TOS Review: Joyce Herzog

We’ve been using Joyce Herzog’s Scaredy Cat Reading System Express as part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for the past month or so. Primarily Sterling, age 5 (for a few more days!) and reading fairly well, was the one who used Scaredy Cat Reading System Express, but it’s been written for readers of all ages, from those that are struggling to the gifted student. It consists of teacher training with activities and suggestions as well as board games, all the stories, all the word lists and sentence lists for Levels 1, 2, & 3 – mastery based phonics available from JoyceHerzog.com.

We used this as Sterling’s reading and spelling for this review. He immediately took the the “scared vowel” concepts and thought it was hilarious – and continues to use those terms outside of his schoolwork. SCRS Express has three options for your approach – for the learner who needs to make quick progress and feel that he is not “stuck”, for the older learner who needs to know he is not doing “baby work”, and for the older learner who is merely solidifying his grasp of words and ensuring that there are no “gaps”. We chose this third option, since Sterling is reading quite well but hasn’t had a formal curriculum for instruction, but rather I’ve gone through many easy readers and introduced concepts as he needed to know them. Filling in the gaps after using this approach sounded like a good idea.

We spent anywhere from 30-60 minutes a day on this. It wasn’t the simplest curriculum, and it took some figuring to how it would work well for us, but we’ve had fun. The game board was by far Sterling’s favorite – we could spend an hour just playing on it. My older girls (Liberty is 9 and Eden is 8) would jump in for a rousing game, usually of “Spell…” and they’d try to spell the hardest words I could think of that were words they should know. I exhausted all the words in the book and most of my brain trying to keep them working. Sterling learned a lot and I learned exactly where he’s at in the world of phonics rules and their application. That was super fun.

This book has fifteen rules. Each day we spent time on the rule we were on, but there isn’t a start and stop to the day’s work. There aren’t scripts, but just lots of ideas on learning and studying and having fun with it. The CD includes songs to help learn, and while I’m not sure if it’s my computer or the CD, the quality of it has something to be desired. It was hugely annoying – to me. Sterling, however, doesn’t get the willies when something sings and makes noise for many minutes. I think it’s just me (and maybe the six kids in my home that make noise from 6 am to 8 pm – if I’m lucky).

I like how they wrote the story. Sterling and Ruby both immediately understood how vowels can be scared when surrounded by consonants. Ruby’s a little ways away from getting very much out of this curriculum, as she’s learning to read, but I hope to use it with her in the coming months to round out her understanding. I did Rule 15 with my older girls – foreign words. Those words that are hugely influenced by another language more than English (ie. buffet and fatigue and epitome) can be difficult and make you go “Huh?” Once we talked about those, the range of words that stumped them in our games got significantly smaller.

We’ll continue to use Scaredy Cat Reading System Express for Sterling’s first grade year and hopefully be able to start Ruby at the beginning in the coming months as she works through Kindergarten. This is perfect for where Sterling is now in his pursuit of becoming a better reader and speller. (Whether this pursuit is of his own accord or mine remains to be seen. At any rate, he’s pursuing it.)

The complete Scaredy Cat Reading System Express is $30 and can be found here. It includes the 122 – page book, two multi-use board games, all the word lists, sentence lists, and stories for practice. It also includes the SRCS Rules Songs CD with songs for each of the rules (hello, long term memory!), The Story of LetterMaster MINI, and Using LetterMaster as a Teaching Tool.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew blog for more reviews on this and several other Joyce Herzog products from other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew..

Bully who?

Sterling called Ruby a bully.

She disagreed.

He recanted.

Then Ruby asked Sterling what a bully was anyway.

“Someone who’s bossy and mean,” he replied.

Ruby nodded in understanding. In all seriousness, she said, “Oh, like Liberty.”

Liberty howled. “RU-BY!”

And I laughed. And laughed. Kids are funniest when they aren’t trying to be funny.

The story of us. Part eight.

Read part one here.

Read part two here.

Read part three here.

Read part four here.

Read part five here.

Read part six here.

Read part seven here.

After managing the apartment complex for many months, painting more walls than I care to count an awful shade of off white while my daughters played in the paint colored and sang and danced around empty apartments asking if I was almost done, we’d had just about enough. Dealing with tenants, non payment, eviction, judges, massive ice storms, and one interesting and hard landlord who mocked our beliefs had just about done us in.

My final straw was, now pregnant with Sterling, telling the landlord and hearing his reaction. We were insane, I tell you. Two kids replace you in the universe, three is far too many and socially irresponsible. Oh, the horror. If he could only see us now. Then Blaine got a promotion. A really nice promotion that put him on full time and making enough for us to pay rent and quit dealing with all that was at the apartment complex.

We live at the apartments until Sterling was three weeks old, then moved to a two-family rental. That move was interesting. Blaine was still working on apartments and full time at the newspaper, so it fell primarily on me. With a newborn. Blaine’s brother saved the day when he came to stay with us. He helped me pack the van, then stayed with the kids while I took it to the new house and unpacked the van. We got it done up to the big stuff that way, and then Blaine had a day off and we finished. Not the best week of my life, but we were so glad to be free of the apartments.

We had space, a small backyard to share with the other half of our building, and world’s nicest landlords. And then we met our neighbors. Weeks in, my daughters were banned from playing with them alone, and the complaints began.

Life couldn’t just be comfortable. I still had more lessons to learn, after all.

Buying myself some time…

The Story of Us isn’t going so well this week. (Our story’s fine. It’s the writing of it that I’m failing on.)

While you wait, anxiously to be sure, for me to catch up with life and reviews and the house and the grocery shopping, check out this link. Liberty worked with a curriculum that had her writing a web page. Her finished result – an interview she did with me and then wrote into paragraph form, is here. I didn’t edit it, Eden took the photo, and Liberty worked on it all by her lonesome. I’m impressed. (And flattered.)

