Spring Break

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We are taking our Spring Break this week. It looks like spring weather is actually arriving in Alabama after a very cold winter. Although it is in the 40’s and 50’s now, we had a few nice days last week in the 60’s and 70’s and it should warm up again later in the week. My daffodils and saucer magnolia trees are about to bloom, so it is really beginning to look like spring!

I hope to spend lots of time in the yard this week pulling weeds, pulling that pesky ivy off trees, and preparing the gardens for planting in a couple of weeks.

Emily may spend the entire week cleaning her room—It is a MESS!

Mostly, though, I am hoping to relax, play, read and have some family fun time and to start school next week refreshed and with renewed enthusiasm!

Seasons of Faith Picture Book Series

I just received a set of four Seasons of Faith picture books published by Children’s Bible Hour Ministries. These beautifully illustrated storybooks gently teach faith lessons about salvation, forgiveness, sharing God’s love,  and holding on to faith in hard times. The stories are adapted from CBH radio scripts and are accompanied by read-along CD’s.

The illustrations in the books are wonderfully realistic watercolor paintings and show children of varied races.  The storylines were engaging. Emily (9) enjoyed them very much and I think they would also be enjoyed by a child as young as three or four.

 

I especially enjoyed the book, Seventy Time Seven, which illustrated in a modern story Jesus’ lessons about accepting and giving forgiveness—over and over again--a good reminder for Christians of ALL ages who have a tendency to hold onto grudges!

Each Season of Faith book and cd sells for $10.  When you buy all four books ($40) by April 15, use discount code FREESHIPAPR15 for free shipping on your order.

 I received these four books free for review purposes from Children’s Bible Hour Ministries. No other compensation was provided.

The Secret to Being a SuperMom!

Just kidding! I have no idea how to be Super Mom!

This week’s TOS CREW Blog Cruise topic is: “How do you find time for everything?”  I would love to have a great answer for this question! Adding an extra 4 hours to my day might be a good starting point. :)  Sometimes I feel like I am barely keeping up, putting out fires all day long, then I look back to say, “Where did the day go?”

Overall though, I guess I do keep up pretty well.

I….

…homeschool Emily.

…keep up the house and yard and parenting stuff without a husband to help.

…help choose and lead music every week at church.

…direct children’s choir at church.

…attend a weekly Bible study and do the daily homework for it.

…write and market my Super Star Speech books and Super Star homeschool games.

…review and blog about 8-10 books and homeschool curricula a month.

It actually makes me feel better to look at this list and see that I actually am accomplishing quite a bit! A few things that help keep me on track….

….starting my day in Bible study and prayer helps to keep my focus on what is important.

….making lists—Actually, I tend to just do this in my head, to keep me on track for the day or week. But when I am feeling overwhelmed, I do actually write out a list. This gives me a feeling of accomplishment as I mark things off.

….staying off the computer—Well, I need to do this more. :) I know the internet can be a big time waster for me!

….making priorities. I can’t do everything. Sometimes I have to make the tough choice to drop what is urgent for what is most important. My kids won’t be here forever. Spending precious time with them and enjoying them each day is more valuable than most of the other “stuff.” Truthfully, I slip up here far too often.

To read more posts on this topic, visit The TOS Crew Blog Cruise.

Artistic Pursuits

Artistic Pursuits is an art curriculum that is perfect for homeschoolers or other independent learners. The series, which has books that cover Kindergarten through high school levels, teaches about famous works of art and artists as well as technical skills, color theory and composition. The lessons in the books for grades 4 and up are directed toward the student and can be done with minimal parental involvement. Each book provides art instruction for a school year—two lessons a week.

Emily tried out Book 2 (Color  and Composition) for grades 4-6.  Although I could have handed her the book to do independently, I felt that she would learn more with some discussion, so we read through each day’s lesson together and talked about the assignment before she tried it.  Each 4-lesson unit includes an art theory lesson,  a famous art print and artist biography, a technique lesson, and a final project. Examples of student work are pictured throughout the book.

The authors encourage use of quality art supplies, but the required supplies for this volume were not difficult to obtain. We already owned brushes, watercolor paper, and Prismacolor pencils and only had to purchase a set of watercolor pencils.

The authors suggest allotting an hour for each lesson, but Emily never spent that long. Unfortunately, she has NO tendencies toward perfectionism and is happy slapping down something quickly. On several occasions, I made suggestions for improvement or even had her redo a picture if she seemed to have forgotten to use the techniques she was supposed to be practicing. She did seem happy with her finished works, though and very much enjoyed using the program. I am hoping that continued use of Artistic Pursuits will help her learn to pay a bit more attention to the details.

My Thoughts….

I have used several art programs and this is my favorite. I love the balance of art instruction with creativity with education about the art masters. I love that it is easy to use and requires little daily setup. I appreciate that it is written to the student and doesn’t require the parent to have artistic knowledge and experience (because I don’t!)

