Homemaking 201 DVD Review (and SALE!)

 

Homemaking 201 is the next in the series of DVD's for homemakers from Family Vision Films.  Jennifer Ross and her family have a very welcoming home and a refreshing perspective of motherhood as being a servant of God.  Bible verses, quotes, poems and articles of encouragement are shared throughout the hour of this film.  I love the many ways that Jennifer not only ministers to her family, but also teaches and trains in the process.  She shares many ideas for saving money by making baby wipes, homemade dryer sheets, organizing recipes and creating a homemaking binder.   She sets up many simple resources that allow her day to go smoothly like a hospitality basket, chore chart, homeschool baskets and maintaining home tools like vacuums.  She shares some easy recipes and shows how to properly wear an apron (the "uniform" for a homemaker).  My favorite part was seeing how a focused and unfocused day is like.  I identified in both areas and I know that a mother who is focused pleases the Lord in her daily life.  This DVD gives instruction and vision for a homemaker who seeks to glorify the Lord.   You will be blessed and encouraged to be a more focused and humble homemaker as well as gain some valuable skills and tips for your motherhood journey. 


For more information on:
*Homemaking 201
*Joyful Aprons- handmade by Jennifer


Be sure to order this week (by December 5) to get the SALE for the Homemaking 201 and 101 DVD's.  These would make great gifts for a new mother, sister, or friend.

If you enjoyed Homemaking 101 from Jennifer Ross and her family, you are in for a treat.  Homemaking 201 is here! Join Jennifer and her large family as they share more!

 

In this video we cover:

• Ministering to your family
• Household maintenance
• Homemade products
• Preparing for guests
• Organization
• Chores and projects for children
• Cleaning outside your home
• Adjusting any apron for a perfect fit
• An unfocused day vs. a focused day
• Easy dinner recipe
• Creating a Homemaking Binder
• Home decorating
• and more!

 
Homemaking 201 on SALE for $12.95
Homemaking 101 on SALE for $10.95
 
SALE ends December 5!

Click HERE to order!
 
*I am an affiliate for this company.  Thank you for your support.*

Black Friday SALE (11/28/14) at Queen Homeschool Supplies- 25% off on that day only!

Are you ready to try something new for the school year?  We are enjoying using Queen Homeschool materials.  We look forward to adding more as my children get older.  We have used Language Lessons, Printing with Pictures and Math Lessons for a Living Education.  This Friday, there is 25% off all curriculum (except Life of Fred).  Take a look and see what would be a good fit for your family!  I love it!

There are books for all ages from Preschool to High School.  I have heard great things from the Nature and Science series which we will start next year.  And A Living History of Our World is a great story told with a Christian emphasis.

Check out Queen Homeschool  on Friday for 25% off.  Enjoy!!

 

Queen Homeschool

25% off

Friday (11/28/14) only!!

Black Friday Sale  

 

*I am an affiliate for Queen Homeschool.  Thanks for your support!*

 

Look Inside The Time of Jesus (Lift the flap Discovery Book) by Lois Rock Book Review

 

Look Inside the Time of Jesus is a hardback illustrated book of the life of Jesus with colorful pictures and lift-the-flaps.  This book has authentic scenes from Bible times.  Children will see towns, seashore, farm, banquet room, temple, Roman trial and the garden where Jesus was resurrected.  Spread throughout the book are lift-the-flaps where children can explore beyond the story.  There is a short paragraph sharing the story for the page and several flaps to lift as well as objects that are labeled.  This will create some great discussion as you share this book together with your child.   

 

*I was given a complimentary copy of this book from Kregel Publications for the purpose of this review.*

Homeschool Update #1 (First Quarter)

It's the end of our first quarter.  I figured every 45 days of school will be a quarter if we do 180 days.  So here we are!!  I am going to share what we do in a typical day and also some of the curriculum we are using that I am loving.  This has been a much better year because I feel so much more responsible teaching Kindergarten as we will be moving on to 1st grade next year.  I was so ready for this year!!  (Lots of pictures in this post!)

