That Works For Me. ~~ GIVEAWAY!!!

Have you ever heard of the That Works For Me meme? 
It is a link up over at We Are That Family where literally hundreds of blogs each week share their tried and true tips.  I have linked up quite a few of my personal tips.  Can you imagine going through all those tips to find the best ones. 
The ladies over at We Are That Family have created a very user friendly e-book full of 800 of the best of the best tips submitted.  Each tip is categorized and even cross categorized if applicable.  So easy to navigate. 

There are so many categories, such as household, beauty, kids, blogs, and so much more.  I have 2 tips in the book. 

The book sales for $8 which equals out to 1 cent for each tip.  AMAZING!

I am able to give my readers a discount code to save $1.  Use code SAVE1
Go Here to buy the book!
They even have a very well organized Pinterest Board.

Would you like to win your own copy?
Check out the Rafflecopter for how to win.

Homeschool Mothers Journal

In my life this week… Well, Softball season has started and I have two girls in softball, so we have two practices a week and two games each week on top of my son’s karate twice a week.  We feel like we are really getting into the swing of Spring.  I was able to go to a workshop taught by Liz, The Food Nanny!  It was great and amazing, check out her website for free menu planning and lots of great ideas.

In our homeschool this week…  I am a little ashamed to admit we are counting down the days until we are taking a break, a real break, at home, not on vacation.  We are looking at a MAJOR revamp of our schooling beginning the middle of June we are going to school 1/2 days in the mornings and be done by 11am, that is our goal anyways.  We are all very excited to leave behind K12 and get back into schooling the way we used to, as a family!

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…  Some days kids will drag their feet and you will not get an entire days worth of work done.  Some days kids will surprise and amaze you and get a few days worth of work done in just a few hours. 

Whenever I can sense that my children are not in a settle down and get it done kind of mood, I pull them all over to the table and we work on a quick science experiment or art project/lesson or a worksheet type activity, (color by number, etc).  Once we have been at the table for 15 minutes they are settled down enough and are in a learning mindset.

I am inspired by… My 7 year old, she is a struggling reader, she can read, she is still just figuring out fluency and she tries hard every day during our read aloud time.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… I went and met Liz, The Food Nanny.  That was just so neat.  We are also gearing up for a vacation coming soon. 

My favorite thing this week was…  I had a orthodontist appointment for two of my children this week and while I was gone, Emily got 2 days worth of schoolwork done!!  It was AMAZING.  She did a great job on all of it too.

What’s working/not working for us… K12 is not working for us, but it is too.  What I mean by that is that we are done using K12 curriculum.  However I am glad to have it all planned out for me for the rest of the year while I spend my time planning what is next. 

Questions/thoughts I have… What does YOUR recipe file look like? 

Things I’m working on… I would like to make a jewelry holder. I have quite a bit of costume jewelry and would like to display/store it on a wall in my bathroom.  I am have been scouring the internet for some ideas, and think I am finally settled on one.

I’m reading… I just finished reading The Five Love Languages for Kids (I am also giving away a copy)  I just started reading Praying With the Grain.

I’m cooking… I am actually canning apples this week and over the weekend I plan on making some strawberry jam and canning it. 

I’m grateful for… My family.  I love the way they make me laugh and make me cry and everything in between.

I’m praying for… Every prayer request I see.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

We recently had new family pictures taken and this in one of my favorites!

Math and Science–DVD review

 

 

Science and Math.com has some neat products I have reviewed a math product for them previously and this time I was lucky enough to get to review one of their science videos. 

Amazing Science Volume 1 comes with 2 DVD’s featuring 23 experiments. Each experiment uses easy to find items.  Check out Walking by the Way for a printable supply list!  Also as the instructor in the video, Jason has advanced degrees in Engineering and Physics, and he worked as a rocket scientist for NASA.  He has a passion for teaching science and math.  He explains the why behind each amazing experiment in easy to understand turns.  Each of the experiments on the video had our mouths dropping in amazement.  And when we went to try our experiments on our own, they all worked.  We did have a little trouble with the egg in the bottle one, but we were using too small of a bottle and that was easily fixed with a bigger bottle and then it worked.

The very first experiment we tried was about surface tension and it amazed us!

We all sat down at the table with our plates.

We dipped our first Q-tip.

Then it got really fun!

 

  It worked, it really worked, and we knew why.

We love quick fun experiments like this, and knowing the why behind them is great. 

One way I have began to use this now is that when my children are feeling unmotivated to get going on our day, I pop in this DVD and set it on an experiment that I have all the supplies for and we watch the quick (5-15 min.) segment and then go conduct the experiment ourselves.  Each time when we have gotten done with the experiment their brains are awake and ready to face the day.  It has been a great for us.

Check out these sample videos of the experiments for free!

You can have all this too for $19.95 you will get the complete volume 1. 

 

To see what others though of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

Disclosure: As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew I review products like this, which I receive for free in order to be able to share my honest opinion. 

 

 

Art supply caddy.

 

 

One of the things that was making our art lessons take so long, was the hunt for supplies.  I keep kept them in the closet upstairs.  We do most of our artwork downstairs, at the kitchen table. To solve this problem I decided to keep all the basic, most used art supplies downstairs in an art caddy.

