Topsy Turvy Things

A Few Changes

2011-07-21T21:49:00.001-04:00

While you may not have noticed, I have been rather scarce around this blog. I’ve been slowly working on a new pet project, on top of not really feeling inspired to blog about school and such.

I DO however, want to change that. I’m back to using Windows Live Writer, in hopes that not having to go online to Blogger in order to blog, and getting distracted by the internet at large will help.

I am going to make sure crafty stuff stays over at my pet project blog, and keep this blog for school and general life things. This also means that I may reference between the two sometimes. For sanity’s sake.

Thing 1 and I have been working our way through first grade, and it’s going well! Thing 2 is wanting to sit at the table with us now and do… well, who knows exactly, but giving him a piece of paper and a crayon results in some scribbles and him passing the paper down the table to me ♥

So I will be blogging a bit more about Thing 1’s homeschooling, Thing 2 showing interest in working with us (he throws a FIT if he is not on my lap when I’m reading)and some Voom thrown in for good measure. Because Voom is adorable

Week 1 in Review

2011-05-13T14:39:00.000-04:00

We started Thing 1's first grade work this week! It's been interesting to say the least. Afterall, we're going from an almost entirely Unschooling method for the day, to a more Classical method.

Math is the beginning and end of each day. The focus right now is on review of addition facts, since Thing 1 has learned a good number of them in Math-U-See Alpha, but (due to breaks and me not pushing the issue) had forgotten them. Or at the very least had a lot of difficulty recalling them. So I have been printing sheets from Worksheet Works.com for Thing 1 to use to drill his addition facts. He does the first half first thing in the morning, and the other half is the signal that our day has ended. This is the only subject he drags his feet on. He's relying on the manipulatives right now, but in the coming week I am hoping that we'll be able to use those less and less, as we'll be using some more fun-type methods for practicing these facts.

Everything else is going really well. He seems to really like narration assignments from Writing with Ease and Story of the World. And he really likes the activities from our Literature Pockets.

Because he is able to read and write, spelling has been a bit of a joke. I had slated to have him doing one lesson a day for pretty much all of Spelling Workout A, but then Thursday of this week he decided he wanted to do a few lessons all at once. So we will likely continue this until we get to a point where I feel he should slow down. I don't know when this will happen, but I am certainly hoping it's before the end of level C, since that's all we have in the house right now ;)

Science this week was just learning the difference between living and nonliving things, which he pretty much already knew but I figured it wouldn't hurt to review a bit. Afterall, this being the first week, I didn't want things to be toooooo hard.

Thing 1 with his bird puppet, a project from the Literature Pocket for the nursery rhyme "A Little Bird"

The current ongoing project for school is a family history, from Story of the World's activity guide. There is a page for each family member, and when we have a short/boring day, we'll take it out and add another person or expand on an individual's information. We've gotten the pages started for each family member so far, with birthdays listed.

I am using Homeschool Tracker's Basic Edition to make sure our lessons are planned for each day and to record how well Thing 1 does on them. I am also using the Daily Journal portion on there so that I can record things like how Thing 1 reacted to a particular topic, how his attitude was for the day, what worked well, what didn't work well and what I can do to make things easier. I may someday invest in the full version of Homeschool Tracker, but for right now, it does everything I need it to.

Something unexpected that came out of Thursday was the news that Thing 1 wants to be an author and illustrator. And he wants to practice for that by making books now. So we now have a bunch of little books premade for him to grab at his whim (as long as his school work is done!) to write and draw. He's currently decided to focus on animals, so the animal encyclopedia is in use. I LOVE that he's so enthusiastic about this. (and that it gives him additional writing practice and learning whatever topic he is focusing on at the moment... I won't lie, I like the additional benefits as well ;) )

Thing 2 has been into everything as usual, but he is progressing in potty training. AND he can count to 2! his speech has come a long way in the last few weeks, which is wonderful because before we could understand very little of what he was saying.

Voom is just Voom ;) He's taking in the sights, putting up with his brothers wanting to help with him all the time. Keeping his parents up at night. Typical newborn stuff. And he's already a month old today!

My boys are all growing up too fast! Make it slow down!

Oopsie

2011-04-18T15:04:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's been a long time since my last update. Again.

BUT

I have a perfectly good excuse, I promise :)

Voom has arrived!

Granted, he arrived last week, on the 13th and therefore is not a really good excuse for why I wasn't posting BEFORE that. But he's adorable and squishy and cute :) He weighed 7 pounds even at birth (half a pound less than either of his brothers) and was 20.25 inches long. He has a head full of dark brown hair and dark eyes. <3 He's a skinny twig boy who is SUPER laid back.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are enamored with him, as are Link and I. He's a wonderful little addition to our family.

♥

Aesop's Fables

2011-03-21T07:42:00.000-04:00

You may (or may not) remember having heard in the past stories such as "The Turtle and the Rabbit," a fable about a rabbit who was confident he would win a race with the turtle and lost because he lazed about partway through while the turtle pressed forward. Well, now Brill Kids provides a set of books that allow you to bring this story down to the level of a new reader.

Aesop's Fables, volume 1 from Brill kids includes a set of five short storybooks containing rewritings of The Lion and the Mouse, The Turtle and the Rabbit, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Fox and the Grapes, and The Fox and the Crow. These are written in rhyming lines, with one line per page. So The Boy Who Cried Wolf begins with

A young shepherd decides to play a bad trick

and then on the next page has

"Help! A wolf is here! Come quick, come quick!"

I really like these retellings, because they help Thing 1 to get into a more rhythmic type of reading. Another thing I really like about them, which will come in handy as Thing 2 (and then Voom) learns to read is a flap that is the in back of the book that is used to cover the pictures on the pages on the right side, leaving JUST the words in view. It's a shame to cover up the beautiful illustrations, buuuuuuuuut when your child is learning to read, pictures are not always the best tool for helping.

My boys really like these books (in fact, three of them have disappeared to the bookshelf upstairs even after I said they were supposed to stay down here). Thing 1 enjoys reading them, and has read them not only to his brother but also to my parents and sister on a video call (first time he's ever done that), and Thing 2 loves to look at the pictures. When Thing 1 is reading them, the covering flap is put all the way in the back of the book since he doesn't need it, so it's not something that is a nuisance for the stronger readers who just happen to enjoy the books.

One thing to keep in mind is that these are NOT the simple readers that are used toward the beginning of phonics curricula. The age group is listed as 3 months and up, but I would not expect a child who has had no reading experience to be able to read these. I think these would work great for a child who is learning to read, and would like something that is not only a challenge, but also ore interesting than some of the "learning to read" books I have seen.

At the moment, you can purchase a set of these books for $37.50 (if you look, there's $50 crossed off over to the side). As much as I like these and the boys enjoy them, due to the cost, we likely will not be getting the second set :( BUT, if this is something that looks like it would be a great fit for your home, and it is within your budget, I would definitely recommend getting them.

Not sure based on just my opinion? Go take a look at what my fellow Crew mates think of these books!

Disclaimer: These books were provided free to me by Brill Kids for the purpose of this honest review. I received no compensation for my review.

BOX DAY!!!

2011-03-09T04:35:00.001-05:00

So my order from Rainbow Resource has arrived, and now I can share pretty much all of what we have planned for first grade for Thing 1, as well as a couple items I got for Thing 2 (and Voom... you'll see what I mean when I get to that picture )

You will notice that one subject is missing from these pictures: Math. I am waiting for Math-U-See's cart system to be updated so that I can order the next level, even though we are not finished with Alpha yet.

Also not pictured are the ream of first grade writing paper and the globe.

First up we have art. We are doing ARTistic Pursuits, K-3 book 1 this year. This is the book itself and all of the supplies needed. This is one of Thing 1’s favorite subjects in general so I wanted to make sure I didn’t mess it up

Here we have history. We are doing Story of the World 1, the Ancients this year. Those are the books in the lower right of the picture. The rest is all reference guides.

Here is our science stuff. This year we’re studying life science using Great Science Adventures. GSA has different activities and such in each of the four books across the bottom, and the books on the top are various reference materials.

Language Arts. This subject has haunted me for months trying to figure out what to do. here we have Spelling Workout (levels A through C, just in case he flies through A and/or B), First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, level 1, Writing with Ease (both The Complete Writer and level 1’s workbook) and 4 different Literature Pockets books. Thing 1’s reading ability is above these, but I think that these will at least be fun for him to do. He’ll do additional reading on his own.

Mind Benders! I got four different levels just because I wanted to. We’re going to start with the first one and do these every once in a while as a sort of change of pace, fun activity.

Typing Instructor for Kids. Thing 1 enjoys being on the computer and typing, sooooooo we’re going to work on typing correctly before he develops all of the horrible habits his mother has picked up.

These are predominantly for Thing 2. Thing 1 is not a fan of music, although he IS a fan of noise so he will likely play with them as well, but this way hopefully Thing 2 won’t be doing things like drawing on the walls or climbing bookshelves. I’m hoping for noisy distraction. whether or not it WORKS, we’ll find out. (Thing 1 seems to work better with something going on in the background)

This is Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready. It’s a book with weekly activities to do with your child from birth until age 5. This is obviously the one that will work for Voom as well. I plan on going over some of the skills in here with Thing 1 as well since I am a slacker and there are some things he doesn’t know (oops) that he probably should.

All of this LOOKS like a lot of work, but with the number of things that are reference for science and history, it’s really not as much as it seems. And because I have them NOW, that’s less stuff to buy in the future, which makes Link very happy

Looking Back, Kindergarten

2011-03-07T06:14:00.000-05:00

I figured since I'm up at 5:30 in the morning for no real reason, and within the next couple days the rest of Thing 1's stuff for first grade will arrive, that I would take a little bit to reflect back on Thing 1's kindergarten year.

Really, there's not too terribly much to reflect on academically, since we unschooled this year for the most part. Since Thing 1 could already read, and finished Math-U-See Primer very quickly, I didn't feel the need to really PUSH, if you know what I mean. Kindergarten should be FUN, afterall.

In Reading, Thing 1 has continued to grow, just through reading anything he can get his hands on. Including the dictionary. His fluency is really good, I'm not entirely sure about his comprehension (although he can recite a lot of things back to me a couple days later, so his retention at least is excellent) and he LOVES it. Trying to figure something out for first grade has been a bit of a nightmare on my part, to be honest, because most of what I can find for first graders involves phonics instruction still, and Thing 1 doesn't need that. Since I've had some of the books for first grade for other subjects in the house since the beginning of January (I'll take a picture of all of it together once the rest arrives), I've had to keep them out of reach so he doesn't get ahead of me again ;)

In Math, our other "main" subject this year, he has been slowly making his way through Math-U-See Alpha. Not because he doesn't understand it, but because we've been a bit lazy about it. We took a long break for the holidays, and he went back and filled in the missing pages (we skip pages if he gets the concept) and is caught back up to where we had been before. Now it's just a matter of continuing along. This is the only subject I have not purchased the next part for because I have not been getting along with Math-U-See's website. They are going through some changes in their cart system or something and so I'm just going to (try to) be patient and wait for it all to be squared away. We're not in danger of needing it before it's ready at this point, so I can wait. For now.

In other subjects, we haven't really focused on much of anything, besides some memorization of US state locations. He knows a good number of them, and really, it was something I decided we would do just so we'd have something to do when he wanted to "learn something". Other than that, his reading of random things has taught him a LOT of random facts that he just spits out at even more random times.

And don't think that everything is all sunshine and roses around here. He may be doing very well academically, but I will be the first to admit that we deal with some major behavioral and social issues. Thing 1 is a LOT like me, so focusing on a particular task (I've gotten up and wandered a few times during this post, for example, as well as opened other tabs in my browser to just read random stuff) is difficult, as well as handling most social situations. While Link isn't exactly a social creature himself, many times I have noticed that Thing 1 will take his lead on when it is and is not appropriate to talk to people. This means that when we're trying to get a question answered at someplace like The Home Depot the poor sales associate has to deal with a 6 year old interrupting every minute or so (with additional details that he remembers from Link and I discussing it), but at least he's trying to help ;) I'm not going to go into details about behavior, just know that it's not all rainbows and puppies around here ;)

And there you have it, my basic assessment of how Thing 1 has done for his kindergarten year. Hopefully once we get started on first grade (after Voom is here) I'll actually be able to do weekly updates since we're going to be buckling down a bit more and a full year assessment just won't work as well.

Fresh Air!!!

2011-02-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

After days of the weather being too cold or dreary to open the windows, and after several days of the Plague of Doom (flu) in our house, the windows are open and fresh air is circulating in the house.

While winter is my favorite season (I know, I'm kinda strange), I say

BRING IT ON, SPRING!

Digt-It! Roman Town

2011-02-04T23:11:00.001-05:00

In a world where we are often trying to get our kids off of the computer while they are trying desperately to get ON the computer, many of us are on a quest for educational software. This usually ends up restricted to reading, math, and maybe a little geography.

Dig-It! Games, founded by a professional archaeologist and teacher, is different. Using interactive activities, it further immerses children 8 and up (and parents who can't seem to tear themselves away for whatever reason... what can I say? I LOVE ancient history!) into studying ancient Rome the same way an archaeologist does. The player is introduced to their dig site, where they excavate different pieces and parts of historical artifacts.

After each round of digging, you are shown to what you found, can learn more about everything you've picked up and put together things that are in different pieces. Like putting 3-d pieces back together, putting frescos back together, and learning more about them all.

In order to "progress" past this, you have to complete a report about the area of a Roman home you excavated things from.

Like I said earlier, I LOVE this game. While getting through a single play is a bit quick, you can play multiple times and get different artifacts and such and different information. Thing 1, now being 6, is not quiiiiiiiiiite up to being able to play this on his own. The characters do not talk, and so there is a lot... a LOT... of reading. Thing 1 is a good reader, but a lot of that reading is big words (like archaeology) or Latin words, so without someone to help him through those parts, it would get very frustrating for him. Buuuuuuuut he's under the suggested age of 8+, so it's to be expected. We will be studying ancient history this coming year, so I intend to use this as part of our studies on Rome. It will certainly help put things into context for him.

If you have an archaeology or ancient Rome fan, you can purchase this game for $39.95. HOWEVER, if you use the coupon code TOS2011 before February 21, 2011, you get the game for the price of $19.96! AWESOME DEAL THERE!

If you would like the perspective of other Crew members, go take a look at the Crew blog!

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

"Starving"

2011-01-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

Thing 1 has developed a love of looking things up in the dictionary. I love this. Usually.

Last week, I was talking on the phone with my sister, and Thing 1 kept saying he was STARVING. I told him that no, he wasn't starving. He was just very hungry, not dying from malnutrition or anything, he'd live for the, like, 15 minutes I still had on the phone.

He continued to argue that yes, he WAS in fact starving. So I told him to look it up.

And he did.

I read the first definition, which is the one *I* had meant when he said he was starving, and said "See, you're not starving" and started to walk away. (keep in mind my sister is still on the phone so hears this whole thing)

"Uhmmm... Momma? The second one says 'very hungry'. So I AM starving!"

My sister laughed soooooooooo hard at me. And I have never been so tempted in his entire life to confiscate a book from my child.

*sigh*

So that is the story of how I was proven wrong, by my six year old, with a dictionary as his weapon. I'm still a bit flustered by it now (obviously, because I'm POSTING about it)

He keeps life interesting at least, right?

