Spotlight Review: The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies by Ammi-Joan Paquette

Market copy:

Could a tulip be a good place for hide-and-seek? Could a bit of dandelion fluff be a pillow? They could be, if fairies live nearby. This book invites kids to have a backyard adventure searching for the tell tale signs of fairies who might be residing all around them. Not only can children"search" for fairies in the book's unique blend of art and photography, but they will also be encouraged to discover the wonder and magic in nature, whether in a backyard or a local park. The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies is a perfect title for summer!

I heard about this adorable picture book a few months ago and jumped at the chance of sharing it with my daughters before its paperback release in a few weeks. THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO TRACKING FAIRIES by Ammi-Joan Paquette is filled with gorgeous illustrations, and the story is sweet and whimsical.

As a homeschooling family, nature study is very important to us and an integral part of our children’s education. Now that it is warmer outside, birds are singing, and plants are blooming again, this story was the perfect catalyst for my daughters to go on their first outdoor exploration. We cuddled together, shared the story, and they took off to the backyard, hunting for their own fairies to discover!
While my thirty-year-old Mom’s opinion is helpful, the praise that is most beneficial comes from the author’s intended audience. Here is my children’s honest opinions:

Cali, five years old: That story was awesome! When they found the fairies at the end, it was the best!

Jordan, six years old: I thought the story was great because it had fairies that are very girly. When the fairy found her slipper, it was my favorite part. I also liked it when they found the secret message. Then she turns to her sister and says, Let’s go look for some clues! Let’s go look for fairies!

Need I say more? This story would make a wonderful Easter gift for the children in your life. It is already available in hardcover and the paperback edition will hit the shelves April 15th.

I was granted the opportunity to review this book via NetGalley and Tanglewood Publishers. (paperback publication 4/15/11)

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Zoo Phonics: Heart of the Matter Giveaway!

I interrupt my Blog Vacation -- which I promise to come back from soon -- for this exciting announcement (he he)

Heart of the Matter Online, which happens to be the best online source for encouragement, information and inspiration for home education, is having an AWESOME Giveaway! Zoo-Phonics is graciously donating an entire Kindergarten Kit (valued around $300!) to a lucky reader.

As followers of this blog know, my girls know their letters and sounds. They have known them for over a year, thanks to the Leap Frog videos. Both have shown an interest in learning to read, Jordan in particular, but I have been hesitant to do much reading instruction beyond the videos. The main reason is because of cost, as we are in the midst of working the Dave Ramsey plan, but I have also waited because I was fearful of taking the joy out of learning. I love their enthusiasm for the written word and am very cautious to not cause that flame to flicker due to boring exercises and worksheets. Keeping our learning joyful is very important to me.

The reason I am intrigued about Zoo-Phonics, and this contest at Heart of the Matter, is because this product looks different than many others that I have seen! Below I have listed just a few of the things that I love about this product:

• The body movement for each animal letter appeals to kinesthetic learners and helps cement the phonemic information into memory. My youngest, Cali, is a TOTAL Kinesthetic learner! This is one learning style that I can't totally relate to and am working on ways to bring this style into our living learning environment. I LOVE that this is a point they use to describe their product!!!
• Phonemic patterns (at, bat, fat, sat, etc) are taught first rather than a random list of words (of, it, then, was, etc.) This just makes sense to me. . . is there really another way?
• Phonics is taught as an integrated part of the language process.
• Extensive literature lists are also included to accompany each of the lessons as well as teacher’s resources and audio/video/music selections. We love our literature lists around here! And I LOVE when I can integrate great literature into the lesson or theme!
• The Readers are available in 3 reading levels that include short sentences or stories about each animal in the Zoo-Phonics lineup (A-Z). My girls, especially Jordan LOVE LOVE LOVE animals! I know this would make them excited to learn to read, by reading tales of their favorite animals! And I love that the levels build on each other.
• There is a Signal Practice Video!!! I am definitely a visual learner and am so worried about teaching them incorrectly by saying something wrong or not showing them exactly as the writers of the curriculum intend. I love that I can see it to KNOW that I am doing it right!

As I said, these are just a few of the things I love about this product description! I also love the fun games that are included to make it a fun family experience. Really, you MUST go check out this product review at Heart of the Matter. . . Karin did an amazing job reviewing this product and if it is HALF as good as she described, then it would be a very wise investment.

Thank you HOTM for continuing to keep us updated on the tons of wonderful products at the home educator's disposal, and for blessing so many with your wonderful giveaways!

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Ok, let's try that again

Dare I say that I am back? :-)


I was already behind in posting things on this blog and all the events of the past month certainly haven't helped things! I will be posting throughout the coming weeks on the following:

• Our Hurricane Experience -- We lost power the Friday it hit and got it back Tuesday afternoon. Since then it has been interesting trying to get back into a groove. While I will go into a lot more detail on that post, I will tell you really quickly that both my home and my parent's home (they live behind us) were spared any damage! Besides a few minor scares and inconveniences, it was actually a pretty great experience for us personally in that it provided LOTS of family time full of talking, reading, and memory making. We watched minimal television (we did have a generator and watched some things, like Saints football of course), and taught our girls (and myself) how to wash clothes with a washboard and hang a clothes line!


• Our Camping Pictures, lapbook and recap -- Yes, I know dear family members/readers, that you are chomping at the bit to see ME camping, much less the girls delight in the whole experience, and it is coming I promise!
  
• Horse Week pictures -- We had so much fun with this unit! It lasted two weeks technically, but with Gustav hitting in the middle and having my brother and his adorable girlfriend here for one of those weeks, we still kept it pretty simple and fun. We have a lapbook, fun pictures of all the books we devoured and of course, our pictures of our family trip to the Race Track to see the horses up close!


• Trip to San Antonio -- Wow, that trip was awhile ago, huh? But it was fun, educational and definitely one I want to document. We visited the Alamo (which has a really cute treasure hunt for the kids to make it fun) and the Riverwalk.


