May 30, 2013 · 9:57 am

what a wonderful time we’re having . . . NOT!

So, now, not only am I laid up from surgery, still having to have my feet elevated most of the time,  3 of our 4 kids have some kind of (hopefully short!) Stomach bug. 😦  We were gifted with a gift card to a great pizza place that’s close to us (yay, Dion’s!) by one of our wonderful deacons and his wife (yay, Butch & Peggy!), however, in the interest of not doing something as wastefull as using it while half the house is sick, we’ll save it for another supper. I may ask my husband to stop on his way home to buy some Mrs. Grass soup mix with real chicken broth, and some crackers. That was my mom’s “go to” meal when we had a stomach bug, and now it’s mine, too. My kids find it comforting, too. My dear husband felt so bad that he couldn’t stay home to help today, but 1, he has no sick days left, 2, there was no same day vacation time availabel today & 3, he has a four hour training that he must attend today. 

Yesterday, my husband was sick at work, and we just thought that the lunchmeat had gone bad because we didn’t use it up fast enough. So he had me throw it out. Now, though, I’m wondering if HE didn’t get this stomach bug first? Oh well, he seems well  enough now, so hopefully the kids will feel better quickly, too! I’m hoping so, because there’s literally not much I can do for them right now, so we’re just struggling along together. 

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May 28, 2013 · 4:55 pm

Exciting New Product From The Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

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The Old Schoolhouse is now offering an exciting new opportunity to you! For the one time only purchase of $25.00, you will receive unlimited, permanent access to their digital library of more than 175 E-books or audio books for homeschool support and encouragement from many popular homeschool publishers and TOS. Some of these include:

15 audio books from My Audio School in History and Literature

A Glimpse of Carnivorous Plants lapbook from Hands of a Child

Teaching Writing e-book from WriteShop

Video from Jessica Hulcy on “Learning as a Family”

and much more!

With over 25 topics (that’s only $1.00 per topic!), you will find so much to help you as a homeschool family! Some topics:

Arts & Crafts

Bible

Economics

Electives

Encouragement

Geography

Government

Grammar

Spelling

Reading

Organization (with several planners)

Nature Study

Special Needs

plus many more!

As a longtime subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, even before it went digital, and one who gets a lot of help from the magazine AND from their other products such as schoolhouseteachers.com, I feel safe in promoting this new part of The Old Schoolhouse! Again, it is a one time purchase of only $25.00, and you will receive instant digital downloads of everything, permanently!

Please purchase your schoolhouse Library here, for the one time only price of $25.00. You’ll be very glad you did!

In the interest of full disclosure, in exchange for promoting the homeschool library, I am being given access to this product.

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May 28, 2013 · 4:26 pm

Simplified Pantry . . . a TOS Review for the Mamas! :-)

I was so excited to be chosen as one of the reviewers for Simplified Pantry written by Mystie Winkler!

As a reviewer, I was given access to three different products, and asked to choose one to use during the review period so I could tell my readers about it. I chose Mystie Winkler’s e-book Simplified Dinners, because I am ALWAYS looking for some way to simplify this part of my life, while at the same time, making sure my family is well fed with meals they actually enjoy. Well, Simplified Dinners is a definite winner with us!

This is a 30 page e-book, which I chose to print out and put into a three-ring binder. This is not a “cook-book” like I was used to, rather it is more of a how-to book. In her e-book, Mystie has given us first an explanation as to how and why she came up with this system, an explanation which really struck a chord with me. She was really tired of thumbing through and bookmarking cookbooks, recipe cards, etc, and having to keep track of ingredients needed. This system helped Mystie to pare down her pantry, purge her recipes, and even made it easier to let her children help in the kitchen. That last one turned out to be important for me, as during the review period I had surgery, and am currently unable to stand at the stove and cook, so my husband has had to take over a lot of what I normally do, with at least one of our children (“The Artist”) helping some. More on that later!

