TOS Review~ GREEMU from Devonian

Are you concerned about all the harsh chemicals found in our personal care products? Do you worry about what all those chemicals are doing to your body? Are you looking for natural alternative? Well today, I get to share with you an all-natural product called, GREEMUfrom Devonian. GREEMU is distributed by  Koru Naturals. You might remember that I reviewed other products from them last year. They are a wonderful company offering customers a wide selection of natural products.

Devonian is a health and beauty company that is dedicated to bringing the power of plants to beauty products. Devonian's goal is to bring plants into the beauty world, hopefully replacing the animal ingredients often used. They believe that they can replace ingredients from animals with plant derived ingredients offering a greener alternative to customers. This is perfect for vegans looking for a natural product. So What is GREEMU?

For this review, I received a 4 fl. oz. bottle of GREEMU from Devonian. GREEMU is a vegan alternative to Grade A Emu Oil. Many people don't like using products containing animal based ingredients. Greemu offers the perfect solution. GREEMU uses a blend of plant oils and butters that have a lipid composition that is similar to Grade A Emu Oil. GREEMU looks and seems identical to Grade A Emu Oil. The color, the constituency, and texture are very similar. At least that is what I think. They feel identical to me in my hand. I really can't tell the difference in texture either. Grade A Emu Oil does seem a little thicker to me than the GREEMU, but it doesn't change the effectiveness of the product at all. I was lucky enough to review Emu Oil from Koru Naturals last year so I had both products to compare side by side.

How I used GREEMU? I replaced the GREEMU with my usual daily use of  Grade A Emu Oil. I used it every day after washing my hair. I used it as a leave-in conditioner for my natural curly hair. I really didn't notice any difference from the Grade A Emu Oil. GREEMU still left my hair soft and shiny. My curls were still defined. No frizzies here! 

I also used the GREEMU as a hand lotion. I've noticed lately that the skin on my hands had been drier and that my hands did not look as young as they once did. I skirted a small drop , about the size of dime into my palm and than worked the lotion into my hands. 

I loved how soft my hands felt. The GREEMU was a nice consistency. It was perfect. It wasn't greasy at all. It absorbs as well as the Emu Oil. I did notice that I needed to use less of the GREEMU. A little bit went a long way. My hands are no longer dry and they don't look as wrinkly as they did before. Younger looking hands are always a good thing. What I thought of GREEMU?
I personally liked the GREEMU. I didn't notice any difference between it and the Grade A Emu Oil. The products seemed identical to me. I am not a vegetarian, so I really have no issues with using products with ingredients from animals, I would recommend  it to all of my vegan friends though. I think it would be a great product for them to try.  I did like the fact that GREEMU was a little bit cheaper than Grade A Emu Oil. A 4 fl. oz. bottle of GREEMU is $10.80 while a 4 fl.oz. bottle of Grade A Emu Oil is $18.20. That's a big savings. When money is tight GREEMU would be a great alternative. Right now and until May 31, 2016, you can get a 20% discount off GREEMU with a special coupon code. Stop by there website and get you discount.

Want to learn more about GREEMU? Check out their social media pages.

Devonian Website

Koru Naturals Website

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Wordless Wednesday

Free Roaming Chickens

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TOS Review~ Abraham Lincoln from YWAM Publishing

Today, I get to share with a wonderful book called, Heroes of History Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom  from YWAM Publishing. For this review, we received a physical copy of the book, Heroes of History Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom and a downloadable Unit Study Curriculum Guide for Abraham Lincoln.

YWAM Publishing is a wonderful company that's one goal is to provide families with great quality Christian materials. While looking over there website, I discovered that they started as a small company. They printed tracts to be handed out during the 1972 Munich Olympic games. They continued to print and distribute books to the Eastern Bloc countries. They eventually moved production to Seattle, Washington. They now publish 150 of their own titles, as well as 2,000 books, videos, and Cd's. It amazes me how far they have come. YWAM Publishing has two great book series that are perfect for children, Heroes of History and Christian Heroes. Both of these series are a fantastic way to have children learn about important people from history and the bible.

