Mommy Octopus

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Jefferson: The Compassion Experience – FREE (Register Now!)

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I just registered us for this FREE event and think it will be a great addition to our homeschool.

The Compassion Experience is coming to Jefferson, GA November 15th-18th.  This free event features an interactive journey through the true stories of children living in developing countries like the Philippines, Kenya, Uganda and the Dominican Republic.

In over 2,000 square feet of interactive exhibit space, visitors will step inside homes, markets and schools — without getting on a plane. Each child’s story starts in poverty but ends in hope.

Not in Athens?  Click here to find a Compassion Experience near you!

Review: WorthyKids Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Shepherd’s Stone and The Lion’s Roar

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My big kids just love the Secret of the Hidden Scrolls series.  They were so excited to know that there are 2 more books to read. Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Shepherd’s Stone (Book 5) and Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Lion’s Roar (Book 6) from WorthyKids Books are now available to order!

Any books that help bring the Bible to life is a win in my book and these books do just that.

The following book review is written by my 16 year old, who really likes to read these books!  The following is her perspective as an avid reader:

Even though they are geared toward younger kids, I enjoy reading The Secret of the Scroll books.  In my opinion, the age range is probably for kids about 6 years old to just before hitting the teen years.  I just find these books so fascinating and interesting.  I  love to read them to my siblings and I might take some of these books to read to the kids I babysit.
Book five is called The Shepherd’s Stone.  The main characters,  Peter and Mary, travel back to the time of David and Goliath.  We all know this story but if you read this book it might shine a different light on the story.  David was just a little shepherd boy and killed Goliath with a stone.  Did you know David killed animals with his bare hands?  You can find this out and more in this fun, little story!
Book six is The Lion’s Roar.  Peter and Mary travel to Babylon this time.  They arrived just in time to learn about the story of David and the lion’s den.  This book has all the events leading up to the actual story we all know and love today.  It even has Peter and Mary inside the lion’s den in one chapter.  Read this story to find out why David was thrown into the lion’s den and how Peter, Mary, and David all get out.
My favorite book is actually book six because it has a lot of action. It revolves around the story of David in the lion’s den, which always amazes me.  In all of the scrolls book,  Satan is hidden in the story.  It can be fun for kids to try to figure out who he is by hearing clues in the story.  I won’t spoil the surprise for these books, in case you were wondering.  Another thing in all the books is the secret of the scroll.  Peter and Mary have a scroll with words in a different language.  While meeting Bible characters and having adventures, they have a certain amount of time to figure out the scroll or they stay in the past forever!

My Thoughts:

I’m always excited when my kids are eager to read wholesome books.  I have been very pleased with what I’ve seen produced by WorthyKids and we look forward to reading more from them in the future.  I hope they continue this series for many years.

Giveaway:

WorthyKids Books is giving away 3 sets of books 1-7 in this series.  If you’d like a chance to win, head on over to WorthyKids or click the banner below for the giveaway!

For More Information:

For more information, you can visit the The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls website.  You can also find out more on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

You can also read more reviews on this product and others by clicking the Homeschool Review Crew banner below.

Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Shepherd's Stone (Book 5) & The Lion's Roar (Book 6) {WorthyKids Books Reviews}
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Review: Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks

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Our house has been abuzz with building since our Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks from Brain Blox arrived a few weeks back.  In fact, it’s been a while since another toy has been played with so much.

I have to say that Brain Blox has been probably our favorite item to review as a family.  Everyone has had so much fun from the 4 year old to the adults!  I love to see how creative our projects have become.

We received the Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks set that includes 200 wooden building planks.  The 200 block set is the perfect amount to put together amazing creations and even for siblings to share. The wooden building planks are 100% all-natural, precision-cut, chemical-free New Zealand pine wood.

Included with the set is a drawstring bag for easy storage.  I’m all about toys that come with their own storage bag!

The owners of Brain Blox are also a homeschool family, so they know what items homeschooled kids need and love.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first since it just seems so simple to just have little wooden planks, but once the kids flipped through the building guide, they were set for hours.  My children were able to construct several of the many samples in the inclosed full-color Build Ideas Booklet.  There are so many fun options but plenty of room for creativity and free play, too.  The possibilities are truly endless!

Above, you can see the robot my son created by following a design in the booklet.  I was pretty impressed since it takes a lot of patience and coordination to get some of the building ideas to stay together.

My 8 year old daughter made something a little simpler.  She made a flower that was also featured in the booklet.

We were also able to find a ton more ideas of how to use the blocks on their Free Stuff for Blocks website page.   This website is an incredible resource!  On this site, they include ideas such as building letters and shapes, how to build castles and bridges, brain puzzles, and even a curriculum!  I plan to use these blocks to help my 4 year old remember how to form his letters and shapes.  The printable card ideas that are available on their free stuff website will help us with that.

With Christmas coming up, Brain Blox are a wonderful gift idea to help kids think and they do not require batteries or accessories at all.  I think they would also travel very nicely in the bag if you plan to take any road trips and need things for kids to do at Grandma’s or in a hotel.  Interested in purchasing a set? You can find Brain Blox on their website and on Amazon.  Currently Amazon has a sale on Brain Blox!

