Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Amazing Animals by Design

We got this sweet book via PDF for review through TOS Crew.

Here’s what the publisher says:

Why is a giraffe's neck so tall? Why do zebras have stripes? Did all of these things happen by accident? When John and Sarah visit the zoo, they ask these questions and many more. Their parents and the zookeepers keep using the word design, but what does that mean? With its relevant message and exciting presentation, this is the perfect book to help introduce children to intelligent design. Come find out in Amazing Animals by Design by Debra Haagen!

Kahlen and I enjoyed reading this book several times. There were too many words for Nate, who is not yet 3, to sit through.

The pictures are well drawn and attractive. The animals were all accurately drawn and the people were good too.

The story is mostly factual, but definitely hits high points about God’s amazing creation and the design of each animal. The author used appropriate words to explain God’s plan without being trite or too simple.

Overall, we really enjoyed this book. I think I am going to get it printed and bound so that the kids can read it anytime they want to!

You can purchase a hard copy for $8.99 or a PDF copy for $7.99 here.

See what other crew members are saying here.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Wordless Wednesday–Bunny Ears

~S

Linking up at:

Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–I See Sam

I received a great set of Little Books from Academic Success for All Learners. Kahlen and I really like them!

From the Publisher:

The Reading for All Learners “Little Books” program is a sequence of 141 color coded books. There are 8 sets of books from Kindergarten to 3.6 reading level. Each set contains up to 27 books.

The Little Books were researched, revised and field tested to provide high success and fun learning experiences in beginning reading. The series directly correlate to core curriculum and mandates set by No Child Left Behind. Each book is built on the skills learned in previous books. For high success they should be taught in sequence.

The Little Books are used successfully around the globe in a variety of settings. Schools use them in small group instruction and for individual needs. The instruction can come from teachers, parents, paraprofessionals, parent helpers, older peers, anyone! They are inexpensive, easy to use and the research is solid. They work!!

We have tried several other easy/beginning reader books with no interest or success. The first time we sat down with the first book from set 2, we spent half an hour talking about the first few pages, which go over words that will be in the story and words that will be introduced in the book. A week later, she read the entire book to her daddy, much to the surprise of both of them!

The stories are still basic, and not that interesting for adults, but she really likes them, better than other ones that we’ve tried especially. She really wanted to know what happened in the story, which kept her reading even when it got a little more challenging.

We received sets 2 and 3 based on the assessment guide that they have available for free. Each set retails for $30 and contains up to 27 books! They also have several free resources, including flash cards, instructor guides and more.

I am very glad that we have so many of these books and can’t wait to work through them with her, and then use them again later with my other kiddos.

See what other crew members are saying here.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Wordless Wednesday– My Boys

~S

Linking up at:

Wordless Whenever–Kahlen’s Haircut

So, it’s not Wednesday…but I have a good story for ya.

I know every little girl, or nearly every, gives themselves a hair cut at sometime in their lives. Kahlen’s turn was yesterday.

She doesn’t nap anymore, but she is still in her room for two hours for rest time. She actually sleeps about 2 days a week, and her attitude is just better when she gets a rest time.

So, yesterday. She took some “supplies” to her rest time, which I didn’t know about. She had a skein of yarn, a roll of tape, and scissors. After making some lovely streamer decorations for her room, she gave herself a nice haircut. In the front. On the sides. And in the back. A huge chunk out of the back. I didn’t take any before pictures because she was horribly embarrased. After I calmed down a bit (I told her it looked really bad, is that mean?), I took her to Cost Cutters. She’s now sporting a cute short summer bob. The stylist was able to layer it enough to disguise the chopped parts, except for the bangs where there’s a nice hacked part right in the middle.

Ah well. Hopefully this will be the only time…

~S

Linking up at:

Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Action Alert

I was asked to review Action Alert as part of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. Here’s a basic overview:

I generally do not like programs like this one because they slow down your computer too much. However, after my computer got infected by a virus earlier this year, I was open to trying it. But, like most anti-virus, anti-spyware programs, this one just didn’t work for me.

I had it installed for a few weeks, and in that time, I noticed a dramatic decrease in speed of my browser and my computer in general. It also kept causing my browser to crash. How do I know? After I uninstalled it, I stopped having problems. I also did not like the way that it took over my start page on my browser and was really hard to get rid of.

At this stage in my parenting, I’m not concerned about internet dangers. My kids are not allowed to use the computer without me present because they are 5 and 2. Maybe in the future, when they are a bit older, I will be more concerned and look into services like this, but right now, it’s not relevant to me and it’s too invasive.

See what other crew members are saying here.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Muffin Tin Monday–March 19th

I thought it would maybe help with our mealtime foolishness to bring back Muffin Tin Monday, so here we are.

We’ve been talking about Ancient Maya civilization as part of our Tapestry of Grace curriculum, so I loosely based our lunch around that today.

We had quesadillas, southwest chicken, corn, sour cream, and apples (because that’s what I had)

The kids enjoyed it and ate everything in record time. For dessert, we had a tortilla with butter, cinnamon, and sugar on it, yum!

~S