Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!! May your family be blessed in the coming year.

Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours!!!!

Christmas Pictures - Quotes - Photobucket

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

Last week I announced that I have become a member of the 2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew. My exciting journey with them has now begun. For my very first Crew review I will be reviewing SchoolhouseTeachers.com yearly membership.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a division of the Old School House Magazine.  It is a curriculum site designed by homeschoolers for homeschoolers. SchoolhouseTeachers.com has over 100 courses taught by some really cool teachers. They have something for every grade level. Courses vary in length from daily lessons to full year courses.  They cover all the main subjects. There are also some fun things like guitar lessons and American Sign Language.  The price of a one year membership is $139. It covers every child in your house. A major bonus if you have more than one child that you are homeschooling.

Once I received my log in code I had to look around and see what goodies I could find.  It didn't matter that it was 10:30 at night. The first thing I did was cruise around to get familiar with the site and how it works. Its fairly simple to navigate and if you cant find what you are looking for they have a handy dandy search box on the right hand side. I would like to see a way to sort courses by specific grade level. Currently It lumps them together into pre k/elementary and middle/high school. It would make it more efficient to find classes for your child's specific grade level. My cruising around led me to a couple of items that really sparked my interest.

 The first thing I have to talk about is the Schoolhouse planners. The Planners come free with your yearly membership. I am a mom that struggles with the planning and tracking portion of class. I can get behind with logging our work if I'm not careful. I am always looking for a simpler way to do it, that doesn't take up half my day. The first thing had to check out the 2014-2015 Schoolhouse planner. Its a quick and simple download. Even for my slow internet it only took a couple of minute to download. The planner includes way more than I will ever use: shopping list, chore charts, field trip log, curriculum recording charts, weekly planner, monthly goals etc. Its even got a must know list with some really great facts that everyone should know. Like when Missouri entered into state hood. I am currently using the field trip planning form and field trip report form.  Hotrod princess filled out the field trip report which is handy for our portfolio. The form ask where we went, what she learned, what she liked and didn't like, and she then drew a picture showing something from the trip. She enjoyed it much more than our old form it was a lot simpler. She loved having the space to draw. For my self I am using the field trip planning form. I think it will help keep me a little more organized. It has all the important information that I need to get prepared for the trip. I can stick it in my record keeping folder to document what field trips we went on for the year.

My 2nd graders work

Next I discovered the Dailies. These are short simple daily lessons that run about a week. We often need a little warm up in the morning before we really get started and dailies have turned out to be perfect. There are several grade levels available. We tried out the Daily Grammar 1st Grade. I chose to try the first grade level Daily Grammar. It was review for my second grader and right on target for my kinder. Who has blew through our original kindergarten language arts curriculum like it was nothing. The Daily Grammar has been fun for my second grader she loves the pictures and the fact that she doesn't have a lot to write. I love that she can do it on her own as a review. She has taken to "teaching" her little sister about the days lesson. It has made a wonderful warm up and got the girls excited to start language arts for the day. The directions/explanations were simple and easy enough for both me and them to understand. Don't forget to check out the samples of there work.

my kinders work

All in all I like SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Its simple and fairly easy to navigate. It looks as though they will be adding some new lessons in future. In the two weeks that I have been using the site I have found quite a few lessons that are very useful to us. I think it gives you a decent bang for your buck.  I couldn't rely on the site for all of my curriculum, but it is a good way to get supplemental materials for your homeschool. Check out some more Crew Reviews for SchoolhouseTeachers.com by clicking on the banner below.

  Right Now SchoolhouseTeacher.com is having a whopping Christmas sale. Right now through Christmas Day at 11:59 Et. Monthly memberships will be 40% off you can get it for a great price of $7.77 a month. The yearly membership is also on sale at 50% off. That makes your yearly membership $64.26 a year. The great part is homeschool families who join now at these rates get to keep them forever as long as you maintain a continuous membership. So click the ad below and get yours today.   Don't forget to check out there social media to: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/schoolhouseteacherscom/

Field trips galore

A couple weeks a go one of my sisters invited us on a homeschool field trip that lasted three days.

Yes that's right we went on a three day field trip. I know we are crazy but it was loads of fun. We visited the Saint Louis science center, planetarium, the Saint Louis Arch, The Magic House, the Museum of Transportation, and last but not least the ZOO! Because it was a three day trip there are going to be a lot of pictures in this post.