TOS Review Crew: Science Naturally! MORE One Minute Mysteries

As part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I was chosen to review the new book from Science Naturally! called One Minute Mysteries: 65 MORE Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! by Eric Yoder and Natalie Yoder. The second in a series, One Minute Mysteries: 65 MORE Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! is just that: short stories that last a page to tell the story and a short answer on the next page, created for children ages 8-12, bound in a paperback that are interesting and explain why something in the story happened, based on science. It’s just common sense stuff you just don’t necessarily think about. Each story really did take about a minute to read – although the solving my kids tried to do on their own and the discussions we had after reading the story lasted, often, many minutes more. Children engaged in science discussions after the book is done and we've finished the subject? Yes, please!

The book started out with story about kids deciding they should build a mesh cage around their cucumber plants to keep the dog out of them – but it would also keep out the pollinating insects off the plants, so they would be unable to produce. And just like that, my kids were hooked. We read about spinning eggs to decide if they were hard-boiled or raw, why water encourages the presence of mosquitoes, and, well, 62 other short stories that show the science facts – not just plain, less than interesting science facts. Can we call this ‘Applied Science’?

We read these a few at a time each day until we finished the book – some days, we read until my voice gave up. Everyone crowded around, and I would stop reading to see if the kids could figure out the answer of “why” before we finished the story. The stories are simple to understand, and although I’m certain my four year old didn't understand every explanation, she hung on every word right along with the older kids. They all loved to try to guess the answer to the mystery on the first page and then moved on to the next page see if they were right. My two older girls, 8 and 9, read these on their own ahead. This made the guessing a bit of a cheat – but I was glad to see that they remembered the stories and answers to the mysteries! Learning at it’s best, I’m convinced, is when they are interested and engaged and it’s not “work”. One Minute Mysteries certainly did that for my kids. We all loved it.

I wish this was a complete science curriculum, but I don’t think I could get away with that. It is, however, a super fun read that sparked the kids curiosity and fun conversation. After finishing this book, I’d love to read anything else by this publisher. It made learning fun and added a great dimension to our homeschool day that we all looked forward to.

This One Minute Mysteries book is $9.95 and available here. The complete list of Science, Naturally! books available is here.

To read what others on the Review Crew thought about One Minute Mysteries: 65 MORE Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!, check out the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog.

Graduation.

Today is Sterling’s kindergarten graduation at co-op. I feel like I should be all weepy and sad. But I’m not. He’s the third of mine to finish kindergarten, and the second (Poor Eden!) to have a “graduation” and well, I have a hard time seeing the point of it all. It’ll be cute and he’s memorized verses he’ll recite and he’ll wear a funny hat and I’ll take photos, but really. Why?

He can wipe his own behind, read anything and everything, add and subtract small numbers, and read a calendar and a clock.

There’s so much more to learn.

He has a solid grasp on the knowledge of Christ and Christ crucified – for him. If he learns nothing else for all his school years, he knows the truth.

But I’d rather he continue to learn. It’ll help him out in this life.

And a 25 year old who can only add small numbers on his fingers might make his teacher look bad.

But for today, we’ll go to co-op, stick him in front of the whole group, and recognize his greatest accomplishment in life thus far.

He finished his first year of homeschooling, lived to tell about it, and isn’t ruined for it.

Ah, the sweet smell of success.

Seeing things.

You know the moment when, after spending over an hour up in the middle of the night with a small child, you finally get them tucked in, and you’re walking towards the bedroom? When you know that, while the house is mostly clean, there’s still a good chance of a lego or doll or toy that talks to be directly in your path and you must walk carefully? That moment when you’re seeing spots, you squint, blink, trying to get your sleepy eyes (that aren’t wearing prescription correction, of course) to adjust and the spots the clear? You blink, squint, and realize that’s just making the spots bigger. And then, half a second before the spot is going to hit you in the face, you realize it’s a floating balloon?

Yeah, that’s never happened to me, either.

TOS Review: Spanish for You!

Liberty (9) and Eden (8) have been using Spanish for You as part of a review for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew. They've used it usually 4 days each week for 30 minutes or so. I received downloads of Fiestas for grades 3-4 and all of it’s complementing materials that are part of the Fiestas purchase. There are 30 weeks of instruction included with this grade level.

 My girls weren't over their heads in the slightest without any previous  Spanish instruction. They jumped in and began and did their best  Spanish pronunciation in their very-English speaking voices. It was  pretty fun – and funny – to listen to. The audio files are great to help  with pronunciation. They learned common phrases, the song ‘Happy  Birthday’ in Spanish, and colors and numbers and more.

I’d never heard of Spanish for You! before this review. I want my children to learn another language, and they've had fun with this. At first I wasn't sure how much they were remembering with short lessons and what sounds to me like super-fast speech (It’s not – but with one college semester of Spanish under my belt, anything sounds super fast!), but after just the first lesson I heard conversations about colors and their Spanish names. Once I made a correction on the pronunciation of ‘azul’ (one dear daughter kept saying ay-zull) and sent them back to the audio files, I decided they must be learning!

It’s not the easiest curriculum to use. My head was spinning at first, and I kept wondering if we were doing it properly. Once we got into it, though, we fell into a routine and it got easier. I made the flashcards from their files and we were off and running. (I color-coded them based on lessons for ease of finding them quickly.) For the price, I think it’s a great introductory program and a lot can be learned from it. It’s not set in any certain order from Fiestas to any of their other books available, so you can choose where you start and where you move to next. They learn a lot and have gone back to listen to parts again to be reminded of words they couldn't remember.

What I liked: the girls jumped in without issue. They enjoyed themselves and learned a lot. There is a lot of material in this curriculum. The drawings are primitive, but that helps keeps costs low and I really appreciate that.

What I didn't like: It was confusing, especially at first. There was so much in the e-book guide, I was swimming in reading trying to figure it out. I wouldn't choose the e-book option again if given the choice. I’m told reorganization was done shortly after this review began – that might help.

