TOS Crew Review: Guardian Angel Publishing

Guardian Angel Publishing offers a wide range of books in a variety of formats. Each title is offered in a pdf ebook, an ebook CD, and a print version. Some books are available on DVD and still others as a kids' play book that can be viewed on an mp3 player or iPod.

This is a story about a shepherdess that finds a sad rainbow and helps it to get its color back. The illustrations are done in fiber art. At the end of the book there are four pages of instructions on how to make Felting for Fun activities to do with your kids.

The young flamingos in this book are the wrong color and wonder if they really are flamingos until they find out it can take a while to turn pink. This one is offered as a $2.99 app for your touch screen iPods and iPhones.

A book about the bones of the human body set in rhyme

Part of a series on a boy and an albino horse

A book all about earthquakes complete with charts, graphs, and colorful illustrations.

Guardian Angel Publishing has done a fantastic job of offering a large list of book titles in a variety of formats. What a great way to offer books in a way that people can use them best. I think the iPod and iPhone app products are really fun (even more fun if I actually had one!!). What I like best is that the prices for the various formats are really nominal. For example, the pdf ebook format is available for only $5.00. So many times when a print product is offered in an electronic format, the cost is still to high in my opinion. However, $5 is a reasonable fee to see the book on your computer and a price I'd be willing to pay for a book product without the physical book to enjoy.

Costs:

• pdf ebook format $5.00
• ebook on CD $9.95 plus $5.95 in shipping
• print paperbook book $10.95 plus $5.95 in shipping
• DVD book video $9.95 plus $5.95 in shipping
• app store when available $2.99

I wasn't sure what to expect in an ebook and so much of what we have received as Crew Members has been electronic. However, I'm pleasantly surprised to see these book offerings in a range of media. The content of the books I reviewed is really nice and I will definitely revisit the site to see if there is a title that matches something we are working on in our school. These products get a hearty thumbs up!

TOS Crew Review: Good News Express

Passkeys Foundation offers products and workshops to help parents build in desired character qualities in their children. The website offers various products to parents in addition to workshop videos on their website. I took a particular notice of a workshop video and pdf document of a character mentoring workshop for Mothers of Preschoolers- MOPS.

I was sent one book and CD from the Individual Character traits set of the Goodnews Express entitled The Cheerful Grump.

Cost: $7.50

We always enjoy audio books at our house and I popped this in one afternoon for the kids to enjoy. The story is read and there are some songs to hear all based on the idea that we should be kind to others. The bear in the story realizes at the story's conclusion that he has not acted kindly toward his neighbors and he changes his behavior, apologizes and resolution takes place.

While I appreciate the resources this company provides (and being a MOPS Field Leader I'm excited this organization has taken an interest in a ministry I spend a lot of time with), this is not a product I would seek. If you have a limited budget and feel strongly about having resources for the job of character building in your young children, then the Good News Express is worth a look.

TOS Crew Review: The Amazing Bible Timeline

As a member of The Crew, I was sent the Amazing Bible Timeline to review. It came in a large roll and it came with a few interactive downloads all of which we get to keep. One is an interactive map of the Holy Land (a $14.97 value) and the other is a digital copy of the Amazing Bible Timeline (also a $14.97 value).

I took the opportunity to lay it on our school table and cover it with a vinyl covering so we can see it underneath. The timeline is arrange in a circular fashion and depicts 6000 years of history. The timeline is organized so you can see complete Biblical and World History from the time of Adam through modern times.

The timeline measures 37" x 45" and is a heavy cardstock good for walls or table top.

Cost: $29.97 plus $6 shipping

This is a great tool for looking at all of history juxtaposed with biblical history all at once. The interactive map of the Holy Lands lets you see the ancient and modern boundaries of those countries.

As a visual person, I find the timeline hard to look at for long! That's my honest assessment. The writing is small and there is just a lot on the page when you are talking about putting 6000 years of history on one poster!