For this review, we got to read and learn all about Abraham Lincoln. We choose this title since we are learning about the American Civil War this year in history. I had Michael read this book for his choice of a history book to go along with our studies. I always have the kids pick a book that goes along with what we are covering. This was perfect. He read it at night as his bedtime reading. He lives to read at night. It helps him relax and unwind after his day.  Heroes of History: Abraham Lincoln is all about Abraham Lincoln. It tells about his childhood, adult life, life as a the president, and ends with his tragic death. The story helps children see what type of person Abraham Lincoln was as a child and as a man. They get to see what events helped shape his life.  Heroes of History: Abraham Lincoln has 19 chapters. It's geared for children ages 10 and up. Depending on your reader, I'd say an 8 year old could read it. It's a fun way for children to learn more about the influence that Abraham Lincoln had on this country. I love when kids can see history first hand and see how our ancestors lived and dealt with every day life. With this review, we were also given the Unit Study Guide to go along with the book. It is a wonderful addition to the book. It really helps parents and students dig a little deeper into the book. So how did we use the Unit Study Guide? The Unit Study is a great way for parents to use the book to teach various curriculum subjects. The study guide provides resources for teaching..... Reading Comprehension
Creative Writing
Essay Writing
History
Geography
Quotes for Memorization We have been extremely busy so our use of the study guide has been mostly the chapter questions that deal with vocabulary and reading comprehension. I liked how I could use these questions to see if Michael had read the chapter, but more importantly that he understood what he had read. I love the reinforcement of new vocabulary words too. I have looked over the other suggestions in the unit study and am thrilled with the suggestions. I know we will be adding a few of them to our American Civil War study when we get into it.  Build a log cabin, look at flags and coins from Abraham Lincoln's time period, look at photographs from the time period. This is important since this was when we get to see photos for the first time in history.  If you are lucky, planning a field trip to a site that is associated with Abraham Lincoln. We are a few hours from Washington, D.C. so maybe a trip to The White House or Ford's Theater could be a wonderful way to bring this book to life. When Michael finishes the book, he has a few chapters to go, I'll use one of the essay writing suggestions to get him to write a paper. I love the creative essay ideas, but I love the hands on ideas so much more. I've found when kids get active and involved int heir learning they remember so much more. How fun would it be to create a cartoon about the book! I know Michael will enjoy this a lot.

What did Michael think of the book?

Michael liked how the book talked about Abraham Lincoln's childhood. He says it does skip his teen years. Abe missing his home in Kentucky as a child made a big impact on Michael.He felt sorry for the pain and sadness Abraham experienced. Michael enjoyed when they talked about Abe wanting to see a steamboat and then he gets to see plenty of them. It's a dream come true. 

Michael felt the book was pretty easy to read. He did say that some chapters are more exciting than others, but that the book isn't boring. He liked how it explained what unfamiliar topics were. For example, in one chapter Abe says the cow hows the shakes. The box explains and clarifies what the shakes are and what it meant to the people back then.This is our second book from YWAM Publishing that we've read and I have to say we have enjoyed this one just as much as our first book, Heroes of History Davy Crockett

Learn more about YWAM!

YWAM Publishing Website

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TOS Review~ Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries

Over the past few weeks, Michael has been using Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries to help improve his writing skills. Writing has never been a fun thing in our house. Michael is very hands on and loves science, but dislikes writing a lot. Let's just say it's his least favorite subject to do.

For the past year, I have been searching for a writing curriculum to try that would help my children write better. Not only did I want them to learn how to write well but I wanted them to enjoy writing. I was hoping to find a writing curriculum that they would love doing and dare I say do it willingly and eagerly.  For this review, we received the Writers in Residence Volume 1 Set.  The two book set which included the All in One Student Text and Workbook and the Answer Key Book.

