Halloween is Coming

Halloween is coming!

I know this is a very touchy subject for some.  It is either one of those love it or hate is holidays.  I for one love it because I LOVE candy.  That is seriously all we celebrated it for growing up.  We hardly even took the effort in dressing up.  Only a bit to pull off something in order to get candy.  Now that I have kids I still participate because well what kid doesn't like to dress up? I think it is fun to dress up and get some candy. I don't let them have it all though, mama gets half :) of the loot.  I wouldn't be a very good mom is I let them eat it all right?

If you are questioning to participate remember you can do something fun with your kids without doing things that do don't agree with that others may do. 

Fix It! Grammar Review

Vendor: 

Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)

Product: 

Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Book 1] (Teacher Manual)

Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Book 1] (Student Book)

Age: 

3rd grade and up

Price: 

Teacher Manual $19

Student Book $15

About:
Fix It! Grammar is a complete grammar program from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). This is a 6 book series, with each book being a 33 week long lesson plan. Each daily lesson takes about 15 minutes to complete.  You search the short passage for mistakes and correct them.  These passages also build together to create a story. Each week you are learning a different topic that you will implement into those daily lessons and corrections. The teacher's manual is 228 pages long and gives all the instructions you need. It also gives you tips on teaching the lesson to your child as well. The student book is 126 pages long and contains grammar cards that are on card stock. Also, if you purchase the teachers manual you get the student book download for free. Both books have a glossary in the back with words from the work.

How we used:
I used this with my 9 year old.  She is a super speller and very smart in a lot of her work.  However she hates writing and making stories so we have slacked in the whole grammar program.  Getting this review was great because you are getting your child to write and entire story before they even know what they have done.  They are writing it one sentence at a time.  Then by the end they have made the whole story and it is not so overwhelming to look at. So each week we would sit down and go over the new topic.  I would read over the teacher book and give her some of the tips that were in there.  She would then open her own book, read the instructions and do the sentence for the day.  I would then go over her work and correct anything that was wrong and talk to her about how it was wrong and how we could fix it and why. Only spending 15 minutes a day on something that can be tedious was a God send for us.  My kids like to get frustrated when they have to sit for a long time going over something, especially once they have figured it out. This one allowed her to go in and get her sentence for the day done and move on to something else.

My favorite part was the tips that the teacher's manual had.  I will be the first to say that I suck at grammar.  When I went to high school I did the bare minimum in classes to graduate so I never had any kind of English class after 10th grade.  I did not care to pay attention to how I was writing because my other classes did not care either. I do not want my daughter to be like this but sometimes I have a hard time explaining things to her to make her understand it when in reality I barely understand it either.  So having actual tips versus normal instructions on teaching was a blessing.

You can also take the Placement Test to see what book you should start at and then watch the Webinar to understand how the program works.

Be sure to check IEW on social media, they have some great postings.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iew

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/iewriting

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/posts

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/iewtv

Homesteading

So I am now in my Tiny Home finally. It isn't finished but is livable. It feels so good have it almost complexly cleaned up. I need to work on the outside some more and finish flooring in the downstairs.  But that all comes slowly as I save money.

 I have also decided it would be a good time to start out own little homestead. I do not receive government assistance (and no judgement on those that do) so I want my money to stretch as far as it can. We bought 14 chickens to get us started. We also have a Californian rabbit as well. My next goal is to get a milk goat!

Callie's Contest of Courage Review and Giveaway

Jan May is a homeschool author as well as a veteran homeschool mother of two. Her books are of Godly character as well. New Millennium Girls Books are published by her.  I was very excited to let my daughter read Callie's Contest of Courage, which sells for $7.95. This book is geared towards tween girls.

Callie's Contest of Courage is about an eleven year old girl named Callie. One thing about Callie is that she is very much an animal lover.  In this book it talks about how she has been waiting around all year to enter some photos into a I Love Nature Photo Contest. You see Callie has a dad that is an award winning photographer himself.  She was going to utilize her dad to help her win the contest.  He also left her with his camera to use! Sadly Callie's dad is also in the Marines and was deployed during this time.  She tries to keep in contact with him through emails which eventually stopped. Then you will have to read the rest to learn how she continued her journey.

I reviewed over the book before giving it to my daughter.  My daughter is not yet a tween, 9 years old, but she is an excelled reader and I knew she would like it. I gave her the book and let her read it.  We usually do a 30 minute a day requirement in our homeschool lessons of reading.  Sometimes though she would get hooked and want to read more, which is always OK. She said the book was really fun to read and kept her wanting to read more because she felt bad for Callie's dad leaving and wanted to make sure she would be OK.

  I love a book that can keep my child on their toes wanting more.  I also love even more having a book that has God's heart in it.  Reading about them saying prayers and living by the grace of God is great for kids to be reading about these days.  Not many books out there are for young girls that show a Christian family that is realistic and that the girls can relate to and maybe have them look up to.  I know my daughter has had more want in finding some good Bible versus to have handy when she is feeling down now.