Mystie then gives us a master pantry list, which I went over when deciding which meal ideas to use during this review. I wanted to see just how much I could do without actually needing to go out and buy a ton of special stuff. I was surprised to discover how many things I was already set to make, with only minimal purchases! The reason for this is (from the Simplified Dinners website) “Simplified Pantry is all about encouraging homestyle cooking with basic ingredients. It is possible to cook good, healthy food without a pantry full of specialized ingredients, and it is possible to make easy dinners without shortcut, pre-prepared products. Simplified Dinners (and the gluten- and dairy-free edition!), enables anyone to transition toward home-prepared, real, whole foods cooking—even those less confident in the kitchen. Simplified Dinners helps keep dinner streamlined while allowing flexibility.”

Mystie also points out on her website how essential menu planning is in helping to promote peace in our home and our mind. However, we rarely think much about all the steps that are involved in menu planning. Also from the website:

“But do you realize how many steps are actually involved in menu planning? Typical menu planning involves multiple dependent steps:

1.Find out what’s on sale or what coupons you have.
2.Find recipes you can cook and want to eat.
3.Figure out what ingredients you need to cook those recipes.
4.Try to mesh the ingredients you need with what’s on sale.
5.Make the grocery list.
6.Shop.
7.Remember what you’re going to make for dinner when, and pull it off.
8.Use the perishables before they go bad.

No wonder we often dread it, forget to do it, or procrastinate.”

That was me, before this review, to be honest.

The e-book Simplified Dinners is SO easy to implement . . . if *I* could do it, anyone can do it, believe me! I make no claims whatsoever to being a “domestic diva”, lol!

Mystie has broken it down into categories:

•Slow-Cooker Roasts
•Slow-Cooker, No-Defrost Chicken Pieces
•Chicken-in-a-Pot
•Skillet Cutlets with Pan Sauces
•Marinades for Grilling or Broiling
•Foil-Packet Fish
•Stovetop Pasta
•Bean Pots
•Fajitas
•Quesadillas
•Taco Bar
•Burritos or Enchiladas
•Taquitos
•Frittata
•Oven Omelette
•Pizza
•Simple Stir-fry
•Potato Hash
•Baked Potato Bar
•Bean Soups
•Stews
•Blended Vegetable Soups
•Quick Soups
•Main Dish Salads
•Vegetable Side Dishes
•Side-Dish Salads
•Starchy Side Dishes

What Mystie has done, rather than create yet another recipe book, is to give a basic method for each of the above mentioned categories, along with anywhere from three to six or more alternative ways to make the same basic dish into something different. For example, Chicken-in-a-Pot gives the basic method for cooking a whole chicken, but then gives us three other ways to do it, called “Sassy”, “A More Interesting Basic”, and “40 Cloves of Garlic”. Each alternative idea switches up some ingredients, while using the basic method.

At the end of the e-book, Mystie even gives us a sample winter menu plan and a blank menu planner.

If you’d like to get a better look at what you’ll be getting, you can download a sample here, but really, I’m telling you that at the price of $12.99, Simplified Dinners is well worth the purchase!

Here are some of the dinners we had during the review period:

Peanut Butter Chicken (in the slow cooker) . . .

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and on the plate!

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Here, we have the Oven Omelette, which was a huge hit at my house!

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Orange Honey Chicken . . .

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Chicken-in-a-Pot (sassy version) . . .

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Now then, as I said above, I am now recovering from surgery on both of my feet, and unable to do a lot of what I usually do. My husband was able to take this method, with ingredients I had made sure to have on hand, and with “The Artist” as his assistant, he made the Flexible Frittata for our supper one night!

Here are the ingredients . . .

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The process . . .

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And the finished product!

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I think they did a great job, don’t you? Just so you know, that was my plate, and I only eat small servings since my bariatric surgery. There was enough for a family of six, with the other five being pretty big eaters, and nobody went hungry! 🙂

Mystie also offers a Simple Gluten Free & Dairy Free Meals edition of her e-book, also at the reasonable price of $12.99. I know a lot of people who need to find ways to feed their family without using gluten or dairy . . . this one is for you!

