Today's Wisdom

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Review of USAopoly

 USAopoly Review

We love to play games in our family. Fridays usually lend to game day as our school work load is normally much lighter. So, we were so excited when our 2 games came in to review from USAopoly!! We were sent Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game and Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone to play with our family.

If you have never heard of USAopoly like me, they have been making popular games with a twist since 1994 under the license of Hasbro. Some familiar names you may recognize are Connect 4, Jenga, Yahtzee, and more.

The game of Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone was a blast to play. It is recommended for ages 8 and up and retails for $19.95. It can be played by 2 or more players. Children need to know the beginning letters of words to play.


 USAopoly Review
The contents of this game include a portable Tapple wheel, 36 category cards with 144 different catergories, and instructions. Just add in 2 AA batteries and you are all set up to play. The portable wheel has a storage compartment underneath to store the category cards. That is genius and makes transporting and storing this game a breeze.
The game is simple to play. The object of the game is to win at least 3 rounds earning you 3 category cards. The first player to accomplish that goal is the winner.
How To Play:
  1. Pick a category card. The cards include categories such as farm animals, countries, pizza toppings, etc.  Once you pick the card, you press the timer and the timer gives you 10 seconds on the clock.
  2. You then say a word related to the category card.  For example, if the category card was pizza topping.  You could say, "pepporoni". Then you tap the letter that your word begins with which would be the letter "P" in this case.  The next step is to tap the timer and pass the Tapple wheel to the next player.
  3. If the timer runs out before the player says a word, they are out for that round.  The last player remaining wins the round and the category card.  First person to win 3 category cards wins the game.
The tricky part of the game is, as turns continue to be taken, the letters decrease making it difficult for you to come up with a word to fit the category. The timer ticking away unsettles nerves and sometimes you even mash the wrong letter of the word or completely draw a blank altoghether. We enjoyed this game and I think it would make a great game to review countries, states, and capitals. It causes students to use their creativity, imagination, and memory skills as they try to beat the timer. You will hear lots of laughter and "oh man" while playing this game. The best part is learning is happening and no one even realizes it.

The next game sent to us was Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game. This was our favorite game of the pair. It is also recommended for ages 8 and up and retails for $19.95.  It can be played by 2 or more players. 

USAopoly Review
The contents include 9 custom Wonky cubes, 54 strategy cards, and a storage bag making clean up super simple.

The object of this game is to be the first player to play all of your cards as you successfully add blocks to the tower. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? But wait, those Wonky blocks are actually cubes with 3 flat sides and 3 curve sides making the towers you build extremely Wonky!

How To Play:
  1. Play a card - the cards included come with block cards telling you which block to place on the tower. There are also action cards allowing you to Pass and Reverse the game play. Finally, there are combo cards where you can pick any color or size block of your choice and make the next player draw a card or reverse the game. If you do not have a card that is playable, you must keep drawing cards until you get one.
  2. Add the block to the tower. The strategy here is to add a block that is likely to make the next players tower tumble without tumbling the tower yourself.
To win the game, you have to be the first play to have no cards in your hand at the end of your turn. If you successfully stack all 9 blocks, you can also win no matter how many cards are in your hand.

Our family has not been successful in that feat as of yet. We've made it as high as 7 blocks so far. There are a few other rules like only using one hand and counting to 3 after you place your block on top of the tower. We waited with bated breath as each player added their block to the tower. It's amazing how much fun you can have with 9 little Wonky blocks!





Our family would highly recommend both of these games to all families!

Both games came be purchased at various well known retail stores. You can also find out more at USAopoly, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.




 USAopoly Review

Crew Disclaimer

Monday, September 28, 2015

Allowing Grace In Your Schedule


I'm late with this post even but it's still Monday!  

Our schedule has totally changed from when we began school 6 weeks ago to allow for dance and basketball activities.  When our schedule changes like that I try to not be so hard on myself if other areas fall behind for at least 2 weeks.  Last week was the first week of grace, this will be the second!  I can see we are adjusting better this week already.  Come November, it will change again!!