In our homeschool, the Amazing Bible Timeline is for fun fact finding and reference only. We are not a chronological history homeschooling family that lives and dies by our timelines! The strength of this product lies in the fact that it shows you all in one place how Biblical history lines up with secular history. It always amazing to note what was going on in other places around the world when David was King or when Jesus was crucified. We don't often align those things to make it all come together. I know Biblical history and I know secular history. I don't know a lot about how they coexisted.

10 Days in Africa

If you are a regular reader, then you know we are a gaming family! E11 really loves a good game and since his love language is quality time, he seeks to play often. When I was at the MOPS Int'l Convention in Nashville they, of course, had a huge vendor hall and it was full of stuff you could buy for your kids and for parenting in general. On one of my excursions into the vast rows of booths, I found one full of games. I thought it would be fun to bring home a new game for the kids as sort of a souvenir from my time away.

I decided it was time to try out the 10 Days series of games and chose Africa for our first one. This is just a great map, isn't it?

You have to arrange a trip through Africa that will take 10 Days- there is room for 10 cards on the holders. There are rules about how you get around which make it challenging.

There are several other games in the same series that play similarly but each have their own twist such as different forms of transportation and a different way to play them. I'm looking forward to adding one at the holidays for example. It's a fun way to get familiar with world geography though they do make a US version as well.

Other games in the series:

• 10 Days in Europe
• 10 Days in Asia
• 10 Days in the USA

Underground Railroad/Civil War Reading List

I had a fun time searching the library database and ordering up bunches of books on the topic of the Underground Railroad and some on the Civil War. What choice did I have when R9 came to me and said, "Mommy, I want to know about the Underground Railroad"?

This one is R9's favorite

This one has great pictures and stories.

This one is part fictional story and part non-fictional facts that go along with the story.

• A History of US War, Terrible War 1855-1865 by Joy Hakim
• The Underground Railroad by Raymond Bial
• Secret Signs by Anita Riggio
• Many Thousand Gone- African American from Slavery to Freedom by Virginia Hamilton
• The Civil War by Timothy Levi Biel
• Harriet Tubman Moses of the Underground Railroad by Anne Schraff
• Underground Railroad Tales with Routes through the Fingerlakes Region by Emerson Klees
• Traveling the Freedom Road by Linda Barrett Osborne
• If you Lived at the Time of the Civil War by Ray Moore
• Young Harriet Tubman Freedom Fighter by Anne Benjamin
• Underground Railroad- Official National Park Handbook
• Freedom Roads- Searching for the Underground Railroad by Joyce Hausen and Gary McGowan
• The Last Safe House- A Story of the Underground Railroad by Barbara Greenwood
• The Drinking Gourd- A Story of the Underground Railroad by FN Monjo
• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson

I need to search the library catalog for good Civil War titles. The ones listed here are ones that were at our tiny village library. It wasn't all bad, some of the best UGRR titles were also there. I'll update if I add any good Civil War books.

Snake Data Graphs

As part of our study of When I Was Young in the Mountains, I used the data chart from Homeschool Share to help the kids analyze the different lengths of snakes in comparison with our own heights. Though we were studying snakes at the time, I took the opportunity to turn this into a nice math lesson. I also encouraged them to find the length of a favorite snake or at least one of their own choice.

I used the cm graph paper from the Cuisenaire Rod Idea Book. I cut it down because it has unnecessary information in the margins and we glued it to a larger white piece of paper so the kids would not have a problem labeling it.

I also tweaked the data chart and made my own adding on our heights and leaving room for snakes of choice. Sorry about the turned picture.

We talked about proper graph labeling and titles- particularly how to set up the scale for the numbering. We had a good discussion on how to determine the scale for the graph based on the range of numbers. A common mistake kids make is to switch it up as they see how far they need to go. Start with 2s and then switch to 5s or 10s. That will make a mess of a graph. I used to see it all the time as a 6th grade teacher.

