ARTistic Pursuits Review

Vendor: ARTistic Pursuits

Product: Early Elementary K-3, Book 3: Modern Painting and Sculpture

Age: K-3

Price: $47.95

The kids and I all love ART!  Being able to try out art products is always exciting, so being able to try out ARTistic Pursuits was exciting.  There are three books in the early elementary age set and we got the Early Elementary K-3, Book 3: Modern Painting and Sculpture book.

This book is 92 pages with 36 lessons in it.  The lessons are highlighted by a wonderful 216 illustrations.  The book teaches about modern art and how it differs from earlier age art.  The book gives a brief history of the type of art work and then gives a starting point for the children to make their own art work with the same style in mind.  There are also some discussion type questions throughout the book to help engage the kids and to make sure they are understanding the lesson. 

Since my kids all fall into the age gap but have different levels of reading I read the lessons out loud.  I then would also ask the questions out loud and have it as a group conversation on answering them.  The questions were simple and follow along right with the lesson.  We then would take the ideas of the lesson and implement it into our own work.  I love how the book does not want you to just copy work but to make your own just using the style taught.  The book also has images of other students work to show an example of the work.

The first lesson we did was self portraits.  This one was a hit for all the kids and it really got their creativity flowing.  Micah soon went from a self portrait to a portrait of a monster and a bird.

Next we did clay modeling.  Once again they started with the basic instructions that the book gave to make a person.  Once they got comfortable with that they started making other things like mermaids. This soon brought on searches for other creatures and things to make out of clay.

The only lesson that we flopped on was using pipe cleaners.  We were aiming to make animals but that quickly became frustrating for them all (I have two that do not have great fine motor skills and ADHD).  So the one that could keep attention ended up making a basket instead with every ones pipe cleaners when they jumped ship.

Now The color wheel was fun!  I will say no matter how old I get I still enjoy making my own colors our of the primary colors. When we were mixing them I had to restrain from wanting to do it myself for them so that I could play.  They all already had the concept of mixing colors and what you get from it but they really did not get the brown.  So when we mixed all the colors they were very surprised that we got a good brown from it.

Overall this book was fabulous!  I can not wait to get through it and be able to purchase one of the other books to explore more ways to use art. Also I love how this will grow with us with the books for middle school and high school.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtisticPursuitsInc

Home School Adventure Co. Review

Vendor: Home School Adventure Co.

Product: The Wise Woman with Literary Analysis Journal Questions

Age: If read out  loud with the family: ages 9-11. For 12 years old with some family input or high school age kids alone.

Price: $28.95 print version or $14.95 ebook

The Wise Woman by George MacDonald is a book parable type stories of real life situations that are bad and can be changed with the wise woman.  This book is set up by chapters and after each chapter there are Journal Questions which are written by Stacy Farrell.  They are simple to the point questions that also bring through provoking answers.  The spaces provided for the answers are plenty enough for even the younger writers that still write bigger. 
This book uses parables of stories with wolves, hyenas, and mystical places to teach things like conceitedness, selfishness, and to much pride are bad things.  They use these stories to show the ugliness of them and how to turn it around.  
I read this book out loud to my children.  My children are 9, 7, and 5.  I did not feel they would really understand it if they tried to read it themselves, and the overview on the website said it was a good book to read together.  My 9 year old was OK with doing the questions at the end at first.  She did have a hard time coming up with the answers on her own so we would talk about them before she put down her final answer.  I really think talking about them before they give an answer is great, you can make sure they really understood this way.  My other two kids are not writers so this helped them participate and understand in the out loud discussion on them.  This allowed us to do a chapter every day or two.
I think this was a good read, I enjoyed it myself.  I think it was a bit much for the kids to swallow though.  My 9 year old got some things but only after me talking with her about the story.  The younger two had no clue until I told them flat out the meaning.  I think this would be better suited for kids about 12 and up as a read out loud and a teenager for alone reading and answering.  I bet in a few years this would be a better read for the kids and it would be interesting how their views on the topics change.   It is almost a book that would be interesting to redo every couple years with your kids to see how their answers grow and change.  I think it would be a great keep sake for when they became an adult to see how their minds worked through their growing years. Plus it is never a bad thing to instill good morals in children.
Overall I think this was a great read and a fun activity.  If not only for myself enjoying the read but for the kids to something out of it as well.  It is always nice to see how things are taught in different ways than I would have thought how to do it.
Be sure to check out the 10% savings on this book and a few others until May 15, 2014!  Remember though it is for the digital download versions only.  This is the form that we used and we read the book from the computer and only needed to print the journal pages.

