Cranberry Christmas extended thru Sunday

Hi, Friends~

Just wanted to pass along the information I just got in an email....

Oops . . .
If you tried to order the $19.95 Cranberries & Cream subscription special early this morning, you may have noticed a pricing issue in the Schoolhouse Store.
So, we're extending the $19.95 for 2 years of TOS special!
You have an extra day to grab this great deal--that's midnight PST on Sunday, October 3!
Here's what you receive for only $19.95:
TWO years of TOS Magazine AND
The FREE gorgeous Homeschooling with Heart tote bag,
A FREE Fall 2010 Issue of TOS Magazine,
The FREE E-Book: Cranberry Christmas!
Please read the previous post for all of the details.
Again, this $19.95 price is extended through Sunday, October 3 at midnight PST.


Blessings~

TOS Cranberry Christmas Sale (Crosspost)

Hey, Friends~ Can you believe the holidays are just around the corner? The folks at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine have been getting ready for months to create this offer for you. I'm sorry that I missed getting this information out to you as soon as I heard(What can I say... it was Tuesday or Wednesday, and we had grandparents visiting from 1000s of miles away, so I have a little excuse), but it is good through Saturday, October 2~

TOS is offering a great bargain. You can receive two years plus the fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  Packed with more than 200 pages, it is a resource homeschoolers treasure. Subscribers will also receive the Homeschooling With Heart tote bag (I LOVE my TOS Bags! They are sturdy, and come with me just about everywhere!) AND a copy of the E-Book Cranberry Christmas, available for immediate download. You’ll get all of these inspirational, festive, and fun goodies for only $19.95. This price is good for new subscribers, renewals, gift subscriptions, and U.S. or Canadian customers. The sale lasts just through Saturday, October 2. 

However,  if you couldn't get to it by Saturday, there is still a good deal~  October 3 through October 5, even though the sale drops down to a one-year subscription plus the fall issue, you still receive the tote and the e-book Cranberry Christmas.  

Here is a little more information about Cranberry Christmas, direct from the folks at TOS~
This is a great  “idea book” to get your family ready for the upcoming holidays!
The staff and friends of The Old Schoolhouse® have come together to share their favorite family traditions, recipes, and more with you.


It’s your FREE gift!


WOW . . . a gorgeous holiday/Christmas digital magazine filled with inspirational and “how-to” articles, along with a fabulous lineup of planning, recipe, gift, and craft ideas you’ll love. 


If you’re familiar with The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, you know what an inspiring resource it is. This digital holiday supplement is ourgift to you—a unique way to support, encourage, and inspire you and your family during this wondrous time of year.


This 100-page digital holiday magazine is not your typical E-Book. Because this supplement is created with the same high-quality format that’s used in the digital version of our print magazine, you can even “turn” its lavishly illustrated, full-color pages. And we hope you will enjoy this timeless, practical, and beautiful resource for years to come.


Its seasonally rich content will boost your creativity and show you how to make the most of the holiday season! Dive right in and start using the wonderful new craft and recipe ideas to enhance your family's holiday experience.


Will you bring back old traditions or start some new ones? We’d like to help you plan some meaningful holiday memories that the whole family will enjoy.

Get a free limited edition, cranberry and cream, Homeschooling with Heart tote bag and a two-year subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for just $19.95. Offer good only through midnight on October 2, 2010.

Blessings~

"Foundlings, book one of The Peleg Chronicles"

As someone who is fond of The Chronicles of Narnia, Historical Fiction, and Fantasy, I was excited to receive a new book from Zoe and Sozo Publishing~ "Foundlings, book one of The Peleg Chronicles". I was especially excited to preview a book that promised adventure with "No Magic, No Evolution, No Humanism", and it was of additional interest that it was written by Matthew Christian Harding,  a homeschooling father of four.

Here is a portion of a summary by the publishers:

Foundlings, book one of The Peleg Chronicles is Historical Fiction that takes place in the time period of Peleg, soon after the Tower of Babel dispersion. In its pages we meet dragons, giants, false priests, the death hunt, and under-city of the Dwarven Brotherhood(short human beings), and many memorable characters......Foundlings weaves together the Biblical principles of chivalry, truth, courage, duty, faith and love...." 

According to the author, Foundlings is intended for an audience of at least 10 to 12 years of age, depending on the personality of the child, and certainly no younger than 7. Those who are familiar with me, as well as my children won't be surprised to hear that I would increase those ages by about 2 years for my family(meaning that I didn't even have my 13 yo read this). This is mainly because there are some rather intense scenes involving the aforementioned false priests and their practices, as well as some of the possible realities of life (then and now) that we may not be ready to address, even in fiction.