I am so thankful we had an opportunity to review this amazing set and we look forward to playing with it for many years to come.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit Brain Blox on their website.  You can also find out more on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

You can read other reviews on this product and many more by clicking the banner below.

Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks {Brain Blox Reviews}
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Review: Easy Grammar 11 from Timberdoodle!

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I received a 50% off discount on this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

One program that we have used for many years in our homeschool is Easy Grammar.  This year, we are using the Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 11 with our oldest.  Currently, she’s on day 37 out of 180 days.  My daughter likes the program because it only takes a few minutes and is fairly painless to complete.  If we get behind, it’s super easy for her to catch back up.

I like Easy Grammar because it constantly refreshes what students need to know about grammar.  If there is something that a particular student didn’t learn at a younger age, it’s not difficult to learn or relearn using this program.  Each section has instructions and usually has the grammar rule in place as a refresher.  The text is designed to introduce and to review in each section as well as support learning in other sections.  This enhances mastery learning since they are frequently having to use what they have learned.

Each lesson takes about 5-10 minutes for my daughter to complete, which is perfect for our homeschool setting.

Above you can see a sample of a lesson that my daughter has completed along with the coordinating answers from the Teacher’s Guide.

Inside the Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Teacher’s Guide, there are reproducible texts for student use.  This makes it great for being able to start fresh if my student needs a new sheet or to use for large families.

Some items on the Scope & Sequence for Easy Grammar 11 are abbreviations, abstract concepts, geographical places, greetings, titles of books, when to not capitalize, hyphenated words and more.

Like I mentioned earlier, we have used this program for years and definitely recommend it to other homeschooling families.  You can find Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 11 on the Timberdoodle website along with many more popular items for homeschooling families.

Meal Plan Monday

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This weekend was a much needed chill weekend.  It’s been so crazy the past year that we really just needed some downtime.

We did get some great news on Wednesday, though!  My husband’s latest cancer scan was clean!  Radiation did it’s thing and the lymph nodes are back to normal.  With that being said, they did find some degenerative issues with his back as a result of the cancer. Not sure what the next step (if any) is for that.

Anyways, here’s what we plan to make this week!

Monday: Spaghetti

Tuesday:  Southwestern Chicken in the Crockpot

Wednesday: Pizza

Thursday: Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Friday: Eggs, sausage

Saturday: Kielbasa, veggies

Sunday: Dinner out

Review: The Power in Your Hands from Timberdoodle!

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I received a 50% off discount on this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

As I have mentioned before, we’ve brought our homeschool back home this year and are using less options outside of the home.  I was a little nervous about making sure my high schooler has everything she needs to succeed, but Timberdoodle has made it so much easier.  They offer homeschool curriculum kits that are well rounded and include many of our favorite homeschool items.

Since we have been trying out the Jump In! book by Sharon Watson with our middle schooler for a bit and liked that program, we wanted to give the high school version, The Power in Your Hands a try.

The Power in Your Hands features 23 chapters with thorough instructions for writing in high school.  High schoolers will learn about the structure on an essay, how to write persuasive essays, newspaper writing, literary analysis, descriptive essays, and personal testimonies.  More than just reaching how to write, it also requires the students to think!  They have to come up with answers for their essay and be able to fully defend those answers.

Currently, my daughter is on Chapter 5, which is focusing on persuasive essays.  She has found this program to be very easy to follow along.  It walks her right through creating essays.  By the end of the program, she will have completed 23 essay writing assignments!  I have enjoyed seeing what she comes up with for each assignment.

One aspect of The Power in Your Hands that we really like are the 14-minute Power Surges.  These are writing prompts that encourage students to write without the pressure of being evaluated or graded every day.  It includes all modes of writing such as exposition, persuasion, description, narration, and even poetry.  Students write every Monday-Thursday for 14 minutes.  They keep their work and then on Friday choose the paper they like best, proofread it, and then hand it in for a grade.  It’s a great way to keep the students thinking without having too much pressure.

These Power Surges are only found in the The Power in Your Hands teacher’s guide.  As homeschooling parents, many times we skip getting the teacher’s guides, but in this case, I find it very helpful.  There are tips to show teachers how to properly grade the essays and samples of A, B, C, D, and F papers so I can compare it to my daughter’s work and assign an appropriate grade.

The only thing that I don’t like about The Power in Your Hands actually has nothing to do with the program, but the book itself.  I would have loved it to be spiraled instead of a bound book so it would sit flat on a desk easier.  It is a very thick book, being 417 pages.  I may end up taking it somewhere to have it spiraled.

I have been very pleased with The Power in Your Hands and other programs by Sharon Watson.  I plan to continue using them with my students each year.  Depending on how you use it, The Power in Your Hands can be spread out to 2-3 years!  I love curriculum that lasts a while!

For more information on this product and the Timberdoodle 11th Grade homeschool curriculum kit, please visit Timberdoodle’s website.

