition 101 is filled with information not only about how to stay healthy but why. It is divided by sections of the body and tells you how each part of your body works and how to keep it healthy. The sections are

The Brain and Nervous System
Digestion and Elimination
Respiration and Olfactory
Muscular and Skeletal Systems
Cardiovascular and Immune Systems
Endocrine System and Emotions

Each chapter starts off with a thorough description of how that part of the body works, what it needs to stay healthy and different diseases that can affect it. There are also definitions to the side of the text for the more complex words and fun little facts relating to the area being taught.

Next there are Discussion Questions, Additional Resources if you want to learn more and activities you and your child can do relating to the chapter.

Last each recipe has a Power recipe made from foods that are good for that part of your body.

Our Experience:

I am truly impressed with this book. It teaches our children not only how to eat healthy but WHY which is so important. If we only teach our children how to eat healthy but not why chances are it won't mean much to them. I love that the book also teaches them how the body works, understanding what a complex system our bodies are is key in understanding why we must keep it healthy. The book is packed with great information, wonderful pictures and fun activities. The power recipes are tasty and kid approved, so much so that my kids are asking for them to be made again! I meant to get a picture of the kids enjoying one of them but honestly it was like a swarm and it was gone before I had a chance!

Some of the information in the book was a little over my lower elementary/preschoolers heads but I actually am thankful for that because that means the book can grow with us. We can do it now and gain some knowledge and do it again and again and learn more each time. I plan on using this as our primary health program for the remainder of our school years. The only con for me was that I truly wish I had received the hardcover book instead of the e-book since this is something I want in my hands and used repeatedly. I love it so much I'm actually considering buying the hard copy for myself even though I have the E-book.

Pricing

Electronic Version- $79.95

Hard Cover Book- $99.95

Combination of Both- $129.95

Growing Healthy Homes has made a special offer to readers of the TOS Crew for 15% off of their products using the code TOSCREW11

To see what my crew-mates thought please visit the TOS Blog Here

I received an e-book of Nutrition 101 in exchange for my honest review of their product. No other compensation was received.

Back to life as we know it.....

2011-04-18T08:25:00.000-05:00

The costumes are almost done, the house is put back together and the laundry is in the process of being done. It feels so good to have some semblance of normal back in our life. I thoroughly enjoy doing the costumes but I am more than ready for some free time and our normal routine.

The kids are eating breakfast right now and then we will be doing school. After that I may see if I can finish up the 3 costumes I have left so I can really be done. I counted them the other day and realized I have made 32 costumes completely from scratch. Leotards, skirts everything... that's quite an accomplishment. I did have some help from wonderful friends and from my kids but still WOW I'm amazed at how much we got done in such a small amount of time.

Now that we're back to normal life I'm sure I will post more often again and take more pictures but for now this little update will have to do.

Here is the information for the show.....Please let me know if you would like a ticket. We would love for you to come see the show.

(yes I realize it says insert your info here, I can't figure out how to change it so my info is Angel 283-9250)

All About Reading TOS Review

2011-04-13T12:38:00.001-05:00

Our family was so very blessed to be chosen to review the All About Reading program for the TOS Crew.
We are already quite familiar with All About Learning Press through All About Spelling which we have used for years and love. Our expectations for this program were quite high and I am happy to report we were not at all disappointed

We were given the deluxe package of All About Reading Pre-Level 1. The deluxe package includes

Teacher's Manual (208 pages)
Student Material Packet

My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
Picture Cards
Letter Sound Cards
Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart

The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book
Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new hardcover book
Divider Cards (keeps your Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized
"Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM.
Ziggy the Zebra puppet
a charming Activity Box to hold your student's learning cards
All About Reading tote bag to keep your components organized

I also purchased an additional student workbook so I could do it with 2 kids at once. A quick note in case you are familiar with All About Spelling and are using one student pack with multiple children, you cannot do that with All About Reading. There are daily activities in the workbooks that are consumable so you will want as many student packs as you have students.

I originally intended to use this with my 4 year old and 6 year old but when I received it I realized it is a little young for my 6 year old. My 3 year old however LOVES it. It is really just perfect for preschool or a kindergartener who does not yet know their letters. My 6 year old is a pre-reader but she has a pretty decent grasp on her letters and letter sounds so while she sits with us and enjoys the program I would not purchase it for her.

All About Reading starts by teaching upper case letters. Each lesson starts with the alphabet song and finding the letter of the day on your corresponding poster. There are 2 posters one for uppercase letters and one for lowercase.
Then you will read part of a story in one of the readers to your child about that letter.
Next is the craft sheet for the day's letter. It is an outline of the letter along with a cute animal picture that begins with that letter. On the back of each craft sheet is instructions for how to decorate your letter. I won't give away their ideas for the letters but I will say that is my children's favorite part of the day. It's fun, memorable and easy to do for Mom.
Next you choose from a list of activities what you want to do for the letter that day. I love that aspect because some days I want to choose a simple quick activity and other days I have time to spare so I choose something more involved.
Next you will play a game with your child either with the student cards or the zebra puppet. The games are designed to teach your child skills that they need to learn to be a successful reader such as letter knowledge, phonological awareness,print awareness,listening comprehension, and motivation to read. These are the big 5 skills that All About Reading is trying to teach your pre-reader in order to help them achieve reading success.
Lastly you are encouraged to spend 20 minutes at some point during the day reading to your child.

The next section covers the lowercase letters in much the same way as the first part.
The third and last section of this level covers the sound of the Letters.
This section will teach your child the most common sound of each letter. The program also includes a CD-ROM of the correct pronunciations so you can be sure your child is always hearing the right sound. All About Reading uses a multi-sensory approach to teaching these sounds making it easier for your child to remember them. There is once again an activity sheet for each letter and corresponding games and stories for each letter as well.
The books that you use throughout the program are also available on an audio CD for independent listening, review or to save Mom's tired voice.

Our Experience:
I love everything about this program. I intend to use it through every level with my three younger children assuming the levels are ready when we are. The approach is perfect for what I believe my children need. It is simple, fun and engaging. My children beg to do this, if I am busy they will talk their 14 year old brother into doing a lesson with them. Also the teachers manual is so clear and easy to implement that my 14 year old son or their Dad has no problem just picking it up and doing a lesson with them. There is no preparation involved at all.
I wasn't sure at first if I would use the Zebra with them because it seemed a little silly but the zebra is a must I have discovered. The zebra is such a good teacher for my little girls. They love him and never tire of listening to what he has to say. I have never been able to hold their attention for so long before Ziggy began teaching. They love him so much he's even started teaching their math as well... and if I'm not careful he goes missing every chance they get.

The workbook itself is well made and the pictures and craft ideas have been a lot of fun. We actually removed all of the pages from our book and put them into binders so that we can easily save all of our letters to review later. This is also something easy and sweet to keep as a reminder of my children's early schoolwork.

I have been so impressed by this program that I will be recommending it every chance I get!

All About Reading Level Pre-1 is available here.

You can purchase the Basic level for $79.95 which includes everything you need to teach one student or the Deluxe level for $119.95 which also includes the zebra puppet, a box to store your cards in with dividers separated by lesson and a tote bag to help keep you organized. Additional student packs are available for $24.95 each and are the only consumable part of the program.
One of the great thing about All About Learning is that they offer a 100% 1 year guarantee on all of their products. That means there is absolutely no risk in purchasing this program. If you buy it and it isn't a good fit for you or your child simply return it and they will refund you 100%. You really can't beat a guarantee like that!

I do have one thing I would love to see changed about the program. I would really appreciate an option to only buy the student workbook. It is a pricey although worth every penny program so I would love to see a more affordable option for replacing the consumables to use with other children or adding students. I really don't want to buy more posters or cards because I don't need more than one set of those.

All About Reading has a special offer right now where you can go here and download two FREE All About Reading books that you can do with your children! They also have samples available here at the bottom of the page so you can look before you purchase.

To see what my crew-mates thought about this program visit the TOS Blog here.

I received a free deluxe set of All About Reading Level Pre-1 in exchange for my honest review of their program. No other compensation was received.

Shopping is very hard work.....

