My Mom Voxbox Arrived!

 

With our school year being so hectic I chose to step down from TOS Crew this year so I could focus more on the subjects we enjoy and need to succeed in, without having to add in the review products (oh how I love some of those products. I will miss it).

So in an effort to fulfill my desire to try new products, I decided to join the Influenster team. I had no idea I would be chosen so quickly (I feel blessed), but I was and I received my very first Voxbox this week.

A little about Influenster, straight from their website:

What is an Influenster?

Community of trendsetters invited to share their lifestyles and show off their influence to qualify for personalized product shipments, special rewards and exclusive deals from the brands they love. Members love testing the latest products, giving insightful feedback, and spreading the word on their favorite finds!

If you’d like to know more or if you’re interested in registering, click here. Be sure to tell them mom244now sent you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Mom voxbox included:

Language Learning video

Stash Tea

Nektar Honey Crystals

Dentek for Kids

Dentek for Adults

Ivory Soap

Quaker Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookie

imPRESS nails

There were also a couple coupons included, that always makes me

So over the next few weeks Ill be trying this out and posting my opinion and reading to see what others thought of their items.

Homeschool items For Sale

I've been cleaning out my school material and have added some additional items for sale. If you don't see what you want here, check out TIME TO SALE I have more listed there.

ALL PRICES ARE NEGOTIABLE (I really want to get rid of it all)

Lots & Lots of Fire Trucks  DVD & Book $12.00 + shipping

George Washington Carver DVD $12.00 + shipping

See the Light Art Class DVD VOL 1  $7.00+ shipping ( I also have a DVD with preview clips that I'll let you have with this)

Super Star Speech R&L $10.00 + shipping

Go Science VOL 3  Magnetism, Engineering, Electricity, & Design $5 + shipping
Go Science VOL 4 Chemistry, Life Science, & States of Matter $5 + shipping

I also have a brain training curriculum from Learning Links If you have a child with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia etc and you'd like to give brain training a try just make me an offer. This has 4 CD-Rom/DVD's that contain instructions, copies off all the print offs and videos to show you how to do the exercises. have printed off the pages and have them in a binder with plastic covers (they use a dry erase pen to do the exercises).

I accept PayPal

Please email me at mom244now@gmail.com if you're interested in any of these. 

TOS Review: Go Science DVD

 

Go Science is a DVD  series with 6 volumes:

Volume 1: Motion & the Laws of Gravity

Volume 2: Simple Machines, Sound, Weather,

Volume 3: Magnetism, Electricity, Engineering, and Design

Volume 4: Chemistry, States of Matter, Life Sciences

Volume 5: Air, Flight

Volume 6: Water, Space, Solar System

These video’s are recommended for ages 6-14 years (see my opinion below) and last approximately 1 hour each. If you purchase from Library and Education’s website you can purchase them for $8.97 per video or you can purchase all 6 for $47.95 (this is a substantial savings off the original price of $14.95 per DVD and $79.95 for the set).

 Library and Education is a company I’ve used in the past and value greatly because of the wonderful savings they offer. They have tons of items at a fraction of the cost you’d pay from the original retailers.

The DVD’s that we received were Volume 3 and Volume 4. They were definitely fun videos to watch and required no parental involvement, unless we wanted to duplicate an experiment, which in this case my children never requested. The host of these video’s is Ben Roy and his goal is to teach teach the children about God through Science, in fact after each lesson he says “Every time we learn something about SCIENCE, we learn something about our CREATOR GOD!” 

The suggested age range for these video’s is 6-14 years old but I must say I think 4-10 years old would be more appropriate. My oldest son age 12 didn’t enjoy these at all. My 10 year old was a little more interested but still not truly engaged due to the childlike manner in which they were presented. If you notice the cover of the video, you’ll get an idea of what I mean. Everyone is dressed alike with this cheesy backdrop, almost like Captain Kangaroo from day’s gone by. It’s important to look past these things in order to get the meat offered in these videos. It was just a little harder for my older kids to do that. If you’re kids aren’t used to watching shows like Man, Woman, Wild (one of my kids favorite shows and a far cry from Go Science) then they may really love these. But for us, it was just slightly more juvenile than what they’re accustomed to at ages 10 and 12. My 5 & 6 year olds seemed to enjoy them a little more.

