Fun In The Sun

Fall Disney Trip Day One

2011-09-26T09:48:00.001-05:00

No one is really surprised by that title are they? Yes, we are back from yet another trip to Disney (3rd this year!) No, we are not made of money lol. We buy season tickets so for the cost of one trip we can take multiple trips. Plus we use dh’s hotel points to score free nights. And these trips are our only vacations…seriously, anyone will tell you we only ever go to Disney World. :)

We didn’t stay on property this time, but at our favorite non-Disney hotel, the Embassy Suites. We had a pool-view room.

The front desk had a cute Mickey ghost decoration. Yes, Disney celebrates fall/Halloween very early.

The boys almost immediately hit the pool. The days were nice and sunny and not overwhelmingly hot. But still hot. :)

Ds3 and I outside our room.

We weren’t really planning on going to any parks that first day, but after the pool time we all felt pretty refreshed and decided to go to Epcot.

Right when we walked up to Spaceship Earth we were greeted by an RC Mickey, with stickers to share with ds4.

Next up was the Living Seas. The place was practically empty, we just walked right in with no wait.

We spent a good while watching the sea life, including rays and really big fish. The dolphins were also pretty playful that day, and I snapped this possibly indecent pic of one up close.

Me and the little guys.

We got to sit up front on Living With The Land so I got some pretty good pics.

Ds4 didn’t want to go on Imagination, so we played with the jumping water outside the attraction.

Now get this. We actually parked our car in the MK parking lot, not at Epcot. Here’s why. Dh loves the long monorail ride from Ticket and Transportation to Epcot. So we parked at MK, rode the monorail to Epcot, rode it back, hopped over on the resort monorail and went to the Polynesian. Why? Because I am a resort mug freak, and I had to have one lol!

The boys in the Polynesian lobby. Then we rode back to TT and ended a rather long but fun first day. Tomorrow it’s Animal Kingdom!!

Homeschool 2011-2012 Week 2

2011-08-20T08:28:00.001-05:00

Getting into a good grove. We got all our science books in the mail and started our study of Earth and space. Our first experiment helped to illustrate why the Earth’s heat level remains constant (to better understand the role our atmosphere plays in temperature control.)

We put a thermometer inside a small plastic bag filled with air and secured the opening with a twist tie. Then we put the small bag in a larger bag, also filled with air and secured with a twist tie. Then we placed the bags in direct sunlight and put a thermometer nearby.

After 30 minutes the temperature outside the bag was 120 degrees! The inside bag was 131 degrees. Yikes.

Next the bags were placed in a dark closet. Hmm, the towel shelf looks low, need to do a load soon. And while it looks bright and shiny, it’s just my flash, the closet is indeed dark.

Don’t know what this has to do with our experiment, but it was part of the pics ds3 took. Look at the cute markings on her belly. :) So, after 30 minutes in the dark closet, the thermometer outside the bag read 69 degrees (prompting me to seriously think of moving into the closet for the remainder of the summer) and the bag inside was 78 degrees. I then had the boys narrate their findings and observations to me and I filled in their worksheet. As the year progresses I will have them write these narrations on their own.

In geography, ds3 has been learning about using scales to measure the distance between cities. When he is actually doing the worksheets it seems like he isn’t interested, but he surprised me with a homemade map, complete with scale, of some place in his Legend of Zelda video game. Stuff like that is always reassuring to homeschooling mamas.

We spent the week doing school mainly in the afternoon, which I have never liked. I guess it’s all those years of going to school for me that has ingrained in my brain that the morning hours are for work and the afternoon hours are supposed to be free. But there were various reasons everyone slept in a lot this week and it was just easier to start school after lunch, when normally we are done before lunch. I was surprised that we did actually get school done, and I guess we can keep afternoon schooling open as an option, but for the record, I still don’t like it. :) Week 2 is through. Now excuse me while I pack for my move to the closet (now known as Mom’s Summer House.)

Cats On Tuesday: Ellie’s First Week Of School

2011-08-16T06:49:00.001-05:00

Ellie is fitting in very well with our homeschooling. She’s been very busy with her school work.

Checking the school supply shelf.

Emptying out the contents of ds’s magnetic letters and counting cubes containers. (She takes this task seriously and performs it many times a day.)

Watching as ds explores our ocean theme (she’s on the bottom right.)

Naptime! We really lucked out, getting a kitty that matches our furniture so well.

We’ve had Ellie for over a month now and boy has she grown.

Then Now

Pretty soon she won’t fit in the bed. Sigh. To see more cute kitties visit Gattina’s and Happy COT!

Homeschool 2011-2012 Week 1

2011-08-15T18:14:00.001-05:00

Hello, and welcome to week one.

I am surprised at how well our first week of homeschooling has gone so far. My boys were so resistant and complaining all summer at the mere mention of the “s” word (school, people, school) that I thought there would be much more teeth gnashing and fit pitching. Instead they both cooperated and even seemed to enjoy themselves. Fancy that.

I’m using Carissa’s themed calendar fact cards this year. The theme for August is oceans. I’ve set up a little cubicle area for resources related to the theme, such as books and discovery bins. I love how we spend just 10-15 minutes tops discussing the day’s card but the boys’ learn so much.

We started up our SOTW lessons right where we left off last year and it was like there was no break at all. The boys’ retention of what we had covered so far was impressive. This week we are covering China. After we discussed the Great Wall my guys made their way to the legos and started creating their version. They also made lego versions of an execution. At least it’s less bloody.

In geography ds3 is learning about map scales and how to measure distances between cities on a map. He is also continuing his states study (up to #39 I think) and has begun a vocabulary word a day program. Ds4 has started the Explode the Code series but seems to have made more progress in reading when we used a more sight/whole word approach, so we will be doing both. He also picked right up with his First Language Lessons.

We are still reading Fantastic Mr. Fox and learning some new vocabulary with it as well. I’ve also introduced a classical music study which both boys LOVE. It floored me, how enthusiastic they were with Hadyn’s Surprise Symphony. Of course, they both played their unique versions on their ocarinas.

Now we can put a big old checkmark next to week one. Done!

School Portraits 2011-2012

2011-08-15T13:08:00.001-05:00

We are going to call this one the “keeping it real” version.

Ds4, my 2nd grader, was thrilled to have his photo taken.

He is a stubborn 6yo who can be the sweetest person on earth (when he chooses to.)

Ds3 is in an awkward preteen stage, trying to look cool. I had to shoot him from the waist up, as he still had his pajama pants on.

I love them both with all my heart and am so very blessed to have homeschooled them all their lives. And that’s for real. :)

Destination Disney: G

2011-08-12T09:14:00.001-05:00

Giraffe

Golf ball

Giant roll of film

Goofy Goofier Goofiest

Schoolroom Version 2011-2012

2011-08-08T14:10:00.001-05:00

The “schoolroom” has certainly evolved over our 11 years of homeschooling. For the past few years our dining room has undergone a gradual but persistent transformation into schoolroom. Here are some pics of this year’s version.

Looking into the room from our living room. Dh’s desk is on the left, mine on the right. The window faces the street in front of our house.

The cubbie under the window is a new addition. It will be home to things related to our current monthly theme. Right now, the theme is oceans and the unit houses related books and our “discovery/sensory” bin.

Looking out from the schoolroom into the living room. There is the table where the boys do most of their work and another new addition next to the table…a computer station for ds3. A close up of the little supply caddie I finally got around to making. Just bought a cheap lazy Susan and had ds2 hot glue on some cute holders from Target’s dollar section. Very handy. Although I could use some creative ideas for what to do with that bucket of crayons, it’s so messy and unorganized.

The view from the entryway into the dining room. (Please take note of our school uniform policy…you must either be shirtless or in your pajamas. We are pretty strict about that one.) Close up of yet another new addition, a giant shelf for all our resources. Up until I got this, all our books and other resources were stowed away in the hall closet. It kept things looking neat as we could close the closet door and no one is the wiser, but over time I kept forgetting exactly what resources I had and failed to use them. So now they are out in the open and readily available. The top shelf holds reference type resources (and our collection of refillable Icee cups,) the second shelf has three holders for storing ds3, ds4 and my own current curriculum, the third shelf holds books sorted by subject, and the bottom shelf holds art and science supplies.

This is the door next to the shelf, that leads into the kitchen. We added a dry erase board (love it! bought a magnetic eraser and cup to hold the markers.) On the wall next to the door I put up a pocket chart and cute wooden perpetual calendar (both Target dollar section finds.) The pocket chart holds the calendar fact cards from Carissa at 1+1+1=1.

My desk. In the file drawer I have 36 folders that contain all the worksheets and other papers for each week’s lessons. Tons, tons, tons of work to prepare that much in advance, but I am hoping it will all be worth it. Please, oh let it be worth it lol.

Our kitten Ellie. The best new addition to the schoolroom of all. :) I’m linking this to the Not Back To School blog hop at Heart of the Matter online.

And The Winner Is…

2011-08-08T08:47:00.001-05:00

Renee. Thanks to all who entered the DaGeDar giveaway and congratulations Renee. :)

Destination Disney: F

2011-08-05T10:06:00.001-05:00

Future It’s a shot of the personalized animation they show on Spaceship Earth

Frog on display in Animal Kingdom on Pangani Trail

Fish hanging out at Epcot’s Living Seas

Force is strong with that little girl

Fountain outside of World Showcase American Adventure

Fountain in Hollywood Studios

Destination Disney: E

2011-08-04T09:50:00.001-05:00

Electric guitar outside of Rock N Roll Roller Coaster

Eeyore

Eating at our favorite, Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe

Enchanted Tiki Room, should be reopening soon

Elephant of the real variety

Epcot

Cats On Tuesday

2011-08-02T08:32:00.001-05:00

Sweet Ellie continues to be the focus in the cat world at our house. (Although right now “sweet” Ellie is in a time out in the back bedroom because she was too crazypants this morning lol.) Katy tolerates the kitten fairly well, but Mimi continues to despise her. She will, however, eat the kitten’s wet food, which is weird because she normally never touches wet food. She also growls any time she sees the kitten, including when she is eating the kitten’s food. It’s quite funny to hear her growling and munching down on food at the same time.

You can barely see Ellie’s ear around the corner as Mimi growls and eats.

She works up the nerve to creep out from behind the couch.

She makes the mistake of actually looking at Mimi.

Run, run!

Hiding behind the fan on the other side of the room. One day I predict Ellie will actually be bigger than Mimi and the tables will turn. ;)

Aw, isn’t she adorable? She loves to pose like this for the camera. Visit Gattina’s for more kitty fun, and Happy COT! I want to add, I do visit all the participating COT blogs, but something is wrong with either Blogger or Google because on some blogs it won’t let me leave a comment. Please know I’m not ignoring you (especially if you leave me a comment) but that I am unable to leave comments on some blogs.

Not Back To School Blog Hop

2011-08-01T13:59:00.001-05:00

This hop lasts all month with a new theme each week and is hosted at Heart of the Matter Online. I’ve done this hop since 2009, pretty cool, huh? This week we are to wax eloquent on our curriculum choices for the year. Let me just start with our homeschooling facts for this year…I’ll be schooling two, my 10yo 5th grader and 6yo 2nd grader. Both boys have October birthdays and are in fact kind of “between” grades right now, but saying they are in 5th and 2nd is easier for everyone else. ;) Let’s start with ds3, shall we?

Ds3, 10yo, 5th grade

Math Mammoth
Writing Tales
Vocabulary Word of the Day
Elemental Science Earth/Space
Daily Geography
HWT
For reading I always choose some classic books to study and usually can find a few lesson plans to go along with each on the internet. This year we will cover

Fantastic Mr. Fox
James and the Giant Peach
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Stuart Little
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil

We are finishing up SOTW vol1 and then moving on to some U.S. History. I was going to go straight to SOTW vol2, but came across the neat US study and thought it would be a great tie-in with our presidents study.
Ds is finishing up his states study and will move on to a presidents study. I was going to have him do a notebook like he did with the states, but found a workbook in the dollar section at Target (along with flashcards and a puzzle) and figured it will do just as well (and save me a lot of time and ink and paper.)
Famous Artists study
Outdoor Hour nature study

Ds4, 6yo, 2nd grade

Math Mammoth
First Language Lessons
Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
HWT
Explode the Code
You Can Read
Ds4 will sit in on ds3’s history, science, artist and nature studies. I am still working on coming up with a FIAR type literature plan for him.

We have a few fun extras for this year, including a very neat calendar idea and “sensory bins,” both from Carissa. We will probably call our bins imagination bins or something, as my boys are both a little old for sensory development.

And there you have it! Today was our first day of school! Very light, just getting back into the swing of things (as in mom still hasn’t finished all the lesson planning yet.) Well, and the fact that our science books haven’t arrived either. But none of that matters, we homeschool! :)

Hey, somebody better enter this giveaway I’m hosting or I’ll just have to keep them for myself!! Enter now, get a jump on Christmas.

Product Review and Giveaway: DaGeDar

2011-07-31T14:48:00.001-05:00

Remember a while back, I had a post telling you to be on the lookout for a new toy from the makers of Zhu Zhu Pets? Well, thanks to MomSelect, the boys and I received our package and can now reveal what the new toy is!

It’s called DaGeDar. They are cool looking balls with steel ball bearings inside so they zoom like crazy along a super fast and looping track. Each ball is a character, like a robot, zombie, hero or villain. They have codes on them that you can enter on the DaGeDar website to find out more about that particular character. The track is colorful and easy to piece together. There are even two ramps so my boys could race their DaGeDar balls. Check out this video to see them in action…but only if you ignore the messy state of my living room. ;)

Here is another video, this one with ds4 demonstrating how to score 100 points on the track.

As you can see, my boys enjoyed this new offering. I like that it’s something they can play with together, the ease of setup, and the fact that it doesn’t take up all that much room (and is surprisingly portable.) The website is very detailed and has a lot to offer including challenges and an interesting background story about the DaGeDar world. Look for DaGeDar products to be in stores August 8th.

I have a basic ball set up for grabs. Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win. Winner will be picked next Sunday, August 7th.

I received a set of DaGeDar products from MomSelect to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation.

Destination Disney: D

2011-07-22T08:20:00.001-05:00

Director, who greets you at the opening of Hollywood Studios.