Two of the finished graphs- minus titles

As I have mentioned before, we are no longer doing Horizons Math. So, we often take something that might be minor from our unit studies and make it a big math lesson. Things are going very well. I really should post about it. I'll put that on a sticky note.

Please Pass the Old Bay

You can hear those words often at our dinner table. Especially when we have shrimp or oven fries. It's a story of our Maryland heritage. Even for our NY born children. Old Bay Seasoning.

Recently, I read an article entitled, The Measure of Old Bay Seasoning in The Washington Post online- a little known fact is that Dan and I still read The Post daily even after just about ten years in NY. It's like if I keep up with local DC metro news I won't be completely out of the loop if I ever get to move "back home". Plus, I can amaze my friends with intelligent conversation about local happenings. I'll tell you another secret...I still read the news from Baltimore and Carroll County too though not daily.

The article was about Old Bay Seasoning and how it's still going strong after 70 years. You have to click in to see the article even if it's just to see the Old Bay slide show! I found the history of Old Bay fascinating and of course I'm super happy that so many love it because I can find a full array at our local Wegmans grocery store right here in central NY State.

The article spoke about a Maryland native in California who has a 4 x 6 tattoo of a can on his calf. About how Old Bay has over 44,000 fans on Facebook. About how Bryant Gumbel of the Today Show once quipped that Marylanders will put Old Bay on anything. I concede that one is almost true. Nothing takes you back to Maryland quite like the taste and smell of Old Bay on your food. Although the old Maryland addage is true- never eat a crabcake outside of Maryland or too far from the Chesapeake Bay, Old Bay makes the heart grow fonder for the things we miss. Like a big, fat, broiled crabcake or a big pile of steamed Maryland blue crabs.

As much as I crave these two items sometimes, I staunchly refuse to partake of the pitiful "Maryland Crab Cakes" that can be found in the seafood case on Thursdays at Wegmans. In a particularly weak moment on a Thursday afternoon, I actually went up to the seafood guy and asked him..."Really? A Maryland crab cake? Will it meet the expectations of a native Marylander? You think it's so good you'll claim the name Maryland crab cake?" He told me not to try it. I didn't.

So for now, we cultivate our Maryland heritage here in NY. Even if it's most pronounced through our habitual use of Old Bay Seasoning on a variety of foods. I'm a Marylander through and through. So much so I had anxiety about moving across the Potomac into Virginia when we first got married! One river border with a lot riding on it. South of it people are into rolling hills and horse country, Cavaliers and Hokies. When we had our first child and named him "E" I was told it was a yankee name from the old ladies at our church! I even had one man comment at how much of Marylander I was because of my education- University of Maryland and Western Maryland College.

It got worse in NY...I actually met two Marylanders here within my first week in my MOPS group who had long since given up the Maryland culture. I wouldn't let go. I still won't. Lake Ontario and the Fingerlakes are beautiful. There's a large boating culture here, but it still doesn't hold a candle to the Chesapeake Bay. The water doesn't even smell the same! The presence of salt in the water makes all the difference. Dan's Maryland heritage is somewhat muddled with his Virginia one. He was born there and went to Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!), but he grew up in Annapolis and will tell you the same thing. His Annapolitan roots come out when he's near the water. I'm telling you. It's just not the same here.

Have you ever cut in line on someone? Witnessed it? My kids tell me that's budging. What? What does that even mean I asked the first time I heard it. Ohhhhh....you mean butting I would say. Then E11 would say, "Mommy that's a potty word." No, it's not! If you butt in line you are butting like a goat. Nothing potty-esque about that. My kids are all budgers...so odd! They don't do it really but the word on the street here is definitely budge. Not long after I was introduced to budging I was at the library checking out books when a little boy came running up to the check out desk to gets his books. His mom said, "Hey don't butt...it's not your turn!" I looked up and said, "You're from Maryland!" And yes she was!! We had a bonding moment.