2011-04-11T09:21:00.002-05:00

Snow White.... better known as why I've been absent.

2011-04-09T20:16:00.000-05:00

Our ballet studio that the kids dance at is doing a production of Snow White. All six kids will be dancing in it... and I am sewing a lot of the costumes! Between rehearsals and costumes I have been quite consumed.
I am relieved to say though the end is in sight thanks to some fabulous friends and my wonderfully understanding and helpful family.

I was going to wait until professional picture day to post pics but I just can't wait so you're getting a sneak peak ;)

The Evil Queen

Darkness

(there are 9 of these total)

Tree Nymphs

(12 of these)

My little Bunny

There are also 4 Sunshines, 2 Soldiers, and some other random small projects that I don't have pictures of quite yet.

Want to see what my living room looks like in the midst of making 30 some odd costumes from scratch.......

Thank Goodness I have such an understanding husband!

The show will be May 6th at the Bentonville High School and 7th at the Springdale High School.
If you would like to see the show please let me know. I will have tickets available soon for $10 per adult or $5 per child. It will truly be a fabulous show that you can enjoy even if you aren't related to any of the performers by blood!

Science Weekly TOS Review

2011-04-08T22:20:00.000-05:00

Science Weekly is a multi level monthly science newspaper targeted towards children in grades K-6.

Each edition of the newspaper covers a different topic. There are six different levels available to meet your child's needs. Each level covers the same topic so you can use this with all of your children at once and teach them all the same thing at their individual levels. Your individual subscription includes a teachers guide that covers all of the levels on one convenient sheet.

You can view sample newspapers here and here. There are also five subjects available in their new interactive format here.

Pricing:

$19.95 per student for less than 20 subscriptions

$4.95 per student for 20 subscriptions or more.

One teachers guide comes with each set of 25 subscriptions.

Our Experience:

Our edition of Science Weekly was on composting. Composting was something I have always wanted to do but lacked the motivation to get started so I was excited to get this edition. We got one of each level on the subject so all of the kids had their own Science Weekly to look at and work on. I was even able to get my teen involved and enjoying it.

Each level shares age appropriate information on the subject and has activities for every child to complete. They also have experiments in every level starting at very simple to the more complex ones for your older child.

All of my children learned a lot from this and enjoyed the activity. When they were done with their Science Weekly they all went and found a container to use as a compost bin and have been diligently composting ever since..... when we remember. I'm sure our garden will thank us for our effort soon and thanks to Science Weekly we all know a lot more about composting and why it helps our garden.

I would love to be able to subscribe to Science Weekly for my children. They really enjoyed it and learned a lot. Unfortunately at $19.99 a level I just cannot afford it. I would love to see an option available to coop the magazines possibly through your local homeschool coop. I plan on calling them on Monday to discuss this and see if it's a possibility. I will update this as soon as I know. For now we will be utilizing the seven different issues they have available for free on their website and hoping that we can become subscribers in the near future.

To see what my crew-mates thought of Science Weekly visit the TOS Blog Here.

I received one of each level of the Composting edition of Science Weekly in exchange for my honest review of their program.

KinderBach TOS Review

2011-04-06T16:36:00.002-05:00

We had the opportunity through the TOS Crew to review an online music program called KinderBach. KinderBach is a program that teaches children ages 3-7 basic music theory and how to play the piano. It currently has six levels with a seventh in the works.
Each level includes ten weeks worth of lessons doing four lessons a week. You can choose to have an online membership and watch all of your videos online or you can order DVDs of the lessons. Whichever works better for your family.

Each lesson includes instruction from the teacher and some sort of activity. The activities vary from lesson to lesson. Some days it's a coloring page and other days it's doing rhythms on pots and pans or marching high and low to songs, you just never know what kind of fun activity you will get to do.

Kinderbach also provides PDF workbooks and coloring pages for you child to accompany the lessons.

Kinderbach uses fun characters to help your child learn like Dodi and Frisco.
The characters seem to keep the kids engaged and really help them learn through fun little memory tricks.

Our Experience:
I started off with the intention of doing this with all 5 of my younger children from 3-9. I was quickly informed however by my 9 year old son that it was just too young for him. My 8 year old enjoyed some things but not others. I can say the three younger children who are 3,4 and 6 loved everything about this program.

The younger girls loved doing the activities and often after doing the days lesson begged to do another. They understood the concepts and remembered them later. I was a bit skeptical about a video piano program but thus far it really does seem to be working and the kids love it!

We will continue to use KinderBach for as long as my children enjoy it and continue to learn. I just can't get private lessons for the price of KinderBach and I honestly think it will provide them with a great base before we begin lessons out of the home.

Pricing:
Online memberships for the video's on the computer are $95.88 annual or $19.99 monthly per family. The yearly membership ends up being only $7.99 a month for all of your kids!I know I couldn't even cover my gas to lessons much less the actual lesson fee for that!
DVD packs are $40.95 per level. Depending on how many children you plan to use it with over what space of time this may be the more cost effective method for your family. I'm still trying to decide what would be the most economical for us.
The best part is you can try KinderBach totally FREE before you commit just by visiting their website here. There's no risk to you by trying it out for free and then you can decide if this program is right for your family yourself.

Visit the Crew Blog here to see what my crew-mates thought of KinderBach.

I received a three month subscription to KinderBach in exchange for my honest review of their product. No other compensation was received.

Go Go Kabongo TOS Review

2011-04-04T12:18:00.003-05:00

We had the opportunity to review a brand new award winning computer program called Go Go Kabongo for the TOS Crew.

Go Go Kabongo is a game based program that takes your child through three different habitats to teach your pre-reader/ beginning reader a variety of skills needed to help them master reading. Here is a chart detailing the different skills they will learn and where they will learn them.

There are 3 different habitats in the game so far and they are working on creating more.

The first habitat is Laughter Lake

Next is Twister Top

Last is Galaxy Gardens

Usually each habitat is $4.95 per child but if you sign up now you get the first two habitats FREE!

Each habitat has three games and takes your child through each game until they have mastered that skill. You can go to your parent page and see which skills your child has mastered and which they are still working through. Go Go Kabongo also emails you to let you know your child's progress.

You start the game out in the tree house. From there you can click on the map to play the games in the habitats, click on the skate park to make your own skate tracks, make your avatar with their many different fun combinations or go to the comic book maker.

When you win the games you are rewarded with stickers allowing you to play at the skateboard park and make comic books.

Our Experience:

Pros:

*The characters are engaging and the games are enough fun that my children don't realize they are educational.

*The programs are easy to navigate when the program is working correctly.

* Low cost at only $4.95 per child for a lifetime membership to all worlds. (this may change in the future as more levels are added and if the first 2 levels are no longer free so jump on this now ;) )

*For me this is a great way to know my younger children are doing something educational close by that doesn't require my help while I work with older children.

* The kids really wanted to work for the stickers to play the skate park and comic book maker.

* Easy to go check your child's progress

* One log in for the whole family so I'm not required to remember multiple logins.

Cons:

* The program is in it's Beta form right now and is sometimes quite glitchy. There were some days it just wouldn't work right and we had to not play. Other days it worked great. I assume they are working on the kinks.

*It is yet another sit on the computer activity BUT for us we use those as "school" for the little kids because otherwise they get into trouble while I'm teaching the big kids.

Visit the website Here to register to play. Try out the free levels and decide if this program works for your little ones. I know we will continue to use it in our arsenal of computer school programs and look forward to the addition of more levels in the future. I particularly think this would be a great game for young boys, although my girls really like it as well.

See what my other crew-mates thought of Go Go Kabongo here.

I received one free membership to Go Go Kabongo in return for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.

Zeezok Publishing, Z Guide to the movies, Kitt Kittredge TOS Review

2011-04-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

We reviewed the Zeezok Z-Guide to the movies for Kitt Kittredge.
What is a Z-Guide you ask? Good question.
For $12.99 per guide Zeezok has chosen over 20 fabulous movies and made activity guides for each movie. Included in the guides is The Topic Overview, The Movie Synopsis, 10 Activities, A plan for a weeks worth of lessons and an answer key.
All of the movies they have chosen have topics that you can incorporate into your child's education.