We also received another great perk to this book in the form of a study guide.  We love it when we can make more of our reading into school work. The study guide is broke down to a section for each chapter.  Each section starts with some literature focus questions.  These questions help you recap what you read in the story.  The next part is discussion questions.  These also go over what is read but then dig a little further and even open up about how you would do things. Then each part as some sort of activity to do as a little hands on and finally the vocabulary words.  I think it was really well put together and had some amazing questions that were great for my daughter to think on.

The study guide is $8.95 but currently you can get it free by signing up to New Millennium Girl Books here.

Be sure to check out New Millennium Girl Books on social media:

FB- https://www.facebook.com/pages/NewMillenniumGirlBookscom/119755288101609?ref=hl

Pintrest-http://www.pinterest.com/janmay2012/

Twitter-https://twitter.com/JanMay2012

Giveaway is open to anyone in the US.

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LEGOLAND Discovery Center Kansas City Offer

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Cloth Diapers Rock

You never realize how much you love something until you actually see the benefit. 

With going through the move and life just hitting me I have really had to stretch my dollar.  I didn't even think about it until the other day, on how grateful I am for cloth diapers.  Sometimes I get frustrated at the washing and putting them together but when I was looking at my bank account thinking about the $7-$10 that I would have to spend every few days made me open my eyes.  These things have saved my pocket book. 

 I know they can get expensive buying new, but all mine are hand me downs or they are bought used at a fraction of the cost.  I really enjoy saving the money and it makes the laundry not seem like such a bad thing.  I must mention I also have well water and I line dry if at all possible so the cleaning cost is very minimal too.

Collage.com Deal

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My Student Logbook Review

Vendor: My Student Logbook

Product: My Student Logbook

Age: 2nd grade and up

Price: $15

About: My Student Logbook is a daily logbook for your child to keep track of their daily tasks.  The book is spiral bound with a clear plastic cover and a black plastic back to protect the pages. The first page of the book shows you how to set up and use the logbook. You can get the book in a dated chronological order, dated school year, or a blank book.  We got the blank book because we school year round with breaks at random times. Your child can also pick from several different covers your their book.  After the years worth of task pages you have extra pages which consist of the following:

• Colored paper divider 
• All About Me page 
• Prayers and Goals page 
• Bible Verses Memorized page 
• Books Read pages 
• Events, Projects, Field Trips, Presentations, Activities pages
• Test Records pages 
• Year Highlights: My Favorite Memories from this Year page

How we used: I got this for my 9 year old to use.  She likes to work on her own more than having me dole out each task to her daily.  I thought this would be good so that I could have everything ready each day for her and she did it at her pace and could check off as she went.  I did have to help her set the book up.  She read the instruction page but was getting a bit confused on how it worked, I'll be honest it took me a minute too. I think that most younger children that use this would need some help setting up and showing them how to use it.  Once it was all set up though she was able to move the sheet that had her set of tasks to each week.  She kept up pretty well with her and it allowed me to see if she got everything done by the end of the week too.  It also gave me more time to work with the other kids too. We also live in Missouri and you must record your hours spent doing school.  There is a box so you can track the time for each thing which helped me when I went to input our log hours.

Overall Thoughts: This is a great book for any child, homeschool or not.  It helps them keep track of school work or even chores.  Being able to keep track of your books for the year are a plus as well.  Having it handy here you can make sure you know what you have read so you are not rereading things in the year. We will be continuing to use it.  There is also an option to buy a PDF file for $10 one time use or $20 for a family license.  I think next year this would be great as by then all my kids should be able to use one.  It would sure take some work off of me trying to keep track of everything.

My Student Logbook on Social Media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MyStudentLogbook

You Tube -- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMxzpy91vov8a8nDpyp2ihQ

The 7 Minute Life Review

Vendor: The 7 Minute Life

Product: The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner

Price: $24.95

Age: Adults




About: The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner is 270 pages and spiral bound. Some of the included sections are:
Unfinished Work Tasks
Daily Progress Reports
Monthly Calendar at a Glance
Annual Calendar at a Glance
Monthly Progress Report
The purpose is to help you organize your life, finish tasks, avoid interruptions, and set and follow your priorities. All of this being done in just 7 sort minutes a day. The book is approximately 7.3 X 8.5 inches big. The first page of the planner helps you get started and tells you how to use the planner.