• Butterflies -- Just because I am so upset with myself for not posting the pictures of that unit since it was one of the girls favorites, I will post the pictures from this unit that we did I think back in June?? Wow, talk about BEHIND!
  
• Olympics/China -- I have pictures of our Lapbooks and of course, our Harris Family Olympics! There are SO many pictures though, that I want to use one of those cool slideshow thingys but every time I try to upload pictures into it at photobucket, it doesn't work. Any experts out there willing to help a sister out, please let me know!
  
• Children's Museum -- Ok, this trip was back in May!!! But again it was a fun family event that needs to be documented!
  
• Anything else that comes up between now and then!
  

But for now, I am off to clean up a bit and then have fun with my girls :-) I will leave you with these pictures of the breakfast Jordan made for us last week! The day before, she had woken up REALLY REALLY early and had decided to feed herself Tootsie Rolls for breakfast (we have a Tupperware container in the pantry with a few treats leftover from potty training). That day, I put some pop tarts, cereal and raisins in Tupperware in an easy to reach cabinet for her to have easy access to in case she ever did it again. . . well the very next morning, she woke up like at 5am or some ridiculously early hour.

I heard her in the hall bathroom (which is right by our bedroom), telling herself that she had an idea -- Pop tarts and Raisins! I got up a little while later, unable to sleep, and was greeted by a wonderful surprise! She had placed 4 paper plates on the table, with a pop tart next to each plate, sprinkled with a few raisins and the grand finale, a solitary Marshmallow on each plate (left over from our camping trip)! She yelled "Surprise!" and was just so happy with herself! It looks like my 3 year old is a budding cheff-er (her words) after all :-)

Have a wonderful day and I will be back soon with my mountain of updates and posts!

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Favorite Books and Curriculum - HOTM Meme!

Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online meme. Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Mr. Linky is set up below so please share with us your Favorite Curriculum or Books! With the new school year beginning it would be wonderful to hear why your curriculum works for you, new ideas you're looking forward to trying, or really great book ideas you would love to share.

I have had a lot of fun reading everyone's posts for this Meme. We are in our second year of homeschooling preschool so while we haven't tried a ton of products, I have looked into several and we know what we like/works for us :-)

My favorite would have to be Five in a Row! What a wonderful curriculum! We don't follow it exactly as planned but use their reading lists and pick and choose from their MANY lesson options. We supplement with items and units found at Homeschool Share, and I also write a lot of our lessons myself. We love themed Unit Studies (which is totally stating the obvious for any of you who have visited more than once, ha!)

I also LOVE The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach by Robin Sampson. I love this approach and will be implementing SO much of it in our schooling. I love her 4 steps and all of her ideas for doing this delight directed approach. This totally fits in line with our family's vision for homeschooling.

While I can go on and on about my favorite books that I have read regarding homeschooling, the other book that is a "can't miss" would be Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss. A very practical, modern approach to Charlotte Mason. While it is written for Catholic homeschoolers, I have found that all of the ideas in her book are applicable to any denomination and is just a breath of fresh air for creating a beautiful and unified family.

For more great reviews and favorites, you have to check out HOTM's Meme!

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Organizing All Of My "Stuff"

The question has been asked, "How do you organize your homeschool stuff, particularly on your computer?"

I am glad to know that I am not the only one who has folders everywhere on their desktop, and ended up downloading something multiple times because you forgot you had it originally! While I am far from an expert in organization, I thought I would let you know what I am doing to organize ALL of my homeschooling "stuff."

I have been in the process of organizing for a few weeks now and plan on having it finished before September 1st. Obviously, if it was just me at home, I would have had this done long ago, but with two preschool princesses, I have to steal moments when I can. :-)

So what kind of "stuff" am I talking about?

Computer Organization:
While my daughters are only 3 and 2, I have enough unit studies, lapbooks and curriculum downloaded to last us throughout their homeschool journey!! Ok, maybe not that much, but I easily have over 400 items just on my computer. (hmm, could that be why it runs a little slow?)

The first step for me was searching through every folder on the computer to get it all in one big folder called "Homeschool." Within that folder, I set up sub-folders for different categories. My categories include: Art and Music Appreciation, Completed Unit Studies, Religion, Science and Nature, Language Arts, Future Preschool Unit Studies, History and Geography, Math, Planning/Inspiration/Notes/Schedules, Phonics and Reading Instruction, Book Lists, Community awareness and safety, Lapbooking/Notebooking Resources and Educational Games, Handwriting, Extra Curricular, and Writing. The second step was to put all of the homeschool resources into the correct folder and category.

The third step was to open up Microsoft Access and set up a database for all of my items. My table includes the product Title, Folder it is in, Type (unit study, lapbook, resource, etc), Source (author or where it came from), Grade level, Subject 1, Subject 2, Subject 3 and Description. The very act of putting all of my resources into this database has already been a huge help -- I have realized that I downloaded multiple copies of many items! It has also reminded me what I have, items I had downloaded 1 year and a half ago that I totally forgot about (yes, when my girls were only 1 and 2 I was downloading things they would use when they are in 6th grade, HA! But when those freebies come up at places like Hands of a Child or CurrClick, I jump on it!). I am currently about half way done putting all of the information in and will then move onto the next step.

Once everything is put into the database table, my wonderful computer-savvy husband tells me I will be able to create forms that will allow me to search the table and produce reports. This is different then an excel spreadsheet which limits me to only sorting and filtering.

For Internet favorite links, I have done something similar in that I have created folders for different subjects and categories and put the items into that folder. The key for me will be going into this every couple of months and deleting those links that I thought were so cool at the time and really aren't.

Purchased "Hard Copy" curriculum and resources:
I have been blessed to find great deals on various products. On top of several books and products that were either mine or my brother's (thanks, Mom!), I have purchased: Bright Beginnings (preschool program), KONOS Volume 1 (for $10, thank you very much!), Five in a Row products (technically I have only purchased the Before manual and am borrowing the others from my dear friend Marsha, but they are still here currently), Phonics Pathways (another $10 purchase), The Story of the World I (yet another $10 purchase) and a few other things I can't even remember (see why I need an organizational system?!?)