The guides they offer and the corresponding subjects are....
*12 Angry Men, U.S. Government and Judicial Procedures
*A Man for all Seasons, medieval English history
*A Tale of Two Cities, the French Revolution
*Amazing Grace, British History
*Ben Hur, Medieval Europe
* Cromwell, English Civil War
*Driving Miss Daisy, American Civil Rights History
*Father Goose, World War II in the Pacific
* Flyboys, Great War (World War I)
*Guess who's coming to dinner, American Civil Rights History
*Inherit the Wind, Scopes Trial in American History
* Jason and the Argonauts, Greek mythology
*Johhny Tremain, American Revolution
*Kitt Kittredge, the Great Depression
*Knights of the round table, Arthur Pendragon’s rise and fall as king of England
*Les Miserables, nineteenth-century France
*Mr Smith Goes to Washington, a great way to incorporate media into your social studies curriculum
*My Side of the Mountain, a great way to incorporate media into your curriculum
*One Night with the King, Ancient Persian History
*Scarlet Pimpernel, French Revolution
* Sergeant York, Great War (World War I)
*The Adventures of Robin Hood, Middle Ages
*The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, World War II
* The Count of Monte Cristo, French Revolution
*The Hiding Place, World War II
*The Red Badge of Courage, Civil War
*The Ten Commandments, Ancient History
*To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Depression

All of these movies and their guides are available to purchase here for $12.99 each for the guides and $15.98 each per movie. These movies are all available on Netflix as well and probably at your local movie store.

The Guides are geared towards middle school and high school students but the one we did was easily simplified to be done with my 3rd graders. I think you just need to look over the content of the movie before you decide what age child you would like to use the guide with.

Our Experience.

We reviewed the guide for the movie Kitt Kittredge.

First the movie... Everyone in our family really enjoyed this movie from Mom and Dad all the way down to two years old. That even includes a 14 year old boy that said he wasn't going to watch it but then watched it twice!

The story was great and the entire movie was very wholesome and full of values I was happy to share with my children. They really did a fabulous job of turning a positive spin on a less than positive situation in history while still sharing the sadness and despair of the time.
I liked the overall message of the film that even when things aren't going the way we would like them to we can still choose to be happy.
I know we weren't reviewing the movie but I think it's important to know that the movies they choose ( or at least the one I watched) are good movies.

The Guide.... the kids enjoyed the movie so much that they were really anxious to learn more about the depression after just watching the movie.

The Guide starts off with instructions for how to use the guide including a 5 day schedule. You can choose to complete the whole guide in a week or like us spread out the days of work just doing a couple days a week for younger children.

Next is a Topic Overview filled with information on the depression, how we got there and what was happening during that time. The information in this section did a great job of answering most of my children's questions right from the start.

The Guide then includes a Synopsis of the Movie. After that come the actual activities.

Activity 1 was Movie Review Questions. These were great for us to use as a starting point for what ended up being a really nice discussion. You are actually supposed to answer these while you watch the movie but we did it just after.

Activity 2 is to Research the Great Depression. It gives you several questions to look up and find the answer to. I loved this because my kids have not yet developed the skill to be able to find answers like this yet. It was a great opportunity for them to have a chance to find their own answers ( with a little guidance).

Activity 3 was the star of the guide in my kids eyes. You go to a website online and look up coded messages ( replicating the Hobo language showed in the movie) and you can also create your own code. So much fun!

Activity 4 was some depression era vocabulary. Several of the words they learned in the movie but most were new to them so that gave them an opportunity to learn some new words.

Activity 5 allows your student to try their hand at reporting just like Kitt. This one was a bit above my 8 and 9 year olds head but I think it would be a lot of fun for an older child.

Activity 6 was a fashion runway great depression style. This activity gave the kids questions to answer about common dress of the time and asked them to color or sketch some examples of common dress. For an older child it asks for a power point of the fashion of the times.

Activity 7 is a game type question and answer. You are given a question describing a person and based on the clues must figure out who it is. This was right up my kids alleys and they really enjoyed this one.
It was a race to see who could guess first.

Activity 8 was on Literary Devices. Once again over my kids age level but something that I would love to do with an older child.

Activity 9 was on pride and prejudice in the 1930's. Great thought provoking questions. A little advanced for the younger elementary crew but still good for an in depth discussion on prejudice at any age.

Activity 10 is on the Filmmaker's Art and Dramatic License. It discusses Lighting, Irony, Music and Color.

Last there is a section with questions for a family discussion. Perfect for a great thought provoking discussion at the dinner table.

I loved the guides focus on steering our children to good moral values and I will definitely be using their guides again. I think they were very well done and a wonderful break from the routine study.
My kids also really enjoyed this study and weeks later are still discussing the Depression and wanting to learn more about it. That gives this guide an A+ in my book!

Read what my crewmates thought of their guides at the TOS Blog Here.

I received a free copy of the Z-Guide for this movie in exchange for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.

Classical Academic Press Song School Latin TOS Review

2011-03-30T20:22:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of this year I debated whether or not I wanted to start learning Latin this year. Ultimately I decided that none of the programs I had looked at would work for my children this year. They really don't enjoy a lot of rote memorization or writing. I had never heard of Song School Latin, but if I had this would have been exactly what I was looking for.

Song School Latin is an introduction to Latin for your lower elementary age children. It combines, songs, vocabulary, word practice, games and coloring sheets to gently get your child excited about learning Latin.

Each Chapter starts off with a list of words you will be learning that week. It then gives you the songs to go with those words. The songs are my favorite part of this program. They are fun and catchy. My children ask to listen to them and I find myself even humming them throughout the day!
Next you have a short chapter lesson that you read aloud to your child followed by some exercises for your child to complete.
Some of the exercises include practice writing Latin words, matching Latin words to Latin based English words, filling in Latin words in a story, different fun activities and a short "Show what you know" Quiz at the end of each week. In addition to the chapter work at the end of the book there are additional fun activities that go with each chapter. They even have coloring sheets available online here that go with each lesson.
You can also get the monkey match cards which is a Latin matching game for extra reinforcement.

Our Experience:

I feel so blessed that we were chosen to review this program. My children have just absolutely loved everything about it and retained everything they have been taught. They always want to do their Latin work and make sure I never forget the extras either.
My 7 year old daughter even has all of her coloring pages saved so far so that she can make a book of all of her Latin words when we are finished.
The songs really make this program so much fun. They are so well done that I can't imagine anyone not liking them. They really commit to your memory making it nearly impossible to forget what you've learned. I will say my children and I are all very auditory learners so this was just right up our alley.
They also really enjoy the monkey match up cards. It's just a fun little challenge for them to see which words they remember.
Another thing I really like is that since the only thing you really need to complete this program is the Student workbook this is a very inexpensive program. The CD is included with the workbook and the teachers manual isn't really necessary.
It is nice to have the answers right there and it's nice to not have to look over your students shoulder since the pages are all in the teachers manual but if you're on a budget you can definitely do it with just the workbook alone. Honestly if I could only choose the student book and one other thing I would skip the manual and get the monkey match cards. They are great for reviewing words.
I will use this program with all of my kids without a doubt as they are old enough for it and I will buy the next level up when we are done with this one.
I foresee a long lasting relationship between our family and Classical Academic Press!

Song School Latin is available from Classical Academic Press Here.
The bundle which includes the Teachers Manual, Student Workbook w/ CD, and Monkey Match cards is $64.95
Student workbook is $22.95
Teachers manual is $22.95
Monkey Match Cards are $24.95

To see what my other crewmates thought visit the TOS blog here.

I received a free Song School Latin Bundle in exchange for my honest review of the program. No other compensation was received.

Big IQ Kids Premium Membership TOS Review

2011-03-25T12:26:00.002-05:00

We were given a Premium Membership to Big IQ Kids to review for the TOS Crew.

Big IQ kids is an online educational program that teaches your child Spelling, Vocabulary, Math, and Geography. The premium program tracks your child, saves all of their information and points and alerts me when they make major accomplishments. I can also log in at any time and see how they're doing.