How I used this: First of all I generally suck at planners. I never know what to put in all the spaces and then I feel like most of the planner is wasted on stuff I don't know how to use or don't have a need for the section.  This planner was far different.  It is a real life planner in my opinion. You are putting down your goals for life as well as tasks that you need to do.  This was so helpful for me as I just moved into a "project home" I was given a chance to move into a home rent free but I had to turn it into a home starting with pretty much just walls and plumbing. I have several tasks that need to be done and some more so than others.  I was able to put those down and also put how much I have progressed. It also helped keep me from getting overwhelmed.  I not only homeschool my children but attend online college full time myself. I seem like my brain never gets a break and after 4 kids my memory isn't as great as it once was.  I have really enjoyed getting to put all  my brain into this book and getting to relax it a bit. I also like that everything is labeled well and I know what to write in each place and it is things that I need to have written down. Also writing down what I felt my purpose in life was a real eye opener. Being a mother it is hard for me to think of myself and who I am.  There is also a section for personal and work connections.  It is had been so long since I have owned and address book that I was surprised to see this section.  However I am glad it is in there because I am always having issues with my cell phone, which is where every number I know is, and I needed to get them on paper in case something happened to it.  I think we get so used to electronics we forget that good old fashioned pen and paper will let you down a lot less often.  It is good to have things on back up.  Plus I find writing on paper is quicker than finding an app to do what I want it to and them remembering to update it. This gave me reflection upon myself beyond my daily duties as a mother. I really think any adult or even a teen getting ready to enter "life" with responsibilities could use this to help them keep on track.

Be sure to check The 7 Minute Life on:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/The7MinuteLife

Twitter - https://twitter.com/allyson7minutes

Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/the7minutelife/

Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+AllysonLewis7/posts

You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/user/AllysonLewis

Warsaw Missouri

We had an adventure to a new town and decided to make it a field trip day. We started off at the Harry S Truman visitors center. This place had a killer view of the lake.

It also had fossils as well as information on how the dam was build at ran. 

Outside we got to explore some old style homes they were moved there to preserve. This was the first time we were actually able to go inside homes not just peer from the outside.

House coming along?

The house work in coming to a stand still.  Between schooling and life that is happening right now, I have no time to work on the house.  Also I have been so bummed out by all the stuff that was stolen from my storage unit that is daily use stuff.  Even my towels and wash cloths were stolen.  Who the heck does that?

So not only am I starting over putting a house together from new flooring to new cabinets I am also starting over from simple things such as dishes and bathing accessories. 

Not to mention the havoc these last couple months have been I am also failing my Algebra class.  I just can not grasp the formulas and it is even harder to do with an infant.  I so should have waited another quarter to start back to school.  So there goes my GPA because there is no getting this grade up in the next couple weeks.

Dear Lord, Please slow down my life.

Thanks,
Samantha

Heirloom Audio Productions Review

Vendor: Heirloom Audio Productions
Product: Under Drake's Flag
         This comes with a audio CD with study guide and Prayer              inside. There is also another study guide you can download.

Age: 6 to adult
Price: $29.95

About- If you like History with a little twist this audio set is for you.  Instead of teaching your self you get to push play and let your children listen to the sea adventure.  Under Drake's Flag by Heirloom Audio Productions is based on a novel by G.A. Henty.  The two disk set is 2 hours long.  The downloadable study guide is 30 pages long with three sections; Listening Well, Thinking Well, and Defining words. The Listening Well section is where you can go over to make sure your child understood the story.  The Thinking Well is a section to get your child to think deeper about the story and tell their ideas. Then the Defining words section you go over defining the vocabulary in the story.

The story is set in the time of the Spanish Inquisition, 1572.  The story is based around a boy named Ned Hawkshaw who saves someone from drowning, thus catching the eye of Captain Sir Francis Drake.  This leads the captain to offer Ned to chance to sail around the seas with him.  He accepts and they take off for many adventures, such as shark attacks and being shipwrecked.  

How we used it- My kids are 9, 8 and 6 so we broke the story down to 30 minute listen times.  I allowed them to color while listening so they did not get antsy.  They seemed to enjoy it, it took a minute to get into the story as they have never did an audio only study but they figured it out quickly.  They got into the story and enjoyed waiting for us to listen to the next section until we finished.  We then went over the study guide that came with the CD as it is pretty much the same as the download but simpler.  I think the download version would be good for a whole unit study on the Spanish Inquisition or older children. We just used it as a fun break from our normal studies. Things like this are great to give mom a bit of a teaching break.

Overall- This was a great audio learning disk.  It was a first for us and we really enjoyed it.  I love how it was faith based and it showed them trusting in God to get them through.  It is not often you get a history lesson while getting a lesson on the great deeds of the Lord.  The only people I see that would not like this was people looking for secular only learning.  I think this would even be good for those in public school wanting to help their child get into history a little bit more.  I have to say being able to listen to a story fill with great audio music and effects was very exciting. I also think this would work well for those doing a unit study on the Spanish Inquisition as it would really set some interest in learning more about it. I really believe all ages would love this as well since I know it perked my interest as well and I am not much into history. 

Be sure to check them out on Facebook as well.

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/UnderDrakesFlag