Slaaaaacker!

2011-01-31T14:08:00.001-05:00

Yes, I admit, I am a bit of a slacker at this whole blog thing.

HOWEVER, I have actually been working on my laundry (I swear it will never be done, but I still TRY at least). And other than that, I have gotten a bunch of cleaning done that was promptly undone by Thing 1 and Thing 2, and then redone by me, and then the cycle just continues.

I also have been working on putting together lesson plans for first grade for Thing 1, as well as considering whether or not I should confiscate his dictionaries so he'll quit somehow managing to research stuff we're getting ready to learn this coming year. (it's like he KNOWS, seriously)

And I've been doing LOTS of crocheting. I purchased some patterns from Inner Hooker on Etsy, and I am in loooooooove with them! I am particularly fond of the super bulky beanie, as I can work it up VERY quickly.

Notice the SIX hats that are all the same pattern? Yeah. I love it for sure ;) (the white tags are me marking what the materials used were, as well as whether it was crocheted, loomknit, or needle knit so that they can be listed when I decide to open up shop again... most likely not for a few months. Organization!) The owl hat, the pale green hat below it, and the blanket (which is folded in quarters in this picture) are all for Voom!

Besides these, I am still working on the afghan for my parents (SO glad I frogged it and decided to redo it) and I am ALSO working on a project for my dear friend's son's birthday in April. It involves lots of crochet, lots of colors and lots of sorting ;)

So while I'm slacking in the internet world, I'm not slacking 100%! YAY for progress!

Speekee- Spanish for Children

2011-01-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

It seems that today, everyone feels the crunch to have their children learn a foreign language. Given the number of Spanish-speaking people in the United States, Spanish is one of the most popular languages to be taught (after all, there's signs all over the place with both English and Spanish on them)

Hailing from the United Kingdom, Speekee TV is a Spanish immersion program for children. By "immersion" I mean that when you turn on the first video, there is no English spoken. EVERYTHING is in Spanish. This is an ideal method for teaching children. Afterall, they learned English (or whatever their native tongue may be) by hearing it all of the time.

Speekee is 10 episodes with Spanish speakers talking. One thing to note, is that if you are wanting to use this with another Spanish curriculum (which is not necessary, I might add), this is a different dialect than is usually taught in the United States. The phrases and vocabulary used are not always going to match what other curricula teach.

When we used this, we didn't have any concerns regarding different dialects, since Thing 1 (and by default, Thing 2) has never studied Spanish. However, due to the music segments and the fact that he had to rely on the subtitles that stated what Speekee (the cute purple puppet pictured below) and the other speakers were saying, Thing 1 was not at all interested after a couple minutes. He's not like his mother, who prefers to watch everything possible with subtitles.

Thing 2, on the other hand, was scrambling to get on my lap when I started watching this. He LOVES music, and while he can't read, he doesn't really speak much understandable English himself (he's speaks Thing 2-ese) so he didn't particularly care that the people and puppets on screen weren't speaking the same language as Mom and Dad.

Each episode goes to a different location. Afterall, you're going to want different vocabulary to discuss your trip to el parque (the park) than you would in la casa (the house). This is a major part of the immersion technique: you learn words used in context through normal usage (rather than just showing pictures or even the word and then repeating the translation numerous times)

If you are interested in using this program (and yes, 10 episodes is enough to keep your children busy for a while, considering each is PACKED with vocabulary to become familiar with), then you can subscribe for the online version for £4.95 a month if you are in the UK, or $7.50 a month if you are in the US. There is also a 2 week free trial available so you can take a look before actually committing.

If you would rather have the episodes on DVD, so you could watch them, say, 5 years from now, you can also purchase the DVDs for £95.00. The DVDs come with the episodes, plus an audio CD, aaaaand a 70 page guide. Keep in mind, if you are in North America, these DVDs are in the PAL format (although formatted for all regions within the PAL format). This is NOT the standard for North American DVD players (rather, that's NTSC) so you will need to see if you have a PAL-compatible DVD player. This has to do with the color encoding, and if you try to run these DVDs in a non-PAL DVD player, it just won't work. The DVDs have a 30-day money back guarantee (although with the time it takes to ship to the US sometimes from the UK, I suggest doing the online 2 week trial to see if you like the program first).

Still not sure? Take a look at what other Crew members have to say about this!

Disclaimer: I received access to the online version of this program free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions in this review are my own, and I received no other compensation for this review.

Wheeeeee!

2011-01-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

Busy busy busy around here!

Voom is officially a BOY, so at least I don't have much to worry about THERE. (and he looks JUST like Thing 2 on the ultrasounds as well, it was pretty freaky!)

On the other hand, Thing 1 will be starting first grade this year, and in an attempt to be organized I have already ordered some of his stuff and started working on planning (his school year starts in the spring instead of fall, since the winter is really busy for us). Most importantly, I have the beginning of his science and all of his history stuff already. I figured since they are the subjects that will require the most preparation on MY part, I'd best get started early ;)

Other than that, Operation Clean the House is going pretty well most days. I'm almost caught up on laundry (FINALLY!) and the kitchen has been staying clean more days than not ;)

So while very busy around here, things are slowly falling into place so that this household should hopefully maybe run more like a well-oiled machine by the time Voom makes his arrival :)

Easy Classical

2011-01-10T21:09:00.000-05:00

I have spent many of my insomnia-ridden nights up and reading The Well-Trained Mind, mentally planning and choosing and everything for our upcoming school year. I have heard many great things about the Classical model, and am highly interested.

One problem.

It can be very intense to plan.

If you are also interested in the Classical model, but intimidated by the large amount of planning needed on your part for the grammar stage (ad beginning of the logic stage), then Easy Classical is someplace you need to check out. They offer schedules and lesson pages for grades 1-6, which can make your life a whole lot easier. (at least when it comes to planning)

I had the opportunity to review their history schedule for the Early Modern time period. You can see a sample of what I got here. It's ALL laid out for you! You have what reading needs to be done, the activities, the cross-curricular activities (like writing), some comprehension questions to ask (with possible answers, even!), and lists of everything you need.

Now, if you're wanting to follow the EXACT layout for history in The Well-Trained Mind, you may have to adjust the schedule a little bit, pulling a couple schedules together in some cases, since the timeframes are broken up a bit differently. But, it is THOROUGH.

If you choose, you can take the schedule, like the one I have, and the materials listed here as needed, and go about your business. OR, you can go with something like Easy Classical's bundles, which include writing, geography and copywork on top of the schedule. Easy Classical offers science schedules as well, making what I consider to be the other hard part of planning a whoooole lot easier :)

If you would like to purchase one of these schedules, head on over to Easy Classical's website. The Early Modern history schedule that I received, in digital format is 29.95, and the notebook version is 35.95. This is the same for all of the history schedules. If you would like to see a sample of the schedule, check here, and for the lesson pages sample, check here.

Personally, while I find the ease of just grabbing the schedule and my materials and going appealing, I am going to try and tough it out a bit more. I prefer the 4 year cycle of history, rather than having it stretched out a little bit. I'm picky, I know. But this IS a great idea if you find the classical planning to be overwhelming and/or your classically homeschooled child needs the history slowed down a bit. (or if you would prefer a little bit slower pace yourself)

If you would like to see the opinions of other Crew members, check the TOS Crew blog!

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge for my honest review of this product. I received no other compensation for this review.

See-N-Read

2011-01-07T22:34:00.000-05:00

Link, Thing 1 and I are all readers. We read a LOT. Thing 1 and I typically stick with the printed word, while Link is usually reading on a computer (it's hard to drag him away hehehe)

Something I have been concerned about while Thing 1 is reading is the fact that as he gets better at reading, and the books become more complex, there's more and more lines of text filling the pages, making it harder to tell what line he's on and therefore causing him to get lost while reading. (I do this fairly regularly myself, but it might be because the only time I get to read for long periods of time is at night when I'm about to fall asleep ;) )

Enter See-N-Read. The polyester-based, matte, translucent material has a single line across it that is without color in order to allow you to see the line you are reading. With the rest of it being a matte gray color, but not opaque, you can also see the things AROUND what you are reading, which is helpful when reading quickly, or when something is hyphenated at the end of the line. And no glare!

The See-N-Read Reading Tool is something I DEFINITELY see Thing 1 (and 2 and Voom eventually ;) ) using as he gets into books with a lot more text. For now he prefers to point to words for the most part, so he dubbed this a bit of a nuisance. *I*, however, love it! I received two different sizes, the "book" size, which is 5.5" by 3", and the "document" size, which is 8.5" by 3" (the document size would be great for anyone who does things like legal work or similar professions and has to read page upon page upon page of text printed out... we bought a house last year, I've SEEN the stack of paperwork that comes with that, trust me, this would be great ;) ). I typically stick to the book size (since most of what I am reading IS books) and it does help a lot to keep me from rereading the same line 5 times in a half-asleep haze.

I also received the book sized Memory Mark See-N-Read, which is basically the same thing as the original See-N-Read, but there is an opening in the clear line where you can use a highlighter (or underline or make notes) and maintain your line. This I haven't used much myself yet, but, I can definitely see where it would be useful. Textbooks for older students (if they're allowed to write in them) can easily be marked for things to remember with this tool. And the added bonus is that while it also helps you maintain what line you're READING, it also keeps you from accidentally highlighting the line above or below (ok, so I'm a clutz and it might just be ME who has that sort of issue)

And no, those who predominantly read for hours (and hours and hours...) on the computer are not left out. There is also the eSee-N-Read, which, you guessed it, produces a Seen-N-Read for you to use on your PC. Nice for helping keep your place if a child comes up and distracts you from what you're doing ;) Or coworker. Or anyone else for that matter. (can you tell in our house it's usually a child?)

A LOT of research has gone into these products, which you can read here. And not only THAT, but these have also been tested to be BPA and phthalate free (proof here)!

If you are interested in purchasing any of these, the See-N-Read can be ordered here, starting at 2.99 for book size and 3.49 for document size (available for purchase in bulk!). Memory Mark can be found here, for teh same prices (ALSO available in bulk!), and the eSee-N-Read can be found here, starting at 29.99 for a single one (also available purchased for 3 computers or for 5 with a savings!). ALSO, the eSee-N-Read has a free 7 day trial available! The link to download the trial is on this page where you can also order it :)

As you can tell, I rather like this product, and highly recommend it. If you would like some other opinions, go check out the rest of the Crew's reviews, found here.

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

Math Facts NOW!

2011-01-05T18:22:00.000-05:00

I am horrible at math. Well, basic math. Adding and multiplication are a bit difficult for me, or at least moreso than they SHOULD be. I don't want my children to struggle like I did.

Enter Math Facts NOW!, a math facts drill program designed by a homeschooling father of 9 to help with practicing math facts.

This is an entirely on the computer program, BUUUUUUUUT it doesn't have the characters and songs and such that let's face it, can sometimes be a bit... much. Thing 1 is not a huge fan of music, and often covers his ears, so having a program like this that doesn't have excess noise is GREAT!

When you first open teh program, you are greeted by a screen asking you to select who will be doing a lesson

(I created a special little profile so that Thing 1's real name wouldn't be on here :) )

After thaaaaat you select which lesson you're going to use. There aren't any premade lessons when you get the program, but the creation of lessons is incredibly easy.

On this screen you would simply select "Create a New Lesson" and then you get brought to the step-by-step lesson creation screens! You select how long the child gets to answer each question, how many problems they have to do, and how many times they have to type the problem if they get it incorrect, on TOP of choosing the operation you are drilling and which facts to include (like, Addition, 1 facts) that you would expect from a drilling program.

One thing on this that I (and Thing 1) did not like, although it's more because us than the program itself, it completely makes sense for it to be there, is that when you get a problem WRONG, you have to type the entire problem in at least 2 times (depending on how many were set in the lesson creation). Thing 1 doesn't use a lot of symbols as he types right now, so having to put in a + and an = is a bit hard for him and frustrates him.

This program, in our household, is well worth its 15.95 price tag (add 3.95 if you want a physical copy, and not the download). I can create numerous different drills, Thing 1 gets practice without too many things that frustrate him, it's customizable, and it's very user friendly (well, besides the whole + and = thing for Thing 1, but he'll get past that with more practice ;) ) If you're unsure, or want to take a look at it before purchasing, you can actually try it online, as well, and THAT is also great!

For more information you can check out the Math Facts NOW! site, or you can also go and see what my fellow Crew members thought of this program :)

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

Thing 1 and Grammar

2011-01-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

Unschooling seems to really work right now for Thing 1. We're going to take a much mroe structured turn in a few months, but so far, I don't feel like I've ruined him with unschooling.

Take this conversation for instance

"What does it mean when you put an is-is on the end of a word?" (that's seriously what it sounded like he said)
"A what?"
"You know, when you have the little line up on the top and then an s"
"OH! An APOSTROPHE and then an S"
"Uhmm... yeah"
(insert explanation on what the apostrophe S means, including examples)
"What about when it's an s and then an apostrophe?"
(insert explanation)
"Ooooh so it's like *insert going on for five minutes about different examples he's read recently*"

He better not throw off grammar studies like he did read :P

(and now he's playing on KIDO'Z on the Nick Jr site and learning different words in Spanish... *sigh* Slow down my young one, slow down)

2011: Goals, First Quarter

2011-01-02T11:14:00.000-05:00

Since I have a major life event happening around April, and making resolutions/goals for the whole year seems a bit silly with that in mind (y'know, the usual "I will get in shape"... well, the only shape I will be for a few more months is ROUND and getting ROUNDER... not something I want to be thinking abotu when assessing how I'm doing on goals)

Soooooo instead I am going to set goals for the first quarter!

~Get everyone eating healthier, and get some sort of efficient system so mealtimes are easy to get through
~Get the house organized and KEEP it that way
~Get (and stay) on top of laundry
~During this first quarter of the year, I want to get a good bit of stuff tentatively planned for Thing 1's first half or so of first grade. That way I can just GO rather than flounder when the time comes

Not much as far as "typical" type goals. I'd also like to get around to crafting a LOT more. I love doing it, it's my "me time" and I just don't get to always do it.

Craziness Continues

2010-12-29T12:33:00.000-05:00

The past two and a half weeks or so have been a major whirlwind of activity. We had Thing 1's birthday, MY birthday, then Christmas. Besides that, I have been busting my pregnant behind to try and get the house into some semblance of organization in preparation for Voom and for first grade (starting around April, we are going from our very unorganized unschooling approach to a more classical lean with organization and schedule-type things going on)

In the next couple weeks I am expecting a package from Rainbow Resource of things I had the chance to order ahead of tax-time (yay!), and then I can add the gear of planning school stuff to the rest of the gears slowly getting into motion.

And there are two days left before the new year begins! Where did this year go? Thing 1 turned 6, Thing 2 turned 1, and Voom is over halfway through baking! Link and I bought a house and went through the lovely process of moving (always loads of fun there... NOT) and getting settled into actually being homeowners (can't just call maintenance when something goes wrong, have to figure it out or hire someone ourselves).

And through all of this, I am still managing to work on getting the downstairs cleaned, like I said a few weeks ago needs to happen. I'm also working on the upstairs as well, although my original plan was one floor at a time. I can just only handle working on the downstairs for so long before I start to go crazy from a lack of scenery change ;) Because of this, the playroom is clean and organized (or was the other day when I walked out of there...)