Overall, I wouldn't shy away from this curriculum. If you have a little bit of time to work with it, you’ll really appreciate what can be gained from it. By studying Fiestas through Spanish for You!, we learned a bit about culture, lots of words, and began a foundation for learning Spanish in our homeschool.

Spanish for You! Fiestas is available here for $64.95 for grades 3-8, or for to purchase for either grades 3-4, 5-6, or 7-8, it can be purchased for each grade combo for $39.95. This includes a softcover student book and PDF downloads of lesson guides, worksheets, audio files, flash cards, and activity pictures. Additional student books are available for $12.95. Teacher lesson plans are purchased separately for $12.95 - $14.95.

To read more reviews from the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, click here.

The story of us. Part seven.

Read part one here.

Read part two here.

Read part three here.

Read part four here.

Read part five here.

Read part six here.

Within the month, we’d closed on our house and had a big rented truck packed with all of our worldly belongings. We didn’t know exactly where we were headed. Blaine had great memories of Pennsylvania and the cost of living was reasonable. We looked at a map, considered as much info as we could find online, found a church, area within a few hours of Blaine’s family in New Jersey, and chose Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania as our final destination. Blaine’s pickup went on the dolly behind the rented truck and I followed behind in our car with the girls. I watched the topper to Blaine’s truck flop with every bounce, my ficus tree (this one!) in the back window, all the way to Pennsylvania. Ah, the memories.

We pulled into Wilkes Barre a few days later, found a motel room, and started calling on ads in the newspaper to find an apartment. We met one kind soul, saw a few apartments she had ready, were told that despite never not having a year contract signed, she was willing to do it for us, and we moved in. We had the smallest space we’ve lived in yet: 2 bedrooms, a super-small kitchen, a tiny bathroom, and a living room. It was an upstairs apartment (one of three in a large 3-family home) up 21 stairs straight off the street. The couch wouldn’t fit upstairs, so it went into the shared basement and we sat on kitchen chairs and the one rocking chair we owned, taking turns each night who got the comfy chair. It was definitely an interesting time in our marriage.

We found out days after we moved in that we were now living on the most dangerous street in the city. We found out this news days before looking outside one day to find 50 cops swarming the area.

Turns out, a man who was wanted for theft of a pizzeria who then stole a cop car to get away had relatives living nearby. The cops searched the back of Blaine’s pickup, guns drawn. Nothing. We did have a black Coleman sleeping back disappear out of the basement that week. I still wonder.

Blaine quickly found a job working at a donut store pouring coffee and selling donuts. The job of his dreams, to be sure.

He wanted to work for a newspaper as a photographer. He flooded the local area with resumes and poured coffee at ridiculous AM hours to help stretch our savings.

A few months after we moved to Pennsylvania, Blaine was hired on part time at the Hazleton Standard Speaker, half an hour south of Wilkes Barre. He worked night shift there, mornings at the donut store, and we started talking of moving south to Hazleton. Gas was killing us.

God was leading us during this time, to be sure. Craziness was ironed out, time after time. We spent 5 months in Wilkes Barre before moving to Hazleton. We found a job managing an apartment complex in Hazleton that provided a free apartment and occasional extra income and made up for Blaine “only” working 36 hours a week. We found a church to settle into there, made a few friends, and “enjoyed” working with some interesting tenants at the 32-apartment complex we were now managing. Oh, the stories. Insanity. Some people are crazy, I tell you.

Potty talk.

I keep a book of Sudoku puzzles in the bathroom. Don’t judge. Where else am I going to be left alone long enough to make sense of them?

Sterling apparently also enjoys a moment alone in there – with my book. I’m forever finding, “I love you Mom. Sterling” written in the margins. Lately, he’s been writing his own puzzles there too. 4x3, 6x2… not exactly Sudoku rules. I’d written little notes back but left he boxes blank.

Today, there was a new note. “Write numbers here” was written next to the box he’d drawn. So I wrote random numbers in his boxes. He doesn’t know the rules of the puzzle, obviously, so I’m hoping he’ll be happy.

He’s a keeper though. Who else has a five (nearly six!) year old son who leaves love notes for his momma while he relieves himself at the facilities?

Some things you just can’t write on a blog.

It’s really strange. My life is often laid out before you, and yet, a lot of it you can’t see.

I tell you only what I want you to know.

Today, it’s one of those days. Life is really hard right now. Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life. I’m learning and growing from a pretty painful experience that I can’t see the purpose in. It’s not something I want to talk about, but maybe someday that will change. For now, know that, in the story of us, a new chapter is being written. A painful, raw chapter about love and loss and not knowing what the future holds.

But I know Who holds our future.

Tuesday jumble.

You know those weeks when you feel like you just can’t handle much more?

I’ve had one of those. And it’s only Tuesday.

I’ve doled out far more discipline lately than I ever cared to. Come to think of it, that’s always true, no matter how many reprimands I have to make. It’s not a fun job. But lately, it’s been particularly bad. I’ve resorted to teaching Bible verses that reinforce the behavior I’m looking for. I’m not sure if it’s helped, but there’s been a lot of memorization going on around here lately.

Pierce was on my lap last night as I was scolding two of my dear children. He kept holding up his little finger, putting it over my lips, and saying, “Shh. Shhh.” Apparently he’s had enough of it too.

Today is the last day of classes at co-op. Next week is Sterling’s Kindergarten graduation and their year-end parties. Then, we have another day in our week. Time to stay home. Focus our efforts. Go for walks and play outside.

Next week can’t come fast enough.

Sterling was up much of the night Sunday with a croup of sorts. We spent a good chunk of the night on the front porch in the cool air to help him breathe. I thought we’d be in the doctor’s office on Tuesday. He woke up perfectly fine and has been ever since. I still haven’t caught up on sleep from it.

