We are a blue and gold family. Every year we make some new ornaments for our Christmas tree this year we chose to make Thin Blue Line and Thin Gold Line Ornaments for our tree.

Merry Christmas !

Happy Thanksgiving

2016 Review Crew Blue Ribbon Award Winners

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What do you do when you get off an 8 hour midnight shift you take your kids for breakfast and hot chocolate of course. Not that I needed any more coffee but whats one more cup when you have already drank 2 pots. Have a great week everyone !

Take a look at this little gem I found hanging in our ceder tree today. While I was out mulching leaves for compost I discovered this nest hanging in the tree. Then as I continued on I discovered not one but two more nest. My neighbor tells me that people buy these for decorations but I have no idea why. How does one tell if there are any friends still living in it. If anyone has experience with these I would love to hear about it. 

The Critical Thinking Co.™ Language Smarts™ Level E Review

Good morning lady's its a school day here in our house and the girls are hard at work and so am I. Today we are going to take a look at Language Smarts™ Level E by The Critical Thinking Co.™ this book is just great. This is a grade 4 language arts book, we used it as a grade 4 textbook. This book consist of 400-pages that are fun as well as colorful, my kids like colorful. This book covers everything from reading, writing, grammar, punctuation as well as critical thinking skills and vocabulary. It covers everything a 4th grader needs to learn. Here is a quick content breakdown.

Level E (Grade 4) Content

• Capitalization	• Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots
• Critical Thinking	• Silent E
• Compare/Contrast	• Singular/Plural
• Imply/Infer	• Syllables
• Inference	• Usage
• Opinion	• Homographs
• Prediction	• Homophones
• Adjectives	• Metaphors
• Adverbs	• Sequencing
• Antonyms	• Similes
• Conjunctions	• Writing
• Interjections	• Characters
• Nouns	• Comparing
• Prepositions	• Conflict
• Pronouns	• Context Clues
• Sentences	• Drama
• Subject and Predicate	• Editing
• Subject-Verb Agreement	• Fiction and Nonfiction
• Synonyms	• Idioms
• Verbs	• Parts of a Book
• Grammar	• Plot
• Punctuation	• Poems
• Colons	• Proverbs
• Commas	• Reference Materials
• Exclamation Marks	• Setting
• Periods	• Story Maps
• Question Marks	• Table of Contents
• Quotation Marks	• Titles
• Semicolons	• Topic and Main Idea
• Spelling	• Using a Dictionary
• Compound Words

My 4th grader has really got into this program. We did not start at the beginning since we are already well into the school year. We started out where her other program left off which was the section that covers verbs, nouns ,adjectives etc. We will back track back to the beginning of the book for review a little later in the year. That way I can ensure that she is well rounded and has covered all the standard 4th grade stuff. I like that each lesson gives easy to understand explanations. She is a bit of a visual learner and she really responds well to the way the lessons are explained and how the examples are shown. She likes the activities and I like that I don't have any lesson planning because its laid out really well. So far I have been really impress with the section we have been working with. She is retaining so much more of the information than she was with our previous program and she says its easier to understand. She actually gets what pronouns and adjectives are now. She is also enjoying the included activities. She has don't things like word searches, crossword puzzles, and word jumble activities. The activities really just mix things up a little and get her thinking about the lesson in a different way. 

There are no test in this book but at this point I am ok with that. You will find an answer key at the back of the book. I do sort of wish that came in tear out pages just so I could keep it separate from her work book. I am excited for her to get to the writing section of the book. She is a reluctant writer and I would like to see what this great book can pull out of her. I have previewed this section of the book and I think she is going to like how it is explained. The writing chapter is broke down into sections that make it a little easier to follow. The explanations are very through yet they they get the point across easily with minimal fluff. 

I want everyone to click the banner below and read about other The Critical Thinking Co.™  products. They have some fabulous items and I hope that you will take the time to check it out. 

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Homeschool Legacy~ Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims Review

Guess what Turkey Day is coming and I cant wait. For us Thanksgiving is about more than just eating turkey its a chance to learn a little history. This year we are doing the once a week micro study Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims by  Homeschool Legacy. Homeschool Legacy is a curriculum provider that produces unit studies that are Christian based. So if you are looking for great Christian unit studies you are going to want to check out what they have to offer.

This is a once a week micro study designed for grades 1-8. This grade range was perfect for my 2nd and 4th graders. This micro study is done once a week for 6 weeks and provides children with a thorough understanding of Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. You can do three 30-minute assignments a week or you may do them all in one day. We choose to do them all in one day because well the girls just wanted to. These are downloaded unit studies that you can print but we choose to just read most of it from the computer since it has links that you can click. There are also a few pictures in the download and we don't have a color printer so the pictures just look better on the computer. Each lesson suggest a read-a-loud or classic to do as a family. There are also links that will take you to things like videos to help enhance each lesson.

Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims has six weekly lessons:

• The Scrooby Separatists
• The Voyage
• At Home in Plymouth
• Happy Thanksgiving!
• The Puritans
• Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims is a great way to celebrate the holiday. My girls loved the activities that were included in the different lessons. I generally got them started on the activity and then read while they worked on it. Taking breaks to field questions and even look up some additional things that interested them. I will say that about 80% of the read-a-loud suggestions were available at our local library or on the digital library that I have on my kindle. My girls loved the video and website suggestions that were included in the lesson. The girls decided that there favorite link was in the At Home in Plymouth lesson. The girls took a virtual field trip to Plymouth Plantation through the Plymouth Plantation Virtual Field Trip. It made the lesson come alive and they really got into the period dress and were fascinated to learn that one of there grandmothers was the first woman to set foot on the shores of Plymouth. I love that they included all theses additional links. I can never find these great things on my own, and the lessons are just so much better when you have some things to interact with.  They really did a great job with this unit study. It is so well put together easy and fun to teach you can help but like it.

They offer lot's of other unit studies like Christmas Comes to America. You will want to click the banner below and read about some of the other Homeschool Legacy studies that the other Crew Families did.

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Christmas Gift Giving Idea

Good Morning fellow Mom's. A few months a go I wrote a review on Kwik Stix. My girls are still in love with these and I love that they are are mess free. We even use them for on the go projects. I wanted to do a quick update since Christmas is coming and let everyone know that Kwik Stix now come in Metalix and Neon colors. Kwik Stix  are now available at Target.com and in Target stores. These would be great stocking suffers and I am excited to be giving these as stocking suffers this year.

http://www.thepencilgrip.com/