Monday, November 30, 2015

Our Christmas Storybook Treasury


Over the years, we have collected quite a few Christmas stories. Each child has found their favorites. Today, I am going to share a few of my favorite stories that I we read to the children throughout the years. I limited myself to only 10.  I'll be sharing the kids favorites too. So stay tuned.

1~ God Gave Us Christmas
         By Lisa Tawn Bergren




2~ The Polar Express 
        By Chris Van Allsburg





3~ The Christmas Story
        By Jane Werner Watson





4~ The Christmas Miracle of Johnathan Toomey
        By Susan Wojciechowski





5~ The Sweet Smell of Christmas
        By Patricia M. Scarry



This is a book from my childhood. I loved this story as a child and  it seems like Therese has grown to love it too.


6~ Christmas in Noisy Village
        By Astrid Lindgren





7~ Rome for a Little One
     By Martin Waddell






8~ The Crippled Lamb
      By Max Lucado





9~ Who's Knocking on Christmas Eve
      By Jan Brett






10~ The Little Match Girl
        By Hans Christen Andersen





This post contains affiliate links. Links in this post link up to Amazon. If you click on any of the links, then add an item or a few into your cart and make a purchase, I will receive a small percentage. The small amount of money I will receive is a wonderful addition to our income.
Thank you!
 photo 19dbef6b-9cdb-4ef9-a1fc-d1f09c1d51b7.png

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Wordless Wednesday

Just thought I would share on why things have been so quite around here....
Seussical!


Here are the fish costumes I have been working on!



 photo 19dbef6b-9cdb-4ef9-a1fc-d1f09c1d51b7.png

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Schoolhouse Review Crew~ 2015 Blue Ribbon Awards

       

2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards
It doesn't seem possible that I have been part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew for a year already, but I have! Time flies by when you are having fun! Since our year has ended, I wanted to share with you a few of our favorites!
Michael loved Mayan Adventures from Dig It! Games. 
Therese's favorite product that we reviewed this year was The Nutcracker from Maestro Classics.
I had two favorites this year. For me, I loved Homeschool Planet it helped make planning the school year super easy! My favorite curriculum was Phonetic Zoo from Institute for Excellence for Writing. This has been a blessing for Therese and her spelling! It will be adding it to our lessons for next year too.
Want to see more favorites? Check out the favorites that the crew voted on......
Favorite Reading Program: Reading Kingdom
Favorite Writing Curriculum: Institute for Excellence in Writing
Favorite Vocabulary Program: Dynamic Literacy
Favorite Spelling Program: Institute for Excellence in Writing~ Phonetic Zoo
Favorite Grammar Program: Institute for Excellence in Writing~ Fix-It Grammar
Favorite Penmanship Program: CursiveLogic
Favorite Literature Curriculum: Progeny Press
Favorite History Curriculum: Home School in the Woods
Favorite History Supplement: Heirloom Audio Productions~ In Freedom's Cause
Favorite Science Curriculum: Visual Learning Systems
Favorite Science Supplement: Ann McCallum Books~ Eat Your Science Homework
Favorite Math Curriculum: CTC Math
Favorite math Supplement: SimplyFun
Favorite Foreign Language Curriculum: Middlebury Interactive Language
Favorite Fine Arts Product: Maestro Classics
Favorite Elective Curriculum: Apologia Educational Ministries Field Trip Journal
Favorite Christian Education Curriculum: Grapevine Studies
Favorite Christian Education Supplement: Brinkman Adventures
Favorite Preschool Product: La La Logic
Favorite Elementary Product: Star Toaster
Favorite Middle School Product: The Critical Thinking Co.
Favorite High School Product: Writing with Sharon Watson
Favorite College or Collage Prep Product: Freedom Project Education
Favorite Parent Product: Koru Naturals Review #1, Review # 2
Favorite Planning Product: Apologia Educational Ministries~ The Ultimate Homeschool Planner
Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: Homeschool Planet
Best Online Resource: Super Teacher Worksheets
Best e-Product: Home School in the Woods
Favorite Book, Novel, or Audio Drama: Brinkman Adventures
Favorite Video: FishFlix.com~ Metamorphisis & Flight, Little Boy
Just for Fun: USAoploy
Kid's Choice: La La Logic
Teen's Choice: YWAM Publishing
All Around Crew Favorite: Institute for Excellence in Writing
Thanks for stopping by. I hope we have been able to offer some great advice and reviews for a few products. I am looking forward to next year on the crew! Be sure to stop by and learn about more great products.