The third product reviewed by members of the crew was Paperless Home Organization, which is available for only $3.99!

I do intend to give this one a try when I’m feeling more recovered from my surgery, but I am more of a hard-copy schedule and list maker type, to be truthful. I know a lot of people who are really more likely to go paperless if given an easy way to do so, though, so here is the product if that description fits you!

The prices for Mystie’s e-books are very good as they are, but right now, she is offering a discount to my readers of 30% off any or all of the e-books! Just use the code TOS2013, and you will receive this discount. You do need to hurry though, because this code will only work until June 3, 2013!

Click below to find out what my fellow crewmembers thought of Simplified Dinners, Simple Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Meals, and Paperless Home Organization!

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May 28, 2013 · 9:13 am

Catching Up . . .

It’ll be two weeks tomorrow since I had surgery on my feet, but it seems like it’s been forever that I’ve had to be sitting or lying down with them elevated above my heart. You’d think it would be enjoyable to be forced to just lie around not doing much, but for me, as a wife and mother, it’s getting somewhat old, and I am feeling guilty that my husband is having to fit in as much of my work as he can around his own work schedule. Our kids are doing their best to pick up some of it, but there are still things they aren’t able to do correctly (wash clothes, cook) because of their different disabilities. They ARE able to do everything laundry after it’s been sorted and begun washing, for example, one of them moves the wet clothes to the dryer, another brings they dry clothes to the living room, and a third one folds, but none of them can get a load begun washing yet. My stepson is getting fairly good at helping to cook, and did, one day last week, manage to heat up the dinner someone from church had brought over, but he’s not ready to go start to finish just yet. 🙂

My next post-op appointment with the surgeon is on June 3, but I know I have to go at least 4 weeks from surgery before I can get the pins out of my toes. I’m hoping the second two weeks go faster than the first two have gone!

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May 26, 2013 · 3:31 pm

Going To Church Tonight! :-)

So, this coming Wednesday, it will be two weeks since I had surgery on my toes. I spend most of my time on the couch, with my feet elevated. I went to church Sunday morning after the surgery, but when my surgeon found out at my first post-op after that Sunday, he said it was too long to be with my feet down, even though I was in a wheelchair borrowed from church. So, I’ve been good ever since, and I get to go to church this evening! 🙂 I hate missing church, ever, so it’s not been easy. “The Artist” is staying home with me, as my husband worries. 🙂 My next post-op is in a week, and my husband says if the doc OK’s it, I can start going Sunday mornings after that. Plus, the day after my appointment we have the picnic for our church’s homeschool group (and my husband’s birthday!), so I’m hoping to do that, as well. Wish me luck!:-)

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May 21, 2013 · 4:50 pm

Budding Authors Workbooks & 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar . . . a TOS Review

Three of our four boys have been helping me to review some products from author Joyce Herzog for a few weeks now. My twins, “Mr. loquacious” and “The Puzzler” have been using the Budding Authors Workbooks, and one of my older boys, “The Artist” has been working with the book 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar.

I’m going to talk first about the Budding Authors set. This set was different from what I expected it to be, as it is simply a set of workbooks with minimal instruction for the parent/teacher. Don’t let that scare you off, however, because they are quite easy to use!

I had my twins working in the first book, which is titled Step Into Writing. In this book, children will be taking first steps in writing sentences and stories. Since my twins have some developmental delays, along with educational delays that resulted from several years in foster care before coming to us for adoption, this was an appropriate beginning point for them. You may download a sample from this workbook here.

At the very beginning of the book is a page and a half section of instruction for the parent/teacher, primarily describing the kinds of pages you will find in the workbook, and how to use them. The first one listed is Copywork, which is exactly what you would expect it to be. Your child will have a short story to copy, the first one consisting of just one easy sentence. Eventually, the short stories for copywork will be five sentences in the Step Into Writing Workbook. Each day, the student’s work should concentrate on perfection, not on time spent. The idea is that the child is to use his or her very best printing, spacing of words for ease of reading, and remembering to include all capitals and punctuation. The author says that at this level, 10 minutes is a reasonable working time for the copywork each day.

