Tumbleweed News

We Choose Virtues (TOS review)

2012-01-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

vir·tue [vur-choo]

noun

1. moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.

2. conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.

3. chastity; virginity: to lose one's virtue.

4. a particular moral excellence. Compare cardinal virtues (justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude), natural virtue (any moral virtue of which humankind is capable especially the cardinal virtues of justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude), theological virtue (one of the three graces: faith, hope, or charity, infused into the human intellect and will by a special grace of God).

5. a good or admirable quality or property: the virtue of knowing one's weaknesses.

6. manly excellence; valor.

We all want what’s best for our kids. We want them treated with respect as well as show respect. We want them on their best behavior and use their best manners in any given circumstance without reminders. We want them to find success as adults by being in this world not of this world.

We want them to practice all virtues.

Virtues aren’t an easy thing to learn. They need to be taught and reinforced over and over again. Virtues aren’t something we are naturally born with or an instinct. It is a learned character.

So…what if we weren’t taught “virtues” (at least not using this term)? What if we were taught to take care of ourselves the best way we know how but to “mind our manners”? How, then, do we go about teaching virtues to our kids?

No one can use the excuse that they don’t homeschool so they can’t teach those things. No one can say that it is up to the schools to teach this.

It is up to us, as parents, to teach our kids the virtues. We start out with this verse from the Bible:

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. [Galatians 5:22-23]

Did you read the definitions above for virtue? I’m thinking even the dictionaries take their definition from this verse in the Bible.

It is one thing to read these things, it is another to teach and/or learn them. To reinforce them in others when they are even lacking in ourselves.

We Choose Virtues is a company that has designed a way to teach virtues to our families. Actually, they have a program for public school teachers as well (if your kids are in public school…here’s a suggestion for the teachers). Maybe you teach Sunday School and are looking for a Biblical character building lesson plan. We Choose Virtues has that covered too.

Family (Kids and youth ages 3-18)
Homeschool (Kids and Youth ages 3-18)
Kids Church/Sunday School (ages 3-11)
Faith-Based Schools (Kids ages 3-11)
Community Schools (Kids ages 3-11)
Mentoring (Youth ages 12-18) (the foster care system is always looking for mentors for kids that are in the system….this may very well be something that could be done when they meet up)

Click on a link above and it’ll take you to the information and prices you may need for whichever situation you find yourself in need.

We Choose Virtues has an excellent program for helping the adults in our children’s lives teach about virtues in a fun way.

There are 4 simple steps for teaching virtues:

Step 1 Expect Excellence
Step 2 Explain with Enthusiasm
Step 3 Emphasize Everyday
Step 4 Examine Everything

AND there are 9 inspiring tools to use:

Tool 1 12 Teacher’s Virtue Cards
Tool 2 The Virtues Poster
Tool 3 The Three Rules Poster
Tool 4 12 Virtue Flash Cards
Tool 5 12 Kids of VirtueVille Posters
Tool 6 100 Days of Virtue Chart
Tool 7 Personal Virtue Chart
Tool 8 Virtue User Review
Tool 9 Home Improvement Report

You can find these tools on whichever category link you chose above.

As a TOS reviewer, we were generously give the 12 Virtue Cards in the mail. We also received the Teacher’s Handbook, Family Character Assessment, Kids Memory Verses, and a coloring book as downloads to my computer so I can print as many of each page as I needed for the kids.

An example of a couple of the virtue cards that are used in class (I hung them on our white board to be seen all throughout the day/week). The cards on double sided. The front side says:

I am Self-Controlled. I make myself do the right thing. I am NOT…wild, rowdy, or disorderly, and I don’t expect others to control me!

The other side is the assignment: Choose to make yourself do something that you usually get in trouble for NOT doing!

Another card:

I am Kind. I treat others the way I like to be treated. I am NOT…selfish, mean, or rude and I don’t hurt others on purpose!

Assignment: Choose to plan some kind things to do for others that they do not expect. Do what THEY think is kind!

The Teacher’s Handbook tells us how to go about the simple steps in teaching the virtues using the suggested tools. It tells us how to fill out the assessments and keep the records.

Overall, this is a really good program. Some people bring their kids home to school them because of attitudes and behaviors they are learning from some of their public school peers. A program like this to reinforce what is expected as a human being in this society is a great place to begin.

You can check out all the products We Choose Virtues has to offer here. They are having a clearance sale going on right now. Check that out here.

We were only one family on the crew that got the privilege of reviewing We Choose Virtues. See what other crewmates had to say about their products here.

God’s Blessings and may you have a virtuous day.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for TOS, I received products from We Choose Virtues for FREE for my reviewing purposes.

It’s the little things

2012-01-21T15:43:00.001-07:00

As moms, our kids like to make us things. Whether it is a special drawing, colored picture, poem, note, cards, beaded jewelry, paper creations, a song, and even the duct tape sculptures.

But there is just something a little extra special when your 32 year old son makes you a beaded bracelet for Christmas.

Isn’t it awesome?

He made me this bracelet to wear when he is deployed. Kind of like those rubber bracelets one wears that represent a cause, except this one is personalized with his name on it.

I love it!

He made his wife and two daughters one too (his daughters’ say DADDY).

I don’t know how he came about making something like this. Whether it was a battalion, squad, or team effort…I haven’t a clue. Whatever or however….this bracelet will always be priceless to me.

Those little homemade gifts….no matter the age of the child…will forever and always be cherished.

Have yourself a blessed filled day!

Vickie

Sunday Sundries 1-15-12

2012-01-15T18:45:00.001-07:00

My verse/quote/thought for this week: All of us are born into this world with a deep need for baptism. From our parents we inherit a sinful nature; we are without true fear of God, true faith in God, and are condemned to eternal death. But Jesus took away our sin by giving His life on the cross. At our baptism, He clothes us with the robe of His righteousness and gives us a new life. Our sinful nature need not control us any longer. We recall what baptism means for our daily lives as we read these words:

Baptism means that the sinful nature in us should be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Weather this week is going to be cold. Suppose to get snow this evening, then a couple days break and more snow Wednesday and Thursday. About time!!! Been a slow snow season this year.

This week I am thankful that we had a few days last week of visiting with my brother, David, and his wife (hard to say wife when they aren’t legally married but they’ve been together for 20+ years). They’ve decided to move up here to be near family again, especially since dad isn’t doing so well. I am thankful they have chosen to do so.

I am looking forward to Travis and family coming for a visit this week. They will be here from Tuesday thru Friday. We haven’t seen them since last August. Grandkids grow so fast, don’t want to miss too much.

Our plans this week include visiting with Travis and family. Loving on me some granddaughters. Brandy and family will be coming for dinner most of the week too so that the cousins will have some visiting time. A houseful! Perfect!!!

I have one review due by the end of this week: We Choose Virtues.

In school this week probably won’t be much since we’ll have visitors. The kids will be practicing hospitality, playing host/hostess. Entertaining nieces, nephews, and each other. Helping to prepare meals.

On our menu this week for Travis’ visit: Dad’s Burritos, Meatloaf and the works, Chef Salad, Lasagna, Potato Soup, Enchiladas.

I am going to go to Kristie’s (neice) ultra sound on Wednesday. I am so excited she invited me to attend. Woohoo!

I am creating a quilt for Kristie’s baby. We should find out on Wednesday if I’m going to have to do the final colors in pink or blue. She’s thinking pink.

I am hoping that we get a phone call from Christy our caseworker that our homestudy has been signed off so we can apply for kids. This has sure been a long process to get completed. I am anxious to complete our family.

I am thinking that the homestudy process is taking so long because our kids aren’t ready for us yet. All in God’s timing. Definitely proof in that here.

I am learning patience in all this. God is putting me to good practice via the adoption process this time around. Well, I guess it isn’t as long as the original one. I guess that’s a good thing LOL

On my reading pile is a romance book (need something fun to read), school assignment corrections, and I’m going to get out Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children (book on adoption). I’ve read this one before, but time to do so again since we are in the adoption process again. I’m suppose to be reading and doing 31 Days to Clean. Hasn’t worked into the schedule this month.

Around the house I really need to work on cleaning out the backroom to make into a rec room and storage room for crafts. So I can clean out the spare room and prepare for lots more kids. Room shifting will probably be happening as soon as we’ve been matched with kids.

Something I’d like to share “Do I Have to do School?”

On my camera this past week:

5-year-old Max showing his great-Aunt and Uncle how to build with Legos.

On my prayer list is still my Dad. He’s suffering from prostate cancer, bone cancer, COPD, asthma, and emphezema. My niece who is 20 weeks pregnant. Her boyfriend has given her an ultimatum (him or the baby). Praying for snow. Our business depends on it as it is our “harvest” season. Also praying for a crewmate’s daughter who is having some neurological issues.

My praises are that the ultimatum is giving the baby up for adoption, not abortion. My brother has decided to move up here. My dad looked like he was having a good day yesterday when we visited. The whole family is healthy.

How’s your week looking?

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Lacking….

2012-01-11T21:40:00.001-07:00

I was thinking it had been a little bit since I’ve written a post here. I decided to take a peek….boy, a little bit is putting it mildly!!!

My last few posts are basically only reviews.

So not good!!!!

I need to rectify this. So, off to look for memes and other such things to get me to blogging more than just reviews. Reviews are fun to do but that isn’t all of life.

Look for more “fun” and hopefully interesting and inspiring posts coming up.

I’m open to meme suggestions if you have any

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Z-Guide to the Movies (TOS review)

2012-01-10T22:04:00.001-07:00

I don't know about your family, but mine LOOOOVE watching movies...whether on DVD or when we decide to splurge and go to the theaters. We enjoy the new movies but Dave and I really like showing the kids movies that we enjoyed as kids too. Those are classic. A time when we didn't have to worry too much about what might be seen or heard.

When we were asked to review Z-Guides to the Movies from Zeezok, and it entailed watching a movie of our choice, we were all excited about it. We had a list of movies to choose from and we chose “Luther”. One of the newest ones available and isn’t even on the website yet.

I chose “Luther” because as Lutherans I wanted to watch and discuss this during the Reformation and never got around to it.

This was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Zeezok’s purpose is to use Z-Guides as a way to incorporate media into our curriculum. Genius!

Each Z-Guide contains a topic overview, movie synopsis, and ten learning activities for an in-depth study of the film. They suggest doing two activities a day for five days but you can do it however you like (we chose to do one activity a day). The topic overview puts the film in historical context, giving a student with no prior knowledge of the topic important background information. The one-page synopsis provides a detailed explanation of the movie's storyline than what is typically found on the back cover of the video case.

While watching the movie the first time, the kids answer movie review questions. This assignment forces them to be active listeners and observers. Nine additional activities provide more educational opportunities built around the movie's theme. Some activities require outside resources, ie: encyclopedias, internet, library, etc. Some really challenge their mental and creative powers. Some is opinion vs facts. There is at least one hands-on activity as well. There is also a Worldview Activity and it gets the kids' critical thinking to work. There is a Family Discussion section too. Don't forget the answer key.

The goal of the Z-Guide is not just supplemental educational activities for specific historical topics, but to teach the viewer to think critically. For example, “Luther” takes place during the Medieval Europe time frame. Topics include:

The Reformation
The Counter Reformation
Luther’s 95 Theses
The Gutenberg Press

You can choose which time frame you are studying and then choose a movie from the list. From Ancient Civilization to the Vietnam War. So many choices!

I had the five older kids (10th-5th grade) do the first activity (movie review questions) when we watched the movie. I filled it out as we went along in the movie. I enjoyed this activity. Sure makes us have to listen intently which makes us hear more than we would typically be hearing.

Various kids did various activities the rest of the time. For example: the 5th graders aren’t ready to write a 200 word commentary about their favorite hymn written by Martin Luther but they could still do the word search and draw a cartoon.

For this review, we did have to already own the movie, rent it, borrow it, or find it on Netflix. The movie is not included with the Z-Guide.

These Z-Guides to the Movies are $12.99 each. You can also purchase some of the movies on DVD from the Zeezok website so you don't really have to go looking for it.

Zeezok offers several things on their website: several different styles of penmanship, a couple of character building books, the great musician series, American Government, and some literature. They have a link so you can see what they are currently working on too.

I would recommend these Z-Guides if you like using media as part of your studies...and who doesn't. Check out the list of Z-Guides available here. Like I said, they are $12.99 each which isn't bad. “Luther” and several others are designed specifically for the high school student. There are also Z-Guides for Jr High and elementary students as well.

Zeezok is also on Facebook if you wanted to "like" them and keep up with the latest publication.

Several crewmates also reviewed Z-Guides to the Movies but they may have chosen different movies. Look what they had to share here.

This program is an awesome way to supplement any lesson. We look forward to doing many many more of these.

Vickie

Disclaimer: I am an independent contractor for TOS. I received an ebook version of the z-guide for Luther from Zeezok. No other compensation was received.

REAL Homeschool Spanish (TOS review)

2012-01-05T23:40:00.001-07:00

R.E.A.L. Homeschool Spanish was created with the intention of encouraging families to enjoy learning a foreign language together.

There is some independent learning and the program gives you a teacher’s guide to help you discern when to work together or do independent work.

Learning a foreign language should not be looked at like an elective but as a core course so that more interaction among the family can take place.

With R.E.A.L. Homeschool Spanish, the curriculum is written for every age. Choose which activities to do with whatever age/ability your kids are.

Sounds easy enough, right?

My kids have done a few of the activities but I hear them using some of the vocabulary words amongst themselves. My 8 year old gets a kick out of learning Spanish and uses it most often and retains more of it than even the older kids.

With R.E.A.L. Homeschool Spanish is more an immersion type program, there isn’t much for grammar. Learning too much grammar all at once takes the joy out of learning for some kids. Using and practicing the language in everyday life helps with learning the grammar along the way.

You can purchase a Daily Curriculum Guide to go with your program. Broken down by the week and that week broken down by the day, makes doing these lessons fairly easy. Click here to see a sample week.

Here is a sample page from the work book. Notice there is an audio link so you can hear the pronunciations if you aren’t sure how to do so. You will also see at the bottom of the page “Tips for the home educator”.

Pretty cool!

This is a sample page from the activity book. This is some independent work my kids enjoy doing.

Depending on the age of your kids, maybe you want to delve more into the cultures surrounding the Spanish language. Check out the opportunities on this page. These are FREE links.

R.E.A.L. Homeschool Spanish is as their motto suggests:

R~elax

E~njoy

A~spire

L~earn

Spanish

Nothing too intense about this program. Very very family oriented for any age with full immersion style of learning.

I had kids high school down to 3rd grade doing this program. They all enjoyed it. I liked the simplicity and ease of teaching real Spanish at home.

You have several options when purchasing the program.

Download versions are $49.95 and $59.95. Hardcopy versions are $89.95 and $99.95. Here is the purchase page to get all the details.

Would I recommend this program? Absolutely!

Adios mi amigos.

Vaya con Dios.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS crew, I received the download bundle of R.E.A.L. for my review on this blog.

The World’s Greatest Stories (TOS review)

2011-12-20T21:16:00.001-07:00

We got the honor and privilege of reviewing a pretty awesome CD.

The World’s Greatest Stories are an award winning series of Bible stories, brought to life through the storytelling of George W. Sarris.

Mr. Sarris is a professional actor and narrator (you may have seen him in commercials for Burger King, Duracell, Pizza Hut, Spring, UPS, and Honda). He takes stories word for word directly from the Bible (KJV or NIV). BUT he is NOT just reading the Bible stories as written, he is dramatizing the stories. Changing his voice for inflection and he uses carefully selected music and sound effects so we can get the most out of the stories.

He really keeps the kids interested. It is in no way boring. With the drama, one can get a good visualization while listening.

We were given Volume 1 of The World’s Greatest Stories KJV to listen to. I prefer using the KJV when I’m doing my own Bible study.

Anyway….stories included in this 1-hour long CD is:

The Blazing Furnace
The Handwriting on the Wall
Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Elijah and the Prophets of Baal
The Prophecy of Jonah

We sat and listened to it all in one sitting while working on CHRISTmas crafts. What fun! What would have been more awesome while doing the crafts would have been listening to Volume 2 with the first story being The Real Story of Christmas as found in Matthew and Luke of the New Testament.

These awesome CDs would be great used in a vehicle while going to town or a road trip. I think I’m going to download them to my kids’ iTouches so they can listen to them at any time.

You can go here to listen to audio clips. You can choose KJV or NIV. I know some people have a hard time understanding the KJV but George Sarris has a way of making it totally understandable.

My middle group of kids just finished studying Elijah and the Prophets of Baal in their books. I believe listening to this audio dramatic version of the story a few more times will help them better understand it.

If you have a child (or an adult) that is lacking in reading comprehension skills, I do believe that these CDs will totally help in this area.

Totally!!!!

Currently there are 6-CDs available for $7.95 each. There is also another CD that tells the Easter story. This one is $9.95. Mr. Sarris is working on more stories, #6 is brand new on the market at this time.

It might be a little late to order these in time for Christmas this year, but hey…they are many upcoming birthdays in 2012 or put it on your 2012 Christmas list (surely everyone starts the next year’s Christmas list before the current Christmas has past…right?)

I highly recommend these CDs. Mr. Sarris has a great voice for story telling. Nothing monotone or boring about him.

Check out more on The World’s Greatest Stories website. Which stories are heard on which volume. Speaking engagements for Mr. Sarris. Future stories in the works. Etc.

Check out what a few of my crewmates had to say about The World’s Greatest Stories taken from the world’s greatest Book!

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received Volume 1 of The World’s Greatest Stories from George Sarris FREE for my review.

Fractazmic (TOS review)

2011-12-15T22:55:00.001-07:00

My kids like to play cards. Sometimes with one another, other times they like solitaire type games.

With I-See Cards, they can play either way with the same deck of cards.

I-See Cards are not like a regular deck of playing cards. These cards are used in a fun way to practice math skills for reinforcement.

Although I-See Cards have several different decks of cards, we had the privilege of reviewing the Fractazmic cards.

From the website: “Fractazmic is a 2-4 player game that uses math and language skills. The object of Fractazmic trap is to gather as many hands as possible before the first player runs out of cards. Hands are captured by either (1) playing a card that brings the sum of all cards thrown to 1 or (2) forcing the next player to throw a card that brings the sum to greater than 1. If any of these events occur – the player captures the round and is the first to start the next round.

Each card clearly numbered
Each card clearly labeled with the fraction and reinforcing graphic”

There are 60 clearly numbered, clearly labeled cards with awesome graphics. They are very sturdy cards as well.

Fractazmic teaches fractions and measurements. It is just a fun way to practice, practice, practice. They can be taken anywhere.

You can get your own deck of Fractazmic cards for $6.95. Great for a stocking stuffer!

Kids not quite ready for fractions, check out I-See Cards other math learning cards.

My kids enjoy playing with the I-See Cards. Sometimes I get slaughtered when I play, other times I can actually win LOL

We are not the only ones who got to put away our math books and play card games. Check out what more of my crewmates had to say.

A very blessed CHRISTmas to you all.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received one deck of I-See Cards’ Fractazmic for my review purposes.

Need a little girl gift idea?

2011-12-10T17:18:00.001-07:00

Is everyone ready for Christmas? Got little girls you still need a gift for?

Have I got an idea for you!!!!

I have six granddaughters. Each of my three married kids each have two of them. All three have 8-year-olds, two have 6-year-olds and one has a 7-seven-year old (who was 6 for awhile with the other two LOL).

One of the 8-year-olds and the 7-year-old are part of our homeschool class.

The others live far away in either direction. Coming up with Christmas gifts that ship well, that they’d enjoy, and isn’t another toy that they won’t play with causes dilemmas. Add picky in-laws to the mix and well…..

So, I decided that I’d get books! Can’t go wrong or get in trouble with books can I? OKay maybe I can!

I went with the Circle C books. They are Christian based without being unrealistic like some books.

They are full of adventures.

Fun reading.

I’ve written posts about these gems previously. My girls love them as well as the two granddaughters that I homeschool. When we read our first one, even my son enjoyed them (he was younger then….at 15 he’s not so much interested in them any more).

I got the two 8-year-olds the whole set of the Circle C Adventures for each of them and I got the two 6-year-olds their own set of the Circle C Beginnings.

Susan K. Marlow autographed “each” book for each of the girls PLUS included a cute little pony to go along with each set.

Thanks, Susan. The girls are going to love them.

If you give them as gifts, don’t forget to include a card or something to go along with it listing the website. Mom/grandma/Nana can access the websites to each and print off FREE coloring pages, puzzles, and lapbooks to go along with each book.

My girls love these!!!

So if you need an idea for that special girl in your life think of Susan K. Marlow’s Circle C books with Andi Carter and her horse, Taffy.

A Blessed Christmas to each and everyone of you!!!

