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Showing posts from March, 2015

Random Five on Friday ~ March 27th Edition

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This is it!  The last Random Five on Friday for March!  My random thoughts this week actually cover more than a week.  1. A few weeks ago Honeybear and I were given tickets to the ballet. Our friend has season tickets and she was unable to use these tickets so she gave them to us to enjoy.  This wasn’t a traditional ballet that told a story but rather three sections of dances. The first two sections were comprised of a series of dances. The third piece was a very modern and long piece that displayed the grace and beauty of ballet technique while invoking raw emotions. I thought of it as a blending of modern dance and traditional ballet. I enjoyed it. I found the pieces thought provoking. Some individual pieces I disliked as they stirred up thoughts of dystopian literature and I dislike dystopian literature. Another piece evoked images of both marriage and our synergetic relationship with God. Not that we help God but rather that we are entwined with God the more we act on faith the m

Nine Months to Christmas!

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As I type this up my husband and three of my daughters are on their way to church. Today is a feast day.  It’s one of the 12 Great Feasts of the Liturgical Year. Some might think that today is all about Mary because today we celebrate the Annunciation.  The Annunciation is when the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a son and that He will save His people from their sins. Yes, Mary was honored.  Yes, she is blessed among women and she is a great example to all of us. She was humble and obedient. But this day points to Someone greater.  This day points to the One.  This is the day that acknowledges that the second person of the Holy Trinity is God incarnate. 

Increasing Faith by Doing

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Sometimes I am so slow. Sometimes I am so forgetful. Sometimes I need to get bonked on the head by God. Faith isn’t just something you believe. It’s something that you live. Faith isn’t just something that your head acquiesces to. Faith is something that abides in your heart and is reflected in your life. Faith needs to be fed. Faith needs fuel to grow. How does one feed faith?  How do we get our faith to grow? Practice. By living and practicing our faith we receive the grace to grow. To an outsider, the Orthodox faith may be full of routine rituals that seem dead and boring but they contain an important key to growing your faith. The key to a living  faith is to do. Do the prayers.  Do the almsgiving.  Do the fasting.  Do the living that brings faith from the head to the heart and causes it to shine forth in your life. I forget that. I get lazy. I make excuses about the Wednesday and Friday fasting. I shoot up short little “Lord Have Mercy” prayers because I just don’t want to tak

Math Analogies Beginnings ~ A Crew Review

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The Critical Thinking Co. is one of my very favorite home school vendors. I first started using their Building Thinking Skills Primary program when BooBear was 5 years old and have loved every product we have used , so when the Schoolhouse Review Crew offered Math Analogies Beginning software for review, I knew I had to have it for Supergirl. About Math Analogies Beginnings: This Windows only download, for students in the K-1st grade range, teaches critical thinking and reasoning using analogies. However, these analogies are mathematical, making this an excellent math supplement or math enhancement for any K-1st grade math student. Although, I think I would use this with advanced students who have already covered K math and some 1st grade math as the questions require the foundational math skills.  Students who understand up/down, left/right, shapes, and number concepts will have the skills needed to discover and make connections that enable the student to successfully complete e

Random 5 on Friday ~ March 13th Edition

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It's March! OK, so it's been March for nearly two weeks but still, the weather has been beautiful here! 1.   Supergirl loves Digital Science Online .  It's from Visual Learning Systems.  We just finished reviewing it but this is science right now. It’s a good fit for her right now with a combination of videos to watch and visual aids as well as hands on activities and worksheets. 2.  Today Tailorbear is having fun with a microscope!  She's looking at cells.  She's using BooBear's lab coat from J-Term.  I guess that investment in a good microscope and supplies was not a waste after all with daughter number 3 using it. 3.  Supergirl has a new nickname.  Butternut Squash or just Butternut for short. I made butternut squash soup earlier this week and she did not like it. We were chatting while doing school and I just started tweaking her nose every time I said butternut. She has decided she likes being called Butternut and insisted that her log in name for

Digital Science Online~ A Crew Review

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The longer I home school the more I appreciate being able to utilize different approaches to learning. Supergirl doesn’t learn in the same way her sisters did. Being able to watch a video clip, interact with that video clip and complete activities related to the content of the video works much better than the the methods I used with her sisters.  This is why I wanted to try Digital Online Science from Visual Learning Systems . We received both the Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition (Grades K-5) and Secondary Edition (Grades 6-12) . Visual Learning Systems Visual Learning Systems is an educational science publisher. Their mission is to provide high quality content that instructs, challenges and inspires students.  Their videos, interactive graphics, animations, and images provide a visual based way to learn which is very appealing in this age of technology. VLS offers content in both DVD, and Digital formats or you choose a digital subscription . Digital Science Online Dig

5 Random Ways to Eat Peanut Butter during Lent

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It’s Lent.  For us as Orthodox Christians it means lots of peanut butter. It’s a good thing that Turtlegirl loves peanut butter.  I think she might even love it as much as my  father did!  When you eat lots of peanut butter for 40 days or so you need variety, so here are 5 ways to eat peanut butter.  (Feel free to add variety by substituting other nut butters. I prefer almond butter myself.) 1.  By the spoonful! Ok, this isn’t one that I recommend but my father loved peanut butter. It had to be Jiff. No other brand would do for him. He would eat peanut butter by the giant spoonful. Turtlegirl loves peanut butter and like her grandfather she can eat it by the spoonful! 2.  During Lent we eat (or I used to eat and the girls still do) more oatmeal. Oatmeal is really easy to eat vegan.  One way to get some extra vegan protein is to add peanut butter to your oatmeal. 3.  I can’t do this right now because my body thinks apples are too many carbs but my favorite way to eat peanut butter d

Koru Naturals ~ Oil, Shampoo and Conditioner {Crew Review}

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The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviews more than home school products. Sometimes we get to try wonderful products for mama. This time we got to review products from Koru Naturals .  Everyone received Emu Oil along with another product or in my case product set.  In addition to the Emu Oil my family received Manuka Oil and Honey Shampoo and Conditioner . Manuka Oil and Honey Shampoo I was stalking my mail waiting for my package to arrive ~ ok I sent the girls to check ~ and I used the shampoo and conditioner the same day they arrived. I was that excited! When I first opened the bottle I smelled a strong scent of almost peppermint. I had everyone smell both the shampoo and the conditioner and we all agree that it smelled like mint. Supergirl named it the mint poo. I was initially very confused because I did not see peppermint oil listed with the other oils: lavender, chamomile, white willow bark, and   rosehip. I thought it odd that it did not list peppermint.  Well it does on the webs