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Showing posts from November, 2014

5 Random Thankful Thoughts ~ November 21st Edition

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Last week I decided to make my Random 5 on Fridays in November to be random thankful thoughts because November is the month for gratitude posts and status updates. 1.  Earlier this week we had beautiful sunshine. I am grateful for the sunshine! Today as I type this it is cold, gray, and rainy which is much more typical November weather for us.  Living here in the rainy part of the PNW, I’ve come to appreciate the sunshine and not take it for granted like I did in other places I’ve lived. 2.  This week on November 19th, Honeybear and I had our 20th Wedding Anniversary. I am grateful that we have made it this far. We’ve had more than our fair share of stress, problems, and disagreements. We’ve weathered military deployments, a child with serious health issues, and his heart attack in June of 2013. Somehow we’ve managed to stay together. 3.  I am thankful for flowers! Our wedding flowers were Fire And Ice Roses which are bi-color red and white roses. When Honeybear buys me flowers he

The Official 2014 Schoolhouse Review Crew Favorites

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It’s official. The 2014 Schoolhouse Review Crew Year has ended. I’m sad to see the year end but I’m going to enjoy a little break. I’m excited though because I’ve been invited back to the Crew for 2015! End of the crew year means Blue Ribbon Awards. Last week I shared my family’s favorite products and vendors from the 2014 Crew Year. Today I’m highlighting some of the Schoolhouse Review Crew Favorites. The votes were tallied and these are some of the official winners! You’ll want to visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog to see the full list of winners because I am just going to highlight a few of them here. Our wonderful Assistant Director, Debra, put the voting form together for the crew to fill out. She organized all the vendors into 27 different categories! Did you know that the crew reviewed more than 115 products from over 50 vendors!  I think there were something like 58 different review slots. That’s a lot of awesome products. I counted up my reviews  the girls and I used

5 Random Thankful Thoughts ~ November 14th Edition

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I did not think of this last week but today it occurred to me that I could combine Random 5 on Friday and Thanksgiving type thoughts. I see many friends on Facebook listing something they are grateful for everyday for the month of November. I like that idea but I can’t keep up so I’m going to write up things that I am grateful for for the remaining Fridays in November. 1. I am thankful for sunshine even if it is so cold outside. ~ The artic air seems to have arrived here and temps are in the low to mid- 40’s during the day and in the 20’s in the evenings. Yes, I know not so cold as many other areas of the country but that is cold for us. I do love the sunshine though which is very rare for November. 2. I am thankful for warm cozy throw blankets because it is so cold outside . ~ I like keeping a stack of these blankets on the couch in the family room and a couple on my rocking chair in the living room. Give me my sweater, a blanket, a cup of tea and my book and I will be happy oh an

Looking Back at the 2014 Schoolhouse Review Crew Year!

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Yesterday I posted and linked up my final review for the 2014 Crew Year. How awesome that we got to end the year with a game! So, today I’m looking back over the year and remembering what amazing products my family got to use. Schoolhouse Review Crew has a Blue Ribbon Awards tradition where the crew gets to vote for their favorite products. The girls and I powwowed and came up our favorites and submitted our votes.  (The Official Winners will be announced on the Schoolhouse Review Blog on Monday!) So here’s a few of our favorites from 2014: Favorite Literature Program:   Oh my this was so hard to choose just one to vote for the official Blue Ribbon Awards but since this is just a list of my family favorites and it’s my blog, I’m going to go ahead have two favorites! It’s Shakespeare and it’s Lightning Literature so of course we loved it! Boobear is a much bigger fan of Shakespeare than either Turtlegirl or Tailorbear but I was surprised by how much they enjoyed using and reviewing

