The Homeschool Mother's Journal

I recently stumbled upon a new meme, The Homeschool Mother's Journal, that Sue runs each Friday. 

I thought it sounded like a fun way to summarize our week (I'll still do weekly wrap-ups on Sundays, at least most of the time . . . hee hee).

So, without further ado . . . 

In my life this week...

I've started making it a point to have morning Bible time again. While I've done pretty well at getting SOME Bible time all along, having a dedicated few minutes each morning just hasn't been possible since Little Bit was born. Even when she slept great overall, she still tended to nurse frequently in the early morning hours, and wake up if I wasn't in bed with her, so getting up ahead of her has never been an option, and trying to have Bible time first thing with an awake baby, just doesn't work for us. I would grab some time during her nap, or sometime. Thanks to the Bible app on my android (phone), more recently I've been reading a chapter or so in the morning WHILE she's nursing (while she's nursing during the night or early in the morning is also a great time to pray), BUT I still wanted to get back to having a set Bible time, not only for my own benefit, I "learn" better if I can underline things and make notes and such in a REAL Bible with a REAL notebook next to it, rather than just reading on my phone, I love having it as an option, but  . . .but also because I feel the children benefit greatly from seeing that Bible study is a priority for me! That whole "learn by example" thing . . . So,  in the last week (or so . . .but since it's my first time on this meme, we'll call it this week), I've started taking a few minutes to read the Bible when I first get up. Little Bit's older now, AND when we were getting ready to host Christmas I had dh carry a large ottoman up to our room to get it out of the living room while so many people were going to be here, turns out, it makes the perfect "step" that allows her to get on/off of our high bed by herself.  So, she can either sit with me (she often "reads" my prayer journal, while I read my Bible. I did bring a storybook Bible into our room and have it with my Bible study supplies so that she can "read the Bible" too, but so far, she prefers my prayer journal), or go find her sisters, or Daddy (he's generally home, but downstairs, so she'll go cuddle with him, or tell him "eat" "food" until he finds her some fruit or something).

In our homeschool this week...

We've had lots of "snow days". I figure we can "do school" anytime, but they might as well enjoy the snow as much as they can while it's here (and BOY is it here!). So, while we've done a few minutes of quick "school" each day to keep up with our review items, they've spent countless hours out building snow forts and snowmen and sledding and . . . who knows what all else they've found to do out in all that white stuff.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Sunday, we went to visit friends who moved nearby (comparatively speaking) recently.  As if visiting with friends, and eating pizza wasn't enough, we got to try yummy tea, and the girls even got to help Pastor Andy make it!! AND they had tiny little tea cups that Little Bit thought were just her size!! Wednesday we went and visited our neighbor/adopted Grandma. Snow can't keep us from that, we can walk.  Little Bit was cute, we were getting ready to go & she told me "back", meaning she wanted to ride on my back in the baby carrier. So I put her on my back. But then, when we got outside, she said "oooooh, snooow . . . walk!" and wiggled to get down and walk in all the whiteness. (I think, since the windows in this house aren't down on her level, she'd forgotten there was snow out there LOL). Since it was Wed. when we only had a few inches (instead of now, when it's almost to her waist), she got to walk.

My favorite thing this week was...

Seeing A begin to do required chores without reminders (they go in spurts, sometimes they're good about this, lately, they haven't been), AND seeing things that need to be done, and doing them without being asked, or asking "what can I do to help?".

What's working/not working for us...

My reluctant writer, A, really took to the idea of notebooking for history. I printed out notebooking pages and asked them to draw a picture and write "at least one sentence" about the topic. She filled the writing part of the page and asked for another page!!

L isn't as excited about the history notebooking, she does it, but no extra, BUT she is keeping a journal, and writes in it every night at bedtime. I don't know what it says, but it's a daily dose of writing practice with no prompting, much less nagging, from me. 