God’s Blessings,

Vickie

New pantry…..

2011-11-28T22:22:00.001-07:00

I haven’t updated in awhile. My dad was in the hospital for 5 1/2 days. The Dr. released him Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Basically to go home and spend his last days. The Dr. said he probably won’t see 6 more months Hospice began today.

Hard to fathom. Hard to believe. Please pray for my dad’s comfort and peace.

Before Dad went to the hospital we have been working on relocating our pantry. Over the Thanksgiving weekend we were able to “stock” it from the old pantry. So much fun to be able to organize that.

Here are some photos. See for yourself.

This is our pantry “before”. See the door behind the green shelves? That is the doorway to the new pantry. Remember that as you look at the rest of the photos.

The freezer in the left photo and utility sink in the right photo, will no longer be in the pantry.

The wall behind the utility sink will be knocked down to make our dining room almost 6 feet longer.

New pantry “before”.

Location for new pantry.

Closing off the old back door. We will be using the door on the left as the back door. It has always been here, just never used.

On the other side of that door is the old pantry. The green shelves are on the other side.

Learning to use a chop saw. Donald did very well with it. Dave got to where he could give him a measurement and not have to supervise the cutting.

Jay, the kitten, was not intimidated by any of the power tool noises. He wanted to be right in the middle of things. LOL

We have this exact same pose of these 2 when we were working on the family room. At that time, they were almost 3 and 2. Now 8 and 7. Same pose, same ladder they were sitting on. Looking at dad/papa.

Three teens long.

We had the opportunity to use this old tool. Well, Donald did.

He much preferred the power one LOL

Standing the wall.

A bit more than one pre-teen wide.

The last piece of sheetrock enclosing it off totally.

The outside wall. Hanging beadboard. Against this wall will be the freezer, extra frig, and utility sink.

Ceiling.

All painted.

Installing the door.

How many Butterfields does it take to install a door knob?

The floor. Donald and I installed the floor. The girls were runners taking measurements outside to Dave and bringing us back the boards. We didn’t do too shabby!

Love my new door.

The first of the shelving moved in.

Max helping out. He decided he needed to add something to his Christmas list. He loved using this screw gun.

I love this look and feel so very blessed.

I decided to put our old china cabinet in here. I wanted a shelf, counter top type thing to stack things as I gathered them or a place to put a bag as I unloaded it. This will also hold our paper products.

We’ll get a new china cabinet someday.

Behind the door we are going to hang a mop/broom holder. I’ll also put a clear shoe bag here for smaller things that might get lost on the shelves.

There you have it!

We began this project on October 10, 2011. Finished stocking it November 26, 2011. Glad to finally have all our food in one place.

All the kids and a few of the grandkids had a helping hand in this. They’ll be able to look at this for a long time and say, “I helped build that”. They were a great help and learned lots.

I think this project should suffice for Woods 101 as credit for the high school kids, don’t you think?

I enjoyed having you visit our new pantry. If we are going to adopt many more kids, we need a good organized place to keep our food and a bigger dining room. We attained both with this project.

Thanks for visiting. Stop by any time, I’ll be able to find all the different teas now.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Keep Your Children Safe in the “ARK”

2011-11-18T08:53:00.001-07:00

(I received this in my email this morning and I thought it apt to share. What a blessing these words are today.)

Keep Your Children Safe in the "Ark"

Do you ever feel overwhelmed at the task of parenting children in today's world? The story of Noah has a lesson of patience and perseverance for today's parent.

No one listened to Noah. He preached and persuaded. He warned and chastised. But no one listened. When he built an ark to save his family, everyone laughed. "There will never be a flood here!" they teased. "Why are you wasting your time?" And still "Noah did everything just as God commanded him" (Genesis 6:22).

"Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God" (Genesis 6:9). Because Noah loved God and wanted to obey, he did all that God asked of him, even when it was difficult. Even when everyone around him was out having fun instead of preparing for the future, Noah followed God.

There is a lesson in Noah's story for parents today. Like Noah, we are building an ark to save our family from the evil in the world. It is a spiritual ark, offering protection from temptation and sin. Like Noah, we may be the target of ridicule as we choose to live differently from others around us. When we make the choice to trust God and follow him, it's not always easy, but it is always worth the effort. God said, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5).

As parents we can't predict the future for our children, but we can help make them safer by creating a spiritual ark in our homes, a safe place where our children can learn to love God and rejoice in following Him, a place where they can learn God's commandments and feel His love. When the rain (hard times) comes, our children will weather the storm by putting their trust in Him.

"When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you...whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm" (Proverbs 1:27,33).

For more ideas on teaching God's Word to your children, visit www.scriptureadventures.com.

Have a blessed day!

Vickie

College Prep Genius–TOS review

2011-11-15T17:37:00.001-07:00

I think this title says it all!

The author, Jean Burk, who thought of this awesome program is a total GENIUS!!!

College Prep Genius: Master the SAT Class is as it says – preparing for the SATs.

I remember taking the SATs in High School. I haven’t a clue what my score was because we had to pay a kazillion bucks to get our score. Since I wasn’t college bound, we didn’t worry about getting it.

For our review we received the College Prep Genius textbook, workbook, and DVD set.

The textbook contains over 350 tips, short-cuts, and test taking strategies. This program can be a helpful tool to learn the recurring patterns and strategies that can be found in SAT and PSAT/NMSQT tests (actually can be affective in most any test taking situation).

College Prep Genius is designed to help the student learn to look at the questions logically and find the correct answer by using their reasoning skills.

The textbook refers to the worksheets in the workbook for assignments. The DVDs (narrated by Jean Burk) are good for those that learn better in audio format rather than comprehending what they read. The total for the set individually is $129. Purchase it as a complete set and save 25% and pay only $99 (100% money back guarantee). It “can” be done without the DVDs, but I suggest using the whole set.

Personally….I think this would be very much worth it for the college bound student and to assist in getting scholarships.

The College Prep Genius website has several interesting articles, testimonies, references, contact info, etc. You can signup for the newsletter and receive pertinent information via email.

Jaime is the only one who used this program for review purposes. She is a sophomore in High School right now so I didn’t figure it was too soon to start.

I will have Jaime complete this program and Ashley and Donald will begin it next year. Jaime will probably go thru it again with them because you can never have too much training in things like this. I will order additional workbooks for the other kids.

The textbook suggests taking an SAT test for practice (the book gave a link to download a free one) before beginning any of the lessons. That way the student can see how much they improved by using this program.

I am anxious to delve further into this program. I believe it will be beneficial in more than just in taking the college tests but in studying and taking other tests as well.

I recommend the College Prep Genius program for any High School student, college bound or not.

Other crewmates reviewed College Prep Genius DVD set too. Take a look at their experiences.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contract for the TOS review crew, we received the College Prep Genius DVD set for our review purposes. No other compensation was given or implied.

Keyboard Town Pals (TOS review)

2011-11-12T22:12:00.001-07:00

“Keyboard Town is a little town with three streets. Your fingers live on Home Key Street (middle row). The bottom row is called Downtown and above Home Key Street is called Uptown.”

This is how Sunny (life-size puppet like Big Bird), introduces the keyboard for Keyboard Town Pals to your students ages 7-10.

With the use of puppets (the Town Pals), kids learn where each of the letters are on the keyboard. Which finger to use to press which letter and each letter has a name to help the kids to remember.

A is Amy. G is George. Q is question. I don’t agree with using M for Emma though. They do say that it is a “sound clue” not a “spelling clue”. N is Nina. Etc.

I don’t like that Emma and Nina are kind of snooty and picking on the “new kid”. I understand it is to help with finding the letters but my kids are not allowed to say things like “nanny nanny nah nah” so it is disappointing to see a child’s program using it. But hey, that’s me

Overall, the typing program is cute. It has great potential. It moves slow enough and is repetitive enough for some of the younger crowd. Even though this is designed for ages 7-10, if a 4 and 5 year old knows their letters by sight they’d probably enjoy this program too.

I think it is a bit too young for 9 and 10 year olds though BUT if they are a bit slower in learning, it could be perfect.

I think this program would be great for kids that are learning disabled no matter the age. My Nicole is 17, in 6th grade and really enjoyed this program.

There are 8 videos to this program and is said to teach typing within an hour. You could break this down as one video per day or have them do it all at once.

If your kids like puppets, want to learn typing, then they’d probably enjoy Keyboard Town Pals.

You can purchase Keyboard Town Pals on DVD or you can login with the Web Based version. Either is $39.95. It is also available in Spanish or French.

Other crewmates also reviewed Keyboard Town Pals typing program for kids ages 7-10.

Vickie

PS: Currently the Keyboard Town Pals website is getting a facelift is is down. Please keep checking back.

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received the Web Based version of Keyboard Town Pals FREE for my review.

Gratitude Challenge–11-11-11

2011-11-11T23:42:00.001-07:00

Happy Veteran’s Day!!!

My father-in-law 1929-2005

Retired U.S. Air Force

Husband Dave

(military picture coming soon)

Retired Army National Guard

Son Travis

U.S. Army

Son Jason

U.S.Army

Nephews:

Brent – U.S. Air Force

Keith – U.S. Coast Guard

2 Nephews-in-law

U.S. Navy

Adopted Sons:

Nate and Gregory – U.S. Army

Godson-in-law (is there such a thing?)

U.S. Navy

Thank you to all the veterans out there, past and present who are willing serve to protect our country.

To fight for our freedom.

To fight for our rights.

God Bless our soldiers

and

God Bless the United States of America.

Gratitude Challenge with Garden of Learning.

Vickie

Gratitude Challenge–Nov. 10, 2011

2011-11-10T13:57:00.001-07:00

I haven’t done the Gratitude Challenge and link up over at Garden of Learning for a couple of days.

Life happens and some days, it is hard to see beyond the moment.

So for today, I am grateful for God’s grace and forgiveness.

Even at my lowest times and I blow up at the kids….I know that God forgives me each and every time I ask.

I’m underserving of it I know, as I’m a poor miserable sinner. But by His grace, He continues to give it to me anyway.

Thank you Lord for loving me, for your grace, and forgiveness even when I don’t deserve it.

So what are you thankful for?

Have a blessed day,

Vickie

Gratitude Challenge–Nov. 7, 2011

2011-11-07T19:13:00.001-07:00

Today I got a blessing of a surprise….I’ve been nominated!

For what you ask? For Best Blog Design over at The Homeschool Post on their 7th Annual Blog Awards. There are 20 categories.

Nominations are in, voting now begins. Voting ends midnight November 18.

Here are the rules to vote. Check them all out and see if you’ve been nominated for anything.

It is an honor to be nominated and see my blog on those lists of blogs. Some I’ve been following a long time…lots of the blogs are crew blogs.

How cool is that!?!

What are you thankful for today? Link up with Brenda at Garden of Learning and share.

Don’t forget to go vote. Tumbleweed News is under the Best Blog Design category.

Vickie

The Person I Marry (TOS review)

2011-11-06T14:46:00.001-07:00

“It’s “Who”, not “What”, that makes a great wedding.

The clothing you wear and the flowers you carry

don’t matter as much as the person you marry.”

These are great words of wisdom. I can think of several people that should have adhered to these words before getting married. Some get married just for the sake of being married or because all their friends are.

Such a shame!

We were given a link to read a book called The Person I Marry by Gary Bower (his wife, Jan, did the oil painting used as the illustrations in this book).

Very cute book written in rhyme. With only 33 pages to the story, it is a quick read.

The first time I read this book, I read it to myself. Well, someone forgot to mention I might need a kleenex before I got to the end.

Tearful, but not sad. Not joyful, but emotional sort of thing.

This little story tells what would be the best character traits to have in a mate.

“It cannot be riches, hair color, and height,

Or any externals I think are just right.

Something that’s inside, something much deeper,

Will help me determine which one is a “keeper”.

And so, long before any diamonds or glitter,

these are some things that I need to consider.”

As I read this book (probably why it was tearful for me) I realized that God was indeed looking out for me. Because every trait this book described to look for when looking for a mate, is found in Dave. Every last one of them!

I couldn’t have chosen any better. God did an awesome job in selecting him for me.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “….plans to give you hope and a future.”

~Jeremiah 29:11~

Now this verse doesn’t mean we leave it all up to the Lord. We are to do our part. We need to lift both people up in prayer.

So, if you are reading this and are single, get this book. It is only $11.99 at Bower Books. Most important, pray for your future spouse. Pray for him/her now. It is never too soon. You may not know their name but God does.

Parents reading this post, be praying for your child’s future spouse now. It doesn’t matter that your child is still an infant. You have 18-20 years of praying for your future son/daughter-in-law. You want them to be “just right” as a life long mate for your child.

“The person I’ll trust to carry my heart

must truly believe “till death do us part”.

This book would be an awesome gift for a girl on her Sweet 16 birthday. Or how about as a bridal shower gift. As a wedding gift…..well that would be good for the memories but may be too late for evaluation of the person before the wedding.

I think this would be a great thank-you gift for the flower girl or even the bride’s maids.

Little princesses that one day dream of finding their prince charming would love this book. The paintings are very enduring, dreamy like.

With five daughters currently at home (with prayers of more to come), I think this book would be a great addition to our bookshelves.

The Person I Marry isn’t just for girls, boys can get a lot out of it too. I don’t care what they think

Bower Books has several other books that are just as charming as this one.

Christmas is coming and books are a priceless treasure.

Not only my girls enjoyed this great little book, some of my crewmates kids did too.

Who is the person you married and how long have you been married?

I’ve been with Dave for more than 34 years. We’ll have been married for 33 years in January.

God’s blessings “till death do you part”.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received a link to view The Person I Marry from Bower Books for FREE for my review.

Gratitude Challenge–Nov. 5, 2011

2011-11-05T14:15:00.001-06:00

Today I am grateful for Bountiful Baskets.

Have you ever participated in this food co-op? You are most definitely missing out.

Check them out and see if they come to your area every week.

Bountiful Baskets.

In our area, they’ve been using a parking lot of a charter school all summer. They were looking for a place indoors for the winter distributions.

We happen to have a spot and today is the first day at the new location. Good thing too….the windy is co-o-o-ld today.

Brrrrrr…….

As a site sponsor we receive a basket for free as a thank you. I also ordered a basket because I wanted their 9-grain bread which has become our absolutely favorite bread (can’t get the bread without ordering a basket).

No worries…having this many kids, nothing will go to waste

Check out what we received today (remember this is 2 baskets worth) plus our 5 loaves of 9-grain bread.

Anyone have a clue what that tall feathery vegetable is in the back by the baby watermelons? Hard to see the roma tomatoes behind the blackberries.

What are you grateful for today? Share with a link at Brenda’s Garden of Learning blog.

Have a blessed weekend. We are headed to a dance this evening….should be a blast.

The girls have all had a shower and are now sporting different styles of curlers and/or braids in their damp hair for fancy curls and waves for tonight. You’d think they were getting prepared for a Ball LOL

Vickie

Gratitude Challenge–Nov. 3, 2011

2011-11-03T23:19:00.001-06:00

Today I’m grateful for my pantry. Well, soon to be brand new pantry anyway.

We are relocating our old pantry so that we can knock down a wall to make our dining room larger.

After all, if we are getting more kids, we’ll need more eating space. Nothing I like more than having a full table, all those heads bowed, hands folded ready to say grace. Music to my ears and a warmth in my heart that can sometimes bring tears to my eyes.

PLUS, with more kids comes more food and more food means the need for more storage space…right?

So, new pantry here we come.

I can hardly wait. I’ll write another blog post whenever the pantry is done to show before and after pictures (praying to have it done before Thanksgiving). But I will share my favorite thing that will be coming to my new pantry….the door.

I got this door ordered today. It’ll be here in 10 days!! I’m so excited!

What are you grateful for today? Share your link with Brenda over at Garden of Learning. Read what others are grateful for too.

Have a blessed weekend.

Vickie

First Start Reading (TOS review)

2011-11-03T22:59:00.001-06:00

I have noticed that when I mention to others that we homeschool one of the first things I hear is, “oh, I wouldn’t be able to teach my kids to read”.

I don’t know why others think teaching a 5 or 6 year old to read is so difficult. They taught them to walk, talk, potty-trained them, eat with a spoon/fork, know their colors, pick up toys, and many other things but they can’t teach them to read ???

Seems odd.

So far I’ve taught 11 kids how to read and I’m working on #12. Granted some catch on quicker and easier than others but eventually they all catch on. Even one that we were told would never ever learn how to read, now reads and is getting better and better all the time.

It hasn’t been that difficult.

The key is knowing and working with each child’s learning style.

Over the years I have recommended a couple of different programs. Now I have another one to add to my list of recommendations (different styles for different kids).

First Start Reading from Memoria Press.

The program we received to review is for the Kindergarten level of kids. So, in comes Max who happens to be in Kindergarten.

We received the whole First Start Reading Student Set ($29.95). Which includes books A, B, C, and the Teacher’s Guide.

Plus we received the Classical Phonics book ($14.95). A child’s guide to word mastery.

The First Start Reading program is reading, phonics, and writing.

From the website:

“First Start Reading covers consonants, short vowels, 45 common words, and manuscript printing, accompanied by artist-drawn coloring pictures and drawing pages for every letter. Your child will begin reading in the very first lesson as he progresses through three student books and twenty-five phonetic stories, such as "Hogs and Pigs" and "Jog to the Jet." A Teacher Manual guides you through the program and provides helpful assessments and teaching tips.”

I got a first hand experience with customer service. I have to tell ya, they were awesome!

Some how our package got lost in route to us and customer service was quick to confirm my address and get a whole other set sent right out to us. Great great customer service.

With the package getting lost in route (that doesn’t ever happen does it? lol) I didn’t have much time to get far into the lessons but what we did get thru, I am highly impressed.

Max loves it too. He’s anxious to do the next lesson each day.

For those parents that find teaching someone to read intimidating, this teacher’s guide will guide you step-by-step. It tells you what to say. How to say it.

It tells you what to expect and if you don’t get it, what to do next.

Another thing it teaches (oh how I wish I had this part of the program when I was teaching the other kids how to write) is correct pencil grip. There is pencil check in every lesson.

Even tho I have some teens, I feel they still don’t follow thru with proper pencil grip so I think I’m going to implement this pencil check procedure with them too.

Anyway….back to the lessons.

One thing I’ve learned with teaching Max with this program and with the other program I’ve used for years is that Max is a whole word learner (Tawny was the same way).

Using phonics to teach reading to either of these two doesn’t work. I have to teach them to read the whole word and “sounding out” comes later whereas other kids learn letter by letter.

Good thing I learned this with Tawny or I’d be very frustrated with Max.

It is still a good thing to continue with this phonics and reading program because they do eventually catch on and it is important to know. But I had to recognize that they wouldn’t grasp reading phonetically. They are site word learners.

That’s OKay.

So here’s how the lesson works:

Introduce a couple of pictures.
Learn the letter and sound.
Be sure the lips are formed correctly.
Ear training.
Forming the letters on paper (with pencil check). Lower and upper case.
Then the students are asked to draw a picture of something that begins with that letter.
It gets into letter blending pretty quickly and to dictation.

Check out what I’m talking about. You can click here for samples of Workbook A and Workbook B. Here’s a sample from Classical Phonics too.

One thing I like about Memoria Press and is especially awesome for the beginner homeschool parent is that it offers a full curriculum for each grade level (here’s the K level) up to 6th grade.

That’s a pretty solid start for the elementary grades.

There are other individual courses for the Jr. High and High School kids including Latin, Greek, French, online courses, writing and so much more is offered by Memoria Press. There is Christian Studies as well as Classical Studies.

It is a full curricula site.

I would most definitely recommend Memoria Press for your homeschooling needs.

A couple of years ago I reviewed one of Memoria Press’ Latin programs. See my review here.

Several of my crewmates reviewed First Start Reading. Some got to check out First Form Latin.

Reading really isn’t that hard to teach if you have the right material to do so.

As a side note, what I do recommend when teaching a child to read, find a program you like (and that works with that child’s learning style) and stick with it until they are fairly fluent. Since each program teaches differently, you don’t want to be flip-flopping around in programs. This is one that needs to remain fairly consistent.

Have a blessed rest of your week.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received the First Start Reading set for my Kindergartener for FREE for my review. Thanks Memoria Press. An awesome program.

Gratitude Challenge–Nov 2, 2011

2011-11-02T22:01:00.001-06:00

Once again I’m joining in with Brenda at Garden of Learning for this month’s Gratitude Challenge.

Today I am grateful for orthodontics.

We’ve had a few kids in braces over the past couple of years. I was in braces along with them.

Donald and Tiffany only had to go thru phase one and therefore were only in braces for a few month. Jaime and I wore braces for a couple of years.

My braces came off in May. What a good feeling that was/is.

