Epic

They worked on it every night for months.

Hours and hours of father and son sifting through thousands of tiny pieces, finding just the right one for just the right fit. Concepts and ideas flew as they built.

Plans were sketched for additions, hidden doorways stashed behind vines growing up the side, horses were placed carefully in their stalls.

Before they were even close to being finished, battles were fought between the Lion Knights and the Dragon Knights, a working trebuchet was constructed, then a seige tower.

Armies lined up in front of the moat with kings perched on thrones to watch.

It was epic.

A full size sheet of plywood sat on barrels in his room, with walking room all the way around so he could build on every side of it.

And it stayed there for about a year.

"Joshua, did you know the Bible talks about Lion Knights and Dragon Knights?"

His eyes grew big.

"In Revelation the Bible calls Jesus the Lion - 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered...' and calls Satan the Dragon? - 'Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended." (Rev. 5:5, 20:1)

So their minds were sparked with the study of history and nations, medieval battlefields and spiritual battles.

I couldn't help but feel nostalgic as the castle began to be surrounded with scattered lego pieces and airplanes lined a small path snaking across the floor of his room from doorway to bed.

It was time.

Time marches on, doesn't it?

The Castle came down today, demolished to make room for an epic aircraft carrier and a flying field. 

But at least we're still in the LEGO phase. I just hope it lasts a little while longer. 

There will be real battles to fight, son, soon enough.

365 Project: Week 8

2.25.13
Ahhh....old books. Is there anything better than to stuff your nose into an old book, curled up by the warm stove, a cup of coffee in your hand?



2.24.13
Such a busy weekend I hardly remembered to take any pictures on Sunday. But I did take this one of the sunrise and the fog rolling into the valley with my phone!




2.23.13
Sabbath: Children's Story. Not even half the normal number of children this week, but it doesn't matter how many cranky, tired, uncooperative, loud, boisterous, bouncy, crazy, unruly, crying, laughing little BLESSINGS there are in attendance, I've not once had the experience of feeling like any of them are at any time unwelcome. I think every generation in our church is thankful for each little body and the life they bring to our church family. Of course, every baby, toddler and child has their moments of crankiness, but for the record, they're all good kids! Just a week before there was a row of 7 children sitting completely by themselves, quiet as little mice! I'm very thankful for our church and for the attitude towards children here.




2.22.13
Preparation Day: Elayna is always my eager little helper, and she wanted so badly to help squeeze the lemons for the salad dressing for Sabbath!




2.21.13
Sometimes a little girl just needs to sit on a stool in the middle of the living room with a lollipop in nothing but her unders!




2.21.13
Science is so cool! Our new Apologia Zoology: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day is turning out to be a perfect fit for my aviation-loving son and my zoologist daughter.




2.20.13
Lord, there are no words capable of encompassing the dimensions of a mother's love. Without knowing it, experiencing it, I'd never comprehend the depth of Your love for Your children. For me. Thank You for these three blessings. And their uncooperative baby sister. They are my heart.




2.19.13 

A little early morning routine! It doesn't matter what pajamas I put her in the night before, she always strips down the minute I leave the room and sleeps in just her pull up. At least she leaves that on!

TOS Crew Review: Pearson Homeschool EnVision Math

 

Pearson Homeschooling offers complete build-your-own core curriculum packages for grades Pre-K - 12 at affordable prices for homeschooling families. On the home page of their website you can choose your state from a pull-down menu that links directly to your state's homeschooling requirements!  The Program components Pearson offers are all well-researched and proven effective. On the website, for each element there is a heading called "Research and Validity" that lists the specific studies done proving its effectiveness.

When I opened the package from Pearson with the gorgeous enVision Math Grade 3 book in it, I was really excited.... and a little nervous. You see, all year long we'd been using a math program that was a completely different format than the typical public school math book, and the enVision book, while colorful, looked kind of like...standard PS fare. 

Joshua had been doing so well with our chosen curriculum that I was hesitant to add confusion with such a completely different approach. I really shouldn't have worried.

At all.

He opened the book to the introduction/test prep pages in the beginning and dove in. My son is 8 years old and a very strong reader, who loves (LOVES) history, and this little Math book is stuffed full of interesting historical facts like I've never even *imagined* a math book could possibly be. He was lost in the book, reading through it, searching for the little boxes to tell him more, more, more facts, then popping his nose up above the edge of the book to tell me things like, "In 1818 a law was passed that the flag should always have 13 stripes and there should be one star for each state!", and "The Space Needle is 605 feet tall!", or "A giraffe weighs 4,255 pounds!!!". Really? Giraffes?! Wow.

