CrossTimber {TOS Review}

Normally, my reviews are homeschool related - curriculum, books, movies, or games. Every now and then, I get to review a product that is not for the children, but for me. This is one of those times, and I'm really excited to share this review with you!

CrossTimber makes and sells unique name-meaning gifts - anything from bookmarks to coffee mugs to framed prints. I received one Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse. I also ordered {with my own money} a coffee mug with my husband's name on it for his birthday, which was October 20.

I contacted John through their website with questions about our family's name meanings. He answered me right away, and immediately I was impressed with how thorough and beautiful the meanings of our names were. I always knew that my name, Megan, meant "A Pearl", and most name cards just say "Megan - A Pearl". Here is the full meaning of my name from CrossTimber:

Pearl, Precious before God:
One of Mighty Victory
Malachi 3:16
"A book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the LORD and thought upon his name.  And they shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them like they were my own son."

 

I knew right away that I wanted to order name gifts for each member of my family! My husband's birthday was coming up, so I ordered him a coffee mug. He is an avid hunter, so I had a deer picture put on the mug, along with his name meaning:

Rodrick

Rich in Glory; Powerful Leader

Devoted: One of Humility Before God

Micah 6:8

"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

 

 

He loved his gift! It seemed much more personal than a new shirt or pair of boots. I am very impressed with the quality of the coffee mug. It is a heavy mug, the printed portion is dishwasher safe and very brightly colored. Also included was a bookmark with his name and one with our family name. The picture cannot do it justice. It's absolutely beautiful. I plan to buy several of these for gifts this holiday season.

 

The name plaque I received was also beautiful. The quality is wonderful, the 5x7 frame is so pretty with the background I chose. I decided to have our last name on this plaque:

Russell

Fair Countenance:

One who uses Power Wisely

"Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning: for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee." Psalm 143:8

 



 

Ordering from CrossTimber was easy. After I knew our name meanings, I could choose from hundreds of different background designs. This actually wasn't easy - I had a difficult time deciding which beautiful theme to use! There are designs of flowers, scenic landscapes, animals, and more! I chose a simple background for our family name. If you're ordering a framed print, there are several different frame options.

John from CrossTimber is a pleasure to work with. He responds immediately through the chat option on his website, and is always so willing to give you the name meaning or respond to a question you have. The shipping was fast, and the products were wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent any breaking during delivery. I was very pleased with my order through CrossTimber!

 

CrossTimber offers discounts, as well:

I plan to take full advantage of these discounts when ordering my holiday gifts this year! This is the perfect gift idea for that person in your life who already has everything or is difficult to buy for.

 

 

 



 

Why We Love Learning Language Arts Through Literature

This is our first year to use Learning Language Arts Through Literature, and I am so glad I took the chance on this curriculum! There are many negative reviews out there, and they almost kept me from trying it out. I wanted to put this good review out there for anyone who, like me, has been searching for reviews on LLATL without finding many good ones. This is my honest review, as I bought the curriculum myself for my children to use. No one is paying me to say this, no one asked me to review this, I just felt compelled because we are truly enjoying it and my children are thriving on it.

I have Mikaela, 8th grade, in the green book; Eli, 6th grade, in the tan book, and Mercie, 3rd grade, in the yellow book.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature is a language arts program that includes grammar instruction, spelling, punctuation, writing, and literature analysis all in one book. Here are the things we love about LLATL:

• The lessons are short, but full of information, practice, and review. Mercie, my 3rd grader, can finish a lesson in less than 10 minutes a day. Eli takes about 15 minutes and Mikaela about 20 minutes each day. Obviously, some days are longer than others due to a writing assignment or something like that, but this is the average time it takes to complete a lesson {for my kids}. As we embrace many of Charlotte Mason's ideas about education {though not all of them}, this is definitely one of the things I agree with - short lessons are more effective.
• The lessons include good literature. Each week, there is a copy-work {or dictation} passage for your child to write. These always come from a classic book or a well-known poem. I let all of my kids use this as copy-work {and handwriting practice}, even my 6th and 8th graders.
• I don't have several different books for each aspect of language arts. This is important, as I have five children homeschooling. Each book contains my children's spelling, grammar, literature analysis, handwriting, and writing instruction. I don't have to worry that they will forget their spelling or their grammar lesson, as it's all in one book, one lesson, each day.
• My older kids can do this independently. I do have to help, occasionally, and give spelling tests weekly, but the book is written to the student. They can read the lesson, understand the concepts, and work their problems out on their own.
• I sit with Mercie while she completes each lesson, but as I stated before, it takes around ten minutes. I read from the Teacher's Guide, help her with her work, and then she's done. Quick and painless.
• The lessons are the perfect balance in the younger years. Mercie, my 3rd grader, has the perfect balance of handwriting, spelling {6 words weekly}, and grammar instruction. Sprinkled throughout the book are lessons on looking up words in a dictionary, looking up listings in a phonebook, addressing envelopes, and putting words in alphabetical order.
• There are enrichment portions of the lessons that get my kids thinking critically. Several times a week, there is an enrichment portion that has my kids categorizing things, problem solving, or working puzzles. I love this! It's something I would want them to do anyway, and since it's part of their lesson, I don't have to plan something.
• There is plenty of diagramming practice in the older years. Diagramming is an important skill for dissecting parts of speech in sentences. I am glad this is included, and my daughter, Mikaela, has diagramming practice each week.
• My kids have a great book list of literature to read throughout the year. There are 3-5 books your child will read throughout the program, and they are all classics! For example, in the 7th grade book, Mikaela will read "Adam and His Kin", "Much Ado About Nothing", and "Star of Light". Eli, who is working in the 6th grade book, will read "The Bronze Bow", "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch", "The Horse and His Boy", and "Big Red". And, Mercie, in the 3rd grade book, will read "The White Stallion", "Madeline", "Meet George Washington", and "The Courage of Sarah Noble". It's great to have these books already scheduled to read, although I do have them read more than this.

