Circling Through This Life

Thank you Ancient Faith Publishing for providing the coloring book Beautiful Christmas for review. Coloring is not just a great way to practice fine motor skills but it is also a wonderful tool for exercising your brain. When you color you develop planning skills and build your creativity muscles. My special needs daughter is developmentally delayed both cognitively and physically. While chronologically outside the intended age range of 5-12 this coloring book was perfect for where she is developmentally. From the back the cover: Beautiful Christmas is a 64-page coloring book for children aged 5-12. As they color Christ in the cave or the shepherds glorifying God with the angels, they are cultivating their own sensibility to beauty while learning to recognize some of the meaningful symbols, elements, and motifs of the Church. May this small book bless those children who color and create within its pages. I love the wide variety of coloring pages.  Some pictures have la...

Recently the Homeschool Review Crew had the opportunity to check out the Music & Creativity - Foundation Course from Simply Music . This course is free so every member of your family, with their own email address, could create their own Simply Music account.  With their own accounts, they can move through the program at their own speed and keep track of where they left off. If you have thought about piano lessons for yourself or your children but are unsure if it would be worth the time and investment you'll want to check out this free online piano course . As part of the Leadership Team for the Homeschool Review Crew, I do not typically write reviews.  I volunteered to write this review. Originally I was thinking I would have family members use this program and tell me their thoughts and I would just tell you about the program.   I set up an account for myself and then I encouraged my family to set up their own accounts. Honeybear, Turtlegirl, and BooBear...

Yes I am specifically writing this post to link up to the Friday (I know it's not Friday!) Homeschool Blogger Link Up hosted by the Homeschool Review Crew a division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine.  This Crew Blog's post is Homeschool Review Crew Needs You.   Yep we want to grow the crew an to do that we need more home educating bloggers.  But not just bloggers.  We want Vloggers too!  Are you an active You Tube Vlogger?  We have a section in the 2019 Crew Application just for you! Now that you know why I am writing this post let me tell about my long term love affair with the Homeschool Review Crew.  We meet to speak when it was brand spanking new in 2008.  An online friend and co-moderator with me of an online email group for home school support had just embarked on the Maiden Voyage of this new concept of receiving home school product in exchange for a review!  Back in those days you didn't have to be a blogger you just had to...

As a Crew Leader for the Homeschool Review Crew I typically do not write reviews.  I become familiar with the product so that I can do my job as Review Quality Manager.  From time to time , I come across an amazing product that I love so much that I choose to write a review simply because I love the product. GrammarPlanet  is one of those products that I love so much that I want to share it with my readers. GrammarPlanet is an online subscription based program to teach students of any level. This program can be used with students who have had no previous grammar instruction as well as students who have had quite a bit more experience. So what is GrammarPlanet?  GrammarPlanet "is the brainchild of Erin Karl and Jerry Baily."  Let me share with you what Erin shared with me about GrammarPlanet: The creation of GrammarPlanet is the realization of a years-long dream to be able to make grammar education … REAL grammar education … available and affordable ...

Today's theme for the Back to School 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement  is Work It In Wednesday! Today I want to share about how homeschooling isn't just form of education but a way of life.  One of my big goals for home education was to instill a love of life long learning in my children.  Just because it isn't a school day or we are on vacation doesn't mean that education doesn't happen. We live in a state that requires instructional hours.  Something equivalent to 5.5 "instructional" hours a day for 180 days.  Thankfully my state recognizes that home education can be more efficient than classroom education in a public school. We tended to do 'year round' schooling taking breaks as life thew its punches.  During the summer we did more "fun" school like hands on science but my favorite thing about "homeschool as a lifestyle" is that going on vacation didn't mean a break from learning.  It meant a break from forma...

I think the greatest lesson I have learned as a homeschooling mama is to be flexible.  Being flexible isn't easy for me.  I don't like change.  I like having my road maps (i.e. lessons plans laid out for me) but I learned to love the detours. Having a "game plan" or a "road map" at the beginning of the year, meant that I knew where I wanted to go even if we didn't finish in June.  We always schooled year around with doing more "hands on" and "fun" schooling during the summer so I gave up early on trying to squeeze 36 weeks or 1100 hours of education between September and June. In today's Take a Look Tuesday post which is part of the Back to School  5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop hosted by the Homeschool Review Crew I am going to share my general road map for studying American History for the 2018-2019 school year for Supergirl. If you're you're hopping over form another Crew member blog, let me br...

Thank you Northwest Treasures and the Homeschool Review Crew for the opportunity to review Rocks and Minerals for Little Eyes  from their Geology for "Little Eyes" series. Many years ago when I was trying to finish up my Associate of Arts degree I needed to take a science with a Lab or another math class.  I looked at the math classes and went nope. Not happening.  I looked at the science classes. Remember it had to have a lab.  I quickly crossed off Biology. I was not about to dissect anything.  Chemistry was the next to go as it had too much math involved.  I settled for something called Physical Geography.  It was listed as a science. It had a lab.  It met the requirements I needed.  I fell in love.  Physical Geography is part of the Earth Sciences.  It's geology that focuses on the physical characteristics of the Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.  I mostly remember the lithosphere stuff....

Yes, Yes we are still alive here! It has been ages since I posted.  I had such plans for posting far more frequently. I even planned to join in a new round of Blogging Through The Alphabet which is now hosted by the lovely Amanda at Hopkins Homeschool  and Kirsten from Doodlemom . Since I am weeks behind I thought I'd do an update of sorts Alphabet Style! A is for Academics! Boobear applied to a few local grad school programs. I am so thrilled and proud to announce that she was accepted by her first choice school and will be starting the Masters in Social Work program this fall! Turtlegirl finished up her 2nd year at University and will be heading back in the fall for her third year.  She received recognition from the Foreign Language Department as an outstanding second year German student!  Did I tell you that she is now officially a Pre-Law student? She's majoring in Philosophy with a minor in German. Tailorbear rocked her first year at technical col...

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know that I have four daughters. Three of my beautiful girls have graduated from our home school.  The oldest has even graduated from a local university with her Bachelor's Degree.  My fourth daughter, who is actually my 2nd oldest is on her own path.  Medically fragile and developmentally delayed she's on the "we'll keep homeschooling as long as she keeps making progress plan" which means that she may never actually have a high school graduation. When her third sister graduated she began to ask about her own  graduation.  We came up with a plan. When she finished Level C of her reading program or reaches the equivalent reading level she can have a graduation. When I found out that the Homeschool Review Crew would have the option of reviewing the  Cap, Gown, Tassel and Diploma  package for kindergarten from Homschool Diploma I started thinking this could be the motivation we need to make this happen....