Family Game Night? Try Snake Oil {Schoolhouse Crew Review}

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What do “Closet Urge,” “Snow Napkin,” “Cheese Man,”  “Danger Photo.”  “Rainbow Future,” and “Fish Socks” have in common?  These were all items that my family, posing as snake oil salesmen, attempted to sell to customers: Pregnant Lady, Prom Date, or Runaway among others while playing the game Snake Oil . This hilarious game does not take long to learn, has no small parts to keep track of or lose, and encourages creativity. Snake Oil is produced by Out of the Box Games and is intended for 3-10 players ages 10+. Setting Up the Game Setting up the game is easy! There are two types of cards: Customer Cards and Word Cards. Customer Cards are blue on one side and green on the other. Each side lists a character such as Rock Star, Priest, or Dictator. These cards go in the center.  The Word Cards are divided into 4 decks in the plastic tray. These are placed around the Customer Cards,in easy reach of the players. These Word Cards have nouns: goggles, belt, closet, toilet, knife, cup, soc

A is for Advent and B is for Books

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Marcy from Ben and Me has retired from hosting Blogging Through The Alphabet. She did five rounds. Five! So my friend Kristi  from A Potter’s Hand Academy   has taken up the baton and is now hosting a new round of Blogging Through The Alphabet. She started last week. I missed the memo. But that’s ok. I’ll just start now and I’ll start from the beginning with the Letter A. The first thing that came to mind was Advent or in the Orthodox world, Nativity Fast or little lent. Since my post for the letter B is about the books I want to read during Advent, I’m going to combine the two letters. For many Orthodox Christians in the USA, the Nativity Fast will start on Saturday November 15. Well, actually for all Orthodox Christians the fast will begin on November 15 but one is November 15 on the Revised Julian Calendar (New) Calendar which currently follows the civil Gregorian calendar that we are all familiar with.  The other calendar is the Julian Calendar (Old) and currently differs from

Practice Makes Perfect! IXL for Math and Language Arts ~ A Crew Review

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There are less than a handful of crew products that I have begged to review multiple times. IXL is one of the few. I love this program.  Supergirl loves this program. I begged for the opportunity to review it for the third time. Yes, it’s even better now! IXL very generously provided a one year subscription for up to five students for both IXL Math and IXL Language Arts . So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and let’s chat about what’s new with IXL .   First What is IXL? How Does it Work IXL is designed to help students master concepts in Math and LA through practice . It is intended as a supplement to whatever curriculum you are using. It is easy to coordinate practice with IXL with the student’s current topic. Simply log in and choose math or LA.  Choose your grade or level and then pick a skill. Or you can choose a topic and then choose a skill.  Here let me show you: Students practice the skill and earn points towards mastery. Students must score 100 points to achieve

Random 5 on Friday November 7th

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I’ve missed a few weeks so these random thoughts are not all from this past week. 1.  This is has been a rough week. A very dear older gentleman fell asleep in the Lord on Monday.  This amazing man adopted my whole family.  He was like a grandfather to all of us. He came to see all of BooBear’s recitals her Freshman year of college. He gifted us with an amazing evening at the Ballet a few Christmases ago. He was always smiling and always had a story to share.  He lived a rich and full life and I am grateful that my family got to know him.  Memory Eternal, John!  You will be missed! 2.  BooBear is in choir this year and we attended her first choir concert a couple of weeks ago. She also participated as a pianist and a vocalist in a special Evening of Schubert recital.  She did not do a vocal solo but did sing as part of the group. This picture is from her choir concert.  What a beautiful woman she has grown to be! 3. Last week she had another recital.  This one was the keyboard stude

Biology from Fascinating Education ~ A Schoolhouse Crew Review

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I am not a science oriented person. I did not take a single science course in high school. I avoided Biology completely. I did my best to avoid chemistry as well, choosing to meet my college science with a lab requirements by taking Geology classes. Dissecting a rock is much easier than dissecting a frog! As a home school mom I’ve learned to love science, but even though I’ve had two high school students complete biology in my home school, I still prefer that someone else teach it. Tailorbear loves biology. The options I used with BooBear and Turtlegirl require more independent study and so are not as suitable for Tailorbear’s temperament. We were excited to see Fascinating Biology offered from Fascinating Education . Dr. Margulies is the founder and creator of Fascinating Education. He is a neurologist, author of three educational textbooks and currently holds the title clinical assistant professor at two universities. As a neurologist he understands the brain. He understands how