                                                    photo 19dbef6b-9cdb-4ef9-a1fc-d1f09c1d51b7.png
Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

TOS Review for Eat Your Science Homework by Ann McCallum



This was such a fun review to do! For this review, we were given the chance to try out some fun science experiments with Eat Your Science Homework Recipes for Inquiring Minds from Ann McCallum Books.



Eat Your Science Homework was written by Ann McCallum. The fun and wacky illustrations were created by Leeza Hernandez. Mrs. McCallum is an author of several  hands-on books revolving around math and science. Eat Your Science Homework and Eat Your Math Homework really get the kids involved in learning. Beanstalk: The Measure of a Giant and Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere are two other books she has written. She has created some wonderful "living math" books for children. They are a great way to introduce math to children even at a young age. 

Eat Your Science Homework is geared for children in grades 2nd-8th. I saw recommendations for different grade levels. The first said grades 4th-8th, while the second suggestion was for 2nd-5th. The actual reading of the book is closer to a 3rd and 4th grader level. It would be an easy read for children in the upper grade levels.  The experiments are great for all ages! Who doesn't want to eat their homework or school lessons. She even jokes about the dog eating your homework on the ordering page online. I found it rather funny since I had a dog eat my homework a few times as a kid. One of our dog loved to eat paper.  I doubt the teacher would have believed me but my mom wrote in a note. So yes a dog can eat your home work, but know you can too!
The book we received for this review was a soft cover book. The cover is thicker and seems very durable. It's a fairly short book with only 47 pages. Our copy came signed by the other with the message "With best science wishes!"

Eat Your Science Homework is divided into 9 chapters. 
  1. Discovering Delicious: The Scientific Method
  2. Safety in the Lab
  3. Atomic Popcorn Balls
  4. Density Dressing and Veggie Sticks
  5. Invisible Ink Snack Pockets
  6. Loop, Whorl, and Arch Cookies
  7. Sedimentary Pizza Lasagna
  8. Blackhole Swallow-Ups
Following the nine chapters. Mrs McCallum provides a wonderful section for science review and a glossary filled with the scientific terms covered in the book. Great for helping kids to learn the meanings of some new words. Maybe a future spelling list?
She has even included a index for quick look up of the subjects. If you head online to Ann McCallum Books,  you can download a free teachers guide to go along with the book. The teacher's guide provides more information to teach the lesson and a few more activities to do with the children.

So how did we use the book?
We added the lessons to a day for each week. First, we read the introduction on the scientific method and then read all about lab safety (or kitchen safety). Most of this was already known to Michael and Therese! We had to make a few modifications for some of the recipes because of Theresa's Celiacs Disease. The first experiment or recipe we tried was the Atomic Popcorn Balls. This was a fun lesson about Atoms and Molecules! Before each science experiment, there is a short lesson explaining all the science terms. It gets the children familiar with what the lesson is all about. In this case, we learned all about atoms and molecules. The science experiment was fun! Who doesn't love to pop some popcorn. While, Therese and Michael popped the popcorn, I collected all the other ingredients.
For this experiment, we needed popcorn, butter, mini-marshmallows, corn syrup, food dye, and you could add some dried fruit if you wanted. Simple and easy! After the Atomic Popcorn Balls experiment, we did a few of the additional activities suggested in the teachers guide. These provide a little more information for kids and parents.
Want to know more about the science experiments in the books, check out the book for your self. I promise your children and you will enjoy it!

