Review of Lilla Rose Inc. Tiger Lily Clip #prettyhair

We were recently sent this beautiful hair clip from Jennifer Minks Miller with Lilla Rose, Inc. The little round beads add an elegant touch and the clip itself is extremely durable. It has held up well for us so far and my daughter and I both use it often!

I used the chart and decided to chose the medium size thinking it would work for both my daughter and myself.   My hair is long and thick.  Her hair is not quite as thick or long as mine but it is definitely not fine either. We both have curly/wavy hair as well. 

We have had a blast playing around with different hair styles using our new clip.  The clip itself is so unique from anything we've ever used in our hair.  It really bends to allow it to go around your hair. The price varies depending upon the size but this medium clip currently sells for $16.  

My favorite way to wear the clip was in a pony tail.  The clip takes a pony tail from drab to stylish in seconds and is just as simple to add to your hair as an elastic holder.  I even went for a jog with mine in and it stayed in my hair beautifully without slipping.  I would need a larger size to fit all my hair in the bun styles.  Even when I straighten my hair, I found that I would need a bigger size to put all my hair inside.  

The medium size worked really well with several different styles for my daughter.  Her favorite way to wear it was with the bun style.  

I also feel like I should mention that the packaging was also beautiful with great attention to detail.  I love when companies go the extra mile with their products.  

There are so many different styles of clips that I am sure you can find one for almost every occasion!  These adorable flip flop and sunflower ones have caught my eye for summer - so pretty!!

Find out more at these websites:

https://www.lillarose.biz/prettyhair
https://www.pinterest.com/mommiejennm/pretty-hair/https://www.facebook.com/LillaRosePrettyHair/

*Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Review of Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 6

It is well known that the way you get better at anything is through frequent practice. Writing has never been a strong subject area in our homeschool so having a resource to break down the writing process into bite size chunks is a must for us. Evan-Moor's Daily 6-Trait Writing from Timberdoodle has fit that description completely.

The Daily 6-Trait Writing book comes with 125 daily lessons in a 160 page paperback workbook. The six traits of writing are content, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions. You will spend 5 weeks in each of the first five traits with the conventions (correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation) taught in each lesson. The workbook comes in perforated pages making it easy to photocopy but we just used the book as is since I will not have another child who will use it.

If you have concerns about your student looking at the teacher key, you may want to photocopy it. Course work is available on a Monday-Friday schedule but can easily be adapted to a 4 day school week. This workbook is for 6th graders but there are also workbooks available for K-5. There are 4 worksheets to complete each week which are broken into daily assignments and they take around 15-20 minutes to complete. On the 5th day, the student is given a writing prompt. Prompts correspond to the lessons learned for the week.

The teachers guide is also in the workbook at the beginning of each lesson and guides the parent/teacher in what to say to help the child brainstorm the lessons taught. So if you are at a loss for how to teach writing to your student, these pages will walk you through the process completely.

The concept is pretty simple. The use of daily writing in small increments has helped Sarah gain confidence in her writing. Each week builds upon the previous week so there is built in review as well. This workbook currently sells for $26.99 for a full year of writing curriculum. You can use it to supplement your current writing curriculum but I think it would be great on its own as well.   You can also see sample pages. 

**I received a free copy of this product through Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Tenacious Thursday #6

6 weeks in already?  That sure went by fast.  Here's where I am.

Fitbit steps - How I finished the week last week.

I finished 12th among my friends list last week - hoping to make it into the top 10 this week!

Here is this week, Sunday - Thursday. Today was a bust but hopefully I can finish strong!

Other goals:

• try hard to hit my step goal of 7,000 daily steps at least 4 times per week
• water intake - doing better
• weigh in - 217 - down 1 pound

Thanks for those of you joining in with me and keeping me accountable!  How was your week?  What were your accomplishments?  Let me know!  It's never too late to join in! Let's keep each other accountable!

Friend me on Fitbit  - melissa@gchomeschool.com

Review of The Glass Castle

Shiloh Run Press is coming out with a a new middle grade fiction series and we had the opportunity to read and review the first book, The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins.

Fiction is not normally my favorite genre when reading books even read alouds but the cover and excerpt of this one had me intrigued from the beginning. Since we're on summer break with lighter learning going on, I thought it might be exciting to veer from the usual as well.


Book Details

This book has durable hard covers with beautiful imagery of the setting on the covers. It is broken down into 41 chapters and contains 256 pages. The chapters are quick to read and the font size is pretty large. The inside has no pictures. The Glass Castle is currently on sale for $11.24 here. You can also read the first five chapters here.

This book is considered middle grade fiction so the recommended ages are 10-14.  

