Schoolhouse Crew Review: Out of the Box Games

We love to play games at our house.  I had honestly never heard of Out of the Box Games before, but am always excited to have something new to play with the children.  We were given Snake Oil to use and review.   Snake Oil ($19.99) is a game for 3-10 players with the recommended age of 10 and up.  It is very easy to learn and a game can be played in 20-30 minutes.  To play the game, you choose one person to be the first customer and he takes a customer card.  The customer card is double sided and the customer can choose either side and takes on the role of their choice.  On the cards you can find everything from a pirate to a hunter to a senior citizen or a vampire.  There are 28 different customer cards with 56 different customer choices.  Each player gets 6 word cards.  The other players combine any two cards in their hand to create an item to sell to the customer.  There are 336 word cards to choose from making combinations such as:  Energy Belt, Diamond Grenade, Love Cream, Snow Gum, Pocket Umbrella, and many many more.  The players then pitch their product to the customer.  After each player has given their pitch, the customer selects the one he likes the best and awards the customer card to that player.  Used word cards are discarded and players draw new ones to replace them.  Play continues to the left of the first customer and the game continues until all players have been the customer once.  The winner is the player who has the most customer cards.
I used Snake Oil with my 5,7,9, and 10 year olds.  I mentioned above that we love to play games.  I was a little worried though about how the younger children would be able to play this game.  The age recommendation for the game is 10 and up and I knew my 9 and 10 year old would be fine, but I was not sure that the younger children would even get the concept of the game.  When the game came and they saw the box, they kept asking me what Snake Oil was.  I explained the concept of a "Snake Oil Salesmen" but still didn't think they understood.  They didn't want to be left out though and really wanted to play.  I thought I'd probably have to do a lot of explaining as we went along but wanted them to feel included, so they all played.

 
It turned out that I shouldn't have worried.  They understood completely and did a great job trying to sell their products to the customer.  They did so good getting into character both as the customer and the salesmen.
We loved that it was very easy to set up and learn and besides the cards were no pieces to lose (not that we ever lose game pieces!)  It was great to have a new game they could play together.  It was a lot of fun listening to the kids pitch their products to the customer and seeing them get into the persona as the customer.  
I did take a few cards out of the stack because they were not things that I wanted the children making up products for.  A few of the ones I took out were things like: murder, hell, blood, revenge, corpse, alcohol, vomit, and bra.  A parent can easily go through the stacks before playing the game and remove any cards they do not want in the game and they will not be missed.  
To see what my Crew Mates had to say, click on the banner below.

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Schoolhouse Crew Review: Purposeful Design

Our latest review is a beautiful book called Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation from Purposeful Design. Just looking at a picture of the cover of the book makes me want to buy it!  But let me tell you a little abut the book itself.
Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation is a hardcover book that is 91 pages long.  This book is written for all ages.  Older elementary through adults can read and enjoy the book on their own, and younger children can enjoy it as a read aloud, or even just pick it up to enjoy the pictures.  In this book, the reader will learn about the different elements of design and scientific principles that makes life possible and that each element was lovingly designed by a Creator God.  
The book contains 7 different chapters:
Chapter One: The First Day Creation of the Heavens and the Earth-The Foundation of it All

Chapter Two-The Second Day Creation of Atmosphere and Water

Chapter Three-The Third Day Creation of the Dry Land and Vegetation

Chapter Four-The Fourth Day Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars