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

How do we balance "keeping the momentum going" on what we're studying &/or using review products to their full potential within the review period, with being relaxed enough to take snow days and visiting days and . . . all those "we're not tied to the books" things that are one of the reasons we homeschool?

A photo to share...

Book Review: Sabbath, The Ancient Practices by Dan Allender

Dan Allender presents the Ancient Practice of keeping the Sabbath, not simply as ceasing all activity ,but a day of delight and celebration with God of His creation. The main message of this book is that the Sabbath was instituted, not as a burden but as a joyous feast day and celebration. He looks at history and the Bible to determine what this special Day can be, when celebrated and delighted in, the way God intended.

I was interested to get a new perspective on this special day. I've "kept the Sabbath" all my life, and struggled with the balance of rules, and delight. This book, helped me to see better just how this can be a day of delight & celebration. How our entire week should revolve around this special weekly feast day that we are privileged to share with the King of the Universe. I want to absorb the ideas in this book more fully, and discuss them with Rodney, and my hope is that we will decide together how we will delight in and celebrate the Sabbath, not just "keep the Sabbath", going forward. I love the idea that, we cannot celebrate God's creation without spending time in some way, in, or with, God's creation. Our children love being outside, and this book has challenged me anew to make it a priority to go for walks or otherwise celebrate the beauties of God's second book, nature, on this special day. It also challenge me anew to make it a priority to welcome the Sabbath each week. I want to talk to the girls about this, and come up with a plan, with them, on how we can use music, candlelight, special foods, special dishes, and special traditions to welcome God, in a special way, into our home each week.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Homeschool Review: Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Today I'm going to tell you about an AWESOME resource for ALL Christian families! Whether you homeschool or not, if you have kids, and they ask questions about Bible stuff, you NEED this book!! Ok, I'll stop sounding like a commercial now (maybe) but seriously, this is such a great resource!

As part of the TOS Crew, Lifeway Christian Stores sent us the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids ($14.99) to review. What a FUN book! It is SO bright and colorful! With a great mix of photographs and artwork, and BIG! It is over 200 pages long, and these are not small pages! School or no school, we have this book laying out & we just plain enjoy looking through it! It has TONS of pictures of every imaginable thing from the Bible.

We use this book ALL the time! We use it when we read their Sabbath school lesson. . . "Mommy, what would King David's palace have looked like?" "Hey, lets go find out . . . palace starts with P" . . . "cooool, that looks really old!" We use it during Bible time for school. We use it during history too (we're studying ancient history right now, it works well). And we flip through it just for the fun of it.  You can see a sample of the inside of the book here.

The stated age range for this book is ages 5-10 but it seems like younger children would enjoy looking at the pictures, and I KNOW older . . .er . . .children . . . would love it. At least *I* do, and I'm quite a few years past 10, hee hee. Maybe the forgot a zero, 5-100 might be a better age range, I'm pretty sure my 95 yr old grandfather would enjoy it too!

When I asked L to bring me the book because I was writing the review, she said "we DO get to keep it, right?" When I assured her we did, she said, "oh good!" I asked her what she thought of it, and she said "it's great, you can look up about all kinds of things from the Bible!" A was very busy with something else when I asked her, so her response was simply "it's nice" but as you can see by the picture, both girls get quite engrossed in it at times.

In addition to this great resource, Lifeway Christian Stores offers a wide range of Christian books and other products.

Disclaimer:  Lifeway Christan Stores sent us a copy of the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

Review & GIVEAWAY!!! - Homestead Blessings The Art of Quilting

Giveaway is now closed! Thanks to all who entered!! Congratulations to Jess and Beverly!!

This month the Homestead Blessings DVD that Franklin Springs Family Media sent us to review was the Art of Quilting!

As with all the Homestead Blessing DVDs, this one was excellent! The West Ladies are so personable and do a great job of explaining things, giving options, and making it all look so easy!