Aaaaand of course, the crochet continues! Always have to have something going for crochet :) (I DID manage to make a hat for Link, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and a set of mittens for Thing 1 and Thing 2 all before Christmas)

Now I am off to go continue working on my house, clean my desk for the 50th time this week (where does all of this stuff COME from?!) and contemplating what my resolutions should be for 2011!

WOW!

2010-12-26T17:38:00.000-05:00

And the crazy thing about this picture? It was taken about 8 hours ago and the snow hasn't stopped! We've got a good foot or so of snow right now and it's STILL GOING!

This is an area not prepared for this sort of thing (there's general panic when there's a dusting) so it's been pretty much a ghost town from what I can tell. We stayed home all day so I can't be sure lol

Thing 1 and Link built this snowman around 11 (a couple hours after the first picture was taken) and the whole bottom section of him is covered now and you can't see the laurel on his head at all. He's just a mound of snow in the back corner from what you can tell, although you can see the arms still ;) (he's like some poor hiker trapped in the snow... poor thing!)

AAAAH!

2010-12-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

Only 5 more sleeps until Christmas!

Good thing I'm pretty much ready except for a couple small crochet projects I need to get done ;)

Well, and waiting for a box from my parents to come in (I have gotten all of the other boxes they sent, but the one with Thing 1's birthday stuff and all of the Christmas stuff in it is taking its time to get here...)

I don't think Thing 1 has ever been this excited about anything in his life. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy because Link and I like to make Christmas all about the kids :)

Tiny Planets

2010-12-17T17:23:00.000-05:00

Recently Thing 1 and I were given the opportunity to play a bit on Tiny Planets, an award winning website for ages 4-12.

When you sign up, your child has what is called a "Cadet" account, which is managed by your own parent account. I LOVE this. We use a number of programs around here that involve a parent account above the child's, and it just makes so much sense to me. Especially since in the case of sites like Tiny Planets, there is a paid service. The Parent account is able to add purchased "keys" to the Cadet accounts, rather than an adult having to log onto the Cadet account directly and purchase the keys. And if you have more than one child playing, you are able to manage all of those Cadet accounts from your one Parent account. So no logging into numerous accounts for you to manage the Cadet accounts. You can purchase and distribute keys all from the comfort of your own login :)

The Keys, which while not 100% NECESSARY for the website to be used, make the Tiny PLanet site a bit more interesting and fun, are purchased at the following prices:

10 keys- $1.95
25 keys- $3.95
85 keys- $9.95
250 keys-$25.95
600 keys- $49.95 (That is a LOT of keys, but there is a LOT of content you can unlock with them!)

Once you have your accounts set up, the site is divided into six sections, Tiny Planets TV, My Tiny Planets, Tiny Planets Books, Tiny Planets Fun, Tiny Planets Lab and Tiny Planets Learning. A few are pretty self explanatory (like the TV one). My Tiny Planets is the section where Thing 1 and I spent most of our time. And it was in fact both of us because the navigation was a bit much for Thing 1 to have been able to handle (honestly, it was tough for ME at times... it was similar to in video games where there are icy sections... lots of coasting involved). In My Tiny Planets, you have your own spaceship and even your own planet which you earn stars to purchase additional upgrades for by playing various mini-games. You can purchase some of the upgrades with the previously mentioned keys as well, further expanding the customization options for your child. This is also the "social" area of the site, where your child can make friends with other cadets.

On Tiny Planets TV, you can use the Keys to purchase videos to watch. There is one free one, and then after that, the videos cost at least 5 keys to unlock. Tiny Planets Fun contains Bing and Bong's individual corners, containing games and coloring pages respectively. Tiny Planets Books is similar to the TV section, where you have a couple free samples, and the other books are purchased using Keys. Tiny Planets Lab has the new games to be tested out, a link to find out what else is new, and access to the blog.

Then you have Tiny Planets Learning, which is the educational section. This area contains puzzles and lesson plans. This is the section with educational material regarding such things as science and numeracy, and social and emotional development. These lesson plans DO utilize videos and books from elsewhere, so you will need Keys if you want to do all of these lesson plans. You can explore the website without using these lesson plans, but the lesson plans tie things together rather nicely.

All in all, we enjoyed this website. We focused on free content while exploring, so I know that Thing 1 and I would've enjoyed it even more with additional content available. Perhaps sometime in the future the Keys will give Thing 1 incentive to do his chores or something. Who knows?

If you want to learn more about Tiny Planets, go over there and explore a little yourself! If you'd like to know how my other Crew mates felt about this, head on over to the Crew blog and take a look.

Disclaimer: I received this opportunity in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation.

Happy Birthday Thing 1!

2010-12-16T12:10:00.000-05:00

Today, my darling Thing 1 is 6. SIX! How did this happen?!

So, here is a look back at him from when he was a wee bit smaller.

This is obviously from the day he was born, waaaay back in 2004!

His first Christmas!

And here is one from today, before opening gifts.

And another one from today, he wanted to go out in the snow. He did eventually zip up his coat, I promise. And he came back in before the ENTIRE back yard was covered.

My dear Thing 1, who wants to be a pirate (for today at least) is getting big soooo fast!

Works in Progress

2010-12-12T11:22:00.001-05:00

My Current project list is a bit... uhm... crazy.

You see, I have this tendency to have numerous projects going at once, so I can work on what strikes my fancy at that moment. You'll see what I mean with this list...

Bells Ornaments for Mom
Afghan for parents (going to restart this one, I didn't like how it was coming out)
Blanket for Thing 1
Washcloths to use up my cotton yarn
Bookmarks
Longies

Things I need to get started on at some point after at least a couple of THOSE are done include

Thing 2's blanket
Other ornaments (I don't really have much by way of describing this, sorry)
Blanket for Voom
Hats and Scarves and such for family
Other ridiculously cute baby stuff for Voom

And thanks to the internet, I am always always ALWAYS finding new stuff I want to make. No wonder Link is always threatening to ground me from the internet!

Oh the Chaos!

2010-12-11T13:10:00.001-05:00

I am not an organized person. I never have been, and try as I might, it will never come naturally to me.

I have accepted this. I really didn't have much choice BUT to accept it.

This is made worse by the fact that I enjoy doing all sorts of different hobby things. The current BIG one, which has taken over most of the others, is crochet. I have tons of yarn, tons of ideas, notsomuch time, and even less natural ability to keep it from taking over the HOUSE as well as my free time.

Add in the school stuff, and two VERY active children and my first floor looks like a disaster zone.

Soooooooooooooo, in the next month or so, I am planning on getting things cleaned up. Once we can afford to, the school area/my desk are getting a major overhaul, but I need to get stuff thrown away/donated/stored before that can happen.

I just hope the overhaul can come sooner rather than later. Thing 2 has taken to climbing up on Thing 1's desk and turning the monitor on and off because it has a button. (We've had to disable the power buttons on all of the computers because Thing 2 has a major love of buttons, and my desk chair can't be pushed in because otherwise he wreaks havoc on my entire desk)

But the current motivator is to at least get things manageable in the meantime.

When I can drag myself away from my crochet. (I seriously have five skeins, 3 different TYPES of yarn on my desk, including one attached to a project I'm currently working on)

Really Trying!

2010-12-10T13:22:00.000-05:00

I am really trying to get back into this whole blogging thing. Since I had been wanting to keep our big announcement a secret for a while, and I have a HORRIBLE time keeping secrets like that when I'm excited (Link got his Christmas present the day it came in, rather than waiting a couple more weeks or so for Christmas, because I couldn't wait any longer)

I am even trying to get posts lined up to post on different days (something I've never done for non-review posts before) and that should help.

Maybe if I get into the hang of it NOW I'll be able to do a 365 sort of thing come 2011! That'd be awesome :)

Good Morning, God

2010-12-10T10:15:00.000-05:00

Apologia Press is known for publishing such things as the Exploring Creation... series of science books and their Apologia Academy online.

But did you know that also publish picture books for younger children?

Good Morning, God, by Davis Carman, is one such picture book, available in hardcover for $14.00 from Apologia Press. With a target audience of ages 1-8, this is a great way to introduce the concept of loving and thanking God every day to a young child.

Aside from the beautiful illustrations (which you can get in coloring book form for $4.00 from here), it is a short and sweet little run through a week in the life of a small child. (There is even a picture on the page discussing the school room that makes it pretty obvious the family in the story homeschools!) And while for the older end of the target audience, this may not seem like much, at the END of the book is a page for each day, with questions and scripture reading suggestions so you can expand on the daily worship concept with your children. So you can use this as either a sweet little bedtime story, and leave it at that, or you can expand upon it and turn it into a mini study for your children.

This is certainly a sweet, well-written and beautifully illustrated book. If you don't believe me, you can see a sample here :) Or you can go and see what other Crew members thought of it.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book at no charge for the purpose of this review. The opinions in this review are mine and only mine and I received no other compensation for providing them.

State of the Topsy Turvy Household

2010-11-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

Thing 1, my darling almost 6 year old (already?!) is anxiously awaiting his 6th birthday, coming in December.

At the Aquarium, I love this shot!

Thing 2 is getting into EVERYTHING, and has taken a particular liking to Link's computer (oooops).

This is what happens when an almost 15 month old gets ahold of a watercolor colored pencil and tastes it.

But I think the BIGGEST news in this household is the little darling set to arrive sometime in April.

B is Body, H is Head. This was the best shot that they could get :)

At our anatomy ultrasound this past week, we were informed that it is most likely that this youngling is a boy (I'm still trying to decide between Little Cat A and Voom for a nickname. I'm rather fond of Voom)

And now as December is fast approaching, I am fully intending to stay more up to date on here ;) I was having problems with wanting to spill the beans about the baby before the planned time. I am good with secrets... if they are OTHER PEOPLE'S secrets.

KB Teachers

2010-11-19T09:57:00.000-05:00

Around here, I have a bit of an oddity: I have a child who LIKES to do worksheets. This is all well and good until you're on your 50th page looking for a worksheet that will work online.

Enter KB Teachers into the arena of our home. Currently in the process of a website upgrade (which I'm excited to see the result of), this website has a plethora of worksheets and other printables (such as graphics) that you can download.

My particular favorite part of this website is the addition sheets generator. I can print a sheet, with answer sheet (not that I need them... no really, I don't I can add!... barely) and then generate another one in order to keep our worksheet "folder" stocked. I also am a huge fan of the "What Time is It?" worksheet generator, which can do sheets of "to the hour" all the way down. Since Thing 1 was in desperate need of practice on both of these, this was perfect timing for us.

A few things to note: This website does not have a "Search" function. The creators feel that you should be able to reach any page within a few clicks. For some, this may be a disadvantage, but I happen to like it. For whatever reason, when I'm on a site with a search function, I tend to pick the wrong key words or something and end up never finding what I wanted. Also, you cannot save these worksheets to print later. You print directly from the website (using your browser print button can actually cause some issues). I have heard that you can "print" to a PDF by using specific programs, I have no idea how these work and so have not tried it myself. Also, there are different themed worksheets that come out for things like Halloween and Thanksgiving. These are not linked on the main pages year-round. We received our logins for this site before Halloween, and after November 1st, while the other Fall worksheets were still available, the holiday specific ones were not. And that is also when the Thanksgiving ones BECAME available. However, if you're looking for something specific and can't find it, you are encouraged to contact them and they will get back to you.

While this website (and what I focused on) has a LOT of worksheets for the early elementary level, there are also some worksheets in the science and history areas that are geared more toward older students. So this website is one that likely will stay in use in OUR family for a while.

If you want to purchase a membership to KB Teachers, a single year is $29 (after a 10 day trial), and a two year membership is $49. If you want to get more information, you can check out their FAQs page, their Facebook page, or you can go and check out other reviews by my fellow Crew members.

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

Collectorz Book Database Software

2010-11-05T08:15:00.001-04:00

If you're like many homeschoolers, you have an almost ridiculous amount of books. Yes, there is the library but there's just something awesome about being able to reread a book 50 times in 10 years without having to go borrow it from the library again.

Once you've got this huuuuuge collection though, how are you supposed to keep yourself from repurchasing the same book again because you don't think you own it?

Enter Collectorz and their Book Database Software. With this product, you are able to enter in a minimal amount of information from your book (ISBN is a good thing to use) and the rest of the information will be there, without you having to go across and type every single little detail yourself.

ISBN, Author and Title
Publisher data and Publication Date
Format, Genres, Subjects, Nr of Pages & LoC Classification
Cover Images
Plot summaries and a lot more

And if you don't feel like typing in every single ISBN? They also offer nifty little scanners that you can use to scan the correct barcode on the book and it will pull the information for you.

Keep in mind, not EVERY book is in their system, so there are some ISBN's that will not bring up anything. I ran into this problem, and all I did was add the additional information myself. A bit frustrating for me, since the first few books I tried entering were in this category, but I think in the grand scheme of things, MOST of them are in there.

And what makes this program even more useful, because I know a LOT of people who have a TON of e-books, is that you can actually use the program to keep track of e-books and audio books as well! You scan your computer for them, and it adds them to your batch so you can make sure the information is correct before adding it to your database.

This program is available for multiple platforms, and also there are additional programs to help you keep track of what you own for OTHER types of media as well. Movies, comics, games, music, MP3s, photos... If you like to have everything cataloged, and want to make the process easier, then this product is definitely geared toward you.

This database, if you keep a hardcopy printed off somewhere safe, and/or a digital copy uploaded somewhere away from your computer (such as an online storage site), there is a chance that this could even be used in the case of insurance issues to get collections replaced.

The Book Database Program, which is what I received, is available in two editions, the Standard for $29.99 and the Pro for $49.99, although you can sign up for a free trial (I am not sure if this is equivalent to Pro or Standard though, sorry). The Pro has a LOT of features that the Standard does not, such as a couple different Export options, the ability to use it along with the CLZ Mobile Apps (available for $9.99), and a number of customization methods for how you see your collection listed. The optional scanners start at $19.99, although the better ones are, of course, the more expensive ones (the top one actually has built in memory as well) While these scanners are not necessary to use the program (I don't have one) they do make life a bit easier because you don't have to wear out the number keys on your keyboard, and if you have thousands of books to enter, it would certainly streamline the process.

All in all, while I recognize that this is an AWESOME program for people who have huge collections and need to keep track of them, without a scanner to help me and a large amount of time to sit and type in ISBNs, this program just isn't feasible for me to use to its max potential at this time. Someday I hope to have some of that "free time" I hear other people talk about ;)

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

Oh hey, I got tagged!

2010-10-26T08:46:00.001-04:00

Debbie, over at Debbie's Digest tagged me in this meme last week and I totally didn't even notice it until today. In my defense, I haven't been feeling well, and even when I AM feeling well I forget to check my comments.

At any rate, she asked 8 questions, which she would like all of her tagged people to answer, and then I get to tag 8 people, and pick 8 other questions. The hard part is going to be picking 8 people ;)

1. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? If so, how close to being finished are you? Are you making any Christmas gifts? Have you started them? I’d like to know your Christmas shopping personality.