What an interesting way to get my son excited about doing his math lesson: "You can't read ahead until you've finished this page, Joshua!"

As this is a standard, non-consumable text book with no corresponding workbook, it took him a while to get used to writing his answers on a separate sheet of paper, but once he got the hang of it he did fine. The Teacher's Edition CDROM also give you the option of printing out each page so the problems can be worked on the page, though we didn't opt to go that route ourselves.

In the beginning of the book is a little 12 page "Problem-Solving Handbook" with specific strategies for problem solving, including detailed work-throughs, pictures, and examples. Strategies include: draw a picture, make a table, look for pattern, act it out, work backward, and solve a simpler problem. No matter how your child learns, there is something useful in the PSH to help them help themselves when stuck on a problem. It is meant to be used through out the course as a handy reference tool.

For my son, who is a strong reader and very interested in the real-life fact-based problems used in this format, enVision Math Grade 3 works very, very well. We will continue to use this as our 3rd grade math curriculum for Joshua even though some of it will be review material that he has previously covered. I know the addition of real-life problems will only reinforce these math facts in his mind!

I do, however, think the layout and bright colors could be distracting for a special needs child, one who is on the spectrum, or one who is easily overwhelmed with busyness. If your child is not a strong reader, the reading comprehension in this book might be adding too much at one time.

We received the enVision Math 3rd Grade bundle, which includes Student Edition text book, Teacher Edition CD-ROM, Parent Guide, and Mind-Point Quiz Show CD-ROM. This bundle is available here for $99.99

Click on the link below to read what our other Schoolhouse Review Crew is saying about enVision Math Grade 3 and other Pearson Homeschool products!

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

 



 

The Blue Ribbon Awards!

How exciting to come to the end of the year and be able to present to you ~ 

the 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Award Winners!

As the 2011-2012 Crew year comes to a close, we are once again presenting awards to our vendors. The awards are known as the TOS Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Awards. The following vendors are the recipients of the award this year. Click on their name to check out the Crew reviews!

Favorite Reading Instruction Product: Reading Eggs / My Review
Favorite Writing Product: Write Shop
Favorite Language Arts Product: Progeny Press
Favorite Social Studies Product: TruthQuest History / My Review
Favorite Science Product: Amazing Science / My Review
Favorite Math Product: Math Mammoth
Favorite Online Math Product: Math Rider
Favorite Foreign Language Product: Visual Latin
Favorite Fine Arts Product: Artistic Pursuits
Favorite Christian Education Product: Apologia: Who Am I? / My Review

~~~ 

Favorite Preschool Product: Before Five in a Row
Favorite Elementary Product: All About Reading
Favorite Middle School Product: Write with WORLD
Favorite High School Product: Excellence in Literature
Favorite College or College-Prep Product: Excellence in Literature

~~~ 

Best Online Resource: Reading Eggs / My Review
Best e-Product: Heritage History
Best Homeschool Resource: Apologia: Educating the Wholehearted Child
Best Book, Novel, or Magazine: Apologia: How to Have a HEART for Your Kids / My Review
Best Children's Book: Amazing Animals by Design
Best Game or Toy: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything
Best Hands-On Resource: Pitsco Education

~~~ 

Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: eMeals
Best Customer Service: K5 Learning
Most Adaptable Resource: Creek Edge Press
Most Family-Oriented Resource: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything

 ~~~ 

Kids' Choice (favorite of CHILDREN ages 0-12): Reading Eggs / My Review
Teens' Choice (favorite per the TEENAGERS): Pitsco Education
All Around Crew Favorite: Visual Latin    

Each winning vendor has received this wonderful award to display with pride:

  Congratulations to our winning vendors! We hope you will sail with us again!  

Many Crew Members are blogging about these awards as well. Click below to see what they have to say! Powered by Linky Tools Click here to see the Crew Blog Posts...

TOS Crew Review: CapJaxMathFax

Say that ten times really fast! "CapJaxMathFax!".

Yep, say it and you'll get a little bit of the picture CapJaxMathFax is trying to convey - building lightening quick response times to the boring old math facts your kids need to learn!