Jaime’s braces came off today after 2 years 6 months (this picture is the day she got them). Her gums are a little swollen but that hasn’t stopped her from continuing to smile.

We had to go to the big city to get the braces off and we planned just a mother / daughter day.

Braces off. Fancy fun lunch. A little shopping.

Due to the length of time it took for them to get her retainers made, and then having to remake one of them…..our time became very limited.

No fancy lunch. Shorter than a little shopping. Then we had to head back home to get Jaime to driver’s ed on time.

Jaime was all OK with that since her braces are off and she’s in driver’s ed LOL

So I am thankful for orthodontics in that they can bring a big pretty smile to my daughter.

What are you grateful for today? Link up at Garden of Learning.

Share your smile today.

Vickie

Gratitude Challenge–November 1, 2011

2011-11-01T22:56:00.001-06:00

Last year I participated in a fun meme. The Gratitude Challenge that Brenda over at Garden of Learning hosts.

Every day during the month of November, those that want to can write a blog post about something/someone they are grateful for and then link up.

I linked up nearly every day last year. What fun it was to remember even the smallest of things to be grateful for.

So for my Day 1….it’ll be like my Day 1 last year……I am grateful for my wonderful husband, Dave.

November 1st is his birthday so a wonderful way to begin this month of gratitudes.

Dave has been an awesome husband of nearly 33 years. A godly man. A fabulous dad and now he’s been promoted to a grand-dad (otherwise known as Papa).

I can’t imagine life without him.

Thank you Lord, for this man of mine.

I love you, Sweetie Heart.

Happy Birthday!

Excellence in Literature

2011-11-01T20:24:00.001-06:00

Since my kids began the Jr. High level of school, I’ve been keeping in mind to do American and British Literature in High School. I wasn’t sure which of the great books would be the best books to implement into my program. There are many differings in opinions at what is considered the greats.

We moved around a lot while I was growing up. In Jr. High I’d gone to 7 different schools and in High School, there were 2 more. I didn’t have any real literature classes until I was in High School.

In Jr. High I remember reading Romeo and Juliet and then we went to the movies to see it in action.

I read to Kill A Mockingbird and we got extra credit for staying up late to watch the movie on TV on a late late show.

In High School I remember the Grapes of Wrath and bits of Hamlet (or was it McBeth?)

My dilemma was in the fact that I moved around so much I never really did get to finish some of those great readings and others that I knew that were on the list. I’d either didn’t get to it before moving, or the new school had already read it.

I don’t remember writing any fancy papers. I do remember lots of class discussions, sometimes a vocab test, and then an overall test at the end of the book. Sometimes there were pop quizzes to see if we’d read the assignments.

So, as you can see, I wasn’t sure how or what to implement for my high school students. I just knew I wanted them to read and enjoy some of the great classics.

Well, with enough prayer and persistence God has shown me what to use.

He’s awesome that way ya know!

As part of the TOS review crew, we were given an awesome literature program.

Excellence in Literature

Now, I have to admit…..I don’t remember doing anything at all like what this program teaches. So it is one of those programs I get to learn right along with the kids.

They say you should never stop learning and you are never too old to learn or never too old to teach old dogs new tricks….well…..

I’m putting all those sayings to the test.

I like it like that!

OK….about Excellence in Literature.

There are several levels to the program and we received Introduction to Literature. I’m very thankful that we are beginning with this level.

“Introduction to Literature is a college preparatory literature and composition course.

Focus works, including novels, short stories, poems, and drama, have been selected for literary quality, and for their place in the historical development of literature. Context readings provide background information about the author, the historical period, and the literary and artistic context of the focus work.

Students will gain an understanding of the development of literature and will practice the skills of close literary analysis through essays, approach papers, and other evaluative writing.”

By the end of the course, students will:

Understand the process of writing, including the use of tools such as a writer’s handbook, dictionary, and thesaurus.
Have specific understanding of selected representative texts by major authors of the periods studied.
Have a general understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of the works.
Be able to analyze literary texts and present thoughtfully developed ideas in writing.
Demonstrate competence in essay organization, style, and mechanics.

Now the Excellence in Literature series is meant for being self-directed with week-by-week lesson plans.

I have not let my students be self-directed. I’m going along with them. Why? Because I can Also, if I don’t I can’t help them. I’d be lost. BUT, I am enjoying it too.

There is an honors track that has additional readings and writings which encourages preparation for AP and CLEP exams. Students who complete the 5-year program have the potential of earning 24-30 college credits through testing.

Andrew Pudewa from Excellence in Writing (see my review here) is the co-publisher of the American and British Literature levels. Here is a video he put together to explain it.

You can get the whole 5-year program (grades 8-12) as a set for $139+shipping or purchase each book each year as needed. ($29.95 + $4.95s/h). Both are available as an e-book for a little bit less.

The 5-year program consists of:

Introduction to Literature
Literature & Composition
American Literature
British Literature
World Literature

Jaime is already a sophomore this year so I’d better get moving. Good thing she loves to read.

Ashley struggles with comprehension, I am so praying this will help her a lot better in that area. Once that’s accomplished she’ll be really taking off in school.

I’m excited about this program. I wish I had found it a couple of years ago, but God always knows what we need when we need it so I’ll take the blessings as they come.

I will continue using Excellence in Literature: Introductory to Literature. I plan to purchase the entire 5-year program in paper format (we received the ebook for our review). It’ll come in a binder with divider tabs. I’ll be able to mix and match as I need to.

This Introductory to Literature is suppose to be for the 8th/9th grade student. I am using it for a 10th, 9th, and an 8th grader and of course, myself.

Learning this myself will give me a head start on my younger kids though. I read stories differently to them now. We talk about it differently too. So….yeah, it’s all good.

Want to check it out for yourself? Here’s a FREE sample lesson.

Although I didn’t know what I was looking for when I was looking for a literature program, I believe I found (or it found me) perfect program for us.

It is intense, but I think that will be good for me and the kids. Pushes us a bit over our comfort zone but prepares them for what will probably be coming for college.

The website, Everyday Education has more than just this literature course, there is also spelling, grammar, and a book for writing transcripts (I’d better get that one too!).

When we can read and analyze literature, we should be pretty well set to be able to learn anything.

Read the experiences of other crewmates.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I was given the ebook version of Excellence in Literature: Introductory to Literature for FREE by Everyday Education for my honest review on this blog. Honestly, I love this program. Thank you Everyday Education.

George W. Carver (TOS review)

2011-10-31T08:42:00.001-06:00

We like history around here. Whether we are reading about it, watching a movie portraying certain time periods, or a documentary, learning about history is fun.

Although we prefer the full movie format on history, documentaries can be filled with other insightful information that wouldn’t be portrayed in a movie remake.

When we received the George Washington Carver: His Life and His Work DVD to review, I have to be honest, I was expecting a movie. It was a 29 minute documentary.

A little disappointed at the beginning but we were soon intrigued with the info.

When thinking of George Washington Carver (did you know he added Washington as his middle name later in life?) we tend to think about “peanuts”. He is attributed to promoting the growth of peanuts and the 300 uses and by-products using peanuts. He became known as “The Peanut Man” (and here I thought that title belonged to President Jimmy Carter lol).

Carver had many many more accomplishments way before the peanut came into his life.

Art, flowers, rocks, gardening, college (several different ones), becoming a professor at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He taught students more than agriculture studies, but taught them strong moral and character building influences.

You can find more information about George Washington Carver on the Marshall Publishing website. Included are some study questions about him as well.

Marshall Publishing has many documentary style DVDs:

Lincoln at Gettysburg
The Historic Expedition of Lewis and Clark
Complete History of America’s Railroad
History of the Mississippi River
and many more for $19.95 each.

There is even one called “No More Diapers – Potty Training DVD”. LOL Not one I expected to see but hey, as parents, we’ve all had to go thru that a time or two or three or….. Wouldn’t this make a unique gift for a baby shower?

Marshall Publishing has:

Comedy DVDs
Animal DVDs
Fire Trucks DVDs (some crewmates reviewed this one too).
Jets and Planes DVDs
Monster Trucks
Motorsports
Rockets and Space
and many many more.

I know I keep harping that Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat (or is it the wallet is getting thin?) but this is as much for myself as for my readers Anyway, these DVDs would make great gifts for kids, grandkids, big kids, little kids (there’s an ABC Train DVD) even moms in the potty training season of life.

As always, we aren’t the only ones to get to review the George Washington Carver: His Life and His Work DVD. Check out what some of my crewmates had to say. Other crewmates got to review the Fire Trucks DVD. Check that one out too.

“it is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.” ~George Washington Carver~

Have a blessed rest of your week.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received a copy of George Washington Carver from Mashall Publishing for FREE for my honest review.

No Faces Allowed challenge

2011-10-29T10:40:00.001-06:00

I decided that I’d enter the challenge over at My Memories. This week’s title is “No Faces Allowed”.

Immediately this photo came to mind.

I’ve always loved this photo of my daughter, Tawny (left) and granddaughter, Megan.

At ages 8 and 7, the girls looked like they were in deep conversation about who knows what.

Then add in the view beyond them. The mountains at a distant. The clear blue skies. The golden open land in between.

I chose this frame from My Memories. It brought me the peace and yet the elegance I see in this photo.

Come on over to My Memories blog and see what some of the other photos that were entered look like.

After you’ve checked out other photos, head on over and check out the My Memories store here.

Remember Christmas is less than 2 months away. For some, that is only 4 paydays. For others, that is only 2 paydays.

Time to be shopping!!!

If you have someone who loves to scrapbook, give them the gift of digital scrapbooking with My Memories. Here is a discount code for you to use on your software purchase (STMMMS16104). After that purchase, you’ll receive another discount code to use in the store.

Pretty good deal

for the loved ones on your list.

Shhhh……I think I’m going to get this for a couple of special people on my list too. Don’t tell.

Happy scrapping…..

Vickie

Say Anything game (TOS review)

2011-10-27T19:46:00.001-06:00

This is the second game from Northstar Games that we’ve been able to review this year.

Say Anything is a game for the whole family. Geared towards the ages 8 to adult and 3-6 players, we were able to include even the 7 and 5 year olds.

To play Say Anything, everyone (whether as an individual or a team), chooses a color. They receive the answer card and tokens of their chosen color.

It begins with the youngest player (the first judge) asking a question from the stack of cards. The “judge” does not play this round.

Each player writes their answer on their marker boards and places them down face up. The judge has a dial like thing that they can turn the arrow to the color of the player that he/she likes the answer the best.

Then each player places their tokens on the answer/s that they feel the judge has chosen.

Then the points are tallied on the score board (one person is chosen to be the score keeper). After the 3rd round determines the winner.

We most often played in teams because the little ones didn’t want to be left out. On several occasions, I’d be the score keeper along with the question reader. Only the judge dial would be passed around. Plus I’d help Max (5) write his answers.

There were lots of questions where the kids were rolling on the floor with giggles and could hardly get their answers written. Other times it would be the giggles because of some of the answers given.

This is one of the kids’ favorite games right now. They ask quite often if they can play it.

Some questions can be pretty thought provoking: What’s the most important quality in a parent?

Others are just plain hilarious: What does an ostrich think about when its head is in the sand?

Christmas is coming in less than 2 months!! Yes, already!

If you have a family you’d like to buy a fun gift for; a youth group that enjoys games (my kids keep saying this would be a hilarious game to take for youth group game night); birthdays; or just because, you just can’t go wrong with a game.

To get Say Anything game, click here and type in your zip code. It’ll tell you the nearest location to purchase a game.

We also reviewed another Northstar Game. See my review here.

You know what would be really really really fun!?! To combine both of these sets of game cards and make it one big game!

Yep….we are most definitely going to give that a try.

Don’t just take my word for the fun and laughs we had….other crewmates had the same fun!

Say Anything by Northstar Games. Games with personality!

So, what does a baby bird think when it first breaks out of its shell?

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, we received Say Anything from Northstar Games for FREE for our review.

Wits and Wagers Family Game (TOS review)

2011-10-26T08:47:00.001-06:00

If you like board games, Northstar Games has a couple you’d really enjoy as a family, youth group setting, sleep overs, birthday parties, or even New Year’s Eve game night like we have around here.

We were given the opportunity to review the Wits and Wagers Family version. The kids really enjoyed this one.

Here’s an excerpt from the website:

“Wits & Wagers Family simplifies the rules and scoring system of the popular Wits & Wagers. Now families and kids can get into the Wits & Wagers action! First, every player writes down a guess to a fun question. Then players try to score points by choosing which guess is closest to the right answer without going over. That is it!

The game features 300 new family-friendly questions. And even better than that, Wits & Wagers Family includes Meeples-- fun, cute, human shaped wooden pieces that the players use to select which answers they think are correct. Meeples have been a hallmark in European style strategy games for years, but this is the first time they have made an appearance in a party game.”

The group can play individually or team up. There are up to six playing boards.

What is fun about this game is although it is partly educational, the only thinking to it is a number. So even the younger ones that can write a number can play and learn something at the same time.

We had down to Max (5) playing. He had a blast! What was the most fun to watch was 8-year-old Tawny.

Since all the answers are numbers, I’d watch Tawny write a 5 digit answer. Then I’d watch her shake her head, erase it and write a new answer. Confidently she’d lay down her board. It got to where even the teens started betting on Tawny’s answer because she’d be closest 7 out of 10 times. Even on questions such as, “How many different Webkinz stuffed animals have there been?” Although Tawny wrote 300 and the answer is 201 and she went over so therefore didn’t win BUT she was the closest. Others said as low as 20, others as high as 1000.

I was able to watch her little mind really think and analyze her answer.

A lot of the questions were more like this Webkinz trivia question, but a lot of them were informational/educational questions. Which is awesome!

The kids ask often to play this game.

If you are looking for something different, easy enough for the youngest players, but challenging enough for the oldest of the players, you’d enjoy Northstar’s Wits and Wagers game.

We are reviewing another Northstar game and the family has enjoyed that one as well (look for review this Friday).

Christmas is coming up….why not give an educational learning board game. Built very sturdy. Comes in a good strong box.

To purchase a game, click here. It’ll take you to a map, type in your zip code and find a store nearest you to get your game. If they have an online service, you could probably order it.

We aren’t the only family to get a bunch of laughs out of this game. Check out what my crew families had to say too.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received a Wits and Wagers Family game from Northstar for FREE for this review.

Educating the WholeHearted Child (TOS review)

2011-10-23T22:57:00.001-06:00

Since before I began having kids, I would read books on raising kids. Milestones. Mothering. Adopting. Raising large families. What to expect series.

After having kids I still read mothering books. Raising girls. Raising boys. Adopting.

After I adopted a few kids I read books on adoption. Nurturing. Homeschooling. What kids should be doing at each grade type books.

I have found another book to add to my ever growing collection (I have a hard time ever getting rid of any books lol).

Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. This 376 page book has been a great read. I haven’t had time to read the entire book but I intend to finish it.

I’m forever looking for my yellow highlighter since I received this book from Apologia to review. It is in my book. I’ve been highlighting all kinds of great info.

Where to start. OK…this book is basically about educating our kids but it really reaches their hearts which is where it all should begin.

Educating the WholeHearted Child is a great book for the beginning homeschooler but also fabulous for the Veteran homeschooler. We can never be too educated ourselves. Always striving to attain the best for our kids. There are things where I find myself nodding my head in agreement. A couple of things I did think to myself, “been there, tried that…didn’t work”. But then there were the ah-ha moments and I’m thinking….whoa, where was this book when I first began homeschooling?!

There are 18 chapters divided into 4 different sections.

Section 1: Home
Section 2: Learning
Section 3: Methods
Section 4: Living

One of the first things I highlighted said: “Christian activities and interests do not make a home Christian”. I wasn’t sure whether to take offense or what.

And then: “A Christian home is one in which the parents purposefully keep Jesus Christ at the center of every area of family life”. Ah-ha…this is the point.

The book lists Ten Good Biblical Reasons for Homeschooling. Each reason has suggestive scripture readings. When people ask why we homeschool…one of the first things I say is “God told me too”. Now I have scripture to back that response and if I really work at it, I can memorize a few of them. One of my goals.

We are always told to be sure it is God’s Will for our family to homeschool or to do anything right? It is the absolute truth.

God’s Will is not something hidden

that needs to be found;

it is something revealed

that waits to be done.

I just love that saying! I have since shared that with others.

I could go thru this whole book with fabulous quotes, verses, insight, ah-ha moments, and learning moments for myself. But what I glean from this book may not be what you need to learn.

When it comes to books like Educating the WholeHearted Child, God seems to show each of us what it is He wants us to take away from it. It isn’t the same for everyone.

I can’t do this book justice in this post. I’ve read quite a bit of it but it has to be experienced for one’s self. It just has too.

You can purchase your own copy, put it on your Christmas wish list, or however you wish to get it but I believe this book needs to be on the shelves of every homeschool library (after it has been read and totally marked up, of course lol)

You can purchase it for $22 at the Apologia website. It is a big book. Not a quick read but so full of great information.

I keep thinking, where was this book when I first began homeschooling?

I bet you’ll be thinking the same thing when you read it.

Some of my crewmates got to enjoy this big book as well. Read how they experienced it here. You’ll see how God spoke to each of us thru this book.

Remember, Educating the WholeHearted Child for $22 from Apologia.

Happy reading (don’t forget your highlighter!)

God’s Blessings,

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received a copy of Educating the WholeHearted Child from Apologia for my review for FREE.

I’ve been nominated!!!

2011-10-22T21:47:00.001-06:00

Nominated for what you ask….

I’m a MISFIT!

I always knew I am different and now, I’ve been nominated to prove it.

NotSoSuperwoman is having her 2nd annual Homeschool Misfit Awards and I’ve been nominated for The Wannabe Award (it’s the first category in the list of 10 categories).

What’s a Wannabe…let me explain.

A Wannabe Award “is for the homeschool parent who wants to be this or that (Classical, Structured, Relaxed, Unschooler, Free Spirit, Sane) but frequently falls short and is not afraid to admit it”.

Yep, that pretty much sums me up.

This is the first time I’ve ever been nominated (thank you to whomever nominated me).

I’d appreciate all the votes I can get. The competition is stiff though. Very stiff.

So, if you are inclined and want to vote for me go to NotSoSuperwoman’s blog here. If you aren’t so inclined to vote for me….well….OK you can go vote for whomever you want.

You can vote in each category but only once. Check out each of the blogs listed in each category. You may see old friends as well as meet some new ones.

Voting is open until Thursday, November 3rd. So you have a little bit of time, but not much.

This year… there are prizes and some mighty good ones too. You can see the list of prizes below the award categories.

Thanks for voting.

Have a blessed Sunday,

Vickie

Exciting news to share….

2011-10-21T23:06:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we had our final interview to update our home study so we can adopt!!

I am so-o-o-o excited! Woohoo!

Our caseworker has to finalize her report and get it all approved and we are off.

She predicts we’ll be snatched up within a month, three months tops. She said our family is what a lot of agencies are looking for for their kids.

She is going to approve us for six more kids! How exciting is that?!

When we got home last night and told the kids she was going to approve us for six more, there was some pretty big grins, squeals of delight, and jumping around and that was just me LOL Just kidding..the kids were too.

I’ve always said I want 12-15 kids. If When we get our 6 more kids, we’ll have 12 at home and 15 total. Perfect!

The older 4 kids want to remain the 4 oldest. I’m OK with that.

Our agency is so impressed with us that she’s asked us to be mentors at their adoption support group. She said that we’ve been at this longer and adopted more kids than she has.

Pretty high compliment that turned me all shades of red.

In other news….We are building a new pantry. Just in time huh? LOL

We have a good sized walk-in pantry but we are moving it to another location so we can knock out the wall between the dining room and existing pantry. That will add about 6.5 feet to our dining room. Just in time again!

Also, Jaime is officially in Driver’s Ed! When did she grow up to be able to do that? I just about couldn’t hold it together to see her walk off and into that classroom. She talked non-stop for a good 3 hours after class.

Jaime gets her braces off November 2.

Her annual eye exam says her eyes are perfect.

I had to ask her if she was feeling extra blessed this week

What else? Oh….

Donald is officially taller than me. It is on the wall! Now when did he get permission to grow up too? He was sooo little for so long…I didn’t see this coming.

<sigh> Do they have to grow up? Well, good thing we are going to continue filling up the house. I feel I have another generation in me before I need to think about retiring anyway

Ya’ll have a blessed weekend. I’m off to get some good shut eye so we can make more progress on the pantry. We’ve got new kids coming, we’ll need the dining room space.

Vickie

E-mealz (TOS review)

2011-10-20T21:56:00.001-06:00

One thing I hear the most complaint about from wives and mothers….planning meals. They don’t have the time. They don’t know how. They only have their usual meals. They overspend at the store and still don’t have anything for dinner.