No, I have not started Christmas shopping yet. I am already getting asked what people should get for Thing 1 and Thing 2 and my brain just stops because I don't even know what WE are getting them. I have found one thing for Thing 1, but it's a maybe and all that. I am making a few Christmas gifts. I have started on the largest of them, and it is kicking my tail! I am about a tenth of the way through it (it's a crochet blanket) and it has a total of almost 35 THOUSAND crochet stitches on the pattern. My poor hands are ready to fall off some days. I also found patterns for a few other things I'd like to make, it's just a matter of getting the materials and getting them made and then shipped. (considering my sister's birthday was at the beginning of this month and I still haven't sent her birthday card, it will probably be in the box going over to her... I really need to invest in some international stamps)

2. Sweet or salty ... your favorite snack?

Right now, sweet. And sour. I have a thing for the sour gummy candies right now (you know, all the one that start of sour and end up sweet?) And ice cream.

3. Last date you were on with just your spouse?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Uhm... last time Link and I went out just the two of us for dinner was my birthday in 2008. It's been almost 2 years now. We prefer to go out as a whole little family unit.

4. Do you dye your hair and if you do what is your natural color?

I dye my hair every once in a great while when I want to pull out a different color. Naturally my hair has little bits of pretty much every natural hair color. I have red, I have blonde, I have brown (the dominant color) and black, and since I married Link, more and more gray/white hairs have been showing up.

5. What is one of your favorite “guilty pleasures”?

Role-playing games. I love games like Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, the Zelda series, and the Tales series (Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Legendia, et cetera) I am just a dork through and through ;)

6. What makes you human (i.e. less then perfect)?

My procrastinating on EVERYTHING, my temper, my anxiety... stuff like that.

7. Do you decorate your house for the seasons? If so, do you have a specific treasured ornament or decoration?

We put up a Christmas tree for Christmas and that's about it. We've only had a couple Christmases living together so we haven't acquired a ton of holiday stuff yet.

8. When your kids all leave the nest what is one job you would like to try in all your free time?

I'd love to teach younger kids. Like, 2nd grade tops. It's funny, because I wanted to be a teacher for a LONG time, then wanted to be an architect, then wanted to be a psychologist, and have no come full circle back to teacher ;) (although I still love psychology oh so much)

And now my 8 tags!

Alison @Wayzley Academy
Elizabeth @Creative Learning Fun
Jenn~ @Our Many Beautiful Blessings
Mama Duk Heather @The Duklings at Camian Academy
Sadie @It's a Boy's Life
Retro @Homeschool Madness
Kristine @Our Little Corner
Donette @The Journey

Aaaand because I'm boring and my brain is fried (stupid cold!) I'm going to ask relatively boring homeschooling questions :-P Which I will then answer myself. Because that seems to be "the thing to do" with this meme ;)

What made you decide to homeschool?
Did you have to work to convince family and close friends (spouses included here!) that it would be what was best for your children?
How far ahead to you plan your curriculum (of course knowing that everything can change in a matter of days for what works and what doesn't)? Do you have everything from Kindergarten to senior year of high school planned, or do you just take it one year at a time?
What has been your biggest challenge in choosing curricula? Subject, learning style, worldview?
If you could go back to the first year and tell yourself then something you know now, what would you say and why?
If you have a day where your children are driving you INSANE, how do you handle it?
Have you ever homeschooled older kids with a brand new baby in the house? How on earth did you manage?
What is the most fascinating thing you have learned since you began homeschooling?

Aaaaaand now to answer them myself :)

1. What made you decide to homeschool?

I decided to homschool because Thing 1 is ahead in some subjects and behind in others. I was already considering it because the schools around here are bound by standardized tests, and because I was one of those kids who basically slipped through the cracks (didn't do my homework, passed, and they didn't really seem to mind too much, although my parents sure did).

2. Did you have to work to convince family and close friends (spouses included here!) that it would be what was best for your children?

Not really. Link was pretty onboard as soon as I mentioned it, and the only obstacle I have run into with family is the social aspect. But then, they all know that Link and I would be hermits if we could get away with it, so I guess in our case it just might be a valid concern of our families'.

3. How far ahead to you plan your curriculum (of course knowing that everything can change in a matter of days for what works and what doesn't)? Do you have everything from Kindergarten to senior year of high school planned, or do you just take it one year at a time?

I have very tentatively planned at this point until 4th grade. I had originally pretty much had all the way through high school planned, and then a certain Thing 1 decided to show he already knew how to read and that threw a massive wrench into EVERYTHING. Plus I change my mind regularly, so I figure maybe if I just plan until 4th grade (the end of the grammar stage in the Classical model) then I have less work to redo when I change my mind again ;)

4. What has been your biggest challenge in choosing curricula? Subject, learning style, worldview?

My biggest challenge at first was finding science. Link and I have different views on things, so finding something that fit was nearly impossible. Then I found something that fit, and reading is now the thorn in my side. It's always gotta be something ;) At this point I've pretty much thrown in the towel and reading will be mostly for pleasure for a while.

5. If you could go back to the first year and tell yourself then something you know now, what would you say and why?

Well, I'm still in my first year ;) But if I could go back to the beginning of our schooling I'd tell myself to chill out and not worry so much about things. I worry about not getting enough done, but we do each subject rather sporadically. Which reminds me, I would also tell myself not to let Thing 1 take too long of a break in math. He forgets a lot of stuff when there's too much of a break.

6. If you have a day where your children are driving you INSANE, how do you handle it?

I send Thing 1 to go play and count down the minutes until Thing 2's naptime and then just spend some time by myself in the quiet. I am trying to break my yelling habits.

7. Have you ever homeschooled older kids with a brand new baby in the house? How on earth did you manage?

Thing 2 was like 6 months old when I started teaching Thing 1, so not a new baby, but still juuuuuuuuuuust mobile enough that I had to pay a lot of attention to him to make sure he didn't get hurt. That is another reason for our very relaxed homeschooling style so far. It's more like "nap school" ;)

8. What is the most fascinating thing you have learned since you began homeschooling?

I had no idea there was a 13th astronomical zodiac sign! I can't for the life of me remember the name, but there is one! That's just the first one that comes to mind right now. My brain kinda died when I just pulled a couple pieces of dog food out of Thing 2's mouth. YUCK!

TOS Primary Student Planner

2010-10-25T10:02:00.001-04:00

I am by far one of the least organized people I know, and I hope to both change that, and to help my kids become more organized than I am.

Several months ago, I purchased the The Old Schoolhouse Planner, and was overjoyed with the number of forms and lists and recipes and everything else in the planner. The pdf file is huuuuge, has forms I never would've thought of on my own, and can be typed in so if I don't feel like handwriting something, I can type it before printing it.

When I found out that TOS has designed STUDENT planners, I was excited, but unsure if I would actually USE anything in them since I already have the big "parent" planner.

I (and other members of the Crew) were given the opportunity to review one of the student planners, and I volunteered for the Primary level one. Yes, seeing the High School, Middle School or Secondary (for grades 4-6) planner was tempting, but I have a Kindergartner, it only makes sense that I would review the planner made for K-3 students.

This pdf file, at 203 pages long, is definitely something that I will be using for Thing 1. I already have calendar pages from my big planner, but I can print off calendar pages for my currently calendar-obsessed 5 year old, and then he'd leave MINE alone ;)

There are also some AWESOME lists in this planner, like a list of the first 13 colonies, the periods of history, the order the States became states (does that make sense?), and a number of other awesome lists that even after the 2010-2011 school year is over we can use in our studies.

A word of caution: If you use an inkjet printer, printing off a lot of pages can use a TON of ink. Thanks to Link, I have a laser printer now, so that is one less thing for me to worry about (my inkjet prints beautifully, but MAN it uses a ton of ink!) However, you do have the option of typing directly onto the form and just saving it on the computer, which cuts the ink cost out of the equation entirely.

This planner is $9.95 in the TOS Store. You can also buy it in various bundles with the big TOS planner, or other levels of student planner, or even with one of TOS's Curiosity Files.

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

Brill Kids Little Reader

2010-10-22T10:48:00.000-04:00

In today's world, both homeschooler's and public schoolers are being expected to learn skills like reading earlier and earlier. Just how early can this be done?

According to Brill Kids, it can be begun as early as 3-6 months old!

I was given the opportunity to review Brill Kids' Little Reader BASIC program. It has two "semesters" (one year) worth of lessons, beginning with individual words and moving on later on to simple sentences.

The program I reviewed is on the computer, and has two small lessons per day. You watch them with your child (it's similar to flash cards on the screen), working to make it exciting and interesting for your child. By the end of everything, your child should be able to see, for example, the word "sit" and know that it is the word sit, and what it means to sit (there is an animated image as part of the lesson showing a baby sitting).

You have the chance (and it is encouraged) to personalize the program. For example, there is a Family section where you are encouraged to put pictures of each of your family members, add the names, and you can also record yourself saying the names. In my case I added myself, Link, Thing 1, and our puppy, besides adding Thing 2's own picture. It was really simple, since everything was labelled. If you DO have trouble though, there are forums where you can go to ask additional questions of other users, and see how they did it.

Thing 2 was NOT impressed with this program at all. He much preferred to go after my keyboard. Other babies likely would have a less button-centric attention span, and have better luck with this program. Another issue we had, besides the button thing, is that I am not a huge fan of starting off with teaching sight reading. This is not a phonics program, and so even if Thing 2 HAD paid attention to it, I would not continue to use it. I prefer to start with phonics instruction. Not everyone feels this way though, and this program would be a better fit for those who don't mind going into sight reading first.

The BASIC program, which I reviewed, starts at $149.00 for a single semester of lessons, going up to $199.00 for a full year worth of lessons. Add an additional $10.00 if you want a physical disc instead of just the download. This includes nothing but the lessons on the computer, and support.

If doing everything on the computer is not for you, Brill Kids also offers a DELUXE package that includes physical flash cards and other physical activities to help you with teaching your little one. The DELUXE is only available with a full year of lessons, and is $360.00.

At this time, the program is only available for Windows based systems. According to this page, there are plans to do a Mac version, but it will not likely be for a while.

Looking for other opinions? Check out what other Crew members thought of this program!

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

Read, Write and Type

2010-10-11T08:02:00.000-04:00

Computers are becoming more and more important these days. There are schools around the country that are introducing computers into the classroom earlier and earlier. Typing skills are becoming a must for the working world for more and more jobs because almost all communication is being done through email or other typed mediums. So, just how early should someone work on teaching their child to type?

With Talking Fingers' Read, Write and Type learning system, the time can be NOW. Recommended for K-3, this program pulls phonics practice and typing together by having teh child type letters based on the SOUND of the letter instead of the NAME of the letter. For example, instead of "Type the letter S", your child is asked to type the letter that makes the sound "ssssssssss". As the child progresses, they move into more reading-type exercises, and even get to create their own stories as well.

The game starts off with a basic introduction of the hand characters on the sides of the on-screen keyboard (Lefty and Rightway), before the virus named Vexor comes and crashes the party. The child then spends the game undoing the damage that Vexor did.

Thing 1, while he found the game fun, did not ask to play it again. He much prefers his own method of typing practice, rather than being told what to type. In all honesty, typing was my least favorite topic in school as well (I often still watch my fingers when I type, but I type pretty quickly). So Thing 1 and I will not be continuing with this product. Besides the desire to type what he wants, Thing 1 already knows how to read and is not a fan of phonics practice.

Read, Write and Type is available from Takling Fingers, starting at $35 for a single user for download. It is also available as a CD product, (the site cautions that the CD version is NOT compatible with Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.6 at this time) for $79 which comes with a few extras like an activity book and a laminated "keyboard" for practicing away from the computer. You can also do an online demo here, allowing you to REALLY get a look before you decide whether or not to purchase the program (on that page also, there is a form to fill out to be able to get 20% off of your next order by joining their mailing list and answering some questions!)

Keep in mind, in order for Read, Write and Type to work, your system needs to meet a few requirements. You can find out about those and find the answers to other frequently asked questions on their FAQ page, here.

Talking Fingers offers another program as well, for older students, Wordy Qwerty. It is for grades 2-4, so if you like the looks of Read, Write and Type but don't want the younger level for your child, you do have another option.

Other Crew members and their children have different opinions on their experience with Read, Write and Type, go check those out at the Crew blog!

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

LanSchool

2010-10-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

You see the subtitle under my main title? About "Raising Two Future Geeks"? With Link being a computer guy, we have 3 computers in the house. Mine, Link's, and Thing 1's (which he'll eventually share with Thing 2). Thing 1 loves using the different drawing programs on his computer, and OFTEN asks me to save the files for him. When I'm trying to research something else or don't feel like fighting the mess on his desk to get to the entire keyboard, doing it on HIS machine just isn't feasible.

What to do?

I turn to this program that I have been given the chance to review: LanSchool Home. LanSchool Technologies created this program, and you can purchase it for $99. It does have some specific technical requirements, which you can find on their website here. And while you're there, you can watch their guided tour, and see some of the technical advantages to LanSchool versus their competition. If you like what you see, you can also check out the free trial.

In all honesty, I know that not everyone has a family full of computer geeks, and not everyone would allow a five year old to have their own computer. This program is especially helpful in our household because we DO happen to be a bunch of geeks with a five year old computer owner ;)

My example earlier with saving the files from my own computer is just the task I have used LanSchool for most, taking control of Thing 1's computer from mine. This is made possible because we do have all of our computers on a network, and my computer has the TEACHER console while Thing 1's computer has the STUDENT portion. If I were to put the student version onto Link's computer as well, I'd actually be able to watch both computers at once (as well as take control of either computer... which is why Link refuses to let me put the Student one on his computer *giggle*).

If I choose, I can also just watch what Thing 1 is doing on his computer, or disable things like internet browsing, or individual programs from my console.

This is my console. You can't really see in this picture, but I have options like limiting USB, Control, blank screen (which also allows me to put a message up if I so choose), as well as the option to shutdown his computer.

Here is another view from my console, while I am controlling Thing 1's computer. He happened to have an update that needed to be installed this morning :)

I can't get a screenshot of it, but if I "blank" his screen, I can add a message. This makes it to where he cannot use his computer or even look at anything but a blank screen with my message until I turn the function off. This does have an issue if you try to leave it going for a long period of time though. The first time I did it (Thing 1 was having issues getting chores done that day) I put it up and walked away from my computer. My computer is set up to go into hibernate mode after a certain period of time, at which point the message and blank screen disappeared. Waking my computer up again fixed the issue, but Thing 1 was quick to point it out when it happened, so it was definitely noticeable.

I do love this program, but I know that it is really not the type of thing for everyone. Many families only have one computer, or even just one or two computers but the kids share parent computers and also don't do a lot of school stuff or free time on the computer. In a more tech-centric family like my own, this is a wonderful program though (in my geeky opinion). It is also available for school usage, information for which you can find on their website. Some of the functions on the home version (like the question asking and the testing things) are more classroom-friendly, since if Thing 1 has a question he can turn around and ask me (and if I happen to be in a different room, asking on the computer won't do any good anyway) These perhaps could be used in the future if we get more computers or ever spread the computers out of all being in the same room.

Not as crazy about computers as my family? Perhaps there is another member of the Crew who shares the same view as you, and can give you some insights as to how this program would work in your family! Go have a look at the TOS Crew blog!

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

Schleich

2010-09-24T08:51:00.000-04:00

After receiving a box of animals, I had no way of knowing at that time, that Thing 1 was going to develop a love for the Schleich collection that is very strong.