We started at the Saint Louis Arch which was finished on October 28th 1965. It cost a whopping 13 million to build. My sister gifted us with tram tickets to the top of the arch. We squeezed two adults and 4 kids into this little tiny elevator that moves both vertical and horizontal. It was a tight fit but totally worth it. We traveled all the way to the top of the arch it is 630 ft. tall and we spent near an hour just looking out the windows and taking pictures. You can actually feel the arch sway with the wind when you are inside it. It was a windy day and we were blessed with this experience. The girls thought it was cool and couldn't wait to tell Nana about it. Nana waited on the ground for us because she is scared of heights and there was no way we were going to get her up there. It was a very cool experience. We also visited the museum that is located at the bottom of the arch. It covers some American history and the girls got to try on a real buffalo skin to see how the Indians felt wearing one. It was surprisingly soft and heavy.

We tried to visit the zoo. The girls normally love the zoo and we have been quite a few times but it was so cold that day that there were hardly any animals out and after a couple of hours we decided to

call it off and head to the science center and planetarium. These two places are very cool if you are ever in Saint Louis you should try and stop in for a visit. The kids spent about 4 hours exploring the science center. The girls explored everything they could get there little hands on. Thanks to there aunt who bought them tickets they each got to watch an Imax movie which was amazing and If you ever get a chance to see one it is well worth the money. They each had there favorite part they both loved running on the hamster wheel to help power the huge erector set. Snoopy liked looking down through the windows that were in the floor of the bridge that crossed over the high way. Hotrod girl loved the Imax movie the best she is still talking about it weeks later.

We spent almost an entire day at the Magic House. Its a giant three story house and everything in it is

HANDS ON!!!!! a homeschool moms dream. They have everything from mock construction zones, play veterinary clinics, to a bubble room, to magnets and static electricity. We had to drag the girls out the door at closing time. I loved the static electricity room they had this metal ball looking thing that you put your hand on and they turned it on and it created static electricity and made your hair stand out all over. The girls basically loved everything the bubbles were cool they got to stand in the middle of a ring and make a huge bubble around them selves. They played huge musical instruments, used different pulley systems to raise them selves off the floor.  Slid down a three story slide and basically ran them selves silly trying to experience everything the place had to offer. It is defiantly on our must see list for our next trip to the city.

We also visited the Museum of Transportation. On the day we visited it was raining cats and dogs and was super cold. Since the weather was so bad we did not get to stay as long as we would have liked and some things like the miniature train ride was closed. We got soaking wet trying to explore some of the trains that they had available to climb on and we had a picnic lunch and visited some of the classic cars they had indoors HotRod girl tried spelling her name out in morse code and snoopy took her picture by an airplane and then we called it a day and went swimming at the motel.

All in all we had loads of fun and learned all sorts of fun things. We cant wait tell the next field trip. Happy Homeschooling !!!!

Christmas Projects

This week I have been working like a crazy woman trying to finish up some Christmas projects for

the girls and one of my nieces. I got this hair brained idea two weeks a go that the girls needed a doll high chair to go with the doll bed I made for them a year a go. I set out to find some free downloadable plans for the high chair. Lets just say, that was a total flop everything was cheesy I found one picture on line that I liked but it was one of those dead end pictures and I have no idea where it came from. So my crafty self took a look at that picture and then some measurements from three other plans that I had found and didn't like and I sort of created a plan for a doll high chair. I started it two weeks a go I had no idea if it would even work out. All I had to loose was $10 in wood and some time. I think it turned out alright but I have worn out a palm sander and I don't think I have any finger prints left from all the sanding this thing took.  I finally settled on a stain took me 30 minutes of standing in the middle of the isle at Walmart going this one! no this one! wait maybe this one is better. Finally I texted my sister and narrowed it down to two colors and then I just closed my eyes and grabbed one. Check out the Pictures and tell me what you think. If you cant tell the tray slides in and out just like a real high chair.

While I was browsing around online for the high chair plans. I came across a plan on http://ana-white.com/ for a tic tac toe board game. My girls love tic tac toe they play constantly, I am always finding game doodles on the back of there class work. So of course I decided they needed to have one. I rummaged around the scrap pile and found just enough for two game boards. My niece and nephew will also be receiving one. Of course me being me I couldn't just follow the plan I had to change it up a little. The original plan called for 1x4's to make the box I didn't have any so I used the left over 1x2's from the high chair project and some scrap 1/4" ply. I exchanged the 2x2 game pieces for actual X's and O's from one of my favorite stores Hobby Lobby. They are made out of 1/4" ply I probably could have cut them out my self but it only cost me $2 for enough letters to do both game boards. I really hope the kids enjoy there gifts and I managed to get them done before Christmas Eve this time !