Or how about “Mom, what’s for dinner?”

“Honey, when will dinner be ready?”

There are always new recipes out there I’d like to try. I see them online and print them. I see them in magazines and purchase the magazine just for the recipes and never use it. I’ve subscribed to recipe magazines like Taste of Home and rarely use it.

I’ve discovered something new and different to try and guess what? I’ve actually used it LOTS and LOTS.

What is this you say? Let me share with you.

First I need to correct something….”I” didn’t discover it. It discovered me via the TOS review crew. We were one of many families chosen to review this product. What an absolute Godsend!!

E-mealz is an online “mental maid”. Every week a new set of a week’s worth of recipes are available in my account.

Fabulous!!

It works like this:

I) Purchase a “plan”. The plans are broken down like this:

1) Regular Family Meals (feeds 4-6 for 7 meals)

a) Kroger

b) Publix

c) Wal-Mart

d) Any-Store

e) Aldi

f) Ralphs (CA)

2) Regular Meals for two (serves 1-2 for 5 meals)

3) Specialty Family Meals (feeds 4-6 for 7 meals)

a) You can choose between Gluten Free

b) Low-Carb

c) Low Fat

d) Portion Control

e) Vegetarian

4) Specialty meal plans for two (feeds 1-2 for 5 meals)

II) Pay your $15 for 3-months using your credit, debit, or PayPal account. This is only $1.25/week. It is an automatic renewal every 3-months unless you cancel in advance.

III) Your specific meal plan option has a particular assigned day for the new menu of the week. Only the previous week and current week are available at any given time.

Each week print off your menu plan AND…get this….your shopping list!!!

How cool is THAT!?!

Your shopping list is broken down by sections in the store. Makes things easier to find.

Dairy
Meat
Canned goods
Bottled goods
Produce

At the bottom of the shopping list is what you should have on hand as a pantry staple. If not, do like I do and circle or use a highlighter to remind me to get that particular item as well.

There are plenty of blank lines to add in anything else you may need.

IV) Go shopping!!!

Easy peasey huh?

Oh…something I forgot to mention.

If you select a plan from a particular store, the menu plan is based around sales from that store for that week. The research has been done for you.

What we did:

I chose the Family Plan Any Store option. The only place we have to shop here is Wal-Mart and Albertsons. Our Wal-Mart is one of the most expensive in our area so I was sure those prices really wouldn’t be affective anyway. Albertsons is just too expensive.

You are only allowed to change plans ONCE during your 3-months, so I wanted to do the Any Store option.

I took my list and went shopping. I did take the previous week and current week’s list with me that first time. Since each recipe/menu for the Family Plan only feeds 4-6, I doubled everything since there are 8 of us and 4 are teens. We did end up with leftovers and the kids enjoyed those on leftover lunch day.

There were a couple of recipes that didn’t look appealing so I substituted one of our favorites for this meal but we’ve done 5-6 of the meals each week. I felt some of the recipes were more appropriate for lunch vs dinner, so that’s when we prepared them.

I decided to do a little experiment. I’ve assigned meal preparation days for two of the kids (all 3 meals on their day). Two others are assigned lunch time.

Anyway….the two that had to prepare dinner would come up and say, “Mom, where’s your E-mealz clipboard?” Then they scan the menu and choose which one they were preparing that week. It was up to them to be sure we had all things on hand to do so. If not, it went on the shopping list. If we had it, they crossed that item off.

Then I’d leave them to do it. I wanted to see how well they could follow the recipes that E-mealz provided with the menu.

I didn’t take a picture of every meal they made, but I did take a couple.

Don’t you just love those proud smiling faces? lol

I am counting this as part of their home-ec cooking course. I grade their dish/meal. How well they followed instructions, how many questions they asked, and of course the taste.

They did very well I might add.

Other ways this E-mealz program would work:

E-mealz has gift certificates. Think college students.
Retirees
Single people
Newly married
Empty nesters
A mom that has been sick, laid up with morning sickness, or other illness.
Busy busy homeschoolers who don’t have time to grocery shop let alone plan a healthy menu for their family. Now, they can print and shop easy enough.

If they have volunteers that shop for them. Print the list and hand it over to them for shopping. The mom will know exactly what each item is purchased for.

Nice huh?!

I can’t say enough good things about E-mealz and I can’t think of any bad things about it at all.

The menus are great.
The recipes are easy enough.
The shopping list is awesome.
The price is affordable.

Cheaper than a magazine subscription where the magazines just pile up and clutter up spaces.

A quick rundown:

Go to the E-mealz website and see sample menus for each of the plan options available.

$15 for 3-months.

Printable.

Not a homeschool product for classroom time per se but a great tool for teaching cooking, shopping, and budgeting (if you choose a store option). AND it brings peace of mind for family meal planning in our busy busy life.

Like I said previously, we aren’t the only ones to be able to review E-mealz. Check out how my other crewmates used this program in their home.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received a 3-month subscription for E-mealz FREE for my review on this blog.

The Mighty Macs (the movie)

2011-10-19T22:53:00.001-06:00

Anything can happen when we are

committed to our dreams!

We got the privilege of getting a preview screening of an upcoming movie not yet released in theaters (due to be released in theaters everywhere this Friday, October 21, 2011).

The Mighty Macs

I’m sure you’ve seen advertisements for the movie on TV already but here is what the movie is about:

“It's 1971. Cathy Rush is a woman ahead of her time ... and she's about to embark on an adventure for the ages. A new era is dawning in the country and in collegiate athletics, where a national champion will be crowned for the first time in women's basketball.

In the lead up to this historical season, major universities are preparing their game plans to win that first title. Meanwhile a tiny all-women's Catholic college in Philadelphia has a more modest goal: find a coach before the season begins. Providentially, Cathy Rush is about to find Immaculata College.

Recently married, Cathy is dealing with the aftermath of a truncated playing career. While cultural norms would have her staying at home, she's willing to do the hard work necessary to help her new team reach their goals—or perhaps she's just trying to achieve her unfulfilled dreams through them.

From the beginning, her challenges are as imposing as the big-school teams Immaculata will face on the court. Cathy learns there is no gymnasium on campus, she receives little support from the school's Mother Superior, and the school is in dire financial straits. To top it off, she may not even have enough players to field a team!

While it appears the Macs don't have a prayer, all hope is not lost. With the help of Sister Sunday—a spunky assistant coach—and the support of a booster club of elderly nuns, Coach Rush creates a new game plan that just might bring the team—and the school—together.

Will this pioneer buck cultural norms and spur her rag-tag team to unexpected heights? Or will her hard-driving ways create a wedge between the coach and everyone around her? One thing's for certain: there's never been anyone like Cathy Rush at Immaculata!”

As a family, we really enjoyed this movie. There were some laughs, a couple of tears, but a lot of joy.

This movie is one of those inspirational movies that reminds us “where there is a will there is a way”.

I am one of those people that if someone were to tell me it can’t be done….I take on an attitude of “watch me”. Especially when it comes to my “team” (family).

This is how the coach is in the movie. I could so relate.

This movie is a true story which makes it even more inspirational. We like true stories around here

I encourage everyone that can, to go watch The Mighty Macs. It’ll be released in theaters everywhere this weekend, October 21, 2011. Take the family and hit the matinee. Great family movie that kept all my kids entertained (even the 8 year old and the 15 year old son).

You can watch this video clip.

The Mighty Macs

Here’s the website.

Find them on Facebook.

If you Twitter, there is a link for that too.

Gather your family, get some popcorn, and enjoy a really great family day out at the movies.

Follow your dreams -

It is your gift to the world.

Vickie

Disclaimer: I received a link to preview this movie online from Propeller for FREE for my honest review of The Mighty Macs.

Always Ice-Cream (TOS review)

2011-10-17T22:56:00.001-06:00

The title sounds tasty don’t you think? lol We always like ice-cream around here. Especially if it is Chocolate Peanut-Butter. Yummy!

Anyway…Always IceCream really has nothing to do with eating ice-cream. Although your daughter can earn $coops.

Always IceCream is an online educational site. Your daughters ages 7-12 can go online (very securely) and work on her Bible, math, reading, typing, social studies, history, recognition of presidents, or dogs. Art and music.

There are many other educational things she can do. As she is ~~playing~~ learning, she earns “$coops” of ice-cream.

On the program, your daughter can have pets. Hatch eggs. Raise however many animals she can “afford” with her scoops.

She can take them for walks, purchase toys, food, clothing. She can purchase other pets and have more than one at a time. She can get her pets at PetWorld.

Your girls can also decorate homes in MiniWorld. Purchases made with her scoops.

Some fun rewards for doing her schoolwork. You could also award her some scoops for getting all her chores done. Getting to a certain level. All added benefits.

Another benefit is Always IceCream teaches your daughter basic internet skills in a safe and protected environment.

The girls can have an online community where they can meet new friends and chat. You can select whether she has an open line to anyone or to a select few (maybe have her local friends enroll too….her friends can get one month free). They, and you, can try out some free games here.

There are also short video clips for the girls to watch (there is audio so you may or may not watch headphones). A few of the videos are “how to draw” lessons. A few are hip-hop dance moves (we aren’t really into these but some may be). Most all the videos teach something.

Our take on this program:

I signed up Nicole. She has some delays and is more along the lines of 6th grade, so the upper end of the recommended age.

Nicole LOVED this program. Nicole isn’t easily excitable and to see her just light up when her time limit is up and get all chatty about what she’s learning is exciting for me. Nicole isn’t typically all bubbly. She asks everyday to play Always IceCream. Actually she calls it IceCream Math but that’s OK. LOL

I’ve also allowed the little girls (ages 7 and 8) play time on the site. They love it just as much. Some of the things they needed help reading.

Actually, one of the first times we played on the program….I was showing the 7 and 8 year olds how to get around in the program. Over my shoulder was the 16 and 15 year old girls. They had a blast with it as well!!!

We did the Dog Breeds game as well as Cooking School, U.S. Presidents, a Bible Quiz. The big girls had a blast.

We had a few laughs. The girls were disappointed when I told them I had to go prepare dinner. hehe

I just checked on the site for some info…Nicole’s egg hatched. She had a unicorn I got to name her. Since she’s all sparkly I named her Glitter. Her last egg hatched a rabbit. Anyway….

Not only does Nicole have an account, I have a parental account. I can login at any time and check what she’s been working on. What level she is on. What ribbons (gold, bronze) she’s won. Her pets. I’ll receive email updates on her progress as well.

Now I bet you are wondering all the details huh? I think this would be an awesome Christmas gift idea you can suggest to grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Godparents, whomever needs a gift idea for your daughter. Something they can use all year long.

It is suggested that each daughter have her own account because of the awards, ribbons, pets, levels one daughter will get to.

OK, here’s the scoop….yes, pun intended LOL

Recommended for girls 7-12. As you read, even my teen girls had a blast with some of the games.

A monthly subscription is only $4.99 but the first month is $.99.

Two months is $9.98.

Annual membership is $29.99 and a lifetime membership is only $99.99. Great for those girls under 10 as they’ll have years of education right at their fingertips. They (and you) will benefit from all future improvements as well.

Cool huh!

Your girls can earn free months too. Recommend a friend, and when the friend signs up and asks who sent her…once your daughter’s name goes in the line, she’ll receive a free month’s membership. I have a feeling your daughter will recommend it to lots of her friends.

My girls aren’t the only ones to get all excited to play Always IceCream. Some other daughters from my crewmates did as well. Check out their excitement here.

I think I’ll go see if I have any real ice-cream in the freezer now. Talking about ice-cream thru this whole review has made my stomach growl LOL

Vickie

Disclaimer: As an independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received a lifetime membership to Always IceCream for my review of this site. I recommend it to girls everywhere.

Visual Latin (TOS review)

2011-10-15T00:36:00.001-06:00

I remember my dad talking about taking Latin while he was in school. He said it was a standard class for everyone. I have always admired my dad’s way of speaking and his handwriting is just awesome. Dave’s dad is the same. I can’t ask him about having taken Latin in school now since he lives with Jesus but penmanship was highly important in both our dads. Both were asked to be personal secretaries right out of high school. They both turned it down LOL

I guess this is about Latin not handwriting LOL BUT, I do believe that Latin had a lot to do with their writing and their eloquence in speech.

I never thought of teaching Latin to my kids. I see a lot of homeschool families teaching it though, and teaching it from a young age.

I found the thought of teaching Latin pretty intimidating. I had no idea the pronunciations nor the accent. I’d be afraid of making the kids, or myself, look like fools. Spanish would be easy because I’ve had Spanish in school myself.

Then along came this review for Visual Latin. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I have to say that I’m quite pleased with it and surprised at the ease of teaching it to the kids. Actually, I don’t have to do much teaching, just reinforcing and practicing.

Let me tell you what we got.

Visual Latin is a Latin program on DVD (or you can get the download lessons in iTunes M4V format). Dwayne Thomas is the “teacher”. He has been teaching Latin for more than 15 years. His wife homeschools their five kids. On the DVD he addresses the kids directly. His sense of humor is a riot. He laughs at his own jokes. Admits it when he makes a mistake. Shows up “late” when the camera begins recording without him in the scene. He’s funny and if he can keep an active 10-year-old boy busy and entertained, well he has my attention too.

Here’s how the lessons kind of go. There are three sections to each lesson and each section lasts less than 15 minutes. Short classes.

First comes the grammar. Dwayne teaches a couple grammatical concepts and uses lots of examples.

The way he teaches grammar makes sense, even to me. I really enjoyed the way he teaches it. Not only verbally but visually too.

Second is the practice in sentences. He uses the grammatical concepts from the first section in step by step process in sentence structure. He expects to “hear” the kids answer him too.

The third section brings on the reading. Dwayne reads a portion of scripture in Latin (you can see him doing that in the smaller frame above). He wants the kids to listen. Then he rereads it sentence by sentence, slow and easy so the kids can repeat it. Everything he says is subtitled at the bottom of the screen. So not only are we hearing him saying the words, we get to see it in print as well.

The final thing, putting it all into action with printouts for the kids to do. Actually, after each section he says to stop the class and do that particular worksheet (one for each section). These are just a recap of what was just taught.

So, when you look at the whole scope of the class you have the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learner covered. Something for everyone. What more can a teacher/mom look for in teaching a subject. Oh yeah….humor. There is plenty of that.

The kids find it quite fun to know there are lots and lots of words that we speak daily that are still in their Latin form.

Latin is one of those basic languages that most all other languages are derived from. Dwayne even points this out. For example, one sentence the kids got a total kick out of “Zebra est animal.” Yes, that is the whole Latin translation of it!!! The 5-year-old thinks he’s a genius and can speak Latin LOL. Or how about, “Alex est doctor”? Oh yeah, we are on a roll!

Did you know that snuffleupagus (I had to google the spelling lol) is a masculine word? Yes, Dwayne absolutely did use this word as an example for identifying masculine, feminine, or neuter words. All the kids cracked up on this one.

Beginning with lesson 4, Dwayne goes into immersion style and speaks only in Latin.

You can check out a whole lesson here.

There is Latin 1 and Latin 2 both with 30 lessons each. The classes are geared towards kids/adults that are 9-years-old and older (basically need to know how to read). We did have the 8, 7, and 5-year-olds in class too. Instead of having them do the worksheets, I read it to them (they read over my shoulder). Then they’d help me translate or tell me the answers. Worked out well. I think the younger crowd can do this program right along with their older siblings.

By itself, Latin 1 classes is good for 1/2 of a high school credit, or one semester. Depending on how your credit system goes.

It is recommended that Latin 1 be supplemented with Lingua Latina Pars 1. Use Visual Latin 1 the first semester, then go to Lingua Latina for second semester. You’d do the same thing with Visual Latin 2. By the end of the lessons, our kids should know Latin exceptionally well.

So, you can get your own DVD version or download version. The download version will work on both the PC and Mac as well as any iPod, iPhone, or iPad. Pretty cool huh?

There are many different ways to purchase the classes so instead of listing them all here, I’ll direct you to Visual Latin’s website store. There are 6 intro lessons you can get for Free too.

Even tho we are doing this as a whole class, this program is simple enough to do that a middle schooler and up can do this on their own. If they can run a DVD on the computer, they are good to go.

We plan to continue with Visual Latin for awhile. I can see this being a big asset before beginning our Spanish class. A Visual Spanish class would be pretty cool. Especially if Dwayne were the instructor. His teaching style, sense of humor are really really good.

We aren’t the only ones on the TOS crew to review Visual Latin. See what others had to say here.

Deus est bonus.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As part of the TOS homeschool crew, I received the first DVD with lessons 1-10 for Free for my review of Visual Latin.

Goal Planning Monday Oct 10-14, 2011

2011-10-11T10:21:00.001-06:00

(I know….it is Tuesday already!!!) I thought I had a pretty productive week last week until I went to check off my goals and realized I didn’t get them done. Sheesh!!!

I’m linking up with Mama Manuscript on her Goal Planning Monday meme.

1) I did get caught up on correcting the kids’ school work. I see another stack sitting there as I type. A never ending battle. There has to be a better way.

2) I did fairly well staying on the group work all week.

3) I got one of the main reviews for TOS completed. Now several more to write this week. Propeller too. 5 total I think.

4) I have the coats out….does that count?

5) I got about half the peaches done. Really really need to finish the rest of them…..today preferably.

6) I did get our next interview for our adoption homestudy scheduled….it is this afternoon!! Woohoo!!!! (I just got a phone call before finishing this post and our caseworker is sick today so we’ve had to reschedule. The Lord has a plan I’m sure.)

7) I barely got Jaime’s driver’s ed paperwork in by the deadline. Now it is hurry up and wait to see if she has been accepted this class or if she’ll wait til Spring.

8) Didn’t get the name drawing done. Gotta get it done so people have time. Christmas is 10 1/2 weeks away already!

9) Nope…didn’t even look at the can of paint for the hall.

10) We did finish getting the back room cleaned up for the new pantry. We even got the materials purchased and are ready to begin. I’m excited.

11) Nope….didn’t even look at that Christmas project due date either.

12) I did do pretty good about not raising my voice at anyone all week. That’s a huge accomplishment. But then again, I think the Lord helped me on that one….the kids were pretty good all week and there wasn’t any real need

13) Yes, did get Max’s 5-year-old picture done. Now to get the larger size ordered.

14) Nope…didn’t get the seasonal clothes switched out. Just seems like such a chore and takes all.day.long. with 6 kids. I dread doing that twice a year but there isn’t room in their dresser to keep them all in there. Better put on a cheerful heart about this project. If we get either of the sib groups I want, that’ll be 12 kids’ clothes to go thru.

15) I read Educating the Wholehearted Child everyday last week. The chapters are longer than I thought. But 30 minutes quiet reading time each day did get me further along. Making progress.

New goals for this week. Most are just continuations from last week.

1) Gotta get these coats gone thru. I’m tired of them on my family room floor.

2) HAVE to finish freezing that bucket of peaches before they go bad.

3) Drawing the names for Christmas needs to get done. Like I said, 10 1/2 weeks til Christmas. If anyone wants to make projects, that doesn’t leave much time really.

4) We’ll need to get the seasonal clothes switched out. We had to light the pellet stove this past week. The kids don’t have much for long sleeves yet.

5) Continue working diligently with review products and get the reviews done. I’m not good about starting the posts in advance. It is all at once and can take an hour or longer each.

6) Whatever we need to do after the interview today….get that done. I’m thinking there isn’t much else except the interview with the kids. (When I talked to our caseworker a little bit ago…she said this was the last interview and then final paperwork and recommendation.)

I have a lot of reviews due this week so I’m not going to over schedule my time and be panicking about those. So I’ll stop there.

If you need encouragement, accountability, or would just like to hook up on a meme for something to blog about, then head on over to Mama Manuscripts and link up to Goal Planning Monday (or Tuesday lol).

Have a blessed week and praying you get all your goals accomplished this week.

~Vickie~

Scruble Cube (TOS Review)

2011-10-05T23:09:00.001-06:00

Do you watch Jay Leno? He has some pretty fun antics before his guests come out. He has things like Jay-Walking, Headlines, Ask Jay Anything, Impress Jim, Make Betty Blink, and others. One that I find kind of funny is one where he asks, “what would we get if two products came together?” then he’d do several (I wish one would come to my mind).

We got to review this pretty cool game that could have been one of those products…if he’d have thought of it before RSV Productions did that is LoL.

This 3D game is called Scruble Cube. It is a combination of Scrabble and Rubik’s Cube.

This game will provide the opportunity to exercise the brain, using strategy, problem solving, and forward thinking.

This game cube has 96 letter pegs. The players form words on the cube using the letter pegs of different values (like in Scrabble). The letter pegs rotate (like Rubik’s Cube) to allow for pattern recognition. Words can began and end anywhere on the cube and are formed in a single line, even over the edges (using adjacent sides of the cube).