You have likely seen them, if you frequent places like Target, in the toy section. Small animal figurines with a tag around their foot with a red S in a circle. These are the Schleich figurines.

The Schleich company was founded in 1935, and so currently celebrating their 75th anniversary. You can find activities so you can participate in the celebration on their website. While you are there, you can also look at the wide variety of figurines they offer, including animals from all of the continents, some plants, some historical figurines (like knights) and also some fantasy figurines, like elves. And when you go to get more information on a particular figurine, you also get additional little tidbits of information

We received a total of 8 figurines for the purpose of our review: an Asian elephant calf, Przewalski’s horse, gnu and gnu calf, okapi, donkey, Swabian-Hall piglet, and Dartmoor pony. Thing 1 has custody of all but the okapi, dartmoor pony and swabian-hall piglet. I have the pony and piglet, and Thing 2 has run off with the okapi. The amount of detail on these is AMAZING. The Dartmoor pony even has horseshoes painted on!

You may notice that there are different colors on the tags (opposite the side of the S). In all cases that I have come across (I totally went and looked for local retailers), these are used for determining prices

Like I said before, the younglings have run off with all but the Dartmoor pony and the Swabian-Hall piglet, who have a home now on my desk. ♥ (minus their tags... I took all of the pictures before removing the tags because I knew once the tags were off and the animals discovered by the younglings, I would be lucky if I ever saw them again)

I love these figurines. I love the attention to detail, the quality in craftmanship. And while the tags all said 3+, I feel personally that the quality is enough that Thing 2 can run around with the okapi and play with it. Thing 2 has made the displays at our local retailers a required stop so he can look at the animals (he's a bit upset that we don't have an adult elephant, for example)

Curious about how other Crew members feel about this product? Check that out here!

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

Salem Ridge Press

2010-09-22T09:26:00.000-04:00

In a world where it is becoming more and more difficult to tell what the ACTUAL ratings are on things like movies, and so many books that children find interesting are actually based on those questionable movies, it is a breath of fresh air when someone comes into the publishing side of things with high standards of morality.

The company prides themselves on providing books such as this, which have wholesome, moral content. Their philosophy is

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8)

Something very difficult to find these days when we are being desensitized to so much.

Before I continue, let me say this (well, I'm going to say it whether you let me or not, afterall, it is MY blog): I am not a reader of historical fiction, typically. So when I was given the chance to review this company, I was a bit hesitant. Afterall, I don't get to CHOOSE what books I am sent for the review, what if they send one that I just cannot stand?

So when I received Soldier Fritz, by Emma Leslie, I was already a bit skeptical about whether or not I'd be able to do this review without sounding completely mean and awful. No need to fear though. The book, which takes place in Germany during the Reformation around the mid-1520s, is a very uplifting, well-written story about a young man's desire to be a soldier of the Lord. You can read the basic summary given by Salem Ridge Press (and purchase the book) at Salem Ridge Press's website. This book is 10.95 for a paperback version, and 20.95 for hardcover. Given the quality of the book, how sturdy it is even as a paperback (let's face it, there's some pretty flimsy paperbacks out there), the quality of the pages and the print, it is worth every penny. While you're there, check out the other books available, which you can also get in paperback, hardcover, and in some cases e-book!

You can read more about founder Daniel Mills and his parents, his choice of books, and find additional retailers on the website. And you can read about my fellow Crewmates' experiences on the TOS Homeschool blog.

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

Pyramath

2010-09-15T08:48:00.000-04:00

What do you see when you look at these cards?

You may see numerals, as well as the words for those numbers in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic and Roman numerals. They don't appear at first glance to be all THAT exciting.

Until you have the entire deck in your hands, and are playing a game of Pyramath. This game is addictive and fun to play, while helping to reinforce math facts.

Produced by I See Cards, this game takes on hand-eye coordination (picking up and placing cards), learning to count in multiple languages, and math drill. 54 cards are in the deck, and these cards are able to be used starting as early as KINDERGARTEN, if not sooner. As an adult I love to play a few rounds myself (when Thing 1 and Thing 2 are out of sight of course, or else I'd have to share!)

While you can play the game online, I feel that there is just something about having the cards in your hands that makes it soooo much more fun. It also is more helpful to have the cards in hand when you have a child who does not know all of the math functions yet. Thing 1 only knows addition, so the online game does not really appeal to him since it takes into account playing with subtraction, multiplication and division as well. At $6.95 per deck (plus shipping and if applicable, tax), it's not too far out there to even purchase multiple decks. (Something I am contemplating doing in the future, so I have a deck to hand the boys so I can still play)

Doesn't that look FUN?!

If the "regular" play of this game doesn't interest you, I See Cards' website actually links to additional game rules you can use.

One disadvantage we did come across with trying to play the traditional game with just addition facts is that we tended to end up running out of a particular number. The one round that sticks out most in my mind is the one where everything kept ending up as 5 and 10 (which uses the 0 card). Thing 1 thought it was hilarious though since I decided to just pull cards that had already been "played" and place them in the new spots. I highly doubt this is an issue if you are using more than one type of function at a time though, since you aren't restricted to 5+0, 5+5, 0+0, for example, partway through your game.

I am looking forward to using this product for a long time, as well as looking into I See Cards' other games which include working with fractions and learning prime numbers. This is something I foresee using as something to keep one child busy (while drilling math facts!) while I am working with another.

How did other Crew members feel about this (highly addictive) game? Go take a look and find out!

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

Such a Long Way Already

2010-09-02T08:30:00.042-04:00

My darling Thing 2, today you are ONE YEAR OLD! You are such a little bruiser now, and it's hard to imagine you were ever a tiny little newborn.

So I am sharing a number of pictures from during my pregnancy to your first birthday ♥


And here you are, your first birthday giving Momma a dirty look because you're playing and don't want your picture taken.

Peterson Directed Handwriting

2010-08-30T09:12:00.003-04:00

I very distinctly remember in elementary school, having to do handwriting practice. I HATED IT! It was boring, and repetitive and just all out dull. So I have been very leery of using any sort of handwriting curriculum with Thing 1. Funny story, I had selected a handwriting program for Thing 1, and then had a flashback of being forced to do all of that inane tracing in school and changed my mind. That program was Peterson Directed Handwriting's regular program.

Well, I received as part of the TOS Review Crew a copy of Peterson Directed Handwriting's PDF-By-Hand. I reviewed only the print portion of the program, since Thing 1 is not anywhere near learning cursive right now, which you can purchase yourself from their website for $75.00.

PDF-By-Hand uses a Wacom input tablet. I happened to already own one that I purchased a few years ago for around $100. (I actually talked about it in a previous post! This is what he's working on in the picture on that post) Thing 1 LOVES this aspect of it. For a few reasons. He loves to use anything that allows him to "draw" on the computer (his favorite program is Paint), and especially loves it when he gets to be on MY computer. He didn't seem to believe he was doing school work while doing this, and often ASKS to do his handwriting because he finds it sooo fun.

Before we started, I did do a brief assessment with him, and discovered we have some reversal issues with letters like N, and while we haven't gotten to that point quite yet (we're working one letter or number at a time) he has had some of his more minor issues corrected. One of the major things with Peterson is that you are practicing to get things into muscle memory, rather than visually memorizing. There is no TRACING in this program, and instead each new letter or number, you start with "drawing" it in the air, using verbal cues (like "tall down" for the number 1). This has been wonderful for Thing 1.

Aaaaaand, I can also print out the pages for Thing 1 instead of having him work on them on the computer, if I so choose. I haven't done so yet, because I want him to get to where he truly enjoys the handwriting practice first (almost there), but the option IS there. There is also a "blank" page for drawing in the files, which Thing 1 also found awesome and drew me numerous pictures using.

As you can likely tell, this curriculum was a WONDERFUL fit for our techie family. Even my husband was impressed. I am looking forward to continuing this with Thing 1.

One downside of using this program is that the tablet device can sometimes have issues. In our case, if Thing 1 gets the stylus too close to "laying" on the tablet itself, it quits working. Also, it doesn't quite show what he's actually writing. There is a bit of a learning curve with making sure the stylus is far enough from the surface so it doesn't draw extra lines. These are not issues with the handwriting program, but moreso with the input device and the learning curve involved with THAT. Thing 1 is doing better about it, but still sometimes has random lines across the screen.

I reviewed just the program with the print part of the program bundled in, but you can also purchase JUST the cursive for $75.00, or for the $125.00 for a personal license, you can get all of it together. OR if you need a BUILDING license because you are a school, you can purchase the entire bundled program with a building license for $300.00. If you would rather purchase the program, and then get one e-workbook at a time, you can do that as well. The program itself is $29.95, and each of the e-workbooks can be purchased separately based on whether you need a building or individual license. Peterson Directed Handwriting also has more "traditional" handwriting curriculum items available in their store.

Be sure to check out more reviews of this product from my fellow Crew mates. Don't just take my word for it ;)

Disclaimer: I received this product free from the vendor for the purpose of this review in exchange for my honest opinion and experience on it. I received no other compensation for this review.

Exercise ahem

2010-08-02T12:28:00.000-04:00

Remember a whiiiiile ago I committed to wanting to do at least a small amount of exercise every single day?

Yeah, that didn't work out so well timing-wise. Our A/C was broken, and so any thought of doing something other than sitting around sweating went RIGHT out the window.

Then all of July I was a lazy bum. I'm quite good at that. Thing 2 has started walking a LOT and so I've been go after him a LOT. We purchased an elliptical, so I've been getting on that for a few minutes at a time at least once a day.

A couple weeks ago, we picked up Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. I did it once, to Link saying "You can do it honey!" and then couldn't move for a week. Yeah, that did not go so well LOL

Saturday of this past week though (July 31) I put it in and tried again. Even though it had been about 2 weeks since my previous attempt, I found it to be easier. Link did it with me, as well, and wanted to die by the end of it. (He didn't appreciate the reminders of his behavior when *I* did it the first time, lemme tell ya!) So Sunday I did it by myself. I do well until the third cycle strength and abs when I just want to fall apart. It's because of my KNEES though. I guess it might be my weight and lack of fitness combined, but jumping jacks KILL MY KNEES!

Thing 1 tried to help on Sunday. He crawled onto my chest while I was trying to do crunches. Over 20 pounds of baby does not a pleasant crunching experience make.

Buuuuuuuut I'm going to be doing my third consecutive day today!

Go ME!

Dewey's Showcase

2010-08-01T08:31:00.001-04:00

This week I'm sharing another one of the tools we use in our homeschooling adventures. BANKER BOXES.

I know that sounds weird, but I really DO use banker boxes as part of our homeschooling. We started out with workboxes, which worked alright, but Thing 1 resisted finishing all of the boxes, wanted to skip boxes sometimes, and the shelves we were using were bending the books >.<

Soooo now we use the banker boxes for my modified system!

I wrote each of our major subjects (with a box for all of the other manipulatives because I have a LOT of them!) and put them into a shelving thing that I have owned since high school. Each box has all of the books for that subject, and the math box has the Math-U-See bars in it as well :)

Thing 1 enjoys things being like this since we typically don't do every subject every day, and he can more easily CHOOSE what he wants to do. I need to get some handwriting stuff into the language arts box, but he's resistant to handwriting still. Perhaps once we finish our next product review that will be overwith...

Have a tool you'd like to share? Head over to The Stay at Home Librarian and join the showcase! On top of that, Manda is currently running a GIVEAWAY of one of HER tools! A set of Magna-Tiles! So go, join the showcase, and enter her giveaway. (joining the showcase gives you extra entries!) The contest is open until August 21st, and even if you don't enter, or don't win, you can use the discount code she gives for 15% off your entire order! MORE INCENTIVE TO GO OVER THERE! GO GO GO!

I'm Featured at Live, Laugh Love :)

2010-07-30T09:12:00.000-04:00

I am featured this week on Homeschool Feature Friday over at Live, Laugh, Love :)

I am very thankful to Julia for the opportunity to ramble on on her blog ;)

If you want to be featured, you can go on over to her post and click on the link at the bottom for information on how to get featured yourself!

♥

Dewey's Showcase

2010-07-24T16:21:00.000-04:00

I am joining Manda over at The Stay at Home Librarian this week on her new meme Dewey's Showcase. Featuring different tools that are used for learning. And this week I'm going to feature something that I have had for MYSELF for a while that I have just recently been introduced to the concept of using for a learning tool.

Thing 1 LOVES to use the computer, and one of his favorite things ever to use it for is drawing. He usually isn't allowed on MY computer (it is, afterall, MINE and he has his own with his parental controls and such on it), but recently he has been on it in order to use this wonderful tool.

My WACOM tablet input device!

I have the CTE-440, in bluuuuue. It's an older model, but it still gets to job done. I use it when I am doing stuff with pictures that requires a lot of detail because I can better control the "pen" than my mouse.

Thing 1 uses it to draw, write, scribble... He's not quite AS comfortable with it as I am, but then I've also had it a few years and he wasn't allowed to touch it ;)

(I know he's not holding the pen correctly, we're working on it... there's buttons on it and he doesn't use those and so doesn't like to hold it down on the grip)

(Oh, and ignore my ridiculously messy desk...)

Go join Manda over at Dewey's Showcase! Surely you must have something you can share ;)

Travel Kits Review

2010-07-22T10:14:00.000-04:00

When going on vacation, whether it be by car or plane or train or boat, there are certain things that you have to take into consideration. How long are you going to be gone? What are you going to pack? How long is the trip itself going to take?

One thing that doesn't always come to mind is how on Earth are you going to keep the children entertained during the trip? If you're like me, and your road trips are generally 10 hours or more, there is a LOT of time to fill. Sure, you can travel at night so the kids are sleeping, but even THAT doesn't last for long.

That is where something like The Old Schoolhouse's e-book Travel Kits: A Simple Way to Bless Others can come in handy. For $12.45 you get 93 pages of ideas for special gifts to not only give your own children to make those trips much more bearable, but also to give to OTHER people so that THEIR trips run a bit more peacefully (perhaps even as a thank you if they're coming to visit you).

The 14 chapters take you all the way from determining how much and what needs to go into the travel kit, to ideas for giving it away and for opening the kits while on the road.

In the beginning they remind you of some things to consider, such as the size of the vehicle, gender of the child receiving the gifts, and whether each one should be unique or more of a "one size" sort of deal.

There are loads of ideas on what to put into the packages, keeping the items together, even all the way down to fun ways of storing different food items or craft supplies to help prevent complete backseat destruction zones. (Not that those EVER happen on long road trips ;) )

Loads of ideas for gifts, from practically free to more elaborate and sometimes pricey. And as if all of THAT wasn't enough, and didn't provide inspiration to make with the giving, there are pictures throughout the e-book of sample travel kits and gifts within the kits to jump start you.

While we aren't making any big trips this summer, I will definitely be putting these ideas to use when we make our next long trek to visit family.

If I can get Link to ever take a vacation...

You can read about my fellow Crew member's experience with this product and many other products over at the TOS Homeschool Review blog.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this e-book for the purpose of writing this honest review. I received no other compensation from The Old Schoolhouse or anyone else associated with this product.

"Travel the World" Planner Module Review

2010-07-19T08:25:00.001-04:00

If you are looking for something to do a fun unit on basic world geography, you may want to consider The Old Schoolhouse Magazine LLC's "Travel the World" module for The Schoolhouse Planner (which corresponds with June 2010). The module can be used independently of the planner (as I have done) and only costs $7.95.

