Recipe: Cucumber Chickpea Salad

With the heat of summer, we try to have salads and other no-cook meals as much as possible. One of our current favorites is cucumber chickpea salad.

Ingredients:
2 c cucumbers, diced
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
2 15oz cans chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1/4 c fesh squeezed lemon and/or lime juice
1/4 c olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh dill, snipped
1/2 c feta cheese, crumbled
salt, to taste

In a measuring cup, combine lemon/lime juice, olive oil, dill, and salt. Whisk together to make your dressing. Combine cucumbers, tomatoes and chickpeas in bowl. Toss with dressing and feta. Chill before serving.

On and be sure to watch out for little pickpockets who don't want to wait until lunchtime :)

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Learning Wrap ups

Several weeks ago Learning Wrap ups provided us with an extremely generous box full of goodies to review! We received:

1st Grade Math Learning Palette 1 Base Center Kit ($71.99)
1st Grade Reading 1 Base Center Kit ($61.99)
Learning Wrap up Math Intro Kit without CDs ($44.99)
Learning Wrap up Vocabulary Intro Kit ($35.99)
10 Days of Multiplication Mastery Wrap up and Book Combo ($12.99)
10 Steps to Addition Mastery Wrap up and Book Combo ($12.99)
AND a 1 year subscription to LearningPalette.com for up to 5 students ($59.99)

WOW!!! We had sooo much fun digging into the box when it got here.  These products are ideal for grades K-5. I'm going to try to BRIEFLY describe each product, how we used it, and what we thought . . . something tells me this is going to be a VERY long review!

Learning Palette Kits:
I was able to choose which grade level we received for these. Since Lexie and Ashlyn are at the top edge of this product and I figured they would be just as happy to use the concept in the online format, I wanted to choose the best kits for Little Bit (age 5). After looking at the downloadable samples, I decided to go with first grade for both math and reading. In each case, there were some parts of Kindergarten that she would have enjoyed, but also a good bit of it that would have already been too easy for her. With the first grade kits, she was able to do the first parts of each kit, and will continue to use these over the next year or so. To view samples of various levels, look at the individual titles on the website.

The Learning Palette is a plastic tray with little colored discs. The kits are cards to place on the tray, and the colored discs are used to answer the questions. After the child has answered all the questions, she can turn the card over and check her answers by making sure the colored discs line up properly with the colors on the answer side of the card. While this would enable an older child to use these cards independently, we found it worked better for someone (myself, my mom (while the girls were staying with my parents), or one of her big sisters) to work with Little Bit. For one thing, on some cards reading is required. Also we all had some trouble determining what some of the pictures stood for in the early reading cards where there was a picture and the child needed to determine the starting letter, etc.

As with anything, with a 5 year old, there were days when Little Bit was excited to play with her Learning Palette, and whined when I needed to do something else, and other days she showed no interest.  Overall she seems to enjoy it, and it's a fun game-based way to learn basic math and reading skills.

Learning Wrap ups:
We already have, and love, the multiplication wrap ups. So I was excited to get more! For the review period, I encouraged Ashlyn and Lexie to review their multiplication facts. I also showed Little Bit how to use the addition one. While she understands addition, keeping the string tight enough to keep everything lined up was still kind of challenging for her, so again, she's not quite to the point of using these independently.

Between the 2 sets, we got the following wrap ups:
addition
subtraction
multiplication
fractions
synonyms
antonyms
homonyms and
compound words


Learning Wrap ups are awesome for having kids independently review math or vocabulary facts and check their own work. The child starts at the top of a "key" and answers each question by wrapping the string from the left side (question) to the right side (answer). Once she's answered all the questions on that key, she can turn the key over. If none of the raised lines on the back are showing, she has wrapped the string accurately!

Lexie and Ashlyn had fun playing with the fractions one, even though they already know their fractions. They also spent time playing with the vocabulary ones. The compound words and homonyms still presented something of a challenge for them.