Pretty cool huh?

Scruble Cube is portable (Rubik’s Cube) without a game board and tiles (Scrabble). This game cube can be played by one player or multiple players. Young or old. If the player can spell simple words as CAT, they can play.

Each of the letter pegs on Scruble Cube have a point value. There are other pegs that can add extra points….Letter Score (the letter it touches in the completed word gets the value) and Word Score. Some say 3x or 2x the value. There are two “wild” ones worth no points.

The game ends when the agreed upon point total is reached. Typically 100 points or you can set it for something like 10 turns/rounds. Included in the package is a one-minute hour glass timer.

My kids enjoyed playing with the Scruble Cube. I have a couple that are Rubik’s fans so this was another challenge for them. More pegs too

When a big was playing with a little, they’d set the scoring differently. The big had to get to 100, the little only to 50 knowing they wouldn’t be able to spell the bigger words.

Scruble Cube would make a fun stocking stuffer for that kid (or adult) that likes playing games. I think even the office dude or dudette would enjoy having something like this cube sitting on their desk.

You can pick one up the Scruble Cube website, Barnes & Noble, and Toys R Us. The price is $24.95.

There are several lesson plans available on their website. These are FREE. Can’t beat that!!!

My family isn’t the only family that got to play with a Scruble Cube. Check out what some of my other crewmates had to say.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: I’m an independent contractor for with the TOS Crew. I received a Scruble Cube from RSV Productions FREE for my review on this blog.

Goals for Oct 3-8, 2011

2011-10-03T08:21:00.001-06:00

I decided I’d link up with Katrina over at Mama Manuscripts for her Goal Planning Monday meme. I do have a few things I need to get done, so putting it out there for the world to see may help me accomplish this. Besides, it will be written down ‘somewhere’ lol

This week:

1) Get caught up correcting all the kids school work.

2) Be on top of the group work all week.

3) Write up and post the reviews due this week. For TOS and Propeller.

4) Go thru the winter coats to see who will need a new one this year. Suppose to drop down to the 50’s beginning this week. Winter is around the corner, need to be prepared.

5) Can/freeze 2 1/2 5-gal buckets of peaches.

6) Schedule our next interview for our adoption paperwork.

7) Get Jaime’s paperwork in for Driver’s Ed…..eek!!!

8) Draw names for our family Christmas gift exchange.

9) Really really need to get that hall painted. Have paint. Pictures are down. Gotta get it done.

10) Finish cleaning up that back room to prepare building the new pantry. Almost done.

11) Get the Christmas project done by the due date (need to look that date up again).

12) Don’t raise my voice at anyone all week.

13) Get Max’s 5-year-old pictures done.

14) Since temperatures are dropping quickly, get the seasonal clothes switched.

15) Read one chapter in Educating the Wholehearted Child each day.

I think that’ll be a good start. Check back next Monday to see how I did. Should be do-able.

What are your goals? Head on over to Mama Manuscripts and link up too. Hope to see you there.

Have a blessed and accomplished week this week.

Vickie

What are we doing different this school year?

2011-10-01T23:46:00.001-06:00

It is that time of year again. The TOS Crew Blog Cruise is setting sail.

With the Blog Cruise, we are given a topic that we can choose to blog about or not. Not an assignment, strictly for fun!

So..without further adieu….

Our first topic is: What are your homeschool related goals for this year?

I have a couple. We’ll start with the oldest student and go from there.

Nicole – 17. If you remember, Nicole has some cognitive delays similar to Asperger’s Syndrome. Her school is about 6th grade. I had an ah-ha moment a couple of weeks ago. The past few years, her math has been 2-3 years ahead of her reading. Which made reading story problems a bit of an issue but we worked around it. Over the summer, I tested her reading and…..drumroll please….her reading has now caught up with her math level. She is 6th grade across the board!! Nicole is no longer delayed. Oh don’t get me wrong, she is 17 and if she were a typical 17 year old she’d be a senior in High School this year but….she is as she is. BUT since her 3 R’s are across the board at one level, I don’t feel she is any longer delayed for her “grade”….only by age. I’m excited for her. I have a list of things I want her to accomplish in the next 2 years. If she completes all that successfully, I will graduate her with the understanding that learning isn’t going to stop. But, we want her to be able to say, “yes, I graduated at 18” and that she graduated ahead of her siblings as it should be.

My goal for Nicole is to be sure that her “grade” level stays even. She’s made such progress and made it a whole lot further than anyone, her adoption caseworker, her foster home, her public school teachers, ever said she would.

Jaime – 10th grade. Jaime struggles in the geometry part of algebra. We’ll push her there. We are trying a new math program this year and we’ll see how that goes. Maybe something will “click” for her. Jaime is one of the ones that does only the basics to get by, never pushes herself further. I guess I’ll be doing some pushing. Also, Jaime will be taking Driver’s Ed this year. It will be nice having an extra driver. Plus next summer, she’ll be able to get a job or at least job shadow.

Ashley – 8th/9th grade. In my opinion, Ashley still struggles with reading comprehension. I believe this is below grade level so we are starting an American Literature program this year (I was going to do this then we were given a product to review…what for that post this month). It will include Jaime and Donald and occasionally Nicole and Tiffany. Most will be done orally so I can help Ashley (as well as Nicole) “understand” what they read using the classics.

Donald – 9th/10th grade. Donald really is more along the lines of a 10th grader. He’s aggressive enough to explore other learning opportunities. His handwriting stinks though. Big time! I have to keep reminding him that this isn’t medical school so I expect to be able to read his handwriting. He’s in such a hurry to get done that he rushes that part. Nine times out of 10, he ends up having to rewrite his whole assignment. Praying something will finally click with him that handwriting is important. He isn’t struggling in any area academically.

Tiffany-5th grade. She needs to work on self-discipline to get her work done. She has her assignments, she’s been instructed, but she daydreams, is easily distracted by activities around her. It takes her so long to get her assignments done. Praying that she “gets it” this year.

Charlie-5th grade. As Charlie ages, he is getting calmer in school. Staying more diligent in getting his school work done on his own. Hurries to get it all done before lunch so he can have the afternoon to play (Tiffany needs lessons from him). Which in the past it was, “see if I can get away with not doing any work”. His reading has improved a whole lot this past year. We’ll just keep working on improvement there. When it clicks all the way with him, there will be no stopping him.

Tawny-3rd grade. Remember, this one has Down syndrome. She is pretty well on target in about every area. At least with reading and math. Her handwriting leaves a lot to be desired. I need to work on things like grammar, social studies, etc with her.

Hailey-3rd grade. Hailey is a whiz in math. Her reading needs some work and I think that is just reading more. I need to work with her on grammar and social studies too.

Megan-3rd grade. Megan is right up there with Tawny in reading. She doesn’t struggle in math but isn’t as fast as Hailey. She is keeping up very well with the other two girls, which for public school standards, makes her a grade ahead.

Max-Kindergarten. Well, he’s just beginning so no concerns at this time. He is quite the negotiator tho and can so think outside the box. He’s grasping math pretty well (I expected that). He wants to read so that will come pretty easily I’m sure.

That is the last one. No more toddlers or preschoolers <boohoo>. Gotta work on that area.

As for school overall…some of my goals for myself is – allow more computer time for at least the high school kids. I struggle with this one so I am in prayer about this constantly.

One of my goals for this year was to allow the older kids to cook more. You see, I like cooking. I like cooking nearly everyday. I love cooking for a group….the larger the better. I know this is not fair to the older kids, especially the girls. So….I’ve given up some of my cooking to them. Two of them have assigned days….all three meals. The other two have an assigned lunch day. I still really want to cook and I feel that someone is taking away one of my pleasures. But, as a homeschool mom, I have to sacrifice…right? The kids are doing well with it, it is me that is struggling.

Anyway. That’s my goals for the 2011-2012 school year. What are yours?

Some of my crewmates have goals. Want to check them out? Go here.

God’s Blessings be with you this school year whether your kids are homeschooled or public school. Praying they all meet their goals and make progress where they need too.

Vickie

Myths and Realities

2011-09-30T23:44:00.001-06:00

….about adopting via the foster care system.

Nearly 81.5 million Americans have considered adopting a child. If just one in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child in foster care would have a permanent family.

But foster care adoption is often misunderstood, preventing children from finding forever families. Discover some of the most common misconceptions, and read about the reality behind each.

Myth

Foster care adoption may cost less than private infant or international adoption, but it's still expensive.

Reality

Foster care adoption normally costs little or nothing. The truth is that foster care adoption is not expensive, and there can be financial support available for parents who choose this path.

Myth

A biological parent can come to take an adopted child back.

Reality

This is a fear for two-thirds of the people considering adoption. However, biological parents have no way to gain back custody of the child or children once their parental rights are terminated.

Myth

Children enter foster care because they committed a crime.

Reality

This belief is held by 45 percent of Americans, but actually, children enter U.S. foster care through no fault of their own. Usually, they are victims of neglect, abandonment, or abuse.

Myth

A single parent can't provide a healthy environment for an adopted child.

Reality

A single parent can provide a loving, stable home. In fact, as the number of two-parent families declines, an increasing number of children live in single-parent homes.

Myth

No person over 55 can provide a healthy and loving environment for an adopted child.

Reality

This belief is held, erroneously, by 63% of Americans. In truth, almost one in four adopted children lives happily with an adoptive parent 55 years or older.

Unless stated otherwise, all statistics are from the National Foster Care Adoption Attitudes Survey, commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and conducted by Harris Interactive, November 2007.

Maybe you are worried that you don't make a lot of money?

IT DOESN'T TAKE A LOT...

Or think that you need to own your own home?

YOU DON'T!

Or perhaps you are a single parent wondering if adoption can work for you?

IT CAN!

In every state, every county, there are kids just waiting for a home like yours.

Kids want a place to call home. A place to belong. A place where parents are, that can attend their sporting events. Their dance recitals. That first play. A place where their friends like to come visit or sleepover. A place, when they are grown, they can come home for visits. When they go to college they can say, “I’m going home for Christmas break.” Parents they can introduce their new loves too. Maybe help plan their wedding. A place to call and say, “Mom/Dad, the baby is on the way.” or “you’re going to be grandparents.”

Every child deserves a safe, loving, and permanent family.

No child should linger in foster care or leave the system at age 18 without a permanent family of his or her own.

Every child is adoptable. Every single one of them.

They want to belong. They want to be accepted. Loved. Hugged. And told over and over again, “Yes you are wanted and loved. Yes, you are here to stay. You are home.”

Forever families come in all shapes and sizes. Kids do too. There is something in you and your family that will appeal to a child. Something that will speak to a child’s heart and say, “This place is it. I am home, finally.”

You can be that family. It doesn’t take much to be an adoptive family or even a good, safe foster family.

Ask God. Let Him guide you. Too many people are ignoring that call to adopt. Maybe it is time to actually follow thru and do something, not just say, “we should”. Someday is here.

It is time!

Call your local Health & Welfare, children’s services, or whatever it is called in your area (Health & Welfare is a good start, they’ll direct you to the proper channel).

There are private agencies as well. Look in the yellow pages under “adoption”. Ask around.

Here are a few of my favorite sites that show the profiles of several of the children in their state.

Idaho – Wednesday’s Child

A New Beginning Adoption Agency

CASI Foundation

Oregon – A Family For Every Child

AFFEC Adoption Agency

Texas – TARE

Nevada – Washoe County

The Adoption Exchange (this site covers several states)

AdoptUSKids (this site has some kids from each state)

Northwest Adoption Exchange

Can you open your heart and home to one of these lost kids? How about a sibling group? An older child?

It’s never too late.

You are never too old.

Remember, YOU and your family are perfect for some child/ren. Check it out. Contact an agency and attend an orientation. Gather some info.

Yes, we hear all about the horror stories, just like we hear about the big airline crashes. They are so far and few between, we always hear about them. We don’t hear so much about all the success stories or the successful flights that made it to their destination.

Have a blessed weekend. Think about these kids. Pray for them. They all can use a lot of prayers and everyone can use a home.

Is it your home?

Are you their new mom and dad?

Thank you, Christie Obey-Barrett from AFFEC in Oregon, for allowing me to share these Myths and Realities here.

~Vickie~

Aletheia Writing Magazine (TOS Review)

2011-09-29T20:15:00.001-06:00

Do you have a budding writer in your home? Does he/she need a place to submit their stories, poems, or artwork? Do they like reading what other Christian teens are writing?

Then I have a source for you, or rather your teen ages 13-19 (younger too if they are an ambitious writer). Aletheia Writing Magazine. Creativity for Christian Teens.

I bet you are wondering how to pronounce that “A” word. Let me help you. Aletheia is a Greek word for truth. Pronounced: Ah-LAY-thei-uh (Ancient) or Ah-LEE-thei-uh (Modern).

We received the Fall 2011 issue for our review (there are 4 issues a year for $26). In this issue there are stories, poems, an interview with Joe Goode, photographs, and a book review. All written by teens like yours and mine. Most are homeschooled too.

I gave this magazine to my teens, told each of them they had a week to read it and write a review and pass it on to the next one. Then I got it last.

I have to say that I saw the kids reading it pretty diligently cover to cover.

Donald (15) said that his favorite story was Awake: The Tale of Alatar the Blue. The 15-year-old author is the featured contributor to this issue. Her bio says that she began as a relunctant writer and then grew to love writing.

This bio was Jaime’s (16) favorite part. She said it goes to show that sometimes something that we totally dislike doing will be our main focus in our future.

Ashley (15) said there was nothing about this magazine that she did not like. She especially liked all the colorful photographs tho.

There is a Writer’s Challenge offered to those who’d like to submit. The winner will be published, along with their photo, and given three copies of the magazine to share with their friends. Last issue’s winner is a 14-year-old girl from Washington. She wrote a very nice poem.

This issue’s Writer’s Challenge is to write a story or poem based on Proverbs 11:8 or on the photograph that is shown.

The Aletheia magazine itself has thick glossy pages. Is 40 pages in length. Again this magazine is geared towards teens ages 13-19 and the subscription is $26 (includes s&h) in the U.S. and $29 in Canada for 4-issues. You can check out the Spring 2011 issue here.

Remember that because contributor’s ages vary, the maturity level of the contents will vary as well.

If you have a burgeoning writer, they’ll enjoy this magazine. This would make a nice birthday or Christmas gift. To subscribe to here.

We are not the only ones to get a look-see at this magazine. Check out what other crew members’ teens had to say here.

Happy reading.

Vickie

Disclaimer: As a independent contractor for the TOS review crew, I received the Fall 2011 issue of Aletheia Magazine for Free for my review.

Sisters……

2011-09-28T16:03:00.001-06:00

I’m not doing so well keeping up with the grandkids birthday posts!

I forgot to write about Hailey’s who’s birthday was August 22.

Sorry Hailey!

Megan’s was yesterday, September 27. Only a day late on this one.

These two are sisters and only 13 months apart. They are closely bonded but totally different. The girls belong to Brandy and Robert and are situated between Charlie (10) and Max (5). Hailey is now 8, and Megan is 7.

So let’s start with Hailey. First off, she was born on my birthday!!! What an awesome birthday present. Since then I’ve totally given August 22 to her. I want others to focus on Hailey and not me. I’m OK with staying the age from when she was born. It is a good age lol

Brandy’s due date was actually August 23. But of course we’d all hoped she’d be born on the 22nd.

During the entire pregnancy and every ultra sound, we never really knew if Hailey was Hailey or Max. She never would show herself. So, Brandy named her Nemo (this was before the movie came out even). Believe it or not, to this day she is still very modest when others are around. I pray she stays that way as a teen

Anyway…..About 7 pm the evening of the 22nd, Robert called to let me know that the baby probably wouldn’t be born on my birthday. Brandy was in no labor or discomfort whatsoever. I teased Robert and told him it was early yet but secretly I figured she wouldn’t come that day because it was 7 pm after all and nothing.

At 9 pm, Robert called back and said, you might want to get prepared. Brandy is now having some small contractions that are about 10+ minutes apart. Still may not be tonight, the 22nd, but probably early morning 23rd.

When I hung up, I decided to go ahead and take a shower and get ready. It could be a long night. Just as I was getting out of the shower, Robert called back and said they were headed to the hospital.

I rushed! We live 7 or so miles out of town so I knew time was of the essence because when Brandy had Charlie, she wasn’t in hard labor long.

Robert called me again about 10 and said that when stopping to drop Charlie off at Travis’ house, Brandy’s water broke in the car (Travis lived about 2 blocks from the hospital). I drove faster!!!

I made it to the hospital about 10:20. They were still getting Brandy changed, BP, hooked up, etc. The Dr walked in about 10:30, shoved his arms most of the way thru the sleeves of his gown just in time to catch Hailey.

I only had about 3 1/2 hours of labor with Brandy too. Hailey is part of our homeschool. I get to be with her nearly every day since she’s been born. I have to tell ya…..it is like raising Brandy all over again!

Hailey looks like a darker version of Brandy but her personality is the same (I wish I had some pictures of Brandy when she was young on this computer. Gotta scan some in). Her mannerisms are the same. The big blue eyes. The timid shyness but the constant smile. The mothering tendencies. It has been a blessing to be able to basically be raising Brandy again. The Lord has shown me all the things I’ve missed sending Brandy to school everyday. I am thankful that He has allowed this opportunity for homeschooling in our lives at this time.

Now….on to Megan.

Megan is the opposite of Hailey. Although occasionally shy, she is way more outgoing. A whole lot more talkative and a whole lot less fearful of things. AND a giggle box about the littlest of things.

Her birth wasn’t as exciting moment by moment as Hailey’s, but Brandy still did deliver within an hour or so after arriving at the hospital. The nurses have come to name her “Supermom” as she’s never needed any pain meds, episiotomy, and taking a shower within an hour of giving birth.

Back to Megan….Megan was born three days before her daddy’s birthday. Robert thought for sure she’d be born on his birthday. Since Hailey was born on mine and he had chosen her name, then Megan should have been born on his as I chose her name LOL

Megan is a quick learner. Not wanting to be left out of anything, she is in 3rd grade with Hailey and Tawny. She reads a grade level or so better than Hailey but Hailey is ahead in math.

Where Hailey is the mother, Megan is the cat person. Those cats that don’t let anyone pet them let alone hold them, Megan can put clothes on them and give them rides in her baby stroller. Their cats only sleep with Megan too. But then again, when they get sick, they get sick on Megan’s bed too LOL

Both girls are small for their ages, but they are taller than what their mother was at the same ages and if she can reach 5’3”, I have no doubt they’ll eventually get there too.

Robert picked Hailey’s name, Hailey Kay. Kay is after his mother’s middle name.

I had chosen Megan’s name. I always thought if I had a second little girl I’d name her Megan Rose. Brandy asked if she could have that name. So, I still got my Megan Rose.

Megan use to have melt downs very easily. Especially in crowds and unexpected events. We learned with her how important protein is in a child’s life and well-being. By age 3, we were able to tell Megan to come to us and ask for peanuts if she felt like crying for no reason. What a huge huge change in her and she never took advantage of this just because she’d want a snack. We learned to keep peanuts on hand. Having the ones in shells kept her occupied enough to calm down until the protein could take affect.

I can see these 2 growing up to be friends always. I am praying that when they hit the teen years that they are still friends and that boys never become an issue between them.

Granddaughters, you just gotta love ‘em.

Happy Birthday, girls.

God’s Blessings always,

Nana

Tri-Cross (TOS Review)

2011-09-25T23:09:00.001-06:00

Do you like checkers?

Maybe chess is more up your alley?

How about dominoes?

Can’t choose?

What if I told you there is a game out there that kind of combines all three of these games?

Maybe a board game that has a beginner level and an advanced level for2-4 players, ages 8+?

Well, enter in Tri-Cross from Games for Competitors. Tri-Cross challenges in the areas of strategy, critical thinking, and problem solving.

If awards are a big deal for you, check this out.

Tri-Cross was named Dr. Toy’s 2009’s 100 Best Children’s Products.

Creative Child Magazine’s Creative Toy Awards 2008 Game of the Year and earning the National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval and

Mom’s Choice award for 2010. How’s that for impressive?

This game is available in three styles. Typical board game that comes in a cardboard box with the foldable game board called Standard Edition for $24.95. A travel game that comes in an Eco friendly bag and Eco friendly game board called Eco Edition for $19.95. Last, as a solid wood playing board called, you guess it Wood Edition for $35.95.

We were given both the Standard Edition and the Eco Edition for our review.

The quality of both of these are awesome. Very sturdy. The plastic playing pieces are big enough to handle comfortably, even the Eco Edition.

