Soap Giveaway
Go visit Shannon's blog at Song of My Heart for a cool giveaway from Virginia Soaps and Scents! I love these soaps! Hurry because the giveaway ends tonight!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving
164. The start of Advent and reading Tabitha's Travels.
165. Talking to my brother this past weekend on Thanksgiving.
166. Church Christmas parties that are coming up.
167. Getting a settlement check from a bankrupt business that owed us money. We waited 14 years for that check!
168. Music that stirs the soul.
169. The sanctuary at church all decorated for Christmas.
170. My co-teacher in the Jr. High Sunday School class...I am so thankful that she taught for several weeks to give me a bit of a break.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
3P Learning-Mathletics
Mathletics is a web-based math program for kids in kindergarten through 8th grade. We received a 45 day membership to the site in order to review it for the TOS Crew. There were two main sections of the program that we worked with. The first area was where students can work on grade specific materials at their own pace. As they complete different activities, they earn points. I found this area to be a tad easier than the levels that my kids are at in their regular math curriculum. Nevertheless, this was great review for them and good practice for taking standardized tests.
The next area (and my sons' favorite) was the "Live Mathletics" in which they were able to compete with other students around the world! They mainly competed with other kids from the US, but there were a few from Great Britain and Australia. This area is timed and consists of math facts. For my third grader, it was addition and subtraction facts. For my 7th grader, there were mostly multiplication and division facts.
Supposedly, kids can earn points by working on the site and then use those points as "cash" to spend in the store on the site where they can buy "items" to spruce up their avatar. This was not something that interested my boys so we didn't really deal with this aspect of the site.
We are not fond of math programs online as a general rule, but this one caught my boys' attention because they could compete with kids from around the world. This aspect of the membership really drew my kids in!
Mathletics can be used through a subscription of $59 per student for the year. To read more about what other TOS Crew members thought of this product see this. You can also visit the Mathletics website for more information.
These products have been provided to me for the purpose of reviewing them. I am not being paid to do this review. I am sharing my honest opinion of how these products work for my family.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Christmas Cards for This Year
Here are some samples of some of the cards I am sending out this year...
I love hedgehogs!
This is probably the most complex Christmas card I have ever done. To keep it closed it is wrapped in ribbon with a star in the appropriate place.
Here is the inside of the card. I made about 10 of these, and it took me about an hour and a half. Kind of labor intensive!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thankful...
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign." Revelations 11:17
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Deut. 8:10
Give thanks in all circumstances. I Thessalonians 5:18
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalms 100:4
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
God and the Closet
A couple of friends and I last week were discussing hiding in a closet. Some days can be tough ones, and all you want to do is hide! We joked about bringing chocolate into the closet and sitting there and consuming it in our misery. Well, God taught me this past weekend that we weren't far off the mark!
Psalm 142
A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.
I cry aloud to the Lord;
I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble.
When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who know my way.
In the path where I walk
men have hidden a snare for me.
Look to my right and see;
no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
no one cares for my life.
I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.
Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me
because of your goodness to me.
Did you catch that? Where was David at the time he wrote this psalm? A cave...a Biblical times "closet" if you will. The cave became a refuge for him, but David never actually states that the cave is the real refuge. No, he says that God is his refuge! So God is the closet we should run to when we feel like hiding from the world. He is our protector, our hiding place. God is teaching me to run to Him...hide in Him. Have Him be my comfort.
And I am pretty sure, He won't mind if I bring a friend and a piece of chocolate!
Monday, November 23, 2009
When Gratitude is Difficult...
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Look What I Made!
Homemade English muffins! I used a recipe from the More-with-Less cookbook. These weren't hard at all and aren't even baked in the oven. You cook them on a griddle. I will say they are a tad time consuming so I am glad I doubled the recipe!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Titan and Television
Titan has recently decided that he loves certain images on the TV! Here he is trying to play Wii by biting the characters in the game!! Needless to say, he didn't win!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
All About Spelling
I am skeptical about spelling programs. We have always spent only about 10 minutes a day on spelling. I have felt that spending tons of time on it is not beneficial. However, both my boys are pretty good spellers so we have the luxury of not spending so much time on it. So it is very hard for me to recommend many spelling programs since we spend only a little time each day on actual spelling instruction (that doesn't count reading and writing that I think improves a kid's spelling). When I received All About Spelling as a part of the TOS Crew to review I was pleasantly surprised! I have been using level 2 with my youngest and I actually like it!