So we really don't have a schedule, but more of a routine.  I usually do the learning time with Shrade since I have a lot to cover with him and I want to keep up with our curriculum, but most days I do a Circle Time which includes both children.  We have been SO busy, that I hardly have time to blog, but I do post every so often on my Facebook page, so keep updated with us there!

Night Before School Starts Banana Split!

First Day of School:

My 3 year old girl

My 5 year old boy

I gave them "school" packs with rulers, $1 calculators and a pencil case with pencils, crayons, glue stick and scissors in a cute little 31 bag.  Some of this was for fun, but it's easy to move from one place to another and keep them busy.

 

First Day of Homeschool Co-op:

Breakfast- During breakfast I usually read from a Preschool Bible, a chapter book like Boxcar Children and sometimes our History book- History for Little Pilgrims.  We also review our Bible verses for Awana.

Circle Time- I do this almost every morning.  I bought some carpet squares at the dollar store and they sit on these during circle time.  I set up the table with all my stuff that I will be using like books to read, notebooks, CD's, flashcards, song books and anything else.  We usually start with prayer and then the kids want to snuggle.  So we all lay on the floor giggling, tickling, hugging and wiggling.  Then I usually do a combination of quiet activities like reading a book, working with letters and sounds or shared writing and reading lessons and active things like exercises, singing and running!  This is something I do with BOTH kids at the same time.  I try to do things that interest both ages, but playful enough so it doesn't feel like learning.  This lasts from a half hour to an hour on some days.

Shrade writes "heart" words (words he knows by heart) from Nellie Edge

Jessna's learning her letters and sounds

We are part of a postcard exchange where we are sending and receiving postcards from each state.

Learning Time/Box Time
This is the main portion of our day as far as moving forward academically.  While I work with one child at the table, the other child gets to have box time. 

Place Value Village with our Math curriculum

Playing memory with educational cubes (BOB book activity)

Jessna's learning her numbers by counting with cheerios

BOX Time:
Box Time is a bunch of baskets that I put together that the kids play with while I work with the other one.
See my post on BOX TIME.

Lunch- During lunch we often listen to Karen & Kids or I will read some more from our chapter book.  And after lunch we try to work in our Daily Learning Notebooks (calendar, weather, skill page). 

Other- Beyond what we do on a normal day, we try to add other things like Bible crafts, cooking, and other fun activities.

Tower of Babel Bible Craft

We read Mouse Paint and made colors and painted paper plates.

Jessna is helping to mash bananas

Shrade is stirring the mixture for baked oatmeal

 

 

Field Trips:

 

Recently we took a trip out to Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake

Picking apples on our homeschool field trip

Riding tractors at the Fair

Taking advantage of the free day at the Zoo

Bowling with the family

Recent trip to Yosemite this summer- Half Dome

A fun train ride with friends- Tacoma Rail 100 years old

 

 

Check out my list of our curriculum choices for this year.  I am very pleased with what I chose to use to teach my children this year.  Highly recommend! 

 

 

If you are looking for a fun math curriculum check out Math Lessons for a Living Education from Queen Homeschool Supplies.  This is a story about twins who visit their grandparents and learn all sorts of interesting things on the farm that can be related to math concepts. At the end of each week they write a letter to their parents which is a review of what your child learned in the lesson for the week.  The first day begins with a story and there are 5 days of short, but effective math skill lessons.  My son absolutely LOVES math time.  He begs to do it first everyday!  So far there are 5 books in the series.  Be sure to check out the samples and scope and sequence of each book.  I am glad were able to start at the beginning.

 

Math Lessons for a Living Education  

 

 

 

Next month I'll share a little bit about my report card and school memory book system.
Thanks for visiting Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow!