I figured these cold, snowy days were a great time to learn quilting. But I'm also realistic enough to know that a full size quilt would be abit ambitious for us (though I'd LOVE to get to that point eventually), but conveniently, one of the projects on the video is a quilted pot holder, THAT we can do!!

L had another project she wanted to work on first, but A was ready to jump right in. I pulled out my box of fabric, and she chose the fabrics she wanted. I'm sure all who know her will be shocked to hear that she chose purple, hee hee.

I helped her trace the pattern onto the fabric, and then set her to work cutting out the pieces and pinning them together.

At first she wanted to hand sew the whole thing, but in the end she decided she wanted to learn to use my sewing machine (what she'd REALLY like is to be able to use a treadle machine like the West Ladies use on the video, but alas, I don't have one . . .A is definitely my daughter in her love of all things old fashioned! So she settled for using my very basic electric sewing machine.

She took to it quite quickly. Quilting is a perfect first project for learning to use the sewing machine because it's nice straight rows. We're still working on the potholder, but she got her quilt block done, now we need to sew the border around it and then sew the backing (and batting) to it, then actually quilt it. I'll be sure to update, with pictures, once it's completely done (and L's ready to start her potholder now too, so I should at least have progress shots of hers by then).  They're calling for a nasty wintery mix tomorrow, so we should be able to get some sewing done since it won't be fit to go out.

In addition to the potholder, the DVD shows how to make an actual quilt, and shows a few different quilt blocks and talks about how to design your quilt. And they showed some other techniques like whole cloth quilts. It also shows (in the "bonus material") how to make a really easy cobbler carrier using 2 quilted place mats, I'm filing that idea away for wedding gifts and such.

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!! As with the other Homestead Blessing DVDs I've reviewed, Franklin Springs Family Media has generously offered 2 Homestead Blessings: The Art of Quilting DVDs for my readers!! To enter, go to Franklin Springs Family Media and look around, then come back and leave a comment telling me one product you'd love to own! (mandatory entry)

For additional entries do any (or all) of the following, and leave a separate comment for each:

• Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect (if you already do, just leave a comment letting me know)
• Follow my blog using Networked Blogs, or tell me if you already do (below the Google Friend Connect on my side bar)
• "Like" Franklin Springs Family Media on Facebook (or tell me if you already do)
• Follow me on Twitter (or tell me if you already do)
• Post about this giveaway on Facebook
• Post about this giveaway on your blog (including a direct link to your blog post)
• "Tweet" about this giveaway

And now for the rules:

• This giveaway will close on February 1, 2011
• Winners will be chosen on February 2, 2011
• Please make sure I have an easy way to contact you. If I can't easily find your e-mail address or post to your blog, I will have to choose a different winner.
• You will have 2 days to reply to me with your address or another winner will be chosen.
• This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Homestead Blessings The Art of Quilting in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own. Giveaway items are provided by Franklin Springs Family Media.

Weekly Wrap- Up - Jan 23

We had a week of snow and ice and book clubs and dates!!

Monday we came home from Mama & Papa's, a day or two earlier than planned, to beat the snow. We also made the trip home longer than normal to make sure to get milk & groceries before the snow came. The girls had received Vol 7 of the Jonathan Park Adventures as a late Christmas gift from my grandparents, so we enjoyed listening to those while we drove home.

Tuesday we had snow & ice, ugh! The big girls went out a little bit, but it really wasn't at all a "fun" snow.

Wednesday night ended up being the book club that I normally go to on the 2nd Tues of the month. Snow had postponed it TWICE, but we finally got together Wed. night.  Little Bit comes with me, and she found a great partnership in Miss Sara, who's not a fan of peas. Lina sat on her lap during supper and happily ate the peas out of her salad, hee hee. Miss Sara also helped entertain her during the book discussion. Meanwhile Daddy took the big girls on a "date" to Friendly's.