Driving!

Daredevils.

Don’t forget where you parked!

Dinosaur.

Diver.

Dark side.

And don’t forget to head over to Heidi’s for more Disney fun.

Summer So Far

2011-07-20T08:45:00.001-05:00

has been hot, lazy, wet and fun. We’ve gone to the beach a lot.

Ds3 has been learning to surf. He’s done really well, even stood up and made it all the way to shore on our last trip.

Our 4th of July was quiet and spent at home, watching the neighbor’s fireworks (with headsets on for ds4.)

Dh took us out to Chili’s for lunch one day.

I had soup and pasta. Not all in one meal mind you…took me three meals to finish that off lol.

Ds2 turned sweet 16 and got a new guitar.

There has been slipping and sliding.

Afternoon thundershowers.

My broken toe has healed.

Did I mention the beach?

It’s been a great summer so far. I have yet to begin preparations for school, which starts August 1st. I just can’t seem to kick my butt in gear. Would someone mind doing that for me? Go ahead and yell, I’ve got thick skin. Just be brutal, tell me to put the kitten down and get started already! A little louder. What? Can’t hear you, the waves are too loud and I have sunscreen in my ear. Thanks for trying! Ah, summer.

Cats On Tuesday: Ellie Belly

2011-07-12T08:03:00.001-05:00

It’s an appropriate nickname. ;) For more kitty fun head over to Gattina’s and happy COT!

Cats On Tuesday

2011-06-28T07:05:00.001-05:00

Are you tired of seeing kitten pics yet? Hope not, ‘cause here are some more! :)

I swear she poses every time I bring out the camera! Little Miss Ellie is settling in with the family so well. It’s officially been a week and it feels like she’s been with us forever already. She spends her days exploring the house top to bottom, eating plenty of kitty chow and cuddling with anyone who is sitting still. She has a very sweet disposition and loves to be loved. Her favorite thing is our daily cuddle on the loveseat by the window while I (attempt to) do a little reading. Of course she does her best to turn my attentions to her instead of the book, and she succeeds most of the time.

She is quite the explorer, and sometimes we all have to check all the little hiding places in the house to find her. I couldn’t locate her last night and she turned up all cuddled on the bedskirt next to dh’s side of the bed.

There she is posing again! She loves this little cat bed thing that none of the other cats would mess with when I bought it for them last Christmas. She plays in it, sleeps in it and loves to climb it. It’s funny to think how soon she won’t hardly even fit in it lol.

She is so people friendly. At any time of the night I can look and find her cuddled with someone in their bed…she doesn’t play favorites yet lol. Well, you can tell we are smitten with our kitten. Katy has come to tolerate little Ellie, but Mimi still won’t have anything to do with her. Mimi spends most of her time outside now which is breaking my heart. I go out and play and cuddle with her and can get her to come in for a while, but once she spots Ellie she is outta there! Dh and I both thought Mimi would be the one who would really love a playmate, but we were mistaken. I am hoping things will improve as time goes on.

For more kitty fun visit Gattina, and Happy COT!

Ellie

2011-06-24T08:59:00.001-05:00

Okay, here is the story on our new little kitten. I had really been wanting a kitten for a while and finally sweet talked dh into the idea. Our search was not easy, as everyone we contacted had already given away the kitties they advertised. Then I asked our vet if anyone had mentioned having kitties for adoption and bingo, someone nearby had a litter of about 7-8 week old cuties. Dh insisted we get a female and luckily there was one in the bunch.

This one. :) I swear she actually poses for the camera. She has spent the last few days firmly planting herself in our hearts and lives. And tearing up our brand new furniture. She has so many colors! Her legs are white on top, but stripes of all colors underneath. She is tiny but with that round kitten belly. She is very friendly and cuddly and loves to be handled. We kept her in a box the first night or two, but already she is going to the litter box and finding her food bowl all by herself. The only bad news? The other kitties hate her. And because of that they hate me! Mimi hasn’t had anything to do with me since Ellie’s arrival and I am heartbroken. I really thought Mimi would like a new kitty, someone to play with and all. However, you can’t stay heartbroken for long when there is such cuteness in the house.

Ds4 keeps saying the other kitties have grown since Ellie’s arrival…they feel bigger after carrying Ellie around for a while lol. Sigh. I know that all too soon she will probably be bigger than Mimi. But right now we are all in kitten heaven.

Oh, update on the last post…my handy dandy super skilled dh fixed our a.c. problem and we are back in the comfort zone lol.

Cats On Tuesday: New Girl In Town

2011-06-21T08:32:00.001-05:00

This should be an exciting and long winded post but instead it will be short and sweet. Our ac went out yesterday and we are suffering lol. Seriously, it’s not even 7am and it’s already 80 degrees in the house. But I had to spread the news.

We got a new kitten! Just picked her up yesterday. She’s about 8 weeks old and very colorful. Right now we are all just in adjustment mode.

Katy sniffed the kitty and went on about her business.

Mimi investigating the box. She is less thrilled with this new addition so far.

The boys have picked the name Ellie. We’ll see if it sticks. Now I’m off to stake out my spot in front of the fan. Check out more cute kitties at Gattina’s and Happy COT!

Tell Me Why

2011-06-08T07:36:00.001-05:00

If the toilet is in arm’s reach of the cabinet…

and the cabinet is full of this…

how come every time I go into the bathroom I see this!!! Inquiring (and frustrated) moms want to know.

Product Review: Neutrogena Wet Skin Sunscreen

2011-05-31T20:03:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Mom Central, the boys and I had the opportunity to test out the new Neutrogena Wet Skin sunscreen line of products. I was very excited to be picked for this review! Any mom knows how hard it can be to get sunscreen on kids. We also now know that sunscreen should be reapplied often, which is even harder to do! Drag the kiddos out of the water, dry them off, go through the whole application ordeal again. It’s not fun, and sometimes it’s not effective on wet and sandy skin.

Neutrogena Wet Skin sunscreen is designed to cut through any wet areas on the skin and leave behind a protective barrier of broad spectrum sunscreen. We received 4 varieties to test out; Wet Skin Kids with an SPF of 70+, Wet Skin SPF 30, Wet Skin SPF 50 and Wet Skin SPF 85+.

We set up the slip-n-slide for testing purposes. Here you see ds3 applying the sunscreen to ds4. Um, SOLD! End of review. Any sunscreen that my kiddos are not only excited to try out but can put on each other is number one with me!!

The spray goes on clear, smells fruity (to me) and is not sticky. It didn’t sting when I rubbed it on the little guys’ faces and no one developed a rash or itch after using it. There is no cap on the bottle, just twist to open and use. The continuous spray feature makes it super easy to apply. Perfect to pop into your bag to use for any summer outings.

Even with playing on the slip-n-slide at the peak of a very sunny day, no one got burned. And yes, we reapplied on wet skin and it worked just as well. :) I used the Wet Skin SPF 30 on myself and was just as pleased. It smelled good and wasn’t sticky feeling. This product is quite helpful in our neck of the woods, with our high humidity. It not only stays on while you sweat, but can be applied when you are already sweaty as well. No more excuses, dh!

Right now, when you buy online at the Neutrogena website, you can save $2 on all sunscreen products.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Neutrogena and received sunscreen and other Neutrogena products as a thank you for my participation.”

Product Review and Giveaway: Dr. Scholl’s Custom Fit Orthotic Inserts

2011-05-27T07:13:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Mom Central, my family was given the chance to test out a pair of Dr. Scholl’s Custom Fit Orthotic Inserts. I let my dh have the reins for this review, seeing as how I mostly wear flip flops or go barefoot (good thing, too, since I currently am nursing my second broken toe. Maybe because I mostly wear flip flops or go barefoot?)

These inserts are not the ordinary cushioned pads you slip into your shoes. You go to a special kiosk and have your feet measured in order to get the specific type of support your feet need. I don’t mean that your feet are measured just for size, but they are analyzed to identify your personal pressure points and arch type. Dr. Scholl’s calls it Footmapping Technology.

The kiosk is widely available and easy to use. Here is a video demonstration. Here is a store locator to find a kiosk near you.

We didn’t have to go far at all, just stopped by the kiosk while on a shopping trip at our neighborhood Wal-Mart. Dh simply slipped off his shoes and followed the on screen directions. He was informed that his custom orthotic inserts were the CF330 pair. The kiosk is stocked with the different types of inserts; no need to make a special order or dr visit.

Dh has the inserts in his work shoes. He works at a large hospital and not only does a lot of walking but is pretty much on his feet all day. More often than not he comes home and heads straight for the medicine cabinet because of achy tired legs.

Dh has been using the inserts for over two weeks now. Honestly, the first evening he came home I asked how the inserts worked. He said, “Well they must be doing some good because my legs don’t hurt like they normally do.” He has seriously seen a great improvement in how his legs feel at the end of a long day. And he notes that he doesn’t even notice the inserts are there. He’s a satisfied customer. :)

Check out the Dr. Scholl’s website for more information and head to this link for a $7.50 rebate offer.

Would you like to win a pair of Dr. Scholl’s Custom Fit Orthotic Inserts? Just leave me a comment with some way to reach you. I’ll announce the winner next Friday, June 3rd.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Dr. Scholl’s and received a Custom Fit Orthotics from Dr. Scholl’s to facilitate my review.”

Cats On Tuesday: Turf Wars

2011-05-24T07:48:00.001-05:00

There is a window right next to my desk that the cats all love to sit at and get my attention. Mimi is so spoiled I actually let her in and out through the window. Now Mr. Fluff, the neighbor cat, has been visiting the window and even enjoying some petting now and again when I am at my desk. Mimi has discovered this and is none too pleased.

Mimi notices Mr. Fluff behind her on the window sill.

“Mom, Mom, quick, let me in!”

Mr. Fluff is expecting his morning scratches.

Mimi is not having it!

“What is wrong with that little cat? I can never understand women.”

“Get out and stay out!”

Poor Mr. Fluff. Mimi will play with him in the yard, but is very protective of her home lol.

For more kitty fun, visit Gattina’s and Happy COT!

TOS Review: EnVisionMath

2011-05-23T20:03:00.001-05:00

EnVisionMath 2011 1st grade is a math workbook from Scott Foresman-Addison Weasley company. Anyone familiar with that name will know that they provide curriculum for schools. The workbook we received for review is no different, it is designed with a classroom/teacher setting in mind.

It’s a huge book lol.

Basically the student tears a sheet out and folds it to make a little booklet. Each booklet is a lesson. Each lesson has various activities to teach the topic and include “home connection” and “home activity” ideas meant for parents to do as reinforcement.

There are 20 topics in the workbook.

Numbers to 12
Comparing and Ordering Numbers
Understanding Addition
Understanding Subtraction
Five and Ten Relationships
Addition Facts to 12
Subtraction Facts to 12
Geometry
Patterns
Counting and Numbering Patterns to 100
Tens and Ones
Comparing and Ordering Numbers to 100
Counting Money
Measurement
Time
Addition Facts to 18
Subtraction Facts to 18
Data and Graphs
Fractional Parts
Adding and Subtracting with Tens and Ones

Each topic has from 4 to up to 13 lessons. There is a test at the end of each topic. The book is colorful and the graphics appealing. Apparently there are digital components that teachers can use online, but we were not given access to them.

All that said, this workbook is intended for a classroom. I let ds4, my 6yo 1st grader, work some of the lessons. The exercises were pretty simple, but I had to stand over and explain or read them all to him. And while 1st grade math is easy to teach, with no teacher’s guide or other directions, there were several lessons that left me clueless as to what he was to do. I only say this to emphasize that the book is not designed for homeschool use, not to imply it’s a poor resource.

The website has the 1st grade student edition (with digital system access) available for $34.47. The site is also designed for educators so there is limited information and the public is unable to access samples. Honestly, I’m not sure why the company asked TOS to review the product, and I wouldn’t recommend it for homeschool use.

I was given a copy of EnVisionMath 1st grade workbook to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews of this and other Pearson products, click on the banner below.

Hey, Hey, I (Almost) Hugged A Monkee

2011-05-20T07:47:00.001-05:00

Okay, finally, the Davy Jones post. Back story…12 years ago, in 1999, we were on a Disney trip. Back then it was only me, dh, ds1 and ds2. We were walking around Epcot, waiting for the fireworks show and an announcement came on saying Davy Jones was about to perform! What luck. We walked right up to the outdoor theater, sat and watched a super fun show.

Fast forward to now. Ever since seeing that show we have said we were going to go back and see Davy Jones again. We’ve been saying that for 12 years! Yet somehow we never were able to go when he was scheduled. Last year dh made plans to make sure he was off and we could go to this year’s show. And we did.

Once again he performed at the outdoor theater in front of the American Pavilion in Epcot.

Screech! There he is!

He sang a few Monkees songs, but did a lot more 60’s songs. Still, it was super fun as always. The only problem was that the part of the theater we were in wasn’t shaded. And the sun was shining right down on us. The boys were getting red faced and squirming. I took them over to more shaded areas while we were waiting for the show to start and that helped. Toward the end of the show they were really sweating and miserable so I took them to the shady back of the theater and we watched the rest of the show from there. We danced and sang along to songs I knew. And then I glanced back to the stage.

Davy Jones had come into the audience. Hmm, that’s fun. Oh look, he’s hugging people. Oh look, isn’t that the woman who was sitting right in front of us? Holy cow, Davy Jones is standing right in front of the bench where dh and ds2 are sitting. I was telling everyone within earshot, “That’s where I was sitting.” “Davy Jones is standing where I was sitting!” Sure, crazy lady.

The show ended and dh and ds2 made their way up to the entrance where we were waiting. Dh said Davy Jones made his way into the crowd hugging women all the way and then stood on the empty spot of the bench, between dh and ds2, where the boys and I had been. He looked down at dh with raised eyebrows like, “You want a hug, too?” and dh said he just held up his hand and gestured, “Uh, no thanks.” I don’t know which to be more upset about, that I missed getting hugged, or that dh didn’t take any pictures of Davy Jones when he was standing right next to him!

Moral of the story? Forget saving your young kids from heatstroke. Stay seated and wait for Davy Jones to come hug you. Because your dh won’t even take pictures. The End.