Within the e-book, you get activities for learning about globes and maps, the water and land bodies and the continents. Thing 1's introduction to geography was a couple months ago, and was only very basic, so I was pretty excited to get this to review.

There is a little bit of something for everyone. Puzzles, coloring pages, creative writing (poetry), lapbook elements, copywork and high school level materials. There are even a couple recipes in there for the family to try :) It is very easily supplemented onto, or used as a supplement to another study, and includes a large list of additional resources that are related to this module. This resource list also includes additional products available from The Old Schoolhouse, like their Download N Go unit studies and additional planner modules.

I will admit that while it is an awesome resource (including even activities for high school students, so you can use it with multiple levels at a time), it was not a good fit right NOW for Thing 1. Afterall, he's only 5. The concepts were a bit much for him (a bit too detailed), although he did enjoy naming the continents and oceans and coloring. This is something that will work well for us though in maybe as little as a few months, depending on Thing 1. Perhaps some repitition is in order for memorization ;)

This is intended for all grades, particularly K-8, with the additional high school activities carrying it all the way through high school. The higher grades are likely to be a review, but quite thorough for these topics nonetheless.

Like I said, Thing 1 did not do well with this AT THIS TIME, but I anticipate that he will receive it a lot better in the future.

You can read about my fellow Crew member's experience with this product and many other products over at the TOS Homeschool Review blog.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this e-book by The Old Schoolhouse in return for my honest review of the product. I was given no other compensation for this review from The Old Schoolhouse or anyone else affiliated with the making of this product.

Mid July Already?!

2010-07-17T09:12:00.000-04:00

Can you believe we're already over halfway through JULY?! The busy fall and winter is rapidly approaching and I want time to slow down juuuuuust a little bit so I can get my head on straight first.

September 2nd is Thing 2's first birthday. We still haven't entirely figured out what we're doing yet, or what day or anything (since his birthday is on a Thursday) but we still have time for that, right?

Sometime the end of August/Beginning of September I have a wonderful friend visiting with her family (including her little baby *squee*) in the area.

October is when my sister has her birthday (anything being sent to her has to be sent early, since it has to travel internationally!) and Link has his birthday. Link never wants to do anything special for his birthday >.<

November is when my mom's birthday and Thanksgiving are (both around the same part of the month). Hopefully this year I remember to send her a birthday card... We have done Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's house the last couple years, so while I don't have to worry about cooking a turkey (can you imagine my scatter brained self trying to cook a turkey?) I should probably make something to take ;)

Then December hits like a ton of bricks. Both of Link's brothers have their birthdays, Thing 1 turns 6 this year, I turn 26 this year, and then there is a small time to take a breath before Christmas actually hits. And New Year's. (and my baby sister's first anniversary!).

I want my beginning of the year back.

Wait...

No I don't. We MOVED a few months ago. I don't want to go through THAT again!

Blast from the Past!

2010-07-12T16:17:00.000-04:00

I am rejoining the Blast from the Past over at Debbie's Digest this week.

This is from when Thing 1 was only 3 days old (so it was my 20th birthday ;) ) He's nowhere near that little anymore and I miss it sooo much.

Thing 2 is almost a full year old and it's just killing me >.<

Sweet baby pictures to share? Join up over at Debbie's Digest!

ACK!

2010-07-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

So I just took a look at my blog and realized it's been a whole week since I last posted >.<

We've been busy busy busy with playing and schooling and cleaning and chilling out since our air conditioner got repaired at the beginning of last week.

Thing 2 has taken his first few steps, although he still prefers to crawl because it's faster ;) He's still practicing new sounds and stuff as well.

Thing 1 has memorized his +0 and +1 facts! I had him doing the test for the +0 and even though he fought me on that one, he went ahead and did the one for +1 as well and since he had that down pretty well I figured we may as well skip doing the worksheets on that.

I haven't been taking as many pictures either. I'm seriously slacking here!

HOWEVER, I am working on a couple of reviews for the TOS crew, which will be posted later this month.

Want to Share?

2010-07-02T10:53:00.000-04:00

My friend Julia, who I met over at There's No Place Like Home, is looking for homeschooling, blogging parents to showcase on her new Home Feature Friday. Her first installment can be found over on her blog Live, Laugh, Love, with a note down at the bottom of how YOU can be featured.

At some point in the future I'll be there, too ;)

So go learn about Amanda from All American Family this week, and sign up to be featured yourself :)

Another Blast from the Past!

2010-06-28T11:26:00.000-04:00

The last two weeks I have joined in with Blast from the Past at Debbie's Digest with pictures of myself when I was a baby (and I had a couple people ask: yes, I was my parents' first... my mom had just turned 21 and my dad was about to turn 20 when I was born)

Since Thing 2 is still a baby (not for long!), I thought I'd share a picture of Thing 1 as a baby :)

He's a couple weeks old in this picture if I recall. We feel asleep in the recliner at my parents' house :) ♥ So this would be December 2004/January 2005 timeframe.

He's nowhere NEAR that tiny now :(

Have any ridiculously sweet baby pictures to share? Link on up over at Debbie's Digest!

Coming and Going

2010-06-23T17:13:00.000-04:00

Right now in our household we are dealing with some coming and going.

Thing 2 has teeth coming in.

And Thing 1 has teeth coming out.

Thing 1’s tooth became loose at the same time Thing 2’s first tooth was (FINALLY) coming in. Thing 1 just lost his tooth finally last night, and Thing 2 has SIX teeth (four on top, two on bottom)

I love both of their smiles so much ♥

Blog Walk

2010-06-21T07:58:00.000-04:00

Here are this week's Crew blogs that I will be focusing on this coming week.

1. Second Star to the Right and Straight On Till Morning
2. Surviving The Testosterone
3. Family Style School
4. School Around The Bible
5. 1628 The Story of The Goebels 5
6. Morris Family Madness
7. Homeschool Musings
8. Homeschooling (and then some!)
9. Heartfelt Homeschooling
10. following Him home

Blast from the Past!

2010-06-21T07:52:00.000-04:00

Time for another installment of Blast From the Past over at Debbie's Digest!

Remember last week's picture?

Well, this is from that same day/night, but is my with my parents! And a dog that I do not remember... but my parents I most certainly remember! I talk to them pretty regularly still and adore them ♥

(I really need to find an old picture of my sister... I know I have one SOMEWHERE)

Have any potentially embarrassing pictures from when you were little? Link up over at Debbie's Digest!

Stitching, Sketching, Scrapping Sunday

2010-06-21T07:47:00.000-04:00

I know it's not actually Sunday now, but I was busy yesterday hanging out with Link ♥ It was his first Father's Day since becoming a biological father :)

Anyway, here is Stitching, Sketching Scrapping Sunday hosted by Mama Manuscripts! (at a new location too!)

This (don't mind the background) is a hat I made and mailed off a few months ago to a really good friend of mine who was getting ready to have her first baby! It's made with Red Heart yarn and the colors were chosen based on an outfit she had gotten that was just ridiculously adorable :)

I posted an older picture because I didn't really do much in the way of crafting this past week. It's been really hot and our A/C is broken so working with yarn is not high up there on my list of things to do ;)

Have you been somewhat more productive in the crafting this week? Then link up over at Mama Manuscripts!

Learning Happens

2010-06-19T09:49:00.000-04:00

And now I am participating in Learning Happens from over at Patriots of the Republic Academy. Celebrating those learning moments that occur when a child isn't actively being taught :)

While it's not Thing 1 learning something on his own, Thing 2 DOES have to learn things as well. He usually isn't around running water much, and here he was learning that he can't "catch" the water. He kept trying to grab it and I just love the look on his face in this picture.

And it's not uncommon for me to see Thing 1 playing with his FUNtastic Frogs and the balance scale. I don't recall exactly what he was doing at this point, but he will see how many of his wooden cubes equals how many frogs, how many little frogs equal a certain number of big frogs... I leave his manipulatives where he can get to them at any time so he can explore on his own :)

Hop on over and share your own learning-without-teaching moments on Patriots of the Republic Academy!

Five Question Friday

2010-06-18T09:35:00.001-04:00

From over at My Little Life (Five Crooked Halos)

1. What is your favorite thing about summertime? Pools and water and such. I can't swim, but I still love the water.

2. What is your ideal retirement location (if money didn't matter)? Up in New England. I love how beautiful Maine is since it hasn't been torn up and built on like the area around here has.

3. Do you live in the same town you grew up in? I grew up in a Marine family, so I grew up all over. I DO however live in the same city I was born in. :)

4. What nervous habit did you have as a child that you kicked to the curb before becoming an adult? I used to be one of those kids who insisted on not stepping on cracks in the sidewalk and in tiles and such. I would walk on my toes at times if I was walking across a tiled area to avoid stepping on grout lines. Now, I'm way too busy trying to wrangle two children so I can't focus on that sort of thing. Thing 1 however, does not step on cracks...

5. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while on the job? The single most embarrassing thing to happen to me while working happened not long after Thing 1 was born. I was the only cashier on, it was a Saturday, HUUUUUUUGE line. I hadn't gotten to take a break to go pump (I was nursing him and pumping while at work) and my entire shirt, apron, and the top of my pants all on the left hand side ended up SOAKED. I went through numerous nursing pads as well. Having to call the MALE manager to get help was super embarrassing. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if it had been noticed by me BEFORE it was noticed by a customer...

For more Five Question Friday, check out My Little Life :)

Edit: Fixed the Font because when I copied the questions it changed my font color to completely TOO DARK!

Home Economics

2010-06-17T12:14:00.001-04:00

There is nothing saying that only girls should be taught to work around the home. I believe wholeheartedly that a couple should work TOGETHER in their home to make it a happy place. Fro some families that means Mom takes care of everything IN the house while Dad takes care of everything OUTSIDE. Some it means Mom takes care of everything at home while Dad just brings in a pay check.

While ours is similar to my first example, there are a couple things that Link does for me once in a while because I HATE doing them: doing the dishes and folding laundry. I will put the dishes away, I will cook, I will serve the food, I will wash the laundry and I will put it away, but the actual process of cleaning the dishes and folding the laundry is a hang-up for me and I hate doing them.

Sooooo what is the point in this rambling? In case my boys ever end up marrying a woman like me who hates certain chores around the house, I asked Thing 1 yesterday if he wanted to learn how to load the dishwasher. I was mostly joking, and figured he'd be watching while I actually did it.

Boy was I wrong. I was practically kicked out of the kitchen except to go check on how things were going. He made sure the silverware from the previous load was put away, loaded the dishwasher (with a couple pointers from afar), put the soap in, and started it.

And Thing 2 *ahem* helped.

On a similar note, when I went to empty the dishwasher today, Thing 1 practically leapt out of his chair at the table (which you can see in the distance of the picture) where he was quietly coloring and drawing pictures for everyone, and insisted on helping me put away the dishes so he could reload the dishwasher.

I love that boy ♥

Personal Challenge

2010-06-17T11:13:00.001-04:00

In recent weeks, I have been lamenting the fact that I weigh (as of a few minutes ago to be exact) about twice what I did when I graduated high school. And yet I have continued to not really eat properly.

We are considering going gluten free for numerous reasons, and doing so will end up forcing me to look more closely at what I am eating, buying and making because I don’t want to mess up the whole shebang. We’re not starting right away (I have a ton of stuff I need to use before we can fully cross-over because I can’t justify chucking all of my flour right now)

So when that occurs, I will be taking a much closer look at changing my dietary habits. In the MEANTIME, I need to look at my (lack of) activity habits and change them. I have been known to start a exercise “program” and drop it within a few weeks. I am hoping to change that.

Many people do it the opposite way around, and look at their diet before exercise, figuring exercise will be the easier one since it is often just a matter of adding something into the day, not completely overhauling a major part of life. I have a very specific reason for doing it the opposite way around.

I was anorexic in high school. At my lowest, I weighed about 105 pounds, and I LOOKED sick. My parents told me, a few friends told me, but I didn’t see it. It wasn’t until I had put on a few pounds after graduating that I looked at an old picture of myself and realized just HOW thin I was. I am 5’7”(ish) and 105 pounds is NOT healthy for me. I have lapsed a few times when looking into changing my diet, and cut myself down to one small meal a day and saw results (of course!).

So in order to stop myself from doing that again, I have got to prove to myself that that is NOT the only way I am able to lose weight, and the way to do that is by starting with exercise first. I’m not expecting major results, but if I can tone some of what I’ve got, and lose a couple pounds in the process, I think it will be effective in showing my inner skinny person that I can approach her size BETTER through exercise and proper diet than using previous methods.

So my goal this coming week is to get myself exercising for at least 10 minutes a day. Whether it be walking, WiiFit, exercise videos…. whatever. Just exercising for 10 minutes a day. EVERY day.

I have GOT to do this healthily. For Thing 1 and Thing 2 (especially Thing 2 since he’s still nursing!), for my husband, and for mySELF.

What My Child is Reading

2010-06-17T01:59:00.000-04:00

Thing 1 is currently reading Mary Pope Osborne's Dinosaurs Before Dark, from the Magic Tree House series. I only checked out one of the books to begin with because I was unsure of how receptive he would be, but he seems to REALLY like it, so I am going to see if I can't get ahold of the next few books in the series from the library for him. :)

So next week will probably have many more books added to it.
(and I tried to find a good picture but failed miserably...)

See what other children are reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

Excuse the mess though, I've been rearranging stuff ;)

And he got up there all by himself.

See more at Wordless Wednesday

Testing, Testing, 123

2010-06-16T14:09:00.001-04:00

Just testing to see if Windows Live Writer, which has been recommended by many Crew mates will work out for me.

Edit: It looks like it will! Yay!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

2010-06-15T18:24:00.000-04:00

Thing 1 says LOTS of crazy things, and now I am going to share one with you from just a few minutes ago. This meme from Not Before 7 came up at a perfect time!

"Momma, my stomach is broken. I need to eat chips."

He's been trying to get me to let him have chips ALL DAY and thought maybe if he told me his stomach is broken I'd give in. It was not a success.

Head on over to Not Before 7 for more Tiny Talk funnies :)

Blog Walk

2010-06-15T12:21:00.000-04:00

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I am one of well over 200 other people who ALL blog. So the idea was brought about to hold a "blog walk" every week to be able to bring awareness to our fellow crewmember's blogs and to be able to fully explore them ourselves.

This week's blogs are the following, which I will be reading throughout the week.

1. Reaping a Harvest
2. Pink & Orange Coffee
3. Live, Laugh, Learn!
4. Mrs. Mandy's Musings
5. The Fantastic Five
6. Refined Metals Academy
7. Just A Moment in Time
8. Providence Farm
9. My Journey
10. Petra School

Sweet Shot Tuesday

2010-06-15T11:07:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed I've been participating in a lot of memes. And it could be annoying to you. Too bad ;)

I have been wanting to share this picture, and just came across the meme Sweet Shot Tuesday over at Life With My 3 Boybarians and decided it was as good a time as any.

This picture was a once in a lifetime moment of all three younglings in the house "relaxing". About 2 seconds later everything had gone insane again and the moment was lost forever. Except for this picture. :)

Take a look at other sweet shots (taken much nicer than mine lol) over Life With My 3 Boybarians

Blast From the Past

2010-06-14T13:28:00.000-04:00

This week I am ALSO joining Blast from the Past over at Debbie's Digest!