That being said, there are some very interesting details in Foundlings, including "OOPARTS" (Out Of Place Artifacts) that are often ignored or "retooled" into fitting an evolutionary world view. I just had a discussion with my "history buff" father this past week about some of the amazing technological discoveries being made by archaeologists, so it was interesting to find some of these referenced in Foundlings~ Makes me want to go do some more "Digging"... ;)

There are characters and some locations that are historical, others that are imagined. This was one  "difficulty" I had in reading this book~ The author says that he took many of the character, place names, religious and cultural practices from more recent ancient history, and I had a hard time reconciling Celtic names/practices with more Tower of Babel ancients... Oh, and although the books do not include "magic", there IS a witch character who shows up on the first page, and cultish religious behavior on the part of the false priests.

I've always enjoyed books with the "fantasy" elements of dragons and "underground worlds". I appreciate that dragons, at least, have an authenticity in the Bible, although there are those who would argue the point. So once I got beyond MY preconceptions of the time period, I have to say that I did enjoy the story for the story's sake, and the elements of the plot-line. In fact, when I got to the end of the book, it left me eager to find out what happens to the characters in "Paladins book two".

If your family enjoys "Lord of the Rings", "Narnia", and historical fiction, I would urge you to look into Foundlings and use your discretion regarding its age-appropriateness for your children. I mustn't forget to add that there is a section after the story ends with "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" detailing the plan of salvation which makes this an excellent tool for sharing the TRUTH, the Good News, with youth who are intrigued with "Fantasy", dragons, and more...

Foundlings is available directly from Zoe and Sozo Publishers (Where you can read much more about the author and the Peleg Chronicles) your local bookstore, and online booksellers.
List price is $11.95, 232 pages

As always, I hope that this review is helpful to you as you determine where to spend your hard-earned homeschool budget. For other opinions on Foundlings, please visit the TOS Crew Blog.

Blessings~

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this/these item(s)/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

New Monic Vocabulary Cartoons

Words~  We love words in our household! I have always been a fan of looking up words in the dictionary, and I am hoping that this love of words and meanings (and correct usage) is passed down to my children as well. To that end, I was delighted to be one of the crew members chosen to review Vocabulary Cartoons: Elementary Edition (Recommended for grades 3-6, $12.95) from the good folk at vocabularycartoons.com (You can read some other TOS Crew members' recent reviews of Vocabulary Cartoons SAT Word Power, Book 1 here)

So~ What are Vocabulary Cartoons and why are they different from other vocabulary books? I don't know if you remember or have read my reviews on the Little Man in the Map, or Times Tales, but those products make use of mnemonic devices (which can be phrases, rhymes, pictures or any combination of the above designed to assist or "Bring to mind" a fact or piece of information) to teach geography and Math. Vocabulary Cartoons also uses mnemonic devices, utilizing cartoon pictures, similar sounding words, rhymes, and sentences to introduce 210 vocabulary words to elementary-aged children in 21 lessons. These lessons are complete with matching and fill-in-the-blank quizzes at the end of each lesson. This is a very useful tactic, especially for children who are audio/visual learners, although it can be fun and effective for those who have a more "Traditional" style of learning as well.

Because my kids are VERY prolific readers, I haven't been very regimented about "Vocabulary" per se. Here are the pros that our family found while using this book for the past few weeks

• Vocabulary Cartoons is just the right speed for making sure that we touch on vocabulary, without making it a "Chore"
• It provides a fun variation from dry word lists and definitions~ Which means it gets done! :) 
• Rhyming is always a hit in our household
• The quizzes fit in quite nicely with our spelling tests at the end of the week

Things that we were less impressed with (The "Cons"):

• A few words that I didn't feel were entirely age-appropriate (guerrillas, smitten, bilk, impale, sleazy ~ These just don't seem like words I really want my 3rd-6th grader using...I'm not fond of their connotations). These ARE really a SMALL percentage of the lists (You can download a pdf of the entire word list here if you'd like to check it out yourself).
• One lesson contains a large number of "Ghoulish" illustrations (Frankenstein, Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters).... I'm skipping that one... not our cup o'tea

Because there is an occasional word or picture I'd prefer to omit, I will be using this a little more judiciously. This makes me a little sad, because I really do like the format. If you'd like a glimpse of what these look like, you can download a sample with the above cartoons as well as 8 more here. Please keep in mind that the book also uses each word in 3 different sentences below the cartoon.

All in all, I AM pleased with Vocabulary Cartoons, and think that they may be useful for the kiddos that aren't "list memorizers". :) I hope that this review is useful to you as you choose where to spend your homeschool budget. (For any local friends~ If you'd like to see this in person, zap me an email, and I'll bring it to a meeting~ For everyone~ If you'd like to read a few more opinions, you may do so at the TOS Crew blog)

Blessings~

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this/these item(s)/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

What do we LOVE to use? (Pre-K, 5th, and Middle School)

This is the first time that I am joining in on the TOS Crew Blog Cruise, where various crewmates take the time to answer a variety of questions on their blogs, one each week. I have often thought of joining in, but time has gotten away from me most times. Others, I didn't have much to say on the topic... (I am BLESSED to be surrounded by supportive family, and neighbors!) However, this week's topic, "What are your favorite resources for the ages and grades that you are teaching?" was something that I figured I might be able to take a stab at.