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

2011-05-19T07:24:00.001-05:00

The main reason behind our surprise trip to Disney was to see Davy Jones. He performed as part of the Flower Power series which is part of Epcot’s annual Flower and Garden Festival. It’s one of the best times to go to Epcot and see all the beautiful topiaries and displays.

It was cloudy and drizzled rain a few times so these pics aren’t the best.

This is the view from the monorail. We actually parked at the Magic Kingdom and took the monorail to Epcot. It’s a much longer ride and actually loops around the front of the park before arriving at the station.

One of my favorite places is the butterfly house. This year it was “hosted” by Bambi.

Sleeping Beauty!

The countries all have themed displays as well, like this “tea garden” in Britain.

Pandas in the China pavilion.

There were even cool sand sculptures.

As we were leaving, a PhotoPass photographer took a super good shot of the whole fam (minus ds1.)

Next post, the scoop on the “Davy Jones Affair.”

TOS Review: Mad Dog Math

2011-05-18T13:59:00.001-05:00

Mad Dog Math is practice drill software designed for K-5th students to help them master math facts in all four operations. It has four levels.

Level 1 : Addition and Subtraction from 0 – 18

Level 2 : Addition and Subtraction from 0 – 18 but with focus on 7 – 18

Level 3 : Multiplication and Division from 0 – 12

Level 4 : Challenge level making use of all operations

Each level is further divided into sub-levels or fact families. Having the drills be centered on fact families is one of the unique aspects of this program, and has come in handy for us since ds4 is using a math workbook that focuses on fact families as well. The drills can be timed or not, allowing those who enjoy besting a previous time that joy, while keeping it more low key for younger students. Here is more info from the website:

The Essentials of Mad Dog Math

Enables children to master their +, -, x, and ÷ facts in a fun challenging, exciting, and motivating way

Math supplement for any math curriculum

For grades K through 5th; remedial middle school and high school

Standard, daily 10 minute time commitment from start to finish

Huge body of math facts broken down into bite-sized pieces any child can master

Applied system that works in every classroom and in every home

Students, teachers, and parents LOVE it

Another useful feature of this program, and part of what makes it kid friendly, is that the student logs on with his/her first name only. No passwords to worry about. This program is designed to be a supplement only, and does not have a separate parent account or generate any progress reports.

This software was easy to install and use. I liked that I could truly customize it for each of my boys, especially since they are mastering different operations right now and they have different learning styles to accommodate. The dog theme isn’t too cutesy or childish (something that sends my boys running from the computer lol.)

Mad Dog Math is available in a one year license for $19.99, two year license for $29.99 or perpetual license for $39.99. You can also download a free trial that gives you access to the first fact family of all three levels.

I received a limited license of Mad Dog Math to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews of this product, click on the banner below.

Boots Are Back In Style

2011-05-18T07:44:00.001-05:00

Remember that nasty rumor someone started on my blog the other day, the one about me breaking my toe? Well, turns out it’s true. I went to the doc yesterday, they took x-rays and confirmed that the snap I heard when I stubbed my bare foot last week was indeed a break (fourth toe, left foot.)

So I went digging in my closet and found the boot the ortho gave me the last time I broke a toe. Of course everyone has once again started the old argument with me…why on earth don’t you just wear shoes? (You know, when I was a teen and he was teaching me to drive, my Dad told me it was illegal to drive barefoot. I actually asked the driving instructor guy and found out it was all an evil plot to make me wear shoes while driving. I am so about rebelling against the establishment.)

Anywho, yes Dad, Mom, dh, dc, Dr. B, x-ray guy, Dr. B’s nurse, and Wal-Mart Greeter, I should just wear shoes (even in the house which is so evil to think about I sometimes pass out.) And yes, something that is not open toed (how am I supposed to live without flip flops? How?) I looked at some “crocks” and just regular old house shoes or cheap slip ons (I can’t stand feeling strapped into my shoes all day, they have to slide off easily) and then I saw these…

And then I tried one on. And angels sang. And all was right with the world of my feet.

I love these shoes! Well, I love this shoe, as I can’t put on the left one until the broken toe heals a bit more. It looks like a normal tennis shoe but it feels like heaven! And look…

It has no heel! It just slides on and slides off. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have found these shoes. No more broken little piggies for me. :)

On a side note, thank you Modest Mama for the kind comment about my feet. I think I love you. :)

Cats On Tuesday: I’ll Take Him!

2011-05-17T06:55:00.001-05:00

Mr. Fluff, the next door neighbor cat, came to visit one morning. We noticed something on his tail.

See the little orange thing?

A little blurry here…

It’s a sticker that says 50cents lol! His family was having a garage sale and I guess he must have rubbed up on something and the sticker got stuck in all his fluff. :) I have to say, he’d be worth every penny.

For more kitty fun visit Gattina and happy COT!

Don’t ‘Ya Just Hate

2011-05-16T08:28:00.001-05:00

those posts that are just posts to post about why the poster hasn’t been posting? Yeah, me too.

Anywho, I haven’t been posting much lately. A lot of stuff has been going on and I can’t seem to get it together. We haven’t even done school in two weeks (there goes our summer break!) It’s a long drawn out story that I hope to write up in a nice succinct yet informative, concise but entertaining post. (No pressure, huh?) Meanwhile, here are some highlights.

We went to Disney (yes, again.)

Davy Jones almost hugged me.

I’ve had two outpatient medical procedures.

I may have broken (yet another) toe.

I have had one of these to drink everyday. Not kidding, everyday.

Gee, I can tell you are on the edge of your seat, but that’s all I have for now. Off to get my toe fixed! And buy some real shoes (not flip flops, boo hoo!)

TOS Review: WonderMaps

2011-05-16T08:02:00.001-05:00

Bright Ideas Press has a very useful new resource for homeschooling. WonderMaps is a customizable collection of over 350 different maps with nearly endless ways to incorporate map study into your lessons. Here are some details from the Bright Ideas website:

WonderMaps is designed with easy-to-use layers that allow you to enjoy great customizable features with just a click. Select:

historical or modern-day maps

outline, reference, political, or topographical maps

black-and-white or color maps

features including: names, borders, rivers, cities, physical features, and graticules

WonderMaps includes:

60+ maps of the world

60+ maps of the USA

125 historical maps, including 25 biblical maps

The complete map sets from The Mystery of History vols. I–III and All American History vols. I & II

And here is a video tutorial about WonderMaps.

It didn’t take much time at all to find my way around this software and make use of it in our schooling! It’s been a big help for our SOTW studies and of course with ds3’s states study. Having WonderMaps keeps me from searching the internet for just the right map…I can make my own, to fit our specific lesson.

WonderMaps is available from the Bright Ideas Website for $49.95 (as just a download or download and cd.)

I was given a download of WonderMaps software to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews of this product, click on the banner below.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

2011-05-12T07:40:00.000-05:00

We spent the morning of our only full day at Disney in Hollywood Studios. We didn’t do much at all besides walk around and enjoy just being at Disney World!

I had to record this moment, it was a first. At the entrance to every park your bag is inspected. They do have a line where people with no bags can just walk through. Usually dh takes the boys through that line while I go through security. This time dh volunteered to take the bag duties!

This is ds3 behind the desk at the Tower of Terror. We didn’t ride the attraction, just browsed around.

See the cup I’m holding? It’s my little secret. I love the souvenir refillable cups from Disney resorts, but they charge over $12 for them. At Hollywood Studios, and only at Hollywood Studios, you can get a specially themed cup for $5 filled and less if you don’t get a drink. Once I got a Pirates of the Caribbean cup, but this year it was Tower of Terror themed.

There is a lake in the middle of the park and we strolled around it, stopping to watch a family of ducks.

I couldn’t believe that my boys would sit still for this long without being on a ride! But they, too were just soaking up the atmosphere and relaxing feeling you get being at Disney.

Along our walk we came upon a Jedi training session. These are always fun to watch as the little boys and girls learn to defeat Darth Vader.

Ds4 found a friendly cast member to exchange pins with.

We found ourselves in front of the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground and decided to give it a go. Ds4 really got into the whole thing, pretending we were really being shrunk as we walked through the entrance.

He seems to be thinking, “Hmm, maybe I did shrink!” Or maybe, “Wow, I’d love to get my hands on that Play-Doh!”

We made our way over to the Backlot Tour and it wasn’t crowded so we hopped on.

I think they enjoyed it. :) We left the park at this point, ate some lunch at the McDonald’s near the All Star Resorts and headed to Epcot. More on that in the next post!

TOS Product Review: GoTrybe

2011-05-11T08:35:00.001-05:00

GoTrybe is a fitness themed website designed to help students get (and stay) fit and healthy. Users can design their own exercise routine, learn about ways to stay healthy, what foods to eat and what to avoid. The site is divided into three age categories similar to elementary, middle, and high school levels.

Once your student signs up they are placed in a “tribe” according to their grade level.

Now the student creates a custom avatar and can begin exploring the site. The main element of the program is designing your own exercise routine by choosing from many short fitness videos featuring a variety of instructors and children. You can assemble a workout including warm-up, cardio, strength training, stretching and cool down from a simple to use drag and drop screen.

There are other tabs for learning about nutrition and watching motivational videos, all of which earns the student points which they can exchange for cool items for their avatars.

Both ds3 and ds4 (4th and 1st grade) helped me review the program. I regret to report that neither enjoyed it. Ds4 was all on board as he created his avatar but the moment he saw the exercise videos he ran. He literally would not take any part in the program. I really thought ds3 would love this, as he is part of other online communities where you create avatars, do things to earn points, and connect with friends. But he, too, would not participate. It really is nothing to do with the program itself, it’s a great concept and is well executed. It’s simple to use, affordable, and quite informative. It’s just that my boys do not enjoy “structured” fitness routines (and frankly aren’t in need of any.) They are quite active on their own and learn nutrition and healthy living by our family’s example and in our homeschooling. If, however, you are in need of a fun and motivational resource for fitness and nutrition, GoTrybe definitely fits the bill.

GoTrybe normally costs $39.95 for a year’s subscription. You can sign up for a free trial using the code GETFIT, and if you sign up for a membership during the trial you pay only $19.95.

I was given an extended free trial of GoTrybe to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, click on the banner below.

Cats On Tuesday

2011-05-10T06:32:00.001-05:00

Remember we got new furniture? Well, dh is not too fond of kitties on it so he told me to buy the cats their own beds. Now, I know my kitties. They just aren’t the “sleep in a cat bed” type of cats. They’ve tasted the freedom of cuddling with Mom wherever she may be and they aren’t going to change their ways. But, we gave it a try.

Look, Katy, a new bed just for you!

She took one look at it…

and promptly cuddled up on the shoe laying nearby.

Mimi investigates the new bed next.

She thought it over,

and cuddled up on the recliner (at least it’s the old recliner, we haven’t yet gotten a new one of those lol.) And just how did my foot get in the pic?

Then one morning I tossed the cat bed on top of ds3’s bed, walked by a few moments later and lo and behold…

Katy was in it! Success! Well, success as much as the cats will allow lol. They do occasionally sleep in the bed, but mostly still prefer the human beds and furniture. But I guess it’s a start. :)

For more kitty fun, head over to Gattina’s, and Happy COT!

A Surprise Disney Trip

2011-05-09T13:28:00.001-05:00

We made a short visit to Disney to round out dh’s week off. Left home on Thursday and drove back on Saturday. I think we actually spent the most time in the car lol.

Isn’t that beautiful? Yeah, but here is what I cropped out…

It was super crowded! There were long lines for the most popular attractions at the Magic Kingdom, so we mostly hit the less frequented rides.

Like the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Factory. It is such a cute little interactive show. Ds4 there was scared at first but wound up LOVING it! Oh and I was a bad mommy and tried to distract him by asking if he wanted anything out of that snack machine…he totally fell for it lol. ;)

We saw so many cute critters all over the park, including this duck family and a baby rabbit.

Here is a shot of the Space Mountain entrance I took while on the People Mover ride. We also did Carousel of Progress, used a FastPass for Buzz Lightyear and hit Pirates of the Caribbean. We got there late and it was crowded so we didn’t attempt much else.

Oooh, the monorail.

Someone please tell me how these little guys can get up at 5am, spend 7 hours in the car, walk around the entire Magic Kingdom, and still happily skip their way back to the car. Folks, if we can somehow bottle this energy, we’d be millionaires. :) Next post will be our day in MGM.

A Sneak Peek

2011-05-08T16:17:00.001-05:00

Last year the boys and I got to test out and review the now super popular Zhu Zhu Pets, including the Kung Zhu line created with boys in mind. Now Cepia, the brand behind Zhu Zhus is coming out with a new toy aimed at boys this summer. Here is a sneak peek at DaGeDar.

You know my boys’ interest is already piqued lol. ;) And it looks like something both the 6yo and 10yo can play with together. Can’t wait to try DaGeDar out.

How Many Cute Boys

2011-05-03T12:28:00.001-05:00

does it take to paint a two-story shed?

This many. :)

Cats On Tuesday: One Person’s Trash…

2011-05-03T07:53:00.001-05:00

Well, after surviving two hurricanes and the abuse of four boys, the tree house finally had to be taken down. Here is the pile left from the demolition, awaiting a trip to the dump.

Hang on a minute! Do you see what I see?

Gasp! Could it be?

Aw, it is! It’s a kitty! Not just any kitty, mind you. It’s Mr. Fluff, our next door neighbor cat. He has taken up residence in the pile of debris. Every afternoon, like clockwork, he can be found lounging in the shade of rotting wood and using the rusty nails for chin scratching.

Or performing his afternoon grooming.

“Please, no flash photography!”

He’s a beauty, isn’t he? I just love his whiskers, they are long and abundant.

His fluffy paws are precious, too. See the whiskers in the shot?

“Okay, now go away now! I have to contemplate the meaning of life.”

For more kitty fun visit Gattina’s and Happy COT!

Homeschool Weeks 27 and 28

2011-05-02T11:14:00.001-05:00

I’m getting late with my weekly postings. Not good, as I get the weeks mixed up or forget things I wanted to make note of. Bad homeschooling mommy!