Charlotte says Eden cut her finger off. Reaching into a plate of pasta that’s being cut up with scissors by an older sibling is dangerous business. While Charlie still has her finger, less a bit of skin, if you ask her, she lost a finger in the ordeal.

Sunday Pierce kept insisting his fingers needed to be in my mouth. After telling him to stop over and over, I gave up and bit him, just a little bit. He eyes got wide, he wagged his little finger at me, and told me, “No, no!”

Pierce is getting life figured out. Respect for elders… we’re still working on that one.

Her mercies are new every morning. So thankful for it.

TOS Review Crew: Papa’s Pearls

I just finished reading Papa’s Pearls: A Father’s Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren by Diane Flynn Keith. I’ve been reviewing it as part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. I read it aloud to all of my children, and they all really enjoyed it. I did change a bit of the language occasionally to make it fit for young ears, but overall, it was a fun read-aloud.

Papa’s Pearls is a story of Carol Joseph Flynn, the author’s father. Carol Flynn was a man who grew up during the Depression Era who overcame the odds that he’d end up in prison and became a successful business owner, a husband, and a father. He became a man of great character who lived by a great number of sayings that told of his beliefs and character. Each of it’s 17 chapters talks of some of these sayings, advice, or wit in stories and memories the author and others had of the man lovingly referred to as Papa.

‘Papa’ became someone we got to “know” through Mrs. Flynn’s stories. He seems like a man that would be hard not to like, fiercely loyal to his family and as hardworking as they come. He started a plumbing business that sounds highly successful and his business ideals are shared along with his morals on how to treat others, and my personal favorites, “Get it in writing” and “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

Once my kids are a bit older, I’ll have them read this on their own in hopes that they glean more from the story. They enjoyed the story line, but I don’t think they understood much of the advice offered. Each chapter took about ten minutes for us to read together, and we read a few chapters a day – basically, until my voice gave up. The kids were always begging for me to keep reading. Papa’s Catholic faith is only touched on briefly, but his convictions were strong.

Overall, we really enjoyed this book and the opportunity to get to “know” Papa. I wish the language had been appropriate to hand to my daughters, since they enjoyed it so much, but since it’s a vivid account of one man’s life, it’s also real in language as well. Much can be learned from this little 112-page paperback book.

An author-autographed copy of Papa’s Pearls is available from Homefires for $14.97 plus shipping. Papa’s Pearls is also available from Amazon.com. Diane Flynn Keith is Papa’s daughter. She has many other works and her other websites include Carschooling.com, ClickSchooling.com, and UniversalPreschool.com.

Click here to read more reviews from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew.

Soft Scrub Review and Giveaway

 

Soft Scrub sent me Soft Scrub Mold and Mildew Stain Remover to try out a few weeks ago. I immediately took it to the bathtub – and I’m pretty happy with it. It cleaned up the nastiness that happens without too much fuss or scrubbing. It shined my kitchen sink and worked to clean up all the surfaces in my bathroom.

Soft Scrub:

• Doesn’t stink. It smells clean, like bleach, but it’s pretty mild. In a small bathroom, I really appreciate not feeling like I might die from inhaling chemicals!
• It’s a gel. It stays where you spray it remarkably well.
• It cleans tile, grout, tubs, showers. Might I add to their list and say it also cleans sinks, countertops, and faucets. I used it as a one-spray-fits-all during this review and found it able to stand up to everything I tried.

Sweepstakes: One winner will receive $1,000 and a year's supply of Soft Scrub, while 250 second place winners get to try NEW Soft Scrub® Mold & Mildew Stain Remover for FREE by clicking here.

Giveaway: I have three coupons to giveaway. Comment here, like this post on Facebook, and comment on my Facebook page for three chances to win! I’ll draw for winners Monday night.

The story of us. Part 6.

 

Read part one here.

Read part two here.

Read part three here.

Read part four here.

Read part five here.

The regular pediatrician was gone for Thanksgiving vacation, and I got the doctor on call. He ordered a test to check for acid reflux, prescribed Zantac, and within three days we had a very different baby. She quit crying all the time, and by six months, she was sleeping through the night. Motherhood wasn’t looking so bleak.

When Liberty was eight months, I quit nursing. Upon realizing her weight gain wasn’t what it should be, I was threatened with a call to child services if I didn’t stop nursing and start formula. At 19 and scared, I bought formula on my way home. Liberty still was small, and didn’t gain weight any better on formula. I tried to tell her I had a very thin husband, but it didn’t matter. I switched pediatricians and learned a hard lesson. Fight for what I believe in, and no one will stand up for my family better than my family.

April 30, 2004 we bought our first house. A few weeks later, we found out I was expecting. I was working at our church as a secretary, babysitting one little girl, and also cleaning a few businesses and homes to make ends meet. Our marriage was stronger than ever, and we were starting to learn what it meant to become one. Liberty clung to me and cried each evening when Blaine got home and I headed out to clean. In the end, I quit the cleaning business and babysitting in exchange for Blaine working extra hours at his job instead. Life settled into a new routine again.

Our Great Pyrenees liked our neighbors better than us, and she went to my parents’ to live. We got a border collie mix we named Heidi. Walks with Liberty and Heidi became routine, and I got to know the streets of the tiny town we lived in pretty well. My pregnancy went along far easier than my first, and I found contentment far easier when life was easier. Understatement, eh?

February 1, 2005, Eden Rayne was born. You can read her birth story here. Her first year had many more changes for us. Just before Labor Day, 2005, Blaine was laid off from his job. He’d been longing for the East Coast, so we put a “For Sale By Owner” sign in the yard.

Four days later, we had a signed offer. We were moving.

Well, then.

May 3, 2013. The garden, some of it planted.

Southwest Missouri. The picnic table we ate supper on just two days ago.

The lawn I’ve mowed four times now. The lilacs are in full bloom.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Soft Scrub Review and Giveaway

 

Since one review and giveaway deserves another… and another… watch this next week for more coupons for FREE Soft Scrub.