Christmas stories

With Christmas well on its way I have begun collecting books four our count down tell Christmas. for 12 days before Christmas each night my girls get to open a new book to read. Thanks to ZonderKids they have provided me free of charge with four kids books that are all Christmas stories. The girls have yet to see the books so this is a super secret post and hopefully they wont see it before Christmas gets here.  I am going to use photos provide by Zonderkids for this review as I don't want the girls to catch me trying to get good shots of the books. You can find where to buy each book by clicking its name.

The first book on the list is The Legend of St. Nicholas it sells for $15.99 I know that seems like a bit
much for a kids book but this story is worth every penny. It is also a Hard back book so it will last for years to come.  As an adult I enjoyed this book so much that I read it twice. It tells the story about a man named Nicholas who secretly gave to the needy and the poor all over the world. He gave gifts on Christmas Eve to remind the people of the world about the greatest gift in all the world. Jesus Christ. The illustrations in this book are just amazing. You cant tell it in the photo but the book jacket has beautiful glittery snow along the bottom that has a wonderful bumpy texture and an amazing picture of a young Nicholas carrying his pack of toys. I can just see the girls getting excited to read this book when they open it. I love that this book not only shows the true meaning of Christmas but it also helps our children to see the needs of others and that giving a gift is often better than receiving one.

The second book on our list is the Yuletide Ice Cube Fair it sells for $3.99 and is a very reasonable price for a paper back book. Its a cute little VeggieTales books who doesn't like VeggieTales right, they are just adorable. In this book the Veggies gather at the Ice Cube Fair for some winter fun. They enter a Ice Cube carving contest and have carved everything from trees to angels trying to out do each other and win the grand prize! When the smallest of carved Ice cubes is entered its of a tiny stable and shepherd on one knee that the Veggies learn that Christmas is not about the biggest or the best its about Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I love everything about this book the pictures are so cute and it tells a great story that all kids should learn. This is a great story its marked for younger kids 4-8 even though I enjoyed the story and I cant wait to read it to the girls.







The First Christmas Ever sells for $1.99 so it is a wonderful paper back budget book. It tells a simple
version of the Birth of Jesus. For a $1.99 this book is just cute. I love how the story of Jesus birth is told and the illustrations are adorable cartoon images that are sure to capture your child's attention.  It would make a wonderful stocking stuffer for the little ones just learning the story of Christmas.

Last but certainly not least is The Christmas Story for Children it is a paper back book sells for $6.99. This book also tell the story of Jesus Christ birth but it takes it a little father to include his Baptism and tells some of his life as he becomes the Messiah.  Its a wonderfully illustrated book can you tell I love books that have great pictures.  It is written in a way that is easy to understand and is just perfect for children a little bit older who are ready to learn a bit more about Jesus. Its geared toward kids 4-8 years old.





Disclaimer: I received these books free of charger from the publisher in exchange for this review. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own.

Big Happenings

Some exciting events are about to happen at our house. I have been blessed with two amazing opportunities. In December I will be Joining the 2015 School House Review Crew. Which means I will be blogging more about our weekly activities but I will also be putting out more reviews on some really cool educational products. I am so excited to see what the Crew has to offer this year. This is a Huge Blessing for our Family.
The second big event Drum Role please........... I start my first official collage class I finished my registration earlier this month and my class is set to start in January. I'm only enrolled in one class, its more for personal enrichment than anything else but I am excited and blessed to have the opportunity to take the class. Aroma Therapy is something I have used for years and I have always wanted to take it to the next level.  The girls are enjoying the fact that mommy will have school work to do. I am excited to see where the new year will take us, I hope you be here to enjoy the journey with me. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Safety First Summit High Back Booster

In our house cars are a big deal. I build classic cars with my dad and both of my girls spend a lot of HERE. Its also available in other colors.