I really can't think of anything that I don't like about LLATL. At first, I was afraid it wasn't enough for my children. As time goes on, I can see how much they're learning! I am now very impressed with the short lessons, gentle grammar instruction, and living literature passages my children do each day. The price is pretty great, too. I ordered mine from Rainbow Resources, and they included all of the books that my kids would need for the year. I paid around $50 for the Teacher's Book, Student Workbook, and the books needed. That's not a bad price, considering you're getting a spelling program, literature program, writing program, grammar program, handwriting program, and poetry program all in one!

 If you're on the fence about buying LLATL, I suggest jumping right into it. It's a great program, especially if you know going in that there will be short lessons without a lot of busy work and that concepts kind of jump around a bit in the younger years {which is not a problem for us}. I am so glad that I went ahead and ordered this program. I plan to keep on using it with all of my children.

Weekly Recap

This week was pretty much like all of the other weeks we have had lately. Mercie, Eli, Silas and Titus did start Expedition Earth this week. You can read about our fun week in China here.

Mikaela has three units left in America the Beautiful. She is so ready to be finished with this program! It's a beautiful book, and she has enjoyed reading it, but she is ready for a change. We haven't decided what we're going to use next. I'm considering using North Star Geography with her, and maybe some historical fiction. We have also looked at Master Books World Geography. Decisions, decisions!

She is also nearly finished with Principals of Mathematics, Book One. She counted today and has about eight weeks left. She will be moving into Book Two of this same series, so no decisions to make there! She learned about measuring the area of irregular polygons this week.

She completed Lesson 23 {out of 34} in Learning Language Arts Through Literature. She is diagramming compound sentences among other things. She enjoys LLATL, and we plan to get the next book in this series as well. I love how it incorporates literature, grammar, and spelling in one book. The lessons aren't too long, either. She is reading "Adam and His Kin" for a book study, also.

We took a week off from writing and science this week. This mama was tired!

Eli is on chapter 6 in Principals of Mathematics. He is learning about dividing fractions and working some really tough word problems. Seriously tough. I had trouble with them!

He completed Unit 11 in America the Beautiful. He is enjoying all of the reading, mapping and timeline activities.

He also Lesson 20 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature. He is learning how to write an essay this week. I'm sure we will continue with this series when he is finished.

Mikaela and Eli both worked on Rosetta Stone Spanish this week. They have both logged in over 100 hours so far, which is amazing.

Mercie completed Lesson 20 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature. She is learning about subjects and predicates as well as quotation marks. I plan to keep using this series with her.

She finished chapter 9 in Math Lessons for a Living Education. She worked on rounding numbers, and reviewed addition and subtraction facts, clocks, and mental math. She loves this math book! It's so fun and quick.

She also worked in her Critical Thinking Language Smarts book. She learned about prefixes, which come very easily to her even though she's never worked on them before.

She read more in Charlotte's Web and worked on her book study. She read about spiders in the Christian Liberty Nature Reader. She finished reading about spiders, but loves these books so much, she went on to read about shellfish!

Silas worked on blends this week - bl, fl, and gl. We worked on his sight word flashcards, too. He had some fun "how to draw" pages to complete. He enjoyed these a lot!

In math, he learned about the numbers 0-50. We made numbers with our place value village, wrote the numbers down on the marker board, and he had copy-work each day in his math book. He is doing really well with recognizing and breaking down these numbers into tens and ones. We tried all of this last year, and he was just not ready for it. Amazing what difference a year can make.