Top 5 for the week
  1. allow grace to adjust to new schedule
  2. make sure all review items are as complete as possible since I will be out of town next week.
  3. catch up on Own Your Life
  4. complete next 6 weeks school planning session
  5. relist items to sell
Menu Plan  (I really need to finish this but for now I'm too tired.)  I'm thinking something like tacos and a new recipe maybe....to be continued :)

Dinners:

  • mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, garden peas

  • fried chicken drumsticks, potatoes, green beans

  • chicken pot pie
                  
Reading goals
  • Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God
  • Judges study with Hellomornings
  • Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson
  • 3 Weeks To An Organized Homeschool (kindle pick - It's free at this moment) (aff link)
Fitness goals
  • try to get at least 5,000 steps daily
New Habit for this Interval until 11/22/15
  • water, water, water (at least 32 oz per day)

Review of Last Week

Top 5 for the week
  1. get caught up from last week - I'm behind in some of my Bible studies, book club, and review work.
  2. Costco haul
  3. make meals from the pantry this week
  4. Putting this in it's own number to keep it a priority - 3 reviews due and framework for some coming up
  5. give myself grace for trying to follow the new schedule and work on Work the Plan at least 3 days.
Menu Plan

Dinners:

  • mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, garden peas - didn't have
  • pasta or hamburger helper (if there is enough meat left after making meatloaf), salads - didn't have
  • out
  • ham steak, mac n cheese, butter beans
  • pizza boats, salad
                       
Reading goals - caught up on 2 of them!
  • Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God
  • Judges study with Hellomornings
  • Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson - now 2 chapters behind
Fitness goals
  • try to get at least 5,000 steps daily - only hit goal once again but still more steps averaged per week so a little victory!
  • focus on more fruits and vegetables - honestly, can't focus on this right now!
New Habit for this Interval until 
  • water, water, water (at least 32 oz per day) - drum roll please - done every day!!!!!!

Sunday, September 27, 2015

It's A Wrap - Week 6



Week 6 complete - that means for us is a break week is coming up!  I think we're all ready.  This may sound really confusing but we actually break our off week up into two half weeks corresponding to my husband's days off.

We pretty much just read in science this week and skipped any hands on activities basically because I didn't look at the supply list ahead of time and didn't have everything that was needed.  We also didn't have the time!  We hit the road a few times this week and took some school with us.  


The morning air was a little crisper than we were expecting but we loved the cooler temps!




Marley finally got her sign up - made by Sarah!

We made it to the end of the week with our meals from the pantry and then made a huge Costco haul.  We really shouldn't skip Costco because we only go once a month and when we miss, it hurts!

Here's what we pulled from the freezer and pantry for meals.



Again, slack with the pictures. Hey this is real life and when you have to pick your priorities pictures don't always rank at the top.
I hope you have a had wonderful week! What was your favorite part of the week? School at the park was pretty awesome except for the wasps.  

Linking up with Weekly Wrap-UpThe Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Review of Heroes of History's Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate

YWAM Publishing Review

YWAM Publishing specializes in offering books that focus on ministry, education, evangelism, discipleship, and prayer. You may be familiar with some of their series including Heroes of History or Christian Heroes: Then & Now. They are a nonprofit ministry of Youth With A Mission, and a portion of the money received goes to different countries in need.

We were given Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate from the Heroes of History series including both the book and the Unit Study Curriculum Guide to review. Last year we visited Hershey, PA and also did a chocolate unit study so I chose this book to see if we could recognize any facts that were familiar.



Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate is the biography of a chocolatier who made the famous Hershey Bars. If you have never studied about Mr. Hershey before, his story is one of never giving up. He faced many milestones before reaching his final chocolatier millionaire status including debt, shame from his Mennonite family members, mother and father pulling him in different directions, and many many failures. 