Currently~ to go "up" in age~
The Pre-K "Littlest"~
As with the other two, we are starting our "learning" with the gentle approach of Before Five In A Row*. I have to say that I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all things FIAR, and Jane and Steve (And Becky!) Lambert. What a sweet heart they have for homeschoolers, their children, their marriages, and all. Be sure to check out the Five In A Row Message Boards!
Preschool Activity in a Bag sets are great~ He likes "Getting out a Game" from his box.
Counting Bears and sorting activities (Along with Busy Bugs Activities* and cards)
Puzzles!
Books! (Curious George books are favorites at the moment, and I love to read a variety of ABC books (Here's one of my favorites if you have a child that loves flowers*,  and one of my very favorites for ANY kid is Dr. Seuss's ABC* (Be sure not to get the board book... it leaves stuff out!)
Clipboard with paper and crayons or pencils
Preschool "games" on my itouch

5th Grade Middlest~
Once again~ Five In A Row is my first mention!
Currently, Saxon Math* seems to work well for us, starting in 5th Grade
Still like MathScore (See the banner on the top right of my blog)
Both my kids love their Spelling workbooks (We use Spelling Workout*)... In lieu of a workbook, I'm impressed with Spelling City, and ABC Teach for the options included for making and/or printing up activities.
Lots of books~ current reads are the "Viking Raiders"series (The first book is Raiders from the Sea* ) and the Tintin books (Here's one of the 1st ones I remember reading from my childhood Tintin in Tibet*)

There is a cool website for various "Activities" that I like to utilize every now and again~ FreeRice

8th Grade Oldest~
Video Text Algebra (currently working in  Module "B"*)
Spelling Workout*
Apologia General Science* (With Lapbook additions. There are a few out there, I think...)
Books(Lots of 'em!)~ Currently she's into "Historical" Fantasy, having read all of Brian Jacques' Redwall books, and now getting into The Lord of the Rings Triology. :)

For some "Extras", we loved using "ROAR", a companion Guide to the Chronicles of Narnia.
We're using Neta Jackson's "Hero Tales"*  as our Devotional in the mornings... Like it!

For "Free Play" time, we love Legos, Playmobil, and one of our favorites... Kapla Blocks* or Keva Planks*... Both are great, and keep kids AND mom entertained for hours! These are amazing building blocks!

So, there you have it... These ARE a few of our favorite things! :)
Blessings~

Disclosure of Material Connection: I may receive an "affiliate commission' on any purchases made through links with an * . Thank you for helping to support our "Stay-at-home" one fmaily income.   The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Math Tutor DVDs~ Pre Algebra(Vol1) and Texas Instruments TI-84/TI84 Calulator

For the 3rd year in a row TOS Crew members have received DVD's from Jason Gibson's Math Tutor DVD line. I was blessed to receive product all three years. You can read my reviews from year 1 (It's not Rocket Science, People!  which covered the "Basic Word Problems" and "Algebra 2" DVD's), and year 2 (Young Minds ~ Numbers and Counting which is a gorgeous Toddler/Preschooler DVD).

This year I once again received 2 DVD's
"The Pre-Algebra Tutor"~($26.99) A 2 DVD set with 5 hours of video instruction which covers 9 topics:

• Real Numbers
• The Number Line
• Greater Than, Less Than, Equal To
• Absolute Value and Adding Integers
• Multiplying Integers
• Dividing Integers
• Powers and Exponents
• Order of Operations 

"The Texas Instruments TI-83/TI-84 Calculator" ($26.99)~ a 3 DVD set with 8 hours of video instruction. This one covers 37 topics...YIKES!  I didn't know there was that much to know about a calculator! (Can you tell that I didn't encounter "higher math" that required a scientific calculator??) Because there are so many topics, I'm not going to list them all here. You  can visit the TI 83/84 link above to see everything that is encompassed in this course, as well as a sample video of the first lesson.


As I have come to expect from Jason Gibson, each topic is treated thoroughly and with much repetition. If you have a student that is struggling in any area of math, I still maintain the opinion that  these videos would be very helpful, even without the sizzle-bang, pop-whiz excitement of some other programs.  My daughter is beyond the pre-algebra stage at this point, but based on her style of learning, these videos could be helpful in small doses. The great thing about a Math Tutor DVD, is that once the student figures the concept out, you can fast forward to the next, and skip all the repetition, but if your student requires repetition, it is calmly and quietly included.