Titus learned that C is for Commandments. He loves his worksheets from the Preschool Mom! He had fun with pattern blocks, play-dough mats, and alphabet stamps! We worked on putting the lowercase letters with the capital letters for A, B, and C.

We don't do much math with him yet, as he is only in preschool. We worked on the numbers 1-5 this week, which he can recognize already. We played a few games with numbers, like "Which is bigger?" I wrote the numbers 1-5 twice on index cards. We each get a set and mix them up. We turn over one card. The number that is bigger wins! The winner takes the two cards. Whoever has the  most at the end of the game wins. We also draw a card, take that many counters, and whoever gets the most wins.

We had a full week with karate, gymnastics, piano  lessons and church! How was your week?

Linking up with :

Expedition Earth: CHINA

Eli, Mercie, Silas and Titus have begun a journey around the earth. We started Expedition Earth {from Confessions of a Homeschooler} this week, and it has been so much fun! I have decided to add in missionary studies with each country - biographies, stories, and praying for missionaries. We began on the continent of Asia, and our first stop was China.

The kids were excited to receive their own passport, which included a picture of themselves. We added the China flag sticker, and I stamped it with a date stamp {which added an extra element of fun}. I forgot to take a picture of this, but you'll see it next week.

A visit to our library was very disappointing. There were no books on China available, except a Magic Tree House book which we already had. I got on Amazon and Christianbook.com and purchased some great books on China! I don't mind adding to our living books library.

Here are the books we used this week:

{I bought these from Amazon. They are all wonderful, living books.}

{These two books came from Chistianbook.com. I love both!}

{We had these two books already. Some of the countries we will study are in these books, some are not.}

{We also had these books. We will use these to look at one animal each week from each country.}

Here is a breakdown of our week:

Monday: We found China on our wall map and added a flag. I read some Fun Facts about China to the kids, and we completed a mapping activity in our student binder. We also read some missionary stories from "I Heard the Good News" from China.

Tuesday: We learned about China's flag and colored one in our student binder. I asked review questions from yesterday, surprised that they remembered so much. We read the book on Lottie Moon and talked about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Wednesday: We read about the Great Wall of China, and then we made one with Legos and one with wooden blocks. We also colored a picture of the Great Wall and label it as one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Thursday: We read about panda bears and did a simple craft.

Friday: We read some more books on China and made a postcard. I laminated them and put them on a metal ring, so we make one each week and add to it. We reviewed everything we learned this week.

The kids also completed a puzzle of Asia each day this week. They really loved this puzzle, and I plan to buy each continent as we come to it.

We had a lot of fun this week "visiting" China. Next week, we're off to South Korea!

What I Loved About Being on the Homeschool Review Crew

This year was my first year to be on the Homeschool Review Crew. For any of you who don't know what the Homeschool Review Crew is {formerly the Old School House Review Crew}, you can check out their website at http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/

It was a blessing this year to be a Crew Mate! I reviewed a total of 46 products this year, with 4 reviews left to write this year. Wow! I can't believe I have reviewed this many products! Some of them have been absolutely wonderful, while others we could live without!

Some of my favorite products were the Progeny Press literature study guides, Times Tales, Kwik Stix, and Apologia Astronomy {although we have put that away until my littles are bigger}.

Here are a few of the reasons I loved being on the Crew this year:

• I was introduced to a wonderful group of homeschool parents that I interacted with on the private forums. Prayer requests were shared, questions about homeschooling and family were answered, and fun conversations were started on this forum!
• I was introduced to new products - products that I had never heard of, products I had heard of but never tried, and products that I knew would work for our family.
• I received so many fun games, movies, books, and curriculum for free! Best of all, I get to keep everything.
• I learned a lot about blogging.
• I "met" quite a bit of new curriculum providers that I will continue to use.
• I had to think outside the box to use some of the review products, which sparked my creativity sometimes and showed me there is more than one way to do things.

If being on the Crew sounds like something you would like to do, they are accepting applications right now! There are a few requirements you must meet before you apply. Click here to read through these requirements to see if joining the Homeschool Review Crew would be right for you.

 

Familyman's Christmas Treasury {TOS Review}

When my children and I were walking through Walmart last week, I was surprised to see that they were already putting out their Christmas displays! As I passed by several aisles full of Christmas ornaments, stockings, and tree toppers, immediately followed by several aisles of Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations, I almost laughed out loud. It seems we rush Christmas more and more each year, starting the "holiday season" before fall is even in full swing {in Louisiana, anyway}. Since the Christmas spirit seems to be spreading already, I have a Christmas review for you!