My kids enjoyed playing this game. With two different styles, we were able to have two games going at once which helped appease some of them LOL

Max, the 5-year-old grandson, even enjoyed playing this game. We’ve been saying for a long time that he is our future lawyer because he knows how to strategize and is a problem solver. He prefers chess over checkers and enjoys dominoes as well. He beat our 15-year-old daughter with his forward thinking. He likes thinking challenges….critical thinking.

A couple of the high school kids said the game was boring because it moves too fast. They’d prefer a longer playing time in a board game. That’s OK. Other kids prefer quicker ones.

I can see this one being a great critical thinking, faster paced game for kids that are easily bored with a game that is too long. Enough of a challenge to be interesting but not so long it is boring for some busy kids.

Here are a couple of tutorials you can check out. One for beginners and the other for advanced players. There are rules below the videos. Take a look at them.

There are several states where you can purchase Tri-Cross locally. Click on your state and see where you can purchase it. OR you can purchase from Games for Competitors website.

We aren’t the only ones who got to play with this game. Click here to see what some of my other crewmates had to say about it.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: I am an independent contractor for TOS review crew. I received the Standard Edition and the Eco Edition from Games for Competitors for our review. No other compensation was received or promised for my review on this blog.

My Memories (review)

2011-09-24T22:34:00.001-06:00

I LOVE to scrapbook but homeschooling 10 kids, well, that really doesn’t leave much time nor space to do so.

The only place I’d have to scrapbook is in our “classroom”. I’d have to put everything away for class or any meal. Very frustrating if I have to clean up while in the middle of a page or a series of pages.

Just when I get my layout figured out, things are laid out, my system is set to go and…..time to clean up.

Well, guess what….there is a new way!!!

My Memories is a digital scrapbooking program that can be done right on your own computer. No mess! No disrupting layout plans. No forgetting where you are when you get back to it.

I have one daughter and three granddaughters that were born the summer of 2003. Every year we get a picture of the 4 of them as they’ve grown. I created an album called “The Girls of 2003”. They are 8-years-old this year so there are nine pages so far (2 of the girls moved in opposite directions of us…so now we have mixed groups but we’ll keep trying to keep the tradition going). I plan to continue growing this album as they grow. So much fun!

Check out my pages below:

I’ve created other miscellaneous pages too. So much fun and well, addicting as scrapbooking can be. I think I’m going to enter the Fall page (page 5) on My Memories weekly contest.

I only have one con or complaint about this program and maybe in time, use, and interaction with the program, it will no longer be a con.

When purchasing new papers, kits, embellishments, etc, I have a hard time finding them in the folders that are already in the program. I’m sure there is a system to how it is done and I have to learn it.

Anyway, that’s the ONLY thing and is really no different than when I can’t find a certain punch, pair of scissors, or picture when I’m doing a physical album LOL

Now, want to hear some exciting news? Are you ready? Sitting down? Ready to type?

OK..here it is. My Memories has authorized for me to do a giveaway. Woohoo!!!

So, one lucky winner will get their very own My Memories scrapbooking software.

Everyone else, here is a discount code to purchase your own program ($10 off code: STMMS16104) PLUS a $10 coupon (code: MSV210D) to be used in the store for some fun scrapbooking goodies (the codes are also under the My Memories logo on my sidebar. You are welcome to share these codes with anyone).

Now everyone can get scrap-happy!

Here’s what you need to do to enter:

Be sure you are following Tumbleweed News via GFC.

You can “like” Tumbleweed News on Facebook.

“Like” My Memories on Facebook.

I don’t Twitter (I know, the horror, right!) but My Memories is on Twitter.

Follow My Memories’ blog via GFC as well.

They also have a forum if you are interested in checking that out.

Be sure you let me know which of these things you’ve done for a chance to win.

The drawing will be September 30, 2011.

Check out My Memories website. There is so much to offer anyone who loves scrapbooking, and if you haven’t tried digital scrapbooking…well, you are missing out. If you aren’t sure how to do it, check out the tutorials as well.

Time to go play around and make up another page. I’m years behind in my scrapbooking….time to catch up even if only one page a day. That’s more than I’ve been able to do in a long long time.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: I was asked to review My Memories and received a free download of the software for my review. No other compensation was received nor promised. Thank you My Memories.

Simply FALL entry….

2011-09-24T00:08:00.001-06:00

….I decided that I was going to enter this scrapbook page in the My Memories weekly contest.

This week is Simply FALL contest. Since I have done a new album using my My Memories software, and one of the pages is a FALL theme, I figured “Why not?”

This one is page 5 of my “The Girls of 2003” album.

The girls are 4-years-old here and look at the stair steps they are. So cute! (3rd in the row is my youngest daughter…the other 3 are granddaughters)

So here goes!

One of the fun things about doing this digital scrapbooking, or any scrapbooking, is the memories. I think this product is aptly named, My Memories.

When I was putting this page together the other day…..I was remembering when this photo was taken, I had all 9 grandkids and the 6 kids at home. I don’t rightly remember why I was babysitting all the grandkids, but hey…..I love it.

That day, the kids ranged in age from 12-16 months old. What fun they had together. What fun I had taking pictures. I got to relax most of the day since they all entertained each other. Perfect day for being outside and I rarely saw any of them. Max needed a diaper change now and again and the kids wanted lunch at one point. But other than that…..I was left on my own to read read read. Too much fun!

Here’s a photo of all 15 of them (I haven’t made up a page for this one yet).

Look how little everyone is!!! They grow up so fast. Now this group ranges in age from 17-5. How time flies! Donald (boy in back…2nd from left) is now a head taller than his sisters. WOW!

I am enjoying doing digital scrapbooking. Something I never thought I’d care for.

Anyway…off to enter this contest.

Check out the other entries at the My Memories blog.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

AIMS Educational Foundation (TOS Review)

2011-09-22T23:39:00.001-06:00

I have to come clean…..

…..as a homeschool teacher, well….well science is NOT my forte’.

There! I said it! Whew! I feel better now.

I can read the books but getting creative with experiments, projects, examples, or whatever you want to call those things in science…..well, I’m more creative in other ways, but science isn’t on the list.

That is until AIMS Educational Foundation came up for review for the TOS Crew.

We were selected to review Electrical Connections for grades 4-6. We received an activity book AND a CD with printables for class (sure beats trying to photocopy from a book and doesn’t come out nice and clean).

I have to tell ya…I’m impressed!!

Getting the Electrical book really came at a good time for us because we are studying early America and Ben Franklin happened to be the man of discussion when this book arrived.

Pretty cool!

So, let me tell you a bit about this book that has over 200 pages of activities.

The activities can be done with everyday items found around the house (see the list on page 223). That makes it nice. Nothing fancy to have to find.

The book is broken down into four sections:

Static Electricity
Circuits
Electromagnetism
History of Electricity

Each of the lessons in the sections start out with the Topic. Then it has (examples are from Lesson 1):

Key Question: How does a statically-charged object affect other objects?
Learning Goals: Students will 1) explore static electricity, and 2) observe the effects of positive and negative charges as they attract and repel.
Guiding Documents: Plan and conduct a simple investigation.
Science: Physical science static electricity
Math (sometimes): None for lesson 1 but lesson 2 is measurement in lengths.
Integrated Processes: observing, comparing, predicting, generalizing
Materials list for this lesson
Background information: A lesson how things work. In this case negative and positive atoms.
Management: How to set up your investigation.
Procedure: Step by step as to what to do.
Connecting Learning: Discuss what happened and why.
Extensions: More investigations.

From the CD you can print the observation sheet to be filled out. (Go here to preview the first couple of lessons from the book yourself).

That’s it! Pretty simple but yet very very thorough I think. I included all 10 kids in on these lessons even tho the book is suggested for 4th-6th grades. I didn’t have the younger kids fill out the observation sheet but they participated in the activities. The high schoolers went a bit further into the projects.

Some of the pages we printed were little booklets about people we discussed. For example one of them was Benjamin Franklin. A bit about his life. I put a yarn loop on the corner of the booklet and hung it on our own ongoing timeline. The kids can take it down and read it (or any of the others that are hanging there) any time they want. Works out great!

I can’t wait to get further into the book into the Circuits section where we get to study about Samuel Morse and actually get to make our own telegraph and learn the Morse Code. (shhhh….I’m tempted to skip forward to that section hehe).

On the AIMS website there are some e-activities ($2 each). There are lab kits and components to enhance your teaching experience. You can get past issues (download only) of the AIMS Magazine (1986 to present).

You can also get the Electrical Connections Activity Book + CD for $24.95. There are several other science activity books for grades K-9. There are also several Math resources too, also for K-9.

If you really really wanted/needed one of these resources right.now….you can get a PDF version and have it instantly. That’s a pretty cool resource. Saves on bookshelf space LOL

Yes, I would recommend this Electrical Connections book to anyone looking for a good but easy to implement science program for their homeschool.

Actually, I think this would make an awesome gift for that kid that loves to investigate and experiment. Public or homeschool kid. One could put together a gift basket/box with this book (or the age appropriate one), the CD, and several of the things on the material list to get them started. It would be something a child that can read and follow directions well to do independently.

I’m not the only one to get the chance to ~~play with~~ review Electrical Connections. Go here to see what some of my other crewmates had to say about it. While you are there, check out some of the other products that were reviewed from AIMS Educational Foundation.

I’ll leave you with:

I hear and

I forget,

I see and

I remember,

I do and

I understand.

~Chinese Proverb~

God’s Blessings!

Vickie

Disclaimer: I am an independent contractor for the TOS Review Crew. I received a copy of Electrical Connections + CD from AIMS Educational Foundation for FREE for my review. No other compensation was received or expected.

Before Five in a Row (TOS Review)

2011-09-20T20:25:00.001-06:00

In my experience, toddlers and pre-schoolers want to do school too, especially if they have older siblings doing their school work or homework (if they are in public school).

This is where a product like Before Five in a Row comes into play.

This unique unit study curriculum is great for 2-4 year-olds. Here’s kind of how it is suppose to work:

You choose a book from the list at the beginning of the “workbook” (this one has 24 listed) or you can go down the list of books if you choose and do them all. Most of them are simple children’s books.

The point of “Five in a Row” is to read the book each day for five days. Then pick a topic (several are listed with each book) and explore further.

During the course of the book, kids will gain reading readiness, coordination, both large and small motor skills development, activities for the bath, kitchen, and the store. So much more.

For one of our lessons, we chose Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.

The topics include:

Summary: There are many different ways to solve problems. Sometimes the solution is merely an accident!
Bible: Proverbs 6:10, 11 suggest that sleeping on the job might cause problems!
Math: Counting
Language: Vocabulary
Sayings: For this one it is “Monkey See, Monkey Do!”
Science: Health (we got to balance a book on our head and see if we could walk, race across the room)
Art
Character: Feelings
Parent’s Note

There are seven children’s topics here to choose from over the five days. You can do more than one a day, of course.

My little ones wanted to do it all in one day LOL The youngest one I did lesson with turned 5 in June. He thought the book was hilarious (we don’t call him Monkey Max for nothing hehe) and totally enjoyed the topics we explored afterwards.

I did include my three 3rd graders with him. They got totally involved as well and each of them have read and reread the book several times over the following few days. Re-discussing (teaching) the topics all over again with the 5-year-old.

Other books include:

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
Yellow Ball
My Blue Boat
Blueberries for Sal
The Runaway Bunny
The Quiet Way Home
Prayer for a Child
Corduroy
Jenny’s Surprise Summer
and many more.

You can purchase Before Five in a Row from Rainbow Resources for $35. You can also purchase the workbook with 19 of the titles listed as a package, for $97.50. Considering each of the little reading books can be $7-$10 each, I’d say that’s quite the bargain.

At the Five in a Row website you can read about their other programs for the older students:

Five in a Row for ages 4-8 (you can see my review on this one here)
Beyond Five in a Row for ages 8-12
Above and Beyond Five in a Row for ages 12+

There are sample lessons you can check out. There are message boards, inspirations, and much more on the Five in a Row website.

I think this type of curriculum would be great, especially for beginner homeschoolers. I think it would benefit those that know they have the calling to homeschool but don’t know where to start. This, at least, gets their feet wet.

This curricula would be great as a filler. As a supplement. As a curriculum all on its own. Great for after school or summer time for those public school kids.

I would recommend this book as a homeschool parent. We will continue to use this book for the younger ones. They really got a kick out of it and it was something they could do together but away from the older kids.

This would also be great for an older child (teen-ish) to do with the younger ones. Great for them to take to babysitting jobs for some great entertainment (take a specific reading book and all the supplies to do many of the topics).

We aren’t the only ones who got to play around with this wonderful gem. Check out what some of my other crewmates experienced here.

Happy reading,

Vickie

Disclaimer: I am an independent contractor for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. I received a copy of Before Five in a Row FREE of charge for my review. No other compensation was given or expected.

Deeper Roots: Christ-Like Character

2011-09-14T20:30:00.001-06:00

Are you looking for a Biblical character study for your 9th/10th grader?

Deeper Roots Publication has the right curriculum for you! You HAVE to check out Discovering a Christ-Like Character. This book is Book 4 in the series and geared towards 9th/10th graders.

In this 337 page book there are seven lessons. Each lesson is broken down into 10 days of lessons.

The lessons begin with information about an “UNREACHED” people. The Bible tells us in “Rev. 5:9 that God shows us that He desires some from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation be included in the body of Christ, and He has given all believers the privilege of being involved in His Great Commission.” (quoted from Teacher’s Guide). There is a different people acknowledged and is quite interesting to read.

In each lesson there are memory challenges, worksheets, tests, short skits, and writing opportunities. The Teacher’s Notes assist in the discussion with promptings, answers to questions, and assignments.

In this study of Christ-Like Character it is like learning/teaching the Fruits of the Spirit. The character traits are:

Christ-Like Joy
Christ-Like Integrity
Christ-Like Forgiveness
Christ-Like Humility
Christ-Like Unselfishness
Christ-Like Self-Control
Christ-Like Love

There are lots of Bible passages to back up the lessons.

Out of my 10 students, I have 6 in this “class”. 10th-5th grade. I was going to stick with the recommended grades, but one of my 5th graders really really needs these lessons. I am praying she will have a change of heart as she grows thru these lessons.

I tried allotting only 30 minutes for this class but with this many kids we get into some pretty deep discussions. We tend to go more along the lines of an hour to an hour and a half. I’m Okay with that because there can never be too much or too long of a discussion when it comes to Bible study.

Instead of having worksheets for each of the kids, we’ve been doing most all the questions verbally especially since we have a 6th grader and 2-5th graders in the study. I figured they’d get more out of it verbally. I am having them do some of the written work like the short essays, memorizations, etc.

We have really enjoyed Discovering a Christ-Like Character. We’ve learned so much and we’ve all had ah-ha moments.

There are three other books in this series:

Discovering Our Amazing God (Book 1) 7th grade
Discovering Who I Am in Christ (Book 2) 8th grade
Discovering Christ-Like Habits (Book 3) 9th grade.
Discovering a Christ-Like Character (Book 4) 9th/10th

There is another book for your high school student called Rooted and Grounded.

Deeper Roots Publication also offers devotional books, Mission and Evangelism Resources.

I highly recommend this book. Although I chose to do this as a class, it can easily be done independently by a student. I think the discussions are invaluable, sharing my experiences, and insight.

You can go to Deeper Roots Publication website and order your own book for $19.95.

I’m not the only one who got to review Discovering a Christ-Like Character. Go here to see what my other chosen crewmates had to say. You can also go to this same link and see reviews on the other books in the series.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: I am an independent contractor with TOS Review Crew. I received a Teacher’s Guide and one student workbook for Discovering a Christ-Like Character FREE of charge from Deeper Roots Publication. I received no other compensation for this review.

THEO: Teaching Children God’s Word (review)

2011-09-13T23:07:00.001-06:00

Introducing Theo! The Theo DVD’s are centered around the adventures and teachings of Theo, a student of God’s Word, and his sidekicks, Belfry and Luther (2 mice).

Here is Theo’s statement of faith.

Each 10-minute episode discusses sin, salvation, Biblical character, Bible, and much more in cartoon format.

These cartoons have fabulous, eye-catching color. Great animation. See samples on the Theo Presents website.

This resource includes DVD, curriculum, books, audio CD series. Designed to work individually or all together.

Theo also offers an app for the iPhone or iTouch. This is a great app to have. There are games to play, videos to watch, lessons to learn. My kids like having this resource with them.

You can order your resource from the online store or these other retailers near you. Theo partnered with Lifeway Christian resources for the curriculum.

This would be a great resource for Sunday School programs, home school, or even after school lessons.

I was a bit disappointed in that each episode is only about 10-minutes in length. I was expecting 30-60 minutes episodes. But then again, sometimes kids need messages kept short and simple for their attention spans.

Check Theo out on Facebook, Twitter, or Vimeo. You can win your own copy of Introducing Theo: Teaching Children God’s Word by leaving me a comment about what you think is the most important Biblical value to teach to young kids. I’ll hold my drawing Monday, September 19. That gives you a little time Good luck!!

God’s Blessings

Vickie

"Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services
mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I
only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
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."

From the Mouth of Babes (book review)

2011-09-07T00:27:00.001-06:00

This book is amazing.

It is a book full of stories (short stories) “about life, children, faith, and the world we live in.”

As I’m reading this book (when I got the chance lol), having the stories short let me know it was OK to stop and read only a few pages at a time (that was hard to stop with just a few sometimes).

In reading this book, it was almost like sitting and reading someone’s blog. Each of the stories is inspirational and motivational.

There are four sections in the book:

Stories about Marriage and Children
Stories about Life and Spiritual Growth
Stories about the Church and Our Culture
Stories about Holidays and Special Occasions

Each section has several 1-3 page short stories relating to the section title.

There are two stories that really stuck out to me.

The first story is in the section “Stories about Life and Spiritual Growth”. It is titled Where We’ve Been. It references Psalms 51 when King David repented for his sins and then went on to say in verse 13, “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” It teaches me that yes, I’ve made mistakes in my past but our Lord God forgives me my sins when I ask but I am to go forward..forward not backwards..and teach others to not do what I did. I don’t know, like learning from others mistakes type of thing. Teaching our kids to learn from history, the mistakes of others (including their parents) so they can be converted and follow the ways of the Lord. To keep moving forward because God really doesn’t want us dwelling on our pasts, especially if we’ve asked for forgiveness.

The next story that really captured my attention is in “Stories about the Church and Our Culture” titled She-Bears, Open Sin, and Church Discipline. I guess this one hit a spot because in our church a couple weeks prior to reading this story we were talking in Sunday School about how people are turned off from a church, a service, Pastor, and even members or Christians in general whenever a sin is brought to one’s attention. No one wants or likes to be called a sinner but yet we all are. We are born sinful and unclean. From the moment of conception…we are conceived in sin. We’ll never be perfect no matter how hard we try. In this short story, it reminds me that we are to continue to exhort one another. We “are” to be our brother’s keeper. We need to continually remind others when they are sinning so that they can repent and go forward, just as they are to bring our sins to our attention so we can go to God for forgiveness. No, we aren’t to judge others, but we are to correct others that are going against what God commands. This isn’t judgment if the Bible says it is wrong, it is wrong. What may be our personal feelings of right and wrong and judging others based on that…well, that is wrong for us to do and isn’t Biblical or Scriptural.

This story pretty much repeated our discussion in that we need to hear the Law and the Gospel at every service. We need church discipline, just as we need to discipline our children in our homes. If we turn our backs on our “brothers”, what does that say about us as a Christian?

OK…off on a tangent…back to my review LOL.

I really enjoyed this book of short stories. There was enlightenment. Encouragement. Laughter. Tears. Reminders. Helpful hints. New ideas. Affirmation.

The author, Kimberly Williams, is a pastor’s wife. She’s a mom. She homeschools her three children. She is down-to-earth. She tells it like it is and I like that.

I recommend this book to everyone, but I can see it being especially good for someone who is down in the dumps. Someone who needs lifted up in scripture. Someone who needs a boost in life to let them know that “life is okay”.

Kimberly is like a Titus 2 woman. Sharing what she’s learned in life as a Pastor’s wife and as a mom. She’s been there, done that type of thing and sharing with others.

There is a link on Kimberly’s blog (www.untilthedaydawn.wordpress.com) where you can purchase this book. You can also hang around and read more of what Kimberly shares on her blog.

You can get a copy of this book from Amazon for $14.95 too.

Kimberly’s quote on her book, and is aptly appropriate for what the book represents is:

“I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”

~ John 10:10 ~

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of From the Mouth of Babes free of charge for my review on this blog.

Griddly Games: Civilize This (TOS review)

2011-09-02T22:53:00.001-06:00

We like history and geography around here. Except for Bible study, we spend more time on these two subjects than any other. So imagine our excitement when we were selected to receive this game to review ~ Civilize This!