For us the most used supplies are scissors, a box of crayons, colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, a ruler, scotch tape, and a small watercolor set with paintbrushes.  (The paper we usually have to get from a shelf in the computer desk.)

 

I keep this caddy on the top of the computer desk near the kitchen.  It is easy and quick to get to, yet out of the way from little ones.  

I also pull this out for free art while we are listening to audio books.

Don’t forget to vote for me over at Picket Fence!

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!

The Five Love Languages of Children GIVEAWAY

Many of us have heard of The Five Love Languages.  They also work for children.  Did you know your child can have a primary love language too? 

I am sure you love your children very much, do you show it in a way so that they feel loved? 

I have learned so much from this book.  I have made an effort to show my children each that I love them using their primary love language and I have noticed a difference in their behavior in a good way. 

The website listed below even has a free study guide to go along with the book.  You can even take a love language test.  There are also tips for all ages.  It is just so full of information.  Be sure and bookmark it.

About The 5 Love Languages of Children: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/resource/the-five-love-languages-of-children/

To be their best, children need to feel loved. But if you and your child speak different love languages, your affection might get lost in translation, affecting the child’s attitude, behavior, and development. Dr. Gary Chapman’s groundbreaking Five Love Languages series has helped millions of couples communicate love more clearly, and Dr. Ross Campbell M.D. has applied the innovative system to children as well. The 5 Love Languages of Children gives practical suggestions for learning how your children interpret love and creating a sense of security in which they can thrive.

Now would you like to win your very own copy, of course you would.  Check out the Rafflecopter for how to win.

H is for Hope

 

 

 

Hope.   I always hope I am making the right decisions. I always hope things will go the way I plan.  I always hope.  I hope for others.  I hope for myself.  I just hope. 

Even if I make the wrong decisions, even if things do not go as planned.  I don’t lose hope.  I know that He is all knowing. 

 

Christian Kids Explore ~ Physics ~ A Review

 

 Bright Ideas Press has wonderful curriculum.  I have reviewed for them in the past.  This time I was able to review the Physics part of their Christian Kids Explore series. 

This is science from a Christian Perspective.  It is listed as grades 4-8.  I felt it was a great introductory Physics curriculum.

The resource Cd this comes with is chalk full of materials from lesson plans to a literature selection of Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia.  There are all the reproducible worksheets that go along with the book, including detailed coloring pages (like the cover of the book).  I love that there are supply lists listed by unit so that you can easily gather all your materials ahead of time too.

While most of this proved to be review for my 5th and 7th grader it is still a great introduction to Physics.

This has been very teacher friendly.  There is very minimal prep time and it is so well organized. 

The 30 lessons are divided over 6 units designed to be twice a week for 30 weeks. Each lesson consists of Teaching Time (Day 1) and Hands on Time (Day 2). The Teaching Time consists of reading the lesson.  The hands on time varies from worksheets to experiments. All the experiments were done using easy to find and inexpensive items.

The Units are

• The Foundations of Physics
• Matter
• Mechanics
• Matter in Motion
• Energy in Motion
• Electricity and Magnetism

 

 The Physics book comes in paperback and includes the resource Cd for $39.95. 

Bright Ideas Press offers a variety of curriculum, you may be surprised at all you find there.

To see what others though of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

Disclosure: As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew I review products like this, which I receive for free in order to be able to share my honest opinion. I received the PDF version of this book which is solely for review purposes. The actual book comes in paperback. 

 

Our Spring/ Easter Activities

 

I have felt a little off the blogging wagon so to speak.  I have just been so dang busy living life that I have had no time to write about it.  So here is my very late Easter activity post.  This will be a mish mash of activities we have done over the last little while.  Expect little to no organization. 

Also, the reviews are going to be coming at you over the next couple of days, but I promise they will die back off and I will fill my blog with more of how we live our life here at Family Style School.

Emily painted an Easter egg.

We made bird feeders.

We made Handprint Easter Lilly’s

We made these really cool cross and dove sun catchers.

Of course we had Hot Cross Buns.

We made egg geodes.

We sucked an egg into a bottle.

We dyed Easter eggs too.

No pictures of that.

We had an AMAZING lesson the night before Easter.

We made Resurrection Rolls. 

We went to TWO hunts. 

Our first one was early in the morning.

Next we headed to decorate cookies and see the Easter Bunny at the grocery store.

 

We came home for a short break and lunch then headed out to another hunt.

 

 

I love this picture of Tyler.  I feel like I can see the excitement in his feet.

This picture of Katey is just precious too!

The egg in a bottle experiment was so cool we had to do it again.

I took the kids pictures Sunday after church.

I had the kids change their clothes and then we went to the park.  It was a perfect day.

 

We also tried to see if we were strong enough to break an egg using pressure. 

This activity was from Usborne Science Activities- Volume 2.

 

Most of my Easter activities were from Discover Easter.  Which is an amazingly great resource to teach the real meaning of Easter.

Ok, we made it through this mish mash, and I feel much more caught up in my blogging.