My children and I were given the opportunity to review an early Christmas product - The Familyman's Christmas Treasury - Audio Collection. This is a collection of six audio books, narrated by Jim Hodges and put out by the Familyman. Here are the story titles in this collection:

• Captain Chaos and The Manger Blaster
• Cootie McKay's Nativity
• The Stranger
• The Bishop's Dream
• Harold Grubbs and the Christmas Vest
• Gladys Remembers Christmas

We also received "The Secret of Snow Village" and "It's Called Christmas". We received these stories in a digital format. It was so easy to download the stories onto my computer and pull them up for my children to listen to. We also received one CD of a story, "The Bishop's Dream", which we listened to in the car while I carted children to gymnastics and piano lessons last week.

The first story we listened to was "It's Called Christmas". This story was about a boy in the future named Nook. In this future world, all religion and everything religious has been erased. Nook knows nothing of Christmas until he an older man at the mall mentions it to him. Nook says, "Happy Holidays" and the man replies, "It's called Christmas". Naturally, since Nook has never heard of that word "Christmas" before, he embarks on a mission to find out what it means. Christmas, and all things religious or offensive, has been banned and erased from history, so it's not exactly easy for Nook to find out the meaning of Christmas. It's a truly interesting story that my boys loved listening to! Silas, my 6 year old, laughed and giggled at the silly parts of the story.

"The Bishop's Dream" was the story we listened to while we were driving around hauling kids to various activities and running errands. I enjoyed this story immensely, as it was about Saint Nicolas. In this story, Saint Nicolas goes around to the children, telling the Gospel story and bringing happiness and encouragement to the families.

"Cootie McKay's Nativity" was a story about a boy named Cootie {yes, Cootie} who saves Christmas for his town! He doesn't know much about the nativity story, but has some interesting and deep questions. Some of these questions, my kids have asked me themselves!  It's a funny story that will keep your kid's attention.

"Gladys Remembers Christmas" was about a young girl named Gladys whose mother died when she was 6 years old. She never felt loved, hated Christmas and hated her name. Some time later, her dad asked her to go to her old house to find a green box in the attic for him. Gladys finds the box, and with a surprise "visit" from her mother, and her life is changed.

These stories are wonderfully written and beautifully narrated. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them, and I plan to have my kids listen to them more throughout the Christmas season. It's wonderful to have these stories - stories with more depth and meaning than the ordinary Christmas books and stories available these days.

Check out the Familyman's Christmas stories in digital format or physical CD's.

 

Educeri {TOS Review}

My children have been using an online program the past month or so as a fun supplement to their regular studies. This program is called Educeri.....Educeri a Division of dataWORKS. We received 12 months of access through the Educeri Lesson Subscription Service.

 

What is Educeri? How does it work?

Educeri is an online subscription service that provides access to hundreds of lessons in all subject areas. The lessons are categorized by grade level {PreK to High School} and subject. The different subject areas are:

• Math
• Science
• English Language Arts
• History
• Art
• P.E.
• Music
• Spanish
• English Language Development
• Other Resources

For only $7 a month, you can have access to all of these lessons. The lessons are presented in a power-point type format. They are compatible with all web browsers and operating systems on any PC, Mac or Chromebook. As you click on each page, the answers will show up in red. Most lessons have a printable student-handout, as well.

The lessons are created by a team of educators, editors, graphic designers, math nerds and grammar snobs. The lessons are very through with graphics and lots of information.

I will walk you through an example lesson for Kindergarten, "Use Clocks to Tell Time". There is a student-handout that you can print out for your child. This will give your child the extra practice and hands-on element so he will understand the lesson.

This is actually a 3-page set. The pages are basically the same with different times.

 

 

This is a 19 page lesson. Each page has text that you will read to your child. When you click the page, the answers will show up in red. Be sure to give your child time to answer the questions before clicking!

 

The lesson pages are almost identical to the student handout.

 

 

At the end of the lesson, there is a chart with Cognitive, Teaching and English Learner Strategies. I'm assuming this for Common Core purposes, as the lessons are Common Core aligned. It is helpful, though, to see which strategies are being taught and learned with each lesson. This is an option that I'm sure many teachers have to have and use in the classroom.

 

What do we think of Educeri?

 

I used Educeri with several of my children. My middle school children went through a lesson on the Bill of Rights. It was very interesting, as I sat with them and read the lesson to them.  I learned so much from the lesson! We would read each Amendment, and then we would read it in easy-to-understand words. Next, we would answer questions about the rights granted to us in the amendment. My oldest daughter really enjoyed this lesson and has remembered a great deal from it. We didn't use any print-outs because we did it orally.

 

I like many of the aspects of Educeri. There truly is a diversity of topics available. Most of the lessons fall under the Language Arts and Math categories. There are very few lessons in the science, history, art, and music categories, especially for the younger grades, which is a disappointment. I do like the way the lessons are presented. Older children can absolutely complete the lessons independently, while younger children will need a parent or teacher to help them. I can totally see having my older children use some of the math lessons to help with difficult concepts, as math is not my best subject!

 

Check out Educeri on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.