So this happened

Well our chicken started setting on a fake egg the girls were trying to use to train her to lay her eggs in the nest box. My neighbor came over and snuck the fake egg out from under her and replaced it with three eggs from his coop. This little momma was non the wiser and now she has 3 chicks. She is such a good momma chicken. She got them up and out of the coop into the run the very next morning. She has already taught them to scratch and peck for chick starter and today she was showing them how to find ants and small bugs. When ever she fears they are in danger she calls them and they hurry under her wings. The girls are beyond excited to be raising chicks.

CrossWired Science Review

CrossWired Science is a new science program that we were given the opportunity to try out. This is a yearly subscription Science program that is Biblical based introducing young children to "deep God-honoring Science" and it brings powerful science that points to the Lord as students finish their high school years.. The material on the sight is designed to be use for students in multiple grade levels from kindergarten all the way to High School. This is a science program with really great video lessons or explanations coupled with some great resources for more learning and understanding.

The website stated that the program covers 30 global topics. Currently there are just 2 topics listed on the website which will give you 3 months of science as a full curriculum. The two current Global topics are Sound, and Fluid Dynamics. These are the two topics the girls have started with. There will be two more additions coming soon and that will give you an entire school year of science. With the other upcoming additions they will offer approximately 6 years of Science.

Both of the girls were confused on how get going on this. When they log in it took them to the Home page which displayed videos. They thought this was what they were supposed to be doing. So they started watching the videos. They stated they were cool but short and didn't have enough information. They had actually watched the sample lesson videos. They had watched roughly 8 of them before I realized what they were doing the good news is they enjoyed them. When the student logs in they have to go to a tab at the top labeled curriculum. They then have to select first time or second time. If they select second time they get the same videos and topics but the questions and test are harder. I have both the girls working as first timers.

Each class session should take around 45-60 minutes. There are videos, quizzes, experiments, extra links to investigate, and memory versus. So the girls log in and select a topic. One started with Fluid Dynamics the other with Sound. It gives them a video to watch then below the video it gives them some questions to do. After answering the questions they select the finish quiz button and it grades the quiz. You then select the next lesson button and go on to the next lesson which is set up in a similar manner.

Under the Parent/teacher tab at the top you can find worksheet answers. Under that same tab there is an area for unit links, general links, and teacher resources. The first 2 are exactly that links that go along with each unit. Teacher resources has tips for using CWS, a calendar, and a link to information on the student dashboard. I also discovered a student progress section which tells you who has completed how much and when. There is also a quiz results section that you can go and view each students quiz results. Now for the thing I felt was missing from the Parent/Teacher tab. I was really disappointed not to find a break down of subject areas covered for each Global Topic. These topics seem to cover several subjects and there is no guide to show me what is being covered in each one. This means I have to spend hours reviewing each lesson so I can log what was being covered. If you click the general links option it gives you daily links to other resources. My issue with this is its hard for my kids to find it on there own or to even know its available in less I am there to go over it with them.


I do not consider this a self guided program at least for elementary and lower grade school kids. Navigation was to tricky for them to be able to figure out what they need to do with out guidance.

This is a brand new program and the company is still adding content and working out the last of the kinks. I think they have a great start on a cool science program that a child could grow with. Be sure to click the banner below and check out what other crew families thought about CrossWired Science and how it might work for your family.

Country Living

I thought I would share a few pictures on how the hydroponic set up is going. The plants we started as seeds are doing well. We have lettuce, a tomato plant, a heartless habanero and some cabbage that is just now sprouting. The strawberries were transplants from our outdoor beds they seem to be adapting to life in the hydroponic set up we even have our first flower.

Green house happenings

Our mint plant made it through the winter. I really thought it was gone since everything else had started to green up and this pot was still empty. But I guess this little guy was just lying dormant under the soil waiting for the right moment to start growing again. 

YWAM Publishing Review

YWAM Publishing has some great new learning products available. We are taking a look at Heroes of History series. We got to review a specific book Heroes of History Ronald Reagan. The series comes with some great downloadable study guides.
http://www.ywampublishing.com/c-108-downloadable-unit-studies-curriculum-guides.aspx.

We got started on this book a little late in the game. Our original book got lost in the mail. It showed up just the other day and well it looks like something tried to eat it. It had a really sweet note from the post office that said were sorry your book got damaged. The company was great and sent us a replacement copy and my daughter got started on it right away.