This picture is from 1985. I am in fact IN this picture. See the adorable little baby in the front who refuses to look at the camera? That's me. These are my cousins on my mom's side of the family, and only one person from this generation is missing: my little sister.

At this point, on my dad's side, I was the only one for this generation, so I guess it's both sides, huh?

Did You Notice?

2010-06-13T11:36:00.005-04:00

There is a new button on the right side of my blog, and an influx of followers.

I have been selected as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew for the 2010-2011 voyage. I am part of the group reviewing products for the YOUNGER students (since Thing 1 IS only 5).

I am looking forward to a fun-filled, exciting year with my crew mates!

:) ♥

Camera Critters

2010-06-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

A turtle in one of the canals at the local botanical gardens. Thing 1 was ECSTATIC to see this one and many more.

To see more Camera Critters, go to http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/ (I'm sure their pictures are better than mine ;) )

Men's Monday Meme

2010-06-13T11:07:00.001-04:00

I have asked my husband, Link to weigh in on this week's question: How do you deal with stress?

I play video games, ignore the problem. I'm also highly medicated for anxiety.

It took a lot of prodding for me to even get that much out of him.

Crafty Charitable Goodness

2010-06-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

This past week, on a group that I frequent, someone mentioned that the Mommies Funding Research Auction is coming up again. It is run from June 29th to July 7th.

You can find more information here: http://mommiesfundingresearch.blogspot.com/

And I donated these two hats (which I just made a couple days ago)

I was unable to donate last year, but this year I made sure I got the chance :)

Besides these, this week I've been working on getting stuff made for my Etsy store.

Have you done something crafty this week? Go over to Mama Manuscripts and join on the Mr Linky!

Some Big Milestones

2010-06-07T10:06:00.000-04:00

Thing 1 has passed some big milestones the last week. Some good, some, well, not so good.

The first big one is he finished his Math-U-See Primer book. He is soooo proud of this, and I am super proud of him as well, since we just started in back in April. That was on teh 3rd, and he has been begging to get started on Alpha since he finished Primer. I am trying to give him a bit of a break (and buy myself some time since he will probably fly through Alpha too)

He also has his first ever surgery, which is not really a good thing. This also brought about his first time spending a night without me there at all (Link was with him). He had been playing on the floor by the back door and apparently a sewing needle was on the floor and while he was kneeling he somehow managed to get the sewing needle in his knee, and behind his kneecap. He's doing well now (surgery was yesterday morning) and hasn't had to take anything for pain. He's a little trooper :) The children's hospital gave him a couple puzzles, which he loves.

No pictures this time, I'm sorry!

(Thing 2 has now gotten 4 teeth and has 2 more coming in.... YAY!)

"Catapull"

2010-05-24T09:41:00.000-04:00

"Catapull" is how Thing 1 pronounces this past weekend's Lowe's project. It was a cute little catapulT, and here are some pictures (hey look, it's ME!) These are a wonderful thing to do if you're bored on a Saturday and have a local Lowe's. You can also buy the kits online at their website. We're seriously considering going next week as well :)

Socialization

2010-05-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

Now, I find the whole "homeschoolers are unsocialized" argument to be a bit silly, but that doesn't mean that I intentionally keep Thing 1 inside all day and don't let him meet anyone.

Every week (at least until it gets too hot) there is a group of homeschoolers around his age that get together at a local park and play.

Here Thing 1 is "fishing" in the nearby stream. The "pole" was made by one of the girls who goes (who turns 6 this coming week!) and she was over there fishing as well.

You can't see it very well, but here Thing 1 is pretending to shoot a bow and arrow, using sticks. (You can barely make out the "arrow" stick being held near his face)

This picture was not long before the swordfighting that occured with sticks, that resulted in this

LOVELY mark above his eye. (He had dropped his sword and bent down to pick it up, the other boy didn't realize what he was doing and Thing 1 got whacked) Not long after it happened, the other boy and Thing 1 were playing with teh sidewalk chalk like nothing had ever happened! Gotta love kids :)

Fun Trip!

2010-05-24T09:27:00.000-04:00

In our area, one of the fun things to do this time of year is to go strawberry picking. Usually, it's a half hour drive or so to get out anywhere that's good for it, but the last couple of years apparently there has been someone right near where Thing 1's homeschool friends meet!

Soooo this past Friday, (May 21) we went and picked some strawberries :)

Not very many pictures, I know, but I was trying to hold the basket/bucket and keep Thing 2 happy and inspect strawberries )Thing 1 kept picking any that looked even remotely good ;) ) and so was a bit busy to do much else. And I got yelled at by Thing 1 for taking pictures.

We ended up with a couple pounds of strawberries, and they are DELICIOUS!

Continuing Australia, and a Growing Boy

2010-05-12T10:06:00.000-04:00

So as this week has progressed, Thing 1 has refused to do anything about Australia that is not animal related. No real big deal. He has his map of the continents that he points Australia out on, and enjoys drawing pictures of the animals and stuff. I think we'll do something like this for all of the continents because he is REALLY enjoying it right now.