My plan with these sources is to make a list of all of the unit studies and topics covered in all of these sources. I will then put all of the different units and topics into the database that I created for my Computer organization. For the folder, I will put the manual or resource it is in.

Books, Books and More Books:
Again, I was blessed to have my mom save every book I ever read as a child! On top of that, I have been unable to help myself from spending all of my "blow money" on books when I see a great used curriculum sale. We love great picture books and I have been enjoying reading the books recommended for the second - fourth graders myself, HA!

With all of these books, and having them stored in 3 different rooms on 25 different shelves, we need organization here as well. I recently opened up a Library Thing account and am beginning the slow process of putting them all into the system. What I absolutely love is the tags! I had tried to do my own database for this, but this is just so easy :-) I can add as many tags as I want, so I am focusing on putting keywords that make it easy to find for the lessons. I am adding in grade level and the different topics it could cover (including time period, character issues, main character if it is a true or based on a true story, any additional topics that are brought up in the story, etc).

Educational Programs and Movies:
We are all very visual learners. Any time we can watch something on a topic, it either brings the unit to a new level of understanding or creates an interest that will develop into a new unit! We love the ability to look up a topic with our TIVO and find tons of great programs on the unit we are planning. We also love History in general and have recently found the Cable in the Classroom resource, which is just awesome! So, since I have become a History buff since starting this journey and so I can get these resources while they are available for free by recording vs. having to purchase later, I am recording tons of educational programming. Recently, on July 4th, we recorded 14 hours of The Revolution Miniseries! Luckily, my wonderful mother lives next door and has a DVD Burner so we are able to save a lot of these programs onto a small, easy to store disc!

My current plan with this is to get a list of all of my movies and recorded programs, and come up with as many keywords as possible. For example, would this be great to view when studying Horses? American History? European History? Westward Expansion? Five Senses? The list can go on and on. Then I will take this list and input the information into my Library Thing account. I know this is more for books, but I prefer to not have to go to three different places to search for materials if I can avoid it. For the most part, I am pretty sure I will have to input these manually vs. using the handy search function but I would have to do that if I was using a database or spreadsheet anyway.

After I finish all of this, I might move into the various educational games I have. . . we will see how my nerves are at that point!!

So, what about you? What do you do to organize all of your homeschool "stuff?" I would LOVE to hear any ideas or suggestions you have!!

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HOTM Review: The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories

Can I just tell you how excited I was to review The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories? As mom to two preschool princesses/future ballerinas, this book was a perfect fit for us! What I love the MOST is that it truly can grow with your child. Confidently, I can share with you my opinion for the preschool set, as this is my experience, but I cannot imagine any girl who would not fall in love with this book!

My daughters, at the ages of two and three, immediately fell in love with the beautiful artwork. So did I! The cover greets you with a lovely ballerina surrounded by delicate pink roses, posing in front of a castle that is the picture of every fairy tale you have ever read. The pages inside are full of both half-page and full-page photos that are simply breathtaking in detail, color, movement and design. We also loved the lyrical tone of the stories themselves, written by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple. They serve as perfect read aloud choices for this age group and above.

The ballets highlighted in this anthology are: Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty; Delibes’ Coppelia; Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker; Prokofiev’s Cinderella; Pickard’s Shim Chung; and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. By compiling all of these stories into one collection, not only does your child get exposure to some of the most famous ballets in history, but it also provides plenty of fodder for some sneak attack educational opportunities!

As the book jacket promises. . .

To read the rest of this review, and be entered for a chance to WIN a copy of this wonderful book, please visit me at Heart of the Matter Online.

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Meme AND Great Preschool Resource

I was "tagged" by Amy at Milk and Cookies :-)

Favorite person (outside family)? Hmm, outside of family. I would have to say my blogging friends Marsha, Ms. Amy B and Candace.

Favorite food? Pizza. . . hmm, wonder why I have gained weight the last six months?!?

Quirks about you? I like to talk in song at times. I talk really fast when happy or excited

Any regrets in life? There are always things that in hindsight seem to be smarter choices, but as far as major events or things that really matter? Nope! I have a wonderful life! All the small mistakes I have made up to this point have shaped the person I am today :-)

Favorite Blog recently? Lately I never seem to have time to get on blogs :-( But although I have lots of favorites, I would say any listed in my "favorite blog" list in the sidebar would qualify!

Something you can’t get enough of? Snuggling and Cuddling with my family

Worst job you've ever had? I have talked about this before on here, so I will just simply say the lingerie department at Dillard's.

What job would you pay NOT to have? Well there are the obvious jobs that have the "ick" factor that my squirmy stomach couldn't handle, and the jobs that involve being out in the HOT sun that I am just not built for, but I would have to say being a Celebrity. Yes, they get paid well, but they either have to battle paparazzi and the world wanting to know everything about them and judging them for it, or they battle with believing their own press.

If you could be a fly on the wall, where? The set of the Office

Favorite Bible verse right now? "The King is enthralled by your beauty, honor Him for he is your Lord."

Guilty Pleasure? a spoonful of Nutella

If you HAD to spend $1,000 on YOURSELF, how would you spend it? I have to agree with Amy, I wouldn't be good at spending it just on myself. . . most likely I would fix up the backyard and/or get some storage solutions into the garage

Favorite thing about your house? the size, we have plenty of room.

Least favorite thing about your house? the size, it is so hard to maintain!

One thing you are bad at? going to bed at a decent hour, recently maintaining motivation for improving my health, deleting emails from my inbox, balancing my day and staying organized. .. Oh, did that say one thing? Hmm, I guess add reading carefully to the list.

One thing you're good at? Trying to see the silver lining in situations

If you could change something about your circumstances, what? I would be totally debt free (student loans, mortgage, etc)

Who would you like to meet someday? I'd love to meet my blogging friends one day

Who is your real life hero? My husband, without a doubt

What is the hardest part of your job? Housework -- finding a balance between Donna Reed and Roseanne, and a reasonable schedule for it in this season of life. Homeschooling -- Battling fears and guilt (are we doing enough, are we doing too much, etc)

When are you most relaxed? When Gregg and I are putting the girls down at night and we all lay down, reading stories and cuddling.