time in the shop. Safety is our top priority both while working on a car and riding in one. Both of my girls rode rear facing tell they were 2 years old because that is the safest position for young kids. We also Harnessed tell they were at the upper limits of there harnessing seats. My oldest who is 7 years old and 47.5 lbs and is 3ft 11.5in tall has just now transitioned to a high back belt positioning booster when she reached the limit of her 5 point harness. My 5 year old is still currently riding in her 5 point harness and has about a year to go in it. She is 43.5 lbs and 3ft 8in tall.  The great people at Safety First provided me with some great tips for child passenger safety week and they also provided me with Safety First Summit High Back Booster to try out with my girls. The Summit High Back Booster is designed to be Forward-facing 22-40 with a 5 point harness system and then converts to a high back booster for children 40-100 pounds.  It includes side impact protection, 4 position QuickFit headrest that adjust with the harness for a better fit, no rethreading to adjust the 5 point harness. It has pivoting armrest and 3 buckle stalk locations, a cup holder and it Meets or exceeds Federal and ASTM Safety Standards.  You can buy the Summit at Walmart the color I received sells for $88.65 and you can find it

Over all the seat has a nice look to it but it is a wide seat so if you need to fit 3 across this may not be the seat for your car.  I did manage to get three across in my 08 Dodge Durango I had a Nautilus  in the outboard seat behind the drive my narrow radian 65 in the middle and I managed to have just enough room to install the Summit in the outboard passenger seat. This made the Nautilus in high back booster mode very hard to buckle there is no way my 7 year old could buckle herself in it but we managed to make it work for a quick trip into town.  Installing the Summit in the 2013 Camry with latch was very challenging. It did not want to tighten down enough It took me 4 try's and all my weight in the seat and fiddling with the latch belt to get it to tighten down. It was some what easier to install using latch in the Durango but it still does not tighten down as easily as my other seat does. I could not get a good install with the seat belt in the Camry but was able to get a decent install in the Durango using the seat belt in an out board seat.

My 5 Year old top harness
position.

My 5 year olds shoulder position

I tested the seat out with the 5 point harness first with both my niece and my 5 year old daughter. My daughter is on the very top harness adjustment and my niece at 3 years old has to use one harness adjustment down from the very top. It was easy to adjust with a quick click of the bar on the back of the seat. Tightening the harness up is very simple there is a pull strap in the front, that you simply tug to tighten. They both say the seat was
very comfortable and I heard no complaints on the trips we took using the seat.  I love the flip up arm rest they make it easier to get kid's in and out when they are not able to climb in on there own. Both girls like the cup holder and the arm rest.

yes I know I did not remove the buckle
stalk in the photo it must be removed
to use the seat as a booster.

Next I tested the seat as a belt positioning booster in my Durango. With both my 7 year old and my 5 year old. They both meet the height and weight requirements to use it as a booster. I buckled my 7 year old in first she is not able to buckle her self in it. She cant quite reach far enough to get the buckle to click but she has trouble with her other booster also. The shoulder belt sits where it should but does not lay flat on her shoulder there is a gap that I can slide my hand into between the belt and the front of her shoulder. The lap portion of the belt rides too high on her, it sits across her belly instead of her upper thighs. She did say it was comfortable to sit in and was quite disappointed when I had to tell her the lap belt did not fit her correctly and the shoulder belt was just too far away from her shoulder.
I then tried the seat with my 5 year old. Much to our disappointment the lap
belt rode very high on her belly and it also left a gap between the shoulder belt and her shoulder. With the Shoulder belt guide lowered down to the height my 5 year old needed,  we had trouble getting the belt to retract properly in the Durango.

Over all for us and the size of my Kids the Safety First Summit works best as a 5 point harness seat.

Disclaimer: I received the Safety First Summit High Back booster as a free gift in order to publish this review. All opinions are my own or that of my Kids.

Adventure Bible Kidz Bibles

Thanks to the great people at ZonderKidz.com my girls and I were given the wonderful opportunity to try out The Adventure Bible. We have received three versions of the Adventure Kids Bible in the last year and have enjoyed them greatly. The first Bible is the NIV edition and it is bound in leather. The second Is the New King James edition and it is a hard back book. The Third is the Adventure Bible for Toddlers. The Leather bound sells for $39.99 and the hard back sells for $29.99. The Toddler bible sells for $9.99. You can check out all the different Adventure Bibles HERE.

First I am going to talk about the Leather bound and hard back Adventure Bible. Both are beautiful children's bibles with lots of color. I do how ever have a preference for the leather bound version and so do the girls. There is just a certain feel about a leather bound Bible that is special. The pages on the leather bound bible have an added design printed on the edge of them that adds a little extra fun to it. The leather bound version also has a ribbon book mark where the hard back version does not.