Chapter Five-The Fifth Day Creation of Birds and Fish

Chapter Six-Creation Day Six Creation of Land Animals and Humans

Chapter Seven- The Seventh Day

Each chapter starts with the Bible verses that discuss that day of creation.  But the book does much more than talk about what was created on each day.  It goes into specifics in a reader friendly way about the science behind what was being created and shows how it cannot be just a coincidence.  For example when discussing the creation of  the atmosphere and water the book tells us that 71% of the earth's surface is oceans.  If less than 71% were oceans we would have vast deserts and not enough rain.  More than 71% would cause to much rain and extreme floods.  Each of the chapters are beautifully illustrated and use charts and graphs to help explain the concepts being discussed.  
You can purchase Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation for $18.95.  To go along with the book, there is a Young Explorer's Club curriculum for elementary aged readers and above.  This curriculum is in PDF format and contains a child's workbook (30 pages) , a teacher's answer key (40 pages) and certificates of completion.  There is a section of the workbook for each chapter of the book.  It begins with the Bible verses covering that day of Creation and then moves into questions on the verse and questions that were covered in the book.  Next some verses are listed for reflection and some further exercises are given such as answering deeper questions and drawing a picture.  Each section ends with a closing prayer and a certificate of completion.  The curriculum is free to download.
I used Purposeful Design with my 3,5,7,9,10, and 12 year olds.  We used it as a read aloud during our morning Bible time completing one chapter per day.  We used the Young Explorer's curriculum with each chapter.  We answered the questions orally.
We really enjoyed reading through this book.  As I said above it is absolutely beautiful!  I love the cover and the photographs, charts, and illustrations that are inside.  My children loved just looking at the pictures.  Their favorites were the pictures of humorous creatures like the piglet squid.  We have read many books and stories about Biblical Creation, but never one quite like this one that explains the scientific details behind everything that was created, in a way that is easy to read and understand. Children can plainly see and understand that earth's tilt is 23.5 degrees and what would happen if it wasn't.  It makes sense and shows that our world was purposefully designed by a loving Creator.
The curriculum to go along with the book was an added bonus.  I chose out the questions that I thought were suitable to the ages of my children and had them answer aloud.  We also read through all of the reflection verses and discussed those.  There are future plans to develop a separate set of questions for pre-k, elementary, and high school, and I would love to see that!
To see what my Crew Mates had to say, click on the banner below.  

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 12

12 weeks completed in this homeschool year!  It sure has been flying by!

Week 12 in our Homeschool:

Bible: We finished up the biography we were reading on King David this week.  I have not yet decided what we will be reading aloud next week.  I had wanted to do a read aloud on missionaries or a biography on Paul.  I will have to decide by tomorrow :) We started lesson 8 in What On Earth Can We Do?  The chapter is entitled "What Will Happen When the Master Returns?"  This is the last chapter in the book and we will finish it up this week.  Then I will have to decide what to use to fill in for a few weeks before starting back with Bible Study Guide For All Ages after the holidays.

History: This week's history lessons covered a lot of information.  We finished lessons 25-27 in Mystery of History Vol III on Babur, Akbar, and the Mughal Dynasty of India, Henry VIII and His Many Wives, and Sir Thomas More.  We also completed the time line figures, memory cards, and mapping assignments.

Science: In Exploring Creation With Chemistry and Physics we finished reading Lesson 7 on the Dynamics of Motion.  We had an opportunity to do a few experiments on van der Waals force, centripetal force, and air resistance.

Spelling: Alex finished up lesson 20 in AAS.  I ordered the components for AAR Level 2 for Christian and Anthony, but they haven't arrived yet.  FedEx Smart Post has to be the slowest shipping service ever!  Until it arrives we are just reviewing words from Level One of AAR.

Math: Nick and Alex just finished up Lesson 12 of their Math U See books.  Christian and Anthony finished Lesson 11 of their Math U See books.

Language: We are still working our way through Word Up! from Compass Classroom.  I will be posting a complete review on this soon.

Literature: Christian finished his paper on what he wants to be when he grows up.  He decided he wants to be an author.  We started reading Frog and Toad this week and completed the corresponding worksheets.  Anthony is still enjoying Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  He really wants to finish to this week so he can watch the movie.  He has completed the corresponding worksheet and we will start on his paper this week.  Nick and Alex finished Lesson 9 in IEW Medieval Writing Lessons and Lesson 11 in Fix It! Grammar.

Anthony working on a puzzle waiting for his turn in Literature

My Father's World Creation From A to Z

We started working on a new unit this week.  This unit focuses on the letter "T", turtles, and persevering instead of giving up.  So far Lily has learned a new poem, filled out her calender, and 100 chart, made her letter "T" picture envelope, read a non fiction book on turtles, watched turtle eggs hatch (youtube), watch sea turtles swim (youtube), did some worksheets on the letter "T" and the number 6, made her turtle badge, and made a paper plate turtle. She also pretended to be a turtle using a clothes basket as a shell. In this unit, they also start learning how to blend letters into words.

