Schoolhouse Review Crew: Apologia's What On Earth Can I Do?

As we've neared the end of the school year, and it is beginning to warm up outside, the kids have been itching to get out and about. The problem is that we weren't done with our work yet and the odd, on-again, off-again winter weather had them going stir crazy in the house! There was a lot of bickering, arguing, and "me first" attitudes cropping up. Around the same time that all this began, the opportunity popped up to review the Apologia Education Ministries Program called What on Earth Can I Do? 

What we received in the mail

This program is part of the What We Believe series and helps kids gain a Christian worldview in a way that covers all the different learning types, and many different age groups. The ability to adapt this program across multiple levels is huge for a family spanning several ages, abilities and learning styles and makes it an excellent homeschooling resource to keep on hand. In all, we received the book linked above, plus What On Earth Can I Do Notebooking Journal, Junior Notebooking Journal, and Coloring Book.

Homeschool Review Crew: Micro Business for Teens

Can I tell you? I was super excited to get picked to review the Micro Business for Teens course! I have followed Carol Topp's Pinterest Page and Facebook page for a year now (at least!) because her advice is sound, her methods helpful, and my kids have attempted their own business ideas many times over the years, as have I. She has a Twitter Feed too, but since I don't tweet (yet!) I haven't been on there to look around. 

At any rate, I was excited. Very excited. To start, I told the kids about the program and left the books out on the counter in the kitchen for a day or two. The next thing I knew... they had vanished. And not in the same way that other stuff vanishes, where it's been stuffed in an "everything" drawer during a hasty after-dinner clean up, never to see the light again. More like, "vanished" as in, nowhere to be found because it's been squirreled up to a child's desk kind of vanished. 

Featured Product Friday: NingXia Nitro and NingXia Red - Energy for the Win!

This is sort of a Featured Friday and Testimonial Tuesday rolled into one post. I'm all over the place this week, but I'm so excited that my White Knight Crunchy Skeptic has given the nod of credit to this that I have to share! 

NINGXIA RED and NINGXIA NITRO

You've seen me mention before that the White Knight Crunchy Skeptic guzzles NingXia Red after a long run. WELL, he has been marathon training and been looking to add a mile a week average to his runs to get ready for his first attempts at a full. AFTER each of these long runs, he has come home to drink at least 8 oz. of NR (a healthy person would drink 2-4 oz. a day optimally). It may even be more than 8 oz - he drinks it straight from the bottle.

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Home School Adventure Company

It will likely be no surprise that we have around 2,000+ books in our home. Every room has a bookcase filled to overflowing (and often two or three bookcases!) in addition to the full library room and storage-turned-school room! The library has a fairly comprehensive, though not complete, set of C.S. Lewis' books, which led me to request the opportunity to review Home School Adventure Co.'s Mere Christianity Journal.

I enjoy Lewis' fictional works and gain a great deal from them as spiritual allegory, but must confess that when it comes to his more "scholarly" texts, short though they are, I struggle. So I requested this review as much for 14-year-old Maestro, and 12-year-old Chef, as I did for my own edification. I also thought that working through the book (which we own, of course) together could provide some good discussion moments between the boys and the White Knight and I. The White Knight has read the book many times, so he served as a guide to our discussions within the confines of the Home School Adventure Journal.

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Supercharged Science

As an homeschooling mom one of the areas of life I probably feel like I "fail" at most often is science. I had it covered when we lived up in Maryland - we had a homeschool dad who was a PhD something-or-other that I just adored, and he was right up the boys' alley with nature walks, hands-on stuff and all that cool jazz. And then we moved. Shoot. So Schoolhouse Review Crew has come to my rescue yet again with the chance to review an online, hands-on science curriculum called Supercharged Science and their e-Science Learning Program. 

Schoolhouse Review Crew: Victus Study Systems Review

As Maestro gets further into his high school years, and have decided that we can confidently continue to homeschool through those years, we have been considering and watching his time management, study skills and time spent online. We want to make sure he is set up to manage his time, take on the world and achieve his goals and dreams, whatever direction he moves in. One possible solution came from my faithful Schoolhouse Review Crew when they offered the chance to review the Victus Study Skills System. 

Meditation Monday: The Peculiar Timing of Answered Prayers

Okay, this is such an exciting post to write that I've set aside another exciting post I started yesterday! My understanding of the Orthodox Faith is that there are no coincidences in life: God foresees everything and though we do not know to pray for something specific, He knows that the prayer is going to be said - and that prayer counts even for things that have happened in our past. But because God does not have a past, nor a future, He just IS, then all prayers are heard at the right time, no matter when we actually said them. I hope I haven't muddled this all up and confused the matter - because the concept is integral to this story today.