His first greatest success did not come with the Hershey Bar but with caramels. He would experiment with products and sales techniques and experience many more failures than successes in the beginning but the overlying theme was he never gave up. His success really began to sore when he sold his caramel factory in 1900 for one million dollars! Finally falling in love at the age of 39 and marrying soon after, his wife Kitty knew that for Milton it was never about the money. He enjoyed the challenge and hard work. He was also very generous with his money setting up family and friends for life, starting his own thriving community known as "The Sweetest Place on Earth" and named none other than Hershey, PA, and starting an orphanage and school for boys.


The Unit Study Curriculum Guide helps you easily tie in other study areas such as geography, current events, math, history, science and more turning your book into a complete unit study. It also includes a meet the authors section containing 7 videos, written biography of Milton Hershey, and a bonus section including word puzzles, samples of other guides in the series, and map keys. Suggestions are included for using the guide in a classroom setting, homeschool setting, and/or group setting. 

You can use the series of books as your core history curriculum or as a supplement. Our favorite way to use these books is for our read aloud time. It's fun when can sit as a family and share with dad, who is a history buff what we have learned. We mainly used the question section of the guide. Each chapter contains 6 questions including comprehension, vocabulary, factual, and open ended opinion questions. The answers are also included. This study guide is filled with ideas of hands on projects, memorization ideas, essay topics, creative writing topics, video project ideas, and so much more!

Here are a few of the sheets included:



One of the ideas was to film a commercial for a Hershey Bar. Here is my son's commercial for why you need to buy yourself a Hershey Bar - too much fun and I seriously was crying from laughing!  He's also been watching some videos on editing and filming so this assignment went along perfectly. 




Our main focus was reading the book and answering the questions but we will definitely be implementing some of the terrific ideas included.  We would highly recommend this series of books and guides. We've read several of them as read alouds and each one has been very educational and exemplary in bringing history figures out of the pages of a book and into our lives.

If you would like to see what other books are offered in this series check out the Chronological Index of Heroes of History and click the banner below to see more reviews.

You can also visit YWAM Publishing on Facebook, Twitter , and Pinterest.


YWAM Publishing Review
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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Review of Fascinating Chemistry

Fascinating Education Review

Are you like me and find while reading a science textbook your eyes start to glaze over and close before you can finish the text? How about your students? Our family really loves science but I have to admit it is the experiments that we love - not so much the facts of how they work. So, when I heard that Fascinating Education offered science courses with audio-visual techniques I was intrigued.

We were given the opportunity to review the online course Fascinating Chemistry with my high school son who is in the 12th grade. At first glance of the program, you will see that it contains 18 lessons and final problems . Each lesson includes several videos introducing you to the subject matter, a script of the lessons including visual aids that were used in the videos, and an online multiple choice test. The test can also be taken in PDF format if the parent or student would prefer to take it that way. You are given a secondary password only for the parent to access the PDF version of the tests and answers. Also included with the course are 11 labs .

When you click on a lesson, there is a main menu tab that contains the video lessons and test.  There is also a glossary tab with the definitions and terms needed to know for each lesson.

We found the site is extremely user friendly but there is also a video tutorial explaining exactly what you need to do to begin.  You can see the course outline here.

Fascinating Education Review

In Our Homeschool

Each lesson contains a slide titled "catching your breath" which reviews what has been taught so far and there also review slides at the end of each lesson.

The course is taught and designed by author and neurologist, Dr. Margulies. My daughter overheard a lesson and said Dr. Margulies' voice sounded like one you would hear when you mash the button at a museum that explains the artifact. His voice is extremely soothing which Jonathan found made him super sleepy so he set a timer and watched the videos for the lesson for 15 minutes each day. Sometimes a little longer if he was in the middle of one.  He could usually complete 2 lessons at that pace within the week.  As he progressed with the course, he seemed to need more time to review so the lesson pace dropped to 1 lesson per week.  

Jonathan liked the way Dr. Margulies presented the information. He found the course to be very rigorous but the simplistic way that the teacher broke the terms down helped him to learn more than he ever has in a course before. Mastering the information is the end goal for the student.