Spelling...
The Spelling program comes either with automatic word lists customized to your child's level or you can use the spelling words your child is already working on and have your child quizzed on those. I love that feature because that means one less thing for Mom to worry about. I can just put their spelling words into the program and let Big IQ kids do the work. The kids much prefer that too. It's much easier to learn your spelling words while doing a game than by Mom trying to drill them into your brain, or so I've been told.

Math...
First let me say I love this math program. It's simple drilling BUT it doesn't have to be all one thing. You can go in and say I want it to be 20% double digit addition, 30% double digit subtraction and 50% single digit multiplication and that is exactly what your child will get. I hate that most programs make you choose one type of problems to work on when in reality my children need practice in multiple things. Now if you want them to just work on one thing great set that at 100%. The kids didn't choose math on their own to work on but they also didn't complain when I asked them to do it. No complaining is good enough for me.

Vocabulary...

The vocabulary is much like the spelling. You can use their words or insert your own. I love this for the same reason I love the spelling. We have a lot of subjects that require us to learn vocabulary. Now I can just go through our weeks lessons, gather all of those words and insert them into this program. Voila no more writing out definition after definition. Can I say writing definitions is one of my children't least favorite activities.

Geography...

This is by far my children's favorite aspect of the program. This is what they beg to do when they get on. Which works for me since I was lacking in Geography curriculum. It teaches them the states and different information on each state. It also teaches them how to spell each state, it's capital and it's abbreviation.

Our experience:

All in all my kids really enjoyed this program. They never complained about doing it and often asked to do it.

They have learned well from it so that makes Momma happy. I also find it extremely helpful that I can use the spelling and vocabulary words my kids already need to learn.

A couple cons...

One is that the computer voice is annoying, my kids never mentioned it but it did bother me.

The other is that some things are hard to navigate. Like for one it says to go to the game page to change your robot guys appearance but I could never find the game page and neither could my children. Definitely not a huge deal, just a minor annoyance.

Free VS Premium (from the site)

The primary differences between the BigIQkids FREE and PREMIUMprograms are the ability of the PREMIUM program to monitor the progress of the student and advance that student only when mastery of the subject matter has been achieved. Additionally, PREMIUM members have their progress tracked, saved, problem areas identified and these findings are reported via email to parents and/or teachers. The PREMIUMprogram offers students customized buddies, full game page access and the ability to save game coins and gaming high scores. These functions help double the fun while mastering core academic subject matter. The PREMIUM program has very LIMITED advertisement an no ads are displayed during lesson interaction.

Pricing

For all of the programs it is $19.99 Per month or $99.99 per year.

You can also choose just one program to make premium for $7.99 a month.

These prices are per account. Visit the website here for full pricing info.

My suggestion....

Go and register to try it free. See how your child likes it and if you and your child love it purchase a membership. It really is a fun site even if you can only do the free portion. I know it's not in all of our budgets to use the premium account although I have really enjoyed it.

Go check out what my other crewmates thought here.

I received a free premium account to Big IQ kids in exchange for my honest review of their product. No other compensation was received.

Spring has Sprung!!

2011-03-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

To celebrate we went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday with friends. The Garden is one of our family's favorite places. I can't wait until everything is in full bloom!

Artistic Pursuits TOS Review

2011-03-23T09:32:00.002-05:00

This is a review I was really excited about. We have used a very old copy of Artistic Pursuits book 1 for the past couple of years. I was so excited to have a new book to work from. First let me say the new format is fabulous. I love having the pictures included in the book rather than loose. Everything is visually appealing and simple. Since I'm teaching five children simple thrills me!

We received Book Two of the Grades K-3 Series. In this book your child will learn painting with watercolor, tempera, oil pastels, printmaking, sculpture with paper mache, and mixed media.

The book starts out with a materials list. It tells you everything you will need to complete the entire book. You can choose to get it as you go, purchase it all at once or you can purchase an art kit through the company Here.It also tells you what you will need extra of for additional students so you will know just what you need. I love that because having multiple students I often wish sellers had this option.

Next is a section titled Teaching Observation Skills which goes over ways to help you teach your students.

Then it proceeds onto the lessons. Each lesson starts with a famous artist and work of art. It tells about the Artists life and their artwork. This part is between one and two pages and are just enough in my opinion to teach your young child about artists but not so much their eyes glaze over. Then at the end of the information there are a couple questions for you to discuss with your child.

Next is the actual art project. In a box at the top of the page it clearly tells you what supplies you will need for the project. Then it has a section you are to read aloud to your child telling them exactly what to do. It also has pictures for the slightly more complex techniques to show the steps. Finally in the top corner there is a picture completed by a child for them to see.

Our Experience:

There is honestly nothing I would change about this program's content. It is just the right mix for our family of Artist information and art projects. The projects are simple enough that I , who has NO artistic ability whatsoever, feel confident teaching this to my children. It is also simple enough that I do it every week. Before we started Artistic Pursuits art rarely happened. We would do crafts sure but getting out the real art supplies was too much work. I had no idea what to have them do, no direction and as I mentioned before no ability.

With Artistic Pursuits I just schedule it into our week. We do a unit every week and it works fabulously for us. I know what I need to do, what supplies are needed well in advance, and exactly how to teach it. I love that they are learning about various artist,gaining an appreciation for artwork and getting to try their hand at being an artist themselves.

What I really love though is that there is no stress involved in it for me. Stressed out Mom sucks all the fun out of art and this program really prevents that for me.

The one thing I would like to see changed is the binding on the book. Mine fell apart after very little use and while I can and did put it back together I would love something sturdier. I plan on using this again and again. Even just three hole punched in plastic would work for me so I could put it in my own binder. As a matter of fact I think I will do that to my books.

This program is available from Artistic Pursuits Here. They have several different books designed to teach from ages 3-12 available for $42.95 each Here.

I do believe that this program is worth it's price tag. For me I will use it time and time again with all of my children and I plan on purchasing many books in the future.

Some of my budding artists creations and pictures of the program in use.....

See what my crew-mates thought here.

I received a free Artistic Pursuits book in exchange for my honest review of their product. No other compensation was received.

Bookmarks!

2011-03-22T09:33:00.000-05:00

After looking at how pricey cute bookmarks are at the bookstore we decided we could do it ourselves. We had our handy dandy laminater, scrapbook paper, ribbon and beads. What more could you need.
Now let me tell you a little secret sometimes I think I'll make cute little posts with nice neat pictures of all the steps involved in a project....... but in reality let me show you what doing crafts with six kids looks like in our house.

What you want to know what that huge pile is behind my child?? Well that's clean laundry that I haven't had time to put away.... how's that for keeping it real?

So you can see there was no opportunity for cute clean little step by step pictures. Honestly my school table is so covered in ummmm artwork that I couldn't take a nice photo on it if my life depended on it.

Anyways..... we managed to make a whole lot of bookmarks, have fun and didn't spend much. Although, I am thinking perhaps we got slightly carried away....

I'm thinking we have enough to share ;)

There's a pond in my hallway......

2011-03-21T17:57:00.000-05:00

Postcard Project Update....

2011-03-21T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here is our map so far

First I want to thank everyone who has sent us a postcard. My kids have absolutely loved this project and I am happy to report both of my third graders now know most of the states. My little girls know a fair amount as well, even my 3 year old. We have thus far received SIXTY TWO postcards!!! Unfortunately we're still missing quite a few states, many of the sixty two are duplicates or triplicates lol but we love them all regardless.
Also as a side note if you sent us a postcard and did not receive one back please let me know. My kids were putting these in the mailbox as they wrote them and apparently at least one ( which I'm sending out TODAY sorry for forgetting about that Annika)didn't make it to it's destination. We hopefully have sent out a card to everyone who committed to sending us one.

OK the states we still need are......

Washington, Nevada, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Philadelphia, New Hampshire

If you missed the project the first time here's what we're doing. We are trying to receive and send a postcard to each of the fifty states for a geography project this year. So what we need is a postcard from your state and your address so we can send you one back!

Thank you so much for all of your help with this project.

Bird Watching

2011-03-19T09:11:00.000-05:00

Top O the Mornin.....

2011-03-17T09:04:00.000-05:00

Every St Patrick's Day we have this for breakfast. Green Pancakes, Green Eggs, Bacon, Green Water or Milk, Green sprinkles with powdered sugar. What are your family St Patrick's Day traditions?