10 Days/10 Steps:
We aren't really workbook people, and I didn't really have anyone at the right age/stage to use either of these. The big girls already know their multiplication, and while Little Bit is having lots of fun starting to figure out addition and subtraction, I don't feel she's ready for something as academic and concentrated as this. Ashlyn did work through some of the multiplication book. These workbooks utilize the wrap-ups to give a child lots of practice memorizing their math facts. I can see where, for a child who would otherwise be using a straight workbook, or workbook and flashcard, approach, adding in the wrap-ups would make this a more fun, kinethetic way to quickly memorize basic math facts.

LearningPalette.com:
I was able to sign all 3 girls up for this. And all of them have used it. Essentially this is an online version of the physical learning palette. One nice thing is that it works well on the iPad! So Little Bit has enjoyed playing it on the iPad while her sisters have primarily used it on their laptop. All 3 of the girls have been enjoying this, and I can check their progress from my own computer. Lexie did mention that it frustrates her that it won't save her work if she stops in the middle of a card. Of bigger concern to me has been the errors that they have found a few places. For example, one "card" showed the proper abbreviation for doctor as D.R. instead of Dr. This seems like a major concern since the program is intended to be used independently, so if they didn't know the right answer, they'd be learning it wrong, and never realize it.  You can check out the free demo, before purchasing.

Overall, I think these products are worth keeping in mind as some great resources to add fun, learning activities to your home or school.

As an added bonus, Learning Wrap ups AND Learning Palette.com are each offering a 20% discount with the coupon code HOMESCHOOL.

Follow Learning Wrap Ups on Facebook and Twitter.

See what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought by clicking the banner, below:


All prices and information are accurate at time of posting.

Weekly Wrap-Up - June 8

We're falling into a routine of sorts. Rodney's doing ok. He's had some nausea and coughing that makes it hard to want to walk and otherwise do exercises, but he's sticking with it. On a positive note, it appears that the "fuzziness" from the anesthesia has finally worn off, so he feels like he can actually think . . . He even made it onto facebook this week!

The girls continue to enjoy lots of outside time, playing in the creek, shooting baskets, and just hanging out in the gazebo.

And we're working on getting at least SOME school done too. Mainly focusing in review products - the pictures in this post are a preview of the reviews I'll be posting this week :)

Between school, home health people coming, what feels like, all the time, (we had 5 appointments this past week), helping Rodney with his exercises and other things that the broken sternum makes difficult, I feel like I'm not getting anything done, but it can be good to just kind of have a quieter season when we don't have much going on. . . so I'm trying to just appreciate it.

The BEAUTIFUL weather helps. We've had the windows open most of the week and I soo love waking up to the sound of birds singing and feeling the cool breezes.

And I'll finish off with a picture of my cutie! She let her sisters pull her hair back so once, so you can actually SEE her face, hee hee :)

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Kinder Cottage

We love books! And rather firmly believe that there's no such thing as too many books, just too few bookshelves. Well, *I* believe that, dh begs to differ, hee hee. . . So, when we got the chance to choose two of the Peter Rabbit books from Kinder Cottage Publishing, the only decision to make was which two books to get! I chose Peter Rabbit Goes A-Visiting and How Peter Rabbit Went to Sea.

Kinder Cottage Publishing is a small, family owned publisher, you can read about them on their About Us page.

The Peter Rabbit books that Kinder Cottage sells were originally written by Duff Graham over 90 years ago and are in the public domain. Kinder Cottage made some changes to update the language, such as using bicycle instead of velocipede.

The books we received are small, hard cover books, with tons of full color illustrations throughout. These books are ideal for ages 3-9. And are available from Kinder Cottage for $4 each.

As soon as we got them, Lexie and Little Bit settled into a chair to read together! I love that!

They started out reading Peter Rabbit Goes A-Visiting. In this book, Peter Rabbit's mother asks him to go to the doctor to get medicine for his sister, Flopsy's toothache. Mother tells him to come straight back, but instead he ends up going to a party with his cousin, Jack. Interestingly, instead of the typical "and the moral of the story is, go straight home" that I was expecting, he has a wonderful time, gets home, tells his mother about his adventures, and she, and his sisters forgive him all.