Soft Scrub sent me a 4-in-1 Toilet Care toilet bowl rim hanger to try out. It cleans the toilet, prevents buildup, and freshens up to 4 weeks.

If you have a normal amount of people using the bathroom. For us, it lasted about 2 1/2 weeks. But I think we have an extreme case of toilet usage.

I hung this in the toilet when the toilet was dirty. I was curious if it could get rid of my weekly ring that I’m forever scrubbing off.

It did. Ring disappeared, and the bathroom smelled like Soft Scrub for several weeks. My only complaint was that it didn’t clean outside of the bowl. I’m probably wishing for something that will never happen, but wouldn’t that be neat?!

For now, we’ll have to settle for the inside of the bowl. It’s fresh, clean, and while I’m not certain my cloth diapers appreciated it, the rest of you might appreciate not having to scrub.

Sweepstakes: One lucky winner will receive $1,000, while 250 second place winners get to try NEW Soft Scrub® 4-in-1 Toilet care for FREE!

Giveaway: I have three coupons for Soft Scrub. You may choose any Soft Scrub you like, up to a value of $3.39. The other Soft Scrub products I’ve reviewed are available, along with this toilet bowl hanger. Comment here, like this post on Facebook, and comment on my Facebook page for three chances to win!

I’ll close this giveaway Saturday night at midnight… and post another one! Soft Scrub is being generous. (:

Leaving that one alone.

Today at Hobby Lobby, the kids found rabbit skins for sale. After much to do about why on earth anyone would kill a rabbit (wonders Ruby) and feeling them and asking if they are real (wonders Sterling), Eden had the final say that made me choke on my gum.

Sterling asked how much the rabbit skins cost. Eden announced she hadn’t seen the price but she was sure they were expensive.

Sterling asked why, and then it came.

“Because rabbits are really rare.”

I choked. I snorted. It was entirely unladylike.

And then I started to tell Eden that people actually refer to something that reproduces often as… and then I thought better of it. I do not want to go there, and certainly don’t want to spark such conversations in Hobby Lobby. So we walked away, leaving it at “Rabbits aren’t rare, honey. There’s lots.”

Central confusion.

About a month ago, when I changed out winter clothes for summer clothes (What was I thinking?! Winter refuses to go away.) I rearranged Ruby’s drawers. With threats thrown out for the neatness to last longer than the next load of laundry, she’s taken her job seriously. Every time she puts her clothes away, she asks where each thing goes.

Tonight, as she held up a skirt, I said,

“Bottom drawer. In the middle.”

She walked toward the stairs, spun back around and looked at me quizzically.

“So if I go in my room, I open my…”

Seriously?

“Bottom drawer.”

“And then I put it on which side?”

“Middle Ruby. In the middle.”

Sheesh. I do not get paid enough.

Review and Giveaway: Purex with Crystals Fragrance

A few weeks ago, I was given a chance to review Purex with Crystals Fragrance. With fabric softener and a lovely fragrance that stays with the clothes long past wash time, I really enjoyed this review. The clothes came clean, smelled great, and static was kept to a minimum.

Want to try it out too? I have three coupons to give away, provided by Purex. Maximum value: $6. Just leave a comment here, comment on my facebook page, and like this post for three chances at a coupon for a bottle of Purex of your very own.

I’ll randomly draw three winners Wednesday, May 1, at 8pm CST.

The story of us. Part 5.

Read part one here.
Read part two here.
Read part three here.
Read part four here.


June 21, we celebrated Blaine’s birthday and having made it to the nine month mark. Now it seems funny, but at the time, I was pretty concerned with appearances and did not want questions as to the conception of my child.

June 25, labor began. I was admitted, confirmed to be in labor, and left to progress on my own. After several hours, I was moving along, and then it stopped. The next morning, when given the option to induce labor or go home, I stupidly made the decision to induce and get it over with. The doctor broke my water, began pitocin, and that night, Liberty Skye was born. You can read her birth story here.

And so, another of my plans was altered. A girl? First? Certainly we’d have a boy first. It’s the American Dream, after all. A girl first was not on my radar. I struggled with wanting the perfect life – and this was not what I’d envisioned. More money, peace in my home (and heart) and less struggling were what I thought I deserved. I wasn’t content. I had so much to learn. Apparently, I was one of those. You know, the ones that have to learn the hard way.

We settled into life with our first child. We moved from our apartment to a rented old farmhouse, where we burned wood for heat, got a Great Pyrenees dog who drove me nuts, and we worked towards buying our first home. Choosing not to heat the whole (big) house, Liberty’s bedroom sat empty and her crib hung out in the kitchen, closer to the wood stove. Flies and box elder bugs were abundant, and some unknown creature chewed on the floor boards from the dirt crawlspace. The pipes froze when it got really cold, and paint flaked off the living room walls and fluttered to the floor on a regular basis. God was working on me and this whole contentment thing.

Our marriage was rough. Blaine changed jobs, we’d been married a year by that point, and had a new, very crabby child who screamed day and night for the first five months of her life. I knew something was wrong, but the pediatrician kept saying it was normal. Finally, after many sleepless nights and at my wit’s end, I took her into the doctor’s office again, handed her to the doctor, and told him to figure out why she wouldn’t stop crying.

A day in the life: Wednesday

Yesterday I ran out of gas in the lawn mower. I had it straddling the ditch, stuck, one tire in the air, another in the mud, and the mower died. I couldn’t have planned that if I’d tried.

My kids now know what the N means on the shift column. Important lessons, folks.

I managed to load the kids into the van, run to town for gas, drop off library books (the day they were due!) and drop of clothes to be donated (that rode around for at least a month in my van first) and was home again in 20 minutes to rescue the lawn mower. Maybe, just maybe, the successes outweighed the failures.