Things are moving along nicely with ds4 my 1st grader. Thanks to his recent lessons in First Language Lessons he has just about mastered the days of the week. I am also surprised that he can recall some of the poems we learned in the beginning and his full address as well. I am impressed with FLL. He is still liking the new Math Mammoth workbook and almost finished with his latest Code book. I started using some You Can Read resources from Carissa at 1+1+1=1 and so far so good. I was worried that they would be a tad too “toddlerish” for him, but he is liking it so far. She has quite clever methods that work well with little boys. :)

Loving our new white board!

We finished Call of the Wild. The boys have mixed feelings on this one. I think they enjoyed the overall storyline, but the violence was a bit much for them. We are moving on to The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Sometimes my boys really surprise me. We have been having some issues lately with not giving school the proper attention. There is general fussiness at doing lessons, dawdling or incomplete work, stopping and telling me completely unrelated stories in the middle of school. I had enough one morning and said I was making up a chart where I would put an x next to their names for each infraction, and after a certain number the naughty boy would not receive “pay day.” All of this was off the top of my head and in all honesty I may never have gone through with it.

Then ds3 got busy and made up his own version of the chart. He wrote his and his brother’s names and at the bottom wrote, “You will get a x if you say rude things.”

The x is actually a little stamp we have. At first I was a little put off, thinking the child should not tell the parent how to discipline, but then I realized he was helping not only me but himself as well. We have used the chart for about a week now. As you can see, ds4 has more stamps at the moment. His most frequent infraction is answering adults with grunting instead of words. If I stamped his chart every time he did this he wouldn’t get pay day for years lol so I do give him a reminder or two…”You don’t want a stamp for that, do you?” I even got away with it at our Easter party by just looking at him and saying “Stamp.” He immediately stopped his naughty behavior and I didn’t have to yell or threaten in front of our family. :)

I finally, finally got enough Amazon money and ordered The Well Trained Mind. I don’t really like labels or confining myself to a certain method of homeschooling. If anything I’d say we are eclectic, but honestly I just use whatever works. It’s been different every year and with every child. But the Classical method has always intrigued me and this year we’ve been using products that the Bauer family has published with success, so I got the book to learn more. So far I am liking it and really relating to it. I doubt it will turn me into a strict Classical homeschooling mom, but it’s the first resource I’ve found for years that has given me some new ideas for using with the boys.

I had planned on having May be our last month of school, taking all of June and July off and starting up again in August. So of course things aren’t going as planned. ;) Dh is off this week. I knew he had taken a week off, but I guess it just didn’t occur to me that it was so soon. So now the boys have the week off as well, and we will just have to do a little schooling into June. Dh is finally painting the monster, two-story shed and needs as many helpers as he can get. I tell myself that this is perfect, I can spend the week making final plans and prepping for next year. I like to tell myself stuff like that, ‘cause I know how gullible I am and will totally believe it lol. So far I’ve helped build scaffolding and supervised young painters. Such is life.

Maybe at the end of the week I’ll have a homeschool planning post, maybe it’ll be a surprise vacation post, maybe a trip to the ER post…who knows? Just don’t make any plans around it.

TOS Review: Greek N Stuff

2011-04-29T09:23:00.001-05:00

Greek “N” Stuff offers Greek and Latin curriculum and Bible studies for preschool through high school aged students. The boys and I received the “Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek!” Level 1 Worktext to review.

This resource is a straightforward workbook designed to teach younger students how to read and write the Biblical Greek alphabet. There are twenty-four lessons, one for each letter. Each lesson begins with an introduction to the new letter and simple directions on how to pronounce and write it. Subsequent pages provide more writing practice and exercises in recognition. Flashcards are provided in the back of the workbook, and there is a prompt at the bottom of each page of the workbook to remind students to add new flashcards and review previously covered ones.

Ds4, my 6yo 1st grader, used this product. The lessons were short enough that he didn’t get bored or frustrated, and he enjoyed checking the “I practiced my flashcards today” box on each page. I found the layout of the workbook clean and simple, yet not too dull to capture a child’s attention. It was very easy to implement this program into our schooling with little prep on my part (and what homeschooling mom doesn’t love that?”)

Keeping in mind that I find this to be an effective and high quality resource, we did not complete the workbook. Ds4 is still getting a grasp on the English language and I found it a bit too distracting to have him learning Greek at the same time. It’s just not something I personally feel we need to pursue at this age and time. If I were looking for a Greek curriculum to use with a young student, this resource would certainly fit the bill.

“Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek!” is available in 8 levels. The Level 1 student workbook is $14.95. The Greek “N” Stuff site offers many companion pieces for purchase, such as answer keys, quizzes, flash cards on a ring holder and even a pronunciation cd.

I received a copy of “Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek!” Level 1 student workbook to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews of Green “N” Stuff products, click on the banner below.

TOS Review: Writing Tales

2011-04-27T10:57:00.001-05:00

Writing Tales is a language arts and writing curriculum that follows the Classical approach to education. It uses stories from Aesop’s fables for grammar and composition lessons. Each level includes a Teacher’s Guide with detailed daily lesson plans, and a Student Workbook with the stories and various worksheets. The basic premise is that students learn correct grammatical usage and become better writers when they are exposed to and mimic well written, classic pieces.

There are 30 lessons in each level that cover 15 different stories. Each lesson takes two weeks to complete. On the first day the student reads the story and a general discussion follows: Who are the main characters, what is the problem and resolution, etc. Next the student has a few lines of copywork from the story. Various grammar lessons and vocabulary words are taught using the story as well. At the end of the first week, the student writes a rough draft retelling the story. In the second week of the lesson the student works on editing and embellishing his story (the grammar concepts are also practiced more.) In the end the student will have written a unique take on the fable.

I used Writing Tales Level One with ds3, my 10yo 4th grader. In the past I have used separate language arts and writing resources with ds. He does okay with the grammar but hates writing. He did really well with Writing Tales’ gentle and inclusive approach to both subjects. Each daily assignment was just the right length for him to grasp the concept but not feel overwhelmed. There wasn’t an entire page of copywork, just a sentence or two, just three or so vocabulary words, etc. The Teacher’s Guide includes many simple but fun games to reinforce concepts for the week. Our favorite (so far) was placing index cards with the four sentence types on various walls in the living room, and having ds run to the correct card as I read sentences to him. Perfect kind of exercise for a young boy!

I am super impressed with Writing Tales. I think it really fits the bill for homeschooling families. The materials are well made and balanced…not too flashy but not boring either. The Teacher’s Guide is detailed but easy to follow and implement. The lessons are the ideal mix of fun and effective. This approach to teaching grammar and writing beats rote workbooks any day. While the basic concept follows the Classical approach, the author’s methods really help make the lessons more “user friendly” and less restrictive.

You can find sample lessons here. A full scope and sequence is available here.

Writing Tales Level One is designed for grades 3 and 4. The Student Workbook is $19.95 and the Teacher’s Guide is $24.95. Level Two is appropriate for grades 4 and 5. The Student Workbook is $24.95 and the Teacher’s Guide is $32.95.

Writing Tales' Annual Sale Coming Soon! Get 20% off plus FREE Shipping from May 2nd to May 9th!!!

I received copies of Writing Tales Level One and Two Teacher Guides and Student Workbooks to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, click on the banner below.

Cats On Tuesday

2011-04-26T06:41:00.001-05:00

We bought some new furniture. The cats didn’t think it had enough fur to really call it furniture lol so they immediately got to work making it more furry. As you can see, there is barely any room left for people.

These pics are from my point of view between the kitties. Katy prefers the left side of the loveseat, as it is nearest the window.

Smokey just wants me to move out of his way.

I think the new furniture is kitty approved. :)

For more kitty fun visit Gattina’s and Happy COT!

Cats On Tuesday

2011-04-19T07:51:00.001-05:00

In my house we call this “cat heaven.” Anytime two or more kitties are gathered in one place (almost always my bed) someone will announce, “You’ve got cat heaven on your bed!” Assembled today we have Mimi, Smokey and Katy. (As an aside, I can never deny being a mom to boys or a cat owner, as they all leave their evidence everywhere…note the sword next to katy’s tail lol.)

Mimi was all business, curled up tight and trying hard to rest.

Katy was in a feisty mood…I don’t know if she was upset that the other cats invaded her space or that I was turning it all into a photo op. She actually took a swat at my hands when I tried to pet her!

Smokey was just chillin’, and purring away. He is so funny, any time I am in his presence, he purrs. If I just walk by and don’t even touch him, he purrs. He’ll even sense I’m there when he’s sleeping and start purring lol.

For more kitty fun head over to Gattina’s and Happy COT!

Love Language

2011-04-18T17:02:00.001-05:00

So we finally saved up enough money to get some new furniture. We’ve been browsing around and narrowing down our choices. Yesterday we took the plunge and bought a sleeper sofa and loveseat. It came down to two sets and dh and I shooed away the sales guy so we could sit, discuss, and make our decision. The conversation went a little something like this.

“I know the fabric protection is $50 more, but I think it’s worth it.” “But look at the contract. It clearly states that only food or beverage stains are covered. No bodily fluids.” “That’s right. And barf is not a bodily fluid, it’s just used food.”

The criteria for our furniture has certainly evolved over the years. ;)

Product Review: Hormel Compleats Kids Meals

2011-04-18T10:24:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Shespeaks, the boys and I had the chance to review some new microwave meals made just for kids.

Hormel Compleats Kids Meals are designed to be easy to prepare, tasty and nutritional. They are ready to eat in a time-saving 45 seconds and come in four kid-friendly flavors; Spaghetti and Meatballs, Pasta & Chicken, Beef Ravioli and Macaroni and Beef. Each variety is less than 300 calories, low in fat, and contains 3g of fiber. They come in colorful, compact packages that make them a good on-the-go meal option.

Both my younger boys were with me when I opened the box with the meals inside. Right away ds3, my 10yo, grabbed the Beef Ravioli and asked if he could make it for a snack. I agreed and stood back to see just how he would fare preparing the meal on his own. He easily read the simple directions on the back, popped the kit in the microwave and 45 seconds later was digging in.

He really enjoyed it! I was impressed with how evenly the product cooked. It was not too hot to handle, yet didn’t have any cold spots either. I also think Hormel did a good job with the packaging, making it fun and appealing yet still quite functional. While the meals are designed with kids in mind, my teenager gobbled up the Spaghetti and Meatballs and I enjoyed the Macaroni and Beef.

The Hormel website has product information and a ton of fun ideas for keeping kids active. My boy’s favorite suggestion was building an obstacle course. Hmm, with 4 boys it often feels like my house is an obstacle course lol.

In the spirit of full disclosure, Hormel Foods provided samples of Hormel® Compleats® Kids Microwave Meals for me and my family to try. No payment was given and as always, all opinions given here are fully my own.

Product Review: Estroven

2011-04-17T18:09:00.001-05:00

I have not been shy about sharing my age here on the blog so most everyone is aware I am now firmly ensconced in my 40’s. No turning back now! I am also smack dab in the middle of perimenopause, the time when your body transitions to menopause (which is actually the point when it’s been a year since your last period.) This transition typically begins in your early 40’s and can last from a few months up to 10 years. Yeah, I know, I freaked out when I read that, too. Here are some of the symptoms of perimenopause:

Hot flashes

Breast tenderness

Worsening of premenstrual syndrome

Decreased libido (sex drive)

Fatigue

Irregular periods

Vaginal dryness; discomfort during sex

Urine leakage when coughing or sneezing

Urinary urgency (a pressing need to urinate more frequently)

Mood swings

Difficulty sleeping

Of course, every woman’s experience will vary. And let’s face it, we all experience some of these symptoms at various points in our lives (what mom isn’t fatigued?) For me, so far, I’ve had a few hot flashes (living in the south who can tell lol?) difficulty sleeping and the worsening of premenstrual syndrome. However, I’ve been having the most problems with irregular periods. Holy cow, what a ride the past year and a half has been! My monthly business is no longer predictable in any way shape or form. Every month is different. Some months it’s two periods. A couple of times I was late and thought it was finally all over. Lately my time has been lasting weeks, and not days. My record so far is 18 days. Fun times. ;)

Thankfully, this time in a woman’s life is no longer considered taboo. The subjects of menopause and perimenopause are out in the open and the medical community is helping women make the transition more tolerable with information and medical intervention when necessary. Over the counter support is available as well.

Estroven® products are herbal supplements made with all-natural ingredients to provide natural menopause symptom relief. Black cohosh plus soy isoflavones are combined with essential nutrients like calcium, folic acid, and B-vitamins. These work naturally in the body to help reduce hot flashes, night sweats, and other menopausal symptoms. There are four formulas to chose from.

Estroven® plus Multi-Vitamin

Estroven® plus Multi-Vitamin combines menopausal symptom relief with a multi-vitamin for women. Estroven® plus Multi-Vitamin contains a unique Mood & Memory blend to support mood and memory function, as well as mild to moderate hot flashes.

Estroven® Maximum Strength

Estroven® Maximum Strength was created for women who may be experiencing more bothersome menopause symptoms.

Estroven® Nighttime

Estroven® Nighttime helps promote natural sleep patterns to help you sleep through the night and wake feeling refreshed without morning grogginess.*

Estroven® plus Energy

The Estroven® plus Energy formula naturally supports the energy you need to stay productive and energized all day, while reducing hot flashes and night sweats.*

I picked up a box of Estroven plus Multi-Vitamin on my last trip to Target. I like that I can get mood and memory support along with my daily vitamins…no extra pill to take. :)

The Estroven website offers a wealth of information and even a self-test to see just how well you are managing menopausal symptoms. You can “like” Estroven on Facebook, and visit a special URL that has details on an Estroven loyalty program.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Estroven and received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Homeschool Week 26

2011-04-15T08:58:00.001-05:00

We had another good week, just about as good as I could have hoped for with all our little “interruptions” lol. Poor ds4 had to have an infected tooth pulled, I had a long awaited doctor’s appointment and dh and I celebrated 23 years of marriage this week. We did still manage to fit some school in there somewhere. ;)

Ds3 is testing out a combination writing/language arts program that I am going to review and he is still enjoying it. This week we covered the four types of sentences and played a fun game where I wrote the sentence types on index cards and taped them to four different walls in the house. I read sentences to ds and he had to run to the wall with the correct card. He missed a few but caught on quickly and I had to find more sentences so he could play longer lol. I am thinking this will be our permanent language arts resource.

