Review of GREEMU

Today's review may seem a little unusual to you or at least it did to me! I remember when the crew had the opportunity to review Emu Oil by Koru Naturals and I read the reviews of how awesome it sounded. I wanted to give some a try but never did. This time we were given the opportunity to review a 4 fluid ounce bottle of GREEMU which is the plant based alternative for emu oil from Devonian.

Devonian is a company dedicated to finding ways to replace animal based products with plant based products especially in the beauty world. GREEMU is their latest product design and completely made from plant oils and butters. This vegan alternative contains the ingredients of Macadamia Seed Oil, Palm Oil, Shea Butter, Sunflower Seed Oil, and Rice Bran Oil. It does not contain any animal ingredients.

I tried GREEMU myself because my skin is extremely dry. I have always had dry skin ever since I can remember. I have to use lotion every morning and night to try to keep my skin moisturized. Even then, I will still have flaky spots that require more moisturizer. My hair can also tend to be dry and frizzy since I use color and a flat iron on it.

I read that GREEMU absorbs into the skin more slowly than the emu oil so it was best to use a little at first and repeat the process rather than using a lot to begin with. That is definitely great advice and it took me a while to find what amount worked best. Although it comes in a green bottle, the oil is clear.

I applied GREEMU to my face each night after cleansing. It is suppose to help improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. I did find that I had to play around with just the right amount because if I put too much on, it would cause me to have break outs. Eventually, I had a good routine down of just placing a few drops on my wrinkles. I also placed a little on the edges of my nose. During this review period, I went through a terrible sneezing time with my allergies and was constantly needing to blow my nose. As much as I had to blow, my nose surely would have been raw and chapped without the use of the oil so it did a fantastic job helping me through this allergy season!  I can't really tell you that I see a big difference in my fine lines and wrinkles but I may need to give that more time.  Maybe??

I also used the oil on my hair. Again, you really need to play around with how much to use your first few applications because I would tend to overdo at first and my hair would end up looking oily. The instructions said to use the oil from root to tip but I found just adding it to my ends worked best for my hair. 

Lastly, I used the oil as a moisturizer for my body. After showering, I would rub the oil on my skin and this was my favorite use! As I stated earlier, I have to apply lotion morning and night for my skin to feel moisturized. I could actually go an entire day without needing any lotion when I used the GREEMU oil. That in itself is huge for my skin!

After using this oil daily for several weeks now, I have only used a little over half of the bottle. A little really goes a long way. It also doesn't really have a smell at all which I like. This product is made for external use only.

A 4oz bottle of GREEMU currently sells for $10.80. Until May 31st you can receive Get 20% off by entering coupon code GN395Z10.

To find out what other products are available from Koru Naturals visit them on Facebook and Pinterest.

Review of Heroes of History - Ronald Reagan

It is no secret, we are huge fans of YWAM Publishing! About 95% of our read aloud books are picked from their lineup of wonderful books which include Heroes of History and Christian Heroes: Then & Now. So, when the chance to review the book, Heroes of History- Ronald Reagan and the Digital Unit Study became available, we were ecstatic!

YWAM Publishing offers many styles of books focusing on the topics of ministry, education, evangelism, discipleship, and prayer.

This year is our year of American History. We cycle through the history years so this is our 2nd time studying US History. Can you believe that we were in the 1980's just as this book became available to us? We couldn't have asked for more perfect timing!

Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side shares interesting facts of Ronald Reagan's life such as acquiring the nickname "Dutch" and how that came about.  This 224 page paperback book takes you through his childhood, adolescent years, college days, Hollywood days, all the way to his political career, death, and burial.  Journey back in time as you visit Dutch's early days of struggling through poverty, his father's alcohol addiction, illness, and small town life.  Through all the hardships, he continued to press on and never gave up trying to chase his dreams.  Even an assassination attempt couldn't stop him! He always had a passion for sports and drama and this book takes you through his life as he explores those passions.  We loved following along his career paths from lifeguard, to radio announcer, to Hollywood actor, to Army officer, to politics.
As always, after we finished reading we were left with so much more knowledge of our 40th President of the United States.  We clearly saw how all the events in his life molded him to be such an effective communicator.     

Although, we mainly use these are read aloud books to supplement our history and Bible lessons there is so much more you can add in when you add in the Unit Study Guide. The study guide includes many ideas to enhance your studies incorporating the subjects of history, art, geography, reading comprehension, creative and essay writing, drama, public speaking, and so much more. 

 
We orally answered the chapter questions after finishing each chapter. All answers are included as well in case you would like your student to read the book on his/her own. The questions include vocabulary, facts, comprehension, and opinion questions. Here is a sampling of the style of questions. I really loved that they included the page numbers for the vocabulary as well so if needed the student could go back to find the word in the context of the sentence.

There are also lots of fun ideas for various projects included. I chose to have my children work on a power point presentation.

 

We would highly recommend any of the books published by YWAM Publishing whether you are looking to supplement your current curriculum or use these as a starting point for a complete unit study! These books are truly our favorites! You can check out another review we did on Milton Hershey.

The paperback book of Ronald Reagan is currently on sale for $7.50 and if can also be purchased in several different formats making it a great on the go resource too! The formats include regular Audiobook CD, Audiobook MP3 download, Nook edition (e-book), Kindle edition (e-book), and regular e-book download. Visit here for all the different options.