What did we think of the book?
This books is a fun way to get kids interested in science. It's not overwhelming and doesn't take too much effort to put the recipes together. The book was an easy read for the kids and they had fun creating the different science recipes. This book is a great for a short science class. It couldn't be used as a full science curriculum, but it would be perfect for a quick science unit study! I think kids of all ages could use this book. Younger children could easily use this book with a little help from mom. Older students could read and make the recipes with little to no supervision. The books provides moms and teachers a great way to bring science into real life! I loved how she brought science down to their level. For example, she describe atoms and molecules with legos! What child doesn't love legos. She has a wonderful gift of getting children to understand and enjoy learning about science! I'm looking forward to checking out her other "Eat Your Homework" books.


Be sure to stop by and read the crews reviews for the other books by Ann McCallum. Other crew review members reviewed Eat Your U.S. History Homework, Eat Your Math Homework, Rabbits, Rabbits, Everywhere: A Fibonacci Tale, and Beanstalk, A Measure of a Giant.
Just click on the graphic below!

Ann McCallum Books Review 

Crew Disclaimer

 photo 19dbef6b-9cdb-4ef9-a1fc-d1f09c1d51b7.png

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Monday, November 2, 2015

TOS Review for The Brinkman Adventures



Today, I get to share with you a collection of wonderful stories full of faith, fun, and adventure! For this review, we were asked to listen to The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3 from Brinkman Adventures. We received the 4 disc CD set. The CD set contains 12 episodes and over 5 hours of listening. If you've never heard of the Brinkman Adventures, don't worry. All 3 seasons can be purchased online. The CD sets cost $27.99 (suggested donation) and the MP3 Album cost $17.99 (suggested donation).


Brinkman Adventures Season 3 Review
The Brinkman Adventures are engaging stories for children and adults. The stories are filled with wild and crazy adventures. The stories bring to life real life adventures of missionaries. They are a wonderful way to strengthen your families faith and encourage the young and old to follow Jesus. The stories will inspire listeners to make small and big sacrifices for others. The Corporal Works of Mercy are often suggested in these stories. They provide a wonderful tool to teach children to put others first.


Brinkman Adventures Season 3 Review

In The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3, you will join up with the large Brinkman family once again. Don't worry if you've never listened to the first 2 seasons, you can jump right in with season 3. Of course if you prefer, you can  just start with Season 1. 
In Season 3, you will travel the globe...Ecuador to Kashmir, to Africa, and then to Alaska. You will travel over dangerous borders to deliver Bibles, come face to face with menacing terrorists, be threatened with being put into jail, come face to face with fierce wolves, and be exposed to extreme temperatures. There is so much that happens in these stories that you will be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to hear what happens next.

So how did we use The Brinkman Adventures......

We just popped the CD into our car's CD player and listened to the stories whenever we were in the car. Running around to co-op classes and rehearsals made this very easy to do. The stories are about 25-30 minutes long. Both Michael and Therese loved the series. There were many times when they asked to have the CD turned up so they wouldn't miss a thing. When home, we would look up the places that had been mentioned in the stories we had listened to. The stories provide a great resource for studying geography. You could turn this into a wonderful unit study!

So what did we think.......

We all thought the stories were engaging and entertaining. They definitely held the kids attention. My kids are older, but younger kids will enjoy the stories too. You can easily break up listening to the CD into small sections. An episode at a time would be a great way to keep the little ones entertained.
The only problem I had was the sound. Some parts of the CD were really loud while others were a little too soft. I had to adjust the volume a little too much for my liking.
I love the wholesome, family friendly stories. The stories provide families with a wonderful way to keep their faith alive.

You can find out more about Brinkman Adventures on their Facebook Page.


Be sure to stop by a read the other reviews. Just click on the link below!

Brinkman Adventures Season 3 Review

Crew Disclaimer
 photo 19dbef6b-9cdb-4ef9-a1fc-d1f09c1d51b7.png



Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Instagram