Traffic here is so laid back, it's hard to drive back home in Maryland. Dan white knuckles it every time we go back there. It's good to be home he'll say through gritted teeth. I was on a local state highway a while back going by an entrance ramp. All of a sudden, a car shot out from that ramp and gunned it ahead of me to cut into the traffic lane. Really? There was no one behind me at all. He could have waited. But he didn't and I said to myself...you know I'd make a bet that guy's from Maryland. Sure enough. At the next light I got a look at his license plate frame- a dealership on the Maryland side of the capital beltway (the beltway around DC). He was still practicing the do it or die mentality of getting on to that crazy highway.

Also, any time you are tail-gaited chances are pretty high it's a Marylander. I don't tailgate though. Some characteristics of the average Marylander are not ones I want to hold on to!

My Maryland roots are so strong that when I read the requirements for homeschooling my children and it said that we had to do NY state history once between grades 3 and 6, I immediately thought...Why? Who cares about NY? We'll do Maryland history!! And we will. (don't worry...we've done NY history too...how in the world did I end up with three NY natives and one Virginian with a yankee name?)

I even sound Maryland. Never noticed that until I was away for a few years. Now I'm used to how folks around here sound and folks back home sound really, really Bald-i-mer. Closed Os and that whole "Goin' Down di ooocean hon" sound. One day it hit me. All at once. That is how I sound to everyone here!! My friends all laughed. Yeah, you don't sound like you're from around here.

No, I don't. I'm a Mare-linder all the way.

Right on down to the frequent use of the Old Bay.

Autumn Resources

Some of my kind readers have been asking for a book list so I thought it was time to publish it. I will start with my fall book list and then do one for the Underground Railroad/Civil War.

Our favorite autumn books:

• Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbel- there is a unit at Homeschool Share on this one which is a lot of fun!
  
• Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
  
• How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman- which is featured in a Reading Rainbow episode available on Netflix and at the library
• Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington
  
• It's Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall
  
• How Do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro
  
• From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
  
• The Pumpkin book by Gail Gibbons
• Poppleton in Fall by Cynthia Rylant
• Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro
• Fresh Fall Leaves by Betsy Franco
• The Wild Leaf Ride by Judith Stamper
• Clifford's First Autumn by Norman Bridwell
• Halloween Mazes
  

We read these a lot especially with the younger ones. The older ones enjoy our fall crafting and preparations. We've been to the cider mill, today we are going to the pumpkin patch and we'll be making applesauce next weekend- a day long affair at our house!

Enjoy the season!

The Harriet Tubman Home

The first leg of our field trip was actually a visit to the Harriet Tubman Home which is only about a half mile or more down the road from the Seward House. We learned that Harriet had been visiting friends in Auburn during a women's meeting (this area of NY is also home to the start of the Women's Rights movement) where she met Mrs. Seward. Mrs. Seward went home and told her husband all about her. The next time she came to town (she had been living in Canada at this point), the Sewards invited her to dinner at their home and that was the beginning of a long friendship.

William Seward gave Harriet a house on the outskirts of Auburn, NY where eventually she purchased the land from him and later on purchased from auction the 25 acres surrounding her buildings and land. The original structure she lived in was demolished, but these other buildings remain.

The brick two story building is the original building her brothers and father helped to build. She brought her whole family down from Canada to live in Auburn.

This house was built after the two story home and was built for Harriet to take care of elderly people. You can't take pictures of the inside, but it is furnished with items she used that were given to the home by her family who also still live in the Auburn area. R9 was especially taken with Harriet's beautiful treadle Singer sewing machine. It was a really nice looking machine! We saw a butter churn, an icebox, and other things from a slice of life very different from the Sewards! Very neat stuff in there.

These pictures show the property and it's plat and original buildings.

This is a cool poster of the homes that were Underground Railroad stations in the Fingerlakes Region of NY. I'm excited to receive a full map of NY state with the UGRR stops from The Seward House. They are sending their materials plus the cool map!