CapJaxMathFax is a computer program that "Supercharges math fact memorization" by offering a performance/reward based drilling exercise of the four basic math tables: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It works with essentially any math curriculum to help your child not just familiarize themselves with the math facts, but to give them confidence in their ability to recall them with lightening quick accuracy.

The program itself is quite simple and easy to use. No fancy animated characters flying around the screen (Yay!) or even multiple screens for multiple areas. CapJaxMathFax is a program that completely focuses on getting your child proficient in the four math tables and does away with all the fluff!

As the educator, you can set the number of problems in a set and then the program automatically generates problems at random at the level that your child is at. No repetition, no flash cards, no monitoring to make sure they're working with the right set of questions.

CapJaxMathFax is rewarding based on performance and proficiency. Each problem is given only at the prompting of the student (it's not automatic so the student does not feel like there is a timer ready to go off in between problems!), the response is recorded, then an immediate positive statement if the problem was answered correctly or a "try again" if the answer was incorrect. The response is timed and displayed back to the student when the correct answer is given. If the student answers correctly on the first try within 3 seconds (adjustable to suit student), it's a Super Answer!

Students can play for practice or can play for ratings. The rating is based on a points system and gives the student a visual of the progress they are making. In addition to that, you can separately purchase a set of "Merit Badge" buttons to pin on backpacks or shirts to really make sure the student feels rewarded for their work and getting the recognition that gives forward momentum!

 

We used this program with our 2nd grade son, Joshua. I really liked the simplicity of the program and the way it waited for him to be ready to move on to the next problem and prompt the computer before moving forward. He could go as fast or slow as he needed to and there was always that pause of recovery time in between problems that reduced the stress of anticipation. He LOVED it when he got a Super Answer! within the 3 second time limit and enjoyed watching his ratings go up. I found that his drive to watch his ratings go up made him want to keep going and going until he got a better rating, but then he'd be sick of it and not want to do it at all for several days. Using it in smaller intervals more consistently is recommended for exactly that reason! Of course, you can always set smaller goals than the 1000 rating to reward the students with something more tangible and encourage that consistent use that really makes the difference!

I've heard from several other homeschooling moms in just the past month that as they arrived at the end of the school year they were finding their child was not as proficient in the four basic math tables as they needed to be! If you find yourself saying the same thing, look no further than CapJaxMathFax!

In fact, CapJaxMathFax has provided a free evaluation for YOU to try them out and see how fast your child improves on their math facts!

  

Go HERE to get CapJaxMathFax downloaded on your computer now for $29.95 (one year annual license for up to 10 students)

Or have them ship the software to you for $35.90 + shipping!

Merit Badges are available for purchase for $4.00 w/free shipping!

  To read what other TOS Crew Members are saying about CapJaxMathFax, check out the Crew blog post HERE!

Disclaimer: As always, this product has been provided to me for use in my own homeschool with my own family free of charge in exchange for an honest review and nothing more. All opinions here are my own.

TOS Crew Review - Amazing Science! Vol. 1

ScienceandMath.Com offers science experiment and math tutorial videos to help your kids learn difficult concepts and gain curiosity in the world of science.

We were sent a copy of their 2-disc DVD set: Amazing Science! Volume 1.

With 23 different science experiments to choose from, this video is bound to keep your family hopping for quite some time! Each chapter begins with a list of materials that you need to have before beginning the experiment. If you find that you don't quite have everything handy that you'll need - that's okay! Try a different chapter and come back to that one. These experiments are individually done and not sequential. It's fine to skip around and find ones that work for your family.

My daughters were less than excited when we opened the package. My son, however, took one look and his eyes lit up! Science! Experiments! Woohoo!

"Can I watch it right now?", he asked.

"Sure!", I answered. Little did I know how my plan for the rest of the day was going to completely change!

He literally watched the first experiment demonstration standing up in front of the TV, then he ran to the kitchen, gathering up the materials he needed to copy the Color Changing Milk experiment, shouting for his sisters to come watch, and jumped in feet first as soon as I said, "Go for it!".

He then watched several other experiment chapters and wanted to try them ALL that day, but we needed to plan a little bit for some of them. The next day he was back at it, helping me find just the right bottle, hard boiled a few eggs, and waited impatiently for Dad to get home so we could do the Egg in a Bottle experiment.


As you can see, the whole family enjoyed this one!

I do think there was room for a little more step-by-step breakdown of the basic science behind the experiments. I appreciated the detailed instructions, the list of materials needed at the beginning of each chapter, and the excitement of the presentation. More lower-level science building block information would be a beneficial addition.