Thursday night was our other book club. All the kids come with me to that one. It was a week late also. The big girls were thrilled that Pastor Mike was home most of the time, for them to torture. While he wasn't available, they read their books. Little Bit and the other toddler who comes, J, played and traded snacks and water cups, and generally did what they do . . . us moms enjoyed visiting and catching up.

Friday was *finally* A's date! She chose to go out with Mommy to Chipotles (because L's not a fan of Chipotles). She's been telling me for the past 2 weeks (at least) that she had "lots of questions" for me on our date, but when we actually got in the car and started driving, she forgot them all, hee hee. She managed to come up with other things to talk about & I suggested that next month she should write down the questions as she think about them. We had a nice time. Daddy lucked out, Little Bit napped the whole time we were gone, and L was busy playing Spider Solitaire on her computer, so he had it pretty easy LOL. A & I went to Chipotles for lunch, then to Dairy Queen for dessert (then I dragged her with me to the Dollar Store to get a couple things I needed for craft at church yesterday).  We had a nice time talking and just hanging out.  As we were coming home I asked her if, some months, I told her we weren't going out to eat, but we just went and sat on a park bench or something, if she'd still like our "dates" and first she said . . . "but I might be hungry", but once I pointed out that if we were doing that we'd eat BEFORE we left, she decided that would be ok "but eating out IS fun" LOL.

Also on Friday (in the morning) we went up to visit Miss Judy.  Judy had recently gotten some new patterns for clothes for their American Girl dolls (yes, she spoils them!), so we had fun looking at the patterns and the girls told her which dresses they'd like her to make them for their birthday.

Sabbath was a normal Sabbath. Little Bit seems to be teething (I hope, otherwise she's getting sick, so I'm hoping for teething . .. she's got a runny nose, but it's clear, not yellow, and she had really pink cheeks, but no fever, and she keeps sticking her hand down her throat, so seems like molars coming in is the likely culprit) so she was more "touchy" than usual. Melting down whenever she was told no (for example, when L wasn't willing to give Little Bit her (L's) ENTIRE granola bar), so it was a challenging church service. Afterward, one of the women who was sitting near us, made a point of telling me how much joy our children bring to her, and what a blessing they are to those around them. It was  nice to get encouragement when I needed it most :) God is good, and our church family is the best!!

Other odds & ends from this week . . . Little Bit learned the word "Mine!" from Sesame Street. I am not amused . . . actually, I am, but it's getting old FAST!!! She sometimes uses it in context, other times, she  will pick up something belonging to someone else in or family, and get an absolute mischief look on her face, complete with twinkles in her eyes, and say  "Mine!" just daring us to argue with her.

For awhile now, Little Bit has thought it's great fun, if she sees someone about to sit in a certain chair (or spot on the sofa) to run and jump into that spot before they do. Yesterday she combined this game with the above "mine" game, and a new twist.  I came back into the family room to sit down and found her sitting in my chair. She looked up at me with complete mischief in her eyes and said "sit . . .MINE!" and THEN she pointed to another chair, clearly telling me I could sit over there LOL.

Little Bit's way of saying L's name sounds JUST like "Sassy", I think part of it is because I also often refer to one or both of the big girls as "Sissy" when talking to her, so she kind of combined L's name and "Sissy" and came up with Sassy. Those who know my children, know that Sassy is a PERFECT nickname for L, so I've started calling her that too, much to her feigned annoyance, hee hee.  Interestingly, Little Bit says A's name quite clearly, and here I would have guessed that would be the harder name to say, go figure . . .