The Ultimate Laurie Berkner Band Collection CD Review

 

 

AWARD-WINNING, BEST-SELLING

CHILDREN'S RECORDING ARTIST

LAURIE BERKNER

TO RELEASE NEW COMPILATION OF FAN FAVORITES

THE ULTIMATE LAURIE BERKNER BAND COLLECTION
"The queen of children's music."
-- People Magazine

"A kind of sippy-cup Sheryl Crow."
-- Time Magazine

"One of the hippest children's artists ... Berkner's a blast."
-- Family Fun
NEW YORK -- Beloved children's recording artist and preschool TV favorite Laurie Berkner will release a compilation of greatest hits, The Ultimate Laurie Berkner Band Collection, on October 14th (Two Tomatoes Records, distributed by Razor & Tie, run time 59 minutes).  The CD is the follow-up to The Best Of The Laurie Berkner Band, which has consistently been a top-seller on the children's music chart since it was released in 2010.

Six of The Laurie Berkner Band's CDs are represented: Whaddaya Think of That? (1997); Buzz Buzz (1998); Victor Vito (1999); Under A Shady Tree (2002); Rocketship Run (2008) and the DVD CD Party Day! (2011). The Ultimate Laurie Berkner Band Collection also features three bonus tracks, including the song "One Seed," which has not appeared on any previous album.

Says Laurie, "As soon as I released The Best Of The Laurie Berkner Band, I couldn't wait for my next compilation to come out -- because there were so many songs that I felt should have also been included on that album!  Now that The Ultimate Laurie Berkner Band Collection is finally here, I am thrilled that it will not only include those hits, but also songs I've written since then that have become classics.  With a total of 22 favorite songs, this really is the 'Ultimate' collection!"

A former preschool music teacher by day and indie rocker by night, Laurie Berkner started selling her music over fifteen years ago out of her living room on her own label, Two Tomatoes Records.  She is now widely recognized as a pioneer in the "kindie" music genre and was dubbed "The undisputed queen of kindie rock" by USA Today.  The Wall Street Journal noted, "Her music is distinctive because it speaks to kids without talking down to them, charming youngsters without boring grown-ups."

Laurie was the first artist to ever appear in music videos on Nick Jr. and was featured in nearly all of the episodes of the channel's Jack's Big Music Show.  She currently stars in the animated musical short-form series Sing It, Laurie! on the Sprout preschool channel and makes regular appearances on Sprout's Sunny Side Up Show.

The Laurie Berkner Band features Laurie Berkner, vocals/guitar; Susie Lampert, keyboards; Brady Rymer, bass; and Bobby Golden, drums/percussion.  Visit www.laurieberkner.com for more about the band, including tour dates and links to the band's Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter pages.  Media assets are also available here:  www.razorandtiepublicity.com.

 

 

My review:

 

Laurie Berkner was one of the first artist CD's I picked up at the library when I was a new mom.  I absolutely fell in love with her style.  She provides unique tunes with easy lyrics that the kids can repeat and remember.  Her guitar strumming and melodic voice memorizes my young children and myself too.  Laurie's songs engage listeners to jump right in the experience she provides through the stories of her songs.  She takes you down a walk by the river, looking for a birthday cake, collecting bottle caps and other fun items, trying to call someone on the telephone that doesn't answer, the mess that kids are,  reading with a pretend book and other crazy things that interest kids.  She is family friendly and knows how to make children explore their world in intentional ways and create meaningful relationships.  I highly recommend Laurie's new CD that is a combination of some of her best songs.

 

*I was given a complimentary copy of this CD for the purpose of this review.  All opinions are my own.*

Queen Homeschool Supplies- Charlotte Mason Style Education

Last year I started seriously looking for homeschool curriculum.  I really thought I would choose something similar to what I used when I taught Kindergarten.  But the one thing I forgot was that I wasn't teaching a class of 25, but my own child who has individual learning needs.  For once, I could choose what I wanted to teach.  That proved to be more of a difficult task than I imagined.

Now, I understand that every homeschool family has different reasons for picking what they are using for their children.  That's the beauty of it.  There are many great resources out there and I just wanted to choose what was best to work with my children.