What stresses you out? Housework and driving in the rain

What can you not live without? Obvious one is my family. . . Fun answer? Bubble baths, the lock option on the bathroom door, sunglasses, caffeine, showers, sleep

Why do you blog? I am really going over this one right now. Originally it was because I was the only contributor to HOTM that didn't blog. Then it became a great online journal and way to keep family "in the know." Then I was enjoying seeing my reader counter grow. Now I am trying to find a balance between keeping a journal (for myself, the girls and my family), living my mission (by hopefully encouraging moms who are homeschooling by sharing what we do, my thoughts and resources), and actually LIVING my life and not letting this become an idol in any way. I need to daily ask myself my reasons for blogging that day and make sure I am doing it for the right reasons. :-)


NOW FOR THAT GREAT PRESCHOOL RESOURCE!!!!

I got an email today from Preschool Post that had THIS link in it! It is the Top 100 Preschool Sites and it is full of great resources for your preschool! I am definitely book marking this site :-)


Have a wonderful week!

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MORE Books?!?

Volunteering at Scholastic was a HUGE success!

For your work in the very hot warehouse, Scholastic "pays" you in credits for books -- $20/hour for the retail price of the item or $10/hour for the sale price of the item (the sale itself has items 30-50% off, but it actually works in your favor to go the retail route --believe me, I tried it both ways)!

I worked Friday from 1pm-7pm. I was blessed to work as a cashier, which meant that I was upfront, had a chair to sit in if it was slow (although I did very little sitting) and had two box fans on me, as well as being near the huge freight door. After the sale closed at 7pm, I was given time to shop, although I had been shopping a little all day by looking through items that people had decided against and checking out any bookshelves near my table. I assumed that I would just look around for maybe a half hour and then "check out" and go home... HA! 2 hours later I decided that it was time to go home and that I had looked enough -- I know I didn't get to see all they had out, but the Texan heat finally got the best of me. :-)

Wanna see what I got for my time??

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (Caldecott Medal)
• The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
• Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett (I love this author! We rowed this book during our China weeks. Great unit at HSS!)
• The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Yeah! Adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but set in the Arctic with an Inuit girl and snow bears)
• The Very Greedy Bee by Steve Smallman
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann (cute story about a police officer and his dog partner teaching safety tips)
• The Children's Book of Home and Family edited by William J. Bennett (The Introduction states: "all of these stories center around home or family life . . . providing a good way for adults and children to talk about beliefs they hold dear." VERY good selections!)
• Miss Spider's Wedding by David Kirk
• Angelina Ballerina - A day at Miss Lilly's based on the stories by Katharine Holabird
• Angelina Ballerina - Angelina at the Palace, story by Katharine Holabird
• Animal Strike at the Zoo, It's True by Karma Wilson
• Father Bear's Special Day by Else Holmelund Minarik
• My Big Book of Spanish Words by Rebecca Emberley (very cute and VERY colorful book that goes over all the basic words that we would want to cover during preschool!)
• Street Safety Hints (Very cute board book cut in the shape of the little girl on the cover. . . goes over safety tips for pedestrians, biking, driving, street signs and lights, etc)
• Fireman's Safety Hints (same as above, cut in the shape of the fireman on the cover. . . Great fire safety tips!)

And Finally, MY FAVORITE:

• A Princess Primer, A Fairy Godmother's Guide to Being a Princess from Dutton Children's Books

The Princess Primer is SOO cute! It is a huge tab book that goes over - in detail- how Princesses dress and act, what they look like in different countries, a HUGE picture of a palace with tabs to show you the different rooms inside, secret codes, the different parts of a Kingdom, how to get ready for and act at a ball, a section about the Royal Wedding (complete with a folder inside with invitations,reply cards, reception menu and recipe and vows) and finally, at the end a section titled Can You Be a Princess? I love the last sentence in this book --"For Remember this: A fairy godmother's magic is only as strong as her princess's belief in herself. . ." Too cute!

The reason I love Princesses so much is that I really want to impress on my girls that we really are all Princesses -- of the MIGHTY King!! And what girl (or woman) hasn't once daydreamed of what it would be like to wear a crown and live in a palace :-) This book is so awesome!

Well our new wonderful pool is calling my name . . . Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

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Great FREE Field Trip Idea. . .

This will be a quick entry as we are getting ready to leave for the weekend. . . we are celebrating Gregg's MBA graduation, WOO HOO! But, before we left, I wanted to post about our new favorite Field Trip idea!

Gregg's new job has him working half day Fridays EVERY WEEK! We are so loving this schedule! We try to plan outings at least two Fridays a month now with the girls, to get out of the house and have fun family quality time. Unfortunately, at the same time, we are working the Dave Ramsey plan pretty hardcore, and do not have tons of extra money just lying around. We need to be a bit creative on what we do for those outings. Our latest creative idea has gone over so well that the girls continue to ask to do it again, including while driving around this morning!!

The girls, like most children, LOVE animals. They love visiting family members who have pets, but for the season of life we are in right now, having a pet of our own is just not going to happen. But I am certainly not opposed to getting them around animals as much as possible. Going to the zoo, aquarium, petting zoo or farm would be one way to do this, but would definitely not fall into the "creative" money saving category. What we came up with one afternoon was a field trip to . . . A Pet Store!

We have a Petco about five minutes from our house and it is full of hampsters, rabbits, mice and rats, birds of all kinds, frogs, turtles, snakes, fish, guinea pigs, iguanas, ferrets and more! We stayed in the store for over an hour, and the girls would have gladly stayed longer! We followed that trip up with a trip to a nearby playground and a drive down to CiCi's Pizza next door where the girls ate free and we got the cheap buffet for ourselves. Six hours of quality fun family time, including food, for the total cost of about $10 with tax!