With mastery in mind, we took the course at on our own pace.  I think taking notes and printing the script to have for each lesson also helped him. The test scores are not stored online but you are given your results at the end along with the required score for passing. You then have the option of printing the results or retaking the quiz if needed.


We would recommend this course to our fellow homeschoolers.  I think the video portion and visual learning along with the script to follow really helped Jonathan who has struggled with science courses in the past.  The option to pace the course is working well for us.  You will have access to the course for an entire year for $79.

Of course, for any boy and the mention of the word "fart" when describing the chemical element of sulfur makes the course complete.  

Fascinating Education Review

Fascinating Education also offers courses in Biology and Physics. There is a discount for purchasing access to 2 courses.  The price for 2 courses for one year is $125.  You can also purchase access to all three courses for 2 years for $175.  Click the banner below to see what the crew thought of the different courses.


Fascinating Education Review
Crew Disclaimer


Monday, September 21, 2015

Remember Last Week's Let's Rock It Motivation



Well, evidently that "Let's Rock the Week" was for my week that I didn't know was to come.  I rocked it as best as I could but didn't get my weekly planning done over the weekend for this week so I feel like I'm behind already!  Oh well, I'm doing it now or at least I'm trying.  

Top 5 for the week
  1. get caught up from last week - I'm behind in some of my Bible studies, book club, and review work.
  2. Costco haul
  3. make meals from the pantry this week
  4. Putting this in it's own number to keep it a priority - 3 reviews due and framework for some coming up
  5. give myself grace for trying to follow the new schedule and work on Work the Plan at least 3 days.
Menu Plan

Dinners:

  • mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, garden peas
  • pasta or hamburger helper (if there is enough meat left after making meatloaf), salads
  • out
  • ham steak, mac n cheese, butter beans
  • pizza boats, salad
                       
Reading goals
  • Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God
  • Judges study with Hellomornings
  • Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson
Fitness goals
  • try to get at least 5,000 steps daily - I am so sedentary!!
  • focus on more fruits and vegetables
New Habit for this Interval until 
  • water, water, water (at least 32 oz per day)

Review of Last Week

Top 5 for the week
  1. try to rise by 7:30 (we are night owls!) - nope only once lol
  2. research freezer meals - nope
  3. determine "work" hours (reviews, blog, etc) - determined at least one hour from 2-3 but need to decide on more
  4. get the jungles cut aka the grass
  5. focus on recording some videos
Menu Plan
Dinners:   I'm hoping to add in a new recipe to try each week and a video of us making it and trying it.  We shall see!

  • breakfast (either waffles or pancakes) bacon
  • chicken pastry, green beans, yams (if I go to grocery store)
  • mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, garden peas
  • chicken pasta alfredo
  • vegetable beef soup (I can't wait any longer!!)
                       
Reading goals
  • Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God ahead even!
  • Judges study with Hellomornings - behind one day
  • Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson - behind 1 chapter
Fitness goals
  • try to get at least 5,000 steps daily - I am so sedentary!! - If I average the week, I did.  But each individual day I did not.  I approved the weekly average from last week at least!
  • focus on more fruits and vegetables - hahahaha uhm no
New Habit for September
  • water, water, water (at least 32 oz per day) - 5 days which is another improvement!
Linking up with Money Saving Mom.

Week 5 - done!




Week 5 was a big blur and I am just catching up myself now. I ended up behind in every area - Bible study, book study, weekly plans, etc!  Motivation Monday coming up next to try to get this week back on track because it is extremely busy as well!  

Stephen tried out for the JV homeschool basketball team and made the team so practices are three times a week until games start and then it is pretty much everyday of basketball - oh my!

I do not have a single picture that I took last week!  So instead I'll share some videos of the week. 

The kids made this skit video a while back but I just got it posted.  They are a crazy, crazy bunch!



Here is what a busy week of dinners looks like at our house. The upcoming week we're going to be busy as well plus eating from the pantry until we make it to Costco on Friday. That should be interesting!!