Emmie is learning the MFW flashcards too

Other Activities this Week

It was another busy one!  Art's truck motor blew up last week which caused a bit of a transportation issue and a decision that had to be made to purchase a new vehicle.

Monday night was the first night of Christian's soccer tournament.  They won!  which meant we were supposed to play again on Tuesday.  Tuesday is normally gymnastics day so I rearranged my schedule planning on gymnastics, running some errands, picking up daddy, then heading to soccer.  Gymnastics ended up being rescheduled to Wednesday and the weather caused soccer to be moved to Thursday.  We still picked up daddy from work though :)

The girls made quite a village on the rainy day

Wednesday afternoon we went to gymnastics and then drove 1 1/2 hours to pick up daddy's new truck.  We went out to eat (my children love going out to eat!) and then drove back home.  It is a nice truck though and we are pleased with the purchase.

Thursday was soccer.  We lost.  He had a great time and I am very thankful the season is over!

Friday we worked on cleaning house.  There have been a LOT of things that have been neglected since we have been so busy.  We are working on trying to catch those things up!

Saturday Art had to run to Lowes (a little over an hour away.)  Alex went with him but the rest of us stayed home.  Sometimes it is so nice to just stay home!  Art and Alex went hunting out in the yard when they got home and Art ended up with 2 deer.  That was big excitement of course as all the children had to go out and watch daddy process the deer.

Our rabbits turned 5 weeks old this week and will hopefully be ready to head to some new homes soon!

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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Review: The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson

Book Description "Margaretha has always been a romantic, and she hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true love. But then an injured man is brought to Hagenheim Castle, claiming to be an English lord who was attacked by Claybrook and left for dead. And only Margaretha—one of the few who speaks his language—understands the wild story. Unable to pass his message on to her father, the duke, Margaretha convinces herself “Lord Colin” is just an addled stranger. But when Colin asks her to spy on Claybrook as repayment for retrieving a lost heirloom, Margaretha discovers that she might be very wrong about both Colin and her potential betrothed."

About the Author "Melanie Dickerson is the author of The Healer’s Apprentice, a Christy Award finalist and winner of the National Reader’s Choice Award for Best First Book. Melanie earned a bachelor’s degree in special education from the University of Alabama and has been a teacher and a missionary. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Huntsville, Alabama."


This is the first time I have ever reviewed a book by Melanie Dickerson but after reading this one it is sure to not be my last.  I great enjoyed this "Frog Prince" retelling and immediately went to Melanie Dickerson's website to see how many other books she had written.  I love historical romance and I don't know that you ever outgrow the love of a good happily ever after fairy tale.  The story had action, adventure, faith, fantasy, and of course romance.  The characters were well developed and went through some growth and change along the way.  They learned many things not only about others but more importantly about themselves.  I loved the setting and the plot.  Even though there was some violence, and even some characters that died, it was not gruesome or gory.  

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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Advice for Homeschoolers With High Schoolers

 I told some homeschool friends with younger children that they at least could benefit from all of the mistakes that I made when getting ready to graduate my oldest daughter last year.  I sure felt like I made a ton of mistakes, but it was a whole new experience for me.  For a few months I felt like I was drowning in paperwork too!  In the end though we managed to get everything done just fine and you will too!  But if you are interested in some of the things I learned throughout the process, read on :)

The first thing I would suggest is that starting in 8th or 9th grade, keep good records.  Record the type of course, the name of the course, a short description, credit hours earned, and grades.  I did not do a good job with this.  I recorded the type of course, credit hour and grade, but not the specific name of the courses.  When I sat down in January of her senior year to work on the transcript, I could not remember the specific name of the Composition course she took in 9th grade.  Luckily, I have everything documented on this blog but it took me some time to go through and get everything down.  If you start keeping good records from the beginning, you will not have that problem!