About a year ago, one of the blogs I follow on Facebook posted a picture of a math book and history book with a picture of her kids on the back.  I read what she wrote about the curriculum and thought I would check it out. 

It was Queen Homeschool which follows the Charlotte Mason method.  I had heard of Charlotte Mason and actually thought there was not enough to it according to the standards in my mind.  But I began to research and think about how, why and what I wanted to teach my kids.  I realized that I do want to teach them from real life.  Charlotte Mason focuses on a living education. 

I decided to order a few things for my son for PreK last year: Language Lessons for Little Ones Volume 1 and Picture My Numbers.  I joined the Facebook group and loved all the great reviews people posted there. 

As I have been looking at several different curriculums that past year, I kept coming back to Queen Homeschool.  Why?  It's a family business.  The people are honest and trustworthy.  They seek to produce material that is user friendly, covers a variety of topics and is fun for learning.  There are several categories of subjects.  I particularly like the Language Series and the Math Series. 

Stay tuned for more reviews from what I am currently using.

Write Through the Bible Proverbs 3:1-26 from Intoxicated on Life

 

 

 

One of the things I'm looking forward to most is teaching my children from the Bible.  I am already doing that, but with writing and memorizing with the materials at Intoxicated on Life, I see a great method to make this a solid foundation of God's Word in their hearts.

 

The newest resource in Write Through the Bible is Proverbs 3:1-26.  It's a full year of writing practice focusing on God's Word.  This covers memory, handwriting, vocabulary and dictation.  There are a few days of copy work, then a day of looking up vocabulary and another day of dictation.  There are also review days to copy several verses at once.

What an amazing passage of Scripture to memorize and know that is so full of wisdom and guidance for young boys and girls!  I am so excited that I will be able to use this with my children.

I can see all kinds of great learning and review at work here.  Also, Intoxicated on Life has some excellent resources for memorizing that you will receive in a link from the ebook. 

I encourage you to check out this excellent resource as you teach your children the Word of God.

 

 

Find out more information at Intoxicated on Life.

 

*I was given a complimentary copy of this book for review.  All opinions are my own.*

BOX TIME for our Homeschool Days

I taught Kindergarten for 12 years and I prepared so well for the first week/month and had great ideas and activities to transition my students to their first year at all day school.  I worked long and hard and as the first day approached I felt almost prepared.  Now, that I'm at home, I can see that homeschooling is completely different.  Although it is still full of planning, I can't seem to just concentrate on just that.  However, I thought long and hard about how I was going to teach my 3 and 5 year old at the same time.  I plan to do Kindergarten with my son, but how do I teach him with the very needy 3 year old at my side constantly?

Ta-da!  It's called Box Time!  I cleaned my attic a few weeks ago and hit a jackpot of tons of manipulatives like plastic frogs, dominoes, dinosaurs, plastic colored fish, colored blocks and many other items.  I was SO excited!!  I started to think about how to use these to keep my "other" kid occupied while I worked with one.  The items that I have are good for both ages. 

So what I will do is make 3-5 baskets with 3 games and 3 books per basket.  So each day after our circle time together, I will do one on one learning time.  One child will play with the box while I work at the table with the other one.  I did a "pretend" school this week to see how it will work.  The trial run proved to me that it will work well. 

I have read that you should work with the younger child first, but when I did, all she wanted to do was play with the box toys.  So I decided since I really want to do Kindergarten with my son, is that I will work with him first and then with my daughter.  I will do this for 30 minutes (15 and 15).  Then we will have a break and do another 30 minutes (maybe). 

So that is my bright idea for the new year.  We will be starting school the first week of September!  Be looking for our first day pictures soon!