Happy St Patrick's Day... I hope your day is full of green and free from pinches ;)

Field Trip to the Zoo!

2011-03-16T18:53:00.000-05:00

My fabulous mother in law gave me money to take all the kids to the Tulsa zoo for my birthday! Off we went on the first pretty day there was. We had a blast and really enjoyed relaxing and looking at all the animals. This was the first time we've gone since Anna has been old enough to really get into it so it was especially fun.

The kids particularly enjoyed the Carousel.

Oddly enough the River Otters were probably our favorite thing that day. They were really performing for us and being so cute and funny. Every couple of minutes they would get up on the log just to make sure we were still watching. We sat there for at least a half hour watching them play.

Edible Oasis

2011-03-16T18:44:00.000-05:00

We are studying the Middle East in history right now and one of the recommended projects was to make an edible oasis.The kids were very excited about this project. Probably largely in part to the fact that they got to eat the Oasis they made later.

Here's the finished creations. Some of them even have little boats in their water... how the boat got to the Oasis was never answered ;).

They all even waited to eat them until after they showed Daddy and Big brother!

Happy Third Birthday Annabelle!!

2011-03-15T09:12:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? My little baby is THREE! I'm not sure how that happened or how I feel about it. I go from feeling overjoyed that the baby phase of my life is passing to downright depressed that I'll never have another baby. What is that? One minute I can't imagine another and the next I can't imagine not having another.
The curse of hormones? Insanity? Regardless Annabelle will most likely be my last so my baby is not really a baby anymore.
She is growing up so quickly I can barely keep up. She is probably the busiest little girl I've ever met and sweet as pie. When she's doing something she shouldn't be ( which is often) she likes to tell you " Mom I'm the baby". Don't know why she thinks that will work ;). Did I mention she's smart.
I can't wait to see what the coming years bring for my little firecracker.

Happy Birthday Anna may the coming year be better than the last!

My Budding Chef.

2011-03-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

These pictures are a little dated but I came across them tonight and wanted to share.
Avery's absolute favorite activity is to cook with me. You will almost never see me in the kitchen without her by my side. These pictures are from her special Mommy night a while back. When I asked her what she wanted to do with me her reply was cook dinner ALL BY MYSELF! Well let me tell you she did make dinner herself with just verbal instruction from me. She did an amazing job and I was a little in shock at how capable in the kitchen my 4 year old girl is. I guess all that following me around in the kitchen is paying off. I can't wait until she's older and she can take over!

Reading Kingdom TOS Review

2011-03-07T21:37:00.001-06:00

We were blessed to be able to review The Reading Kingdom with the TOS Crew this year.

The Reading Kingdom is a fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches
children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level.

It customizes itself to each child

Most children can do the program on their own after just a few weeks

It's fun and children enjoy doing it

It's created by Dr. Marion Blank, one of the world's top experts in literacy

It works with any other curriculum a child may be using

And, it's the only system that teaches all 6 skills needed for reading & writing success!

Honestly I cannot say enough good things about this reading program. All five of my younger children have absolutely loved it. They fight over who's turn it is to use it. Then come and tell when so and so is doing it longer than just one lesson. It's comical really. Even my almost 3 year old loves it. She isn't doing much besides learning to use the mouse and keyboard but I'm ok with that for now. It's a valuable skill in and of itself. My 4 and 6 year old have mastered using the mouse through this program and have now moved on to typing skills. My 2 older kids 7 and 8 have moved onto letter land and are learning a ton. Even my son who is dyslexic seems to be doing well with it. The best thing about this program in my opinion is that it actually customizes the program to your child making it neither too hard nor too easy. I've not seen another program that does that.

When the kids first start the program it gives them the option to either work on mouse control or move on to the actual lessons. My younger children really needed the mouse work and through this program my 4 year old went from not being able to click on anything in a timely manner to quite fluent with the mouse now. Even the littlest one is getting pretty decent with the mouse. I've tried teaching that skill before and become very frustrated trying to help them get it. I think it's brilliant to have a little introductory program for just that.

After they complete that they go on to take a little test to asses their skill level and where they need to be in the program. At that point the program customizes lessons just for them. It takes them through the different typing, sequencing, spelling and reading lessons that they need. When they've learned each skill it moves them onto the next. One little fact worth noting I do not believe the program lets them do more than one lesson a day. As far as I can tell after their lesson if they want to continue it will be more practice of the same skill.

This isn't a phonics only program nor is it a whole language program. Dr Blank believes it takes many different components to help a child learn to read. She outlines this here if you'd like to read it but here is a chart to help you if your visual like me.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not giving up on phonics but having a 9 year old who can barely read will teach you that sometimes one thing just doesn't work for all kids. Whole language didn't work for him either so I'm still praying maybe this program will be the right combination. It's too soon to throw a party but I can say he is doing well so far!

Now the part that is always toughest for me. Would I purchase this program and how much does it cost. It is so hard to put a price on our children's education yet we obviously have to since there is only so much we can afford. At $19.99 a month it is indeed a pricey program. That said my recommendation is this.... if you have a child that could possibly benefit from this program go and do the 30 day free trial. Make sure your child uses it daily and evaluate at that point. I think you may find this program may really help your child and if it does it's well worth it. Also it's not like some programs where you commit to a certain time frame. You are free to cancel at any time. So if at any point it stops working you can stop using it. To me $19.99 a month is a small price to pay for literacy and I can tell you if this does continue to help my son and he needs it beyond the very generous subscription we were given with the review I won't hesitate to pay it.

I do have one tiny little con about the program. Just a small complaint that is really user error but neither me or my 2 older children could figure it out and some other people had this same problem ( and therefore were able to share so I knew how to fix it) When you start into the actual lessons there is a point at which you switch from typing on the keyboard to clicking the onscreen keyboard. It wasn't terribly clear and both of my children and I were very frustrated trying to figure out why they kept getting it wrong. I would love to see that one thing made more clear. Just a small thing that would make the program much easier to navigate.

I just wanted to update and let you know the Reading Kingdom is going to correct this problem. How's that for amazing customer service!

To read what my crewmates thought of Reading Kingdom go visit the crew blog here.
You can also join the Reading Kingdoms Facebook page here.

I received a free subscription to Reading Kingdom for my children in return for my honest review of their product. No other compensation was received.

Bumpa

2011-03-02T20:59:00.000-06:00

My dear sweet Grandpa ( whom we lovingly call Bumpa ) passed away yesterday. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate having this sweet steady man in my life. I spent many of my summers with them and learned so much from him. How to get the dogs to lick the dishes so you don't have to rinse them (they did this while they were INSIDE the dishwasher), How to drive a golf cart, how to dip your bread in all your food, how to feed the birds and stay quiet enough to watch them, I learned that sometimes silence is worth a thousand words and how to get the dogs to chase all the squirrels within a 100 ft radius! He taught me what patriotism truly is every time he would talk about fighting in the war when he was just 17 years old, he had to lie about his age just to go but it was so important to him he didn't care. He was always up for an adventure and I don't recall him ever saying a harsh word to me although I'm sure I have deserved a few in my years. Bumpa I love you and I'm so thankful to of had you in my life. I hope your days are now filled with joy and free of all the sorrow and struggles your life had become.

I See Sam Review TOS Crew

2011-02-28T13:39:00.002-06:00

We received the I See Sam reading program from Academic Success for all Learners to review.
Included in our review material was the first four levels of little books( $30 Per Level), The Instructors Guide, Motivational Materials, Placement and Assessment Manual ($10), and flashcards sets for all four levels ( $15 or a free download on the website)

When we first got this program I really thought it was going to work great for us. It was simple, and my 6 year old prereader jumped right in. She learned to read the first 6 books in rapid time. I was impressed.... until I realized she was memorizing the couple of words that are repeated.
She can now read See, Sam, I, Me, Mat, am. They really did boost her confidence but I think she needs a phonetic program in addition to these.
I strongly believe language is best taught through a strong foundation in phonetics. This program is what I would refer to as a "whole language" program, it teaches children sight words. It does include guides to sound them out but your child will not even learn all of the letter sounds before the end of level one. I guess that's what I really didn't love. How slowly it takes them through the letters.