We also got to watch a little cartoon that really helped the kids understand the seriousness of her life and all the people she helped. R9 is going to be a Harriet expert because she's been reading everything she can find about her. All I have to do is spread out books I get from the library around the house and she will find them and read them! So, we're going to be working on some biography skills these next few weeks and doing a multi-media report on their person- R9 will do Harriet Tubman and E11 will do William Seward. I'm looking forward to the results!

And as a teaser...I just found out about another field trip we will take. Check this out. The online exhibition is here if you'd like to see it. If you look at the second painting in the exhibit, you'll see William Seward. He is at the table sitting to Lincoln's left right in front. After we go, I will blog on this one too.

"I love it when a plan comes together! " - Hannibel (of the A Team)

Field Trip: The William Seward House

We had a delightful time today visiting two historical landmarks. We visited the Seward House after lunch and got a grand tour of the Seward Mansion. Who was William Seward? He was a NY State Senator, NY State Governor, US Senator from NY, and finally the Secretary of State in President Lincoln's cabinet.

We had the short, rushed, fast talker tour mostly by accident. The main tour is an hour and a half and probably starts with an overview of who Seward and his family were and what they did. As it was we got a very quick, what I'm calling, "stuff tour". We got a tour of Seward's mansion and the gobs of stuff in it. All I can say is wow! Here's a little of what I was able to hear and retain!

• there are pieces in the home that are over 3000 years old- gifts to Mr. Seward from foreign leaders
• as Secretary of State under Lincoln he purchased Alaska for .02 an acre
• in the dining room there are two tables which seat 20. There is a built in storage closet for the leaves for the table with a silverware safe underneath- still full of silver
• there are bars on the basement windows to keep the wild animals out- bears, mountain lions, and wolves (were there wolves in NY??)
• the china is Napoleonic china and Mr. Seward has 60 place settings of it
• Mr. Seward loved his garden. At the bottom of the large staircase at the end of the banister, there is a large vase in which was put fresh flowers daily.
• there is a square grand piano in the upstairs hallway
• on the way up the grand staircase is a gallery of photos/paintings of famous dignitaries, rulers, heads of state, etc that were gifts to Mr. Seward. Simply amazing since these were all gifts to him.
  
• Mr. Seward was a staunch abolitionist and his home was a frequent stop on the Underground Railroad.
• He was a signer of the Emancipation Proclamation
• The night President Lincoln was killed, Mr. Seward was also brutally attacked and did recover from his injuries.
  
• the dining room table was set for a fish meal and the fish knives were nothing short of exquisite. The curator told the story about how at Seward's home in Washington, DC Lincoln used his own butter knife to get butter from a large silver butter dish. Unfortunately, this is a terribly uncouth thing to do because there is a butter knife that belongs with the dish. His wife Mary Lincoln Todd reprimanded him with a look. He leaned over to another guest and said, "I'm gonna hear about this for the next six months!"
  

I could go on and on and on! What I find so amazing is that there are so many of their belongings in the mansion. It's like everything is there! They saved all of their children's toys and the original boxes they came in. I'm certain that not everything left behind is on display. Although this home has been turned into a museum, the Seward family still lives in Auburn and reportedly still live a similar lifestyle today.

A fountain in the garden outside the porch area. Seward considered his garden more important than the house and spent a lot of time there.

The porch leading to the garden. See those shuttered windows under the porch roof? They are actually pocket doors!!! They are beautiful and they are one set of the many pocket doors we saw on the first floor. The pocket doors are 130 yrs old and are perfectly balanced and in excellent working order. Oh man...pocket doors. Wouldn't it be lovely to have some of those? The pocket doors to the dining room had frosted glass in them to provide some privacy.

We were able to tour just half of the enormous mansion. To the right of the wood shed are the servant's quarters and the towers held servant's quarters too. 13 rooms worth. He had 20 servants and it is said that Seward was a very generous man. If you worked for him as a servant he took good care of you and for the rest of your life.

This was the wood shed. The whole building! Inside it now is the carriage. We were told that Abraham Lincoln rode in the carriage many times with Seward.