So What is Writers in Residence?
Writing in Residence is a new homeschool writing curriculum from Debra Bell. Debra Bell is well known author. She's written the Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, and the Ultimate Homeschool Planners. With the Writing in Residence, Mrs. Bell has created a wonderful writing based language arts curriculum. Writing in Residence (WIR) uses engaging writing assignments to help students learn how to write well. While completing these assignments, students will learn about proper sentence structure, parts of speech, and proper use of capitalization and punctuation. By learning these important skills, students will be able to  write amazing stories, essays, and papers. Writing in Residence is geared for students in grades 4 through grades 8. The writing program can be used with multiple ages. It's easy to adapt to various levels of learning with just a few modifications in your expectations for the students. The writing curriculum is written to the student in a fun, creative way. The tone of the lessons are engaging and easy to understand. The lessons are broken up into 32 lessons. The weekly lessons are divided up into 4 days a week. The detailed lesson plans makes planning a snap. I love the suggested daily schedule. Less work for all those mamas planning their homeschool lessons. The book is set up to work with a 32 week school year. 

How Did We Use Writers in Residence?

Michael used the writing curriculum 4 days a week. This was perfect since we do a a four day a week schedule for most of our subjects. The student book has 6 units. The units are broken up into modules. The student text has 24 modules. Each unit has 4 modules. The book cycles through 4 repeated types of writing tasks. 
I Remember I Imagine I Investigate I Think
By learning these different writings styles, students will learn how to write a personal narrative, creative writings, a research paper, and an opinion writing piece. Michael started with Unit 1. Unit 1 starts the students off with learning how to write a personal narrative. In this lesson, Michael learned how to write a story about his childhood. He was asked to focus on his ideas and how to find ideas to write about, organization, word choices, conventions (periods, capitalization, etc.).This chapter also had a section all about verbs and how to use them. The students write a first draft and work on correcting it until they have their final paper. I love how the book has a checklist for the students to use. This check list helps the students improve. For each section checked off, parents will give the students points.
6~ Exemplary in quality and effort 5~ Exemplary in quality or effort 4~Acceptable in quality and effort 3~ Acceptable in quality or effort 2~ needs improvement in quality and effort 1~ incomplete
This allows the student to see what they have done well and what they need to work on.

Michael work through the first two units and will continue to work through the books. We have followed the suggested schedule and it has worked out well for him. They pace is good for him.

He has been able to understand the lessons and has been able to work through the book with very little help from me. This book is a great way to encourage students to become independent learners.

What Did We Think of Writers of Residence?
We have enjoyed this writing curriculum! When the books fist arrived in the mail, I was shocked on how thick the student book was. After looking over the book, I quickly realized why the student book was so think. It's the student's text book and workbook all in one! I like how they are included together, but I am worried if the book will stay together through out the year. Spiral books and their pages tend to get beat up, the pages get loose, and then fall out. I guess if that happens, we can always whole bunch the pages and place them in a large binder. I like how they teach the students how to write different styles of papers. I especially like how they throw in grammar, punctuation, etc. into each Unit. I like Writing in Residence incorporates all that into one book. Michael liked it well enough. I won't lie and say he loved it. I honestly don't believe he would enjoy an writing curriculum. He did say the layout was easy to understand and the lesson weren't too long. He didn't find them overwhelming. We will continue on with the program. I think I'll even add Therese to it. I just want to get them writing and this program is well laid out. They can follow along in the book and become great writers.

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TOS Review~ Homeschool Copywork Lifetime Membership

Does your child's handwriting need some help? Do your kids struggle with spelling and grammar?  I know as my kids have gotten older their handwriting seems to have gotten worse and I worry about how well they write. So for the past few weeks, we have been using Homeschool Copywork. For this review, we received a Lifetime Membership from Homeschool Copywork. 

The Lifetime Membership gives us access to a wide variety of copywork and notebooking pages. 

Homeschool Copywork has 3 different levels of membership.

• Free Membership....you get access to a few of the copywork books for free.
• Full Membership.....you will get access to 54 eBooks for 1 year, plus a few other benefits
• Lifetime Membership.....you will get full access to all the eBooks, Notebooking pages for a life time

You can find out more about the membership benefits on the website, Homeschool Copywork.