Ds4 and I are both still loving First Language Lessons for his language arts. The pic above shows some of the nouns he remembered from a story we read. He drew a cottage, bird, egg and forest (though he said the bird looks like a banana lol.) And he seems to like the new Math Mammoth workbook we started…only I also received two new math programs for him to review lol. We will be a little math heavy for a while. :)

We are starting to see the light at the end of the school year tunnel. We finish up at the end of May, take off June and July and start right back up the beginning of August. A lot of other homeschoolers are already making plans and buying resources for “next year.” I’m kinda sorta thinking about maybe doing the same. I should probably finish the lesson planning for this year first lol. We are taking a week off but I’m not sure how much planning I will get done. Ds2 has FCAT testing for two days and I have an endoscopy scheduled to see if we can finally figure out why I haven’t been able to eat much. Fun, fun, fun! Ah well, at least as homeschoolers we are able to change our schedule as needed. :)

A Friendly Reminder

2011-04-11T12:21:00.001-05:00

The following is a PSA brought to you by Fun In The Sun. Always remember to put sunscreen everywhere on your body when you go to the beach.

Especially the tops of your feet. Thank you, and good night.

Productive Day

2011-04-10T19:19:00.001-05:00

Our family to-do list was a mile long today. Dh had to rearrange his shed to fit some new equipment he bought, ds2 needed to prepare for FCAT testing tomorrow, and I had lesson plans, laundry and blog posts to work on.

So we went to the beach. ;)

We went to Ft. Pickens. Ds1 got a kayak for his birthday and had yet to test it out. We had strange weather today, quite foggy and overcast.

Ds1 did a great job his first time out.

The surf was slightly rough so the little guys stayed close to shore.

Dh got up close and personal with a bird.

I love this pic of ds4 waving to ds1 as he returned to shore.

And this one, showing my two youngest having some great brother-time together. It was an impromptu trip, we just threw on our suits, grabbed some sunscreen and headed out. Didn’t bring any chairs or toys and still managed to have a great time. A wonderful start to beach season, I’d say. Certainly beats doing the laundry. :)

TOS Review: Science Weekly

2011-04-08T09:25:00.001-05:00

Science Weekly is a newspaper-like instruction module designed to reinforce a student’s reading, writing and mathematical skills with colorful, easy to follow lessons and hands-on lab work. Themes from Earth science, life science, physical science and technology are explored in each issue.

Science Weekly has six levels for grades K-6.

Level Pre-A (Kdg.)
Level A (Grade 1)
Level B (Grade 2)
Level C (Grade 3)
Level D (Grade 4)
Level E (Grades 5-6)

We received the fractions issue for our review. I used level A with ds4 and level D with ds3.

Both issues covered the same material, just at appropriate levels for each child. The cover introduces the theme for the issue with both written and pictorial descriptions.

Inside the issue are lessons in vocabulary, math and writing that center around the theme. There is also a lab assignment with simple but detailed instructions for the student to follow.

Each issue comes with teacher notes that provide you with background information on the featured topic, instructions for implementing the lessons, and suggestions for other resources to use to complement the unit. The Science Weekly website offers printable coloring pages, sample units for download, and even several interactive issues for you to peruse right now.

Both boys enjoyed this resource. Ds3 could read his issue and complete most of the lessons on his own. Ds4 enjoyed the “crafty” or hands-on type lessons but balked a bit at the vocabulary and writing. I think he will be more comfortable with those once he is reading on his own.

I found Science Weekly to be very helpful in our homeschooling. I really liked how the issues have so many levels and that both boys could study the same theme. The lessons are not too long or complicated and really try and incorporate the theme into everyday life, so the student is not just learning what a fraction is, but where they are and what function they serve in their lives.

Science Weekly is available on their website for $19.95, per student, per year. You get 15 issues with a yearly subscription. The website offers many sample issues to try before you decide to make a purchase.

I received all six levels of the fractions issue of Science Weekly to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, click on the banner below.

Like Pulling A Tooth

2011-04-07T18:54:00.001-05:00

Ds4 had his appointment this morning for pulling his abscessed tooth. He does not do well at the dentist (I don’t guess many 6yo boys do) so the dentist gave me a valium pill to crush, hide in something yummy since the pills are very bitter and give to ds. I did this at the last visit and it didn’t seem to affect him at all. This morning ds started protesting right when he woke up. Wouldn’t get out of bed, crying and fussing. I crushed the pill and put it in his favorite Jell-O and he took it…and promptly spit it back out onto my bed sheets. At this point I’m ready to scoop up the tainted Jell-O and pop it into my own mouth, but instead I called the dentist office and told them what was going on. The nurse said to bring ds in early and she would give him the medicine then we could take him out to breakfast. Sure, lady, if that’s how you want to start your day.

Reluctantly ds got ready and into the car. We arrived at the office and the nurse comes out with a little medicine cup with a small amount of pink liquid. “Where are you going to breakfast, ds?” “McDonald’s.” “Okay, take this stuff and you can go.” And he took it. I stood there with my mouth wide open and the nurse starts gloating, “See, Miss Tammy always gets them to take the medicine.” Um, helloooo! If they had given me the tiny bit of pink goo I could have gotten him to take it at home! I didn’t say anything and off we went to breakfast. The medicine started taking effect when we got back to the office. Ds was licking every last morsel of sugar off his empty cinnamon melts box and saying, “I sure do love this stuff.”

I carried him into the office and the procedure started. They also gave him nitrous oxide and he did incredibly well during the whole thing. When it was over the dentist put ds in my lap and ds said, “That didn’t hurt at all.” No my dear, not at all. :)

Another Year Older

2011-04-06T07:09:00.001-05:00

How come I don’t feel any wiser? I turned 44 on Sunday. It was a low-key event as it should be. Dh brought home a cake and some balloons along with his traditional donuts for breakfast.

There I am in my Sunday best.

I got a blu-ray player! We haven’t even set it up yet. I am waiting, patiently waiting, for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I on April 15th. You know, I went to the midnight showing of the movie in theaters, should I camp out at Walmart for the dvd release? Yeah, I know, I really should try and act my age. ;)

Cats On Tuesday: Mimi’s Job

2011-04-05T07:15:00.001-05:00

It’s well known that Mimi is my executive assistant. She has been very attentive to her duties this week, hanging around my desk even more than usual.

Mom, this place is a mess. Look at that pile of papers. And a half-eaten banana? Really?

I guess she is expecting an important call.

Oh no, writer’s block!

Time for her break. :)

For more kitty fun head over to Gattina’s and Happy COT!

TOS Review: GoGo Kabongo

2011-04-04T10:01:00.001-05:00

GoGo Kabongo is an online site for ages 4 to 7 that has fun games to build skills needed for reading. It is a colorful, interactive resource with three different “habitats” for playing and learning.

When your child first logs on they are taken to the Treehouse. Duffy is the “host” and guides your child to play areas when he is not making jokes with other characters. From the Treehouse students can create an avatar, make a comic book, access the map of the site, and play in the skate park.

There are three games in each habitat. In Laughter Lake, students play Critter Sizer, where a conveyer belt of animals passes by and players must decide if they are small or large. As the student progresses through the levels, the animals are scaled down or up, so the child might see a small version of a giraffe and have to remember that it is indeed a large animal. In Scuba Dude, the student maneuvers a submarine through an underwater course to collect items in a certain sequence (which gets more challenging on higher levels.) And in Going Buggy, the student listens to a description of a scene such as “Spider is on the red block playing the drums” and has to recreate the scene by placing the characters in the correct spots. The scenes get more complicated as the game progresses.

The second habitat is Galaxy Gardens. Here players work on focus and planning with Photo Safari, collect letters in the correct order in Rocket Racer and build a robot friend in Robo Bobo.

In the Twister Top habitat, students work on patterning in Design a Door, collect the letters for a spoken word in Desert Dash, and weave a letterball through a maze to form words in Crazy Maze. The games in all the habitats have rewards like stickers for the comic book maker and ramps for customizing the skate park.

In the parent’s account you can opt in to receive emailed progress reports. This is a screenshot of one of ds4’s reports. It describes what level he has attained in each game and what reading skills each game is helping him with.

I especially liked how the report included ideas for activities to do outside of the games and links to helpful websites. The Kabongo site itself has a parent’s resource page where you can print worksheets and coloring pages.

Ds4, my 6yo 1st grader tested this resource for me. He knows his letters and sounds but is not reading yet. Once I had the accounts set up the site was very easy for him to navigate. I don’t believe I even had to explain any of the games to him…he either got them right off the bat or figured them out on his own. He absolutely loved earning pieces to build the skate park. When I asked him what was his favorite game on Kabongo he answered, “Every game.” :) Since he asked to play every day I would collaborate that response.

I liked the ease of setup and use of the site. While I do monitor the boys when they are on the computer, I like for them to be able to access and navigate sites on their own as much as possible. The progress reports were helpful and informative and not intrusive. (Some sites seem to email you for any little thing which can get annoying.) The games themselves are an excellent blend of learning and play. Ds never felt like the site was “school” but I know that he was indeed honing important reading readiness skills.

GoGo Kabongo offers free access to the Laughter Lake habitat. The other two habitats are available for $4.95 each.

SPECIAL OFFER: SIGN UP NOW AND YOU GET THE GALAXY GARDENS HABITAT FREE! Hurry - this offer is only available for a limited time.

I received access to all three habitats in GoGo Kabongo for free to facilitate this review. To see other TOS Crewmembers reviews, click on the banner below.

Homeschool Week 25

2011-04-04T08:08:00.001-05:00

We had a pretty good week. Ds3 has been working hard, no complaining, listening a little better. Ds4 has good and bad days…well, he’s 6, he still has many good and bad moments within a day lol. The morning routine has been going well and the afternoon one for that matter. All that changes next week as we have a lot of appointments and such to attend to.

We set up ds1’s old computer at the school table. It’s a little cramped, but I like the arrangement. One child can do computer work while another does some written work. The headphones really help, as my boys are easily distracted. ;)

I have changed the boys’ math to Math Mammoth. They both really enjoy Mathletics but ds4 sailed through both K and 1st levels already and ds3 hit a snag with factors since he still hasn’t memorized those times tables. So I ordered a complete 1st grade workbook for ds4 and downloaded the multiplication series for ds3. While we are waiting on the workbook I printed up some samples for ds and he loved it. Ds3 and I have begun the process Math Mammoth outlines for memorizing times tables…I am really hoping this time it will sink in.

Ds4 is almost finished with his Go For The Code book, and will graduate to the actual Explode The Code series soon.

This is a pic of a page he did this week. He has his own little way of doing things, preferring to circle and not color and using little arrows to point to the correct answer. You should see when he has to draw lines from one side to the other…it can get messy lol. I am very pleased with the Code workbooks, I can tell ds is catching on.

Ds3 is still testing a new writing/language arts resource I am going to review and so far we both like it. Ds3 is more than halfway through his states study and also still using his Daily Geography Practice book (and learning a lot! I am loving that book!) We have moved on from ancient Greece in SOTW and are nearly done with the first book. Still reading Call of the Wild. Ds3 is pretty riveted by it, ds4 not so much. However, ds3 has not liked all the death and cruelty. We finished studying the senses in our human body study and this week covered hair and skin.

Mimi is helping ds measure some yarn for our hair model. The weather has been lovely, we really need to get back into weekly nature study soon. Isn’t it funny that just when you get into a good routine things seem to change? Guess that’s just life. :)

Helpful Homeschool Hints

2011-03-31T09:33:00.001-05:00

This year we have added a lot more computer time to our schooling (mostly due to TOS Crew reviews.) Usually these online subscriptions require a parent account as well, so I’ve been having to keep up with user names and passwords for three people per resource. That’s a lot for my already full brain. ;) So I debated how to track this information. I went with the simplest solution.

This list resides on the bulletin board on my desk behind my computer. I’ve written the name of the person with the account, the site’s name, the user name and password for each resource. With just a glance up I can quickly see ds3’s log-in info for Mathletics, ds4’s Kabongo name or the password to the Photobucket account for my TOS reviews. Everyone actually references this list, even my not yet reading ds4…he can find his name and go from there.

There are fancy books out there for recording passwords and such, and dh and I both keep personal little notebooks on our desks with the more sensitive log-in information for our bank, library, etc. But this list seemed like the easiest way to go for the kiddos.

For more Helpful Homeschool Hints head over to ManyLittleBlessings.

Cats On Tuesday: Strike A Pose

2011-03-29T16:34:00.001-05:00

All my kitties have been giving me strange poses when I take their pictures lately. The top one is Katy hiding in a cubicle on my computer desk, the middle one is Mimi hanging off dh’s desk chair and the bottom photo is Smokey showing me his yoga exercises. They are an odd bunch, but I love them. :)

For more kitty fun head over to Gattina’s and Happy COT!

Homeschool Weeks 23 and 24

2011-03-25T07:36:00.001-05:00

Well, it’s been a strange couple of weeks indeed. We actually skipped a week of school as I was ill. I was pretty out of it and feel like I missed a lot of things. Dh even had to cancel his business trip. But I think things are turning around and getting back to somewhat normal.

School has been light, just doing the basics. Still reading Call Of The Wild which the boys are really enjoying. One afternoon I caught them acting out scenes from the book with all their plush toy dogs.

I have to say it’s been very helpful having some of the boys’ schooling be computer based. They know how to log in and do their lessons without much prompting from me and it has lightened my load so to speak. Since I didn’t have detailed lesson plans for the week we still had the computer lessons to go to. Nice. :)

I am also thankful for the structured workbooks we use for some subjects. The boys can easily grab their HWT and ETC books and complete those lessons on their own. The same for ds3’s Daily Geography Book as well. Ds3 is also working on a new language arts program that I will be reviewing soon and so far it seems to be a nice mix of independent and guided learning. I just want to make a note here to myself that I was very proud of ds3 this week in regards to his reading. He has really improved his reading aloud and is getting more and more confident with doing so.