The second type of workbook page in this workbook are the dictation pages. There is a page at the beginning of the book for the parent/teacher which will give you the short story to dictate to your child for each page. In my copy, the page giving me the dictation to read to the child began with dictation for page 9, but the first dictation page for the student to complete was actually page 6, so we skipped that and began with the next set of pages. You will be given a very short, simple story to read to the child, and they will then copy it on their workbook page. My boys really had a problem with the way the writing pages are laid out, though. I like them, they are formatted with two lines, similar to another handwriting program I’ve used with my oldest son, but the twins just couldn’t grasp how to write with this type of lines, and asked me to please allow them to use regular primary paper, so that’s what I did. Each workbook page has thin column sections at the far right with the headings “C” for capitalization, “P” for punctuation, and “S” for spelling. There is a fourth column that you can use for whatever other category you feel your child needs to work on. For my twins, I used a ruler to make the columns on their primary paper.

Next, there is the “Experience Story” page after each dictation page. For this page, you and your child discuss the picture at the top of the page, and decide what the story would be about. Then, your child will dictate the story to you, as you write it down for him or her.

My book says there is also a dictionary page, but it was missing from my copy. It is included in the second workbook “Step On Into Writing”, which we will move on to when we have completed Step Into Writing.

This set of workbooks is very nice, although as I said before, my boys didn’t care for the format of the lines for writing. If we continue using it, we will use regular primary paper for their writing. This set of workbooks is, in my opinion, perfect for anyone who enjoys the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. In our family, we use a mix of Charlotte Mason, unschooling, unit study and lapbooking, so the idea of this set is one that works for us at this time. You can purchase the set of Budding Author Workbooks at the following prices:

Step Into Writing – $10.00

Step On Into Writing – $10.00

Adventures In Writing – $10.00

Then And Now – $12.00

Writing US History – $15.00

As I said before, I had “The Artist” going through Joyce Herzog’s 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar.

This is a small book, 40 pages in length, and much to my surprise turned out to be mostly review for “The Artist”, so what I ended up doing with it was to read it myself, simply to learn how to teach basic grammar to my younger boys when they are ready. The author has made it extremely simple to teach using this little book and some writing paper! You may download a sample of this book here. From the website, This book “follows the teaching style of a hundred years ago: state it simply and give an example.” This little book very easily clears up grammar confusion, and is available here for $12.00.

I think these books are at a good price, and will help your “Budding Authors” on their journey as writers!

Here is “The Puzzler” doing copywork . . .

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And “Mr. Loquacious” doing the same!

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And a quick shot of “The Artist” working on grammar! 🙂

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To see what other crew members thought of this and other products from Joyce Herzog, please click on the graphic below

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May 8, 2013 · 12:22 pm

Spanish For You! . . . a TOS Review

My children and I have been wanting to learn Spanish ever since moving here to New Mexico. We get a LOT more exposure to the Spanish language here than we ever did living in Michigan, so when the opportunity to review Spanish For You! – Fiestas, by Debbie Annett MSEd. came up, I decided to go for it.

Spanish For You! comes as a full year, theme based curriculum, centered around specific themes. There are two so far, Estaciones (Seasons), and Fiestas (celebrations), both focused at the 3rd through 8th grade range. It is my understanding that there will be more themes to come, as they are written and tested. Ms. Annett tests each one for a full school year in a teaching environment, so as to iron out any changes that may need to be made.

We were given Spanish For You! Fiestas, and because we are really beginners, I chose to use the grades 3 -4.

We received the 45 page soft cover curriculum, along with downloads of the lesson guides and self checking worksheets for grades 3 – 4, grades 5 – 6, and grades 7 – 8, as well as a pdf of flash card pages to print and cut out. We also received an e-book copy of the physical curriculum book, an mp3 of a native Spanish speaker reading the book that we received, and mp3 files to use throughout the lessons as instructed by the curriculum. These files greatly aid in learning correct pronounciation! 🙂

Here is a sample of Spanish For You! Fiestas for you to check out.