We used these DVD’s as a simple way to expose ALL of my children to some basic Science information. With the younger kids we typically learn Science by following our interests and just picking up facts here and there as we go. This fit in to that way of learning greatly. My expectations were not particularly high so I was not disappointed. The experiments Mr. Roy shared were very neat and he was wonderful at explaining the Science involved.

If you want to read more reviews for Go Science and Library Education, visit this TOS Blog Post.

**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. All opinions are mine. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.

Tyndale Review: Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Nutrition

 

Tyndale and Focus on the Family have teamed up to bring us another “Busy Mom’s Guide” this time it’s all about Food and Family (two things I personally LOVE).

This is a 192 page paperback book with only 6 chapters, making it a quick and easy read or a nice little handy dandy resource guide.

• Chapter 1 Nutritional Basics (Read the 1st Chapter HERE)

• Chapter 2 How to Make Healthy Food Choices

• Chapter 3 Vitamins and Minerals

• Chapter 4 A Weighty Problem

• Chapter 5 What about Diets, Medications, or Surgery?

• Chapter 6 Help for the Overweight Child or Teenager

This book was most helpful to me because it was put in simple to understand terms and, instead of offering an excerpt from every study available, the information was presented quickly and to the point. I learned the importance of reading labels and also what makes foods healthy/unhealthy.  I’ve always struggled in the area of nutrition (and I’m sure I will continue to struggle  to a point because this just isn’t top priority in our lives right now) but this book has made it a little easier to make the right choices.

The cost of this book is $12.99 and can be purchased HERE

**I received this book free of charge from Tyndale, in exchange for my honest opinion.

TOS Review: Amazing Science

Science and Math.com sent us Volume 1 of their Amazing Science program. There are 23 science experiments that my boys found to be truly AMAZING. You have two options for purchasing the program: 1) You can download it for $17.99 or 2) You can receive the two DVD set for $19.95

The boys enjoyed all of the experiments they watched and they also tried many of them with no difficulty at all. I love that they were able to do most of them with little to no assistance from me (they actually allowed their younger brother and sister be their ‘assistants’). They were quite impressed with what they could do with ordinary items from our house. Our favorites so far are Lift an Ice Cube with a String, Matchstick Speedboat, and Cloud in a Bottle.

 

Jason Gibson is the Science teacher in these videos and he shows you step by step what to do and explains the science behind why it works. You can then do the experiment yourself if you wish, but it isn’t required. By watching the video you will have learned all you need to understand the science, but my kids weren’t happy with just watching, they wanted to actually do the experiment themselves. The video’s are pretty short, about 10-15 min each, as you can see from their demo HERE.

Science and Math.com also offers video’s for Basic Math, Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus as well as Chemistry and Physics.

I would suggest Amazing Science as a great supplement for any Science program and even a stand alone program for the younger children who really don’t require a lot of science instruction.

Visit Amazing Science and sign up for a free experiment delivered to your inbox. You can also find a list of all the experiments on these DVD’s.

If you would like to hear what other TOS Reviewers thought of Amazing Science please visit the blog here.

**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. All opinions are mine. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.

TOS Review: Christian Kids Explore Biology

 

Our family has been slowly working through a new Science program by Bright Ideas Press, and so far it is passing the Pickrel test for ease of use. With me, Science must come easily or…well, it just doesn’t come at all. 

There are several Christian Kids Explore Science choices to choose from: Chemistry, Earth & Space, Physics, and Biology. We received Biology.

Christian Kids Explore Biology is a 291 page, paperback text. It is laid out very simply for the parent OR the child to read a small amount on a particular topic (“Teaching Time”) and then do a hands on activity that ranges from a full blown experiment to a simple diagraming assignment (“Hands-On Time).