We will most certainly be recycling this idea again in the future! If you are wanting to get out of the house this summer with your little ones, but are either short on cash or dread the idea of being in the hot sun at the zoo for hours on end, maybe try out your local pet store . . . Hey, it works for us :-)

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

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Good Find. . .

I realized late last night when I was going to bed that I had forgotten to list one of the books I purchased yesterday.... see what homeschooling is doing to me? I think about this stuff ALL the time! Anyhoo, I realized that I hadn't seen it since we got home, so I went into my van this morning and-tada-I found it hiding between my seats! History for Little Pilgrims by Christian Liberty Press

I was really excited to find this yesterday because it was only $1!! I had read wonderful things about Christian Liberty Press supplies and this book in particular, but I had never gotten the chance to really see a good sample. I definitely do not want to go the route of text books, but wouldn't mind having an interesting book that I could read from as a history spine to fall back on. I had heard wonderful things about Story of the World as well, so I had purchased a used copy of Volume 1 a few months back at a great price, just so I can see what the hype was about and help me figure out my thoughts on "classical education." I am very glad I bought it because it is great, but it did help me in deciding to not pursue that approach for the early years. I do think I will use the book as a resource, but probably when the girls are a good bit older than the ages that people are currently using it for (Kindergarten and First grades).

So, I was eager to see if CLP and History for Little Pilgrims would be the same. I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It amazes me that some people use these two books for the same age group. (I want to be clear here, again, that I have nothing against SOTW or people who use it for the early years. I just don't think it is the right fit for us at that stage, but I do love it and will use it in the future.) I just feel that for us, this is a much gentler approach to introducing history, it is written in a very easy to read aloud type text, it focuses on God's hand throughout History (not just mentioned as a side note or left out altogether!), it has activities and ways to relate the material to the child's life throughout each unit, and has a very easy review at the end of each that you can use if you choose to for narration type questions. I also really like that it has fun and easy map exercises throughout, since my girls love looking at maps and globes and I really want to encourage geography as much as possible.

Now, do I expect to use this book now with a 3 1/2 and 2 year old? NO! In fact, I seem to be going in the opposite direction of some people in that the more I homeschool and learn what this is all about, the more gentle and laid back I am wanting to be in regards to their early years... however, I do think I will use it in a couple years and will probably use it as a resource as needed until then. And I now know that I am pleased at least with this offering from CLP so I am definitely more inclined to purchase more of their materials in the future, in particular their Nature Readers. Also, this book is actually included in CLP's First Grade Curriculum, so they have even more gentle books for the K set that I might check out as well.

So. . . for anyone interested in this Mom's humble opinion, I was pleasantly surprised and happy with this book and the company, and definitely recommend them for a more gentle, Christ-centered education. And the best part is that their regular prices are really inexpensive! WOO HOO!

Have a great day!

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You know you are a homeschool Mom when. . .

Yes, I am a homeschool Mom... I have completely embraced it. How do I know? Well, my birthday was a couple weeks ago and I got a belated birthday card with $25 in it from my wonderful Grandpa. I had visions of spending it this weekend on skin care products (I used to sell Arbonne and use all that stuff, yet somehow I allowed myself to go to drug store face wash, no toner and store brand moisturizer the past few years, blah!) and maybe combining that with my wonderful Dave Ramsey "Blow Money" that I will get on payday (Thursday) to get some makeup as well.

Those were lovely visions.... but then I got an email about a Used Curriculum and Book Sale at our local homeschool store today. I decided to check it out, thinking I might get a couple books and really get to browse people's books to see the products I have been thinking about. So we drove out there at 9am today, and I loaded my darling girls into the double stroller to start "Browsing."

I think I made it to the second table before breaking out my lovely envelope with my treasured $25! By the end of the journey, I had also dug into my change stash in my wallet and written a $7.10 check that will end up being cashed on payday, thus coming out of my wonderful "blow money." Oh well -- it was SOOO Worth it!!

Wanna see what I got for $34.60?

• The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth
• The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System (I also have this one on tape thanks to Discovery channel)
• The Magic School Bus Meets the Rot Squad (have this one on tape, too!)
• The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body (Yep, this one, too!)
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter
• Jamberry by Bruce Degen
• The Berenstain's B Book
• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
• It's About Time, Jesse Bear and Other Rhymes by Nancy White Carlstrom (I love this series, which I found thanks to Before Five in a Row!)
• The Hare and the Tortoise by Brian Wildsmith
• Richard Scarry's First Little Learners Colors
• The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Percival the Plain Little Caterpillar from Discovery Toys
• Picture Me Cute As Can Bee
• Moses Baby in the Bulrushes
• Noah's Ark
• Joseph and the King of Egypt from Guideposts
• The Lord is my Shepherd, the Twenty-Third Psalm (cute illustrations and the psalm is broken down to a few lines per page, very sweet)
• God Knows My Name by Debby Anderson
• The Story of Mu-lan by Jean Fischer
• Biscuit Finds a Friend, an I Can Read Book by Alyssa Capucilli (we found this series earlier this year for our Dogs unit and the girls loved him)
• Dora's Color Adventure
• It's Nice to be Nice
• Pinocchio's Nose Grows, a Step into Reading Book
• Draw with Jonah and Friends, a Veggie Tales book from Zonderkidz
• Clifford's Birthday Treasury including 3 stories (Clifford's Birthday Party, Clifford the Small Red Puppy, and Clifford the Big Red Dog) by Norman Bridwell
• Clifford The Firehouse Dog by Norman Bridwell
• Clifford's Tricks by Norman Bridwell
• What's Inside my Body? A First Guide to the Wonders and Workings of the Human Body, a DK book!
• Children Just Like Me, another DK book that we LOVED when studying China
• Celebrations from Children Just Like Me, another DK book that teaches the Festivals, Carnivals and Feast days from around the world
• Five in a Row Volume 1 (woo hoo!)

and for FREE -- hey I love free stuff:

• A thick Highlights magazine for Kids from February of this year
• a Blue's Clues Clue into Safety coloring book
• Some fun puzzle cards on the story of Noah's Ark. On the front is the story, broken down into small, easy to read pieces, and the back has part of a big picture that you need to put together of Noah and the animals on the ark... ok, so it looks like I might not have taken the time to grab ALL of the pieces, but I got most of them! he he

So, who needs good skin and a pretty face when you can have tons of fun books to read?!?

