My Journeys Through Life . . . Herding Cats In New Mexico!

Disclosure: I received this complementary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

For the last few weeks, “The Artist” has been reading Archer and Zowie from Hans Bluedorn.

Archer and Zowie is Hans Bluedorn’s newest book, a sci-fi novel written for kids in the 6-13 age range. This is a 233 page soft cover book, with engaging illustrations drawn by the author, The illustrations look to me like pen and ink drawings and fit quite well into the story.

The story is about best friends Archer and Zowie, a boy and girl who could not be more different! “Archer likes to plan, explore, and find things over the next hill” but “Zowie likes to look around, feel life, and find fun right where she is.”

At the beginning of the book, Archer and Zowie are stuck inside on a rainy day, with a babysitter. Archer has gone into the kitchen and after staring at the microwave on top of the refridgerator, grabs the cord and pulls it down, and brings it in to the dining room where he sets it on the dining table. Zowie asks if they are going to be “using their imagination again,” reminding Archer of how much trouble they got into the last time they did that. Archer then untwits a coat hanger and bends ito a V, making an antenna and taping to the top of the microwave. He writes the word  TELEPORTEE on the door in permanent marker and the adventures begin!

The “Teleporter Order Catalog,” which Archer has written himself, is a list of products with numbers next to them, such as:

• Big Hot Pastrami Sandwich . . . 3345
• Spinach and Mushroom Pizza . . . 1204
• Milk . . . 2030
• Soda Pop . . . 8392
• Fork . . . 8943
• Miniature Nuclear Reactor . . . 2934
• Antimatter, 10 ounces . . . 2851
• Black Hole Kit . . . 8744
• German Shepherd Puppy . . . 7283
• Milk Cow . . . 8830
• Blaster Gun . . . 5258

“Borrowing” the babysitter’s credit card, Archer orders a Glaster Gun, which, according to Zowie looks like a dust buster. After they argue and accidentally shoot the  TELEPORTEE (microwave, it goes a little crazy and shoots out a big penguin like alien. FRom that, Archer and Zowie end up using their imaginations to go to other planets.

This book is written in script form, and “The Artist” didn’t care for the format, so I ended up taking over and reading it. I do think that if I give it to “The Batman,” he will enjoy it though. I did not care for things such as Zowie supposing that “Rain is God’s pee.”

Overall, this is a pretty good story, but “The Artist” says he would like it better if it were written in a more standard novel format.

Please check out the books and the author on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fallacydetective
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hansbluedorn/

27 families from the Homeschool Review Crew have been reviewing Archer and Zowie and The Fallacy Detective (also by Hans Bluedorn), and I invite you to read what their thoughts are by clicking here.

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

Disclosure: I received this complementary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I’m going to come clean here. I hate Math with a passion. I’ve tried not to pass that on to the boys, though, and most of the time they are quite happy to do it. This time around, The Artist” has been using the Speed Wheel Drills for Multiplication since the beginning of July, and has been enjoying the challenge against himself using a stop watch.

Each of the books have 1,444 speed wheel drills to help the student(s) develop instant recall of their math facts, which ultimately makes all math much easier for them to learn. In the Speed Wheel Drills from Math Essentials, the student(s) learn the facts in a fun way, fast. They can easily see their progress, too. Each page has 12 speed wheel drills, with each Wheel having one math fact family. So, if the student(s) do a page each day, the student(s) will be practicing math fact families 1 through 12 everyday. With over 100 pages of Speed Wheel Drills, I believe they would have every one of the fact families down cold by the time they finish the book!

The way each wheel works is, each one has “spokes.” In the center (hubcap) is a number. In between the spokes are numbers that “The Artist” had to add the hub number to. On the outside, in between each spoke, is a space to write the answer. Above each wheel there is a line to record how long that particular wheel took to complete, and how many the student got correct.

In the beginning of each of the workbooks are instructions to the student on using the workbooks:

In the back of each book you will find a Resource Center with the following sections:

• Math Glossary
• Important Symbols
• Multiplication Table
• Commonlt Used Prime Numbers
• Squares and Square Roots
• Fraction/Decimal Equivalents
• Speed Wheel Drill Solutions

“The Artist” was disappointed that he “had” to do this, at first. He did not care for the wheel format at all! However, he very quickly came to realize that he was going to be competing against himself each time he worked on a wheel. Here are a couple of pages that he had done at the time I was taking pictures:

A close up of just one of the Speed Wheel Drills shows how each one is recorded:

At the very back of the workbook is a one page solution for all of the Speed Wheel Drills:

In the end, The Artist found enjoyment in this workbook, because of competing against himself!

We were also given Speed Wheel Drills for Addition and Speed Wheel Drills for Division. Ultimately, I will be having “The Artist” work through Division, and “The Batman” work through Addition.