Both bibles have the same great features: They are full color bibles, "Life in Bible Times" are articles and illustrations that describe what life was like in ancient days. "People in Bible Times" Articles offers a close-up look at amazing people of the Bible. "Words to Treasure" are great verses to memorize. "Live it" are hands on activities that help you apply biblical truths to your life. "Did you Know?" are cool facts that help you understand God's word and the life of faith. Both Bibles are listed for ages 9-12. My 7 year old second grader can read it well and is using it to gain a good understanding of God's word.  Both Bibles include colored maps in the back that the girls just love exploring. I love the "Did you Know" facts I have learned some great facts that I might never have learned. There is also a Bible Memory app that is available on the app store click HERE to check it out its $1.99. The app goes along great with the Adventure Bible we will begin using it next school year as a part of our Bible study lesson. I would love to see the Adventure Bible offered in the King James edition.

 Last but certainly not least we have to Adventure Bible for Toddlers. This is quite possibly one of the cutest toddler bibles I have ever seen. Its a hard back board book so its tough enough hold up to little hands. It covers ten wonderful stories from the Old and New Testament. Each story is written in color and beautifully illustrated and captures the attention of little ones well. The stories are written simple enough for little ones to understand. My three year old niece loves having this read to her by great grandma and has fallen in love with many for the Bible stories included in the Adventure Bible for Toddlers.











Disclosure: I received  these products free of charge in order to publish this review all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Love Letters from God Bible Stories

 

 

I received a great book from Zonderkids.com its called Love letters from God Bible Stories. The book is written for ages 4-8. Its a great little book of Bible stories that include flaps that you lift up to read a little note from God. The lift flap can even be personalized by writing your child's name inside. There are quite a few Bible Stories included in the book: Creation Genesis 1, Adam and Eve Genesis 3, Noah's Ark Genesis 6-8, Joseph Genesis 37-42, Samuel's Call Samuel 3:1-10, David's Anointing 1 Samuel 16:1-13, David and Goliath Samuel 17, Daniel in the Lions' Den Daniel 6, Jonah and the Fish Jonah 1-2, Jesus' Birth Luke 1, Jesus Calls His Disciples Mark 1:16-20 2:13-15, Feeding 5,000 John 6, Storm on the Lake Mark 4:35-41, The lost Sheep Luke15, Zacchaeus Luke 19-1-10, The Last Supper Luke 22-14-20, The Crucifixion Luke 23:32-49, The Resurrection John:20:1-18.

I love that it covers so many great Bible stories and the little letters on each page really make the girls feel like God is talking right to them. The Illustrations are absolutely beautiful we have spent quite  bit of time reading and re reading this book. There Favorite is when great grandma reads the stories with them. They have read it so many times they have started to memorize the stories. The Book sells for $16.99 and you can find it HERE

 

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge in order to perform this review. All opinions are my own or that of my children.

Bullet Train Safe Wallet!

I have finally stepped into the world of smart phones. I had to update I chose to go with the IPhone hubby got me the 5S. Cool little phone I don't do much other than make calls and text on it but its cool none the less. The biggest down fall for me is its size. This thing is huge compared to my little Samsung phone that I have had for the last 6 years.  I am always looking for a ways to make my day to day life more simple. I want less stuff in my purse. I have looked at tones of different phone cases since I got the new phone. Its hard to find the perfect case. I wanted to be able to put my id and debit card in the case with my phone and eliminate my wallet one less thing to juggle with two kids. I actually checked out a few cases that had this feature. The downfall to those is my cards were visible for all the world to see.
Then I stumbled on the Bullet Train Safe Wallet that hides your cards. You can find it HERE.  The case sells for $59.99 with free U.S. shipping. They come in some nifty colors: red, black, blue, orange, white, purple and pink.The Bullet Train company sent me a Blue one free of charge to review for you. Its a cool idea for a phone case. It holds 5 credit cards or 15 business cards. I have my id my debit card and a folded up $20 bill stuffed into it. The folded up bill makes it a little hard to slip my card in and out when I need it but I am old fashioned and I like having cash, I did discover that putting the cash against the back then putting my cards on top seems to work the best. I love that my cards are tucked away hidden from prying eyes. There is also a secret hiding spot on the inside of the case that will fit a bill if you fold it up small, but you have to take the phone out of the case to get to it.