Our Yorkie-Poo Brady is forever sleeping on my laundry. She sleeps in the laundry room at night, and she’s forever abandoning her bed for the basket full of laundry instead. It drives me crazy. I don’t leave clean laundry in there (Lesson learned!) but still. She’s a dog. No matter how hard I try to keep on top of it, she drops ticks. In my laundry. And if it happens to be her bi-yearly… oh, that can get ugly.

I figured out how to stop her. I had just checked her over for creepy crawlies, had Liberty give her a bath, so it was high time to make this discovery.

Don’t have any laundry left in the laundry room.

That’s right, my friends. I hit the bottom of the basket yesterday. It hasn’t happened very many times in recent history, but I even had the kids’ clothes from the day washed. I started the last load after they changed into pj’s. And wouldn’t you know, this morning, Brady had opted for her own cushy bed over the cold, hard, empty laundry basket.

Score one for me.

We planned to make these yesterday. I found out, shockingly, I cannot braid six strands. Or five. So, we opted for three. I can do three.

They still turned out pretty fun. I ended up making seven of them. One for each of the girls, one for an anklet for Liberty, and two for Ruby and Charlotte’s baby dolls.

Getting Charlotte to smile though… that got interesting.

Babe, you’re old.

Liberty was asking what she ought to do about her history project for co-op. She’s supposed to ask an “older relative” about how the streams, rivers, terrain, etc. were back when they were young. She was confused on who she ought to talk to.

Eden told her to talk to Daddy.

Blaine was oh so thrilled when I told him.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Today we’re clearing off the school shelves, putting last year’s books in storage and getting out next year’s books. It’s almost fun. Folders are cleared out and put into manila envelopes, scores are recoded, and it all goes away. It’s a beautiful thing.

Actually, it’s not so pretty. I momentarily thought of taking a photo to go with my blog post, but my piles of books weren’t the most attractive thing I’d ever seen. I opted for no photos.

Our new books are all here. We’re gearing up to start again, and Sterling is really worried about Ruby. She’ll be doing Saxon Math 1 – the book he just finished.

“Ruby, you’ll have to do timed tests. You won’t know what to do. What’s 6 + 6?”

Her answers aren’t instilling confidence.

“4.”

Sterling sighed, exasperated.

“Ruby! You have to learn this if you’re going to do that book! 6 + 6 is 12!”

Ruby scrunched up her nose at him.

“Oh. How do you write 12?”

He covered his face with his hands.

“RUBY!”

The conversation went on for many minutes. He doesn’t believe me that he began the year in the same boat. I showed him a place in his old book that had 14 written 41. He remains unconvinced. This big brother stuff is really stressful.

Goodbye, Monday. You’ve been swell.

Saturday, I went to the community rummage sales down the road from us. Got some good deals, nothing fabulous, but at the end of my morning out, I parked on the hill at a sale, and when I opened the door of the van, the wind caught it. I didn’t think a whole lot of it until the van door wouldn’t open when I got back to the van. Rummage sale: 2 glass baking pans and a shirt for Blaine. $3. Driver’s side van door: stuck.

Perfect.

The bumper was dented, the door wouldn’t open more than 2 inches. I’m wider than two inches. Climbing out of the passenger side puts a whole new spin on strange that I hadn’t considered. As if the 12 passenger van wasn’t quite odd enough.

Today, I took it to town with plans to stop and two different places for body work quotes. The first place offered to fix it, free, then and there. Um, yeah! He popped out the fender and told me if I wanted it perfect it would need body work, but it was functioning and barely dented and opening well. Sounds good to me. I took it to Blaine’s office to see what his thoughts on it were.

We decided to stop at the second body shop, just to get an idea of what it would cost to get the dents perfected. I got the quote, got groceries, and got a tube for Eden’s bike tire. Went to the bank. Door worked great.

I pulled into my yard, and the door wouldn’t open. What on earth?!

Climbing out the passenger door, I set to work changing Eden’s bike tire so we could continue to the park with friends for a ride, as planned. The tube I bought now in her tire, I put it back together. Forgot to put the chain on. Found out the front tire was also flat. It lost it’s air within two minutes of being pumped up. Perfect. Liberty tried to ride my bike. It’s 10 inches taller than hers. No go. Eden rode the scooter. She’s a good sport.

Van door opens better on flat ground, but still not right. Blaine to the rescue. It’s now more dented than when he started, but it’s fixed and he figured out why it didn’t stay fixed last time. Speculating on whether the door has been replaced in the past. That would explain why the key doesn’t work in that door.

(That’s a funny story. Blaine’s key never worked, and he didn’t have a key fob like I did, so we went to the hardware store to get a copy of my key made. We figured we’d use his old key as a spare, since it worked in the other doors and the ignition. The new cut key didn’t work. She cut another. Three keys later, it dawns on me I’ve never tried my key in the driver door, only the passenger. My key didn’t work either. We now have multiple copies of that key, none of them work in the driver’s door, and I can only imagine we’re on a black list at ACE.)

In other news, Blaine thinks the house is booby trapped. I think it’s just him. Things jump out at him constantly. You know, things like non-working keys, flat bike tires, and dented fenders.

The story of us. Part 4.

Read part one here.
Read part two here.
Read part three here.

Finally, I started to come around. I was huge, swollen, but no longer losing most of my food. My hormones stopped telling me how awful my husband was. I was starting to think maybe I hadn’t made a huge mistake in walking down that aisle. And steady as a rock, Blaine was there for me.

My due date was June 30, 9 months and 9 days after our wedding date, and it loomed in front of us. We joked that the baby had better stay put until Blaine’s birthday, June 21. It was our nine month mark.
June 6, labor began. I drove myself to the hospital and Blaine met me there.

This was not supposed to happen yet.

We were checked in on the maternity floor of the small Spearfish hospital. They kept me for observation and informed me that if I was in labor, it would be stopped. If they couldn’t stop it, I’d be sent to Rapid City, the larger town in the area. Spearfish doesn’t have a NICU and won’t deliver a baby less than 37 weeks. I was 36 weeks and 4 days. If I had been 3 days further along, they would have left me to labor.