It is broken into 8 Units and each Unit has 3-6 lessons for a total of 35 lessons. The lessons are broken into Teaching Time and Hands-On Time.  It really is as easy as it seems. Our homeschool is very busy these days and I really can’t do anything overly complicated, but we have very easily been able to do this. And we’ve ALL enjoyed it. It’s written for 3rd-6th graders but even my kindergartners have sat in on some of the lessons and enjoyed the coloring pages. There are lots of extra’s in this books that you can use to make this more in-depth. The coloring pages are part of that option.

Everything you need is in this one book for $34.95, but if you would like a digital of all the reproducible pages you can order that here for $ 7.95. There are plenty of instructions to help you get the most from your text, including instructions on creating a Science Notebook and examples of how to schedule your day/lesson, and material lists for each Unit. Although there are plenty of instructions, I want to say there aren’t TOO MANY instructions. Sometimes, when I open a book and see pages and pages of instructions I just want to close that book and leave it on the shelf. I need quick and precise. That’s what you get with Christian Kids Explore. I LOVE it.

If you would like more information about this program or any of the other Science programs mentioned above, just visit their site here. You can view samples, which are always helpful in giving you an idea of what is covered and how a lesson looks.

The quick and to the point version:

• Paperback (291 pages)
• Christian Kids Explore offers Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Earth and Space,
• $34.95 (for Biology)
• 35 Lessons, makes it easy to complete in a year
• Simple to do lessons and hands on activities
• WE LOVE IT

Want to know what other homeschoolers thought of Christian Kids Explore Biology? Visit our TOS Blog post.

**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. All opinions are mine. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.

Time to Sale

ALL PRICES ARE NEGOTIABLE (I really want to get rid of all this)

-Phonic's Pathway $10 + shipping

-Sylvan Learning Reading Skills Builder 1st & 2nd Grade (1st grade has 21 lessons and we used 11 of them 2nd grade has not bee used) $6 for both + shipping


-This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall $20 + shipping(I believe this is a suggested spine for Truth Quest)

-Exploring American History by McHugh and Montgomery $8 + shipping (I believe this is a suggested spine for Truth Quest)

-Little Pilgrims Progress (by Moody Bible Institute) $5 + shipping

-The World at Her Fingertips the story of Helen Keller $5 + shipping

-Abeka’s Pilgrim’s Progress, simplified $3 + shipping



-Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers (Books 2 & 3) includes answer key for book 3 $5 + shipping


-Cocoa and Company: A Civil War Classic $5 + shipping



Christian Light Grade 3 Reading $10 + shippingTeacher's Guidebook
Doors to Discovery (hardback)
Light Unit 310

Christian Light Grade 3 Language Arts $5 + shipping
Teacher's Guidebook
Light Unit 310



-Preschool or Kindergarten Kit  $99 + $8 Shipping

Included in this sale: Explode the Code items:Teachers book for books A,B, & C, Phonics letters with pic, letter, and pic/letter combo, and ETC Wall Hanger with activity book. Wiki Stix activity set, Phonogram cards that help you teach the letters as well as phonograms, Phonics activity kit, molding clay, dry erase sentence strips, Alphabet match game, numerous letter and number cards, Winnie the Pooh numbers with words and objects offers a puzzle to help learn numbers and counting, Mother Goose activity book, Alphabet Art, Weather chart, days of the week and month, mini incentive charts, books include: God Made Everything Weird & Wacky, Sometimes I share, Choice Stories for Children, Did you Know devotions, Andi's Scary School Days, One Day in the Alpine Tundra, I can Read Golden Book, Eyewitness Explorers Weather Book, The Night Sky, Read Aloud Treasury, What is a Bird, Things that Go Trains & Planes, Sunflower Life Cycle, What is an Insect, Liz Looks for a Home, Treasury of Literature "Hold on Tight" and "Blue Waters" I have also included some wall charts to go along with this.

You can contact me by leaving a comment or email me directly at mom244now@gmail.com
I accept PayPal