There are a number of other freebies that you can use, either along with the curriculum, or as a trial to see if it would work for you. For example:

There is a sample lesson guide to give you an idea of what you will be doing.

Here are some sample worksheets for you to try.

Spanish For You! offers free mini lessons for you to check out, and more free worksheets, as well!

The author of Spanish For You! is Debbie Annett, MSEd. She is an Illinois State Certified Teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Northern Illinois University. Ms. Annett has also studied in Seville, Spain, and has eight years of international business experience prior to becoming a teacher. She is now teaching Spanish classes for a home-school coop, in grades three through high school, along with private tutoring and after school Spanish enrichment classes.

In the About the Author section of the Spanish For You! website, Ms. Annett tells us about the needs she felt were not being fully met in Spanish lessons at the elementary and middle school levels:

• A need for easy flow from elementary/middle school Spanish into any high school curriculum.
• A need for an easy to schedule program that accomplishes much learning over time without being overly burdensome.
• A need for an effective curriculum that would allow families or schools to use the same book with all their students during the same school year. This saves time and money!
• A need for affordability and ease of use – Materials do not need to be fancy, complicated, and expensive in order to learn. Simple, well presented and designed lessons that engage students is what ensures solid learning.
• A need for audio – so many curriculums provide some audio, but many times I have heard parents and students say that they wish they could hear ALL the material in their book.
• A need to be able to place students new to a program with their grade level whether they have prior Spanish learning or not. When Spanish is taught in a classroom setting, there is always the question of how to place new students without prior Spanish learning.

While exploring the Spanish For You! website, I also found the author’s blog, where there is a lot of fun, informational ideas to go along with her curriculum.

Ms. Annett’s suggested schedule is three to four days per week, but she has also made a point of stating that if need be, you can certainly take it slower, which is what we had to do, for a variety of reasons. However, even with the various special needs of my children, combined with the fact that our house has been hit with one illness after another for the past few months, we were able to learn some Spanish we had not known before. My kids really liked the lesson that was centered around birthdays, because my twins had a birthday while we were reviewing Spanish For You! They love having flash cards, and plan to color them before we laminate them.

I am hoping that if we continue with this curriculum, we will be able to become at least somewhat conversant in Spanish. Right now, we are working through the grade 3 – 4 section, and then I plan to go right back and do the grade 5 – 6, followed by grades 7 – 8. Eventually, I may even be pronouncing the names of many of our local streets correctly, something I am apparently NOT doing as of yet. 🙂

I really like this curriculum. From the About the Curriculum section of the website, you will find loads of information about why this is a good choice. For example, students learn HOW the language works. Students learn to speak, read, and write Spanish through interesting themes, and can do the themes in any order, rather than having to learn level by level. The curriculum is easy to use, and it’s quite easy to be flexible in your scheduling. Children of multiple ages and grade levels can use it together.

Spanish For You! is very affordable. You can purchase your curriculum here, either as a complete package of all grade levels for $64.95, or you can get individual grade levels (grade 3 – 4, grade 5 – 6, or grade 7 – 8) for $39.95 each. Extra books are $12.95 each.

As I said before, we really enjoy this curriculum! I think if we keep at it, we will be able to learn more and more, and eventually be able to understand the Spanish we hear being spoken all around us, now that we live in a city that has a large Hispanic presence. 🙂

To find out what other crew members thought of Spanish For You! Fiestas and Spanish For You! Estaciones, please click below . . .

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May 8, 2013 · 10:34 am

Preparing for Surgery and hosting an online benefit . . .

I’ve been working a bit each day at getting things in order around here, because one week from today I will be having surgery on both of my feet, and would really prefer not to have to worry about keeping up with tons of work after that. My theory is that if we can get things in order now, it will be easier for my kids to keep up with it until I’m “back on my feet”, lol!