What is Homeschool Copywork?

Homeschool Copywork is an online website that offers copywork and notebooking pages on a variety of topics and grade levels.

Parents will find pages for all grade levels......

Early Elementary 

Upper Elemntary

Junior High

High School

Just a few of the topics or subjects that are covered are religion, bible verses, science, human body, birds, Artist Study, Claude Monet, Poetry from Emily Dickinson, Poetry from Lewis Carroll, etc.

There are so many topics and subjects covered that you could add copywork to almost every subject your kids are studying.

So why is copywork important? Well, it's not just about handwriting which is important. Every child should be able to write well enough that others can read their works. Copywork is a great way to work on spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation all at the same time.

By using copywork, students will be exposed to great literature and writings. This will then expose them to great ideas and strong literature. If we give our kids great literature to read, they will become stronger readers with a larger vocabulary. They will become the next generation of wonderful writers and readers. If children learn to read and enjoy reading their education is endless.

How Did We Use Homeschool Copywork?

Well I looked for copywork that would work for the lessons I already had planned. I have to say it was very easy to find something. Actually I found too much to use for this year, but hey there is always next year!

Since we are doing a bird study this year and both kids enjoy learning about animals, I decided to download and use the John James Audubon copywork. We are also studying him as an artist this year, so this copywork was perfect for us!

I've already gotten the copywork ready to go for the Human Body. We'll be starting to learn about that in a few weeks. 

What Did We Think of Homeschool Copywork?

I enjoyed the variety of copywork that was available. Homeschool Copywork offered so many topics that I was able to find something that went along with our studies. I even saw (and liked) topics that we might not study any time soon, but knew the kids would enjoy reading and working on them.

Copywork is an easy to add to daily lessons and can give students some added learning along the way. 

At first, I was shocked on how many letters, words, and punctuation marks were missing in their work. I won't even mention the sloppiness of their writing! After a few weeks, I saw a dramatic improvement in the copywork. They were taking more care in their writing. I even saw a difference in their writings for our other subjects. Just adding a few minutes a day of copywork to our schedule had a tremendous .impact on their writing skills. 

The kids were not happy to hear we were adding copywork back into the schedule. We had done it for years, but for some reason we had stopped. I think I felt they no longer needed it. I guess I was wrong. So they groaned a little but after working the first few pages, they realized that it wasn't that bad. 

My only complaint about Homeschool Copywork is that it is a lot of printing. Make sure you have plenty of ink and paper. 

Learn more about Homeschool Copywork.....

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Wordless Wednesday

~Spring Flowers~

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Wonderful Gifts from The Old Schoolhouse Store....and They're FREE

I am very excited to share with you all some wonderful products from The Old Schoolhouse Store.

Last month, we were asked to look over the HUGE selection of products from The Old Schoolhouse Store. They have so much. I found a ton of products I would love to get. I narrowed the list down to my top three and I am thrilled to be able to share with you my top picks.

Better yet....they are free for you!

Keeping the Garden

The Organization Bundle

Molly Green Magazine: Naturally Clean Planner

Can you tell I have a them going for the spring?

Gardening, cleaning, and getting organized!

Just head over to The Old Schoolhouse Store add the items to your cart and use the coupon code

MGCREW16

The items will be yours for free!

Wishing you all a wonderful spring.

 Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. Make sure you don't miss a thing! 

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TOS Review~ Stopmotion Explosion: Animate ANYTHING and make MOVIES Book

Last summer, Michael began to talk about Lego animation. Actually, I think it came of interest after he watched the Lego movie. I knew nothing about it. Michael was thrilled when the opportunity to review a film animation book called Stopmotion Explosion: Animate ANYTHING and make MOVIES. He really wanted to review the Stopmotion Explosion Animation Kit but was happy be chosen to review the book.

Stopmotion Explosion is a company that provides kids (and adults) with the knowledge to create fun animated movies. They offer a few products to help make this possible.