Carriage House (on the left) and the stable (on the right) with the stable keeper's apartment above it on a second floor.

Instead of taking this field trip as a culmination of a unit, we went at what is really just the beginning of our studies on the topic of the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. However, it was perfect! Now we know that we want to find out more about Mr. Seward and the events that surrounded his life.

Did you know that in June, Sarah Palin visited Auburn, NY as part of Alaska's celebration of their 50 years of statehood. We were on the way through town that day to head to Rochester for a homeschooling convention. I wish we could have stopped!

After perusing The Seward House website, I found out that there are curriculum materials that go with a field trip there. I have emailed to ask for them and I hope they come through for me. I promised the kids, who left wanting more, that we would go back again toward the end of the unit and take the long tour (1.5 hours) so we could learn more about Mr. Seward and the people with which he surrounded himself. I'm sure we'll learn some more fun facts.

TOS Crew Review: Sarah's Wish

Sarah's Wish is a book about a young girl who experiences tragedy and has to keep her family's secret all on her own. It's a heartwarming story that takes place prior to the Civil War in the United States and details the life of the Underground Railroad and those who were a part of it.

The book includes a free audio download of the book and even has a glossary of terms in the front.

It's a well written story by Jim Baumgardner who is the great, great grandson of the town doctor in the story. Mr. Baumgardner has a heart for homeschoolers (all of his grandchildren are homeschooled) and in particular sharing his brand of history with all kids through his Sarah Books and website.

I must say he was always very animated when sending emails out to us as Crew Members and I couldn't wait to receive the book in the mail he made it sound so nice. I was not disappointed! The bonus is that this book is very timely for us as a family because we are studying the Underground Railroad and the Civil War right now. Sarah's Wish is a perfect historical fiction novel to round out our studies. I'm looking forward to reading the other stories in the series Sarah's Promise and Sarah's Escape.

Sarah's Web- the official website of the Sarah Books by Jim Baumgardner

There is a homeschooler's section on the website where you can visit with other homeschoolers who have used the books in their school.

From the links section of the website you can find links to things like information about the Underground Railroad, Kansas History, and Pioneer Life.

Cost: Sarah's Wish $9.99 on the author's website and there is free shipping there! Plus, you'll get a lovely autographed copy of the book (mine even came with my name in it...how kinda cool is that?)

AB Patterns for Mr. Preschooler

J4's assignment was to make a red and blue pattern- I will tell you that everyone but E11 had to join in. Unifix cubes are the newest in our collection of math manipulatives.

TOS Crew Review: Hands On Geography

I was delighted to receive and review an actual hard copy of the book Hands on Geography- "Easy and Fun Activities for Exploring God's World" by Maggie Hogan, published by Bright Ideas Press. I'm not sure how to start this review except to go ahead and blurt out, "I love it!!" This is hands down my favorite Crew Review item thus far and I'm so excited that I get to keep the book.


Here's a look at the table of contents:

• National Geography Bee
• Homemade Games
• Homemade Books
• The Country Notebook
• Passport Fair
• Joseph's Journey
• Missionary Geography
• Genealogy Geography
• Nature and Geography
• Language Arts and Geography
• History and Geography
• Maps Galore
• Teaching through the Five Themes of Geography
• Outline Maps
• Geography in a Flash
• Geography Resources

One of the things I like best about this book is that it makes a great resource item for you to pull ideas on any study you are doing. The chapter entitled Maps Galore for example, is full of themed maps you can use for any topic you are engaged in. The possibilities seem endless because it sparks your imagination on what else you can map. There are many specific ideas and projects in the book, but it also helps you to nurture more ideas.

For fun I had E11 map the concert schedule of his favorite bands- Jars of Clay and Go Fish.

Cost: $14.95 for paperback book
$10.46 currently at CurrClick for an electronic copy

This book really works for us as a unit study family because it has so many resources and ideas for using with unit studies you have planned and it also can be the basis for some really nice unit studies like a missionary study. We used the genealogy geography as part of our study of George Washington Carver last week which is E11's current study. He had already done the family tree and was able to use the information on birthplaces to construct a map of his heritage.

