Minivan Moments

I remember being in college and having one of my guidance counselors explain the importance of good writing skills in life. He described a student who didn't do very well on science tests, but who could write up a science lab report in such a way that the he could earn a good grade in the class despite his poor testing. This counselor also spoke of the many career paths that a person could take that would require excellent communication skills, including written communication, reports, etc. This counselor's advice has never left my mind, and thankfully, I have been gifted with good writing skills. Writing skills that saved my grade many times in college, brought in the perfect job at a time when I had a small child to raise, and helped me win the blessing of reviewing homeschool materials for TOS Homeschool Crew this year! So you'll believe me when I tell you that writing is ver y important to me, and I was delighted to receive a writing program to review! Especially w...

We did NOT squint in amazement at the blinding rays of light streaming from the sky today and comment on the strangeness of the phenomenon. I did NOT cart a van FULL of children to church by myself today only to realize that there were no classes for them and i was working in the toddler room.... hmmm.... Thanks to my dear friend, my children didn't have to sit on the floor outside the toddler room for 1-1/2 hours. We are NOT currently back to Square 1 with our dogs since they are getting into so much mischief that we cannot trust them. Yay. My husband and son did NOT get their hair cut in the driveway this evening with a set of horse trimmers. Awesome. 'Cause we are so NOT hillbilly around here. :-) My darling husband did NOT just come home from a run and turn on the blasted football game - didn't they win already? How many of these can a wife be asked to endure in one day?!?! My bed does NOT currently have 2 sleeping children in it, which makes perfect sense as i walk...

Just before we started our 2009-2010 school lessons, we received a package in the mail from Maverick Books which contained a book, a CD, and a game. The book was Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse , which is part of a series of Hank the Cowdog books, we discovered. The CD was a collection of songs from the Hank the Cowdog series, and the game was Tornado , which is based on another of Hank the Cowdog book, The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado . Being that we have never really introduced the kids to books set in the Wild, Wild West, this was new! Straight away, Tornado was opened, constructed, learned, and played. Several times. The game is a fun chase-around-the-board game, much like Trouble , but the really beautiful part of this game is that it is self-contained: all of the pieces fit back inside the game board, which closes up into a rectangle slightly bigger than a VHS tape. For a family with stacks of school supplies, games, and crafts crammed ...

Okay, we all know that to some degree we are what we eat, right? How much does knowing that help you curb your cravings and hamper your hunger for junk? If you're like me, it helps, but not as much as it should! Maybe knowing more about why we should make different choices and making the information more meaningful would encourage us in our quest to get healthy. We received Nutrition 101: Choose Life by Growing Healthy Homes (a complete homeschool nutrition curriculum!) for me to review as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew , and I must say that I was thrilled! Our family had been learning about our food, and healthful choices, for about a year, and it seemed like the more we learned, the more questions we had! I couldn't wait to start this curriculum!! As it turns out, it was very thorough, and my smaller children couldn't quite keep up with all it had to offer, but our fourth-grader (and her parents!) absolutely loved learning about all of the fascinating parts of ...

...learn to build a website using HTML! And the people of Click Drag Solutions can help with their product, Web Design for Kids . The beautiful thing is this: you need only a computer with Notepad (free with Windows OS) and Internet Explorer (also free with Windows OS), a television, and a DVD player. In our case, our DVD player is our computer, so we only needed the computer! First of all, let me tell you that I was thrilled to get this in the mail! My husband is a computer nerd, and our living comes from his techno-geek know-how. (You can imagine how I plotted and planned the time he would spend with the kids and this HTML teacher.) So, I was surprised that he wasn't interested in pursuing it when I so gleefully handed it over to him... until I tried to teach it to our oldest child. Unfortunately, our 9-year-old doesn't have enough basic computer skills to make learning this program as easy as it could be, so we aborted her lessons in HTML - for now . As parents, we ...

We received an interesting item in the mail last month: the STUDYPOD Book Holder . What was the most interesting right off the bat is that I recognized what it was right away and was wishing I had owned one of these things back when I had to write reports for a living - four hours of observation notes had to fit on my desk with my keyboard, monitor, and mouse so that I could organize it all into a polished, computer-generated report. Whew, would the STUDYPOD have made my life easier!! Okay, so back to 2009. My eldest child immediately set about putting it together: folding out the arms, checking the "how-to" sheet, putting in the latch, and stuffing pencils into the pocket. (I guess that is bonus points right out of the chute!) Additionally, with the mess that always exists on my desk, the laying out of papers or books is precarious at best. There are currently speakers, monitor, mouse, mousepad, filing box, CD-ROMs, stack of papers, science book, co-op notes, and cell p...

As a TOS Homeschool Crew reviewer, I received a game. Yep, a game . I loaded said game after reading the box, the insert, and the comments about the game . Uh-huh, sure it will make math fun. I’ve seen this stuff before.... Ho, hum, math games… gee, fun . However, my beloved offspring have demonstrated that the makers of The Quarter Mile Math actually know something about children!! We received the Deluxe Edition , which was Levels 1, 2, and 3 bundled together – that means it contains math drills for grades kindergarten through twelfth grade! Wow! You mean, I may not have to purchase an additional math practice software next year? Seriously, as a homeschooling mother, I can count on this program until my children graduate high school? Hmm….. So, maybe the Barnum Software gurus are onto something. We logged the kids’ names into the system, set one of them up, and off they went. “Mom, is it my turn yet?” (Wow, is your sister actually hogging the education...

I am NOT going stir-crazy after 3 straight weeks of one-illness-after-another. Good thing, too, because as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of 3, that would be BAD . I did NOT recently make my son use Poise Pads in his undies while sleeping at a relative's house because they were cheaper than Underjams ! My youngest child has NOT developed lactose intolerance, which is NOT at all difficult to pair with a milk protein issue and soy intolerance. Vegetarian, anyone?? My middle child, our only son and cheese LOVER , has thankfully NOT also developed lactose intolerance, which is also NOT in addition to his milk protein problems. Hmm.... common thread here? And last, but certainly NOT least.... I am NOT currently driving around on an expired license ( whoops! ), which did NOT prevent me from obtaining a rental car this morning at the auto repair shop, where my van was supposed to be repaired after an automobile accident i did NOT get into more than a week ago. Oh, and the drive...

Yes, i am a Christian. Yes, i am not hesitant to profess my faith. No, i am not perfect. Yes, i am quite flawed and require frequent forgiveness. [ thank You, Jesus! ] That being said, i really wish extremist "Christians" would stop calling themselves Christians if they are going to rant and rave in a manner not pleasing to Jesus. It makes the rest of us look bad. It turns people away from our Savior - when we should be shining His love and forgiveness. Besides, it isn't what He would do anyway! He got angry, but He was righteous in His anger. Jesus spoke against lies, sin, empty ritualism, false gods, and spirituality that is not connected to His Father. What He didn't do is profess hatred toward anyone ; in fact, He was found among "the least" of society - lepers, tax collectors, sinners, flawed men and broken women. He wanted everyone to know God's love and forgiveness. He wanted everyone to experience eternal salvation. He did not condemn people ...