I have extremely bad hammertoes, three on one foot, two on the other, and they will all be dealt with in one surgery, so as to avoid going under anesthesia twice, or having two surgical and two hospital co-pays.

I’m also working ahead on making cards. I have a little ministry in which I make a card every week for some ladies at church who need encouragement for one reason or another. So far, I have five ladies. I do a card for them each week, and I pray for them every day. We also have three kids at church graduating this weekend, so last night I got one of their cards done, and today I’ll work on the other two. We have one other graduation coming up, but that isn’t until the beginning of June, which is good, because I have to go buy more grad themed paper for her card. 🙂

Another thing I’m working on: for those of you who don’t know, I am a consultant for Close To My Heart (http://lorimoffit.ctmh.com), a company that produces BEAUTIFUL, high quality, easy to use products for scrapbooking and card making. I am currently hosting an online party as a benefit for Bernalillo County, NM Sheriff’s Deputy Shannon Key. He is a deacon in our church (http://www.mesabaptist.org), and is going through his second battle with brain cancer. Because it is so bad this time, it is inoperable, so the only treatment available is mostly experimental, done at Cedars-Sinei Medical Center in Los Angeles, and not covered by insurance. You can read more about Deputy Key at http://www.krqe.com/dpp/features/nm-deputy-faces-another-cancer-battle .

To help build the Shannon Key fund, I am, as I said, hosting an online Close To My Heart party. 100% of my commission from this party will go to the Key family. Some incentives for you: if your order reaches $50.00, you are eligible to purchase the May Stamp of the Month set for only $5.00. This will also make you eligible for the exclusive, only available this month, special paper pack called Dream Pop, which was created especially for National Scrapbooking Month. But wait, there’s even more! Every order that is at least $25.00 will be entered into a drawing for a set of notecards handmade by me. For every $25.00 you order, you will get one entry. If, in addition to your order, you book a party of your own, I will give you an extra entry. When the party closes, I will ask one of Deputy Key’s children to draw the winner. At that time I’ll consult the winner for their favorite colors before making their cards. 🙂 If you’d like to participate in this very worthy cause, you may order anytime between now and May 26, 2013, when the party will close. When you order from my website http://lorimoffit.ctmh.com your order will ship directly to you, and you don’t have to wait until the party closes to receive your order. I hope many of you will choose to help. Even if you aren’t a scrapbooker or card maker, I bet you know someone who is, who would LOVE to receive a gift of products to use in their hobby. Close To My Heart products are top quality, beautiful, and very easy to use. Even *I* can’t mess up when using them, lol!

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May 7, 2013 · 2:01 pm

Papa’s Pearls . . . a TOS Review

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I recently had the opportunity to review a book called Papa’s Pearls: A Father’s Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren written by Diane Flynn Keith, for the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

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I thought, when I first expressed interest in this review, that the author’s name sounded very familiar. Well, it WAS familiar, and if you are a home-school parent, her name may well be familiar to you as well . . .

Diane Flynn Keith is pretty well-known in home-school circles. She is the author of the popular book “Carschooling: Over 350 Entertaining Games & Activities To Turn Travel Time Into Learning Time” (the main reason she was familiar to me, as I have long wanted to buy this particular book!), is the co-author of “Learning With Little Lulu Lemon” and “Home Preschool Curriculum”. She has also contributed to four books on the topic of homeschooling: “The Homeschooling Almanac”, “The California Homeschool Guide”, “The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas”, and “Homeschooling Styles”. Mrs. Keith publishes three different e-newsletters: ” Clickschooling”, “Carschooling”, and “Universal Preschool”, and coaches thousands of home-school parents via her writing, private consultations, speaking engagements, and websites, including:
PapasPearls.com
Homefires.com
Carschooling.com
ClickSchooling.com
UniversalPreschool.com

Papa’s Pearls is a fairly short read, at just 109 pages, but it is just jam-packed with “pearls of wisdom” from Mrs. Keith’s father, Carol Joseph Flynn, whose mother named him after King Carol 1 of Romania. Carol Joseph Flynn was simply called “Papa” by his children and grandchildren, and he left them a legacy of guiding principles, which they continue to use in their own lives even today.