Laying the Foundation (A family study of the Apostle's Creed) by Luke Gilkerson of Intoxicated on Life Review

 

 

 

Laying the Foundation  (A family study of the Apostle's Creed) by Luke Gilkerson is a phrase by phrase look at a very old creed Christians used to recite at the beginning of the third century.  The Apostle's Creed is one of the three main catechisms for Christians as endorsed by Martin Luther.  This creed has value for Christian families to give essentials of the faith, a confessional, valuing tradition, a personal faith and connects to the Christian heritage.

The Bible study can be 30 days or 30 weeks (one lesson a week) and is suggested to be done as both and to memorize this creed as a family.  Each lesson has an opening thought, a Scripture reading, explanation of the passage as well as the part of the creed being unpacked, questions for discussion and a prayer.  Each lesson is very simple, yet really engages the kids to think deeply and make a lasting impression on them as they learn about God.

There are many part of the creed that might be confusing or hard to understand, but Luke does an excellent job of explaining and interpreting what might cause some unrest. 

I really enjoyed the layout of the study and thought that it was a great way to make a very intimidating passage very manageable for young minds.  There is no doubt that memorizing a text like this can be hard if not understood in the proper context.  With 30 lessons, there is definitely a way for a child to understand know exactly what is being said and why.  I was very impressed with the amount of research and how it was presented.  This would be a great Bible study to do together as a family as you grow closer to God and to each other.

 

Be sure to check out Laying the Foundation ($8.99) as well as the Write the Bible copywork books that can be paired with this study.  See Intoxicated on Life for more information.  

 

*I was given a copy of the ebook for my review.  All opinions are my own.*

Summer Fit Learning Book Review and Giveaway!!

 

 

Summer Fit First to Second Grade: Math, Reading, Writing, Language Arts + Fitness, Nutrition and Values is the perfect answer to keeping kids busy, active and current as they go throughout their summer.  Summer Fit helps to "prepare children mentally, physically and socially for the grade ahead."  This resource is based on national standards and is teacher recommended.

BE SURE to head over to my other blog to enter this giveaway!

Mind Organization for Moms (Part 4)

I am SO pleased with this program, Mind Organization for Moms!  I'm very proud of how I've set up my new system and how smoothly it is working and delighted I am to actually enjoy my life now.

Are you ready to change your routine to better accommodate all that is swirling around in your brain?  It took me a long time to actually take this course.  I really wondered if it would be helpful to me and if I could actually make it work.  I love it!

*Note: I sent this ebook off to FedEx to be printed for my convenience.

I hope that you will take some time to think about your current situation.  Believe me, I have tried all kinds of organizing systems, but this one was so different and very much exactly how I want things to be.  I am free from constantly thinking about ALL the stuff I have floating around in my brain.  It's all neatly tucked away and I can review it at certain times.  My daily schedule is getting better and I'm also checking lots of things off my list.  But I think my favorite part was cleaning out my email inbox.  What a relief to see NO NEW EMAIL there as I go to bed each night.  That alone was frustrating me.

So, what are you waiting for? 

Check out Mind Organization for Moms today!!

Summer Fun 2014

What are you doing this summer?  I always have grand plans, but then I get overwhelmed.  Since I started organizing with Mind Organization for Moms I am better able to handle the day to day schedule and actually have fun!

Here are some things we are doing this summer:

*My son will visit grandma in Canada for a week. 

*Day Camp for my son

*Swimming lessons for my son

*VBS for BOTH kids this year!!

*Lots of trips to the park.  We have a Tour of Parks group that meets up at different parks all summer long.

*Camping with grandparents

*4th of July party at the lake

*Playing at the beach (we have 3 little beaches where the kids love to dig and discover)

*$1 movie- Madagascar 3 

*Hiking in our wonderful nature

*Picking strawberries, blueberries and enjoying our abundant garden

*Summer Reading with the Library

*Summer School- Yes, we never stop learning!

We are using Summer Fit for PreK-K, First Encyclopedia of Science from Usborne Books, Alphatales, BOB Books Set 2 and finishing Brightly Beaming Resources.

Check out my Summer Pinterest Board for more ideas!