There is no denying, however, that this set of DVDs excited my children, made them want to learn more about science, and was far more engaging of their little minds than any old science book will ever be. What's more, it engaged me.

Teaching science to my kids no longer involved me opening one more book, trying to figure out for myself how to best turn it into a hands-on learning experience, and dreading the set ups, explosions, and messes that may come with it. Instead, watching the experiments simply demonstrated for me walked me through the processes in a fun way and made it seem far less overwhelming.

Other experiments include: Build a Lemon Battery, Floating Eggs, Build a Motor with Lights, Invisible Ink, and Simple Lava Lamp. 

The 2 DVD set of Amazing Science! Volume 1 retails for $24.95 on sale right now for $19.95!
Or download it for just $17.99!






You can also read what other TOS Crew Members are saying about Amazing Science! Volume 1 on the TOS Crew Blog! 

 As always, I have been given a version of this product free of charge to use in our own home in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

And.... just for laughs... here's the post-egg-in-a-bottle out take:

TOS Crew Review: TruthQuest History

Looking for an alternative to the standard public school history textbook? TruthQuest History is a series of guides focused on sharing REAL stories of history with your children!

As printed on their guides, their philosophy is this:
"God initiates...
People respond...
History happens."

It's a radically different way to think about, study, and teach history. Rather than the human-centered perspective on history given with dry facts in order to pass multiple-choice tests, these guides, through stories that bring those facts to life, help us see how God has led the paths of people throughout history.

Let me be clear, here, though. Yes, these guides are to encourage a Christian Worldview foundation, but the books compiled in these guides are available at your local library, bookstore, or at book swaps, etc. No, these recommended books are NOT used to teach doctrine in any way, nor do you have to go to such-and-such a church to find these books in a particular sect's library.

We were provided with a pdf version of American History for Young Students II (1800-1865), a guide for students grades 1-5.



Leading out each topic is a short synopsis to read together, followed by a list of suggested reading, with "ThinkWrite" activities sprinkled in to get the feedback flowing.

The list of suggested reading is daunting, but don't let it overwhelm you! These are options - not requirements! Use the resources you have available, get picky about what you want to read, or let your child's interest sway you in a particular direction.

We decided to focus on The Civil War, in particular, The Battle of Shiloh, since we are "field tripping it" down to Tennessee for the 150th Anniversary memorials taking place the first weekend of April.

First order of business: go to the library and see how many of the reading list books I could find! I carefully printed out the wrong pages (oops!) of the pdf file and off we went. Of course, since I'd already driven the 30 miles to the library and had no intention of making a second trip unless it was absolutely necessary, I found myself taking to heart the directive: "You are always free to choose whatever is preferred or readily available." So I searched through the available resources at the library and came home with a stack of books, a few music CDs, and a huge question mark over my head. I couldn't help but wonder if I was "doing it right" or what the end goal really was.

I prefer to use all-encompassing text books. Really. Having a lesson clearly outlined, with objectives stated and comprehension questions at the end is much less stress for me! But as I plugged away at the reading and listened to the questions my kids were asking, I found that they were enjoying this way of learning and gaining a great deal from it!

Joshua (8) particularly enjoyed this subject and the way it was taught. Emmy, however, just barely put up with it. Perhaps that was because by the end of it, Joshua was marching around with his homemade drum singing, "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" over and over and over...

Three of the books I (randomly) brought home from the library were on our list and I focused on those during our reading time. I also brought home songs of the Civil War CDs and a book on crafts for kids to do. Combining these resources made a deep impression on all of us.

It was good to be pushed to think outside the box, to rely less on things that spoon-feed and a little more on real, vivid, story-telling to get history to come to life! I did not focus on any of the biographies that are integral to the timeline of the TruthQuest History Guides. But just looking through them makes me excited to think of the fun my kids will have as we read about Davy Crocket, John Deere, and Clara Barton. I was also pleased to see that one of the recommended resources for some of these stories is Your Story Hour, one of our family's favorite history resources!

The TruthQuest History Guide: American History for Young Students II (1800-1865) is available for purchase here in printed form for $24.95 or in pdf format for $19.95.

Companion resources and additional guides for all grade levels are also available.

You can go here to read more about how to use these guides and see the FAQs.

Go here to read more TOS Crew reviews on this products and others from TruthQuest History!


As always, I was provided with this product free of charge in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.