Spending time in Gods' Word can be a difficult task but it is also irreplaceable. If you're looking for strength, courage, and guidance to keep on keeping on in a world of trials and tribulations then there is no better place to be than in God's Word!
I am currently going through the book of John, one chapter at a time and using Kari at Stone Soup For Five's latest doodle study. I am constantly doodling so combining two of my loves at the same time is perfect. I am also finding that the doodling is helping me to retain more. I especially find this study to relax me at night before going to bed. The thing I love most about all of Kari's doodle studies is you can make them work for you. You can go as slow or fast as you like. You also do not have to be an artist or make an elaborate journal of doodles to complete any of the studies. I just use her suggestions and have fun with it. This study is also full of information. You will be tracking three items that appear in groups of seven in the book of John.
It is an inductive study with each part broken into three sections: in your journal, in your life, and going deeper. It includes maps, beautiful full page quotes, check boxes to keep you on track, and of course doodles. A beautiful and exciting new feature that I can't wait to use with my daughter is the addition of a lapbook so we can work together!
Today is the kickoff for launch week so from now until March 5th, you will receive the complete Bible study, bonus lapbook so your kids can get involved too, and doodle sheets for $14.99. Kari is also offering my readers 20% off so you can purchase your set for $11.99! Click here to get your study today! Just be sure to use the code GRACE20 for your discount. What is your favorite way to add God's Word into your daily schedule?
I'm teaching these to my preschool class and if 3-4 year old preschoolers can memorize them, surely we can too! We are also learning the ASL alphabet along with the verses too.
Q is for...1 Thessalonians 5:19 - Do not quench the Spirit.
We love games in our family, especially games that connect learning through fun! So, today I’m reviewing Archery Dice, one of four of new releases from SimplyFun. SimplyFun offers over 100 award winning options for families and teachers specifically to meet the needs and skills of children. If you are looking for a game that covers a special skill or interest, it is easy to search through what they have available. The crew will be reviewing 2 of the four new games and both of them have a medieval theme.
I chose Archery Dice because it sounded right up our alley. I'll admit that my "mommy vision" automatically envisioned dice flying through the air, hitting walls, eye protection, etc. Does anyone else have these "mommy visions"?! Well, in case you do, let me go ahead and put your mind to ease. Part of the rules state that if your dice fly off the table or hit another players dice and knock them over, it is considered a foul dice and no longer in play. Phew!
After opening our box, I was impressed right away with how sturdy it was and the organization compartments it contained. The game includes 16 targets, 12 dice (3 of each color), 4 wood disks, and a colorful instruction booklet. It is for 2-4 players, recommended for ages 7 and up, and sells for $26. It is not recommended for children under 3 since it contains small parts that could be a choking hazard. Skills focused on are eye-hand coordination and strategy skills.
Setup and Play
The instructions are very clear and give great color diagrams of how the set up area should look. Basic setup includes each player taking their 3 dice and stacking them up vertically on top of their wooden disk. 3 targets are placed in the center of the table creating a triangle.
Each player then takes turns flicking their dice to try to land on the center targets with the ultimate goal of trying to hit a bull's-eye in the center or be the highest dice on the target. The player must immediately call bull's-eye if they do make it and they can then bank that target and no one can steal it.
One round is over after each person has flicked their die. When flicking your die, you can aim for the center target or any opponent's targets won that have not been banked.
After each round ends, if any player has landed on a target, the one with the highest number die or dice gets to put that target under their stack of dice and disk. At that point, other players can try to steal those targets. As I mentioned earlier, if your die goes off the table, hits another player's dice, or flies off the stack without rolling, it is considered a foul die.
During the second and third round of play, if the dice rolled creates a double the player can call double to regain a die to use again. The first player to get 4 targets wins. You can also just play until all the targets have been claimed for a longer game.
We had so much fun playing this game. It has got to be ranked as one of our all time favorite games we have played ever! We get loud, we get competitive, we strategize, we knock each other off the board, but more than anything we have an amazing amount of fun! Listen in as we play a little bit for you.
Total warning: This game is extremely addicting. Not a day has passed since we opened Archery Dice that it hasn't been played. The first time, we played it for hours until we were all hungry and had to stop. After supper, we went back and played some more!
Today's review is the Pro Plan from HelpTeaching.com. If you are not familiar with HelpTeaching.com, they offer a large variety of printable worksheets and tests for grades K-12. They offer worksheets and online testing in many subject areas including Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, and more.
The great thing about HelpTeaching.com is you can access their website and some of the printables absolutely free. You are limited to adding 10 questions on your customized worksheets with the free membership. The Pro Plan offers you the option to add up to 100 questions on your worksheets as well as access to pre-made premium content including the option to add quality images. In this screenshot you can see that the worksheets with a lock are only accessible with a Pro Plan. A lot of the content available is aligned with Common Core Standards. By clicking on the CC button, you will be given the standard that the worksheet meets. We don't follow those standards but I know some schools do so if you are supplementing for a child who is in school, you will find lots of great help here.
Another great feature of the Pro Plan is the option to assign lessons to your children by email or by just sharing the link with them. When making up quizzes or tests, you have the option to add your own unique questions or choose from a huge inventory of questions already made by other users. I thought that was such a unique feature to really customize the tests to supplement your current curriculum. In our homeschool, I would assign my 9th grade son lessons to supplement his current science curriculum. For example, he was studying Newton's Laws of Motion so I searched to see if there were any topics available to cover that subject. I assigned a few by email to see how it worked and I can see how this would be a great option for high school students especially. You could give them there assignments at the beginning of the week and be done until the end of the week! When making the tests you can choose to add in multiple-choice, open-ended, true-false, or fill-in-the-blank questions. The multiple choice and true-false are automatically graded for you. Here is a sample of the lesson screen and activities:
As you can tell, some of the lessons include visual properties including videos, video links, and game links. A few practice questions are included to see what the student already knows. After the student finishes the lesson, you can assign a quiz on the lesson and again that can be sent by email or by just giving them the link. Here is a sample I snapped of the email assignment links and the final quiz score when finished. I love the independence that HelpTeaching.com allows.