The other book that we received was  How Peter Rabbit Went to Sea.  In this story, Peter's mother has told him and his sisters not to play near the brook but, after doing various other things, Peter decides he wants to play "Pirate", builds himself a boat, and sails off. He ends up, quite quickly, making it all the way to the sea where he encounters a shark, whale, crab, etc before a sea gull picks him up and begins to carry him home. When he gets home, before his mother can say anything, he declares he will never play pirate again!

Despite the endings being less "and the moral of the story is" than most books of this era and genre, they are otherwise much the same. At one point, while I was reading one of the books to Little Bit, she declared that she doesn't like them because they're scary because Peter Rabbit always does things he's not supposed to. I think the combination of Little Bit's very empathetic personality (she is generally more upset than her older sisters when one of them has to deal with an unpleasant consequence of their actions), and the fact that punitive discipline and corporal punishment are not how we do things in our house, combines to make the stories not entirely to her liking. Any child who enjoys other books of a similar genre from the early 1900s, would, no doubt, find these books equally enjoyable.

As an added bonus, to the already incredibly reasonable prices, use coupon code TOS to receive a 20% discount off the product price on the Kinder Cottage website!

To see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of these books, and the rest of the Peter Rabbit books from Kinder Cottage, click the banner, below.


All prices and information are accurate at time of posting.

First Day - June 2014

Nicole at Journey to Josie hosts a monthly meme called "First Day" where people just post a collection of pictures snapped over the course of the first day of the month. Kind of a snapshot of pieces of a "normal" day at our house. So . . . I thought that sounded fun . . . and finally remembered to TAKE a variety of random snapshots on the first of June (which was accompanied by much "WHY are you taking a picture of me?" from the rest of my family, hee hee). And now I'm getting it posted . . . enjoy! :)

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Learning Breakthrough Program

I'd never heard of Learning Breakthrough Program when I was asked to review their book, A Life in Balance by Frank Belgau as told to Eric Belgau. But since I've always been fascinated by learning styles and how the brain works, I was more than happy to help them out, AND get to review something just for ME, instead of for the kids, since while the information in the book can be used to help children, as well as adults, learn better, the book is targeted at adults, or older teens.

If I understand it correctly, Learning Breakthrough Program is a program to train people to integrate auditory, visual, motor, tactile, balance, etc, to help their brains work better!  And the book, A Life in Balance tells the story of the program's founder, Frank Belgau.

I have to admit, at first, I was expecting the book to be more of a "how to" book for the program, and, with that assumption, I found it rambling . . . but once I realized it was more the story of Mr. Belgau's life and how he came to create the learning breakthrough program, I liked it better. It's definitely written in a "as told to" format, it felt as if I were sitting with Mr. Belgau, listening to him reminisce about his life, and it was a delightful conversation!

One of my favorite parts of the book was when he describes meeting his wife, you can just hear how much he adores her, it's awesome to hear that kind of love! It also shows how, from the time they met, the project and research that grew into the learning breakthrough program was one that both believed in and were dedicated to, that shared passion led to their shared lifework and what sounds like a strong, loving marriage.

Toe on Spot

Another truly amazing story is the story of the birth of his youngest daughter, Beth. His wife had sung Edelweiss to her inside the womb, throughout the pregnancy, and after a difficult delivery, his wife began to sing Edelweiss to newly born, Beth. Not only did Beth open her eyes in response to the song, but began moving her arms, conductor-like, in time to the music. What an amazing testimony of how much babies are learning even before they are born, and how all pieces of the brain work together.

While most of the book is the story of what led Mr. Belgau to develop the learning breakthrough program, and the various aspects of it that he discovered along the way,  the book does describe some of the exercises and activities that Mr. Belgau developed. In my non-technical language, these are physical activities, such as tossing a beanbag or various walking/running/hopping activities that help to "line up" the various parts of the brain to help children, and people of all ages, remember things, and understand concepts to learn better.

Marching Backwards

Mr. Belgau originally discovered these correlations, and developed the program to help children who had learning challenges that the school systems at the time didn't have tools to address. However, the program can also help all children concentrate better and has been found to be beneficial for older people who are beginning to experience difficulties remembering things. It can also help with vision issues in people of all ages.

