We took a trip back in October. It was one of those hey lets drive across country with two kids it will be fun kind of deals. Along the way we got to see some really great things and my girls got to experience a 2,000 mile road trip. One of the highlights of the trip was camping along Historical Route 66. The one camp ground we stayed at had the huge Route 66 painted on road. We decided it was a great time to grab some snap shots for our scrap books. As we walked down the road the girls sang We Got our Kicks on Route 66 and I am sure that all the other campers got a kick out of us.. Huge bonus if you look at the picture below in the background there is a sign for a storage company owned by none other than Snoopy's brother Spike!. We were told this was his home town. We found little signs with spike on them all over town. 

We had a lot of other great adventures on this trip including a ride on the Grand Canyon Railway. 

Live Laugh Love and take a road trip or two. Memories are made not in front of the tv or cell phone. But on adventures like these. So my advice for the summer is. Take away the electronics, get out and do something with your family, make a memory that will last a life time.

Tree removal

Had to remove some trees this weekend. Sure changed the look of things. 

And they are on the ground time for clean up.

The Typing Coach Online Typing Course Review

My oldest has been asking for a typing program so when we got the opportunity to review for The Typing Coach she were excited to give it a go. For the last 6 weeks or so my 9 year old has been using The Typing Coach Online Typing Course. This course is a self paced audio course that uses a systematic approach to teach kids to type with out looking at the keyboard or monitor. It is self paced and has both audio, video and written instructions. It also includes a typing speed and online assessment center. It has 7 lessons and them some beginning and ending stuff for you to do like the assessments.

You log in to the program and their is an introduction section you cant miss it its right in the middle of the screen says course introduction. The video is simple and easy to understand and follow. Under course instructions you will find some printable that you will need to print. It recommends printing double sided. Our printer does that and it worked well. After the Course introduction you might notice a section called slower paced lessons. These are for younger kids 8-11 who might not be ready for the longer lessons. So you can opt to use these lessons if you need to. You start off with the posture lesson its quick and easy to. My daughter was able to get the hang of it right away. From their you move on to the other lessons. It is recommended you not move on to a new lesson tell you have mastered the previous one.

For each lesson you will need the appropriate printable that you printed from the course instruction section. You will also need a word processor. Something like Microsoft word will work. We downloaded a free one online since my daughters computer did not come with one installed. You will then read the instructions under the section of course you are on. Next you play the audio that is included in that section. Each section is set up in a similar manner. 

So far I am glad that the program is self paced. My daughter is taking a while to master each row. She does like the lessons and I can often hear her talking back to the audio or reading her printable out loud as she types. She says that she gets it but its just hard to do. I may have her go back and try the slower paced lessons instead. Their is a different printable packet for the slower paced lessons. She has yet to try any of the assessments because she is still struggling with with the first row. To be honest I thought she would pick it up faster. The program emphasizes that you go for accuracy over speed. As the speed will come with time and practice. So here we are going along trying to get the accuracy up so she can do the assessment. She is getting a little tired of typing the same thing over and over though. She has ask a few times if their is another option for here to type from. I did look at the assessment it seemed fair but it does require accuracy to pass or it locks you out for I believe its 2 days so that you have to practice before you try again. 

Over all its a good program to get started with typing. It covers all the basics and I think if a person was to start with it over some of the others they might not learn some of the bad habits that come with some of the other programs I have tried over the years. Be sure to click the banner below and read some more reviews. The Crew Members have children in a variety of different age groups so come see how other kids did with The Typing Coach Online.

Look who we found at walmart this week.Her best friend Snoopy.

Stay vacation

What do you do when your favorite campground is flooded and the road is washed out. You throw up the tent in the yard and camp out. 

ArtAchieve Level II Review

We are excited to be reviewing for ArtAchieve this year. We received the Entire Level II package. This is a subscription service and a 1 year license runs around $56.78. Their are 14 lessons in the Level II package. Each lesson has either a video or a power point lesson that you child watches. They can fast forward rewind and pause as much as they like. Then the program offers some printable things like warm up pages and printouts. It mostly uses art supplies that you will already have around the house. Things like sharpie's, colored markers, colored pencils, water color paints. We used water color pencils for some of the projects because well my girls like them over standard water colors. Standard copy paper works but you can get a big pad of art paper fairly cheep at most box stores now days. Art paper holds up a little better if you are using water color paints. It is quite a bit thicker than regular copy paper.