But I wasn’t. A few hours later, I had dilated 1 cm, and a shot of awful was injected into me. I shook and froze and felt generally awful for an hour or so, but contractions stopped. I was sent home.

TOS Review: Fun Physical Activities for Young Children

My most recent curriculum to review with the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew has been Dr. Craft’s Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young Children from Dr. Craft’s Active Play Books. I used this with Sterling (5), Ruby (4), and Charlotte (2), although my older girls and Pierce couldn’t resist joining it a bit as well.







From their website: 8½ x 11 with 130 pages with DVD showing 30 physical activities
This book and DVD set:

• Shows how to make physical activities irresistible.
• Teaches academic concepts through physical activity.
• Includes a chapter of physical activities for infants, 6 months to 15 months of age.
• Includes physical activity ideas for school-age children.

Active Play! is all about getting your young children moving. With much information regarding the importance of physical activity for young children, it’s a great resource for ideas on how to do this. With 52 activities suggested, 30 of them demonstrated on the DVD, all using pretty ordinary household objects, (Laundry baskets get new life!) this book could be a valuable tool with daycares, classrooms, VBS, and birthday parties. It has a great list of all the activities and the skills they help practice.

With six super active children who don’t lack at all for physical activity, I don’t really want to organize their play. They’re pretty great at that all on their own. On a rainy day though, I might refer back to this book to see what might keep them busy and entertained inside the house. It’s full of great ideas that aren’t overly competitive – great when you have different abilities present. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The activities are easy enough to set up that my older girls (9 and 8) can do it, and they love the play “teacher” – having them all playing together and helping one another helps all of them learn lifelong skills.

I took photos of the day we did “Matching Socks”. It was a favorite all around, with minimal prep for me and the kids had a blast on a sunny day. We grabbed a bunch of pairs of socks, left one of each pair in a pile and spread the other of the pair around in the front yard. Each kid grabbed one from the pile and set out to find it’s match as quickly as possible. Since our yard is a hill, we had a lot of tipping over as they bent for socks. Oh, the giggles. Even Pierce (18 months) gathered up socks. He didn’t quite get the rules, but he was very concerned that we’d scattered our laundry all over the yard. (Yes, he’s pants-less. I am so sorry. We’re approaching potty training, and I didn’t plan on him being included this go around – but he was having too much fun not to photograph him too!)

Dr. Craft’s Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young Children is available here for $39.00 plus taxes and shipping. It’s set up well enough to work for young new walkers and up, with older children helping with set up and helping the younger children. Each activity took us about 10 minutes to complete, but the kids chose to continue playing long after we finished the first round.

To read more reviews on Dr. Crafts Active Play Books from the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, click here.

Bird Accommodations

When we bought our house three years ago, it was immediately obvious that the people who owned it before us really, really liked birds. Really. With a grand total of eight birdhouses on the property, these birds were well cared for. After three years of working more on our own home and less on birds’ homes, the birdhouses were all in a pretty sad state of disrepair. Last Saturday, they all came down. These two were on 15 foot poles, way up in the air. Blaine pulled them out with the pickup for me. One came down with a crash and fell open.



Upon inspection, under all that old nest debris was wallpaper.
Yeah. These people were serious about their bird accommodations.



Wow.

Spring 2013 Projects: Rock Wall

I married a man of many talents. He doesn’t cook or clean if he can worm his way out of it, but he fixes things and builds things and takes fantastic photos. These photos are mine, not his, so photography judgments aside, here’s the latest thing he’s made me.

After my meager attempts to begin a flower bed last year (See lavender and dianthus plans in the background.) Blaine jumped in and made me a real dirt flower bed. I only had to use the pick for one plant. (Near the back, where the dirt got thinner and the rock shelf we live on was arguing with me.) Every single plant I planted last year required the pick and a ridiculous amount of labor. Blaine, compassionate that he is (and lover of outdoor beauty – and me) maneuvered his pickup oh so carefully up the back pasture to get the rocks. If you could have been a fly on the wall during that ride… you’d have splatted against the windshield. It’s ridiculously rough, full of brush, and all uphill. Flooring the pickup and avoiding trees as he bounced up the hill, I gained a new respect for my husband’s driving abilities. And so, the rock wall was built.

After composting all year, we had a nice pile of rock-free dirt. We moved it down to the front of the house and today I planted flowers. Very fun.

The new rock wall looks remarkably like this one, that he built for me last spring:

 

(Don’t mind the perennials. Spring is still working on springing. I should have wrote this post in a month.)

It also looks a lot like this one, built last summer around the non-bearing cherry tree Sterling insisted his Daddy needed for Father’s Day:

We seem to have a theme going on. And a lot of rocks.

TOS Review Crew: MathRider

For the past month or so, I’ve had Liberty, Eden, and Sterling using MathRider as part of a review for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. MathRider is an “intelligent” math game download that teaches and reinforces multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction with numbers 0-12. I’m able to enter each of my school-aged children’s names and capabilities and MathRider takes it from there. Once they are doing well with one area, I can set it up for them to move on to a harder set. It keeps changing it’s expectations based on the kids’ performance, and expects them to do as well or better as they have in the past.

Liberty has LOVED MathRider. She finished her 4th grade math book for the school year right about the time we began using MathRider, and she asked if she could do MathRider each day in place of her finished textbooks. She’s advanced through many levels now and continues to ask to use it. It got to the point I had to tell her enough was enough – she’d gladly play for hours! Her times have improved and she’s gotten better at the math facts she’d already learned. The program tells her when she’s answered a question faster or slower than she has in the past and stops to correct any incorrect answer immediately. It awards “points” toward their level goal where appropriate.

