Health & Beauty 101 Mouthwash

Fresh out of deodorant? Dab a little mouthwash under your arms. This will kill the the bacteria that cause odor.

Pour mouthwash over cuts and scrapes. It kills the germs on your skin the same as your mouth.

Tis the season for mosquito bites. Dad some mouthwash and hold on bite for 15 seconds to kill the itch.

Do you have dandruff? Wash your hair with mouthwash every two weeks or so to keep it at bay.

Disinfect your washer by adding 1/2 cup of mouthwash in the wash cycle.

Don't use clorox on your babies things. Use mouthwash to wipe down toys and highchairs.

Need something to clean out that fridge? Yup mouthwash will clean it up and disinfect it.

Heath & Beauty 101 Apples

Need a facial formula that will slough off dead skin cells, refine pores, and even out your skin tone?  In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoons of apple juice, 2 teaspoons of red wine, and 2 tbs of ground oatmeal to make a paste.  Spread mixture on your face and throat, let dry for 20 to 30 minutes, and rinse with warm water.

How about an astringent safe enough even for sensitive skin?  Pour the following in a bottle with; 1/2 c apple juice, 4tbsp vodka, 1tbsp of honey, and 1sp of sea salt and shake well.  Apply the solution to your face and neck twice a day with a cotton pad.

Just an added tip, if you have a discolored pan you can boil water and apple peels to remove the discoloration.

Health & Beauty 101 Eggs

Apply egg whites to the lines under your eyes and around your mouth.  As it dries, it temporarily tightens up the skin, making the lines less apparent. 

For a simple skin moisturizer, combine 1 egg yolk with 3/4 cup of milk.  Apply it to your face with your fingertips using a circular motion.  Leave it on for about 5 minutes, then rinse.  Store any unused portion in the refrigerator, covered, and use it within a week.

For softening and soothing facial mix 1 egg yolk with 2tbl of honey and 2 tbl of mashed avocado. Apply the mixture to your face and leave on for 30 minutes, rinse with warm water and pat dry.

To keep your fingernails looking great, beat 1 egg yolk in a small bowl and soak your nails for about 5 minutes.  Rinse and then buff.

Split ends? Mix 1tsp of honey with 2tbl of garlic oil.  Beat in 1 egg yolk.  Covered your hair in the mixture and put a shower cap on.  Wait 30 minutes then rinse and shampoo as normal.

Need a protine enriched conditioner?  Beat 1 egg white until foamy then stir into 5 tbl of plain natural yogurt.  Apply to hair and leave for 15 minutes and rinse with warm water.

Grapevine Studies Review

Vendor:

Grapevine Studies

Products: 

Old Testament 1: Level 1 Creation to Jacob

Old Testament 1: Level 2 Creation to Jacob

Price:

$10.00-$37.50

Age: 

Pre-K to 8th (See information on levels here.)

About: Grapevine Studies is a company that teaches children the Bible through drawing.  I reviewed Old Testament Traceable (ages 3-5). Level 1 (ages 6-8) and Level 2 (ages 8-10).

Level 1, also doing the traceable, takes you through the Old Testament starting with Adam ending with Jacob. They will learn about creation and all those in between. There are 12 weekly lessons, with 45 daily lessons. Both the level one book and the traceable book are 82 pages long. It comes with the lesson pages, timelines, memory verses, and reviews. You also receive a teachers book. This book comes with lesson notes, timelines, goals and much more in 100 pages.

Level 2 teaches the beginning of the Old Testament, with stick figure characters from the book of Genesis. The topics learned are creation, the flood, building of the Tower of Babel, and more. By the end of the lessons they will be able to draw the first part of the Old Testament timeline. This book is also 12 weekly lessons with 45 daily lessons. The student book is 64 pages long and a teacher book that is 100 pages long. Both cover the same things that the other books covered.

How we used: We did the daily lessons with all three of my kids. The traceable book is a lifesaver for young kids are maybe those that have a harder time focusing like my son. This was also good in allowing them all to work together learning the same things at their levels. We start the lesson by reading the passage and then we move on to drawing the stick figures, or in the traceable it is already there in gray scale ready to be traced. You go onto the week with memory versus, comprehension questions, and then a little place to write what you need to remember for the week. The level 2 book has some extra memory work of the books of the Bible as well as some vocabulary work. Level 1 also gives extra room to draw. My daughter that I used level 2 with was kind of bummed about this. She is a lefty and uses a lot more more than her sister does. But she made it work with no fuss.
I really liked being able to teach the same thing with each of them but making it so they could excel a bit further for each of their age ranges for the level of books they got. 
Be sure to check out the other levels that my crew members reviewed. I think it would help you find a level that would work best for your family.
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The Critical Thinking Co. Review

