Schoolhouse Review Crew: Papa's Pearls

Papa's Pearls is a fun, easy-to-read book by Diane Flynn Keith, and I am glad that I was picked to be one of the reviewers for this little gem. "Papa" was what Diane's father was called by children and grandchildren alike, and Ms. Keith does a wonderful job of including stories from each of the generations about him. It is clear from the story that he loved his family (and they knew it) and is loved by his family still (though he is gone now.) 

Buttercup "reading" like Mom. She's getting there!

The story is a sweet way to pass on Papa's sayings (the "pearls") and life lessons, and to share those lessons with the world at large. I was drawn into this book, and throughout every chapter found myself thinking, "That's a good way to illustrate that lesson," or "I like that saying, I have to remember to use it in our house more often!"

Quick Five Friday - Holy Week, Hair Carnage, & Sweet Smiles

It is Holy Week in the Orthodox church. That means we are at the end of the 40-day fasting period that is Great Lent; we are building ourselves up for the excitement of Christ rising from the tomb on the 3rd day; we are getting ready to rejoice in His resurrection. It also means we're in church a lot this week. A whole lot. 30 hours, if you go to every service. With the White Knight out of town, we haven't made it to all of them, but I've done my best. It makes such a difference to go to every service leading up to the joy of Pascha (Easter). So while I am busy with that, I leave you with a few pictures for the weekend.

The girlie is on a haircutting kick - hers, other kids, etc. so I bought ten
Barbies at a yardsale to let her cut to her heart's content.
These are the first victims... er... models.

Kick Diet Sodas to the Curb!

I have recently started a FaceBook page for my Young Living Essential Oils business and there are two topics that have come up more than once - the two topics are connected, and have a lot to do with living a healthier lifestyle. This post focuses more on kicking Diet drinks out, and a future post will get into weight loss help, although I've done a few posts that get into exercise over at my Three Friends Fitness blog with my friends Spinster Beth and Slick.

They are

• weight loss and 
• how to kick the diet soda habit to the curb.

Post-Friday Monday Round-Up

I didn't get to the Five Friday round up thing this week because I had so many reviews due in last week. Whew! It was hectic trying to get all of those in, but I did it! So I am doing my Fast Friday Five now instead. Before you go today, please go to the bottom and look at the five pictures there. I had new head shots done last week and am trying to decide which to use. Give me your thoughts in the comments? Thanks, All, and have a great week!!

1. We have reached the point in the garage where we're doing the last few boxes of papers. Oh, loathsome papers! So I am determined to get them knocked out as fast as I can to get it over with. THEN I have to figure out what I'll do with those papers I have to keep. Yikes! Really. I have A Plan (insert echo here... PlanPlaPLP...) My grand plan is go through it all once and get out everything that can be thrown away or shredded. Then I'll have to go through again to figure out where to put the stuff that's left. I know - it's more time consuming this way. It would be better to "touch it once and then deal with it." But I'm more of a whittle it down sort, so I have to do this in stages. But at least we're nearly done.
   

   

   We took a break to go look at a Civil War
   display at the nearby library. It was a 3/4-
   mile walk each way but worth the time. The
   gun closest to Bruiser there is original and
   the barrel is longer than my arm! It was huge!

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Progeny Press - The Hobbit

We don't do as many read-alouds as we did when the kids were younger (and fewer in number), but I have been trying to increase how often we read classic literature with them. Even the youngest kids can benefit from hearing longer books read, if only because they're learning how to quietly do their own thing while others in the room are listening, and eventually they get into the stories too. We had recently finished The Hobbit again when The Old Schoolhouse put out the chance to review Progeny Press' Hobbit interactive study guide. It was a chance I jumped on right away!

Progeny Press bills itself as creating "Study guides for literature from a Christian Perspective." They have study guides for a wide range of literature that covers all the grade levels, K - 12. I will get into my opinion of the guide I received in a minute, but wanted to point out a rare thing in Homeschooling curriculum publishers - they give permission for teachers to print/use multiple copies within the same home or classroom. That is not always - or even usually - the case. But it makes me glad that I can reuse the same curriculum with my younger children, as they reach the appropriate skill levels, without having to be concerned over breaking copyright laws (however inadvertent.) 

The guide for The Hobbit is a pdf download that allows the user to fill in the blanks virtually. It does not include the Hobbit book, only the study guide. The download is $18.99, and can be purchased as a CD, an instant download or for $21.99, as a printed book. The Hobbit Study Guide is aimed at the high school level. Maestro's reading skill level is easily at high school range so I kept an eye on what he was doing but did not feel like I had to sit side-by-side with him for every step of the way. Even better was that he enjoyed most of the study guide enough that I didn't have to!

I was very impressed with how thorough the study guide was. It started out covering JRR Tolkein's life, and included a wide range of subjects and skills: map reading, nature and science, music, literature (of course!), language arts (grammar, etc), biblical studies, dictionary use, vocabulary, historical perspective, etc. 

I did stay close at hand for any discussion of the intent and meaning in various Bible verses. Being Orthodox, we do use the Bible, but sometimes our understanding of certain verses does not mirror that of the rest of the Protestant world-view. Because of that I used the various sections relating to the Bible as a means of opening discussion. The questions relating to the Bible were open-ended though and did not "push" a particular interpretation on the student.

The guide breaks the book up into sections, with the student advised to finish one section each week; the sections are then broken down so the student is doing a page each day, so the student is not overwhelmed by the work involved.

I liked the Progeny press study guide and plan to buy more - not all are the same price, but the price is certainly worth it!

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Knowledge Quest - Sacagawea Interactive E-Book

Somehow I scheduled my homeschool review dates pretty close this month, but there were so many good programs being offered all at once that I couldn't help but ask for the chance to join the fun! So for the third review this week, I present to you Knowledge Quest's Sacagawea Interactive E-Book.

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Math Rider

For Maestro and Chef, the decision on which math program to use in their earliest years came easily. We used a program that fit in with how I wanted them to learn their facts. Bruiser has struggled a little bit more with the same program and I've been looking around for ways to help him reinforce the basics. 

It seems I am not the only parent out there who felt like her child needed a fun way to get the facts down cold - enter Math Rider, a computer-based math facts game that covers addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through a series of "Quests."