I presume that once we get to the point where we need to use a graphing calculator, the TI-83/TI84 DVD may be very useful in getting us up to speed, one chunk at a time, as needed.

One nifty aspect of the TI-83/TI84 video meant I could review it without actually owning a TI-83/TI-84. Jason uses an interactive calculator graphic to go through the various functions of the calculator. This makes it easy to see exactly how to work the keyboard and the functions (and simultaneously eliminates the need to try to read one of those tiny print manuals, which is what I imagine comes with the calculator). It's also handy if you have a child that wants to be able to USE electronics right out of the package... eliminates or reduces that learning curve, if they go through it in advance.However, if you or your child is a "Give me the manual, I want to read it cover-to-cover, and then get right to work" sort, this may not be as helpful for you.

I'd like to mention one other service offered by Math Tutor DVD, and that is a "Member Subscription" to the Math Tutor DVD Site. If you foresee the need to purchase a number of the Math Tutor DVD's, this could be a good option for you. A Membership to Math Tutor DVD Member's Area gets you instant access to:

• View all Math Video Courses Online 24/7!
• Over 170 Hours of Video!
• Basic Math thru Calculus and Physics!
• View unreleased lessons not yet on DVD!
• New material released weekly!
• Members save 25% on all DVD courses!
• Download worksheets!
• Extra worked problems and solutions!
• Members Only Discussion Forums!
• Articles, tips and techniques by Jason Gibson!
• And much more!   

The cost for a membership is $19.95/ month, $99/6 months (Recurring billing) or $189 for 1 single year of access. This is an interesting option if your student "clicks" with Jason Gibson's teaching style. :)

I hope that this review was useful to you as you navigate the sometimes tricky waters  homeschooling  math education. For 99 more opinions on these DVDs, please visit the TOS Crew Blog, and see what  other Crew members had to say.

Blessings~

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this/these item(s)/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

TOS 2010-2011 Planner~ (Advertisment) Special Offer~ Ends Sept 13!

Just bumping this up before this special ends on the 13th! 
Are you READY for the 2010/2011 School Year? 
(Start Your Engines!)

Do you have your ducks in a row?

Are you a list maker?? 

OR~ Are you a "FBTSOYP"-er 
(AKA a Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants-er)

• Do you have all the inspiration that you require for the upcoming months?
• Do you have favorite new recipes to try from fellow-homeschoolers?
• Do you have a plan for your child(ren)'s education this year?
• Do you have a plan for cleaning, and cooking, and changing the oil?

If you answered "No" to one or more of these questions, 

The Schoolhouse Planner may be just the tool 

to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground, 

while watering your school and your soul with help and inspiration.

The good folk at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine have pulled together an incredible compendium(over 600 pages!) of forms, facts, lists, and recipes, as well as mini "inspirational" bits by some well known names in homeschooling today.

This is not your mother's planner of yesteryear~ 

You know.. the kind with tiny refillable blank "Sets" of 12 -52 pages purchased at the local office store for $8-$13 apiece ~ of which you "need" to purchase at least 3 or more to have a planner that is "usable and useful"

This is a fully customizable planner 

with unlimited printable pages(within a single family) 

and multiple options to choose from

(HUNDREDS of pages worth!)

List-makers will LOVE this, FBTSOYP-ers NEED this! 

The remaining pages are those monthly themed

recipes, inspiring bits, resource lists, and "facts" mentioned above

The Price? 

For $39 plus the cost of ink and paper and "binding", 

you can have a customized planner for everyone in your home! 

• Mom
• Dad
• High School Students
• Middle School Students
• Elementary Students
• There are even pages to make a "planner" for the preschooler!

Now the chores have a chance to get done, and on time even!

Laying out schoolwork plans and goals is neat and readable

(did  I mention update-able?)

Keeping records of what was done is a snap

 For more information and to purchase, please visit the schoolhouse store . The planner is available as a down-loadable ebook, and also on CD.

One more thing

~A special offer that expires at midnight, September 13, 2010~ 

Purchase the planner and receive all 12 2008/2009 "monthly modules", all 12 2009/2010  "monthly modules" , and the We-Ebook Insect Bundle to give your homeschool unit studies a head start!   

These stand alone modules are filled with interactive activities and information that will serve the elementary crowd, but also include "Expansion" ideas for those older students in your family. These extras are $190 value if purchased separately!   Check it out!

  

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is an advertisement. I was provided with the 2010/2011 Schoolhouse Planner  by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine(as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Crew), free of charge, in order to write this advertisement as part of an ad writing contest. If you click through any of the links and make a purchase, I may also receive a commission on your purchase. Thank you for your support.
Clip art from http://www.wmfclipart.com/ and my personal photography