Guess what that is. Go ahead, guess! It’s a tooth. Ds4 finally lost his first tooth. He was beyond excited. :) Unfortunately, after a trip to the dentist to fill a cavity, it was discovered that another tooth has become infected and must be pulled. He is terrified. He is on antibiotics for 10 days and will go next month for the procedure. So he’s been having a bit of a roller coaster week, poor guy.

I am not completely up to snuff yet so posting will probably still be sporadic (which I hate, I really miss keeping up with all the memes and just posting regularly.) I have some more dr appointments scheduled next month to hopefully get things straightened out and back to normal. Dh is still ill as well. He finally got over his pneumonia, only to develop another infection a few days later, so he is on antibiotics for the third time around! He is just never sick so this is all frustrating to him. Seems it’s been a rough start to the year, hopefully as we plow through spring and into summer our outlook will be brighter.

TOS Review: BigIQkids

2011-03-25T07:14:00.001-05:00

BigIQkids is an interactive site that provides daily lessons in core subjects to help K-8 students master facts and improve their performance in school. There are programs for spelling, vocabulary, U.S. States and math. From the site:

BigIQkids.com is not a software product. We don't teach material to a child. Our learning applications are interactive tools that proactively work together with young learners to create individualized lessons around that particular student's own pace. Our sophisticated 'engines' allow children to work through each lesson, comfortably, without pressure and rigidity, and won't advance a young learner until mastery of that lesson is attained.

In the spelling program a student can use a programmed list or input their own words. Mastery is achieved through fun quizzes, spelling bees, practice tests and games. The math and vocabulary programs are customizable as well. The states program has interactive lessons and quizzes for students to learn state locations, capitals, correct spelling and abbreviations. Here is an informational video about the site.

Ds3, my 10yo fourth grader used the site for our review. It was quite timely as we are doing a states study this year. :) He logged on each day and did one lesson in each subject. He worked on these independently with ease. The lessons were short and the variety from day to day kept his attention. He enjoyed the states program the most, especially hearing the “tutor” give facts about each state. He definitely enjoyed practicing his spelling, vocabulary and math more with this site than with traditional methods. He also liked that he earned a “coin” with each completed lesson and could use the coins to play games. That was all the motivation he needed to log on each day. :)

I made use of the customizing features of the programs and used vocabulary and spelling words from ds’s current lessons. I also was able to set up the math program to concentrate more on multiplication to help him nail those times tables. The site and program are pretty easy to navigate. I received regular emails with updates on how ds was doing and if he mastered any of his lessons. The only issue I had was with the “tutors.” They are computer generated voices that speak in that droning, run-on kind of manner. Some of it was confusing when the tutor was listing off state facts since there wasn’t a clear end to each sentence or proper inflection. Ds didn’t have a problem with it, it’s just my own personal thing.

BigIQkids offers all four programs in two versions, free and premium. Here is a video detailing the differences in the two memberships.

Premium memberships range in price from $19.99 per month to $99.99 for 12 months for all four programs. Individual subjects can be purchased for as little as $7.99 a month. Complete pricing information can be found here.

I received a one-year premium membership to BigIQkids to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, click on the banner below.

TOS Review: Artistic Pursuits

2011-03-23T07:24:00.001-05:00

Artistic Pursuits offers a series of books for teaching art specifically for homeschoolers. As their site states, “The Artistic Pursuits program presents both the expressive and the technical aspects of art in an age-appropriate manner.” They offer material for all levels, from Pre-K to high school. The boys and I received K-3 Book 3, Modern Painting and Sculpture for our review.

There are 32 lessons in this book covering modern artists and their styles and techniques. For each lesson there is a page that introduces an artist or movement and activity pages that walk a child through a project related to the lesson.

At the beginning of the book is a complete list of art supplies you will need for the program. Actually, it’s not just an ordinary list, there are pictures of examples of the products. I cannot tell you how helpful this was for this art novice homeschooling mom! I took the book with me to the store and could see exactly what they were talking about. The website even has art supply packs available to save you the shopping around.

Ds3 and ds4 have been enjoying this program. It is designed to provide gentle instruction in technique yet allow for creative expression. Both boys have looked forward to our weekly lessons.

I had looked into using Artistic Pursuits in the past, but the price was an issue. Now that I have used the program I can fully justify the cost. The books are non-consumable and can be used with different levels. The projects are beautifully illustrated and easy to implement. The lessons are just the right mix of instruction and application and make it quite easy to add art to your homeschooling.

Artistic Pursuits books are available on the website for $42.95.

I received a copy of Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book 3 to facilitate this review. I received no other compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, click on the banner below.

Homeschool Week 22

2011-03-20T16:12:00.001-05:00

We pretty much had a routine week, I didn’t even take many pics. Both boys have gotten into a routine with their computer work and pretty much get on and get it done without much prompting from me. While they are on the computers I set up their worksheets and such on the school table. When they complete those we’ll do our reading, science and history and call it a day.

Ds4 working on HWT and his code books.

Ds3 working on a new geography workbook I’ll be reviewing soon.

Both boys still have Disney on the brain and made their own Lego versions of The Tower Of Terror ride at Hollywood Studios.

We are still working our way through the Scholastic Human Body project book, this week making models of some of the sense organs. The boys got a real kick out of learning about the eyes, especially how your pupil changes size.

We did manage another art lesson. This week they learned more about impressionist art and made a color wheel.

We are getting a little more adept at working with the gouache paints.

There is a definite feeling a change in the air and I don’t think our routine will be the same for much longer. Warmer weather is becoming the norm so we will be able to go out more. My physical therapy for the frozen shoulder will mean more disruptions to our day. And dh is preparing for a 3 week business trip. Yep, I’m relishing this routine week for as long as I can. :)

Timberdoodle Review: Daily Geography Practice

2011-03-18T13:50:00.001-05:00

Timberdoodle is a very useful site with a wide variety of homeschooling products available at discount prices. I was given the opportunity to review a geography resource with ds3, my 4th grader.

Daily Geography Practice Grade 4 offers 36 map lessons to help introduce basic geography skills and over 100 geography terms. A new concept is introduced at the beginning of the week. Students then complete corresponding worksheets, a few questions daily, throughout the week. The information is presented simply and clearly enough that a student could work on these lessons independently. The lessons include

Globes
Compass roses
Map legends
Map grids and coordinates
Map scales
Physical state, region, and country maps
Projections
Road and tourist maps
Historical and cultural landmark maps
Population and product maps
Climate and time zone maps
Land use, product, and resource maps
Political country, region, and continent maps

Ds3 has really enjoyed this workbook. He is all about lessons that are short and to the point lol. With just a few questions to answer daily, he hasn’t acted like the work is a chore and he has really retained the information better.

From a homeschooling mom’s view, I have found Daily Geography Practice to be a very useful resource. Ds3 is doing a states study this year and adding this workbook has been a wonderful way to incorporate more general geography without overwhelming him. The workbook pages are easily removed and I am in the process now of putting them in page protectors so I can use them again later with ds4. There are also some very cool extra resources included in the book, a geography glossary for students to reference and map transparencies to aid in my teaching.

Daily Geography Practice (grades 1-6) is available from Timberdoodle for the discounted price of $21.75. I think it’s a wonderful addition to our geography studies and plan on getting ds4 his own level for next year.

I received a copy of Daily Geography Practice Grade to facilitate this review. I received no further compensation.

TOS Product Review: Reading Kingdom

2011-03-07T14:06:00.001-06:00

Reading Kingdom is an online program designed to teach children 4-10 years old how to read. It customizes itself to each child and teaches six skills needed for reading: sequencing, motor skills, sounds, meaning, grammar and comprehension. It can easily be used as a stand alone resource or along with your current reading curriculum.

There are several components to this program, all designed to truly customize the experience for each child. Once you have signed up and activated your account you will create a parent account to track your reader’s progress. A student using this program will need to be fairly proficient with a computer to be successful. Therefore, after you have signed up your “reader” they will have the option to begin the program with a skills survey or engage in some mouse and keyboard skill-building activities.

The skills survey helps determine your reader’s current abilities so they will begin the teaching portion of the program at an appropriate point. This helps avoid boredom from having to sit through lessons on material they have already mastered, and frustration from being presented with unfamiliar concepts too early. The survey tests three skills; keyboarding, left to right sequencing, and reading. After that, there are five levels of reading and writing lessons with progress checks and reviews as well.

The sessions are not long and are presented based on the results of the reader’s skills surveys. They include finding and typing letters, and picking out letters in order. In the reading and writing levels there are various methods in the lessons to teach words, from having the reader type in a spoken word to having them chose from a group of letters that could make up a given word.

As the reader progresses the lessons comprise reading short books containing the words they have been learning so far. The website has step-by-step descriptions of the program that explain it much better than me. :)

Ds4, my 6yo 1st grader, is testing this resource for me. He is fairly proficient with his letters and sounds but is not reading yet. He is quite adept at using the computer so we skipped the mouse and keyboarding activities. After taking the skills survey he was given lessons in Letter Land and Sequencing. It took a few lessons for both of us to catch on to the technical aspects of this program, learning how to time his responses so he wasn’t marked as getting an answer incorrect. However, after about 2 weeks he was familiar with what the program expected and quickly moved on to the reading and writing lessons.

When introducing a new word, the program says the word and asks ds to type it on the screen if he knows it. If he can type the given word then another word is presented. If he cannot then he is given various activities to help him learn the word, such as choosing the new word from similar words, filling in missing letters from the word and just plain old typing the word on the keyboard. The program is gentle, giving plenty of response time and clues when needed, and the pace is appropriate for the age of the child.

Ds likes the program a little. ;) This is because it has a very nice balance between being a game and being school. He sometimes balks at the lessons when they seem repetitive but does enjoy the graphics and animation. He can access the site and start his lesson on his own. I do monitor each session to help keep him focused but I don’t offer any other assistance. We have been using the program for about a month and ds4 is in reading and writing level one. I can see some definite improvement in his spelling but only a little in the reading department. However, it is way early in the game so to speak to really pronounce judgment on his reading skills.

I like the program. Like I pointed out before, there is a nice balance between it being a game and being a useful resource. I like how it approaches teaching reading from many angles and using many different methods. It doesn’t just present the word and have ds type it until he remembers, but also makes sure he can distinguish the word from others. The program is quite user friendly for both the student and parent, and the customer service has been prompt and knowledgeable.

I like the progress chart as well. It lets me know exactly where we are in the program and how well ds is grasping concepts.

When I choose a specific level to look at it is highlighted and I am given a detailed report of when ds started learning a concept, what his progress is and how the program perceives his performance. My only complaint with this chart is that the graphics are a bit silly since it is meant to be viewed and used by the parent and not the child.

Reading Kingdom is subscription based and there is a 30 day free trial available. Subscriptions to Reading Kingdom are $19.99/month with no monthly minimum, or $199.99 if you purchase a 12 month subscription. If you have multiple children using the program, the cost per each additional child in your family is $9.99/month.

I was given a 12 month subscription to Reading Kingdom to facilitate this review. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, click on the banner below.

Destination Disney: Planning

2011-03-04T07:37:00.001-06:00

This week’s Destination Disney theme is planning. I will share about the planning I did for the trip we just took. First let me note that we are Disney World veterans. We already know about all the parks, rides, attractions, eateries, events, accommodations, etc. So our planning does not involve as much information seeking as someone who has not been to the resort as often as we have. Since we have “been there done that” and will likely return again many times, we don’t have to worry about doing it all or missing out on something. Our Disney vacation style is much more relaxed.

Dh has a fancy zippered folder he loans me to hold all our travel papers.

Any paperwork related to our trip goes in here. During the trip I sit down nightly with my crew and we record on that legal pad everything we did that day. It’s a great way to relive and record memories. I also store any receipts in the folder and sort through them when we return home. That is super helpful not only to see exactly where our money went during the trip, but to better plan future trips.

I don’t plan our days in advance, but I do print up a calendar or weekly planning page to note park hours during our vacation and days that have extra magic hours for resort guests. We can then consult this sheet and decide which park to go to on a daily basis. I get this information from the Disney website itself and AllEars.net.

Stapled to the calendar sheet I have a list of all the rides that are open during the extra magic hours. This really helps us decide if the extra hours are worth it or not. For example, this past trip we had already visited Epcot and ridden the rides that are open for extra morning hours, so we chose another park for that day. These two sheets of paper help us keep very flexible on our vacations.

Do I use many books in my planning? Nah, like I said we’ve “been there done that,” but I do like the PassPorter series and if I have some extra Amazon money I’ll buy one for a trip. They are more than just informational, they are actual planners that you can write in and store papers and such.

Here’s a fun new planning tool Disney has introduced this year. It’s a desktop vacation planner you can download at the Disney website. You input the pertinent information about your trip and you get customized topics that are especially helpful for your situation. It’s also a countdown clock. The part I liked the best? It tells you what the weather currently is in Disney World. Man, during this past winter it really made us excited to see sunshine and 70degrees somewhere lol.

I mentioned AllEars.net before and I have to say it is the #1 resource for our Disney planning. The Debs and their crew are really on the ball and have super up-to-date information on the site and in the newsletter. They even have menus and prices for most all the restaurants in the resort, so you can really nail down your food budget and make wise decisions for eating. They also list any attractions that are closed and refurbishments that are going on in The World. There is also a forum called WDWMagic that is very interesting to peruse before a trip. You can get up-to-the minute crowd counts and weather reports from people who have visited the park recently (like that day lol.) Plus people post trip reports, which are always fun to peruse.

There you have a glimpse of my planning strategies for Disney World trips. While I don’t advocate making such detailed plans as to inhibit the spontaneity, magic and just plain fun of a Disney vacation, it is true that the planning process can be just as pleasurable as the trip itself (and certainly last longer lol.) Thanks to Heidi for hosting Destination Disney.

Helpful Homeschool Hints: Teaching Multiple Grades

2011-03-03T11:18:00.001-06:00

When I first started homeschooling ds1 he was in 4th grade and ds2 was a preschooler. They each had their own curriculum and I never really had many problems teaching both at the same time. Then along came ds3. And 4 years later ds4. One year I found myself teaching ds2 middle school, ds3 elementary and ds4 preschool. I discovered just how hard it is to keep track of three separate complete curriculums in three different levels. Things had to change.