Yep, I'm a goner.........

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Review: Preschool Activities in a Bag AND Giveaway!

Preschoolers. . . Gotta love their energy! The world is an adventure and they are total sponges, absorbing everything that is around them. While this boundless exuberance can be a joy to behold and witness, at times it can also be a tad annoying. If you have ever been in a waiting room, a doctor’s office, in church or on an airplane with a preschooler, you have felt my pain. Or maybe you are a veteran homeschooling mom, attempting to teach multiple levels of older students with your preschooler demanding to be a part of it all, but really just driving everyone nuts. In situations like these, what’s a poor parent to do? Enter Preschool Activities In a Bag! (insert deep super hero announcer voice here)

Preschool Activities In a Bag, Book 1 is a compilation of over 30 different activities and games that are perfect for children under the age of six – but don’t be surprised if your older students ask to get in on the fun, too! Paula Reetz and Sherri MacLean designed each bag to contain self-guided activities that your children can do by themselves with minimal parental interaction. There are 11 main skill sets that are learned and enhanced with the activities: 123 Order, ABC Order, Color, Consumable, Motor Skills, Hand/Eye Coordination, Matching, Observation, Patterning, Puzzle and Sorting. One of the things that I love about this book is all of the helpful charts and descriptions that allow you to see at a glance what activities touch on what skill sets. If your child is having difficulty with motor skills, for example, you can quickly scan the chart and see there are 19 activities that focus on this skill. If your child is struggling with hand/eye coordination, you can tell which of the activities (there are 8 of them) would be good for your student to work on to develop this skill. Thus, the bags are not only fun for your children, and a much needed diversion, but they are very educational!

Another one of the reasons why I am now singing the praises of this book, and its authors, is. . .

To read the rest of this review AND have a chance to enter the Activity Bag Giveaway, please visit The Heart of the Matter Online.

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HOTM Meme: Favorite Homeschool Product

The Heart of the Matter's Meme for the week is What is your Favorite Homeschool Product. To be honest, I almost didn't participate this week because I don't really use a lot of "products" at this stage. But we are learning everyday, and are "homeschooling," so I guess I will talk about what has been my favorite FINDS since starting this journey.

Right now, I would have to say that HomeschoolShare is definitely my favorite FIND that I am currently using. It is a literature based unit study curriculum that is FREE and online. Once you figure out how to find all the goodies on this site (it has so much information, way more than just unit studies!) I DARE you to look up a topic that you want to study and not find a book, unit or lap book done for you to use!! I have been posting about it a lot lately, I know, but hey, they asked! :-) I will spare all of you loyal readers from hearing me ramble on about it for the fourth time this week, but for all first time visitors, please see my post Cinderella, Cinderella to hear about the fun we had this week, thanks to HomeschoolShare!!!

My favorite FIND that I just read and can't wait to start implementing it The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach! This book is AMAZING!! It is a lesson in biblical history in the beginning -- I learned so much about the bible and my faith it is incredible -- and the second part is about the teaching approach. It really and truly is an approach. While she has unit studies to purchase, she lays everything out for you, holding your hand through making your own unit studies. And not just in a way that makes you feel "Yeah I can do this." No, she gets you EXCITED about doing it on your own! I just finished it and am unable to put into words exactly what this book has meant to me, but I recommend everyone to go out and read it..... It will bless your socks off!!

My favorite FIND that I can't wait to use (we will begin in the fall) is Bright Beginnings Preschool program! (There has been some confusion.. this is NOT the Letter of the Week program, although that is cool, too. This is a textbook program!) My lovely DH gave it to me for Christmas, and I am really looking forward to using it next year. It is a complete program... the only thing to add would be reading instruction if you are ready for that (we are and will be using Reading Made Easy). This is a wonderful Christian based program! I just took it out again to start planning for next year, and got excited all over again! I cannot do it justice, so please see this detailed review at Rainbow Resource.

So, what is your favorite homeschool product??

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Fun AND Free?

I just wanted to let everyone know about a really fun and free online source for reading for pre-school, kindergarten and first grade! Literactive has leveled readers and fun activities that go along with each story. They also have a section for ESL, poetry, tons of learning activities, worksheets, and e-picture books!

For the preschool age, Jordan and I just got finished reading several of their nursery rhymes and had a blast! There are three different sections of nursery rhymes and we just did the first, but it included favorites like On Top of Spaghetti, Mary had a Little Lamb, Humpty Dumpty and tons of others.

They have fun animated short stories, with the words appearing on the bottom of the screen for several levels. After the story you can then play 3 games. They vary depending on the story but involve sequencing, spelling words, puzzles, comparing and contrasting and more! The best part is that it is all presented as a game, so the kids have a blast! Fun, FREE, educational and extremely well-done? WOO HOO!

(Ok, so can you tell I am a little excited? Sorry, I am also full of cold medicine so that could be adding to my enthusiasm, but the site really is cool!)

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Love for Little Einsteins

Can I just say again how much I LOVE Little Einsteins??

We are still trying to figure out exactly what "style" of homeschool we are... are we Christian Classical homeschoolers, Delight Directed, History or Literature driven Unit Study, or Eclectic homescholers? While the style and method are still unclear -- and, yes, I do know we have some time still :-) -- what I do know is that I want to instill a love of the arts into my girls.

I must admit, I was never really "into" classical music or really appreciated art until I started thinking about homeschooling and realized that I want something different for Jordan and Cali. While I have this desire to instill this love for the arts in them, it is the 'how-to' that has had me floudering. How do I teach them something that I do not know? And, how do I teach them the arts when the majority of the curriculum and books that I have seen for this bores me to tears??? Enter The Little Einsteins!!!