The Level II package is a step up from the Level I that the girls reviews last year. I would say the Level II lessons are a little harder and more complex than the Level I lessons were. The lessons require your child to use some new techniques than what they used in the first Level. The pictures they are ask to draw are more detailed than what the level 1 pictures were. The girls seemed to do ok with this level. They are not making Picasso by any means but they have shown improvement. I would liked to have seen her do some of the finer details on the Dala horse. In the lesson the saddle and main have some patterns drawn on them. My oldest was a little more into it than my youngest was. She put some effort into her Swedish Dala horse and the Japanese fish. Although I am not sure the horse was suppose to have wings. I would like to see her try the Hiding butterflies that is in lesson 10. We picked up some acrylic paints the other day and we may just get a canvas to paint it on. That way if she is happy with it we can hang it in the classroom.










My youngest still likes the warm up pages the best. I think the warm ups are helping her build confidence in her ability to make the lines before she try's to tackle the actual picture. Her lines are looking more fluent.  She is doing a lot less stopping and starting when she makes each line so I think its helping to build her confidence. She was willing to try lesson 1 and 2. I included the picture that she did of the duck. Yes I know its side ways but my computer will not turn it around. It keeps uploading like this. She was so proud of how it turned out I had to include it even if you have to turn your head sideways when you look at it.

 

All in all we are pleased with the ArtAchieve Level II and we would love for you to click the link below and visit them and don't forget to read some more Homeschool Crew reviews and see more of the amazing artwork that out Crew Kids have done using ArtAchieve Level II. 

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Art Time

Pop got the girls this paint kit at the hobby store. It came with several pictures to paint. Some of them were paint by number others just has a rough outline. It gave a few tips on how to mix colors and a simple color chart. The girls worked on these for a couple days this week for art class. My oldest did the rose and my youngest did the Lion. Not to shabby for a 9 and 7 year old. 

Roses are red violets are blue I painted this just for you Momma!

Yes I know he is side ways but I cant get the picture to rotate so you'll have to turn your head.

Photo credit I have no idea I found it on Facebook.

Can anyone guess what we got today.....Yup that's right we are now the proud owners of two 20ft cargo containers. They are not in their permanent location yet though. The driver was unable to off load them on the pad next to the shop where we wanted them. So we will have put them on logs and roll them up there with the dodge. So for now this is their home at least tell I get a couple trees cut down. So why do we have cargo containers you ask. I bet you all are thinking I am going to use my craftiness to make a container cabin right. WRONG its just storage for all the parts I have taken off the truck and the mustang so I can have some room in the shop to actually do body work and start assembling things. It will more than likely house the lawn mower and probably some other random junk that we have sitting around the needs a home.

Readers in Residence Volume 1 by Apologia Educational Ministries Review

We are excited to be reviewing once again for  Apologia Educational Ministries.  We will be reviewing Readers in Residence Volume 1 (Sleuth). This is a reading comprehension program that includes literature, and vocabulary. It will help students recognize the different elements of literature. Build vocabulary as they gather up clues from their reading, Identify figures of speech etc. This is designed to be used by 4th to 6th grade or those that are a little behind in reading and can sometimes be used special needs students. We received both the student book and the answer key.  The student book is in color and very fancy for a student book. 

To use this curriculum you will need to purchase three books. Sarah, Plain and Tall, Charlotte's Web, and Because of Winn-Dixie.  These are all great books so I was excited to see them used. All of them can be found on Amazon or at a local library. If your local library does not have them they are all very affordable and I found them for around 2 and 3$ each. It does recommend you use certain editions as the curriculum does refer to specific page numbers at times and it makes it easier for the student to find the passage if they are using the same edition so the passages are on the same pages. 

My oldest who is finishing up her 4th grade year was the one to use this curriculum. She has not finished it yet but we are well into the curriculum. The beginning of the book gives a suggested weekly schedule of 4 days per week for 32 weeks. Some of the lessons are a little longer than others but over all its not a bad pace. You might need to slow it down a touch if you have a struggling reader. A little box is provided so that the student can check off the days lesson. The lessons are very well laid out. The schedule tells her where to go to find what she is to do for the day. She simple reads the lesson information and then completes the reading assignment if their is one and or the writing assignment. The writing assignments are usually questions or some sort of chart that go along with what they have been reading. Some assignments for the day have more questions for them to answer  than others. Some days she is finished in an hour others it takes her a bit longer. Their is a small dictionary in the back of the book with vocabulary words that they will learn while completing this curriculum. She like the dictionary and has found it useful for more than one assignment. At the end of each module the student will use a rubric grade or assess how well they have done on that module. Instructions are included so they know how to use the rubric. They are also given a checklist that is a great help for keeping my kiddo on task and on track. If you take a look to the left you can see some samples of different pages that are in Readers in Residence. 