Giveaway: Disney’s The Lion King

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Another live-action Disney film is ready for releasing!  The Lion King will be available Digital 10/11 and Physical 10/22!  This is another one that we cannot wait to see!  I remember being in 5th grade and I had the soundtrack on cassette tape!  We played it so many times and my teacher would even let us listen to it during busy work time.

About the Movie:

In-home audiences will feel the love as they trek behind the scenes and to the African savanna through “The Journey to ‘The Lion King,’” a three-part documentary that explores the film’s creation. It features visits to the Playa Vista production facility where talent, including Donald Glover (voice of Simba) honor and elevate the animated classic’s iconic music; discussions with Favreau and team who used cutting-edge technology to create photorealistic animals and environments; and filmmaker and cast reflections on the timeless tale that has moved generations. Extras also include “More to Be Scene,” layer-by-layer progressions of some of the film’s most iconic moments; lyric video for “Never Too Late” by Elton John and music video for “Spirit” by Beyoncé; sing-alongs to the film’s unforgettable songs; and a feature on the “Protect the Pride” campaign, which focuses on protecting and revitalizing the lion population.

The Giveaway:

2 lucky readers will each win a digital download code so they can enjoy The Lion King from the comfort of their own home.  Simply fill out the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Great Deal on 50 Hair Scrunchies!

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Hair scrunchies are back and popular.  I’ve seen articles this week where in middle school, girls are collecting scrunchies and giving one of theirs to the boy(s) that they like.  Sounds fun!  If you’re missing some of your hair scrunchies, it’s possible this is where they are going.  Never fear, though, we have a deal on hair scrunchies!

Right now, Amazon has a good deal on a huge lot of 50 velvet scrunchies.  This is more than enough for your daughter and her friends to share.  Wonderful price, too!

Progeny Press: Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide Review

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As I mentioned earlier this year, we brought our homeschool back home, relying more on things in the house rather than tutors and co-op programs this year.  One thing I wanted to focus on more with my highschooler was literature.  When this review came forward, we were happy to check out their study guides for literature.  We went with the Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide  Grades 9-12 from Progeny Press.Most of the below review is written from the perspective of  my 16 year old.

About the book:

This is a mystery story about detectives Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  The mystery in this book is that a legend from a long time ago in the Baskerville family could come back to haunt the Baskervilles now.  A death and some other small mysterious happenings are going on around town.  The moor is now seen as a dangerous place because of the giant ghostly hound seen and heard there.  Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have the case of their lives with a tale full of mysteries, suspense, logical thinking, legends, death, and much more!  This book is probably not for kids under age 12 depending on their fear tolerance levels.  Older kids will enjoy this book though.

About the Study Guide:

The study guide for The Hound of Baskervilles was interesting to complete.  I don’t usually like to do study guides for books because I enjoy just reading through a book.  This study guide is interactive and actually was very helpful.   I usually either look up words that I don’t know or skip them and understand the book just fine.  In this study guide it seems like an extra step when you are told to look up words but it helps the book seem more interesting and understandable.  Students have to read the book and not just skim through to find out what each word means.
In the study guide, there are  vocabulary sections, questions about the book, and deep thinking questions that relate to the book, the Bible, and life.  My favorite section is probably the book questions.  That is because once I read to complete the vocabulary, I can understand and remember the answers to the questions without searching through the whole book.  The questions are fun and help me remember important events and what is happening in the story.

Our Thoughts:

I would recommend this study guide to anyone in high school that wants to read this book.  The word definitions and the deep thinking are probably the hardest part but if you work well it should not be too hard.  It might be a little challenging to lower than high school levels for school just because it is geared toward high school but I think a smart middle school student could handle this study guide just fine.  I enjoyed reading through the book with this study guide.
Adding from Mom: My daughter said that it was hard to type on the PDF online, so she just kept a notebook of notes and answers that we would go over together.  I’m not sure if it was a computer issue or operator error 🙂  As a mom, I was pleased with the quality of the questions and how it made my daughter think.  I will definitely consider other literature study guides from Progeny Press.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit the Progeny Press website. You can also find out more on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  The Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed these other literature guides from Progeny Press:

You can read those reviews and others by clicking the banner below.

 

Study Guides for Literature {Progeny Press Reviews}
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Monster Truckz Coming to Athens!

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This is super exciting!  My 4 year old son is a huge fan of monster trucks!  The Monster Truckz program is coming to Athens, at the Athens Fairgrounds from October 25-27.  This show features:

  • Extreme Monster Trucks: Monster Truckz’ namesake vehicles dwarf the helpless cars they crush during this thrilling show that also includes rock-crawling behemoths and a human cannonball.
  • Globe of Doom: The Monster Truckz motorcycle team defies gravity (and death) as they speed around their spherical cage.
  • Nitro Motocross: Upping the thrill factor, each Monster Truckz show features some of the world’s top motocross riders attempting mind-blowing jumps and stunts.

Head on over to check out Monster Truckz on Groupon and you can grab 2 adult and 2 kid tickets for only $39 for a limited time!  There are 4 shows to choose from for this deal!

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