After reading the book, I decided to set up a "Space Walk" course on our driveway, using sidewalk chalk, and see how the girls did with it. In addition to helping children who are struggling, seeing how easily a child is able to perform the activities in the "Space Walk" can be an indicator of how well they are able to learn and remember.

Since all 3 of my girls have picked up new concepts quickly in all areas of learning, I wasn't surprised to find that even Little Bit was able to easily complete the various activities in the "Space Walk". Ashlyn did, opt out partway through because she'd twisted her ankle a day or 2 ago, and all the hopping and such was bothering it.

Walk a line heel-to-toe

In addition to being a fun "obstacle course" type activity, we also talked about this being a good way to "reset" their brains if they're having trouble concentrating on a subject in school.  Also, since Ashlyn is an extremely auditory learner, she sometimes struggles to "pay attention" when she's reading to herself. I suggested that she try some of these activities, or other, similar ones, before her independent reading time and see if it helps.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the "story" of this book, and find the concepts fascinating and something every homeschool parent, or educator should be aware of and at least consider incorporating into their teaching and learning!

You can purchase A Life in Balance for $16.94.

Follow Learning Breakthrough on social media:

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See what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of this book, by clicking on the banner, below:


All prices and information are accurate at time of posting.

Weekly Wrap-Up - June 1

What a week! We started the week still in the hospital after dh's surgery! On Monday, the nurse practitioner told us he'd be there "a couple more days", so I headed up to my parents to see the girls. Little Bit was VERY excited to show me that Papa had gotten out the bigger bike and she was big enough for it!! She had great fun riding to Grandma's house and back. Now to find the training wheels for that size bike that's at our house :)

Tuesday morning dh called and said that they were discharging him THAT DAY! So I headed back to the hospital to get him. After a day of "hurry up and wait" we finally made it HOME!

While I was bringing Rodney home, my dad brought the girls home, and stayed to install our air conditioners (which he got installed just in time for the weather to cool off, so we haven't had to run them yet, woo-hoo!), and do a couple other projects, including picking up a new riding mower for us. The new one is safe for Lexie and Ashlyn to drive, and they spent part of Friday getting a start on the lawn, which thankfully wasn't too bad, thanks to our AWESOME neighbor who mowed for us, with the barely working old mower, while we were gone.

Dh continues to improve, though he feels like it's slow going. He's been enjoying the nice weather that lets him take daily walks back and forth on the driveway.

The Physical Therapist came on Thursday and also "assigned" him to go up and down our stairs once a day, and a couple other new exercises.

The girls have been grabbing as much outside time as possible, thankful to be home, and for the nice weather.

We're slowly figuring out a routine of meals and school and laundry and other such fun things, in between quite a few medical appointments, but thankfully so far all have been "home health". Last week we had visits from the home health nurse, physical therapist, and occupational therapist. Apparently this coming week we'll get one visit from the nurse and TWO visits each from the physical therapist and occupational therapist, though quite frankly, I'm not clear on what the occupational therapist plans to DO that often . . . she mentioned "teaching" him "self care" but the only aspects of "self care" that I'm helping him with are things that he can't do because it's not safe for him to do some normal bending and reaching motions while his sternum is healing. It seems silly to spend time "learning" to use a bunch of gadgets to do those activities (only about 3 things), when in another month or so, he'll be able to do them the normal way again. . . so we shall see . . . if she's not truly providing things he needs, my vote will be less interruptions in our days.


Because I can't leave dh alone yet, we enjoyed a quiet, truly RESTFUL Sabbath yesterday. It was LOVELY!!! To wake up on Sabbath and be able to enjoy my morning Bible time, and a leisurely cup of coffee while the breezes blew through the windows and the birds sang.

We had planned to watch some nature/religious videos for "church" but with the weather soooo gorgeous, the girls ate breakfast and headed outside! The rest of the day consisted of them playing outside, us eating simple meals, and just generally relaxing together!

The weather was PERFECT! Even DH spent some extra time outside, enjoying the swing in the gazebo part-way through his daily walk.

The girls spent a good part of the afternoon in the creek! Trying to catch minnows, wading, and who knows what! So I'll wrap-up this post with a few pictures of them enjoying the creek on a beautiful Sabbath afternoon!