She enjoys these books and like I said they really do boost her confidence so I think we will continue to read these books but we will use them in conjunction with a strong phonics only program.
I will say though that I have learned when it comes to reading all children learn to read in a different way at a different time. This program could be just what your child needs. If it is great, it's cute, simple and fun.

Just because this program alone didn't work for us doesn't mean it won't work for your family. Some things I loved about the program are it has cues on several pages to remind you to praise your child, I like that because it is easy to forget sometimes. I also like the simple black and white pages and the books sizes. I like the idea of a whole program encompassed inside the books as well. You don't need a teachers manual or a workbook you just grab the next book and go.
It also includes cute little sticker charts for every book you complete which my daughter really enjoyed.

If you visit the website Here you can view several sample books and download teachers manuals and a lot of other things so you can get an idea of whether this program is right for your family or not.

Check out other reviews Here and see what my crew mates thought. A lot of the crew members loved this product and it was a great fit for their families.

I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review of the product. I received no other compensation.

Kid Scoop and The Reluctant Reader Solution TOS Review

2011-02-18T20:11:00.001-06:00

We reviewed the Kid Scoop Online Newspaper and The Reluctant Reader Solution for the TOS Crew.

Kid Scoop is an Online Kid Themed Newspaper. Each month there is a new Kid Scoop for your child to enjoy. The newspaper is bright, colorful, filled with interesting things to read and engaging activities. My kids love it. It is perfect for my 8 year old daughter. She asks to read this and enjoys everything in it. It is a bit advanced reading for my 9 year old son who is dyslexic, although he has enjoyed having me read it aloud to him. I love that each month there is something new for them to read and work on.

It was a little difficult to get it into a format that was easy to read at first. The print is too small on the website to read online and hard to navigate. I was able to save it as a PDF and then it was very easy to use. Now that I know how to do it it truly is a non-issue. It also takes a bit of ink to print and there are activities on nearly every page that your children will want to do... multiply that by several children and it is a bit much. I love the activities but I wish they would consolidate the activities to less pages or make the activity pages a little less colorful for my ink budget's sake.
Despite the printing woe's my kids like it enough that I will continue to print it out for them despite my ink's displeasure.

The other part of the program we received is The Reluctant Reader Solution.

Let me start by saying that this is perfect. There honestly isn't a thing I would change about these worksheets. They come in groups of 5-7 worksheets per subject and there are enough worksheets to do one every day of the year. The topics cover such a wide range you can find something for any child to love. The worksheets are black and white (easy to print) but still visually engaging and fun. The topics are intriguing and educational.
One thing I loved is they include packets for different holidays, I always find myself going hmmmm seems we should be doing something to learn about _____(insert holiday here) but find myself at a loss. Now I can just grab the worksheets and go! Even when I forget to plan it's there for me, that is priceless I tell you!

Now here's the tricky part. For 12 months of Kid Scoop and all of the Reluctant Reader PDF's it is $97.
Caught your breath yet? I know if your like me it sounds like a lot. I sat here for a while trying to decide if it is something I would purchase at that price. The only answer I can muster is I'm honestly not sure. I need to use it for longer before I decide about that.... which doesn't help you.
My fear is that maybe the enthusiasm for it won't last, but I'm hoping it will.
Here's the great thing though, Kid Scoop offers a 365 day money back guarantee. This means if you buy it and your kids love it for a month and then never want to look at it again, well you can get your money back. To me what this means is Kids Scoop is fairly certain your kid's are going to continue to love it. They have confidence in their product so I'm going to say yes considering they back their product so fully I would purchase it. Honestly if it helps your child's reading improve it's fully worth $97, if it doesn't you're not out a penny. That's a risk worth taking if you ask me.

To read what my other crew mates think you can visit the TOS Blog Here.

** I received a copy of the Reluctant Reader Solution and a Membership for Kid Scoop in return for my honest review of the products. No other compensation was received**

We've moved to Minnesota........

2011-02-09T13:47:00.000-06:00

or at least the weather thinks we have!! We got 2 feet of snow last night! TWO FEET... I've never in my life seen so much snow. I wouldn't want this to happen all the time but it's really amazing. The kids are loving it... that is until their limbs started to go numb and they admitted defeat by the snow. It's still coming down right now.... really wishing we owned snow gear about now so we could go out and enjoy it for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Peyton trying to dig a tunnel through the snow.

How much snow is too much for snow angels?

The scary aftermath of all those kids playing in the snow....

Stay warm and enjoy the snow!!

Snow Days

2011-02-07T12:37:00.000-06:00

Just thought I would share a couple pictures from our snow days last week. The kids really enjoyed getting to play in the snow and spent a good amount of time working on forts. We also did a lot of art projects to try and keep from going totally stir crazy. Although we had fun I am praying the bad weather they've predicted for this week will pass us by.... I am truly tired of being stuck in the house!

Peyton and Weylin's snow fort... you can see it's armed with snowballs for attack.

Our kitchen looked like an art store exploded for most of the week.

The face of an artist ;)

Valentine Craft and the best kids art book ever!

2011-02-02T17:09:00.000-06:00

First up a fun little Valentine craft my friend Valerie inspired us to do. If you want to try it please use her instructions here... her instructions are fabulous and I wouldn't dare try to replicate them lol.

Here is the beautiful work in progress.... This really is a great craft to do with little kids. Despite the fact that everyone helped with every part it still looks gorgeous and not at all like the 2 year old helped even though she did!

Next up I want to tell you about the best art book I've ever purchased for my kids. Not the meatiest nor the most detailed mind you. But the BEST book EVER!! Want to know why? The projects are fun, intriguing and my kids can do them ALONE. The instructions are great with lots of details and pictures and my kids have made projects that look neat and they feel proud of. The best part is I purchased this at Hobby Lobby Monday ( with my handy dandy 40% off coupon) and since Monday afternoon, until now Wednesday evening they have made stuff from it nonstop!!

Here's the book

Here's some samples of their work ;) ( Some of it is MIA already but you can get the idea) Some of it should be larger but we've been snowed in so I haven't had a chance to take the patterns to a copy machine to enlarge them to 200%

Wacky Weather

2011-02-02T15:29:00.000-06:00

The weather here has been rather interesting lately. Here's some pictures of the kids last Saturday enjoying a picnic in the yard in the 70 degree weather....

And here's what it looks like today... it's currently 7 degrees out

I guess I'd rather the wacky weather to all cold... at least we got to have a picnic!

Sand Art

2011-02-02T15:23:00.000-06:00

We are studying Middle Ages this year in history. Last week we were learning about India and the Frescos they once made on their cave walls. We decided to try out own hand at this. Let me tell you creating art with sand... not as easy as you might think. Forget about detail, you can also forget about walking barefoot through your kitchen for the next year. Unless that is you enjoy the beach feel ;).

Hard at work.

Their Creations..

Times Alive TOS Review

2011-01-31T21:28:00.000-06:00

We received a download of Times Alive from City Creek Press through The Old Schoolhouse to review.
Times Alive is a computer program that teaches your child multiplication. They combine cartoons, songs, pictures, rhymes and other fun features to make a truly memorable program.
Both of my third graders enjoyed this math program immensely. Neither of them knew any multiplication before we started this review. They now both know all of the problems they have gone through with Times Alive. I can even see them repeating some of the rhymes to remember their problems.
I love that it's easy for me to see at a glance how much they've done, what they've scored and things they started but didn't quite complete ( haha my son is busted ;) ). The lessons are broken down very well so they can work for 5 minutes at a time if they want or keep going longer. This makes it easy for me to add to our daily schedule without adding a lot of time to our schooling, or a lot of complaining about doing it ;).
The program is also done in a way that truly makes it fun. There is almost always a younger child watching on when the bigger kids are working on this. I foresee my little girls will learn multiplication at an early age just by watching over their siblings shoulders. Ahem I may even finally get better at MY multiplication from this program.

From the Website:

Why It Works

Why FUN WAY LEARNING teaches addition and times tables better and faster.