School this week included:
Bible: continuing to use Enjoying God's Gifts
Bible/History: continuing to read through On This Day In Christian History it's not intended for children, so I often have to explain words/concepts to them, but when I suggested one day, that since we didn't have alot of time, we skip reading this, they both said "no, we LIKE those stories!"
Science/History:  We're listening through the Jonathan Park Adventures for the 3rd or 4th time, *I* learn new things each time through, so I'm sure the girls are too LOL.
Spanish:  We're continuing to enjoy the calendar that teaches us a word or two each day, and Little Bit is continuing to enjoy Speekee. The big girls enjoy the Speekee worksheets, and watch one Speekee video per day without complaining.
Science/Math/Writing . . . : We're reviewing a unit study on blue-footed boobies, so we've been working on that this week, it's been fun, and ties in nicely after just listening to the Jonathan Park Galapagos CDs.
Reading/Writing/History . . . : Another current review item, Kid Scoop is printable kids newspapers with lots of fun activities, the girls have been enjoying them.

Homeschool Review: Speekee

Since we've been learning Spanish this year, I was thrilled to get the chance to review Speekee. Since it's from the UK, and apparently European DVDs don't always play on American DVD players (who knew?), they let us review their new, online subscription. For a low monthly fee (seriously, $7.50/month, what a bargain!!!) , you can watch the videos on your computer and download and print several great worksheets to go with each video. There are also additional "teaching suggestions" under each video with fun activities like making sock puppets, to make learning fun.

Speekee is an immersion program. The videos are 100% Spanish, and the children learn, much as babies learn their native tongue, but figuring out the words based on context.  There is the option to turn on closed captioning however, which gives the dialog in both Spanish and English.

Speekee, is the purple puppet you see pictured above, and she (he? *I* think it's a girl, others of the TOS Crew reviewers, and their children, are convinced it's a boy) is in all the videos, along with the same group of children (and one adult, Jim), and the 2 sock puppets (Dino and Lupi). Speekee and the children visit various places (a house, school, the market, the park . . .) in the videos, and learn words associated with these places. Each video builds on the one before, reinforcing words already learned, and adding new words.

During school time, we watch one Speekee video, sometimes a new one, sometimes going back to re-watch one we've seen before. The big girls found it extremely frustrating to try to figure out the words w/o English, so we leave the close-captioning on for them. Depending on the day, we sometimes will do some worksheets as well.

This program is designed for ages 2-10.  Little Bit (22 mo) LOVES it!! It's hard to tell how much she's learning, since she's not talking much yet, but she loves watching the videos. And will often ask for "Peekee" (accompanied by the sign for "wolf", I'm not sure WHY she thinks Speekee is a wolf, but whatever . . . ).  The big girls (7 1/2) aren't big fans, they think Speekee is "for little kids", and as I mentioned, they got extremely frustrated when we tried to watch it without the captions.  So, at least in our house, this would be more of a "preschool" option. For that age, I think it's great. The songs are catchy, and you do learn basic Spanish, almost without trying.

Personally, I'd rather have a DVD than online videos. BUT since it's a European company it's great that they've set up the online option for their American customers. And if you're using it alot, the monthly price is a great deal! If Little Bit were a year older, I think we'd be keeping the subscription until she'd fully "digested" all the videos. And we may re-visit it for her in a year or two.

Interestingly, while the big girls haven't been fans of the videos (they *have* learned from them though, whether they'll admit it or not, hee hee), they do like the worksheets. I found many of the worksheets included more writing than I wanted to get into with them at this age. Spelling and writing is still a new skill for them in English, so being able to write in Spanish isn't something I care about for them right now, it seemed to me that alot of the worksheets were geared quite abit older than what I would consider the target age of the videos. But, obviously, each parent can pick and choose which worksheets will be a good fit for their child(ren).

You can check out other reviews for this product on the TOS Crew Blog.

Disclaimer: I received a 2 month subscription to Speekee online, in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

Homeschool Review: Maestro Classics

I was so excited when Brenda from the TOS Crew, posted the list for Maestro Classics and I was on it, woo-hoo!! Music isn't something I have any personal talents (or much knowledge) in, so anything to help me "teach" music is a good thing. Even more exciting, the product we got to review was Peter and the Wolf.  We read a book (and listened to a CD) of Peter and the Wolf as part of the Waldorf preschool program I use with the girls when they were 3-5 (it was a year & a half long, we started the winter they were 3 1/2, finished up the spring they turned 5), they'd enjoyed it then (and so had I), so I was excited to have a "refresher" and see what they thought of it now that they're older.