Make sure you have a professional looking transcript.  If you are in Arkansas, The Education Alliance will make a transcript for you for a donation.  You give them all of the information and they complete the transcript and figure out the credit hours and GPA.  They look very professional. they have a seal, and are signed by the President of the Education Alliance.  You can get as many copies as you would like, and they will even send them directly to your college choices.  Take advantage of this service.  It is so worth it!!  If you are not in Arkansas, I would recommend looking for a similar service.  The transcript is an important part of going to college and it needs to look as professional as possible.  You will need to have an early transcript when you start applying to colleges and then a final transcript as soon as the child graduates with all of the final grades and a graduation date on it.

They tell you to get the FAFSA filled out as quickly as possible.  What I learned though is that there is a such thing as getting it filled out too quickly.  We filed our income tax and the next day I started working on the FAFSA.  There is an option for them to electronically retrieve your information from your federal income tax, but they can only do that after a certain time period has passed (I think it's two weeks) after filing your taxes.  I chose to go ahead an put the information in myself since it had not been two weeks since I filed.  None of the colleges Chelsea applied to would accept it because I had put the information in without using the retrieval tool.  So I had to go back and fill out another form allowing my information to be retrieved electronically before the schools would process the paperwork. If I had waited I could have saved myself that step.  Then, our FAFSA got pulled for verification.  So I had to fill out more paperwork and get it sent in.  What were they verifying?  That the number of dependents we claimed were actual dependents.  So if you have a larger than average family, you may want to be prepared for that step as well.

Don't expect the colleges to get back to you when they say they will.  I have a tendency to not want to be pushy and when someone says we will get back to you by such and such a date, I take them at their word and even if they don't get back by that day I give them a little more time because I don't want to be pushy.  You have to be pushy in these cases.  If you don't hear back when you are supposed to, you need to call, email, do whatever you need to do to get yourself back in touch with that person.  They are processing a lot of paperwork and children and you are not that important to them.  Be pushy.  Make sure they have all of the paperwork they need.  Even if you sent it all.  There was one paper we had to send 3 times because it was lost or misfiled.  Many schools will not process your financial aid until they have all the paperwork on file.  Be pushy.  The biggest hold up for us?  I had sent an early transcript in but forgot to send a final transcript in.  That one piece of paper caused all of our hold up but luckily we still managed to get everything done on time.

Test scores are a big part of getting in to college and getting scholarships.  All of the colleges we were looking at used the ACT but some colleges want an SAT as well.  Check and see what the schools you are interested in want.  Take them early.  Chelsea took her first ACT at the age of 15.  She didn't do bad on it, but it did show her the areas she needed to work in.  We bought a simple test prep book from Walmart and worked in it several times a week.  The next time she took the test she had raised her total score 6 points!  You can take the ACT as many times as you want and it will save the highest score you get in each area, so you can only benefit by taking the test more than once.

I graduated Chelsea at the age of 17.  She had more than fulfilled all of the necessary credits to graduate.  Academically she was more than ready to graduate.  But honestly, if I could go back I would've had her stay in high school one more year.  Maybe take a college course or two but not graduate her until 18.  There is a huge difference between 17 and 18 and I think that extra year at home could have been a big benefit to her.  Plus she had made such an improvement on her test scores at 15 and 16, I think if she had been able to take it one more time she could have scored even higher.  She is doing great at college and I am so very proud of everything she has accomplished, I just don't know if I will be in a hurry to let my others graduate early ;)

I know a lot of parents worry about whether or not their homeschooled children will have a hard time getting in to college.  We did not have a hard time getting accepted at any of her college choices. There were several schools in fact that were pursuing her because she was homeschooled.  The biggest thing they looked at were test scores and second was her transcript.  Colleges have noticed how well homeschool students tend to do in college and they do not care whether or not the diploma was awarded by a parent or a school system.

Happy Homeschooling!

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Stolen Blog Content

When I started this blog, the only people that read it were my husband and my mom.  I have a few more readers these days, but still am a relatively small blog compared to some.  One thing that I fail to understand is why someone would steal my content and even what would lead them here to do it.