The old method of “drilling” math tables using flash cards is familiar to most of us. A few students find it successful, but most consider it boring and frustrating. For students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities, it is often impossible to learn in this way.

The Fun Way approach to learning math tables eliminates the need for rote memorization. Instead:

It presents every math equation as a story to be told, allowing students to attach meaning to the numbers.
It attaches a variety of clues and information to the number facts, making retention and retrieval of the information much easier for students.
It presents math in a fun and interactive storytelling medium that uses lively imagery and narrative to entertain and inform students.

Through the Fun Way method, students approach the subject of math with renewed interest and attention, making learning a joyful experience for students and teachers alike.

The only real downside for us is the price. It's a bit pricey at $44.95. Not a program we would be able to afford normally, although after using it I would probably scrimp and save to purchase it because it really is that good. If you can swing it though it's definitely worth the price. Especially if you have multiple children who will use it.

You can purchase the Times Alive Download for $44.95 Here or a CD ROM for $48.95 Here.
They also sell a lot of other products to complement the program and an addition program as well for younger kids.

You can view their other products or try a sample of Times Alive at the City Creek Press Website.

I have received a free copy of Times Alive in exchange for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.

To see what my other crewmates thought about this program visit the TOS Blog Here.

Maestro Classics Peter and the Wolf TOS Review

2011-01-19T19:55:00.000-06:00

We were blessed to receive a CD of Peter and the Wolf from Maestro Classics through The Old Schoolhouse.
This CD introduces your children not only to the story of Peter and the Wolf through a fantastic narrator but also to gorgeous music from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
This CD includes (by track)
1.An Introduction
2.Peter & The Wolf (with narration)
3.About the Composer
4.A Russian Peter
5.About the Music
6. Peter and the Wolf (Instrumental only)
7. Invitation to Grandfather's Party
8. Kalinka (Dance Along)

The CD also comes with a 24 page educational booklet ( that my children promptly stole and LOST so I cannot say anything about that other than it looked fantastic for the 30.2 seconds I saw it). If my children ever find it I'll add some info about that to my review.

Peter and the Wolf is absolutely wonderfully done. The narrator has the perfect voice and the music is gorgeous and enchanting. We have and will listen to it over and over again. Everyone loves it from the two year old all the way up to Mom. The piece about the composer is interesting and very educational as well. One of my favorite features is on track 5 where it tells you which instruments are telling the stories of each animal. That bit of information really brought it to life for the kids. After learning about that you can really see the animals movements through the music. Honestly there's nothing about this I don't love.

.At $16.98 The CD's are very affordable although I must say I would love to see a slightly cheaper MP3 download so I can buy them ALL because I love them SO much.

Other titles available are

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel – timeless classic story
Peter and the Wolf – every child should own this great work
Tortoise and the Hare – a very fun version of this tale
Juanita the Spanish Lobster – sassy and funny from an English composer
Swan Lake – some of Tchaikovsky's most beautiful music
Casey at the Bat – everybody loves baseball, right?
Sorcerer's Apprentice – magical story and exciting music
Juanita la langosta española – great for anyone speaking or studying Spanish

You can purchase Maestro Classics CD's Here. I obviously think you should go get one right now because they are fabulous!!

I received a free copy of Peter and the Wolf for my honest review of their product. Unfortunately I did not receive any other compensation but I would gladly take more CD's ;). ( Kidding but did I mention I love this)

See what my other crewmates thought Here

See- N- Read TOS Review

2011-01-19T15:53:00.000-06:00

I received some great products from See-N-Read through the TOS Crew. We received two See-N-Read's
one book size and one letter size. We also received one Memory Mark that has no plastic over the window so you can use it to highlight or underline.

You may be asking what exactly is See-N-Read? Here's an exert from the website to help explain it.

See-N-Read® is a practical reading intervention tool....designed to help readers seamlessly see, focus, and remember what they read. It reduces word- and line-skipping and pattern glare.

See: See-N-Read® helps readers to concentrate on and track the text being read while smoothly transitioning between the words that come before or after, thus helping readers to increase their fluency (the capacity to read text accurately and quickly) and comprehension.

Focus: See-N-Read’s clear reading window is surrounded by a non-glare tinted transparent finish that helps readers to focus on manageable “chunks” of information in each line of text.

Remember: See-N-Read® provides readers with a clear reference point that helps control smooth eye movements across the text on a page. Smooth eye movement from left to right and smooth transitions from line to line ("sweeping") enhance retention of information.

See-N-Read’s flexible material makes it easy for readers, young and old, to hold and use it as they read.

Our Experience:

The big difference I saw in this vs other similar products is that the other lines are not blacked out but simply darker. This way it is easier to read smoothly vs stopping and waiting while you slide it down. I found it very useful as a place marker while I'm reading in school. My kids never just listen straight through as I read of course. They have questions and want to discuss things. With this tool I know exactly where we left off and can pick back up our reading much quicker than I could previously.
Both children were resistant to using this at first. My daughter is a very fluent fast reader and she felt it slowed her down a bit so she hasn't used it much. She does however like it for more difficult reading and uses it to read her scriptures.
My son is dyslexic and uses a yellow reading sheet with his reading. After we combined the See-N-Read with his yellow sheet he likes it a lot more now. Perhaps this is a product the company would be interested in producing for readers with special needs.

I think I will probably cut up one of his yellow sheets and attach it myself to the See-N-Read for ease of use.
Here is what his invention looks like on paper.

They also have the Memory Mark which is what I've been using during scripture study. It's window is cut out so you can neatly highlight or underline things easily. I love this because I am not always the neatest underliner/highlighter and this makes my markings look so much nicer.

All in all I think these are great, easy to use products and inexpensive enough that you can give it a try easily and not lose much if it isn't for you.
You can purchase the See-N-Read Here.
The Document Size is $3.49
The Book Size is $2.99
You can purchase the Memory Mark Here.
The Document Size is $3.49
The Book Size is $2.99

You can see what my crewmates thought about their products here.

I received these products for free in exchange for my honest review. I did not receive any other compensation.

Good Morning, God TOS Review

2011-01-17T08:29:00.001-06:00

I was given the opportunity to review a sweet little book from Apologia Press called Good Morning, God.

This book is written for young children to learn about our Heavenly Father. There is a nice simple story illustrating how our parents are always teaching us and how God is present in our daily lives. At the end of the book it gives you day by day guides for teaching for a full week out of this book. It includes scriptures to read, thought provoking questions and activities to do together.
I did not find this book to be geared towards any one religion and find it could easily be accommodated to fit the needs of any Christian faith. I would not however recommend it if you are not Christian as it does mention Christ several times.

From the website

Good Morning, God is a story about a four-year-old boy as he goes through a week with his family. This book is designed for children age one to eight years old. Ideally, this book will help your child fall in love with our heavenly Father by thinking about Him from sunrise to sunset. The hope is that this book will introduce children to the simple and wonderful ways we can worship God daily and inspire them to enjoy the Lord with their entire being all through the day. The prayers for each day are meant to encourage your child to consider his or her relationship with Jesus and respond with childlike faith.

There are several ways this book can be used as a discipleship tool to accomplish these goals. The most basic is to simply read the book as a story. One can also read the book everyday, then read a short list of scriptures, discuss a few questions provided to help start a conversation, or do some activities that are given for each day of the week. Following this latter plan would result in reading the book eight straight days and would basically make the book a mini-curriculum and a literal application of Deuteronomy 6:6-7, where parents are told to impress these commands on their children's hearts and talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the time reading this beautifully illustrated, heart-warming, family-friendly, and God-centered story to your little ones.

This book is available here at the Apologia website for just $14.00. If your looking for a sweet, simple introduction to Gospel Study I think this book is a great start. I also like the fact that after you spend the week studying the material you can remind your children of all they've learned simply by rereading the book often.

I received this book free of charge in exchange for my honest review, no other compensation was made.

End of the Year Pictures

2011-01-16T22:08:00.000-06:00

I try to take nice "staged" photos of the kids at least once a year. If I'm really on the ball I do it before Christmas and put some in a frame for Grandparents. Here are this year's pics.... If you don't want to see a massive amount of pictures now's your chance to run away.