Vendor: The Critical Thinking Co.
Product: Fun-Time Phonics!
Age: Pre-K to 2nd
Price: $39.99 About: The Critical Thinking Co. presented me with Fun-Time Phonics! to review. The paperback book is three hundred twenty pages long. It also is reproducible with in your class room, or your children at home. They based the program on the scientific findings of the National Reading Commission. The program focuses on vowel sounds instead of memorization. They use 100 activities in order to teach these skills through listening, thinking, speaking and and reading. There is an introduction that tells you how and why the program works. Throughout the book there is also teaching suggestions to help you along. The 100 activities are broken into four sections. The first section is phonemic awareness, which takes up lessons one through fourteen. This helps the child hear the sounds in a word and focuses on vowels. Section two is alphabetic which is activities fifteen through ninety-four. This teaches the vowels as well as the consonants. Section three is beginning to read which is activities ninety-five through one-hundred. These activities go over matching with pictures to reading first words and two word phrases.  The fourth, and last section, is words I can read. This is just a list of simple words to practice reading. 
How we used: I used this with my 7 year old. We have not pushed reading with him because he doesn't do well with memorization. We worked on this Monday through Thursday aiming to complete at least one activity a day. If I knew he got it and he was willing we would try another lesson. Each of the lessons is about 4 pages long. All the pages are fun and colorful to keep attention though. The page gives me the instructions to give and then he would answer the questions. He really enjoyed the fact there was no writing and he could just verbally give me the answers. Sometimes he didn't grasp an activity very well so it was easy to just go back over it without having to erase and start over, or even photocopying the pages before hand.  The words are all CVC words so they will carry onto the next reading program you move into nicely. They are easy words and the activities do a great job leading up to reading them well. I am taking the back pages with the list of words and going to make him a list of his known words so he can get a treat when he learns them all. A nice incentive to completing the book when the time comes. 
We loved that this is an all you need kind of reading program. It is also really good for those that hate the extra work of writing. I really think this would have been a great program to start my dyslexic daughter out with. She got so frustrated with the writing in many other programs that we tried. I think this book would be great for homeschoolers, you save a ton getting to use with multiple kids, or even a public school child that needs some extra help. It would be easy for a mom to give a bit of a lesson after school with out taking up so much time.    
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Ann McCallum Books Review

Vendor: Ann McCallum Books 

Product: Eat Your Science Homework

Price: $16.95 Hardcover $7.95 Paperback

Age: 7-10 years old

About: Eat Your Science Homework is part of a series of Eat your Homework books from Ann McCallum Books. Eat Your Science Homework is written by Ann McCallum and beautifully illustrated by Leeza Hernandez. Ann McCallum started her career out as a one room school house teacher in Canada. She is now a high school teacher in Maryland. The book is forty-eight bright and colorful pages long. You may also download a teacher guide to go with it. That download can be found here. There are six different recipes aka the experiments. Those six are as follows; Atomic Popcorn Balls, Density Dressing and Veggie sticks, Invisible Ink Snack Pockets, Loop Whorl and Arch Cookies, Sedimentary Pizza Lasagna and Black Hole Swallow Ups. All of these recipes are science themed. There is also a science review as well as a glossary with vocabulary words. The book makes learning and eating fun for all. 
How we used: I went through the book with all three of my kids. They are seven, nine, and ten. The book was colorful and inviting for all the kids. The book starts out with safety tips in the kitchen. Next we went over the scientific method. Each recipe then starts out with information about the science of something, like atoms. This gives the kids a lesson on science and then we go into the food portion to see how that science works in real life. Who doesn't enjoy being able to eat your homework? Some of the recipes were things my kids didn't want to taste but they still enjoyed doing them. Making the popcorn ball atoms was their favorite flavor. We also really enjoyed making the Invisible Ink Snack Pockets. The kids were making pictures to each other. We would spend a day going over the reading part and making sure everyone understood what we were learning. We would then make a list of the supplies we would need so that we could get them to do the experiment the next day. By splitting it into two days I was able to make sure they grasped and retained what we learned and that they were not just rushing through it to get to the food.
I do believe any age would enjoy these. Even if your child is older and already knows the terms in this book they would probably enjoy the hands on portion of it. I also think it is something fun to do as a family. Homeschoolers as well as public schoolers would both benefit from this, just to help see the science in action. I am excited to be able to try the other eating subjects that my other crew members got to review. Be sure to check those reviews out below.

Health & Beauty Avocados

Nourishing Masque
1/2 c avocado
1 tbsp of plain yogurt
1/2 tsp of vitamin E oil

Mash together well. Smooth onto your face, paying close attention to your fine lines. Leave on for 20 min and then rinse with warm water.

Dry and frizzy hair? Mash a ripe avocado and work it into your hair. Leave for 15 minutes and rinse with cool water.

Deep conditioner for hair that takes a beating? 1/2 c mashed avocado with 1/4 c real mayonnaise. Massage mix into your scalp then comb through hair from scalp to ends. Cover head with a shower cap and wrap a hot wet towel around your head. Leave on for at least 30 minutes then rinse.