Last week, my husband was having a rough week.  He sent me a text message that said he needed a beach vacation that day.  So, as a reminder of how nice our beach vacation was, I was texting him a link to the blog post I wrote about the beach vacation.  I was on my phone, so I googled it to get the link.  To my surprise my blog post was not the first link to show up!  Instead the number one post was to a site that I had never heard of before that not only was using my photos without permission, but also hosting them as a download so anyone could download and use them and they had been downloaded 377 times!  The photos were family specific.  They were photos of my children playing on the beach and a few photos of the beach house we stayed in.  The site that stole them had nothing to do with homeschooling or the beach and there was nothing else on the website related to either of those topics.  I was surprised to say the least.

The site had a contact us tab, but when I clicked on it it led to a blank page.  After asking some blogging friends what other have done in a similar situation, I reported the site to www.privacyprotect.org.  They responded within a day and told me to report it to the host of the website.  You can look that information up at www.whoishostingthis.com.  I reported it and received a response almost immediately.  Within 24 hours, the photos were taken down.

How do we protect ourselves from content being stolen?  As much I would be annoyed to find some of my written posts stolen and on another site, it bothered me a great deal more to see my photos being used on a site that wasn't related to anything that I write about! It was very bizarre!  I am no expert in protecting your content when you are blogging but these are some of the things I have been told.  Have a copyright statement on your blog.  Will people respect it? Probably not.  But if something is stolen then when you do report it you can say that your copyrighted photos, post etc...was used without your permission.  You can disable right click copying on your blog.  Does this mean someone still can't steal your content?  No they still can but it makes it harder.  You can put a watermark on your photos or label them with your blog name.  You can also set up google alerts that will send you an email alerting you when whatever key words you have set up gets posted on the web.

And don't forget if you find your content someplace it is not supposed to be, report it!  If the site itself will not respond or take it down, the server host will if it is stolen content.

Happy Homeschooling!

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Schoolhouse Crew Review: David Nicholson

There are many movies and books especially around the holidays, in which we get to see what life would've been like on earth if one particular character had not been born, or what life would be like if they made certain changes in their lives.  But,  have you ever talked with your children or thought about what life might be like if Jesus had never been born?  Our latest review from David Nicholson, If He Had Not Come, shows what life may have been like if Jesus had never been born.
If He Had Not Come is a hardcover, 40 page, illustrated book for ages 6 and up, although younger children may enjoy the story as well.  The story was originally written by Nan F. Weeks and included as part of an anthology, Christ in the Fine Arts that was published in 1938.  David Nicholson, a retired teacher and short term missionary, discovered the story when his children were young and after many years of reading it to his own children, decided to reintroduce the story to a new generation.
The story is about a young man named Bobby who is very excited on Christmas Eve.  Before going to bed he and his dad sat down for their daily Bible reading.  Some of the words from the Bible reading "If I Had Not Come "(John 15:22) stayed in Bobby's mind as he fell asleep.  Shortly after he hears a voice calling to him and he can't wait to see his gifts under the tree, but the world he woke up to was very different from the one he fell asleep in.
At the end of the book you will find 6 discussion questions related to the story.  On the following page you will find 4 Going Deeper questions that go more in depth to the idea of what life would be like if Jesus had not come to earth and why Jesus came to earth.  There is also a page explaining the Gospel Message, and an idea to help you celebrate Christmas.
You can purchase If He Had Not Come for $18.99 for a physical copy, or for $3.99 as an ebook.
I read If He Had Not Come to my 3,5,7,9, and 10 year olds.  We read it as a bedtime story.  My first impression of the book was that I loved the illustrations.  They are beautiful!  I also like the large size of the pages and that it is a hardcover book as they are much sturdier and tend to last longer.  We had never read a book exploring what life might be like if Jesus had never been born.  The children enjoyed the story and it led to some very interesting discussions.  After finishing the book we continued to talk about what kinds of things would be different if Jesus had not been born and I was surprised by some of their answers even down to the idea that our youngest son would not be named Christian!
One of the things that stood out to me in the story is that Bobby is shocked in the story that the factories and stores are all open on Christmas Day.  That would have been shocking when this story was first published, and even when I was a little girl, but sadly in today's world that is not such an uncommon thing.  
We loved the story and If He Had Not Come will become one of our favorite Christmas read alouds.
To see what my Crew Mates had to say, click on the banner below.

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