I hope you have a had wonderful week! What was your favorite part of the week? Mine was just surviving.  :)  

Linking up with Weekly Wrap-UpThe Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Let's Get Organized! Review of Simplified Organization

Simplified Organization eCourse

I've recently been going through Mystie Winckler's Simplified Organization Course. I paid for this course myself because I had seen some of Mystie's YouTube Videos and liked what she had to offer there. I am an affiliate now because I love the course so much! I only become an affiliate of products that I use myself and put into place in my home. So, the links here are my affiliate links.

Simplified Organization is a wonderful ecourse available to you at any time of the day or night. I would highly recommend that you decide on a time that you will complete the course each day. However, I don't think this is a course you will ever actually complete because I find myself going back through the different modules all the time! It's more of a resource course that you can continually reach for on your computer shelf. That's another beauty of the course is that it's a one time purchase and always there for you. You will also receive any updates that may be added. There are forms, mp3's, videos, and many more resources available for you.


The course is set up in 6 modules that each contain a lesson, action step, habit plan, blueprint project, and tool guide:

Module 1: DECIDE
Lesson: Live a Story
Action Steps: Attitude
Habit Plan: Gratitude
Blueprint Project: Brain Dump
Tool Guide: Calendar

Module 2: DECLUTTER
Lesson: Grow in Focus
Action Steps: Health
Habit Plan: EHAP
Blueprint Project: Basic Routines
Tool Guide: Command Center

Module 3: DEFINE
Lesson: See Your Vocation
Action Steps: Paradigm
Habit Plan: Ubiquitous Capture
Blueprint Project: Vocation Statements
Tool Guide: Management System

Module 4: DESIGN
Lesson: Plan in Intervals
Action Steps: Energy
Habit Plan: Weekly Review
Blueprint Project: Intervals
Tool Guide: Weekly Time Budget
Tool Guide: Binder
Module 5: DO
Lesson: Wobble in Balance
Action Steps: Iterations
Habit Plan: Morning Review
Blueprint Project: Process
Tool Guide: Daily Index Card

Module 6: DEVELOP
Lesson: Practice Serving
Action Steps: Serving
Habit Plan: Smile
Blueprint Project: Someday/Maybe List
Tool Guide: Timers and Alarms


I love this course and would highly recommend it to all who are looking for practical steps, encouragement, and inspiration to put plans in place to help your organizational efforts. This program will change the way you think of organizing or at least it did for me! If you are looking for a quick fix, this is not the course for you and really quick fixes don't last for the long haul.

Mystie has also created a sort of bonus course called Work The Plan that will only be available for a short time as well. Again, I purchased this one too and will let you know what I think but so far it's been worth every penny.

Here is a favorite quote that I think sums up Mystie's teaching philosophy regarding organizing our chaos:

"If we truly want to be effective, our planning needs to be about being prepared and ready not about being in control because of course we aren't in control - God is! ...and that's what matters, following the path of faithfulness wherever that path winds and twists."

Here is my current weekly plan list.  You can download it by clicking on the image to tweak for your own needs.  I am still tweaking it constantly!  I know I want to add a section for writing out a memory verse each week as well but for now here is what I have.



Check out Simplified Organization for more details!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Review of Stinky Kid Math

Stinky Kid Math Review

Do you ever find that your child needs extra Math help? Have you ever gone through their current math lesson and felt they just didn't get the concept and needed more practice? I know we have and often. As you reach the higher mathematics levels of Algebra and Geometry, sometimes your student might need extra help. Stinky Kid Math offers students that extra help online with Stinky Kid Math lessons.


We used Stinky Kid Math with Jonathan who is my Senior this year. He has struggled with Math and we gave up on Algebra for a while even. He has since picked the subject back up at his own speed and is doing much better with it. I think the struggle really was that we were moving too fast and he needed to practice and practice the same concept over and over to master it. He also needed different learning opportunities because just a worksheet would drive him insane but then again just going through videos gave the same result - insanity. So, what we have found is that we need to mix in all of these resources for him to give him a variety. Stinky Kid Math provides all of these varieties and we use them as a supplement to our current curriculum giving him the repetition he needs in the concepts as well.