Eden just finished 3rd grade math and doesn’t enjoy it so much, but still wanted to play MathRider after watching Liberty play. Something about making math a game made life so much better. She has timed tests in her regular math curriculum each day and, in playing MathRider, her times on those timed tests improved! She was thrilled, and I’m thrilled for her. She asks to play each day as well. All the kids crowd around the computer, enamored with the story line – and quite frankly, if they want to watch math facts float across the screen and yell answers at the player, I’m good with that! (Ruby, age 4 and not yet learning math, has been hilarious. She hollers out any and every number she can come up with. I figure it’s good for learning dedicated attention – right?!)

Sterling has just finished kindergarten, but he did first grade math this year. He knows his math facts but has a hard time coming up with the answers quickly. He’s gotten frustrated with MathRider because he isn’t fast enough in remembering the answer and typing it in, but we’ll keep on this one. I’m certain he’ll get better and faster at it with a bit of perseverance.

I can pull up the statistics and see where each of my kids have improved – and things like Liberty and her obvious liking for doing division problems over anything else, while Eden chooses subtraction most often. It shows their “mastery level” and where they were when they started.

Regarding system requirements, from their website:

“MathRider uses the Adobe® AIR™ runtime. This means our Math game runs on Windows and Mac. Your computer requires about 80MB of available hard disk space. Your monitor (and graphics card) need to support at least a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels.”

There is a 7 day free trial available for MathRider. To purchase, MathRider is $47 and includes free updates for life. This allows for 8 players who each create their own “rider” and settings. The game constantly adjusts itself based on your child’s progress.

Read more reviews on Math Rider at the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog.

Things I wish I knew 10 years ago.

As we wrap up our school year, (Ours goes May-April. I don’t really know why. It’s just the way it started years ago and here we are.) life gets a little easier. With many subjects finished for the year, our school days are shorter and the weather outside is nicer. It makes for a cleaner house and more laundry. Who wants to fold laundry inside on a nice day?! Baskets litter the living room, and just when I get it all folded and put away there’s more to fold. Around and around we go.

Today: Things that make my life easier.

I sweep. The kids follow me with a little broom and dustpan and clean up the piles. The baby has less chance of crawling through them this way.

The kids all have laundry baskets with their names on them. Laundry is folded into them, and each big kid takes care of their own basket and their buddy’s basket.

The Buddy System: Liberty and Pierce are together, Eden and Charlotte, Sterling and Ruby have each other. After much deliberation, putting the two middles together works phenomenally well. They aren’t old enough to be responsible for a little one, but are old enough to take care of most things themselves. They keep each other in check.

The buddies help each other out. Charlotte needs to go potty? Eden helps with that. Pierce needs to be washed up? Liberty’s all over it. Sterling has a job he finds daunting? Ruby will pitch in. Buckling up in the van is so much faster when I can put them all in, close the door, and kids set to buckling seat belts for one another. It’s spread the extra workload I can’t do fairly evenly and strengthened the sibling relationships. Ask Charlie who her buddy is and she’ll pipe right up and tell you. The hollers from the bathroom when she needs wiping assistance is pretty hilarious. “EDEN! You. Are. My BUDDY! I need HELP!”

If you finish your job early, it’s beneficial to you to help someone else out. This lesson was long in coming, but they are finally getting it. Free time begins when everyone is finished. Help them, you get out sooner too.

The One Finger Rule: touch that item on the store shelves, go ahead. With ONE finger. Decide to straighten rearrange destroy the shelves with that one finger and your privilege was just revoked and your hands are now in Pocket Detention.

My keys are on a string. This helps me find them quickly in an overcrowded diaper bag. It also provides a leash. Any child who repeatedly has obedience issues must hold on to the string that dangles from my keys in my pocket. Letting go is not an option.

Time stamps. Kids are up by 7am. Breakfast must be finished and cleaned up by 8am. School starts at 8:30. Lunch is at noon, unless you have had a bad attitude and haven’t tried your best. Attitudes result in all school being finished before lunch. Supper is at 6pm. By setting times for certain non-negotiable moments in our day, we keep on task.

My list. It’s the “If nothing else happens today, these are the bare minimums necessary” list. School, food, at least one load of laundry washed and dried, and the house straightened. If these things happen, we’ve had a successful day. More is obviously great, helpful, and necessary to run the house, but we won’t fall apart and tomorrow won’t be an awful day of catch-up if we’ve done these things.

What things make your days easier? What rules do you have in your house?

TOS Review Crew: Progeny Press’ Dragon’s Hoard

As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve been given the privilege to review The Hall of Doors series The Dragon’s Hoard by Rebecca Gillenland from Progeny Press this month. I also received and used the Hall of Doors: Dragon’s Hoard Study Guide. Liberty (9) and Eden (8) each used a copy of the study guide.

Written for upper elementary grades in the spirit of The Hobbit, The Dragon’s Hoard was much enjoyed by all of my children. Sterling (almost 6) and Ruby (4) thoroughly enjoyed listening to the story alongside Liberty and Eden – although I didn’t have them do the interactive study guide with the girls. The girls begged and begged for me to read them more. I was impressed with how well they learned and retained what we’d read. After making two copies of the downloaded study guide, each girl was on her own for answering questions in the space provided in the PDF file.

The interactive study guide did a great job of picking the story line apart, asking the student to evaluate the characters and their motives. Fear, worry, and courage were main themes in the book and further discussed in the study guide. The study guide did a great job of giving scripture references to look up and evaluate the characters and their responses to situations that arise in the book. It also includes a word search and cross word puzzle and many ideas for further study, book reports, field trips, art, and further reading.

The Hall of Doors: The Dragon’s Hoard was easily read in an hour and a half, but the study guide slowed them down and sent them back to the book often. I read it aloud the first time, but both Eden and Liberty were able to read it as well, and did as they went back to the book to find answers in the chapter-by-chapter study guide.

The Hall of Doors: The Dragon’s Hoard book is available here for $6.99. The Hall of Doors: Dragon’s Hoard Study Guide is available here for $15.99.

Read more reviews from other the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew members here.