Emily says…

“It’s the best art program ever! I like to draw and paint and this inspires me to paint better. I hope there are more books!”

Each Artistic Pursuits volume sells for $42.95 and is entirely reusable for other children.

I received this volume of Artistic Pursuits free in exchange for my honest review.

Senior pictures and more…

We finally got around to having Katie’s senior pictures made. I took Emily and got a few shots of her, too, while I was there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Home School in the Woods Map Sets

Home School in the Woods provided the TOS Crew with downloads of their brand new Olde World Style United States and World Map sets to review. I had seen examples of the beautiful timeline figures produced by Home School in the Woods, so I was eager to try out this new product.

The Old World Style Modern and Historical Maps: United States Maps includes over 180 maps. Maps of each state are included in both labeled and unlabeled versions. There are also over a dozen US History maps, covering such topics as US expansion and Native tribes. In addition to the maps, there are fact sheets for each state to fill out and full color state flags to print. The design and artwork on these maps is very well done. The set would be perfect for a state-by-state study and notebook.We’re studying American history this year, so I immediately printed out “The growth of the US to 1880” map to use this week. The US history maps are very well done, but I would have liked to see even more maps in the set.


  I was especially excited to see everything that the World Map set includes. We will be studying world cultures next year and there is sooo much here that we can use! The set includes over 130 historical and modern maps and 40 notebooking pages. Again, the quality is beautiful. Most pages are in black and white, but there is a beautiful set of color flag pages.
 
















Isn’t this brochure page a fun way to document your child’s learning?

I recommend the Homeschool in the Woods Map Sets as a great supplement to any curriculum.

The download for each set is priced at $18.95. The CD versions are priced at $19.95. A Combo-Pak is also available at $28.95 for the download and $29.95 for the CD. Visit the TOS Crew site for more reviews!

I received both the US and World Map sets free from Homeschool in the Woods in exchange for my honest review.

The Schoolhouse Expo AND March Madness Sale

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has very generously gifted the
TOS Crew (including me!) with a free admission to The
Schoolhouse Expo—an online homeschool conference with LOTS
of free goodies, great speakers, and of course, vendors, all
without leaving home. I am really excited to have the
opportunity to participate in this.

Here is some info from TOS about The Schoolhouse Expo in May
and their March Madness sale. (My Super Star Speech books are
included in this sale.) Note that you will save $5 if you register
early for the Expo. –and you can start downloading your
goodies now!

If you're looking for homeschool encouragement, resources, and
fun, check out all that is going on at The Old Schoolhouse!
Right now March Madness and Win Big are going on in the
Schoolhouse Store. During March Madness, over 240 items are 10
to 40 percent off! Click here to read the details. Then, if you're customer 139,000, 139,500, or 140,000, you will win over $348 in prizes. Prizes include a 5 year subscription to TOS (U.S. only),
Scripture Sleuth literature series, guitar lessons on CD, and more!
Hurry, they are just past customer #137,818.

The BIGGEST news of all--The Schoolhouse Expo is coming in May! 
 
Pre-register now and save $5! As homeschool teachers, what do you
 need to learn? More about teaching multiple grades? All about different
 homeschool methods? Transcripts? 
 
Could you use some help with reading, language arts, math, and more?
Are you intimidated by the idea of teaching middle school
and high school?those dreaded, advanced courses? Would some 

encouraging words and motivational Scripture help you on your
way?

Get answers when you attend The Schoolhouse Expo,
an 3-day, online conference, presented by The Old Schoolhouse®
Magazine and The Old Schoolhouse® Speaker?s Bureau.

Pre-register today for only $19.99 through March 31.You do

not want to miss this unbelievable, virtual homeschool

convention! PLUS, you'll receive over $300 in free gifts when

you register. Get the details and preregister here.

More Molly, Less Money!

I’ve been blogging for a couple of months about the monthly Molly’s Digest e-magazines that are fully of thrifty advice for cooking, shopping, decorating, gardening, and more.

Now Molly has something new! And it’s a bargain! Does that surprise you? The Molly Digests each sell for $4.95. The Molly Membership program costs  only $3.95 a month and includes:

-Molly’s Monthly Money-Saving Digest

-Access to Molly’s Member Memo’s filled with money-saving links and resources

-Supplemental resources, tutorials and articles to correspond with each Digest’s theme

-Members only contests and giveaways

There is no long term commitment, enabling the purchaser to subscribe for as long or as short a period as desired.

 

I spent some time browsing the member’s site—these are a few of the goodies I found:

-a 50 page sample of the new Molly’s  $7 Slow Cooker Recipe book and a $2 discount code off the usual purchase price

-discounted prices for past Molly’s Digests sets

-links for lots of coupon, recipe and money saving websites (I was familiar with most of these. Many are ones that would turn up on a search for coupons, etc. Nothing really exciting here, but you might find something new.)

-a free wee book

-links to various free cookbooks, kids activities, and gardening ideas

--and of course, the 47 page March Molly’s Money Saving Digest

This month’s issue focuses on spring and includes gardening ideas and fun outdoor activities to do with your kids as well as the usual calendar and organizer pages, recipes, and organization tips.