Around this time I discovered lapbooks, and began using them as a kind of unit study for subjects like literature, science and history. And I also discovered that all three boys could work on the same study, just at their own level. They would all learn about the Olympics, for example, just that ds2 would write a report, ds3 would make a graph of the countries involved, and ds4 would color some medals and make a wreath. I would actually teach them all the same material at once and they would do individual projects at their own level. Wow, my life got way less stressful lol!

Today I implore much the same strategy with ds3 (now 4th grade) and ds4 (now 1st grade.) They both have the same history, geography, science, art, and nature curriculum but their individual activities in these subjects are based on their grade level. For history it’s SOTW. I so love this series! I read the text out loud to them both each week. They both explore the Usborne internet links for each chapter. Then ds3 will complete the map work and ds4 will do the coloring sheet. Usually the extra activities are suitable for both of them as well. This multi-level learning approach is such a time and sanity saver for me and I know that my boys enjoy learning the same things together as well.

For more Helpful Homeschool Hints visit Many Little Blessings.

It’s Cold Up In Here

2011-03-03T07:28:00.001-06:00

I should really be ashamed of myself for that title, but it’s the first thing that came to mind and I’m sticking to it. ;)

Okay, I saw the orthopedist, same one I saw when I broke my toe. He examined me and took x-rays. He says I have adhesive capsulitis (it is so a word spell checker!) a.k.a. frozen shoulder. It affects only 2% of the population and mostly women over 40. I tell ‘ya, every stinking year that goes by I really, really hate being a woman over 40.

Basically, you hurt your shoulder in some manner. Most likely I did something to it during a workout. As the pain sets in you use the shoulder less. As you use it less, adhesions form on the ball and socket joint. As the adhesions form you lose movement in the shoulder. They don’t know why some people get this and some don’t (obviously not everyone who hurts their shoulder develops this.) They think women over 40 get it more often because of hormones. My dr says he’s had people with their arms in slings for several weeks for injuries and one will come out fine and the other will develop frozen shoulder. No idea why.

Next up is treatment, in the form of physical therapy. They are going to lead me through some exercises to help regain use of my shoulder and stop any further loss of motion. If this doesn’t work there is surgery or arm manipulations (under general anesthesia) to break up and remove the adhesions. Either way, it’s gonna hurt. The dr gave me some Tylenol with codeine to take at night so I can sleep, but I haven’t done so yet. I don’t like taking pain pills, plus dh is on call and he actually did have to leave and go in to work last night. What if something happens with one of the kiddos and I am impaired and can’t drive or make a clear decision?

So there ‘ya go. I am, I admit, confused and a bit wary of the diagnosis. It sure feels like an injury or tear or something in my arm. And some of this stuff sounds almost made up (“We don’t know how or why you got this but that’s life missy. Deal with it.”) But I’ll be a good patient and do the prescribed therapy (sure hope they have a waiting room for the kids) and I’ll get through the ordeal of The Arm. At the very least I’ll have something to blog about. :)

The Arm: Dr Visit #1

2011-03-01T12:26:00.001-06:00

Well, the good news is I have a new primary physician. I like her. She’s smart and has a dry sense of humor. She listens and is pretty much no nonsense. But she thinks my arm problem is beyond her capabilities. That’s the bad news. She has referred me to an orthopedist.

Unfortunately she picked one “out of network” with our insurance so I won’t be able to afford to go there. I have been on the phone all day with the dr office, the referral line and dh’s benefits office trying to find an in network dr. Dh’s work changed insurance this year and no one, literally no one knows what is going on. My dr thought any dr she referred me to was considered in network. The referral line lady had a list of orthopedic doctors but didn’t know who was in network (how, how do you work for the stupid hospital and have the same insurance yourself and not know this? How?) I am awaiting a call from dh with results of his talk with the benefits department. Gah this is so frustrating! I turned down the primary physician’s offer of prescription pain pills thinking a.) I would be seeing a specialist and getting this actually fixed and b.) that I don’t like taking strong meds. Now of course I’ve been in pain all day and it looks like it will be weeks before I see an orthopedist.

Anywho, I know this doesn’t make for good blog reading but it sure helps my disposition to get his off my chest (and saves my poor dh and kiddos from yet another rant from mom lol.) Blogs…the internet’s version of yoga. :)

The Arm

2011-03-01T12:13:00.001-06:00

Longtime readers of this blog may remember The Toe. My newest physical impediment is The Arm. A few months back I did something to my shoulder. I didn’t fall, or feel sudden pain while lifting weights, or anything like that. I just gradually noticed that my shoulder hurt. It was a slight nuisance but I could still use the arm and even workout with no pain so I figured it would just get better on it’s own. Well, it has progressively gotten worse to the point that the pain is constant and I can’t lift my right arm more than 30 degrees. I can tell the problem is directly below my shoulder on my upper arm. That area is sore to the touch and the main source of pain. However if I do accidentally raise my arm the pain is, well, it’s just WOW kind of pain that shoots down my entire arm in waves that take minutes to subside and temporarily turns on a full-fledged sailor potty mouth lol. My boys stand by with mouths wide open…they don’t know whether to be shocked or impressed.

I figure I kinda need to use my right arm so I have a dr appointment today. Which in itself is a hassle right now as my primary care dr left the practice last year and I had to find a new one. Dh found one in the same office building as our other dr, but he won’t see me for 6 weeks so I had to go with someone completely new. I hate that. Will this person be nice? Will we see eye to eye? Will they be thorough and listen and care like my other dr did? Or will they tell me to alternate using ice and heat on it and come back in 6 weeks? I’ve done a little internet searching on shoulder pain and I know a thorough exam will involve x-rays and possibly an mri. Will this dr order these tests? Will I be able to afford them? If she does order them then obviously this first visit will not bring me any immediate answers. Just how involved is all of this going to get?

Ugh.

The Arm. The saga begins.

Magic Kingdom Part Two

2011-03-01T12:06:00.001-06:00

After a chilly morning of fun in the MK we take a break for lunch at our favorite counter service restaurant…Starlight Ray’s Cafe.

My crew, chowing down on chicken and burgers.

Sonny Eclipse serenades you during your meal.

Photo op with my boys in front of the teacups ride. Check out my cute, cuddly warm new jacket. :)

Here you can see the back of my neat new jacket as I grab some fastpasses for Peter Pan. Here’s my tip of the day. Put one of those little plastic pouches on the end of your lanyard to hold your park tickets. It makes it tons easier to get fastpasses quickly and easily throughout the day. So much easier than digging in my bag for my wallet, digging out the tickets, then digging around again when we go to use the fastpasses. With the little lanyard pouch they are much more accessible.

One of ds4’s favorites, Small World.

Ds kept pointing out things for me to take pics of on the ride.

Ds3, ds2 and I sat through a showing of Mickey’s PhilharMagic, one of my faves. Ds4 is not fond of it for some reason. I just love the movie, especially the part where the pie is on the screen and you smell cinnamon and the bit where Ariel sings and reaches out to hug you in 3D.

Then it was time to use our Peter Pan fastpasses. I got this cool shot of dh and ds3 in the flying boat behind us.

We moved on to Adventureland, stopping by my favorite gift shop of all, The Yankee Trader. They sell all manner of kitchen supplies, cookbooks, and even yummy Disney themed foodstuff.

The Jungle Cruise was our next stop.

Uh, oh, we caught the elephants playing in the water…don’t worry, they have their trunks on! ;)

Dh and ds2 braved Big Thunder Mountain…they are actually on that train in this pic.

We rode the Haunted Mansion and then decided to call it a day for the MK. We caught glimpses of the parade as we walked out of the park.

The final monorail ride of the day. I have no idea why I’m not looking at the camera. It’s like we are scared of something in those bags or the sunbeam or something. I really need to give dh a tutorial on picture taking. :) After a break at the hotel we spent the evening in Epcot. More on that in another post.

Homeschool Week 21

2011-02-28T08:42:00.001-06:00

Both boys have hit a bit of a snag in math. Ds3 can’t seem to grasp factors. I think it’s because he has still not mastered multiplication. He is making progress in learning the facts, it’s just that he isn’t understanding the concept, and therefore factors are not making sense to him. Ds4 has worked so much in Mathletics that he did everything in the 1st grade level already. I wish they actually had more levels within each grade. I am letting him do the kindergarten level, which is too easy, but he loves Mathletics and is not giving it up lol.

Ds3 picked Call of the Wild for reading. This week we learned a little about Jack London and read the first few chapters. He is helping me review a new language arts resource and a new geography workbook so it’s been a week of new stuff for him.

Both boys have been enjoying our human body study so much that I’m giving it more time than I had planned. This week we made a lot of the models in Scholastic’s Human Body Easy Make & Learn Projects.

A mobile of different types of cells.

Here they are labeling each other’s brain hats.

Coloring the skin model. Note that ds4 is still wearing his brain hat…he has done so every day since he made it. :)

Looking at the skin model.

We’ve spent a lot of the week out of the house. It has finally warmed up enough for a trip to the park.

We all truly truly need this return to warmth and sun, I hope it continues!

Today Is His Birthday

2011-02-25T08:42:00.001-06:00

Yet I am the one who is getting older. :) My oldest son turns 21 today. I tear up every time I think about it. My life changed big time when I turned 21 (got married, moved to another country) and I guess I realize that there is no turning back now. My firstborn is grown up. Ack! What if the other three decide to do the same thing?

I was 23, dh and I had been married and living in England for 2 years when ds1 was born. I was 2 weeks past my due date so we had to travel 2 hours to the nearest military hospital (RAF Lakenheath) so I could be induced. They hooked me up to the pitocin and adjusted the amounts on and off all day but labor did not come. The idiot doctor, lazy and not wanting to deal with me on a Friday, sent me home. I went into labor that night. We drove back to the hospital but they said to wait until I was dilated more and sent us to the hotel on base (a place where people who were just coming on or leaving base soon stayed.) Dh and I spent the day counting contractions and waiting. Finally I could take it no more and I sat myself in that maternity ward. Again we were dealing with lazy, uncaring people who just didn’t want to do anything on the weekend and they just told me to walk the halls to help labor progress. The nurse practitioner, an officer, came around, saw what was going on, and let me tell you, she gave those people youknowwhat for what they did. She yelled about me not being in a hospital gown, the room not prepared…justice was served that afternoon by a woman in Air Force blue.

So now I am in a room and being attended to, but still no progress in the labor. The officer breaks my water, and it is green. I didn’t know then but that means there was meconium in there and the baby was at risk. Finally I felt the urge to push and did so for an hour or so in the room. Then I was moved to the delivery room where I pushed for another 3 hours…that’s right, 3 hours. The nurse could not perform a C-section so she tried and tried to get the dr on call to come in. By now it was Sunday and no dr would answer her plea. At last, with the help of forceps, ds emerged. I gave him a quick kiss on the top of his head and they rushed him off to NICU for he did indeed have meconium aspiration.

Dh and I are both exhausted. Neither of us has slept in days or eaten in hours. The nurses brought us some food and helped us make the stateside call to my parents to let them know the baby had arrived. I was so weak and “messed up” down there that I was bed bound. It was a full day later before they could wheel me down to the NICU to even see ds. He was a big strapping and otherwise healthy boy so he only stayed 5 days in the ward. It took me 4 days to recover but they let me stay the 5th as well, when ds could finally come room with me.

While it was a pretty dramatic birth ds had no further problems and was a delightful baby. Slept good, ate good, wonderful disposition. Dh and I learned a lot from our experience. Ds had duel citizenship until he turned 18. It was neat when we took him to the local government office to register his birth and he got his little health care card (never used it, but it’s in his scrapbook lol.) And now the baby is a man and I am so very proud of him. Now to figure out how to keep this from happening to the other three. ;)

TOS Review: Math Rider

2011-02-25T07:05:00.001-06:00

Math Rider is a computer game designed to help your student master their math facts. From the Math Rider site:

Ride your horse on noble quests through the magical MathLands. Math Rider combines fun game play with a highly sophisticated question engine that adapts to your child. The game propels your child to mastery of all four math operations using numbers 0 to 12.

Basically, after you set your child up with a name and password, you choose a math operation for them master (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.) They watch a brief animated story explaining their mission (they need to rescue a princess or return a magical gem to elf land) and then they ride their horse through an obstacle course filled with math questions. As they answer correctly the horse jumps the obstacle and earns the rider points. After earning enough points the student gets to see another animated scene showing that they successfully completed their mission.

Here is a screen shot of a level I set up for myself. It shows a player’s progress at the top. On the field you can choose a practice run (where your results won’t affect your mission progress) see detailed statistics and start a new quest. The book icon will show the animated stories and the map shows where you are in MathLands. The horseshoe at the top right of the screen takes you to a page that shows high scores in the game. The question mark on the horse leads you to in-game help.

Here is the horse and rider making their way to the first obstacle. The game gauges how quickly and accurately a student answers questions and the horse gallops accordingly. The rider gets bonus points for answering quickly.

Here is a shot of the statistics screen. I was impressed with how detailed this information is. Every math question that is answered during the game is recorded in the Math Rider database and the statistics page shows a player’s strengths and weakness based on that data. The chart has a color grid to show progress in mastering the facts:

green – question poses no problem for the rider
yellow/orange – rider still needs to practice this question more
red – the rider finds this question very difficult
grey – this question has not been tried yet

When a student left clicks on any block in the chart they get that popup you see in the box to visually help them understand the problem.

A parent can right-click on a box in the chart and get very detailed info on how well the student has done on questions with that specific math problem.

Ds3 and ds4 both tested this product for me. Ds3 is 10yo and in the 4th grade. He definitely benefitted from the math drills but was not too thrilled with the whole horse riding and magical quests theme. Ds4 is 6yo and in the first grade. He was thrilled with the theming, loved the horse riding and going on the quest, but the game just seemed to be a bit above his abilities at this moment. He just isn’t coordinated enough yet to see the problem, solve it, find the numbers, and punch in the answer. I would help him with the typing sometimes, but it’s not a game he could really do well with on his own.

Overall I am impressed with this game. The download was quick and easy, setup was painless and the in-game help was thorough and well, helpful. Both boys’ math fact retention did improve as was evident in both their progress in the game and from the detailed statistics screen. This is most definitely not just another math game but a serious resource that will enhance any math curriculum.