My girls LOVE this show! They get up and dance with June, sing with Annie, play pretend instruments with Quincey and wave their batons with Leo. They go around the house throughout the day "conducting" me! For Christmas and for Cali's birthday, they were given tons of Little Einsteins books and toys. The books are awesome -- they have musical ones that play classical music, they have ones that are geared to teaching you Social Studies and Science topics while incorporating beautiful artwork and musical terms, and they have REALLY COOL ones with Slideviewers! We have two of the ones with the slideviewers, one on Space and the other on Australia, and they have my three and two year old EXCITED to learn about the solar system, the planets, animals and the globe! All while dancing around like June and singing like Annie, I might add!!

This morning, after having them bring me two of the books to read, we sat down and went to Playhouse Disney's site to see what kind of games they had online for Little Einteins and had a blast reading more stories online, interacting with the characters, painting and playing music!!

I know there are a lot of educators out there who frown upon television viewing, but I just had to share how much we are enjoying using the Little Einsteins in our homeschool. It is most definitely delight driven, as they love it and think they are playing, but they are learning so much -- and to be honest, so am I!!

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Leading Little Ones...

“God made me. He makes no mistakes. He loves me, just the way I am.” Every night, before my girls go to sleep, we say this together. In fact, if mommy forgets, they quickly remind me!! We often repeat it throughout the day as well, whenever we make a mistake or can use some encouragement. This is just one small thing that we do every day to incorporate God’s love in our homeschool and daily lives, but I believe it is a powerful message we are sending our girls, and a reminder that not everything has to be hard.

I think homeschooling parents, especially those of us who were led to this journey by our faith, can get caught up so easily in wanting everything to be perfect. And when it comes to instilling our faith in our children, it is one area we definitely don’t want to “mess up.” But I have seen moms get so bogged down and worried about how to have daily Scripture and Bible time, especially with their little ones, that they forget to have fun. My advice is to RELAX!

Please visit Heart of the Matter to read how we incorporate our faith and scripture into our daily lives!

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Review: Leap Frog's Letter Factory video

(***This is an extended review of The Letter Factory, which was posted previously. You are not experiencing a severe case of deja vu!**)

I have said it before, and I will say it again - teaching my children how to read scares me! I have this fear that I will totally mess it up and not know what to do or say that will cause the "light bulb moment" to happen. But, wouldn't you know, in the midst of all this worry, my girls have been learning!

I knew before this week that Jordan (who turned 3 on Thanksgiving) knew all of her letters by sight and most of the sounds, but they didn't exactly just flow off the tongue (she had to think about them and did have mistakes). And I thought that Cali (who is two years old TODAY) knew a few of the letters by sight, but they just AMAZED me today and it is all thanks to Leap Frog's Letter Factory!


I had read on several blogs by fellow homeschool mommies that Letter Factory by Leap Frog was the bomb and after having it recommended to me again this past weekend, we decided to get it. We started watching it on Saturday evening, watched it once the following day, and then watched it again this morning on the way to the grocery store (gotta love built in DVD players! How did people go anywhere with kids before?!?).

When we got home from the store, we went outside to play and they immediately ran for the swings. As I was pushing them, Jordan just started rattling off EVERY SINGLE letter sound, as quickly as if she were singing her ABC's! Cali even started jumping in to say "B says buh" and "D"!!

Letter Factory is geared for children ages 2-5, but I think children younger and older will enjoy this video. It runs 35 minutes long, but it is so full of catchy songs, silly antics and beautiful animation, that the time flies! The story involves a fun journey through the Letter Factory with the popular characters from the Leap Frog family: Leap, Lily and Tad. Professor Quigley, the same zany voice from the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics and Word Wammer toys, takes Tad on a tour of the factory to help him learn his letters and sounds. The way he teaches new letters, Tad, and your children, is so memorable and fun! F's are flying, K's are kicking, and my personal favorite, E, who is an old grandfather rocking saying "Eh?" TOO CUTE!

We also love the fun learning games that are included on the DVD menu. After watching the video, my girls find it a special treat to play along, guessing the letter that makes the sound heard. Of course Professor Quigly cheers your child along for guessing the correct answer, which just adds to the enjoyment.

The only thing I can see missing form this video is the feature for "Repeat Play" like Baby Einstein videos have, as my girls are constantly saying "Let's watch Tad again!" This feature would definitely be a plus!

I completely recommend this video, and the rest in the series, to all parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who want to help that special child in their life really grasp the foundations of phonics. Sure, they can learn this information by other means, but this was effortless for me as the teacher, and it allowed me to sit and have fun with the girls....and let's face it, I learned right alongside them! Before, when I would try to teach them the sounds, I would always add an "ah" to the end of the sounds. For example, it teaches Z says "Zzzzz" but before Letter Factory, I would always say "Z says 'Zah.' " See the very important difference? Thank goodness for this video!

Letter Factory can be purchased online or in any store. We purchased ours from Target at right under $12. This is such a value for this quality product, and that statement does not come easily from me as finances are a bit tight right now. In fact, after witnessing our children's knowledge, and the excitement they had about that knowledge, my husband asked if we could get anymore of Leap Frog's videos! That is a glowing recommendation if I ever heard one!!

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Tips and Tricks

The Heart of the Matter is hosting a "Tips and Tricks" Meme today! I have had a blast reading all of the other responses so far... we have some early birds out there!

I wasn't sure what I would write about since my girls are in the preschool years. What could I offer as a tip or trick that would inspire or help moms who homeschool much older children? What I came up with is a list of things that are fun, that I have started to learn and that I am hoping to make a habit in our homeschool:

(1) Start the day with a praise song! Singing in the morning seems to wake us all up and just sets the right tone for our day. I am not sure if this will continue to be the case when the girls get old enough to realize that I cannot carry a tune in a bucket, but hey, for now it works (as my mama always said, this is the voice God gave me, so it must be the key He wants to hear me sing in!)

