My baby is growing

Syler is now 17 months old. My little boy I never expected to have. He has gotten so big on me so fast. This week at the beach I swear he aged like a year. He is so smart and so funny. I see him being a class clown one day.

But sometimes when he is sleeping I get a glimpse of my little baby boy back. He is just one the greatest things ever.

Memoria Press Review

Vendor: Memoria Press

Product: Famous Men of Rome Set

Age: 4th to 8th Grade

Price: $39.95 for the set

Memoria Press gave me the great pleasure of reviewing their Famous Men of Rome Set. This set is geared for kids in the 4th to the 8th grade. The entire set is at a low price of $39.95, which includes the reading text, the teacher guide, and the student work book. The book has 30 stories that start with the founding of Rome to the demise. 
The workbook has 30 lessons which include famous quotes, key people and places, vocabulary words, some comprehension questions, then an activities section.
I used this with my 4th grader. She was a little reluctant when I first gave her to story book. The names of the people were intimidated her since it was hard for her to pronounce them. She fought me a bit on reading it but I kept insisting her to continue. It tool us awhile to get through the first chapter as she still was not feeling it but about half way through she got super quiet and the complaining stopped. I went about my business with my other daughter and up she runs to tell her sister what happened in the chapter and ir was so cool. She has so much shine in her and she was so amazed by it. This set the pace for the rest of the chapters and she really has loved working on this book. 
We worked one chapter a week. We would start out with reading the chapter and making sure she understood the words and such. Then we would dive into the workbook. I was very happy to see the vocabulary words as they were some of the ones she was having a hard time with. It was great to have them there and she could look up what they meant. The questions were great to further go over what she read and to show she was understanding it. We would go over these orally and then I would have her to write down her answer. The activity page always gave different options, from making a time line to having writing and drawing prompts. 
Over all, even with the reluctant start, we loved this set and we will be continuing it to the end. The book would work well for any child that loves history and the set would work well for your history for the year. There are suggestions to add other things in to even extend it further. I do think if your child isn't a great reader even in fourth grade, you may want to hold off since it is a bit hard to say the names of people and some of the vocabulary words are a bit harder for the average reader at that age. Though the stories are super cool and of you have younger history buffs in your home you may want to think about getting it as a read out loud for the whole family to enjoy the awesome stories.
Be sure to check out what my other crew members thought of it as well as other sets from Memoria Press.

Beauty

I love the ocean.

Old school

Sometimes in life you need to teach kids how to do some manual labor. I posted a funny today on my Facebook about us 'bailing hay the old way' along with some pictures. It has really caught my attention about how many kids these days do not know how to do many life skills, and definitely do not know anything about sustaining life without a grocery store. If farmers die off so will the stores. We really need to take a step back and spend some time teaching our kids some real life skills. Teach them how to plant something. Even if you can't have a garden you can plant in a bucket or pot. You can grow a great strawberry plant in a hanging pot and get some yummy treats from it. Show your kid how to pick up a broom and sweep the floor. Do some dishes the old way. Teach your kids some skills because being their maid will not do anything but make them have a hard time adjusting when they leave your home.

Homeschool Legacy Review

Vendor: Homeschool Legacy

Product: Forest for the Trees

Price: $14-$18.95 PDF-Paperback

Age: Grades 2-12

Homeschool Legacy is a Christian company that uses God as the focus of their work. The unit studies are almost no prep and great for all homeschoolers. These are labled as Once-A-Week Unit Studies because most of the work in them can be done in one day. You use the rest of your week to expand on what you learn and maybe read books or such. These also work really well with American Heritage Girls and Boy Scouts as the children can earn merit badges by completing these books.

The unit study that we completed was Forest for the Trees. This unit study is labeled for 2nd to 12th graders. You can view a sample of the book.  Forest for the Trees is a 4 week unit study, which is a great way to get up and get your family outside. There are family devotionals, field trips, trivia, art, and other awesome things in the lessons. 

A glance at how the week works. The week starts out with a list of books you will want to read for this weeks lessons. Next you get a list of supplies you will need for the week. Most of these things are things you already have around the house. You then get your daily activities followed by your weekly activity, which includes the devotional for the week. There is then some work that includes your vocabulary lessons as well as research lessons. Next there is an art lesson, then a physical activity, and then some type of science or field trip. The end of the week always gives you some "Dad Trivia", or mom trivia if there isn't a dad available. 

During the course of the weeks you will be making a nature journal as well. We had previously worked on a leaf book so this was a great way to expand on it and make a journal with lots more information as well as things besides just leaves. 

We are outside nature buffs here. We thrive on hands on learning and being able to enjoy weather when it is nice enough for us to get outside and go. We were a bit bummed by the last two weeks having so much rain but...mud doesn't always stop us, haha. We did some planting, which is always perfect for this time of year. We also made a yummy apple pie after we learned about apples. We learned so much about how things grow as well as how to start growing our own things. The kids have so many ideas on what we want to try to grow and how we will do it.

The book had so much stuff to keep us going and keep the kids all interested. My "school" kids are ages 6-10 and I did not have any complaints from any of them. We will be doing more of the unit studies for sure. I hope my other christian homeschool families will give them a try as well. You can click below and see what my other crew members had to say about some of the other unit studies.

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Minbie Bottle Review

Minbie is a odd looking bottle. The nipple is more elongated and not round at the end. It doesn't look at first sight like it would simulate the breast since my idea would to look like a breast nipple. Though after trying it out I see how it is made because the baby has to suck different to drink out of it like that of a breast. My son took a bit and at first I did not think he would take it but he did figure it out. I think it's more because I have flat nipples which brings a whole other hurdle in breastfeeding. The bottle came with a regular nipple as well as a 3+ nipple that has a faster flow.

Side note my son also has a lip tie that is uncorrected. It hadn't effected his breastfeeding so we left it be. I did have to give him some Pedialite which is in the bottle in the picture after a sick spell. The only thing I noticed was he only sucked the nipple. I am not sure if this was correct or was part of his issue with the lip tie. But he did drink very well out of it once getting the hang of it.

I also liked the wide mouth design as it is much easier to clean than other bottles.

Use Minbie as the first and only bottle teat for your baby to help maintain and strengthen your baby's instinctive breastfeeding technique, the way nature intended. Minbie does subsidise shipping to the US only charging $7.95AUD ($6.20USD) https://minbie.com