This game comes from Griddly Games: Games that get you going!! Educational, trivia, nature, and exercise.

This is part of the Wise Alec trivia games set. We received Civilize This! the travel set or can also be used as an expansion set for the board game (we may have to get the whole board game…too much fun!).

Excerpt on the back of the box:

“Explore the world’s cultures across time with the trivia game based on the award-winning Wise Alec Family Trivia Game!

There are 300 questions to test your knowledge of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern cultures. Two levels of questions on each card let everyone from young scholars to history buffs play together. Plus, Wise Alec will get you going with clever challenges and fun activities!”

Included with the game:

50 Ancient Cultures Cards
50 Medieval Cultures Cards
50 Modern Cultures Cards
50 Wise Alec Cards
1 custom die

All comes in a nice, sturdy box with a magnetic catch for closing.

This game can be used for ages 8+ and 2-6 players.Fun to play in teams.

The die has a color on each side. Once it is rolled, that color card is drawn by the person on the left of the dice thrower.

The card drawer ask the player if he/she wants the 3-point question or the 7-point question. Then the card drawer will ask the question. If the answer is correct, the player gets the points by whomever is keeping score.

Sample questions from an Ancient card:

3-point question: How were the ancient Mayan cities connected?

7-point question: The Maya wrote about important events on large slabs of stone. What were they called?

If a Wise Alec card is drawn, here is a sample: ACTION! Do your favorite dance move. +2points.

TONGUE TWISTER! “How many boards could the Mongols hoard if the Mongol hoards got bored? (Repeat 5 times) +5points

When we play it, if the player refuses to do their ACTION! they lost the equivalent points that was on the card. It prompted more participation LOL especially the dance moves.

While playing this game, we realize where we need to be studying more. We thought we knew quite a bit of history lol

A good plus side, the kids have been reading more encyclopedias and doing more overall research to prepare to play this game again and again. They really love it!!

Other expansion or travel games (no board necessary) that are part of Wise Alec include:

Nature Nuts ~ plants, animals, and earth.
Sports Buffs ~ sports history, athletes, and rules.

The board games includes:

History
Science
Spelling

My kids like board games, so I can see us getting the Wise Alec Trivia Game and the rest of the Expansion sets for Christmas.

Griddly Games offers other games as well. Go here to see the list. I’m sure you’ll find something your family will love.

You can go here and play some online games or there are some coloring pages to print. You can also see the game rules to all the games by Griddly Games.

To purchase any of these games and see prices check out this list of retailers. There are several states that have retailers as well as places in Canada. You can order it online from Amazon too.

We really enjoyed playing Civilize This! The box says for ages 8+ but it was too much for our 8-year-olds. They wanted to try and we gave hints to help them along.

If you like trivia games, you’ll really enjoy Wise Alec.

Other crewmates got to play Civilize This! as well and others reviewed Nature Nuts! Check out what they had to say here.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Answers: 3-point question ~ by roads. 7-point question ~ stelas

Disclaimer: I am an independent contractor with The Old Schoolhouse review crew. I received Civilize This! game set for FREE to do this review. No other compensation was received.

So tiny!

2011-09-02T15:48:00.001-06:00

I’m not a fan of snakes at all.

When I think about it…..I think that sometimes it is more women than men that are afraid of snakes. Do you think that comes from the time of Eve when satan appeared in the form of a snake and tricked her? Now women have a natural fear of snakes? I know I do.

Just a thought.

Anyway, even though I’m not fond of snakes, I like babies.

Isn’t he cute! Well, in a baby sort of way. And look at him with his gummy smile.

Awwww!!!

Yes I know, he’ll grow up to be a big snake and no longer cute.

I figured it would be too late in the season to find these babies around.

Guess not!

We believe this is just a Bull Snake. Nothing to fear and it’ll help keep down the mice population when he is big enough to eat something besides a bug (which is a good thing too).

Oh and as a side note….I’m thankful my camera has a zoom option on it. No way I’d want to get that close to that thing, no matter how small and cute!!

Vickie

Never a dull moment….

2011-09-01T11:33:00.001-06:00

…and yesterday was no exception.

We were a little late in starting school yesterday. A little ways into our Bible study I received a text from Dave that said there was a fire in our area (we have a scanner at the shop).

A little bit later, he text and said “they were evacuating homes on Smith Road.” I thought….Okay, that’s about 3 miles away, we will be fine.

Then he text saying “they are evacuating Hog Farm Road be prepared.” Well, that’s a bit more worrisome since that road is less than a mile from our house.

I decided to leave our school room (dining room) and check out the front window and the site we saw just about sent me into a panic.

Black billowing smoke, sky all gray with smoke, planes flying over dropping retardant, and we could see the fire trucks, both rural and BLM trucks AND ambulances from our house.

Doesn’t seem so large from this photo.

The wind kept changing directions which left no predictions of the fire’s path. All that yellow, dry cheet grass!!!

Way too close!! It is the neighbor’s house on the left. About 500 yards away.

You can barely see the plane right above the tree on the right.

Here it comes…circling around lower and lower. This is coming right over us.

After flying over us…headed back…lower.

Almost there….lower….

See the red fire retardant?

You can see the fire trucks here.

You can see flames on the left here. Fire trucks on the right.

NOW it is time to panic! But I knew I couldn’t. I had 10 kids relying on me to let them know what to do. (these photos were taken AFTER we were loaded).

So I called all hands on deck. I explained to the kids that we were going in evacuation preparedness mode and they needed to listen up as this was an emergency.

I had them change into jeans with shoes and socks (no flip-flops….I needed them to be able to move quickly without stopping for shoes) and then meet back in the living room.

When I had their attention, I told the 4 grandkids to watch the window for anyone coming up the driveway to tell us to evacuate.

Then I had the other kids take their pillows out of their cases, and put in a couple pairs of jeans, shirts, socks, underwear, pj’s, brush, and toothbrush and meet back in the living room. Then those got loaded in the truck.

OK…that done. Now what?

Let’s load up some important things…to me, that means pictures. Things can be replaced, but I wanted my memories and photos, portraits, could not be replaced.

So, we began by taking pictures off the walls and putting them in boxes (the walls look bare today lol). I know some of my kids don’t have pictures from babyhood I didn’t want them to lose their childhood pictures too.

We got those loaded up.

OK..no one still coming.

Everyone get a reading book, notebook, and pencil. Let’s load up a couple of games (we have a couple to review, so those got loaded). Who knew if we’d have time to kill and needed something to do.

When the kids were getting their reading books I heard, “can I bring my Bible too?” Of course…the best reading material of all.

Everything was loaded and we waited.

We went out and watched the planes. We took some pictures. We unplugged appliances (I don’t know why..something to do I guess lol). We fed and watered the animals so if we were gone for any length of time they’d be ok.

Then…someone was coming up the driveway.

I gathered all the kids together and we prayed. We prayed for our safety, the safety of our animals and home. We prayed for those where fire had already crossed their paths (one belonged to one of our employees). We prayed for peace.

I grabbed the keys and we were prepared for the evacuation team to drive up.

But, it wasn’t them.

It was a lady who’s house the fire went around. The fire never touched her house but stayed around the perimeter of her yard. She was going door-to-door to see if she could help others. She says she needed to do “something”. Since we were loaded and ready, there wasn’t anything she could do for us.

Since she didn’t tell us to leave, we waited.

Then Dave called.

He said he wanted us to leave. Even tho we didn’t have official word that we needed to, he wanted us to. It was too close for comfort for him.

So, we made signs and hung them in the window (I don’t know why, just popped into my head before heading out the door).

I put our last name, “we are evacuated”, and my cell number. I made several copies and taped them to be visible no matter which door someone wanted to go knock on.

We loaded up and left.

Donald drove the van. No, he doesn’t have a license but he has had a little practice because I’ve felt this coming all summer (actually last summer too). I wanted one of the kids to be able to drive out in case I wasn’t home to do so. Donald is the one that would remain the calmest to drive (plus technically the man of the house when Dave is at work or not home). He did great!

I drove my truck that was loaded down with stuff and a few of the more panicky kids. Donald didn’t need panic riding with him.

We drove to a spot where we could leave my truck….transferred anything from the van to the truck and loaded all the kids in the van.

Since I hadn’t been watching the time, it was waaaay past lunch time. It had already been more than 2 hours since that first text but only felt like minutes.

We went to Wendy’s for lunch. Then we went to the shop to wait by the scanner.

By the time we got there, Dave said that some of the trucks had just been released to return to the station. The roads were opened up again.

We decided we could return home. He left work early to come with us.

We drove by the fire. WOW! Praise the Lord that He did keep everyone safe. We could see that the fire went around…and I mean around….some houses. Up to the fence lines. Only ONE house that I could see was affected. They had vinyl siding, vinyl fencing, vinyl porch and railing….everything was sagging. No flames. No fire there. But apparently close enough to affect the vinyl that was all around it.

No lives were harmed. One home lost one chicken and 700+ acres of dry cheet grass across the desert was burned (see all that yellow in the photos above). Spots where sagebrush still stood. Fire break lines made by the fire crews.

The ground was blackened up to 2 highways. If the fire had jumped either of these, well….we were in direct line of one of them along with several other houses. The crews were able to stop the fire at these highways.

Praise the Lord He answered our prayers to keep everyone and their homes safe. Our animals didn’t even know what was going on. The kids remained calm.

What a fun,

exciting,

scary,

tension filled afternoon.

Several lessons in the fact though:

Listen the first time. There may not be a second time. Repeats cause delays.
Work calmly. Panic gets us no where.
Work as a team and do your assigned part.
Be prepared for whatever may come.

This was a great evacuation practice. We’ve never done this before, never needed too. But that makes twice this summer that has put us directly in path of a fire. Praying there will never be another one.

Time to go over our home insurance policy to be sure we are fully covered. We’ve not done this in a few years.

The kids are carrying on today like nothing unusual happened yesterday.

This is good.

Life is good.

God is good!!!

We are safe.

Never a dull moment!!

God’s Blessings

Vickie

PS ~ We are keeping those that have been affected by other disasters across the nation and world this year in our prayers. What we went thru is so very minimal compared to some of these others, but praising the Lord at the same time that this is all we’ve had and nothing worse.

Computers in our school

2011-09-01T10:23:00.001-06:00

To be honest, I’ve been reluctant to use the computers in class. For one, I feel a bit guilty letting the computer do the teaching when it is suppose to be “home” school and I’m suppose to be the teacher.

For two, I am schooling 10 kids. We have mine and Dave’s laptops and we prefer the kids to not use these. When we upgraded our laptops this past spring, the old laptops have become the class computers. But, that is 2 computers for 10 kids (we do have a couple “old” ones too but they don’t run some programs well and are very very slow on the internet).

I have come around the past couple of years. Being on the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, we do receive computer (online, download, or CD) curricula to review. Well, to do the review the kids have to use the computer. Last year, we received enough in computer related reviews that each of the 10 kids had something to work with. This helped open the doors to my heart about using computers in school.

I am working out a computer schedule for the kids. Since 4 of the kids are grandkids and they have been allowed computer time at home, I’m going to leave it like that for them. Now it is only working computer time for 6. One dilemma solved.

I am going to stagger the classes and have a computer time schedule posted on the wall.

Nicole and Tiffany will be using Teaching Textbooks (TT5 and TT6). This isn’t online time, but is computer time.

Nicole will also use Time4Learning (we reviewed this a couple of years ago).

Donald is still using a program we reviewed last year called KidCoder (the girls will use this too and will be a computer credit for high school). He’ll have that as computer time and it is online.

Jaime will be using Rosetta Stone for Spanish. (Each of the kids will be using this as they are ready for it…but starting with Jaime as she’s a sophomore this year). Jaime is also taking a typing class, but I decided to have her use a “real” typewriter for now. Learn the old-fashioned way without the reliability of spell check and such.

Tawny will be using Talking Fingers, another program we reviewed last year (see review here and here).

I don’t have a program for Ashley yet.

The three high schoolers will be using Math-U-See for math (never used this before) and IEW (Institute in Excellence for Writing) and these are on DVD, but we’ll pop those into the DVD player with the TV so they can watch at the same time.

For each of the computer times, there will be a timer set. It is part of our school day and on to the next subject.

What I don’t like about the idea of using computers, I don’t have a place to leave the computers set up all the time. We have a shelf to put the computers away but it is getting them out, setting them up away from the other kids so they student can concentrate on his/her work.

At this point, they don’t have free computer time. The four older kids do have an email address, but they needed that for iTunes for their iTouches.

Even though iTouches can be a computer of sorts for getting on the internet, the kids are not allowed to do so. They don’t have free reign for their iTouches either. These are saved for road trips or specifically for school. We will use them for American/British Literature class for the high school students in that I can download one book to all the iTouches and have them read whatever the assignment is. This way I won’t have to have four copies of the same book taking up shelf space.

I’m getting there. Slowly but surely.

One thing for sure though, the kids will be able to use a computer competently by the time they graduate high school. But no one says they have to be able to do so by the time they complete elementary or Jr. High school

I’m too addicted to the computer as it is. I’d really rather they aren’t while they are still kids. I will continue to use it as an educational resource as we need to though.

What’s your thoughts on kids using a computer whether for school or free time? Am I being a bit “old-fashioned”? Sometimes satan likes to tell me I am and then I go on a guilt trip.

What programs do your kids use?

Have a blessed rest of your week and enjoy your three day weekend!

Vickie

The Grace Card (DVD review)

2011-08-19T09:47:00.001-06:00

Movie synopsis:

“Everything can change in an instant … and take a lifetime to unravel. When Mac McDonald loses his son in an accident, the ensuing 17 years of bitterness and pain erodes his love for his family and leaves him angry with God … and just about everyone else. Mac’s rage stonewalls his career in the police department and makes for a combustible situation when he’s partnered with Sam Wright, a rising star on the force—who happens to be a part-time pastor and a loving family man.

Can they somehow join forces to help one another when it’s impossible for either of them to look past their differences—especially the most obvious one? Every day, we have the opportunity to rebuild relationships and heal deep wounds by extending and receiving God’s grace. Offer THE GRACE CARD … and never underestimate the power of God’s love.”

Our take:

This movie is powerful!

We all have gone thru times in our lives where we hold a grudge against someone/s. When the grudge and anger is deep, it is very very hard to let that go.

To let go and let God.

The longer we hold on to it, the deeper it goes. The deeper it goes, the harder it is to climb back out. Before long, our whole world and those around us are affected.

This movie reminds us that it is never to late to let go. Never too late to invite God back into our lives. Never to late to ask forgiveness and know, KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are forgiven.

It is never to late to play your Grace Card!

This movie is a must see. Get yours today. The release date for this DVD was August 16 so it is available to you now. If you get Netflix DVD’s, reserve it today.

Check out the website and “like” the movie on Facebook.

Website: http://www.thegracecardmovie.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thegracecard

As a side note: don’t forget the tissues towards the end of the movie

God’s Blessings

Vickie

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. 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.”

What a summer!!!

2011-08-17T12:43:00.001-06:00

What a busy summer we’ve had. So much to do on my summer wish list and not even half has been accomplished <ugh>

In June we had Vacation Bible School. That was a huge success.

We took the rest of June off from school…we should have pressed on I’m thinking because once July hit, we’ve been pretty well non-stop on our schedule. School typically starts the first Monday in August and here it is the 17th and we still haven’t started full force. The kids have been working in their math books for now. The older kids have added in Bible. Other books have been passed out but no schedule going yet.

We have received our first products to review for TOS. I’m excited to get started but haven’t due to our schedule. Really really need to get moving on those. We do have a couple of games to review, that’ll break up the monotony of the day to day school. We will be reviewing a Bible study for Christlike Character. That has come in the knick of time….we can use that around here. A science curriculum with electricity is another one we have. Look for upcoming reviews in September.

We are updating our homestudy to be able to adopt more kids. We’ve had the home visit and have attended classes and what seems like the never ending paperwork to do as well. Plus cleaning up and organizing to make room for the new kids.

I was going to sign Jaime up for driver’s ed…but couldn’t find her birth certificate or social security card in time. I’ve had to send off for them. Finally here. We’ll have to see about the Fall or winter session now.

We had a friendly badger visit for a few hours. I shared photos and the story from that already.

Travis and family visited. They were at our house for a week but in the state for 2 weeks. I tried leaving both weeks open for just in case. We did end up meeting up with them in the big city to go to the zoo and have lunch together. That was fun!

We went on our first GeoCache adventure. That was a blast! It may be something we will continue to do for future fun and adventures. Anyone else GeoCache?

My dad spend the night in the hospital again. His breathing is getting worse. He has now asked that I be at all his Dr.’s appointments with him and mom because I remember things they don’t and I ask questions they don’t think of PLUS I have A/C in my truck LOL It has been great being able to spend that time with them. I don’t know how much longer this will last

Our garden got a slow slow start. Finally making some progress. I wonder if we’ll get much before the first frost in about a month. Using a greenhouse has been an experience. We thought, get greenhouse, plant seedlings, transplant seedlings when they are big enough, etc. Well, there is a learning curve to even a greenhouse. Who’d have thunk it!

We currently have fires all around us. Nine were burning the last I heard. Two are human caused, the others are from lightning from a storm that rolled thru on Sunday night. The fires have burned nearly 200,000 acres at this point and resources to man the fires are thin. A couple of fires had to remain unmanned for a couple of days since they weren’t threatening anyone or anything. One fire even crossed the fence line and got onto the local Air Force Base. Scary thought when it entered on the fuel side of the base. I shutter to think what could have happened had it spread any further on there. Still burning around it tho.

Earlier last month there was a fire that came within 1 1/2 miles from our house. Headed directly our way. Thankfully that got contained fairly quickly.

We’ve had lots of kittens born this summer. We’ve lost several of them as well. We think the owls got a whole litter that were about 6-7 weeks old and were running all around. We are keeping a close eye on the others that are up and coming.

We’ve assisted at the church for anniversary and birthday parties, yard clean-up after a sprinkler system was installed, potlucks, BBQ’s. We assisted at a Lineman’s College (about 75 miles away) during their quarterly graduations. We’ve assisted with the church’s sno-cone booth at the local Concert in the Park that goes on during July on Thursday evenings. (Two had to be rescheduled due to weather).

We attended a retirement ceremony and had to say good-bye to some great friends and the only other homeschool family we know. They will be missed dearly for a long time. Praying they will still remain lifelong friends, even miles apart.

We’ve had ortho appointments for Jaime and follow-up checks for the others.

Donald has a Dr.’s appointment this week to have a couple moles removed that have been irritating him.

So, as you can see….not much time to be blogging. I’ve felt pretty guilty not doing so more. Praying I’ll be able to keep a better schedule for my blog. Of course, with all these reviews coming up, there will be more posts lol

Praying everyone’s summer has been pleasant and all that you planned has been or will be accomplished.

I’m thanking the Lord that cooler days are coming and with that comes a more consistent schedule for us all. It’ll be back to some normalcy around here.

Have a blessed rest of your week. Off to get lunch for the kids so I can attend a webinar (I’ve attended a few of those this summer as well).

God’s Blessings to you all,

Vickie

My Father-in-Law

2011-08-05T19:13:00.001-06:00

I decided to join Debbie over at Debbie’s Digest for her weekly Blast from the Past meme.

This past weekend was the 6th anniversary when my father-in-law went to live with Jesus.

These photos were taken when he was in Vietnam (I believe it was Vietnam).

He is the father to 7 kids. Dave is the middle child He looks just like his dad and they even share the same first name…..Charles.

This year he would have been 82 years young.

We miss him, his stories, and his loving embraces. I know we will see him again when it is our turn to go live with Jesus.

If you have a Blast from the Past photo/s to share….join Debbie each week and link up.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Who is Simon Miller? (TV movie review)

2011-08-02T21:31:00.001-06:00

"Who Is Simon Miller?" Synopsis:

“When unassuming geologist Simon Miller mysteriously disappears one night, the Miller family is thrown into a desperate search to find him. Simon's wife Meredith and their two kids, Sarah, 18 and Kevin, 15 frantically search Simon's office for information. When they find a stash of passports, all with Simon's picture but each with a different alias, they realize that their father has been keeping more than a few secrets. Who is Simon Miller? And what has he gotten himself - and his family - into? Not sure they can even trust the dad they thought they knew, the Millers embark on an international mission to get him back. It's a heart-pounding adventure that tests the limits to which families will fight for each other.”

This TV movie is set to air August 6, 2011 at 8/7 pm central on NBC but we got an online viewing to review.

I must say, we enjoyed this quality family movie. It was entertaining, it was clean. There was nothing in the movie that I needed to be concerned with the kids watching. Very wholesome movie for the entire family.

This movie reminded me of the big screen movie “True Lies”. I could watch this one over and over again just like that one.