The case seems to be fairly well made. I have not been brave enough to throw it down stairs or drop it on the concrete so I cant attest to its ability to protect from drops but it should do a decent job.  It fits my phone very snug it was kind of hard to so put on my phone, took a little work to get it on. It has a slight raised edge around the screen to help protect  the screen from drops. Its made of a hard plastic type material. I would like to see it have a slim silicone inner lining to help give it more protection from drops and bangs.  The case is slick so it slides in and out of your pocket easily almost too easily, I do wish it had a little silicone on may be the corners so that it doesn't come out of my pocket so easily.

The case is actually quite slim its about as thick as a sharpie marker. It makes for less junk in my purse and when I am headed to the park with the kids I can just stuff it in my pocket and I have everything that I need. The speaker sound seem to be the same as it is with the case off. The camera and flash both work well. The only down fall I found is the car charger my husband bought me will not plug in with the Safe wallet on my phone there is a piece of plastic on the charger that does not allow it to plug in all the way. How ever my regular wall charger that came with my IPhone fits with out a problem. So I bought one of those handy USB chargers that you can change the cord on and I just plug the cord that came with my phone into it works quite well. I might look for another cord that will work with it so I can just leave one in the car. Other than that small issue its a very handy little case. I love the slim design It looks good and holds everything that I need to make a quick run to the grocery store.

slightly thicker than my lens cap

Disclosure: I received this product free of charge in order to perform this review. All opinions are my own.

Ark Therapeutic Pencil Grip Sampler Pack

With both girls in school now writing has become a big deal. Hotrod Princess holds her pencil too close to the end. Snoopy is a lefty like me and is working on keeping her fingers in the correct position all the time.  I found a great company Ark Therapeutic that sent me one of there Sampler Pencil Grip Packs to try out for this review.  Pencil grip Sampler Pack sells for about $21.99 you can Click HERE to find it on there site or If you like to shop Amazon you can click HERE. The pack comes with 13 grips. It is perfect if you are hunting for a grip that works for your child. It has a little of everything.

there is two grips missing from this photo

1 Butter Grip- the round design promotes an open web space and helps prevent hyperextension
1 The Pencil Grip- a classic grip that guides the fingers into place
1 Jumbo Grip- its a larger version of the The Pencil Grip for additional support up to the second knuckle
1 Crossover Grip- the same design as The Pencil Grip, but with wings to prevent the thumb and pointer finger from crossing over each other.
1 Pinch Grip- similar to the Crossover Grip, but with a miniature version of the "wings" for less restraint
1 Grotto Grip- similar to the Crossover Grip, but made out of a firmer material with an extra lip to keep the middle finger in place.
3 Writing Claws- 1 small, 1 medium, 1 large- three sleeves that guide the pointer finger, middle finger, and thumb into the correct tripod grasp
1 Foam Grip- a cushioned grip for those who may grip the pencil too tightly or need a fatter pencil
1 Ridged Foam grip- similar to the Foam Grip, but with a slightly bigger diameter and ribs for extra tactile input
1 Triangle Grip- a triangular Design that provides a tactile cue for correct finger placement
1 Short Triangle Grip- similar to the Triangle Grip, but half the length and slightly bigger in diameter

We have spent the last couple weeks testing out the different grips looking for something that works

well for each of the girls. If you are looking for the right pencil grip the Ark therapeutic Sampler Grip Pack is the way to go. It gave us a large selection to try with out having to reorder again and again. Snoopy has taken to the Crossover Grip she likes it better than the Grotto Grip because it is made of a softer material and is more comfortable, she has a tendency to hold her pencil too tight.  Hotrod Princess has used them all and still has not settled on any one grip. She does seem to grab the The Pencil Grip a little more than the others.                                                                                

Right now I am keeping them all in a jar on my desk so they have the opportunity to try out different ones and find what works best for them. I sent the small Writing Claw over to one of my nieces she is 3 and learning to write and has a hard time remembering how to place her fingers on the pencil. It is the perfect size for her little fingers and seems to be working well for her.

this photo is from the Ark Therapeutic site
I loaned ours to my niece to try out and forgot
to snap a picture.

Disclaimer I received a free sample of this product to try out for this review. All opinions are my own or that of my kids. Photos may not be copied with out my permission.