MidiBot Mo Stopmotion Cameras Stopmotion Explosion Animation Kit Stopmotion Explosion Book They offer everything you would need to get started.  For this review, we received the Stopmotion Explosion: Animate ANYTHING and make MOVIES physical book. The book costs $24.00, but of course the price is subject to change. Michael was excited to see it in the mailbox, even Therese was a little excited. She didn't want to read the book, but she wanted to help with the movie making. They came up with all types of animation movie ideas to create on their own and with their friends. I see an educational summer project in our future.

Michael immediately wanted to give it a try with his mini Lego figures.

The kids talked for hours about all the things they could create using toys and everyday things. Legos, army men, doll house figures, American Girl dolls, safari animals.... the list seemed endless in their minds. Once the weather gets warmer, they want to head outdoors and create a movie using garden fairies. A stopmotion film about nature was even talked about. I loved seeing their creative juices flowing!

So What is the Stopmotion Explosion: Animate ANYTHING and make MOVIES book?

Just like the title states it teaches you how to animate anything and make fun, creative movies.
The books sounds great just by reading the title!

The book itself is broken up into seventeen chapters. The book is well organized and provides so much information. I know when I looked at it at first, I was overwhelmed. Michael wasn't concerned at all. He thought the book looked cool and was very eager to get started on reading it.

Chapter 1: How Movies Work

Chapter 2: Animation Actors

Chapter 3: Creating Stories

Chapter 4: Building Sets

Chapter 5: Cameras

Chapter 6: Lighting

Chapter 7: Composition

Chapter 8: Animating

Chapter 9: Flight

Chapter 10: The Art of War

Chapter 11: Sound

Chapter 12: Video Editing

Chapter 13: Files and Formats

Chapter 14: Frame Conversion

Chapter 15: Sharing Your Animations

Chapter 16: Animating with DSLRs

Chapter 17: What's Next?

Thankfully an index is included that way after you finishing reading the book you can easily find the topics you may need once you start on the actual film animation!

The first chapter about how movies work is awesome. It explains about the history of films, how they came about, and how they actually worked and where made. A lot has changed since the first film was made. Years ago making a film was a huge deal. Now a days everyone can record a video on their cameras or phones. The technology we have now is amazing! It puts film making into all of our hands! The rest of the chapters deal with the actual process. Michael was able to learn about set building, lighting, camera setting, and how to get started using various items to create animation films. Detailed pictures are included in the chapters making it easy to understand the topic being discussed.  The chapters on files, formats, and frame conversion looked like a foreign language to me. After reading through the chapters though, the information became clearer.

How Did We Used the Book? Well, Michael read the book first. While reading it, he would share what he had learned with Therese and myself. After he finished reading the book, I read the first few chapters and glanced at the remaining chapters in the book. Once Michael was done reading he set to create some animation. He started with something simple, mini Lego figures. 

He started off first with just making a Lego guy walk across the floor.

Next up, he created an action seen.

A confrontation between two Lego guys.

He was thrilled to see how it looked. 

So What Did We think of the Book?

I loved how the book was able to teach Michael all the stuff he needed to know. It definitely provides a solid base for learning more about animation film making. Will he become a film maker, probably not but this book was a wonderful way to expose him to something he's never done before and something I knew nothing about. He could read the book and create things with little help or knowledge from me. He's learning but having fun which for us in essential. 

What Michael had to say......

I liked the book. It provided a lot of information and taught me how to create the movies. I liked how the book offered different suggestions for props. I liked how it instructed how how to create the movies using different cameras. The book was easy to read and the pictures were a great help in understanding how to do it all.

Find out more about Stopmotion Explosion........

Stopmotion Explosion Website

Stopmotion Facebook Page

Stopmotion Explosion Twitter

Be sure to stop by and read the other crew members reviews. Most of them were lucky enough to receive the Stopmotion Explosion Kit. 

Just click on the link below and see what they thought of it. I know Michael is asking for it!

 Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. 

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