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Pinch Me Tuesday!

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Six Freebies

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Playtex Sport Fresh Balance Review

Playtex Sport Fresh Balance tampons are great.  They have an odor shield in them.  The fragrance is a light and refreshing smell, not to over powering.  They move with you so that they do not leak.  

I normally have to wear a pantie liner even with a tampon or I leak and stain my underwear. I did not leak with these.  I also usually have a sensitivity to scented tampons and these did not bother me.  They also have the great plastic applicators which are the only way to go.  I am on the go all the time with 4 kids and these work great for lots of moving around.

I received a sample of this product in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Media Talk 101 Review

Vendor: Media Talk 101

Product: Captivated DVD

Price: $16.95 for the first and $5.00 for each others with free shipping.

Age Range: This movie is intended for adults, but has been approved for all ages.

This is an award winning film created by Phillip Telfer.  This is a heavily Christian based DVD with commentary by pastors, doctors and professors.  There are also real life stories told by individuals.  This DVD touches on the impact of media in many forms; computers, TV, video games, and etc. The DVD is 107 minutes long and is wide screen.  It is not meant to be an anti media movie but more to bring awareness to the subject.

We now live in a world that is full of media.  When I grew up we had one TV and that TV was in the front room.  The only time that we ever were allowed to turn it on was for Saturday morning cartoons for a couple hours at the most.  It wasn't until I was a teenager that my parents finally broke the strict hold on anti media.  When I was in 6th grade we got a computer because even the schools were requiring so much work to be typed or research to be done on them.  Then in highschool cell phones become the rage and my dad got one.  It was given to me anytime I went out with friends.  Now we have cell phones, computers, tablets, smart TV's and so much more.  This has also prompted the growth of social media to the point that people are getting addicted to it and thrive on checking their social media pages every second of the day.

This DVD was all about the impact that media has on us now days.  It also dives in on how it impacts our children.  One section was talking about the thousands of texts a day an average person has (3,339).  I can say for awhile I was addicted to texting and had 13,000 on my bill once.  That just set a fire in my mind that I could waste so much time with that phone in my hand and let it consume me.

Another part of the video was how the average time in front of a TV is 4 hours.  Break that down a bit and think about it.  You have 24 hours a day and sleep 8 of those hours that leaves you with 16 hours.  Then you go to work for the next 8 hours and that leaves you 8 hours left.  Now just those two basic things for the average person that means after TV time you only have 4 hours for your meals, showers, commuting time, and your KIDS!

I watched this movie alone for the first time. I wanted to be sure I could concentrate on it and really see what it was about.  I was stunned at all of the statistics that were given.  I think statistics is what really opens peoples eyes some times.  I think once we are consumed we don't notice it around us.  I know even blogging can get consuming and always worried about what to blog next and always working on it.  Sometimes you just have to take a minute and reflect on how much time you really do spend on these things.

Overall I thought this was a great eye opening DVD.  There was so much information and facts that I had to watch it twice and seen that I missed some of them the first go around.  The only thing that I think could have made it better would be to make it a little less "for Christians" and more for everyone.  There is no need to hide faith in it at all but publicize it for all to watch.  Christians are not the only ones being consumed with media, it is everywhere and in every home.

Be sure to check them out on other media sites!

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