A number of other Review Crew families have been checking out the Speed Wheels Drills for you! I encourage you to check out their experiences by clicking right here!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

This past weekend “The Artist” and “The Batman” helped with this month’s freezer menu plan. “The Batman” went with me to help with the big shopping at Sam’s Club, and “The Artist” went with me to Smith’s (Kroger) to get everything else. Here’s what we put together!

As you can see from the written in items, we ended up with 29 supper entrees!

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Here is our final product!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

Aren’t they cute? A summer rainbow!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

Disclosure: I received this complementary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

For a little over a month now, my son “The Artist” has been checking out the Art History Program from Creating a Masterpiece. 

Having reviewed a different level from Creating a Masterpiece a couple of years ago, he was very eager to give the Art History Program a try. In this program, he found 3 different catagories with a number of projects within them.

In catagory 1, Styles of Art in History

• Cave Drawing Period: Hunting the Wild Bull (Faux Cave Drawing)
• Mesopotamian Period: King Sargon (Relief Sculpture)
• Egyptian Period: The Royal Hunt (Colored Marker)
• Aegean Period: Fish in Fresco (Fresco)
• Greek Period: Mythical Dragon (Relief Sculpture)
• Roman Period: The Centurion (Bust Sculpture)
• Byzantine Period: Hummingbird (Faux Stained Glass)
• Byzantine Period: Eagle in Profile (Millet Seed Mosaic)
• Romanesque Period: Rose Window (Colored Marker)
• Gothic Period: Knight (Faux Metal Working)
• Early Renaissance Period: Red Squirrel (Egg Tempera)
• High Renaissance Period: The Giraffe (Glass Etching)
• Northern Renaissance Period: Floral Etching (Scratch Art)
• Mannerism: Girl with the Umbrella (NuPastel)
• Baroque Period: Peacock (Printmaking)
• Neoclassicism Period: An Apple A Day (Oil Painting)
• Romanticism Period: Enchanted Valley (Oil Painting)
• Romanticism Period: Golden Countryside (Oil Painting)
• Realism Period: The Eye (Colored Pencil)
• Impressionism Period: Birch Trees (Acrylic Painting)
• Post-Impressionism Period: The Eagle (Acrylic Painting)
• Expressionism Period: The Zebra (Acrylic Painting)
• Cubism Period: Containers of Color (Acrylic Painting)
• Abstract Expressionism Period: Burst of Color (Acrylic Painting)
• Pop Art: The Flower Pot (Colored Marker)

In catagory 2, Historically Themed Projects

• Ancient Egypt: Egyptian Nomads
• Spanish Exploration: The Santa Maria
• Spanish Rule: Spanish Flowers (Inktense)
• Privateers: Pirate Ship (Soft Pastel)
• Revolutionary War: The Cannon (Ink)
• Civil War Period: Abraham Lincoln (Charcoal)
• Early America: The Great Chief
• Chinese Period: Chinese Woman (Batik/Inktnese)

In catagory 3, Exploring the Art of Yesterday there is one project:

• Ivan Aivazovsky: Stormy Sea at Night (Soft Pastel)

There is one final, more advnced set of lessons called the Capstone Program where there is one project.

• Paint Like Vermeer: Girl with the Pearl Earring (Oil Painting)

The first project “The Artist” chose to tackle was Egyptian Period: The Royal Hunt (Colored Marker). This is the project and the bit of historical information within the lesson:

And this is what “The Artist” did for his interpretation of an Ancient Egyption scene.

Next, he tackled something that when I looked at it online I could not figure out how he would get it to look like the lesson picture!

Spanish Exploration: The Santa Maria (ink, pencil and vellum)

This is from the lessons:

And this is what “The Artist” did!

Next, he did his own picture, using what he’d learned in this project.

Finally, he followed the lessons in the project Realism Period: The Eye (Colored Pencil)

This is my son’s drawing. I think it’s beautiful!

This is a wonderful way to get Art into your homeschool, whether as an add on to other subjects, or as a separate, stand alone program. There are enough projects to keep your students busy for about 35 weeks, if you do the projects one week at a time.

Our family highly recommends the Art History Program from Creating a Masterpiece. 

A number of other Review Crew families have also been working their way through this Art curriculum. I invite you to check them out and see what projects they chose to do and what they think of this pprogram by clicking right here!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

My husband was recently hospitalized, and Shiloh decided to take advantage!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

Disclosure: I received this complementary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I am very excited to tell about a wonderful online math homeschool with CTCMath’s full math curriculum! It does not matter one bit which level your children are at, CTCMath is there for you. Just LOOK at all of the choices you will have right at your fingertips . . .