You can check out the Family Movie Night website, Facebook, and a youtube video clip of the movie in the following links:

Website: http://familymovienight.com/who-is-simon-miller/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/familymovienight
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/fmnib

Set your DVR if you can’t be there to watch this wonderful family movie brought to you by Wal-Mart and P&G this Saturday, August 6, 2011 8/7 c on NBC.

Bring on the pizza and have a wonderful Family Movie Night.

Disclaimer:“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Buying a town

2011-07-30T00:12:00.001-06:00

Ever thought of buying a whole town?

Wouldn’t that be kind of fun!

I always dreamed of having my own little corner of the world.

On MSN I saw an ad that someone was selling their town in South Dakota.

I looked at the pictures.

I shouldn’t have.

I’m sure tonight I’ll be dreaming about building my own town. A place for all my kids and grandkids.

A few special friends that see what I see… (are you ready, Susie?)

We could run it…each family assigned a “business” to maintain and operate. Bring in the tourists. Bring in the citizens. Where is the parade?

I’m thinking a HUGE Bed & Breakfast too. Catering to large families, of course.

We’ll have another Bed & Breakfast for adults only….maybe lol

We could turn the old Saloon into a Mom & Pop café! Home cooked meals everyday.

There are two jails….hmmm, what could be done with those?

There is a large garage that I think is the main gas station…but I’m sure we could have a mechanic AND a body man on duty. You never know.

Oh, can’t forget the Mercantile. How much fun would that one be. We could have a huge garden and orchard out back that grows the fresh produce that we could sell in the store. I could really make it quaint looking…..

I’m getting all kinds of ideas LOL

Of course someone will have to maintain the critters so we’ll have eggs, fresh milk, meat at all times….not just for all of us, but the mercantile as well.

There is a post-office too! Anyone want to write me if I buy this cute little town?

The extra large dance hall…..so many opportunities for that building.

Friday night “barn dances”.

Wedding receptions.

Town meetings.

Movie theater.

Family reunions.

We’d have to build a little white church!

We’ll need a pastor too.

Someone to preach the Word…

Do weddings…..

Baptisms!

There were other buildings shown….

We’ll need a medical center for minor things. (Mike, we’ll need you there for this one.) The big hospital is about 50 miles away.

Oh….I think there is a museum as well. Who wants to be our curator?

I understand there is world class agate hunting and lots of fossils to find.

Fun! Fun!

Last but not least….a little red schoolhouse!!!

White trim

Large playground

Tire swing

Gazebo for lunch time or school outside.

Do you subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse magazine? (If you don’t…try out a free online version of the magazine here). They show different school houses on the covers.

So many styles to choose from. Where to begin?

Ahhh….the dreams of dreamers! I could see myself doing this. I really could!!

I’m ready!

I pray my family is!!

OK…off to dream a little dream of a little town with big city attitude!

Good night everyone and I pray happy dreams to each and everyone one of you!

Vickie

FREE TOS Magazine

2011-07-28T15:54:00.001-06:00

Take a look at the brand new Summer digital edition of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. TOS is offering this digital issue of the magazine totally free with no strings attached. Enjoy this free gift from TOS—no registration or email address required to view the magazine! Take a peek here or on the banner above. Then share the link with your friends by clicking on the share button at the top of the magazine pages.

I’ve been enjoying this magazine for…. hmmm…5 years or so and my subscription isn’t set to expire til 2014 or something like that. It is hard not to take advantage of some of the offers when purchasing another subscription

Click on the banner and download your FREE The Old Schoolhouse Magazine now. Read it cover to cover. Click on the hyperlinks from the advertisers.

If you’re like me…you’ll be sucked in for quite awhile so have your tea and fan ready. What better way to stay cool!!

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Our unexpected visitor….

2011-07-20T23:15:00.001-06:00

We had an interesting visitor this morning.

We heard the dogs going crazy and as I jumped up to see what was going on, one of the girls came running upstairs saying that they saw a badger outside their bedroom window.

Sure enough…I look out and there he was!!

Exciting and scary at the same time.

I quickly called Dave for advice. He said to carry a big shovel LOL So, loaded with my camera and a big shovel, I grabbed Donald and said let’s get him.

By the time we had gotten out there, the badger had gone under our porch. The dogs were still at him and I worried for their safety. I went inside and grabbed a couple girls to hold the dogs at bay. Well, they were having none of that (the dogs not the girls).

Donald had a stick trying to poke the badger from above, between the boards on the porch. I stood with my shovel ready to whack him if he came at me. We heard him growling and hissing but…..

he wasn’t budging.

I sent Ashley to get the hose and hook it to the nearest frost free. With the wand on the end, I had Donald showering the badger from above thinking we could get him to move with the water chasing him.

Well, that sort of worked.

He came out from under the porch and stood under the hose and got totally drenched. He actually looked like he was enjoying himself. Probably thinking the cool water felt good in the heat. It was kind of fun to watch him sit there, and at one point, with his face directly in the water.

He scampered back under the porch when Donald moved the water.

So back on top, Donald starts showering him again. This time he came out the other end of the porch. Staring straight at me and I didn’t know what to do. So….I grabbed the camera again

Donald stuck the wand end of the hose on his backside and tried giving him a nudge to get out (the water was still on).

That stinker stood there and arched his back like he was enjoying having his back scratched. He rolled one shoulder then the other under the wand……I suppose trying to have those scratched too.

Once again, when the water (and back scratching) stopped…he headed back under the porch. Donald kept the water on him and this time he came all the way out the other side.

He gets on the sidewalk and starts laying out in the sun. He was rolling all over that warm sidewalk; rubbing up against the house. Stopping now and again to check us out.

What a character!!!

He was near the heat pump when the A/C kicked on. Boy, did he glare at that for a bit.

Looking over his shoulder at the machine, he finally trotted off under the fence and out to the pasture.

It took us nearly 2 hours to get him out from under the porch and on his way.

What an adventure to have this morning. What a fun memory the kids will have.

I made sure the little ones stayed inside (they watched from the big window behind Donald) and I allowed the older girls and Charlie to sit up on the railing of the porch and dared them to get down. The only ones I wanted on the ground was me, and I was ready with my shovel….and camera.

As mean as they can be, and as scary as those 4” claws looked, along with the bared teeth now and again….he still was a sight to behold.

Vickie

Father’s Day annual photo

2011-07-11T22:40:00.001-06:00

Every year we take a group photo of the kids around Father’s Day. Sometimes it doesn’t make it til July…..like this year.

We began this tradition when we first got the kids, before we knew we were adopting the sib group. We were making a Father’s Day project and we needed a photo to go on it. Every year since then, we’ve taken a new photo and the kids make sure they are standing in the exact same spot as the first year. It has been fun watching them grow thru this series of photos in the past eight years.

Back: Jaime almost 8, Nicole 9, Ashley 7, Donald 6, Tiffany 3

Here’s the first year…2003. Tawny is not in this one. She wasn’t born yet, let alone ours yet (she came to us about a month later).

Back: Jaime 16 (just turned), Nicole 17, Ashley 15, Donald 14, Tiffany 11, Jasmine 5, Tawny 8 (just turned)

Now this year’s….2011. And Donald was worried about being short LOL This one also includes our newest addition, Jasmine.

What a blessing they each have been in our lives over the years.

Thank you Lord, for making them ours.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

It Is God Who Holds the Nations

2011-07-04T07:00:00.000-06:00

(to the tune of: The Battle Hymn of the Republic)

It is God who holds the nations in the hollow of His hand;

It is God whose light is shining in the darkness of the land;

It is God who builds His city on the Rock and not on sand:

The living God be praised!

Refrain:

Glory! Glory, hallelujah! (3x)

Our God is marching on.

It is God whose purpose summons us to use the present hour;

Who recalls us to our senses when a nation’s life turns sour;

In the discipline of freedom we shall know His saving power:

The living God be praised!

Refrain

When a thankful nation, looking back, has cause to celebrate

Those who win our admiration by their service to the State;

When self-giving is a measure of the greatness of the great:

The living God be praised!

Refrain

God reminds us every sunrise that the world is ours on lease -

For the sake of life tomorrow may our love for it increase;

May all races live together, share its riches, be at peace:

The living God be praised!

Refrain

Chess champ in the making…

2011-07-03T19:42:00.001-06:00

Our grandson, Max, is hilarious. He just turned five in June. Now he likes to be known as “Cinco de Max”.

Max is our future lawyer. He is a great negotiator. He always has reasons and very well thought out reasons for asking or doing something. Sometimes, it is so very hard to tell him no because he has such logic in his requests. Lawyer I tell ya! He’ll WOW the judge and jury!

Since his birthday, whenever he sees Dave he says, “Papa, will you teach me to play ‘chest’?” (now now, stop laughing lol) Dave will say, “how about checkers instead?” Max tells him that he already knows how to play checkers and that is too easy. He wants to learn ‘chest’.

So…finally…his negotiating skills won out for him. Papa sat him down and taught him how to play chess.

The intense look on his face while concentrating on what Papa is saying was priceless. So…I grab the camera. Take a look at these photos….

Learning the pieces and their roles.

Papa suggesting a move.

Deciding his next move.

When Brandy got here to pick up the kids, Max told her,”Papa taught me how to play chest and I lost this time.” He’s so funny!

Dave said he picked up on it a whole lot quicker than he anticipated he would. That has me worried, will I be able to keep up with him and keep him challenged enough in school? The next 12 years ought to prove interesting

Way to go Max. After playing, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up….he says, “I haven’t made up my mind yet. I can’t decide if I want to work with daddy and Papa at the shop, or if I want to work at Wingers.” Huh? He says that if he goes to work at the shop, he might be late to work at Wingers LOL So I helped him devise a plan to make it work. He’s already to go now lol

Can you tell…there is never a dull moment with Max around.

Gotta love grandkids!!!!

Keep it up Max! You’ll go far in this life.

Got a funny grandkid story? Share it with me.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Tell them you love them….

2011-06-26T15:21:00.001-06:00

I received this in my email and I thought it was great enough to share on here. There is no author so no one I can really credit this too. But there are some great words to ponder on.

So without further adieu:

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress; lawn mower in his hand, and dish-towel in hers. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy.

All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away ...never to return.

So, while we have it ...

its best we love it ....

And care for it ....

And fix it when it's broken ...

And heal it when it's sick.

This is true ...For marriage.

And old cars ...

And children with bad report cards ... Dogs and cats with bad hips ...

And aging parents ...

And grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, and friends.

We keep them because they are worth it, because WE are worth it.

Some things we keep. Like a best friend who moved away or a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special .. And so, we keep them close in heart and mind and spirit.

Treasure your time with loved ones. You’ll never know when it’ll be too late to do so.

Have you hugged your spouse today? Have you told him/her that you love them lately? What about your kids? Parents? Your best friend? It is not to late to do so right now.

Hugs to all my friends out there in cyber world. Hugs to my real life friends as well. I may not see you today, or tomorrow, but know you aren’t far from my heart, thoughts, and prayers.

God’s Blessings be with each of you always,

Vickie

When Chicks Hatch (book review)

2011-06-20T12:12:00.001-06:00

I was honored to be asked to take a look at first time author, Heather Randall’s, new book When Chicks Hatch.

This novel is about “five women who face some very challenging days of their lives. Love, friendship, and long-held perception of what life holds for them are tested with each one’s own personal struggles. Their lives become intertwined as they intersect God, faith, and hope”.

Book recap: Nicky is a college student who uncovers her professor’s infidelity. Sidney finds herself in a web of deceit with a married man and battles to reconcile her self-centered past with her unexpected future. Jennifer is driven by the unquenchable yearning for her own child. Alexis wants out of a life that is crushing her inside and faces grief and rejection as she works to resurrect her marriage. Kristen is a nurse faced with an overwhelming assignment and has lost faith that her dreams of love and family will ever materialize.Together these women learn the truth of Humpty Dumpty. Shells do break, but the King isn’t just watching from afar, He’s waiting to see the chick emerge.

This book was a fast read. Very entertaining and a few tears and an ending that surprised me. Heather Randall did a great job bringing these women together. I could relate, at some point, to each of these women. It was a very inspirational book about God directing our paths in life. How things that seem unfair, is God working in our own lives. None of these women are perfect. They are all poor miserable sinners just as I am. But God was still there for each of them.

Great Christian reading. Pull up your lawn chair, glass of ice-tea, big sunhat, with your feet in the kiddie pool and enjoy.

You can purchase this book from any of these locations:

It is available in paperback (132 pages) or as an ebook for your eReading device.

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Thank you, Heather, for allowing me to review this book for you. It is an awesome read.

Happy Birthday, Max!!

2011-06-20T11:31:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe I forgot to post about Max turning 5 on the 14th. What a week!

When I named my kids, I tried to make sure they didn’t have the same initials so I could use at least use the initial of their first name to label things. Well, with grandkids and more kids coming along, that is getting to be impossible (plus I’m not naming them all lol). Max has an older sister, Megan. I could do like I do Tiffany and Tawny and have capital T and lower case t, but the M’s just don’t look different enough to do that. So ONE TIME, it was suppose to be a one time thing, I put M3 for Max. After that, it has always had to have a number after it or it isn’t his. Crossing out 3 to change to 4, now marking out 4’s to change to 5’s.

Last year when he turned 4, we could only call him Max Quatro. This year he is Cinco de Max. Funny funny boy!

Max is Brandy and Robert’s fourth child. He is a load of fun. Spoiled being the youngest in his family, the youngest of our school, the youngest of the grandkids and just so petite and too darn cute! He’s only about the size of a 3-year-old, maybe a slightly small 4-year-old but definitely doesn’t look 5-years-old. He’s still small enough and light enough to be carried around. BUT, he did grow almost 3-inches since his last birthday.

Max is our future lawyer. He’s an analyzer. A thinker. He thinks in steps. “If I do this, then this will happen” type of thinking. Like checkers. He’s a whizz with checkers and nearly beat Papa yesterday. He wants to learn chess now too. Uh-oh, Papa had better watch out.

As bright as he is there, we can’t get him to count past 10. Wanna know why? He only has 10 fingers. He has to touch the objects with each finger. If there are more than 10, he doesn’t start his fingers over with 11. We’ll be working on that this next school year maybe using manipulatives so he can save his fingers.

Even at 5, he’s still a hugger, kisser, and a great snuggler. He loves playing alone and with groups. Self-entertaining for sure. Well, and he’s an entertainment for us too when he’s in those moods. LOL

Sometimes when he gives kisses, he says he ran out of “regular” kisses so he has to give us butterfly or Eskimo kisses. We have to give him “regular” kisses so he’ll have some to share “next time”.

I’ll enjoy seeing what the Lord has planned for this boy.

Happy Birthday, Cinco de Max. We love you very very much.

God’s Blessings be with you always as you go thru this life. I feel that the Lord has some great plans for you. He’s getting you ready with your wisdom and analytical and convincing ways.

Love

Nana and Papa

Vacation Bible School 2011

2011-06-11T11:44:00.001-06:00

This week was our VBS week. We had a great time and a great turn out.

Our theme was Big Jungle Adventure: A Faith Journey with Jesus. I was the craft leader for all the kids. Age 3 to those that just finished 6th grade. We had an average of about 50 kids each day.

The weather cooperated somewhat. Only one really bad day that the kids couldn’t go outside for rec time. Then the kids played in the room next to my craft classroom. Got a bit noisy LOL

Day 1 began with the story called Big Basket Beginning. [The story of Baby Moses Exodus 2:1-10]. With the help of the Holy Spirit the kids learned how our Heavenly Father uses parents and others to care for them, and they shared ways they can care for others. Just as Moses’ mother hid him in the basket and the reeds to protect him from certain death, God takes care of us through Jesus our Savior!

For the craft, the kids wove baskets out of strips of construction paper. We used stuff like Easter basket straw for inside the basket. Baby Moses was made from the people looking wooden clothespin, wrapped in blue flannel. The nursery thru 1st grade did a simpler kind of Moses basket. They were cute!

Older kid Moses baskets.

Nursery – 1st grade Moses baskets.

Day 2: The story was Rocking Sea Rescue. [Crossing the Red Sea Exodus 14:10-29] The kids learned how Jesus rescued them from the 3 enemies: sin, death, and the devil; just as God rescued the children of Israel when they walked on dry ground at the bottom of the divided Red Sea.

For the craft we did bracelets or necklaces (kids’ choice) out of beads. I know I know, not anything to do with the crossing of the Red Sea but the kids enjoyed them anyway.

There were five silver beads. Each bead represented something. We called the beads Faith Journey Witness Beads and we encouraged the kids to witness to family and friends using the beads. The kids always love doing a bead project. I try to oblige that every year.

First bead: Serpent. Sin came into the world when satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted Adam and Eve to sin.

Second bead: Cross. Jesus died on the cross and rose again to save us from our sin.

Third bead: Shell. God washes away our sin through the gift of Baptism.

Fourth bead: Seed/Sprout. Through God’s Word, the Bible, our faith is nourished and grows.

Fifth bead: Crown. God promises the crown of life and life eternal in heaven to all who believes in Him.

Day 3: The story was Mighty Mountain Mission. [Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:14-16; John 8:12] The kids learned how they can share God’s light in the world today. “Jesus is the light of life that we share with others.”

For crafts we made ice-candles. I remember making these in Girl Scouts a hundred years ago lol The kids voted this one their favorite project.

Day 4: The story was The Resurrection Race. [Peter and John run to the empty tomb John 20:1-10, 19-21] The kids learned the joyful message of Christ’s Resurrection and to share with their family and friends. “Jesus rose from the dead to save us”.

For crafts: The kids finished up their candles. Then they colored sun catcher butterflies. I reminded them that whenever they see a butterfly in real life that they are to remember Jesus’ resurrection (I gave a special award to whomever could spell resurrection. Austin H. missed it by one ‘r’. I gave him the award).

Day 5: The story was A Jeweled Journey’s End. [John’s Vision of Heaven Revelation 21:10-22:5] The kids learned the assurance of heaven that is theirs in Christ. “Jesus, our Savior, prepares our heavenly home”.

For crafts the kids decorated crowns. A reminder that Jesus is the King of Kings and if we are faithful til death, we will receive the crown of life.

We ended the week with a closing that the parents were invited to. The kids sang some of the songs and shared the Bible verses they learned all week. Afterwards, there was lots of goodies, including snow cones, juice, cookies, more theme prepared snacks from the week, and lots of fellowship.

I feel VBS was a success. We have our regulars that come back every year along with the kids from our congregation.

Barb did an awesome organizing us all, as usual. The scenery and the videos were awesome.

A thanks to all the teachers and helpers that really keep the kids learning and moving. Some of the kids will “graduate” VBS this year and will return next year as helpers. Something they all look forward too

God’s Blessings

Vickie

Field of Vision (Family Movie Night)

2011-06-08T22:26:00.001-06:00

We’ve had a chance to preview family friendly movies for Family Movie Night in the past. We’ve really enjoyed this movies.

The movie, Field of Vision, brought to us by Wal-Mart and Proctor & Gamble is a very uplifting movie that teaches that bullying is wrong. This is something all families really need to be discussing. We know that bullying is wrong, some kids see it as fun and games. We often hear, “I’m only teasing” but the kid/person on the other side of that “teasing” doesn’t feel that it is very funny.

Sometimes bullying is really meant to be mean and threatening. Bullying is wrong, and this movie shows that, even tho it is hard, one has to stand up to what is right. No matter what the risks are.

In Field of Vision, star quarterback, Tyler McFarland, learns that some of his teammates have been bullying a troubled new transfer student. Aware that sharing this information with the coach might get his friends kicked off the team and ultimately cost them the state championship, Tyler must choose what's more important: winning or doing what's right. Starring Faith Ford, Tony Oller and Joe Adler this movie airs on Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 8/7c on NBC.

Check out the trailer here.

Anyway…this movie is a great way to begin that conversation with your kids. In fact, Donald (our 14-year-old son) had to face this exact same thing today at VBS (Vacation Bible School). Just as the kid in the movie, Donald did the right thing.

It is funny how us getting to preview this movie tonight, and Donald having this happen today, and this movie reinforcing to Donald that he truly did do the right thing….coincidence? I don’t think so. A God thing? I do think so.

You really need to watch this movie. It is scheduled to aired on NBC, Saturday June 11 at 8/7c. If you can’t watch it, record it. It is a must see.

Here are several links to check out more info about this movie.

Website: http://www.familymovienight.com/field-of-vision/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/familymovienight

Mom's for Family TV:

http://www.moms4familytv.com/

Dove Foundation Review: http://www.dove.org/reviewpopup.asp?Unique_ID=883

Get your popcorn, a corner of one tissue (you won’t need a whole one) ready to watch this movie as a family. Be sure your teens are there too. Wonderful family movie.

God’s Blessings

Vickie