That said, I will mention a few issues. I don’t understand why each player needs a password. It’s not that big a deal, but we are using the computer much more in our schooling this year and I really don’t need another password (or 3 in our case) to keep track of. It also hindered ds4’s ability to play the game on his own. While I applaud the theme used to appeal to students, I think some of it is lost in the actual playing of the game. How are the students supposed to enjoy the scenery and details of MathLands when they are concentrating on answering the questions? And if they are focusing on the scenery then it affects their game results. None of these observations really impact my opinion of the usefulness of this product, I am still impressed with it otherwise.

Math Rider is available as an instant download for $37. There is a 30 day money back guarantee.

I was given a trial download of Math Rider to facilitate this review. I received no other compensation. To see other TOS Crewmember reviews, please click on the banner below.

What’s On My Nightstand

2011-02-24T08:28:00.001-06:00

I can’t seriously believe it is already time again for this meme! And I’m always confused…is this for February or March? Either way, here’s my pile of books.

On top is the Pioneer Woman’s Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, the story of how she met and married her rancher husband. I faithfully followed this tale when she chronicled it on her blog, but couldn’t resist getting it in book form as well. It’s a story for the ages. ;)

I have read all the books by Sarah Addison Allen and enjoyed them so much that I sought out more authors in this “magic realism” genre. Alice Hoffman is quite prolific and my library had several of her books so I picked up a few on our last trip.

I also had a little Amazon gift card money in my account and used it to get a couple of books. I had seen Southern Plate a while back while browsing Barnes and Nobles and then again in many other places and finally took the hint and bought it. I won a ticket to Heart of the Matter’s online homeschool conference but every time I tried to log on my computer crashed. While waiting the two weeks for the mp3s of the conference to be released, I picked up a cute title by one of the speakers, If I’m Diapering a Watermelon, Then Where’d I Leave the Baby? The subtitle is Help for the Highly Distractible Mom. Uh, yeah, that is sooooo me.

Very soon the library book sale season will begin in my area. I am so looking forward to finding many more (cheap) books for my nightstand. Now I just have to find the time to read them.

Magic Kingdom Trip Report

2011-02-23T07:09:00.001-06:00

Day two dawns on our Disney World trip and we decide to visit the Magic Kingdom. It is a cold, cloudy, cold, windy (did I say cold?) day. But hey, you’re in the Magic Kingdom, who cares about the weather, right?

On the drive in from our hotel on the property we pass the monorail headed to and from Epcot.

We were pretty early and parked close enough to the Ticket and Transportation Center to skip the tram and walk.

The monorail headed to MK was not functioning and we did not feel like freezing on the boat ride over, so we took the resort monorail over to the Polynesian to kill some time.

Dh and I in the main lobby of the Polynesian hotel.

Obligatory picture in front of the castle.

First place my guys wanted to go? Buzz Lightyear!

Dh and ds2 head for Space Mountain so the little guys and I ride Tomorrowland Transit Authority. This shot is from near the Buzz Lightyear ride.

We go to Space Mountain to meet up with dh and ds and play in the arcade while we wait. A very nice cast member gave ds4 a free ride on this game.

Which led to the desire to drive the real thing! So we headed to the racecars.

I love this pic, it really captures how much fun he had driving that little car. It was cold as…well, it was cold, but he didn’t seem to care.

Next we walked to Fantasyland and saw very little line for Pooh so we hopped on. I am loving the new interactive area as you wait in line.

Cute signage and fun games keep the wait interesting.

As you get closer there is a picture covered in honey that you can sweep your hand across to reveal characters.

After the ride ds3 and ds4 had their first pin trading experience. As usual, ds4 covets his pin but ds3 is hooked on trading lol!

Here is some of the art on the walls blocking the Fantasyland expansion construction.

Had to take a pic of the Toontown sign, it won’t be there next time we go!

Ds is waving me on, “Hurry up, Mom, we’re up front!” Indeed, we were in the first car on the Goofy Barnstormer ride.

My thrill seekers in the car behind us.

Yes, crazy me took pictures on the climb up. At this point I am so cold I can’t feel my hands or nose anymore. We head to the shop across from the ride to buy ds2 and I some jackets. After that we took a break for lunch, so I’ll take a break here and report on the rest of our day in the next post.

Epcot Trip Report: The One With The Evacuation

2011-02-22T13:52:00.001-06:00

After we spent the morning in Animal Kingdom we went back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and then headed out to Epcot for the evening.

Check out the bumper sticker I spotted in the parking lot at AK…too cool, huh? Do you think it follows that Democrats are for Dumbledore?

I got this great shot of the monorail in the beautiful blue sky on our way in to Epcot. We just never tire of riding and or seeing the monorail.

Now our first stop in Epcot is traditionally Spaceship Earth, but before we got in line there, a young boy approached and offered me his family’s unused fastpasses for Soarin’. They were leaving and would be unable to use them. Wouldn’t you know he had 5 of them as well? What luck. :) We high tailed it over to The Land pavilion to use the passes before they expired.

I love The Land pavilion. It’s a pretty busy place but has such a calming and wonder-filled atmosphere. Ds4 doesn’t like Soarin’ so he and I hung out at the exit and waited on the others. There were plenty of other youngsters waiting with their mamas and daddies as well, and I had the privilege of being drooled on on the knee by one rather precocious little one as she toddled around. Ds thought it was gross and rather presumptuous of the sweetie, but I kind of enjoyed it. ;)

We were then able to hop right on to the Living With The Land ride. It’s also one of our faves.

I could take pictures in that greenhouse all day!

Ah, what’s an Epcot post without a “golf ball” shot?

Or two? This is outside of The Living Seas pavilion. We walked right on to the Nemo ride and checked out some of the neat exhibits inside.

I’d always seen this tube in the pavilion but never when a diver was inside doing a demonstration. My lucky day!

Can you find Nemo?

I thought the puffer fish was pretty cool.

Ah, the highlight of any trip to Disney World…Mickey Ice Cream! Turns out this day was the only one actually warm enough to enjoy this special treat.

And enjoy it we did!

In Innovations there is a place where you can record images of yourself and get them put in your very own video game. Ds4 was all over that lol!

Here he is playing the finished game. We were able to email the game home and he has been playing it here ever since.

Another shot of Spaceship Earth. This time we actually did get on the ride.

You may be wondering how I got such a close-up and bright picture of dh and ds3 while on the ride. That’s because, for the first time ever for us, we got stuck on the ride and had to leave via the emergency exit. I know! It was too cool. The ride suddenly lurched to a halt shortly after the fall of Rome.

We sat and watched this part continuously for about 15 minutes while the “please remain seated, the ride will resume shortly” speech played over and over. But the ride did not resume and a real voice came over the speakers and announced that the ride could not go on and a cast member would be along shortly to escort us out.

Then the lights came on and the sound from the ride stopped. I was very proud of my boys. They didn’t panic or seem upset at all. I think it was actually a good lesson for them, that these rides may seem unreal and scary but they are indeed just man made thrills. Of course, every ride we went on after this incident they would look around and wonder how you evacuated lol. Here’s a brief video I took with my little camera.

We were given special fastpasses with no time limit to some of the rides in Epcot as compensation. I told dh we should have held out for a free dinner lol. After we made the trek up the tiny stairs along the edges of the ride and exited out we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. It was a pretty memorable and tiring first day of our Disney World adventure. :)

Cats On Tuesday

2011-02-22T07:33:00.001-06:00

Mimi is one smart kitty. She knows where the real power lies in this house…control over the television remote! That’s my girl. :)

For more kitty fun visit Gattina.

Update on dh and his pneumonia…dh is on day 4 of his 5 day regiment of antibiotics but still unable to get out of bed. When he does he has terrible coughing fits. He only finds relief while lying on his stomach. The meds are working as he isn’t having the chills and sweats anymore, I guess it’s just going to take a while for his lungs to heal.

Animal Kingdom Trip Report

2011-02-21T17:18:00.001-06:00

Monday morning of our Disney trip was an early opening day at Animal Kingdom for Disney Resort guests…that means we could enter at 8am instead of 9am. So we had a little breakfast in our room and headed out bright and early.

Handy thing about digital cameras…easy way to remember where you parked. Although Disney doesn’t exactly live up to this promise. I saw no unicorns at all!

Family photo op in front of the Tree of Life. The photopass lady took this one for us, and no, I didn’t realize ds had his headsets on. On a side note, we got an older photographer in the Magic Kingdom who did notice and told ds to take them off…and take the toothpick out of his mouth. I loved her. :)

First thing we did was head to Africa for the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. It was great to see the animals when they were just waking up.

These rhino literally followed our bus. It was so cool!

After the safari we always go on the Pangani Forrest trail. We got a real treat with all of the gorilla family on hand for viewing, including the little one born right there at the AK. You can see him a little in the background with his mother.

Um, there is a gorilla on my head.

The trail is a delight on it’s own, but especially so to this homeschooling mom. There are tons of educational opportunities disguised as plain old fun.

I really love the signs, so colorful and attention getting…they make you want to read them and learn more about the animals.

We walked from Africa to Asia (only at Disney World lol) and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Ds4 tried his hand at some drums.

On to Dinoland!

Hester and Chester, AK’s version of Dumbo.

We took turns riding the Dinosaur ride as Ds4 didn’t want to try it yet. Here the boys are waiting in the gift shop area for dh and ds2 to return.

Everyone getting a laugh at the in-ride picture.

A shop outside the ride had a cool train all along the wall and neat displays hanging from the ceiling.

How cool is this bench? The meticulous attention to detail is truly what sets Disney apart.

We noticed that some of the trams now have doors. Yet still they insist that youngsters are seated to the inside. You just don’t know the grief this causes my two little boys. They take it quite personally and try and fight it every time. At least I can blame the cast members and not have to take the heat on this issue. ;)

We went back to the hotel for lunch and enjoyed the one brief lapse in the cloudy and cold weather for a quick dip in the pool. Next post will be our night in Epcot!

Book Review: Garden Spells

2011-02-20T18:28:00.001-06:00

I tried my best to get through 100 Years of Solitude but I just couldn’t! I had no desire at all to finish it but felt bad that I had spent so much time getting half way through. Then I reminded myself that I was 40something years old and not in college or high school any more and did not have to finish the book. It wasn’t the end of the world that I would miss a few weeks of the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Whew, what a relief.

This one I had no problem at all finishing. In fact, I hated to see it end, just like The Sugar Queen and The Girl Who Chased The Moon (also by Sarah Addison Allen.) In true Sarah Allen fashion, Garden Spells centers on women with mysterious traits and the conflicts these bring to their lives. In fact, the town featured in Garden Spells is full of families with such mysterious abilities. The Waverly sisters are our main characters. They work to overcome the abandonment issues brought on by a “free wheeling” mother, and to learn to accept their own special “gifts” while trying to lead somewhat normal lives.

Allen’s easy to read and colorful writing style has you connecting with the characters from page one. This is a book that you don’t want to put down, but also one you are able to pick up and get right back into at any point. What I like most about Allen is her ability to add the little mysteries and oddities into her story and make them completely believable and well, normal. The worlds she writes about are perfectly normal everyday scenes out of anywhere in America, but she spices them up with “magic realism.”

This book is not hard hitting literature but is certainly far enough from “fluff” to qualify as a good read to me. There are some detailed romantic encounters but they are brief and integral to the storyline. I highly recommend this book and all others by author Sarah Addison Allen.

Update

2011-02-18T18:52:00.001-06:00

Dh has pneumonia. The dr put him on a stronger antibiotic and told him not to go on his business trip next week. More later.

Fun In The Sun

Fall Disney Trip Day One

Homeschool 2011-2012 Week 2

Cats On Tuesday: Ellie’s First Week Of School

Homeschool 2011-2012 Week 1

School Portraits 2011-2012

Destination Disney: G

Schoolroom Version 2011-2012

And The Winner Is…

Destination Disney: F

Destination Disney: E

Cats On Tuesday

Not Back To School Blog Hop

Product Review and Giveaway: DaGeDar

Destination Disney: D

Summer So Far

Cats On Tuesday: Ellie Belly

Cats On Tuesday

Ellie

Cats On Tuesday: New Girl In Town

Tell Me Why

Product Review: Neutrogena Wet Skin Sunscreen

Product Review and Giveaway: Dr. Scholl’s Custom Fit Orthotic Inserts

Cats On Tuesday: Turf Wars

TOS Review: EnVisionMath

Hey, Hey, I (Almost) Hugged A Monkee

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

TOS Review: Mad Dog Math

Boots Are Back In Style

Cats On Tuesday: I’ll Take Him!

Don’t ‘Ya Just Hate

TOS Review: WonderMaps

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

TOS Product Review: GoTrybe

Cats On Tuesday

A Surprise Disney Trip

A Sneak Peek

How Many Cute Boys

Cats On Tuesday: One Person’s Trash…

Homeschool Weeks 27 and 28

TOS Review: Greek N Stuff

TOS Review: Writing Tales

Cats On Tuesday

Cats On Tuesday

Love Language

Product Review: Hormel Compleats Kids Meals

Product Review: Estroven

Estroven® plus Multi-Vitamin

Estroven® Maximum Strength

Estroven® Nighttime

Estroven® plus Energy

Homeschool Week 26

A Friendly Reminder

Productive Day

TOS Review: Science Weekly

Like Pulling A Tooth

Another Year Older

Cats On Tuesday: Mimi’s Job

TOS Review: GoGo Kabongo

Homeschool Week 25

Helpful Homeschool Hints

Cats On Tuesday: Strike A Pose

Homeschool Weeks 23 and 24

TOS Review: BigIQkids

TOS Review: Artistic Pursuits

Homeschool Week 22

Timberdoodle Review: Daily Geography Practice

TOS Product Review: Reading Kingdom

Destination Disney: Planning

Helpful Homeschool Hints: Teaching Multiple Grades

It’s Cold Up In Here

The Arm: Dr Visit #1

The Arm

Magic Kingdom Part Two

Homeschool Week 21

Today Is His Birthday

TOS Review: Math Rider

What’s On My Nightstand

Magic Kingdom Trip Report

Epcot Trip Report: The One With The Evacuation