We can all use a few more hands
OOOOh I just love Chick-fil-A! It’s even better when it’s FREE! Chick-fil-A is offering a FREE sandwich when you download the new Chick-fil-A One app! I’ve been using this app for a few weeks and it’s been great. You can earn points to get free food! Plus I can order before we get there and they will set a table right up for us! So great when I’m juggling all the kids by myself. This has been a huge help to me! Head on over to check it out!
My husband isn’t an avid reader. To be honest, he only reads when he has to, however this book has grabbed his attention lately and I have found him reading it whenever possible.
That book is Wise Guys: Unlocking Hidden Wisdom from the Men Around You by Kent Evans.
For guys, more than ever, it’s a confusing world. Your GPS doesn’t offer any maps showing how to get to the point of wisdom — and who likes asking for directions anyway?
But there are ways to get that guidance you need. The answers may be all around you, in the form of guys you already know. Wise guys. More experienced guys. Better-traveled guys. Could there be ways to tap into their invaluable knowledge without enduring dull lectures or taking pages of notes?
Kent Evans has surrounded himself with these wise guys. They have shown him all the back roads on the way to wisdom. With a great deal of humor and an endless supply of stories, he wants to show you how to gather life-enriching truth from the guys in your own circle.
This book has been a huge insight into the lost art of mentorship and learning as a man to build relationships with older and wiser men so that you can learn from their character. There are exercises in the book to help along with this process.
The book features the author’s personal journey into learning to mentor others.
I haven’t finished the book yet, but I already see how this can help me as a leader and a father to help my sons develop into men. I look forward to finishing it in the coming days and definitely recommend giving it a read. I will be passing it along to another once I am done reading.
For more information, visit the Manhood Journey website or check them out on twitter. It is also available to purchase on Amazon.
We have an extra copy of this wonderful book to give away to a lucky reader! Fill out the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win.
Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.
It’s Monday again and also Memorial Day. We truly appreciate the sacrifices of our veterans and their families.
This weekend we went swimming, had friends over and went to a church picnic. Kicking it off for another great summer. Here’s what we plan to make this week:
Monday: Leftovers!
Tuesday: Roast and veggies in the pressure cooker.
Wednesday: Hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, lima beans
Thursday: Eggs, Sausage, Toast
Friday: Grilled Chicken, squash
Saturday: Spinach and Cheese Pork Roll
Sunday: Chicken Cobb Salad
What’s on your meal plan?
As I mentioned the other day, the family and I packed up and journeyed to visit Denton, Texas last week. My beautiful sister in law got married over the weekend!
I wasn’t quite sure what to do in our free time while we were in Denton, so I reached out to the Denton Visitor’s Bureau so we could plan our trip. They were very gracious in providing some ideas for our family.
We quickly discovered that Denton had much to offer for families, many of which was FREE! When traveling as a family of seven, free is always my favorite 🙂
The first thing we checked out was the Denton Firefighters’ Museum. This museum was small, but offered a ton of information! As many of you know, our family is a huge supporter of first responders. My husband is a deputy and my brother is a fireman.
In the Firefighters’ Museum, they have memorabilia from the 1800s to present day.
One of our favorite exhibits was a beam from the World Trade Center and we also liked seeing all the different uniforms that were used over the years.
All the kids can get a Denton fire hat at the museum as well. The kids loved this – all except my youngest. I think he wants to be a policeman instead! 😉
After the museum, you can walk right over to the working fire station and get a tour and check out all the firetrucks. We found it interesting that they had a rescue bus. Their rescue bus is mainly for the firefighters in case they are on a fire for a long time and they need to get in the AC for a bit to refresh or get some water. Great idea!
The Denton Firefighters’ Museum is FREE, but there is a box on the wall if you’d like to make a donation.
We also walked down to the old courthouse, which hosts the Denton County Museum. Seeing the history of the town was incredible. They also had a kids’ craft corner that the kids just loved! They could draw, stamp, or make other creations.
There is also a train that the kids and adults can drive around. I didn’t make it upstairs with the baby, but my husband and several of the kids went upstairs and found many exciting exhibits.
During our stay, we had the pleasure of staying at the beautiful SpringHill Suites Denton hotel. This hotel is very well maintained and the staff couldn’t be more friendly! They were always on top of everything that we needed and more!
I was super thrilled after the long drive from Georgia to Texas to have the crib all set up for Simon and a couple bath toys waiting for him! This hotel offers complimentary baby wash and lotion if you have forgotten it on your journeys. It came in handy!
SpringHill Suites Denton has a shuttle to take you within 5 miles of the hotel so you can visit the city of Denton with ease. We never waited more than a few minutes for a ride or a pickup throughout our stay.
The complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel was delicious. There were always plenty of options from oatmeal, cereal, eggs, yogurt, fruit, and more. My kids absolutely loved that the waffles were in the shape of Texas! How fun is that!
During our visit, we ate at numerous restaurants to taste the local food, but a couple in particular stood out.
My husband is completely in love with Bet the House BBQ. He ordered their brisket and felt it was one of the best he’s ever had.
We also ate at Cartwright’s in downtown and were pleased with their food but even more pleased at their superb service.
Last but not least, my personal favorite was Beth Marie’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream! Oh the choices! So many choices! Everything we tried was fantastic! They make their own ice cream, so you know it must be good!
Denton was a beautiful town to visit and we felt thoroughly welcomed. We absolutely enjoyed our time and look forward to returning again in the future!
Huge thanks to the Denton Visitor’s Bureau for providing us with information on the wonderful things to do in town. We will be back!
A couple weeks ago, the kids and I had the privilege of checking out the teamLab Future Park, which is currently at the Mall of Georgia. To say that we had fun would be an understatement. All of us had a blast! I apologize for the lack of photos – we had so much fun and then my phone crashed and I lost most of my photos!
At the Future Park, there are several stations for your kids to enjoy. Below is a video of my kids enjoying the Light Ball Orchestra.
Our favorites were the Sketch Town and the Sketch Aquarium, although my 6 year old loved the Create! Hopscotch best of all. I totally loved coloring a truck and a squid and then seeing my creation show up on the screen! You could even interact with your creation as well! There was something for everyone to enjoy, including the adults!
Tickets to experience teamLab Future Park at Mall of Georgia are available onsite or online at bit.ly/MOG_teamLab. To guarantee admission and avoid long wait times, the mall highly recommends purchasing advance tickets online. General admission is FREE for children ages 0-2, $8 for children ages 3-13 and $12 for adults. Adults are not permitted to enter the exhibit without children. A discounted ticket rate of $10 is available to senior over 65-years-old and to students over 14-years-old with a valid student ID. Group rate admission for 10 or more people is $10 per adult and $6 per child. The exhibition will only be available at Mall of Georgia May 14 – July 31. Exhibition hours are as follows**:
May 14 – May 27*
*TeamLab will open from 1 p.m. – 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 15 due to a private event
May 28 – July 31
**Please visit simon.com/mall/mall-of-
Yes, it’s Tuesday, but we got back from Texas late last night and I just now am having time to make my meal plan. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Texas! My sweet sister in law was married! I’ll be updating about that in another post. We were staying in Denton and it was such a lovely city with much to offer! 4 of my kids participated in the wedding, so they were thrilled.
Here’s what I plan to make the rest of this week as we get back to normal:
Tuesday: Grilled Cheese, fruit
Wednesday: Grilled chicken salads
Thursday: Poppyseed chicken, broccoli
Friday: Burgers, macaroni and cheese
Saturday: steaks, potatoes, greens
Sunday: Dinner at church
What do you plan to make this week?
I love using math manipulatives to help my children understand numbers better. I have found that not only does this help them to learn, it helps them to remember math as well. Adding and subtracting do not have to be so scary and hard when it’s done with fun. Sunya Publishing has brought out The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science: Adding & Subtracting to help make math a little more exciting and understandable.
Sunny Publishing’s The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting is a math game that is geared toward ages 7 and up. 4 children can play at one time in classroom use or adults and children can play together for practice.
The game includes a Parent or Teacher Guide Book, sixty Sunya Playing Cards, Sunya Adding and Subtracting Number Line, and thirty math and science riddle and fact cards.
There are 3 ways that the game can be played, and all are included in the Parent/Teacher Guide Book.
The cards can also be used as flashcards, learning sequences, matching numbers, making equations, or as a manipulative to go along with their math books.
Sunya is a word from Sanskrit that means “I am out of cards” and that’s the goal of the game!
It’s good to remember that Sunya Publishing is a brand new company with a brand new website. There isn’t much information available, yet, but it is coming very soon!
We really enjoyed the game! I only played the first one as the others were a little more advanced for my little girls, but the big kids played all of them and enjoyed it. Even my 12 year old was having fun! It’s so nice to have a game that all of us can play together while the little ones are learning without evening knowing it.
It’s actually quite simple once you get the hang of it! The instructions took quite a bit of reading but there are plenty of examples so you can fully understand what is supposed to happen.
I think it is a wonderful concept and especially helpful at learning addition and subtraction facts! You have to make facts out of the cards you have in your hand so it requires a lot of thinking.
I can see us playing this fairly often with our littles to enhance math. It wasn’t boring either – it was fun to to try and empty our hand of cards before someone else.
My kids also LOVED the Math and Science Facts and Riddles cards! These were quite funny! My kids are huge on riddles and they love having new ones to share with their friends.