My oldest is my avid reader, she will read anything I put in front of her, she will do it with a smile and usually lots of excitement.  She was a little intimated when she saw this book, its huge and she is not a fan of writing. I had to give her some encouragement that it was mostly reading with some writing mixed in. I sat with her for the first few lessons to be sure she was understanding what she was expected to do. After that she comes to me with questions and I check in on her to see if she has questions. I then review all her work after she has completed it for the day. I see her vocabulary improving and her ability to figure out the meaning of a word by using the information in the text around it. She doesn't mind the writing as much as I anticipated. She says" the lessons are easy to understand they just make since." The charts have been a great help for her to identify the different parts of the story and to see how a story flows. She found the charts fun, many of them are colored and that just adds a little fun to it. She has enjoyed the book selection and was eager to read them. As soon as she saw the books her eyes lit up. She recognized two of the books as ones she had been wanting to read. She said "but I have already read Charlotte's Web." I explained that it was ok to read it again and that she would probably learn some new things the second time around.

The curriculum does talk about your child participating in a book club. We were not able to do this as we live in a rural area and it just was not possible. So we varied a little and I just had her discuss the books with me or her NaNa as we have all read these books and are familiar enough with them to be able to have a discussion on them.

I was once again impressed with Apologia's curriculum and how well it covers everything that my daughter needed to learn for reading. I plan on ordering another copy when  my youngest is in 4th grade. Click the link below for some more Apologia Readers in Residence reviews written by other crew members.

Readers in Residence teaches your child how to Read to Learn. 

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Happy Easter!

    Happy Easter From My Family To Yours!

Image credit I have no idea found it on Facebook and it spoke to me.

Art Project

My oldest is in love with horses. They each get to decorate their side of the classroom with things they like. She has a few horse related items but not much. I found a similar idea on Pinterest and I set out to make one that was horse relates. I found someone who could make this sweet sticker for me and this is how it turned out. I got the block 40% off at Hobby Lobby and a the lights on Amazon although I could have gotten them cheaper at Hobby Lobby go figure. All and all not a bad looking decoration for under 15$.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History Set Review

The girls finished their standard history curriculum a couple of weeks a go. We were given the chance to try out this wonderful set from Memoria Press. We received, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set

and 200 Questions About American History Set.

These two sets go hand in hand and I highly recommend getting both of them. The 200 Questions About American History set is a supplemental but it added so much to the actual set that I felt it would be worth getting.

First I am going to talk a bit about The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic Set. This is basically a story about the birth of the United States and our government. It comes with a student work book that covers both The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Great Republic. It also includes a teachers guide.Then you have the actual text book. This was originally 2 books one was The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Other was The Great Republic. But because they work so well together they combined them together into a single bound book. The section of book you are in can be identified at the top of each page. The book is basically written as a story of sorts to help your child learn about our colonies and how this great country got started. The story is very easy to follow and seemed to keep the girls interest for the most part. My 9 year old seemed to be able to recall the information given in the story a bit easier than my 7 year old did. But over all they have been enjoying it.

The student books give a recommended weekly schedule. Which seems to be about the right amount of work for my 4th graders ability. It would be a tad to much for my 2nd grader to do on her own though. The schedule shows that this curriculum should cover 34 weeks of study. It has your child reading any where from 3-7 chapters a week. Not a big deal for my super reader but it might be a little much if you have a child that is not a fan of reading. If this is the case you can always do the chapters as read aloud's. We have done this on a number of occasions when one of the girls just didn't feel like reading. My 4th grader was the one to try out the work books. She is a big fan of work books and is usually the one to volunteer to try them out. She felt that the work books were simple and easy to follow when you used the schedule to tell you what questions to do. I felt that the workbook covered the information taught in the story well and the test were well rounded.

The teachers guides have a copy of the weekly schedule as well as answer keys these are very straight forward and I don't think they need a lot of explaining.

All the books and student books are black and white this disappointed the girls slightly. They don't care so much about black and white work books. But they do like to see pictures in their text book in color.

The second part of this Review is on the 200 Questions About American History. This is a set of flash cards a teacher guide and a student book. The teachers guide gives a weekly schedule as well as answer key and test pages with answers. These questions go along with chapters that your child will read each week. The flash cards are an additional way to study and help your child remember what they are learning. I divided the cards up in bundles and labeled them for the week that they would be studying them. The girls could then gab a pack and study them when were on the go. Flashcards are just a great way to build on what they have already been learning in The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic Set.The student book does a great job at reviewing information and the test help to show what information they have retained.