There is even information on how to prepare for and direct a group of students toward the National Geography Bee. That is valuable information for the homeschooling community.

I encourage you to get a copy of this resource. It's one I will keep very handy!

Writing Games

So, we've been enjoying the book Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. What a great book for teaching writing in a casual manner! I kept my library copy so long I decided it was time to get my own.

Friday we played the game called How Many Words? In this game, you have a big chart of words and after you modify a die to have a 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 roll, you roll the die to see how many words from the chart you have to fit into one sentence. If you use the number words from the row that you are supposed to, then you get that many points. The person with the most points at the end wins.

We played all together with 2nd grade, 4th grade, and even 6th grade participating. R9 came up with some really cute stuff. I'll share her work below. She decided to string the sentences together to be a story and she gave me permission to share her work with all of you.

The kitten purred in a cute way. One horrible purplish monster went swiftly to bed.

"It is delightful to be magical," said the puppy.

The bad grasshopper replied, "You are not magical. If you were you would make me magical too."

"You are sleepy. Go wake monster and use his bed," said the puppy.

The bad grasshopper went to the monster's bed and said, "Wake up," softly.

"You will be tasty when I chew you in my teeth," said monster.

The bad grasshopper raced away. The monster raced after him. Finally, the bad grasshopper fell into the smelly, dirty water.

This is just one of the many games that Peggy Kaye has put together in her book, Games for Writing. I recommend this book to anyone who has a reluctant writer (she has lots of ideas for this) or to anyone who wants to see more fruitful writing from their students.

If you visit Peggy Kaye's Website, she has some games on there to download for free. I sure hope she gets more going on there too because it would be fun to be able to share with each other how we use her stuff. After visiting there I have to say that Ms. Peggy is not a visual learner! There's not one graphic or picture on her home page. That makes me chuckle. I'm visual. Can you tell? I can't post anything without at least one picture.

Ms. Kaye's other books Games for Reading, Games for Math, and Games for Learning are also favorites of mine. These are must haves for your homeschooling shelf if you don't already have them. I borrowed mine from the library so many times, it was time to invest in my own set.

We Set a Record!

On Friday, October 16th for the earliest snowfall over one inch...we had 2.1 exactly. I'm hoping it's a huge dose of foreshadowing of the winter that lies just ahead.

It was snowing Thursday night when I went grocery shopping and this is what we woke up to Friday morning.

You know...it's really wild to see snow falling and hear leaves rustling at the same time. We still have a few trees with leaves.

I have just one more thing to say on the topic.

Bring.It.On.

Fun with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

J4 had a birthday party to attend today which he has been talking about forever. He decided he wanted to give his friend one of his favorite books. We thought it would be fun to add on a mouse puppet to the gift. We love our puppets and J4 was excited for his friend to have a mouse to go with his book.

We had a very quiet week at home because we were all varying levels of sick. I'm just glad J4 was on the mend a few days ago so he was able to go to this party after all. While R9 was battling a fever and laying on the sofa, she remembered that her magazine featured a game to go with this book. I knew just the one she was talking about and when I finally made it into the real world on Thursday night (to get groceries), I picked up the fabric for some chocolate chip cookie beanbags.

One of our all time favorite books (though I must admit my personal favorite is If You Give a Moose Muffin)

The beginnings of our cookie beanbags. I cut out the circles and because of a machine snaffoo at our start I hand sewed one. However, once I got the machine happier (thanks Lisa!), R9 sewed up the circles. We stuffed them with lentils because the truth is I'm not going to eat them! Ever. (my other project for this week was to inventory all the food in the house and to use up what we needed to before it goes bad. I'm so ON this and to prove it I used lentils for stuffing beanbags.) But I digress...note if you will R9's amazing stitches. That's a 3 inch circle folks and she is right on the money. Wow.