Storyline and Characters

From the very beginning pages, this book takes you on a mysterious adventure.  In the opening chpater, Avery, who is one of the main characters, is kidnapped on her thirteenth birthday!  She also has her three year old brother with her and has no idea what has happened to him.  The story continues to unfold as she is taken to a castle where she founds out that she isn't the only thirteen year old in the kingdom to be kidnapped.  Ironically, the castle is being run entirely by the thirteen year old teenagers who are all also orphans.  Avery's mother had disappeared mysteriously herself one day and her father was left behind in their house when she was kidnapped or so she thought.  As a child, Avery's mother had told her stories about this very castle and now those stories were coming true so she digs down deep in her memories to try to help all the children escape.  Her mother had often told her of an underground tunnel system so she continues to pry, investigate, and snoop to find answers to the many questions she has about the castle.  Where were the underground tunnels located? How could she gain access to them?  Is her brother alive?  Will she find her mother?  Her father?  Will she be able to help all the children escape?

Avery is quickly befriended as soon as she enters the castle by Kate, who is full of mystery herself and seems to know many answers to the castle questions Avery has, yet she doesn't ever reveal all that she fully knows. There is a background simple romance story that also develops in the book between Avery and Tuck.  Tuck is obviously the leader among the kids and is even elected their king in a kid replica of the real king's wedding.  Can you guess who he chooses as his queen?  Yes, Avery. For the children's ages, we thought this was a bit much and could have been left at a friendship level. However, this is not an over the top romance in any way.

While all of this is playing out in the kids side of the castle, the adult king has his own share of drama to deal with.  His story unfolds to the reader through the vents as the children have found how to spy on him.  The king is sick and rumor has it that thirteen years ago, his previous wife died after childbirth and so did their child. The king is now being pressured to marry a new queen, Angelina, because she is threatening him with "secrets".  We don't know what those secrets are but we do find out that she wants to be the sole heir of the kingdom and there just may be an heir to the king already living...among the children of the castle!

The Glass Castle is full of adventure, pain, mystery, and suspense which leaves its readers hanging on to every word.  We read this book in its entirety in three days and wish we had the next one already!  I have already added it to my buy list.  

The book also contains spiritual elements scattered throughout the pages. There are mentions of prayer, God being in control, The Bible, and chapel meetings.

Warning:  This is a series of books so if you are looking to find all the answers by the end of this one, you will be sadly mistaken as I was.  You will definitely need to read the next book in the series as you are left dangling from a cliff at the end of this one!  Maybe that's why I never liked fiction.

I read this book aloud to my 12 year old daughter who was just as enthralled with the storyline as I was. She too was disappointed that we didn't find out much when we finished the book but it was a great way to leave you wanting more. Here are some of our favorite quotes:

• "Even royalty knows that God exists among the humble."
• "You never know what burdens people are carrying," Avery's mother had always told her. "Be nice to everyone."
• "Silly Avery.  We don't worship to reflect on ourselves. We worship to reflect on God."

The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins, is a fantastic Christian fiction for kids book, from Shiloh Run Press. We would both highly recommend it.

Review of TeenCoder Game Programming with C#

My oldest son has always been great with anything electronic - games, videos, editing software, smartphones, computers, etc. So, we thought learning to program and code would be the logical next step for him. We decided to try out TeenCoder: Windows and Game Programming from Timberdoodle. It is an online self paced course written by exerperienced programmers who are also homeschool parents! Your online subscription is valid for 1 year after it is activated. If you need more time, you can add it for an additional fee. The 1 year subscription is currently selling for $140. There are also print copies available if you would prefer that format. 

TeenCoder: Windows and Game Programming is not for the faint of heart! It is broken down as simply as coding can be by providing video teaching for each lesson along with text and quizzes. Students will also complete hands on projects with the Microsoft Visual C# 2010 software provided with the course. You can see the system requirements for that software at the bottom of this page.

This course is recommended for high school students in grades 9-12. I also looked over the course for myself and learned so much. I took a computer programming course in high school but technology has totally changed since my high school days. There are wonderful video tutorials available to walk you through getting started with the course.

The first semester of the course focuses on Windows programming and C# fundamentals. There are 17 chapters broken down into daily lessons - anywhere from 3-5 lessons so we completed a chapter per week. There is also a mid semester project where the student will complete a graphical chess game for two players. We are still working on the first semester currently but each chapter also ends with an activity to complete such as downloading software and creating basic program tasks.

 

Each lesson contains a video, text, and multiple choice quiz as shown on the screen below. There are also chapter exams after each of the chapters. 

The second semester focuses on game programming using the C# programming language and the Microsoft XNA Game Studio. It is broken down into 16 chapters again with daily lessons ranging from 3-5 lessons with the same quizzes and exams as the first semester. 

Students have their own log in information and will use their own email address for communication. As a student completes a task, he will receive an email letting him know. They also receive emails when a parent has graded any activities completed. The end of lesson quizzes are multiple choice questions and automaticallly graded. Students can also check their grades anytime under their own "My Grades" tab.