Over all we are very happy with the set and it should last the better part of a school year depending on how much you do a week and how long your school year is. Be sure to click the box below and see what other reviewers are saying about Memoria Press and its great products.

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Summer Art

My girls made theses last year from something we got off Pinterest. Basically you take some used water bottles and color them with permanent markers. Once they are all colored and decorated you simply use a pair of scissors and cut the bottom off the bottle then you cut around the bottle forming a spiral shape. You hang them from the neck using some string or fishing line. They were very beautiful when the sun was shining on the, How ever the color only lasted a couple of weeks and then it was faded out. The lighter colors like yellow and green disappeared completely. It was a fun project and they were beautiful while they lasted.  Let me know if you give it a try and how it works out for you.

Birds of a Feather

Everyone told us Guinea Fowl were not friendly birds. Not to expect them to let us handle them, to count on them trying to roost in the trees etc.  Ours how ever allow my girls to carry them around like babies. I frequently find the girls toting a bird around the yard. I always ask them what are your doing. They tell me well they let us carry them so why not. They have started laying eggs, they wont lay in a nesting box but they do always lay in one corner of there house so the eggs are super easy to find. We have been getting around 3 eggs a day or 21 eggs a week. Guinea eggs are smaller than chicken eggs but they taste just the same. So for your entertainment here is my daughter holding a Guinea like one of her baby dolls.

Bessie's Pillow Review

I had the honor to read a book called Bessie's Pillow from Strong Learning, Inc. Bessie's Pillow is considered a historical fiction book. How ever it is based on old family stories that were passed down through the generations so I guess you could consider it a biography. We had 6 weeks to read this book and to be honest with you I read the hole book in under 8 hours. It was a slow night in dispatch, it was a good thing because it was a good book and I wanted to finish it. This is a 276 page book about an 18 year old Jewish girl that flees persecution in Lithuania back in 1906.  The name Bessie's Pillow comes from a pillow she carried from her home town in Lithuania to the United States. She was to deliver the pillow to the son of a family friend who had moved to the United States. The son had left for America a year or so earlier and had forgotten the pillow. It was important to the mother that son get the pillow she had made for him. As Bessie is departing the friend tells her that it is a long trip and she may use the pillow along the way. The pillow has the words "May this Pillow bring you peace. " embroidered on it. The pillow turns out to be a great blessing and gives her comfort along the way as she endures the trials of coming to America and becoming an American citizen. Eventually the beloved pillow that gave her so much comfort in the first year of being in America leads her to her husband when she finally decides its time to take it to its rightful owner.


Bessie's Pillow is for middle to high school students so my 4th grader has not read it yet but I did preview the online resources that are available for it. There is a Teachers Guide with some suggestions and ideas for expanding learning. It has a good number of discussion and essay topics, oral history and life stories, some ideas for term papers etc. It is really a great resource for those with high school age students http://bessiespillow.com/images/teachers-resources.pdf.  I will be printing off a few things for the girls to use when it comes time for them to read it.
There is also an additional resource located on the website called Bessie's America http://bessiespillow.com/bessiesamerica/. This resource offers things like photographs, radio shows the family would have listened to, Famous people, Food and recipes etc. These are all great ways to enhance your students learning experience. I loved the extra resources that were included I felt that they added a lot to the book and the learning experience.

Bessie's Story is one of tragedy and triumph. She has so many real struggles during her life but she never gave up.  I can only imagine what it was like for her to flee her home at 18. Knowing that she may never see her family again. This book is a great piece of someone family history. Family history is important for everyone with out it our children will not know where they came from. This book was a well written and It reminded me of the way my grandmother used to tell our old family stories. It drew me in so well and the next thing I knew I was turning the last page wondering how I finished it so quickly. Its a book my girls will read when they get just a bit older.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Crew Reviews on Bessie's Pillow and follow Bessie's Pillow on Facebook.

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We have Snow

I got off work to a winter wonder land. We finally got a little snow where we live. I had to stop and take a couple pictures.

More work on the Mustang. Looks as though the back end was hit at some point in time. I will have to do some fender repair. I also located some more cancer on the rear frame rails and trunk floor crossmember. Looks like it is going to take a bit more work than I figured on but that's the way it always is when you get into old cars. Here is picture of it after I removed the fenders, and front grill.