The finished gift. The cookie "jar" is for tossing the beanbags into and check out the cookies. We put the chips on with brown fabric puffy paint. I think this will make a super Christmas gift for a cousin or two not to mention one littlest brother. One set will make a lovely 4-H project for the fair next summer too I'm sure.

Pack o Fun Magazine- R9 gets this magazine and she remembered a game that would go with the book. Each issue comes with many projects, but they have various features too. Two that come to mind are a Literature connection project and Crafts from around the world. The Literature segment includes a craft that goes with a book. The Craft around the World segment features a different country every issue and includes a map and other information about the country/culture in addition to the craft itself. Definitely a fun magazine and perfect for your craft loving kids!

Beanbag Toss Mouse (to glue to the cookie jar for the toss)- the cookies are made from 3.25 inch circles

This is the first sewing that R9 and I have done since the late August Sewing Camp. We have been on the go quite a bit and trying desperately to follow my own advice, we just haven't made the time to work together. We are both excited we finally dove into a project- even if it was a small one. We tag teamed very well on this. And we are fired up to keep going. (Up next...bucket bags)

R9 has decided to have a table at our home MOPS group's Christmas Brunch. She will sell sets of the beanbag toss game, aprons for children like the one she made at camp, and possibly a handbag for girls. She won't be churning out massive numbers of stuff as for a craft show, but we'll be happy if she sets up with 10 items to sell that day. She's very excited especially about getting to make things and not have to keep them all and I'm happy to encourage her.

Her next Sewing Camp day is on Veteran's Day next month and she is very eager to return to her favorite little sewing classroom in town. I wonder what fun things she'll work on next time.

Nature Study- Fall

Making leaf prints with ink- at The Handbook of Nature Study blog. Barb does a fantastic job of sharing her family's nature studies with us and her sidebar is just chock full of challenges for your family. I so enjoy her approach to nature study and enjoy it with my kids as often as I can remember!


Outdoor Hour Challenges- Fall Series This is a great place to see all the autumn Outdoor Hour Challenges in one place with some additional information. Barb based her whole blog and her challenges on the book below. If you are unfamiliar with it, it's the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock.

Crop Plants Pumpkin Time- a study of pumpkins by making a pumpkin pie! I'm excited to use our very own pumpkin patch for this purpose.

FIAR Nature Study Series- the fall study is my very favorite! Jane Claire Lambert pulls out all the stops on this study which incorporates nature with art, poetry, science, and music. I love pulling this out each year.


I helped the kids collect some leaves last week after a beautiful sunny afternoon at the orchard. The plan is to use some of the leaves for the inking project and the others for a different project.

We just finished adding our garden pictures to our nature journals the other day- sort of a visual recording of how garden grew this season. It's time to harvest our pumpkins. We had a heavy frost the other day and woke up to 2 inches of snow this morning! The plants are no longer alive so the pumpkins will be moved and hopefully we'll see them turn orange by Halloween.

There are plenty of autumn activities out here in the internet world. Next, I'll give some resources for apple themed lessons and fall book choices.

The Daily Quest

My newest post over at Heart of the Matter is up today. Enjoy a more refined version of The Daily Quest. Go ahead! Click on over!

Free Autumn Unit Study

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is offering a free autumn unit study and lapbook from Amanda Bennett. I'm sure many of you have run across this offer if you get emails from TOS or from Amanda Bennett, but the response has been overwhelming and I thought I'd share some of the resources in case you haven't seen it yet.

Free autumn unit study and lapbook

Speaking of which, how many of you are already subscribers to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine? Here is an encouraging article to read and an offer for a one year subscription for an amazing $7.95.

I don't do outright solicitation very often on my blog, but this is a great deal and this time last year I took a chance and went for the $7.95 subscription. I haven't regretted it! I really enjoy this magazine. It comes out four times a year and is chock full of encouragement and ideas on homeschooling. For just under $8, it's a great time to try it out.