• Kindergarten
• Grade 1
• Grade 2
• Grade 3
• Grade 4
• Grade 5
• Grade 6
• Basic Math and Pre-Algebra
• Elementary Measurement
• Elementary Geometry
• Algebra 1
• Geometry
• Algebra 2
• Trigonometry
• Pre-Calculus
• Calculus 

We received a 12 month subscription of CTCMath for this review, and it really is a full curriculum for any grade. If you have children in different grades, you can just set them each up with their own account, and for the most part, they can work independantly. You as the parent/teacher will set up your own account and place them in the grade you choose. In the student side there are tests they can take which will tell them, and you, if maybe they need to move forward of backward. On the parent dashboard, you can view all of your student’s activity. You can see if they did complete the lessons you expected them to do, you can see any awards they have earned, etc . . .

There are short video lessons which your student can watch as many times as they need, and the teacher speaks in a lovely Australian accent.

There are also printable summaries of the lessons, so this will help children with differing learning styles to use along with the video lessons.

Because CTCMath believes in the importance of teaching Math the traditional way, this curriculum is not aligned with common core. This is something that I personally like, because math is math. It does not change, and the simple use methods and concepts which are the easiest, quickest and most successful ways for students to learn and understand Math are what is used to teach your child. What’s not to like with that kind of thinking? 

While poking around I found some games to play. Fun ways to reinforce the different concepts they are learning. We have Speed Skills . . .

Whch is pretty self explanatory. Whatever level the student is working at, they choose the topic (such as addition), and away they go!

We also have a game to reinforce Times Tables . . .

And the Swap Pieces game.

You can follow CTCMath on a variety of social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctcmathofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ctcmath
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/ctcmath/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWn5e6974bpIEAe46VnovZw

A good number of Homeschool Review Crew families have been using CTCMath, and I would like to invite you to check out how they are using it and what they think of it. Please check them out by clicking here!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

For several months now, I’ve been thinking about giving Shiloh a Super Chewer Bark Box. He goes through toys like there’s no tomorrow, especially squeaky toys, which are his absolute favorite. I discovered that Bark Box has regular toys AND super chewer toys and decided to give it a try. Oh, my goodness, did he love it, and I’m so glad I did it! And he’ll get a different themed box every month!

Opening his Space Jam box . . .

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He LOVES his new toys! Because this was the first box of his subscription, he got two extra toys for a total of four. They are . .

A Marvin the Martian squeaky toy

This is so far a favorite, but he won’t let anyone touch the other new toys, so he must like them all!

Marvin’s flying saucer, into which we can put treats for him to retrieve

Space age basketball

Last toy, a Bugs Bunny chew toy that Shiloh hasn’t been able to wreck!

Here are some play time pictures!

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And, I believe this is the pretties picture I’ve ever taken of Shiloh! Those eyes!

Shiloh also got bags of treats, which he is loving! I’m so glad I did this!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)



Disclosure: I received this complementary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

With products like Ancient Greece from the Project Passport Studies, Home School in the Woods makes it easy (and fun!) to add hands-on history to our studies.

“The Artist” has been working through the Project Passport: Ancient Greece fromHome School in the Woods for a few weeks now, and it has been coming along very nicely!

This is the first time we have done a Project Passport Study, and it was different than the HSITW studies we’ve previously reviewed here. The Project Passport studies are set up as travelling stops, with different projects to do showing what we did. During the first stop, The Artist” made a suitcase folder and passport.

The directions are to save the passport for use in each Project Passport study you do in the future. At the end of his study, “The Artist” will make a passport “stamp” to adhere to his passport! He was also to begin his “Scrapbook of Sights,” which is placed into a three ring binder.

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“The Artist” has completed seven stops on the travel itinery now, and has been learning a lot about ancient Greece! Here are some of the things which have so far been added to his scrapbook of sights . . .

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He has also been creating booklets and things which will be added to either the suitcase folder or the Lapbook . . .

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One of the lapbook projects is a dining guide, seen below . . .

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Sometime over the next few weeks, we would really like to purchase the ingredients for and make some of these recipes for our family.

There are also recordings to listen to during several stops, such as Audio Tour: “A Visit to Sparta,” which was in stop 6. This is a nice added touch, making it like a real stop on an itinery!

There are 25 “stops” on this trip to Ancient Greece, so we have yet to finish. This is a LONG vacation, where “The artist” is spending one week at each stop. If I took a real trip to a country I wanted to truly learn about, it would be wonderful to have it last long enough to spend a week at each stop!

Here is something I like a lot:

• Home School in the Woods has gone entirely digital download. This means no more waiting for the snail mail to bring your product, and being digital, you can use it for all of your children when they are ready for each project!
• All of the individual timeline sets that once ONLY came in printed format have recently been developed in download on the HSITW website. Having done that, they’ve enlarged the sets to include the figures in various formats making them more usable in more of ways.

Some of our review families have been using Individual Timeline sets, such as Timeline Set: America’s History (Explorers to 21st Century).

A good number of other families have been working through different studies from Home School in the Woods. I would love for you to go and read about what they have been doing, and what they think. Please, check them out here!

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As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)