Papa came up from a tough life during the depression era, and having a “girl’s name” made him the target of bullies from early on. He learned to “give as good as he got”, and gained respect as a result. Papa sold papers as a young boy, and by doing so was able to help his family. Often, the papers he sold for half a penny each, were what enabled his own father to have lunch money for the next day.

Papa misbehaved in school quite often, and as a result, spent much time visiting the principal’s office. He also, during his teen years, got involved with criminal elements of the day, and not just hanging around with the delinquents of the day, but according to his daughter (Diane Flynn Keith), was likely involved in real crime, as well. Finally, after a particularly bad incident in high school, the principle asked him which would be the worst possible punishment for him, to be suspended for two weeks, or to be sent to “Continuation School”, which was an alternative school for delinquents and “really bad boys”. Because he felt it would bring shame and humiliation onto himself and his family to go to Continuation School, he told the principal that this would be the worst thing possible. The principal did, indeed, choose to transfer papa to the alternative school as his punishment. Rather than be the worst thing that ever happened to him, however, this actually ended up being the thing that turned Papa’s life around for good. Mrs. Flynn says in her book Papa’s Pearls that it is perhaps because of this punishment that one of Papa’s pearls came to be . . . “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

This book reads like a story, with many of Papa’s pearls woven into it. Pearls such as:

Everyone deserves a second chance.

You gotta use your street smarts.

When you fall down–Get back up, brush yourself off, and try again!

Tell yourself you like it.

Take a hike–Just walk away from it!

Where’s the money?

Get it in writing!

Life is too short. Relax. Take a little time off.

. . . and many more!

Mrs. Keith writes in an engaging way, and her book caught me immediately. I wanted to find out what would happen next, even as I would need to put the book down to go do some task that needed to be done.

This story takes us from the time Papa was born, on January 19th, 1922, right up to the time he died, at age 89, on his 66th wedding anniversary. In between those dates, he was a wealth of wisdom and love to his children and grandchildren. He made certain that they always knew he was there for them no matter what, and he taught them many life lessons along the way. Papa went from a poor depression era kid with a penchant for trouble, to becoming a successful business owner. He gave support to his children and grandchildren all along the way. When Mrs. Flynn decided she was going to homeschool her children, and was threatened with legal repercussions (this was at a time when homeschooling was not as accepted as it is now) , Papa was right behind her, and used his contacts to help her with the authorities.

I read this book myself, because I prefer to preview some things before letting my kids have them, or using them as read alouds. Although I might eventually have my kids read it themselves, there are some expletives in it, along with some topics that I don’t really want to my kids to be exposed to as of yet.

I found this to be an excellent book for parents to read, it has a great deal in it to help us all along this parenting journey.

You can purchase an autographed copy of Papa’s Pearls: A Father’s Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren here for $21.97, which includes shipping and handling. I definitely recommend purchasing this book and reading it yourself!

To read what other crew members thought of Papa’s Pearls, please click below . . .

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April 30, 2013 · 2:08 pm

Home School in the Woods . . . a TOS Review

My kids have enjoyed learning with lapbooks ever since we discovered them several years ago, so when I got the chance to review a lapbook package from Home School in the Woods, I grabbed for it!

Home School in the Woods has long been well-known for their Timeline figure sets, Timeline Notebook and Olde World Style Map Sets, but I have to say that judging by the one we got for our review, they have also really hit the mark with “ready to go” lapbooking! Amy Pak and her family do live in the woods, and because she didn’t care for the thought of teaching history, she decided to use timelines. Eventually falling in love with the topic, she began to create timeline figures that are realistic. You can read more about Amy Pak and her family here.

We had to choose between:

Hands-on History Lap-Pak: The 20th Century in America

Great Empires

and

Hands-on History Activity Pak: Composers

I decided that I really wanted to focus on American History with this one, so we chose to request the Hands-on History Lap Pak: The 20th Century in America.