HelpTeaching.com offers several different options to meet the needs of homeschoolers and parents including tests, worksheets, lessons, games, test maker, and online testing! I also used the games section quite a bit with my 7th grader who loves word search puzzles. Each week I would use her spelling words and make them into a word search puzzle. You simply type the words in separated by a comma and the puzzle is made for you! You can print the puzzles, download them for later, and store them in the section labeled my content. It also gives you the answer key.
Word searches are not the only game sheets available. There are also bingo cards, word bingo cards, math practice sheets for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There is so much content available at the HelpTeaching.com website. I think we've only just begun to explore all the options and uses available! I know the grammar worksheets will be put to use as we practice for end of year testing soon.
Overall, we would highly recommend the Pro Plan as a valuable resource to any homeschool or parent. You can purchase the plan for only $24.95 for an entire year and use it with all of your children making it very economical.
I'm teaching these to my preschool class and if 3-4 year old preschoolers can memorize them, surely we can too! We are also learning the ASL alphabet along with the verses too.
P is for...Psalm 147:1 - Praise the LORD! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting!
I have been so excited to share with you today's review product, HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections, from Home School in the Woods. With the U.S. Elections in full swing, I knew it would be a wonderful opportunity for our entire family to learn more on just how elections work in our country. I am still in total shock that I will have a child who is old enough to vote in this election!!
This Hands-on History Lap-Pak is recommended for grades 3-8 so I chose to let my 7th grade daughter who loves hands on activities and anything to do with art work through this project. We received the digital version which we were able to download with no problems. We received the files for 21 lapbook projects, printable booklets in 2 different formats, photos of all the projects, and 2 audio files in mp3 format to listen to as we read along in the booklet. All of those files came in a zip file where I extracted them once I received them. The file that I thought was so unique was a file labeled "Start". When you clicked on that file, you were taken directly to all the files that were included with one simple press!
During each of the 21 lessons, we followed along in the booklet using the PDF copy as we listened to the audio. I did not see the need to print out the booklet for us but could see how it would be a great option to include it with your finished lapbook.
We worked on 3 lessons per week and I usually printed out the sheets needed for the 3 projects during my Saturday planning time. You will definitely need a little time for teacher preparation in order to have the projects ready to complete. The instructions give you complete direction in what supplies you would need such as white paper, white card stock, colored card stock, colored paper, brads, etc.
It also includes detailed instructions on assembly along with photos of each completed project. I loved how simple and easy the directions were to follow. Sarah followed along with the instructions and photos mainly by herself. I was there in case she needed me but she could really complete this project independently once I gave her the printed sheets and few extra supplies.
Since we worked on 3 lessons per week, we are not completely through yet but we went ahead and assembled what we did have so you could see the process. Again, you are given detailed instructions as well as pictures to walk you through the lapbook assembly process and we found them very easy to follow. They also suggested adding the projects to the lapbook with double sided tape. We didn't have any so we made do with what we had.
(I'll update the finished project overview once we complete it.)
Also after we complete the final few lessons, Sarah is going to present her finished work to the entire family. That way we can sneak in a little review for my older sons as well! We loved everything about this project. You could easily do it all with white paper and have your child add their own color or you can mix and match like we did. The instructions also suggest different colors of paper. I learned a great deal about the election process myself including the meaning of stump speaking. I was not familiar with that term at all! I think an older child or adult could also benefit from reading the booklet as well. Just of few of the topics covered are the branches of government, terms of office, media coverage, primaries and caucuses, electoral college and many more.
I think I start every post out lately with the same words. "The days are flying by!". Remember when you first had your children and every "older" woman you met warned you about those days and how fast they would fly by? Remember how you thought they were crazy? Well, now I can join in with them and tell you that the days really do fly by. Babies of yesterday are men and women of tomorrow!
In our year of milestones, Stephen celebrated his 15th birthday with his favorite pie.
Evidence of how those 15 years have flown by!
Another child on the road driving me around - yes, oh yes. You know what I'm going to say. They fly by!
To finish the week off we celebrated Valentine's Day a little early with some fun treats, encouraging words, and a dusting of snow!
Saw this fun idea on Pinterest and everyone loved finding their new note of encouragement on their door each day. Pinterest win for sure! Simple, inexpensive, and no extra calories included!
Marley enjoying the snow.
School is also moving along pretty quickly. Next week would have been our break week but we're trying to keep going in order to completely finish by May 13th.
What's working for us right now is for me to stay on top of the week and make sure I get my weekly planning and preparation done for the week ahead. It doesn't take that long but it sure can put us behind when it is not done!
Here is a quick peak into those weekly planning sessions:
Stay tuned for some fun review products coming soon too. We're working on an awesome elections lapbook where I have also been learning a lot. We are continuing to stick figure our way through the Bible, conquering Algebra mountains, learning the logic of English, and writing fun stories starting with writing basics as we conquer blank page syndrome as well.
I'm teaching these to my preschool class and if 3-4 year old preschoolers can memorize them, surely we can too! We are also learning the ASL alphabet along with the verses too.
O is for...Psalm 119:18 - Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.