Stinky Kid Math teaches students how math concepts work by breaking them down for you in a practical manner. They offer over 350 videos!  You can use the videos as we did and pair them with the current concept that your child is learning or you can go through the lessons in order. The videos are taught by founder, Todd Matia. We found his teaching style to be extremely down to earth. We also liked the way he broke down the concepts to make them relatable to concepts that you may already know something about. For example, when talking about graphing points, he relates the concept back to reading a map. I'm sure you've heard the question, "Where can I use this in the real world?" before. Well, Mr. Matia tells you! The video lessons are very short so it is easy to add these into your day. He also uses different background settings in the videos which we found fun too. We would try to guess where he was going to come to us from next. 

The set up is so simple and very flexible to use. You simply watch the videos related to the concept you are learning, read any textbook pages given, and complete the worksheets or pick and choose which ones you want to do.

Of course, Jonathan's favorite part of this program was the games that were offered. He said some of them were very challenging for him but he still enjoyed them.


Stinky Kid Math offers a free month trial on their website so you can see if this would be a great fit for your family or not. You can also find out more about them on Facebook and Twitter.

Stinky Kid Math Review
Crew Disclaimer

It's A Brand New Week - Let's Rock It!



Top 5 for the week
  1. try to rise by 7:30 (we are night owls!)
  2. research freezer meals
  3. determine "work" hours (reviews, blog, etc)
  4. get the jungles cut aka the grass
  5. focus on recording some videos
Menu Plan
Dinners:   I'm hoping to add in a new recipe to try each week and a video of us making it and trying it.  We shall see!

  • breakfast (either waffles or pancakes) bacon
  • chicken pastry, green beans, yams (if I go to grocery store)
  • mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, garden peas
  • chicken pasta alfredo
  • vegetable beef soup (I can't wait any longer!!)
                       
Reading goals
  • Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God
  • Judges study with Hellomornings
  • Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson
Fitness goals
  • try to get at least 5,000 steps daily - I am so sedentary!!
  • focus on more fruits and vegetables
New Habit for September
  • water, water, water (at least 32 oz per day)

Review of Last Week

Top 5 for the week - yay another great week for the top 5
  1. Purposefully listen for God's voice in every detail of my life!
  2. morning walk at least 3 days, shoot for 5
  3. actually do set chores for all daily - don't skip at least M-F
  4. write out morning to do daily
  5. night time review

Menu Plan  Didn't get to try the new recipe this week and now we're out of broccoli so putting that one on hold for now!

Dinners:   I'm hoping to add in a new recipe to try each week and a video of us making it and trying it.  We shall see!

                Enchiladas, Spanish rice
                Chicken and rice, peas  
                New Recipe - Easiest Pasta and Broccoli Recipe
                           Ham Steaks, mac n cheese, green beans
                Pizza Boats, cut veggies and dip

                
Reading goals
  • Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God caught up
  • Judges study with Hellomornings behind 1 day
  • Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson behind 1 chapter
Fitness goals only hit the 5,000 one day and really didn't try hard on the fruits/vegetables
  • try to get at least 5,000 steps daily - I am so sedentary!!
  • focus on more fruits and vegetables
New Habit for September
  • water, water, water (at least 32 oz per day) - better this week - hit this 4/7

Linking up with Money Saving Mom.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 4



This week included a little woodworking taught by dad and approved by Marley!  She's been needing a doghouse for a while now although she's pretty happy just stretching out on the porch.  It's fun to look out the laundry room window and see her chilling in her house. 



A peak into our school this week looked a whole lot like last week and included.....
  • review of the states
  • early colonies and life, also a little on British colonies in other countries at the same time
  • US Presidents
  • more on elements, atoms, and molecules
  • fractions and math review

I hope you have a had wonderful week! What was your favorite part of the week? Cooler temperatures and lower humidity at the end of the week was my favorite part!