The study guide is easy to access once downloaded. It includes a section with more information on who your book is about, in our case Ronald Regan. I discovered a guide specifically for homeschool families. It tells you how to use the Heroes of History series as a curriculum. It breaks down each book by topic and period of History the girls are interested in reading Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire next. It gives you some suggestions on how to use the series with children of varying abilities.  Under the Unit Study section I found a guide with different study question to use with my child as she reads through the book. It includes basic questions as well as essay questions and hands on projects. Under the Bonus Item section we found some different word puzzles that seemed like they would be great for a student who has read several of the books in this series.

My 6th grader is the one reading this book and working through the study guide. She had no prior knowledge of Ronald Regan and she was a little reluctant to read the book for me. It took her a hole chapter to really get into the book. But now she is really into learning who he was and what did for our country. She thinks his nickname Dutch is funny and cant believe he got the nick name because he was a 10lb baby. She tells me that the book is fully of great information that is some times funny. She couldn't believe that one of our presidents had been a life guard or that he grew up in
a pore family and had to move around all the time. She loved that he had flaws and came from an underprivileged family yet did something amazing with his life. She feels as thought the chapters are on the longer side and a child in a younger grade might have difficulty reading it on their own.

From the mom perspective I think this is a great biography on a Hero of History. It felt like the book gave her a good idea of who Ronald Regan was and some of the great things he did for our country. I starts out with his life as child and progresses through his life as the fortieth president of the United States. I like that it came with a study guide. While there are a few student printable' s I would like to see more student work pages that I could print off and have her work on while she is actually reading the book. Both of my girls really like having a work sheet they can work on as they go. I think the series as a hole would make for a great history unit. Looking at the Unit Study guide and the length of the book and its content we could probably cover one book a month from the series.

YWAM Publishing has some great new learning products available. We are taking a look at Heroes of History series. We got to review a specific book Heroes of History Ronald Reagan. The series comes with some great downloadable study guides.

http://www.ywampublishing.com/c-108-downloadable-unit-studies-curriculum-guides.aspx.

We got started on this book a little late in the game. Our original book got lost in the mail. It showed up just the other day and well it looks like something tried to eat it. It had a really sweet note from the post office that said were sorry your book got damaged. The company was great and sent us a replacement copy and my daughter got started on it right away.

The study guide is easy to access once downloaded. It includes a section with more information on who your book is about, in our case Ronald Regan. I discovered a guide specifically for homeschool families. It tells you how to use the Heroes of History series as a curriculum. It breaks down each book by topic and period of History the girls are interested in reading Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire next. It gives you some suggestions on how to use the series with children of varying abilities.  Under the Unit Study section I found a guide with different study question to use with my child as she reads through the book. It includes basic questions as well as essay questions and hands on projects. Under the Bonus Item section we found some different word puzzles that seemed like they would be great for a student who has read several of the books in this series.

My 6th grader is the one reading this book and working through the study guide. She had no prior knowledge of Ronald Regan and she was a little reluctant to read the book for me. It took her a hole chapter to really get into the book. But now she is really into learning who he was and what did for our country. She thinks his nickname Dutch is funny and cant believe he got the nick name because he was a 10lb baby. She tells me that the book is fully of great information that is some times funny. She couldn't believe that one of our presidents had been a life guard or that he grew up in
a pore family and had to move around all the time. She loved that he had flaws and came from an underprivileged family yet did something amazing with his life. She feels as thought the chapters are on the longer side and a child in a younger grade might have difficulty reading it on their own.

From the mom perspective I think this is a great biography on a Hero of History. It felt like the book gave her a good idea of who Ronald Regan was and some of the great things he did for our country. I starts out with his life as child and progresses through his life as the fortieth president of the United States. I like that it came with a study guide. While there are a few student printable' s I would like to see more student work pages that I could print off and have her work on while she is actually reading the book. Both of my girls really like having a work sheet they can work on as they go. I think the series as a hole would make for a great fun history unit. Looking at the Unit Study guide and the length of the book and its content we could probably cover one book a month from the series.

Other crew families had the chance to try other books from YWAM Publishing so click the link below and see what they thought about the other books.

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Hydroponic gardening

Me and the girls are trying out hydroponics in the garden this year. I bought a small setup online which I am not going to recommend this specific one or even the seller. They were shipping from the USA but apparently they are from China and they sent me a controller that is completely in Chinese and both the controller and the pump won’t run on a USA outlet. I had to order a new pump and controller. Any way it’s now set up the green house seeds are starting to sprout  finally! We transplanted a couple of strawberry plants from our big bed just as an experiment to see if we could get them to grow in the hydroponic. We have like 4 varieties of lettuce started and some purple cabbage just because I wanted to see what it would do. Our temperature dropped back to freezing so I had to cover everything with ground cloth to keep them from freezing. We got the liquid nutrients in the tank and the PH adjusted so I guess now we watch and wait.