We received the CD soon after Christmas. We talked about it one day during school, then listened to it in the car on our way to get milk (we get milk from a farm about 1/2 hour away, so it's abit of a trip each week). It was as fun as I remembered it to be! I enjoyed the narration, that tells the "story" that the music echoes (I admit, I wouldn't be able to follow the story without the narration, I don't know my instruments THAT well).

For those not familiar with it, Peter and the Wolf is a children's piece, written by Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev. The instruments represent the people and animals in the story. It helps a child learn about instruments and the orchestra in a fun way.

We kept the CD in the car and listened to it a few more times when driving places far enough away to listen to the complete story (just under 1/2 hr).  In addition to the narrated version of the music, and information about the composer, narrator, etc. There's also a playing of the music without any narration. I had them listen to it, and asked if they could "hear" the story, but they just looked at me like I was nuts, hee hee. I love having that option on the CD though!

The CD comes with a cute little full-color booklet with information about the composer, conductor, narrator, and various instruments. There are also fun little activities in the booklet. A dot-to-dot, crossword puzzle, matching, etc. You can see the answer key for the activities here, to get an idea what the activities are like. I wish there was a way to order extras, so we could have had one for each kid, but I couldn't find a way to do that.

Obviously, this product is ideal for an auditory learner, but with the activities and such a fun, "active" musical piece, it really works well for any learning style. I'm an extremely visual learner, and in general having to "just listen" to something is difficult for me, but I enjoyed this story (granted, I was driving, while listening to it, if I'd been at home I likely would have colored a picture or knitted or something while listening). A sort picture book to accompany the story (either in addition to the booklet or incorporated into it) would also help to keep young visual learners' attention, IMO. I think this would also incorporate well into any teaching style, it could be presented as part of "class" for the structured homeschoolers (school-at-home, etc). But also worked well the way we used it in the car, for more laid-back homeschoolers. Even a die-hard unschooler could leave it laying around (called strewing, by some) and the bright colors would likely attract the attention of a child, so that they asked to listen to it! The company lists the age range as 5+, but I really think even younger children can enjoy it. They might not understand it at the same level, then again an 8 yr old isn't going to understand it the same as a 15 yr old, but I know my girls enjoyed Peter and the Wolf at age 3 or 4. This is certainly a CD the whole family can enjoy together. Even if you don't homeschool, this is a fun music piece and can give your kids a little extra music education that they'll think is just a fun CD to listen to! So I'd recommend this to anyone with kids!

I really liked this product. It's a fun, but educational piece of music, and the narration and additional tracks of information on the CD are awesome! As already mentioned, I like that the CD includes the narrated and un-narrated versions of the music. I think my kids would have liked it more if we hadn't taken time out in the midst of Jonathan Park to listen to it. They don't like listening to music in the car AT ALL right now, preferring stories. So, when I asked what they thought, their response was "it's music, boring!". BUT they enjoyed it as preschoolers, and I like this version as well or better than what I remember of the version we got from the library at that time (no, I don't remember what version it was, except that it had a book & CD), so I think it's just the stage they're in right now, not anything against the music or this arrangement of it.

Really the only things I would change at all would be to make additional activity books/sheets available. It would be great if they were available on the website so each family could print off as many as they needed (if the company preferred to only offer this to customers who'd purchased the CD, a password could be included with the CD to a restricted part of the site).  

You can see all the products offered by Maestro Classics, here. In addition to Peter and the Wolf, they offer such classics as Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and The Tortoise and the Hare, and others for $16.98 each.


Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of Maestro Classics' Peter and the Wolf in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.