If you love Molly’s Digest or even if you’ve just been thinking of buying an issue, this is a great time to check it out!

I received a one month subscription to the Molly Membership program. No other compensation was received for the writing of this review.

Graphics Toolbox

The TOS Crew was given the opportunity to review  Graphics Toolbox GT1, “Graphic software for learning and creating.”
I was initially rather overwhelmed by Graphics Toolbox. Although it was supposed to be designed for “intuitive” use, the commands and icons don’t resemble those in the Microsoft programs that I usually use. The most frustrating aspect of the program was that the program doesn’t work in “layers” like Microsoft Word or Publisher. Therefore, graphics, once placed are permanent and can’t be moved. It took me a while to become accustomed to that.
But….the 80 page manual is excellent. I experimented with the features while I read through the manual. The software designer, Lynda Holler, also provided some live tutorials for the Crew, which helped immensely. So, after a few hours of learning time, I was on my way! There are also free tutorials on the Graphics Toolbox website that teach several specific projects.
The more I work with Graphic Toolbox, the more I like it! I am spending waayyy too much time experimenting with it and learning new things that the program can do! Graphics Toolbox enables the user to crop pictures, add borders, tile pictures, change one color to another in a picture, and much more.
Here are some of the projects I have done:

 

I really love the ribbon tool used here for my borders! The flower pattern in the Valentine above is also a strip of ribbon that was enlarged. 

 

 

 

 

It took me about 15 minutes to change this map using the drawing and color match features to add Antarctica and the text tool to label the continents. I was able to easily change the border colors in the “Covering the Continents” cover to match the map.
 




I have never used Photoshop or any other full graphics program, so I can’t compare Graphics Toolbox with other programs, but I certainly recommend taking a look at it to see if it’s something that will work for you!
 Graphics Toolbox sells for $149 and a fully functional 30 day trial is available for free. 

I received a free copy of Graphics Toolbox in exchange for my honest review. Be sure to check out the review of other Crew members to read their thoughts and see the projects they created!

Junk Drawer Clean-Out! Giveaway!

I was recently given the opportunity to review the new Rubbermaid “No Slip Interlocking Drawer Organizers.”  I love organizing  products, so I was eager to try these out.

Most of us have “junk drawers,” a place to throw all those important or maybe not so important things that don’t have another home. I have two of them in my laundry that have long been in need of a clean-out.

 

 

 

 

First I emptied them out and wiped out the drawers. Then  I put in the drawer organizers. Since my drawers are narrow, I put one in the second drawer with some small boxes—I need another Rubbermaid set! I like these boxes because they interlock so they won’t slide apart in the drawer.

Then I started sorting. I really thought I knew what was in these drawers, but I found some surprises. There were some items that I could not begin to identify! And do I really need 20+ old refrigerator magnets?  If they aren’t nice enough to have on the fridge now, then why am I storing them? How about an outlet cover with one prong broken off? My youngest child is 9!  After pitching all the trash, I sorted what was left back into the drawers. Doesn’t this look better????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a great article by Rubbermaid with tips on how to organize your junk drawer. Rubbermaid’s Adventures in Organization blog  features all kinds of great ideas for organizing your life and is also well worth checking out.

Rubbermaid has offered to give a 6 piece set of drawer organizers to one of my readers (in the US or Canada). To enter, leave a comment telling me something you learned on the Rubbermaid blog.  Giveaway ends on March 16.

For additional entries (leave a separate comment for each):

1. Follow my blog.

2.Spread the news about this giveaway in some way.

I received the drawer organizer set free from Rubbermaid for review purposes. No other compensation was provided for the writing of this review.

Stimulating your baby’s language skills

Babies don’t talk. You don’t have to worry about speech for the first year or two, right? WRONG!
No, babies aren’t born with any language skills and it will be about a year before the baby actually says his first word, but the language learning process begins at birth.
Here are a few things a parent can do to encourage speech and language development:
-Interact with your baby a lot. Talk, coo, and babble at him. Make happy or silly faces at him and watch how he reacts.
-When your baby starts to coo or babble, imitate him. See if you can get a “conversation” going by taking turns making sounds.
-Any talking to your baby or toddler is great, but the best way to encourage language growth is to make your sentences just a little more complicated than his are. If baby points and says, “ball,” you might say, “Yes, big ball,”  That will give him a speech model to grow towards.
Read,  read, read to him! Reading the book as it is written is great, but some of the time, you might just talk about the pictures, or name the pictures and see if he can imitate you.  As he grows older, talk about the story and pictures with him.
Recite nursery rhymes and sing with your child.  You can even make up little rhymes and songs about your daily activities—buckling up in the car, changing a diaper, and so on. The rhyming and repetition is great language stimulation and fun for the child as well.
Play pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo games with your child. Again—rhymes, language, and playing all in one!