The Parent/Teacher guide was a huge help and encouragement. It even had “Math Magic” that the kids could use to surprise their friends.
For more information, please visit the Sunya Publishing website. Keep in mind that it is a brand new company, but they should have more info up soon!
For more Schoolhouse Review Crew opinions on this product and others, click the banner below.
Science Shepherd Introductory Science is an online homeschool science video course and is geared toward children ages 6-11. There are two levels of workbooks to go along with this program – Level A and Level B. Level A is more for ages 6-8 and Level B is for ages 9-11. The course is 35 weeks of 2-5 minute videos per day. This program covers introductory science topics such as creation, geology, biology, astronomy, oceanography, meteorology and more.
Intermixed in the workbook are science projects, activities, word searches, and more that your children can work on to enhance their learning.
At times I really liked the fact that the videos are only 2-5 minutes long, but many times, my kids were asking for more. More often than not, we watched 2-3 videos a day. My kids were rarely satisfied with just 1 of the videos, which I guess is a great thing! The questions in Level A were very easy. I think that even a 4-5 year old could learn and benefit from this program. I think in hindsight, we would have done better with the more complicated Level B questions with my children that did this program.
Since we are a large family, having something that multiple kids can do at the same time is a huge plus for me! All we had to do is order an extra workbook! Also having a video teacher helped as opposed to me having to read them something from a book. This freed up a couple minutes to help another sibling with something.
My kids enjoyed the activities listed in the book. One that we did was using our senses to figure out what what is a brown paper bag without looking. The kids had to feel around in the bag and try to figure out what was inside. This was quite fun! I let my 12 year old fill the bag so the other kids had no idea what was inside.
We also did a project where we classified paper flowers and put them into categories. The colors were different, but we classified them by petal numbers. I loved having all the hands on science activities that were simple and normally didn’t require any extra cost or special supplies.
The introductory video course costs $35 for a 12 month access. If you would like to see a sample video to decide if Science Shepherd is right for your family, you can see one here on their website.
Workbook Level A sells for $12, Level B is $15, and answer keys for $3. There are samples to check out the questions in the workbooks and see which would be right for your family.
You can also find out more on their Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest.
Science Shepherd also offers curriculum on Science Shepherd Biology and Science Shepherd Life Science. You can read more about those and some reviews by our Schoolhouse Review Crew by clicking the banner below.
My sister in law is getting married tomorrow, so we took a road trip to Texas. Can’t wait to tell you all about our adventures! That will be coming next week after we get back home!
As I’ve mentioned before, I am part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. It’s been such an amazing opportunity to review homeschool curriculum! The latest in curriculum options that we have received as part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew is the Book of Astronomy Set by Memoria Press.
The Book of Astronomy set includes The Book of Astronomy Student Book and Teacher Guide. The Book of Astronomy Student Book is 164 pages. The Student Book is made up of 4 units, an appendix, planet facts info sheet, zodiac chart, and even a pronunciation guide. Inside of each unit is numerous areas of study including constellations, stars, and the solar system.
The Teacher Guide is very similar to the Student Book, only it has the answers, of course. In the back, there are also Tests that you can copy for your student and the answers, and sheets that can be printed on overheads to make it suitable for classroom usage.
The Book of Astronomy encourages students to stand and recipe the 15 brightest starts with their constellations, 12 Zodiak constellations in Latin and English, and 8 planets.
The Book of Astronomy set is geared toward third through fifth graders. That makes it perfect for a family that needs to sit down with multiple aged children, when you buy extra workbooks.
The reading book and work book is combined so that you can work the different lessons while you are learning.
The Book of Astronomy Set can also be paired with D’ Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths to further enhance learning. You can find this set made by Memoria Press on their website as well.
My kids have actually been asking to study astronomy for a while so I was very thankful to have the opportunity to check out the Book of Astronomy Set. I used this set with my third grader.
I love curriculum where I can be learning as well when I teach my kids. I don’t remember learning anything about astronomy as a child, so this has been fun for me. My favorite part of the student book is the pronunciation guide. Let’s just say it was very much needed since I was way off in the ways I thought things were pronounced.
We found the books fun and easy to work through. It wasn’t overly complicated and worked well for my third grader.
Since we started learning about different parts of astronomy, I have noticed my kids looking toward the stars more often at night. They have been trying to identify the various stars and constellations that we have been studying. I think a trip to a planetarium is in our near future to go along with this curriculum! I also like the fact that they are leaning the English and Latin words for the constellations.
For more information on The Book of Astronomy set, you can visit Memoria Press on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Google+.
You can also view more posts by the Schoolhouse Review Crew on this program, or on 2 other programs that they offer – Traditional Logic I Complete Set and D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths – by clicking the banner below.