Because I thought it might be beyond the capabilities of my other three children at this time, I decided to have “The Artist” be the student this time around, deciding with him that he could “do” the Lap-Pak projects and create the lapbook, and we would, at a later time, use his finished product as an educational tool for everyone. Once he got started doing the projects, he decided that they were a lot of fun, and he was learning cool, creative things (like learning how to make a pop-up card because of one of the first few projects), and really went with it, with MUCH more enthusiasm than I’ve seen for other educational endeavors. 🙂

For this review, I received the Hand-on History Lap-Pak: The 20th Century in America as a download product. In my download were files for the following:

Booklet directions
Introduction and lists of additional resources that can be added for deeper study
Project assembly directions
Lapbook assembly directions
Reading text pages, to either print as a booklet or on 8 1/2 x 11 paper for a notebook
Lapbook project masters

The download version of Hands-on History: The 20th Century in America is available for $21.95, or you can purchase it on a CD for $22.95. Since I personally am not skilled in the art of waiting (my personal motto appears to be “instant gratification takes too long”), if I were purchasing this or any other downloadable vs. CD product for our home-schooling, I would most likely always choose the downloadable version. 🙂

This download gives you a very complete unit study, which touches on so very many important historical events, movements, topics, and/or people. You can use the lists of additional resources, and take a much longer time with this unit by “digging deeper” into each subject, or you can do the entire thing “as is”, because everything, and I do mean everything, that you need is included.

Here is our “project center”, all printed out and kept neatly in a three-ring binder and in the actual file folder we would ultimately use for the lapbook, until each page was needed (the only “extra” in the photo is the colorful booklet tucked into the binder pocket. This is a list of the missionaries supported by our church, because we decided to use it for the Modern Missionaries project) . . .

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“The Artist” really enjoyed the “putting together” aspect of the projects, but often needed to be reminded to read the text first, and then to go back to the text for his research, so he would know what sort of information to write into each project. In fact, we discovered while assembling the final lapbook that he had completely skipped reading the text and writing information into the project on music, so after completely finishing the assembly, he went back and read that portion of the text, and wrote in the information needed. 🙂

Here are some photos of “The Artist” working on individual projects for the lapbook . . .

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And here is a photo of the completed individual projects, waiting to be put into the assembled lapbook . . .

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Really, we liked all of the individual projects, although he had a problem with the project for “Slang Terminology”, because the pocket as printed out and assembled was not large enough to hold all of the printed cards and still be able to be adhered to the lapbook. “The Artist” worked around that by making a separate backing out of the same color of cardstock, so that there would be something to adhere! The only other issue in my opinion, was with the Modern Missionaries project. It is a beautiful little booklet when completed, but it is really beginning to bother me more and more that Christian home education companies seem to be completely disregarding the use of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible when there are Bible verses used. I’m usually having to measure the area and print out the KJV version, hoping that it won’t look like a bad patch job (which, of course, it usually does). I realize that the King James Version has fallen out of favor in a lot of circles, but there are still an awful lot of us who use it exclusively, and would appreciate having it included as an alternative option in the print outs. Other than these two things, we are VERY pleased with this lapbook, both the building of it and the completed product! “The Artist” is excited about the plan to use it later on as an educational tool, adding in the resources for “digging deeper”, and learning as much as we can from it. 🙂

Here are photos of “The Artist” proudly showing off his completed Lap-Pak . . .

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Didn’t he do a great job? After discussing it further, we’ve decided we might like to also do the Hands-on History Activity Pak: Composers, and eventually the Great Empires, because “The Artist” so enjoyed putting together the Hands-on History Lap-Pak: The 20th Century in America.

We enjoyed this product, and I think you might, as well!

To see what other Schoolhouse Review Crew members thought of this and other products from Home School in the Woods, please click below . . .

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Filed under education, History, home education, Home School In The Woods, homeschool products, homeschooling, Kids, Lapbooking, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post

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