To give you an idea of what the program includes, here is a brief rundown:
*There is a starter kit that includes a CD on how to pronounce the phonograms of English, letter tiles with magnets.
*There is a kit with cards for each level. The cards include word cards, key cards (spelling rules to learn), sound cards and phonogram cards.
*There is a teacher's manual with step by step instructions.
To give you an idea of wha the lessons are like here is a list for each lesson (which are called steps):
*Review of a concept
*New Teaching
*Word cards-it is suggested they spell them with the tiles and then on paper
*Reinforcement-additional words that reinforce what was taught
*Dictate phrases
*Dictate sentences
I found this program great for teaching spelling rules and reinforcing them. This is where our regular spelling program that we use is lacking. I loved the fact that you dictate sentences for your child. This has really helped to solidify Noah's sentence writing (remembering to start with a capital letter and to have ending punctuation.). You don't have to do an entire step in one day which is nice. You can break it up according to your student's needs.
The one part that Noah and I didn't like and actually didn't use much were all the cards and letter tiles. It was just too much to keep track of. But the author of All about Spelling does encourage you to just do the lessons on paper if need be. Sometimes the tiles aren't beneficial to all students. I have to admit I liked the tiles...they were highly quality and color-coded, but it just was too much to keep track of. I would recommend starting out with the tiles, but dropping them if it isn't a good fit for your child.
Here are the prices:
The Starter kit (letter tiles, magnets, and CD): $26.95
Level 1 (teacher's manual and cards): $29.95
Other levels (2-5): $39.95
For the price, I would have to say there are definitely cheaper programs out there, but All About Spelling is a quality program and if you have a child that is struggling with spelling I would highly recommend it!
Visit the All About Spelling website to learn more.
These products have been provided to me for the purpose of reviewing them. I am not being paid for this. I am sharing my honest opinion of how these products work for my family.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Resources for Studying Argentina
So in December we are embarking on studying Argentina through the book Chúcaro. There is a unit for the book Chúcaro here.
I love the "Choose-a-Country" lapbook available at Homeschool Share. We may use this as we work through Argetina.
Here is another unit on Argentina from the lady at Homeschool in the Woods.
General information about Argentina
Maps of Argentina
Christmas in Argentina from "Christmas Around the World" unit and lapbook-you will have to scroll to find Argentina.
Study Starters-We are going to use these pages as we go through our unit. They are really cool and cheap!
Here are some units for younger kids: On the Pampas, Gauchada
Monday, November 16, 2009
A Bounty of Blessings....
There is so much to be thankful for...
104. Being nominated for the Homeschool Blog Awards!
106. Safety on the roads
107. December is coming...I love the holidays!
108. A great husband that takes care of us financially. He really is smart about those types of things!
109. Getting to go out to lunch with a friend today!!!!!
110. A invitation to do Thanksgiving at a friend's house. I don't have to cook everything!
111. A new set of meals in the freezer
112. A phone call from a friend with a word of encouragement
113. Courage to teach both the Sr. and Jr. high Sunday School class. Thanks you, Jesus, for calming my heart!
114. An opportunity to cook with my son
115. Titan's crazy antics that always make me laugh!
117. Friends and family that put up with me!
118. Thanksgiving!
119. Warm blankets in the winter
120. Time to scrapbook with a friend
Saturday, November 14, 2009
What's in Store for December?
I am currently working on getting our December plans together for school.
We will be doing some different things for December this year...I have decided that we are going to be taking a break from our history (Ancients) and our science (Zoology) for the month of December. This year we are going to do a unit study on Argentina based on the book, Chúcaro. You can find the study here. I wrote this study so that I could do it with my kids. I have been to Argentina three times and love it there! I want the boys to have an appreciation of other countries. So many times South America and Africa get left out in the dark so to speak when studying about the world. We recently did a study on Malawi, and now I thought it would be a great idea to focus on Argentina.
I am also planning on doing some fun projects in December related to Christmas. Here are some of the ideas I am toying with...
I have wanted for a long time to make some of the treats from Bakerella...maybe some reindeer or Christmas trees.
We always read one of the following stories each year for Advent...we have just voted on which one we are going to do (we have read them all so we decided to vote to see which one we will repeat this year). And we have decided to do Tabitha!
Stay tuned for updates as we get closer to December. I am hoping to compile all we do with Chúcaro and put it on the blog in case there are others who want to do this study.
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