There is also a parent log in where the parent can find the course activities, teacher guides, and answer keys which I appreciated greatly as most of what I was looking at seemed foreign to me. With all the information provided, parents do not need to have any previous programming knowledge to teach these courses. Students will start from the beginning as well so they do not have to have any previous experience either. The teacher portal looks like the students except it includes a teacher guide and answer key.

Students will have earned 1 credit in computer or technical elective upon completion of this course.   Our thoughts are that this course is professionally done and your student will learn a lot about the programming world.  It is well worth the money for the knowledge you receive right from the comfort of your home.  I love when companies provide simple solutions for subject areas that I have no idea how to teach! 

Here is a video explaining a quick overview of how the online courses offered by Homeschool Programming work.

**I received a free copy of this product through Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Tenacious Thursday - #4 & 5

I never got around to checking in last week.  Did you miss me?  Well, I have kind of lost my motivation and every area was showing it.  Let's see how I did.  

Fitbit steps - Week 4 (not too bad 4 out of 7)  I finally changed that step goal to 49,000 for the week too so that should be correct next week. 

Here is this week, Sunday - Thursday. As you can see, motivation declining and so did my steps.  I was so close and didn't even care!  Today, I tried to refocus.  Hoping to carry that determination into the weekend as well.  

Other goals:

• no tracking - I know this seems like such an odd goal but I want to do this without writing everything down.
• making sure to eat at least 6-8 servings of fruits/veggies a day - I don't know - I'm still trying but not doing as well with this goal either.
• starting my day with an egg, Canadian bacon, bacon,  or sausage and fruit - nope
• try hard to hit my step goal of 7,000 daily (see above)
• starting c25k - I've stopped again.  :(  I just felt the need to make walking a regular habit before adding in something else.
• water intake - doing better
• I also stayed off the scale until June 1st where I did step back on only to see no change.  :(   Weight:  218 - Oh, how I loathe that number!!  I worked so hard to get under 200 and now it's all back. I'm not going to let that defeat me though. Pressing on!

Thanks for those of you joining in with me and keeping me accountable!  How was your week?  What were your accomplishments?  Let me know!  It's never too late to join in! Let's keep each other accountable!

Friend me on Fitbit  - melissa@gchomeschool.com

Review of the Hey Mama Schoolhouse Planner for 2016-2017

If you have been a reader here long then you know I am a plannerholic! I love planners and I especially have a fond love for paper planners. Today's planner is the Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 from The Old Schoolhouse.
I absolutely love the cover of the new Hey Mama planner! It is so nostalgic and brings visions of the hard working yet simple days of the past. Inside you will find 196 pages of spiral bound planner goodness - the biggest one yet! The covers are made of thick card stock and feel like they have laminate on them. This planner begins with July 2016 and runs through June 2017 so it's perfect for the beginning of a new school year. 

 
What I love most about this planner are the Hey Mama inspiration and encouragement letters. I have always been so encouraged by these on Facebook and to have them right there as I am planning is so uplifting! Before you begin each monthly section, you will find a Hey Mama note and a monthly notes page.

Inside you will find the typical monthly and weekly planning pages. The monthly pages are dated but the weekly pages are not which I love! I love that the weekly pages aren't dated because we all take off time at different intervals and if those pages were dated they would just remain blank during our break week creating wasted pages.

Remember those beautiful pictures included on the cover? Well, inside you find out the history behind each of those items! I thought that was such a fun and fascinating touch making this planner truly unique.

Also included are several sections for monthly goals, semester goals, and yearly goals. I love the categories given for breaking down each goal.

The attendance charts could not be simpler to complete. Simply check off the school days as you complete them. One of the requirements of our state is to keep up with attendance so I like to complete my sheets when I do my weekly planning sessions.

These are the pages that I am currently in the planning stages for the next school year. The yearly calendars included are for 2016, 2017, and 2018. I've marked my husband's long days off and marked holidays so far.

The curriculum planning sheets are a great resource to keep all of your information in one place. I have to tell you that it has been so weird to only be planning for two this year though instead of three!

Another unique feature of this planner is that it includes many academic pages including writing prompts, the thirteen colonies, timeline of inventions, US Presidents and their wives, branches of the federal, state, and local governments, and so many more! 

Other forms not shown include information on how to create academic transcripts, a blank transcript (which can be copied), sheets to record books read, homeschooling contact list, checklist sheet of skills learned and other courses. See sample pages for more details. 

 We are about to head into our 9th year of homeschooling and I cannot think of any other resources you might need that this planner doesn't include unless it would be just some extra blank note pages. 

 
This planner can be purchased here and sells for $29 in the US. There are also versions for Canada and International.  

Right now, you can save $10 off the print version of the planner by using the code below. This offer will expire on July 15, 2016.

The Hey Mama! Schoolhouse Planner is also available in digital or CD formats. Find out more on The Old Schoolhouse by visiting them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+.