Here he is with all of the animal worksheets so far spread around with his continents map as well. On Monday, I had filled out the koala page for him (words like eucalyptus and marsupial would've probably resulted in a temper tantrum because he hates not being able to spell correctly) and he's using that to complete the others.

~~~~~

He also has been getting up in the morning and getting his own breakfast as best he can. (I grab a bowl for him, but other than that he CAN do the rest; the other day he used a stool to get a bowl himself >.< )

My house looks a lot messier than it actually is. I promise. Well, this picture is actually from a couple days ago and I've cleaned up the dining room more since then. Still working on getting things settled after the move :)

He dresses himself and chooses his own clothes, too. In the two above pictures, it hasn't been a big deal.

However, some days we get a more creative outfit. (I make him change to something that matches better if we're going anywhere)

He's growing up so quickly :( Make it stop!

Review: Download N Go: Expedition Australia

2010-05-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

I was given the opportunity to review a copy of The Old Schoolhouse's Download N Go - Expedition Australia unit study. Amanda Bennett (Unit Study series) and The Old Schoolhouse have put together these studies on various topics (such as Pizza, Kites and China; all for $7.95 a piece or $152.00 for a total of 38 units) intended for grades k-4, that are meant to be an entire unit in one e-book (this one in particular happens to be over 100 pages).

Due to some time constraints that are pretty much entirely my own fault (my email and I have had a one sided discussion since then) I have the opportunity to REALLY see if these are "download and go" studies.

As I was going through the e-book, I at first was concerned about the lists of books suggested for each day. How on earth was I going to get this started TODAY as soon as Thing 1 woke up without any of these books?

Well, true to the name, once I actually looked at it better , I realized that with the multitude of links throughout the pages and the worksheets and activities suggested for use, I really did have a full unit study sitting in front of me. I did not have to do anything other than print a few pages for today and be ready to show some things on the computer. Day 1 included an introduction to continents (which is good considering Thing 1 had no introduction to the concept previously), the Great Barrier Reef, and koalas. We did not actually get a chance to get into the Great Barrier Reef because Thing 1 became fascinated with the koalas, so it looks like this one week study will take us a little longer overall ;) He's much more interested in the animals portion of it than anything else.

One thing I really like about this is that it can be expanded on. With the use of lapbook elements within the e-book, as well as anything one might choose to add, this one week study really could be expanded to be a LOT more in-depth and take a lot more time. And because of the ease with which you could expand on it, I feel this could be used with older children, or even multiple levels of children - which may prove useful in the future considering Thing 1 and Thing 2 are about five years apart in age.

Pros:
~Seriously an entire unit in one place, with the use of links within the e-book
~Easily expanded on; lists of books for helping to expand on concepts are included
~An e-book, so it sits on your hard drive instead of taking up shelf space
~The concepts in the one I received are not 100% dependent on each other, so if necessary things can be cut out for comprehension levels or attention span "issues"
~There is a variety of activities within the study

Cons:
~Depending on how exactly you use it, it can take a lot of printing (which means paper and ink usage)
~Contains a LOT of information, so with a child like mine who will shut down if there is too much information being given, it will either take longer than a week or you'll have to cut some things out
~While it's not a problem for me, a lot of the information is given on websites. If you prefer your child to not be on the computer, you would need to check out books from the library or have other resources on hand for the unit study.

In the end, after just one day of use so far, I am really enjoying this and planning on finishing out this study with Thing 1. He's looking forward to it, too; particularly learning about kangaroos tomorrow :)

One thing to keep in mind is that there are still more being added to the collection. So if you do not really see one that you like now, but like the general concept, keep an eye open to see if a topic you are interested in using gets released in the future :)

Some legalese:
I was given this product to review and use within my own homeschool. I have received no compensation from Amanda Bennett or The Old Schoolhouse or anyone else. All opinions and experiences within this review are my own.

How is it...?

2010-04-30T14:29:00.000-04:00

How is it that I did not so great in math, and hated math with a passion for a good bit of school, yet my older son LOVES math, anything related to math, and is doing SO awesomely in it so far?

Last week, at the beginning of the week we were on lesson 10.

Now, after a few days of not doing any math in the last two weeks (letting things sink in and allowing him to continue practice and exploring with the manipulatives) We are on lesson 20! There's only 10 lessons to go in Primer!

This may be because Primer is meant as an introduction, and Alpha is where he'll have to start memorizing things, but he is FLYING through it. Once he seems to understand a topic, we do a couple of teh worksheets and then go to the next lesson. Math is only during Thing 2's naptimes because Thing 2 thinks that the blocks are potentially delicious, so any time we can move on to the next lesson we do because we never know when math time will be cut short by the little one.

Also, how is it that my little baby is now hitting 8 months old?! Thing 1 is rapidly approaching 6, and Thing 2 is rapidly approaching 1 and I just can't stand it :(

Box 12

2010-04-19T13:45:00.000-04:00

In the First Day! post I mentioned the perpetual box 12. It is Thing 1's chore folder.

I have a bunch of the library pockets that I ordered, as well as tagboard, so I made a lapbook style folder for his chores. On the front it has his name and Chore Folder, as well a note that it is to be kept in box #12. I wrote his chores down on index cards, and when he completes them, he moves them from the Note Done pocket to teh Done pocket.

Very very simple, but he enjoys it and so enjoys his chores now too. He loves being able to move things from one folder to another.

His chores are:
Make Bed
Clean Playroom
Put Books Away
Feed Impa
Put Silverware Away (from the dishwasher... he can't reach any of the cabinets where the other dishes go)
Clean Bedroom
Read (Thing 2) a Book

As we get better settled in the house and he gets older we'll be adding things, and may also have to split into two separate folders for morning and afternoon chores.

First day!

2010-04-19T13:39:00.000-04:00

We are moved in now for the most part, and enjoying our new home. Today was our first day of school in the new house, and Thing 1 thoroughly enjoyed himself.

He practiced writing our new address, his full name and the letter A. I used some of our primary lined paper, write what I wanted him to practice, and laminated the pages, so we can do this many many times without wasting paper. YAY!

He finished lesson 9 in Math-U-See Primer (he actually got a head start the other day and we did the first few lessons because he was begging me to be allowed to do some math stuff). Tomorrow he may either be building numbers using his hundred board and Decimal Street and blocks, or we'll move on to lesson 10. I haven't entirely decided yet. Maybe we'll do both ;)

Since our handwriting letter for the week is A, he learned the ASL sign for the letter A as well.

He played with the pattern blocks and did the first activity from the Pattern Blocks for Primary Grades notebook that I have. He also made a little person with them.

And last but not least, we discussed our plans to go to a big park on Thursday. He then watched the garbage episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy and we discussed trash and things like why we don't use paper plates and why Thing 2 is cloth diapered ♥ (I happen to have some disposables in the house because they were given to us "just in case" and as soon as I picked one up, Thing 1 said that they are gross LOL) And he wants to pick up trash at the park Thursday, so we will be taking bags with us.

All that is left is the perpetual box 12, which I will talk about in a separate post ♥

Mysterious Ways

2010-03-29T14:33:00.000-04:00

So we still haven't moved yet. We had a couple things go horribly wrong with the closing, and it went insane.
Last week, we ended up going and looking at different houses. We found one that has ended up being the same price, but a little smaller.

HOWEVER, it doesn't require any work to make it presentable. It has all new carpets and all of the walls are teh same color (the other house you could tell someone had TRIED to paint, but done a REALLY bad job, and in a few places didn't even go all the way up the wall... so the stairwell had three different shades of off white). There is also a fireplace in this one, and a couple of rather large mirrors in the largest room downstairs. The yard is a lot smaller, but the back yard is already fenced in, so that is less work for us as well. This place went on the market literally right as the other one was falling through. So some mysterious ways have been worked, and even our realtor feels like this was meant to be.

We are supposed to close later this week (in 2 days to be exact) and then will start the whirlwind of activity to get everything moved and get this apartment cleaned before the 10th of April.

In other news, Link and I celebrated our second anniversary yesterday! We didn't do much, instead choosing to relax.

(And Thing 1 has just informed me he wants a baby chicken...)

Wow!

2010-03-16T16:13:00.000-04:00

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

I have seen this type of map around a lot lately, and finally got around to making one of my own. These are all states that I have personally set foot in, although most of them were while in the process of moves growing up. I Was born in Virginia, but have lived in both Carolinas, California, Arizona and Maine. All but Maine were before graduating high school and were more like VA, SC, NC, CA, SC, CA, VA, AZ.... then back to VA, to ME and now VA again.

I have family and friends scattered all over though. It's just amazing at how many states I have set foot in while on those moves... (54%!)

Tick Tock

2010-03-08T02:18:00.000-05:00

Time is moving right along while we get ready for this move. And with this move comes settling in in a new place and then starting to more diligently do SCHOOL!

I've started creating a basic plan on what we'll do when, especially since I am slowly adding more subjects as we go along. By the winter "term" we should be done adding things finally.

So for Thing 1's kindergarten prep and year I have chosen the following:
~Math-U-See, Primer and Alpha
~Lesson Pathways lessons plans for Science introduction and Social Studies introduction
~Astronomy study later on, this is what he WANTS to study, so we'll do a LARGE unit on it
~US Geography/states study
~Edcon Literature worktexts level 1
~Wordly Wise 3000 Second Edition, Level K
~Hooked on French (this is on the computer, and looks like lots of fun for a basic intro to foreign languages)
~Sign Language cards for learning a few signs (probably just once a week to begin with this year)
~Many many types of manipulatives, including pentominos, tangrams, pattern blocks, linking cubes, cuisineaire rods, opaque counters, colored wooden cubes, a geoboard
~Free-reading
~Handwriting practice, using the ream of handwriting paper I got, not workbooks
~Writing letters and such to family
~Drawing both on paper and on the computer
~Introductory typing (he uses the computer, and I want to try and steer him away from bad habits as much as possible)
~Playing with his brother and the dog and me and Link and a group of local homeschool kids

If at any point he seems overwhelmed (keep in mind that many of these are only once a week!) I can always back off some on most of this. The joy of being able to work at HIS pace, not someone else's.

Box Day #2!

2010-02-25T14:28:00.000-05:00

I got (most of) the rest of my stuff I ordered today! This was the box from Rainbow Resource. I am missing the student book for the Wordly Wise, but I just got the tracking number for it in my email. Woohoo!

Can you tell I have a love of manipulatives?

Box Day #1!!

2010-02-23T23:48:00.000-05:00

Our Math-U-See stuff has arrived. I already switched the blocks from their cardboard box to another box (which I think originally had makeup in it)

We have Primer, Alpha, the starter set of blocks (you can't see all of them in the picture, but they're there) and the skip counting CD.

In a couple days my order from Rainbow Resource should be here, and then I'll have everything from this round of ordering :) (I forgot to order something, so have to convince Link to let me order it) (Don't mind the other stuff in the box, that's the stuff I bought at Borders a couple weeks ago)

Totally Non-Observant!

2010-02-22T03:52:00.000-05:00

I just realized a little bit ago (before the realization about the lapbook, honestly) that one of the ladies from the There's No Place Like Home forum that I have been frequenting most recently has commented on a number of my blog posts from BEFORE I knew ther ewas a comment issue. I had no idea anyone had gone BACK and commented on the older posts. Thanks Jenn~!
And thanks to anyone who comments (like Heather whose comment about the GM lapbook reminded me I hadn't posted it)

Apparently the comments hold me more accountable than I hold myself. OOOPS!

Hey look, baby picture! And Impa-Puppy and my foot apparently. This was just taken a couple days ago ♥ (And I really wish Blogger would quit being weird and let me put text AFTER my pictures!)

How did I forget?!

2010-02-22T03:47:00.000-05:00

I apparently at some poitn along the way forgot that I hadn't posted Thing 1's Goodnight Moon lapbook pictures.

I am horrible with the slacking thing! Back, inside and then the underneath of the flappy part on the right inner section. Because that TOTALLY made sense as a description. The things in this one are a lot more spaced out because there were a lot of bigger things, and I have only ever been involved in the making of one other lapbook, y'know? He seems to REALLY enjoy making these at least :)

Busy Busy Busy!

2010-02-22T03:29:00.000-05:00

I'm still alive! All of us are, in fact.

We're just REALLY busy right now. And probably will be for about a month or so if everything goes well.

Why?

We're working on buying a house. If we succeed (which it is looking extremely likely since all that is left is to actually secure the loan and the closing), then we will be working on moving and going through things and figuring out what in the WORLD to do with all of the space we'll have. (Currently in a small two bedroom apartment, looking at moving into a 4 bedroom, two story townhouse)

Since I have a camera now, and have figured out many of its workings (although not all, of course) I have no excuse to not have pictures when I return for a more regular basis. Which will happen! I am expecting in the next week ro so to recieve all of our curriculum stuff (box days! yay!) and so when we get settled we will be able to more seriously get into our schooling.

Here is a recent Thing 1 and 2 (and Impa-Puppy) picture though that just melts my heart:

New Toys!

2010-02-08T02:43:00.000-05:00

Link and I decided with our tax return this year, besides putting money toward a down payment for a house (yay?) we would treat ourselves to new computers. They are QUITE nice, and definitely a LOT faster than the old ones (although my husband refuses to use any computer straight out of a box, and so has already modified his)

Another thing I got is a camera! I now no longer have to wait until Link is home to take pictures :) I am still working on figuring this thing out, but here are a couple pictures I just took a few minutes ago to see the difference with and without flash on the Auto setting.

This is WITH Flash, and yes, Thing 2 IS sleeping like that...

This is WITHOUT Flash, and I think looks a little better in this case.

Much playing to be done with the camera! And with the new computer playing with the pictures from the new camera.

Oh yes, this will be lots of fun, indeed.

Why Yes, I AM Still Alive

2010-01-31T02:57:00.000-05:00

I am in desperate need of a proper camera. Using Link's phone is really hard to do when he's not always home. (Job kinda keeps him away 40+ hours a week... BAH!) I have found one I like though. Now it's just a matter of getting the tax return and buying it. Along with a new computer, Thing 1's curriculum for this year or so, and more diapers (with my sewing machine being difficult I can't MAKE them since Thing 2 is already outgrowing the current ones).

And hopefully another wrap if I love Mojito as much as I think I will. Because I can never have too many wraps (and I don't always wear green, so having a color besides green might be a good idea)

New hobby lately? Crochet. And not just blankets. In fact, I have yet to make a single blanket. I make HATS. So far I have made 8 hats. Three belong to Thing 2, 2 have other homes, and 3 are being set aside for collecting as stock so I can hopefully open my own store at some point. No two hats are alike, because I keep finding more patterns that I like to try and use. One hat was originally going to be one of those baby sleep-sack things and I got bored at about hat length and decided to make it a hat instead. I can whip out most of them in less than two hours, although the one I am currently working on is kicking my behind. I keep stopping every other row because the next little section sucks to do and I dread it during the two rows. But it is going well! So once I finish using all of the yarn I currently have (which is a lot, Michael's had a sale on a lot of their yarn, so I bought a lot of yarn) I should have at LEAST like 12 more hats. Which will probably all be with different patterns. I will have to post pictures once I get the collection built up a bit more. (I even bought pink yarn so I would quit trying to claim hats for Thing 2 lol)

We had snow today! Which Link and Thing 1 enjoyed playing in. As well as the puppy, although she is a chicken and at times would go sit in the overhang area and just shiver because she is not well equipped for dealing with the cold. Thing 2 and I made a couple appearances outside, but mostly just hung out inside. I made beef, potato and corn stew for dinner. Well, more like soup. Whatever. It was good.

Thing 1 completed another lapbook, this time on Goodnight Moon. I have not taken any pictures of it yet, although I definitely NEED to. I have, however, taken to putting the month and year on the front of the lapbooks. That way I can see the progression in things like his handwriting.

All in all, it's been busy busy busy around here :)

Weird...

2010-01-20T03:37:00.000-05:00

So after some issues being brought to my attention regarding the inability to leave comments on my blog posts, I changed my blog's update thing to the new one.

It looks just the same as the old, only a couple little buttons are different. If that is seriously what was causing the problem, that's just dumb.

Just saying...

First Lapbook :)

2010-01-19T00:00:00.004-05:00

Thing 1 did a Humpty Dumpty lapbook today. And I took a number of pictures, but here are a few (back, front, and inside)

Busy Busy!

2010-01-18T01:49:00.000-05:00

I apologize for not posting more. It WAS Thing 1's first week of "school" work, and he also spent all weekend asking if he could do school stuff as well.

This week we'll be doing a lapbook on Humpty Dumpty, and if that goes well, we'll do one on one of the books he has from the library.

♥

Thing 2 is babbling up a storm, and quite LOUDLY, so given the late hour it is, I need to go entertain him QUIETLY :)

Assessments

2010-01-14T17:02:00.002-05:00

Today I decided it was time to go ahead and get a baseline assessment of sorts done with Thing 1. Afterall, if I'm going to build a curriculum around what he knows already and where I want him to go, I need to know where to begin.

I used the K12 language arts placement tests which put him at just about a second grade reading level. I was floored, and am SO proud of my little boy. He only really started reading back in August, and now in January he has quite a grasp on the concepts. He started getting distracted partway through the last assessment I did today, so I am thinking of redoing that one and seeing how he does with a fresh start. If he does a lot better, then I guess it'll be time to move on to the next level :)

This of course means that I am NOT going to be focusing on phonics for him. It would be way too boring for him since he stomped those assessments into teh ground. The only thing from there that he needs work on is capitalization in the proper places in sentences. He likes to use capitals Ds and Bs and Ps so he doesn't get them backwards.

Go baby go!

Day 1 = Success!

2010-01-12T21:38:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was awesome as far as getting things going. The day was a bit messed up because Link was home sick, and had an appt elsewhere so I drove him to that, and then I made a trip out to JoAnn's later on to pick up a couple things (which will eventually get their own post, I PROMISE!).

We completed EVERYTHING, and he didn't even want to stop to eat lunch (because of the adjustments made to our day, lunch was early in the lineup). He wanted to keep going instead of eat!

Today we didn't do anything, although I had loaded the boxes because I was waaaay under the weather at the start of the day. And Link was home again, in hopes that the day would be his last one and he's finally warded off whatever it is that has been bugging him the last week or so (we're thinking bronchitis or a bad chest cold or something)

Happy happy happy!

Day 1!!!

2010-01-11T09:23:00.003-05:00

Soooo today is day one of our homeschooling. Once Thing 1 wakes up, that is. I am not 100% done with the setup and such, but I still have time to get there.

The picture is of our workboxes (for now... I want better ones later on). In them are just various things.
1: Calendar folder
2: Handwriting dry erase thing
3: Cutting practice (I just realized the scissors aren't in there...)
4: A book to read
5: A small game I put together last night
6: Lunch
7: Sight Word flash cards
8: a card telling him to play with his clay :)
9: Books to choose from to read
10: I have forgotten what is in this one...
11: Discussing what we did today
12: draw on MSPaint for 10 minutes

Just a lot of stuff in hopes that he gets used to doing this and then once I order our curriculum stuff he'll already be used to THIS part when that stuff gets added in.

Added: Ok, just went and put scissors in. 10 is a puzzle. (can we tell I did this last night?)

♥ Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures as we get this stuff done so I can report back on how it's gone :)

Resolutions

2010-01-05T22:37:00.002-05:00

I have now made it to January 5th and still haven't gotten my resolutions down where they are more than just in my head.

~Lose weight. Ideal weight 140, goal weight right now 160.

~Get organized. I got a lot done today, but I don't always keep up the momentum.

~Eat better. While this COULD go under lose weight, I want not only myself, but everyone ELSE in my household to eat better.

~Blog more. :)

Woooooo!

2010-01-04T20:38:00.002-05:00

I have been working the last couple of days on getting things set up for our workboxes. We are going to be using a big wooden shelving unit sort of deal instead of the shoebox totes and the wire rack. We found the shelving thing, which is for storing shoes as well, at Big Lots, and just couldn't pass it up.

I have been designing the cards to go INTO Thing 1's workboxes. I printed them on index cards, which he thinks is a riot. I also printed the numbers to go on them for now, which will be half an index card each. After he's been at it for a while, we'll see about putting characters or something on them. I need to find the library card holder things for a few ideas I have, plus the "clock in, clock out" slots.

I also got a poster board and hooks so that I can make a sort of "calendar station" for him.

I'm all sorts of excited, can't you tell?

I'm Back!

2010-01-02T15:06:00.004-05:00

After spending a lovely two weeks in Maine with my family, including Christmas and participating in my sister's wedding, I am now back. During our trip up there we encountered the big blizzard on the east coast, and ended up having to stay the night partway up. Then we had to cut it a day short so that we would miss the storm hitting the New England area TODAY. BAH!

Thing 1's kilt came out AWESOME and he behaved wonderfully throughout the ceremony and afterwards. He remained sitting until I told him it was ok to get up and play with the other kids, a couple of whom were a bit more rambunctious than they probably should have been (pushing, screaming, yelling, running...).

There is my handsome little 5 year old!

Once Link gets his tush out of bed, we have to go get some groceries, and will also likely be picking up the rest of what I need to get Thing 1's workboxes set up. Exciting!

Also while we were in Maine, we purchased a Wii and the Wii Fit Plus set. I love it. It may not be super intense workouts, but since I am breastfeeding, I can't really overdo it anyway. Plus it's fun.

Ever want to see a puggle run fast and scale furniture better than a cat? Release a 40+ pound basset puppy behind them. Impa-puppy spent most of the trip staying on the back of the couch and chair.

Now back to trying to get Link to wake up...

Look Out World!

2009-12-17T02:39:00.002-05:00

I now own a laminating machine. Aaaand I've already started putting it to good use. Since we have a long drive ahead of us in a couple days, I am trying to get stuff together to keep Thing 1 occupied. He has slept through the trip in the past, but it's been a year and a half since the last time, and I doubt he'll sleep as long this time. So far I have made a chart with the number 1 through 100, and also made a grid with capital letters in a dashed font and on the back is another grid with the lower-case letters.

I also have a sheet that is nothign more than blank lines, and plan on finding a few other things on the internet to print out that he can do over and over. My mother-in-law gave him a couple books that are dry-erase, so he has markers that will work wonderfully on these "sheets".

I will also finally be able to print out all of the stuff for workboxes so that I can have a good bit of the more tedious work done before we start them. I just need to get hold of some velcro dots. (when I DO get hold of the velcro dots, I will be even MORE dangerous then!)

So Thing 1 will be entertained for the trip and Thing 2 will most likely sleep for most of it. :) Look out Maine, here we come!

Wow

2009-12-16T04:30:00.002-05:00

Today is Thing 1's 5th birthday.

It's hard to believe that this is also his 4th birthday being celebrated with Link (2nd thru 5th so far)

We're not a big celebrating family, and we did birthday stuff Sunday at my mother-in-law's house. So today we will be doing a lot of what Thing 1 wants, most likely having pizza for dinner (or lunch, who knows, really?) and hanging out. We may bake cookies or something as a fun thing to do.

It's hard to believe he's 5 already!

Ooooo

2009-12-15T04:05:00.002-05:00

I am now on the Workbox Blogroll over at Sunflower Schoolhouse. I have a nifty graphic over thataway --> too.

Honey has lots of brilliant ideas, and I'm sure many of them will be showing up in Thing 1's workboxes.

Other sites that I pull inspiration from (just to name a few that I frequent OFTEN):
1+1+1=1
Confessions of a Homeschooler
Homeschool Creations
What's in the Box?
Home Grown Hearts

There are a lot more, considering I have most of the blogroll either bookmarked or on my list of watched blogs here on Blogger.

Topsy Turvy Things

A Few Changes

Week 1 in Review

Oopsie

Aesop's Fables

BOX DAY!!!

Looking Back, Kindergarten

Fresh Air!!!

Digt-It! Roman Town

"Starving"

Slaaaaacker!

Speekee- Spanish for Children

Wheeeeee!

Easy Classical

See-N-Read

Math Facts NOW!

Thing 1 and Grammar

2011: Goals, First Quarter

Craziness Continues

WOW!

AAAAH!

Tiny Planets

Happy Birthday Thing 1!

Works in Progress

Oh the Chaos!

Really Trying!

Good Morning, God

State of the Topsy Turvy Household

KB Teachers

Collectorz Book Database Software

Oh hey, I got tagged!

TOS Primary Student Planner

Brill Kids Little Reader

Read, Write and Type

LanSchool

Schleich

Salem Ridge Press

Pyramath

Such a Long Way Already

Peterson Directed Handwriting

Exercise *ahem*

Dewey's Showcase

I'm Featured at Live, Laugh Love :)

Dewey's Showcase

Travel Kits Review

"Travel the World" Planner Module Review

Mid July Already?!

Blast from the Past!

ACK!

Want to Share?

Another Blast from the Past!

Coming and Going

Blog Walk

Blast from the Past!

Stitching, Sketching, Scrapping Sunday

Learning Happens

Five Question Friday

Home Economics

Personal Challenge

What My Child is Reading

Wordless Wednesday

Testing, Testing, 123

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Blog Walk

Sweet Shot Tuesday

Blast From the Past

Did You Notice?

Camera Critters

Men's Monday Meme

Crafty Charitable Goodness

Some Big Milestones

"Catapull"

Socialization

Fun Trip!

Continuing Australia, and a Growing Boy

Review: Download N Go: Expedition Australia

How is it...?

Box 12

First day!

Mysterious Ways

Exercise ahem