Some from my first attempt indoors

Christmas Crafts

2011-01-16T20:20:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to share a fun little craft we did this Christmas. Yes I know it's late but I've been a blog slacker.
We got the idea from the filth wizardry blog. We always do the snowflakes but this year we added the tissue paper stain glass window. It was a blast and very pretty although quite hard to remove from the window. Not sure if we'll do it again or not... I guess it will depend on if I forget what a pain it was to get off or not.

Christmas Ballet

2011-01-16T20:13:00.000-06:00

We now have all of our children taking classical ballet. We are so blessed by their fabulous teacher and all ballet teaches them. Weylin opted out of the Christmas performance but here are some pictures of the others. They all did a fabulous job and remembered their whole dances. I was especially impressed by how good the older kids are getting. We are getting ready to start work on the spring performance of Snow White which we are all excited for.

I made all the boys costumes :)

Miss Rachel with the four older kids ( Anna danced on a different night, Peyton and Amelia danced both nights though)

We weren't quite sure Anna would dance because she hadn't wanted to during any of the practices. She did a great job although it started out quite humorously. She walked onstage pulled her tutu up to her armpits, stuck her baby into it and proclaimed very loudly she had to pee. She started to run out then changed her mind and decided she would dance first. I stood by the side praying she wouldn't pee on the stage ;)

Easy Classical TOS Review

2011-01-12T10:19:00.000-06:00

Easy Classical is an extensive classical education history lesson plan. The plan lays out an intricate schedule of reading, writing, geography, projects and read alouds. You simply purchase the recommended resources and follow the schedule. No planning, coordinating or scheduling required.You can see sample lesson plans here. You may look and think there's no way we can do all that but your not meant to do it all. She provides a lot of options then very clearly tells you to do the ones that interest your children and NOT to try to do it all.

From the Website,

Easy Classical Early Modern History Schedule includes 36 week-long schedules plus 45+ pages of charts, sheets, and helps that will enhance your child's learning. Each week's lesson has review questions with answers, and quizzes included with each lesson. This schedule also includes a shopping list for the next day, as well as detailed instructions on how to use the schedules and the books you purchase. We send you all of this neatly placed in a 1" 3-ring binder. Classical Curriculum selected for ease of use and outstanding content.
Books, projects, and lesson plans that make teaching science to grades K-6 easy.
Subject integration to save you time and enhance learning.
45+ pages of lesson plans, charts, and sheets to make teaching simple.
Assignments, projects, and ideas to make learning memorable for all learning styles.

I have used history schedules like this in the past and really enjoyed them. I didn't have all the books/writing programs required for this schedule but I can say the books I do have that are recommended are all excellent books. I have found my kids really enjoy the variety that comes from learning history through different literature rather than a textbook. I know for me a prewritten schedule such as this is the only way I could accomplish that.
It would take me hours upon hours to figure out such a complex schedule, hours that I simply do not have.

One thing I really like is this page on the website. It clearly lets you know which books you need and gives you several places to find them.I'm a visual person so I love the pictures of the titles.

A lot of the books are great additions to your library that will benefit your children for years to come and are used throughout the program while others are readily available at the library and only used for a week at a time. (these would be great to own as well but most of us cannot afford to buy that many titles)

The Schedule itself is $35.95 for a notebook version or $29.95 for a Digital Version available for purchase here. This schedule is made for Elementary aged children K-6. For me this schedule is easily worth the money to not have to schedule it all out myself.

Math Facts Now! TOS REVIEW

2011-01-05T19:35:00.000-06:00

I received a down-loadable copy of Math Facts Now to review through The Old Schoolhouse.

The Download was for a customizable math facts program. From the Website ...

Do you want your child to have instant recall of the math facts?

Look at how Math Facts NOW! helps you to reach that goal!

You choose which function and which specific numbers to drill (ie: multiplication tables, 8's).
You choose how many problems to be given in a specific session.
You choose how much time your child is to be given to complete a problem.
You choose how many times the child is to repeat problems that he/she made mistakes on or took too long on.
Math Facts NOW! remembers which problems your child is having difficulty with, and automatically presents them back to the child with greater frequency!
You choose to enter a reward for the completion of a lesson with no errors.
You choose to print a list of your child's weak areas.

Our Experience...
This program for us was basically flash cards without Mom having to do the drilling. My Daughter did OK with it, but was obviously not terribly happy to do it. My son would not stay focused on it no matter what. To be fair flash cards don't work well for them either.
If your kids enjoy using and learn well from flash cards, I think this program would be a great way to free up some of Mom's time and teach the children their facts. If your children do not learn well with flash cards this program may not be for you. Either way, at just $15.95 it's inexpensive enough you won't be out a lot of money if it isn't your cup of tea. If it is it's FAR less expensive than other math programs I've seen. You can customize what problems they work on, therefore it would work for any child needing to work on facts from addition on up.

You can try it out for free or purchase the program here.

To read our other crewmates reviews visit here.

I received no compensation for this review other than a free download of the program in return for my honest review.

Morris Family Madness

Amelia's Baptism

The Nutcracker

Happy Halloween!!

Our School Year 2011-2012

Our updated schoolroom

Read for the Heart ** TOS Review**

Happy Birthday Avery

Considering God's Creation ** TOS Review**

Pearson Education Reading Street ** TOS Review**

Wordy Qwerty ** TOS Review**

Making Lemonade out of Lemons......

Mad Dog Math ** TOS Review**

Sharing some pictures

Days 3 and 4's sewing

Day 1 and 2 of Sewing Kids Clothes Week

Monki See ** TOS Review**

Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

Kregel Publications ** TOS Review**

Dress Rehearsal

This is it....

Greek N Stuff ** TOS Review**

Writing Tales ** TOS Review **

Nutrition 101 ** TOS Review **

Back to life as we know it.....

All About Reading ** TOS Review**

Shopping is very hard work.....

Snow White.... better known as why I've been absent.

Science Weekly ** TOS Review**

KinderBach **TOS Review**

Go Go Kabongo ** TOS Review**

Zeezok Publishing, Z Guide to the movies, Kitt Kittredge ** TOS Review**

Classical Academic Press Song School Latin ** TOS Review**

Big IQ Kids Premium Membership ** TOS Review**

Spring has Sprung!!

Artistic Pursuits ** TOS Review**

Bookmarks!

There's a pond in my hallway......

Postcard Project Update....

Bird Watching

Top O the Mornin.....

Field Trip to the Zoo!

Edible Oasis

Happy Third Birthday Annabelle!!

My Budding Chef.

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Bumpa

I See Sam Review ** TOS Crew**

Kid Scoop and The Reluctant Reader Solution **TOS** Review

We've moved to Minnesota........

Snow Days

Valentine Craft and the best kids art book ever!

Wacky Weather

Sand Art

Times Alive **TOS Review**

Why It Works

Maestro Classics Peter and the Wolf ** TOS Review **

See- N- Read **TOS Review**

Good Morning, God **TOS Review**

End of the Year Pictures

Christmas Crafts

Christmas Ballet

Easy Classical **TOS Review**

Math Facts Now! **TOS REVIEW**

Read for the Heart TOS Review

Considering God's Creation TOS Review

Pearson Education Reading Street TOS Review

Wordy Qwerty TOS Review

Mad Dog Math TOS Review

Monki See TOS Review

Kregel Publications TOS Review

Greek N Stuff TOS Review

Writing Tales TOS Review

Nutrition 101 TOS Review

All About Reading TOS Review

Science Weekly TOS Review

KinderBach TOS Review

Go Go Kabongo TOS Review

Zeezok Publishing, Z Guide to the movies, Kitt Kittredge TOS Review

Classical Academic Press Song School Latin TOS Review

Big IQ Kids Premium Membership TOS Review

Artistic Pursuits TOS Review

Reading Kingdom TOS Review

I See Sam Review TOS Crew

Kid Scoop and The Reluctant Reader Solution TOS Review

Times Alive TOS Review

Maestro Classics Peter and the Wolf TOS Review

See- N- Read TOS Review

Good Morning, God TOS Review

Easy Classical TOS Review

Math Facts Now! TOS REVIEW