(2) Don't try to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to! For our learning adventures, I use a mixture of the Prep Curriculum at Letter of the Week, Before Five in a Row and the awesome units at Homeschool Share. All of them are packed with fun ideas, projects, book lists, experiments, etc, YET I always feel the urge to say "what can I add to this?" Sometimes, it is great to make it your own, but I am learning that when I relax, have fun and just pick from the choices already provided, it allows me much more freedom to enjoy the process along with my children!

(3) Take the time to have a quiet time, even if it is in the middle of the day. In some ways, I think this might even be better, if you can do it. It shows your children that it is important to you and that you make time for your relationship with your Heavenly Father. I admit it is great to begin your day with intense one on one time in the Word, but there are seasons in our lives (like toddlerhood) when it is difficult to wake up early in the morning. Even later in life, when children aren't keeping you up at night, if you only take that time in the early morning, your children miss seeing it. I think by allowing your children to see you make it a priority in your life, and actually witness you doing it, sets a really good example that they should do the same. Easier to follow when you see the leader practicing what he preaches :-)

(4) Follow your instincts. As I mentioned before, I felt guilty for liking educational programming. Even though I saw how much my children responded and learned from it, I was afraid of what "they" would think of me watching PBS or even Playhouse Disney. But I realized that every family is different and that we have to do what we think is best for our own families, not for the family down the street. I do think moderation is important, but I also no longer think it is the end of the world if they watch a little Dora!

(5) HAVE FUN! Incorporate as many games as possible! I thought this was something I would have to wait longer to do, since my girls don't really have the attention span for a lot of board games, but over the past few weeks, we have been making up our own games and having a blast! It almost feels wrong, like we should be doing "work" but they are learning so much and having a blast while doing it. It could be as simple as tickling them every time they get a right answer or dancing around and making up songs for what we are learning (most recently our address), or that awesome ABC Stomp game that I got from Jammin'. Relax, Have Fun, Enjoy!!

Have a blessed weekend!

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Note to self: Patience is a virtue....

I got a steal of a deal the other day at my local homeschool store! Jacqueline had told me about The Christian Mother Goose before, but at the time it was out of my budget (gotta love Dave Ramsey!) but I got it this weekend for $1!!!! I am leaving the price tag on this bad boy as a wonderful reminder that good things come to those who wait!

This book is so adorable and it works wonderfully with the Preparatory Curriculum at Letter of the Week. With this curriculum, every week we have a different theme and each theme has a Nursery Rhyme to go with it. I am not completely crazy -- I do read the real Nursery Rhymes to my girls and that is our primary focus, but it is really nice to then pick up this book and have a different take on it. This book has "over 150 Rhymes and Stories" and puts a Christian spin on all the classics that we love! For example, we were learning about Dogs last week. The Nursery Rhyme that the curriculum suggested was "Old Mother Hubbard." We printed the classic version of this story for our Learning Poster, but also read the Christian version which added a teachable moment.

Classic Version:

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard,

To get her poor dog a bone;

But when she got there

The cupboard was bare,

And so the poor dog had none.

The Christian version added:

She went down the street

Her good neighbors to meet,

And they all gathered round her in prayer;

And when she got back,

She found bones in a sack

Saying, "God wants us all to share!"

Isn't that ADORABLE?!? And such a good lesson for all children to learn, in particular toddlers and preschoolers going through that lovely "IT'S MINE" phase, HA!

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Maybe it isn't so scary after all....

I have said it before, and I will say it again - teaching my children how to read scares me! I have this fear that I will totally mess it up and not know what to do or say that will cause the "light bulb moment" to happen. But, wouldn't you know, in the midst of all this worry, my girls have been learning!

I knew before this week that Jordan (who turned 3 on Thanksgiving) knew all of her letters by sight and most of the sounds, but they didn't exactly just flow off the tongue (she had to think about them and did have mistakes). And I thought that Cali (who will be 2 next month) knew a few of the letters by sight, but they just AMAZED me today!


I had read on several blogs by fellow homeschool preschool mommies that Letter Factory by Leap Frog was the bomb and after having it recommended to me again this past weekend, we decided to get it. We started watching it on Saturday evening, watched it yesterday, and watched it again on the way to the grocery store (gotta love built in DVD players! How did people go anywhere with kids before?!?). When we got home, we went outside to play and as they were swinging, Jordan just started rattling off EVERY SINGLE letter sound, as quickly as if she were singing her ABC's! Cali even started jumping in to say "B says buh" and things like that!


It started to rain, so we came in and played with a game that I made earlier that afternoon. I LOVE Jamin's blog and I recently read about her game, ABC Stomp, that she created to help her children learn their letters and sounds. My girls LOVE it! Basically, I took Cali's shoe and traced it on a piece of felt. I then cut out 26 pieces. I wrote a letter of the alphabet on each, writing both the capital and lower case letter. I then laid them on the floor and called out "Jump on the letter that says 'duh'" and Jordan jumped on the letter "D". I would call out the sounds or the letters themselves, and she would jump to whatever I called out. She calls it 'Hopscotch' and loves jumping from letter to letter! She has such a look of excitement and triumph when she jumps on the correct letter and knows it. Cali can play as well, although she can't quite keep up with Jordan... but she loves when you hold up each one and ask her what letter it is. Again, she isn't even 2 yet (ok, she will be next week BUT STILL!!!) and she recognized every letter, even out of order, and could say a lot of the sounds they made.

We then had fun saying different words and guessing the letter the word starts with, like "ta-ta-tickle" and tickling each other while saying "T" or "ha-ha-hug" and all saying "H". Daddy was home for a lot of this, so it made for really good quality family time!

I apologize for all of the Exclamation Points, but this was one of those GOOD DAYS, ya know? When you feel like maybe you can do this after all, and maybe you can actually have A LOT of FUN while doing it! I am so glad to have this blog now to journal days like this. Tomorrow, it is back to learning about Cows, which is also going really well -- we are loving Click Clack Moo, but more on that later.....

WOO HOO!

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