I love this map that includes the heroes available in chronological order as well as where they were born and died.

To discover more on what YWAM Publishing has to offer, visit them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They also have a Blog.

Be sure to click the banner below to find out about the other books offered from YWAM Publishing that my fellow crewmates had the opportunity to review.

Review of Wonderfully Made by Danika Cooley

Has your child ever asked you the question, "where did I come from?" Often, parents cringe at those 5 words and don't know where to even start to answer that question. Well today's review is the perfect resource to help parents answer children who want answers! That resource friends is a new book, Wonderfully Made by Danika Cooley.

Although my children are older and this is intended to share with children ages 5-11, I read this with my daughter who is just a little older and she learnt so much! Quite frankly, so did I!

Wonderfully Made is filled with biblical answers straight from the Word of God as well as the science behind the miracle of birth. You see, the world has tainted the beauty of birth but God created us in His own image and that is what I want to teach my children.  Marriage, conception, and birth are His gift and beautiful in His sight!

From conception in the womb through the nine months within the mother's womb, the miracle of life is beautifully illustrated on every page of this hardback 48 page picture book.

 

To enhance the book even more, Danika is offering several free printables to go along with the release - posters, Scripture cards, and a lapbook!

One of our favorite verses - "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13 

You can purchase Wonderfully Made several different ways:

Amazon: Wonderfully Made: God’s story of life from conception to birth

Amazon UK: Wonderfully Made: God’s Story of Life from Conception to Birth

Christian Book: Wonderfully Made: God’s story of life from conception to birth

Here is a little more about from the author and the background story of Wonderfully Made:

1. What inspired you to write Wonderfully Made?

One of my kids' favorite stories has always been the story of how God formed each of them in the womb, how they're special and loved, and how anticipated their births were. They loved hearing about the day of their birth. I wanted moms in other families to be able to share that story with their children using science, Scripture, and beautiful illustrations.

2. What was your main goal in writing Wonderfully Made? 

I want children to understand that they're individually and purposefully created by a loving God, and that there is a second birth into the Kingdom of Heaven available to them. Each child is unique and special, and each is loved dearly not only by their parents, but also by their Father in Heaven.

I also want a new generation of children to grow up understanding the marvelous truth of what happens in the womb, and when it happens. I want them to know what Scripture says about life in the womb--both the creation of life and the existence of life.

Both of those goals were heavy on my heart while writing Wonderfully Made, and I'm overjoyed to see the book available to families around the world.

3. Which part of researching Wonderfully Made was the most personally interesting to you?

Did you know that a baby's heart starts beating at four weeks? That's actually two weeks after conception. By eight weeks, six weeks after conception, all of the organs--other than the lungs--are working! And babies dream in the womb three months before they're born. How amazing is that? Learning about the development of babies in the womb was so much fun for me. I also loved going through the Scripture that talks about life in the womb.

At the end of the book is the explanation of rebirth in Christ and how that can be done. 

"According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." 1 Peter 1:3b

Oh how delighted we are for writers who share science, art, and love while glorifying our Father in Heaven! The price for this book is very economical and it would also make a perfect gift for expectant mothers! So don't put off answering those tough questions any longer. Celebrate God's most wonderful creation.  You are His masterpiece! Wonderfully Made will do all the hard work for you. You can just lay back on the couch, enjoy, and explore with your children!

Blogging Through The Alphabet With God's Word - Letter Y

Sharing a little ABC's of the Bible!

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.

I can't believe that we are almost at the end of the alphabet! I'm working on a free printable with all the verses on them from A-Z!  Hopefully, I'll have it ready for you next week to as we close this round of Blogging Through The Alphabet With God's Word.  Thanks for sticking around!  I could not be more proud of my Sunday School class - they rock!

Letter Y is ...Matthew 5:14 - You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Join us in Blogging Through the Alphabet.

Here are the letters we've already done in case you missed them:

Letter A         Letter G        Letter M           Letter T
Letter B         Letter H        Letter N            Letter U
Letter C         Letter I         Letter O            Letter V
Letter D         Letter J        Letter P             Letter W&X
Letter E         Letter K        Letter Q    
Letter F         Letter L        Letters R&S

Hurry! Time is Money! Quick Sale on Make Over Your Evenings

This post contains affiliate links

You know I am a huge fan of anything Crystal does and this course is no different.  I am currently going through the course to try to get myself back in focus and would highly recommend it!  I'll be sharing more about what I'm doing a little later.

This 14-day online course is designed to help you end your day calm and relaxed, streamline your routines, invest your time in things that truly matter, and find more joy and peace in the process.

 

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The course — including all the videos, the workbook, and the projects — will regularly retail for just $17. However, because she wanted to do something really special on launch day, we’re going to kick off this course with the following special prices —some of these are the lowest prices you will ever see on this course. Period. So get ’em while you can!

 

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Review of Writers In Residence #hsreviews #middleschoolwriting

We have been searching for a writing curriculum for my 7th grader so we were excited to learn about Writers in Residence published by Apologia Educational Ministries.

This curriculum is an extensive Language Arts curriculum with a writing focus written by Debra Bell. Ms. Bell is certified in English education and has taught writing composition and literature to students of all ages for thirty years and AP English to high schoolers for a decade. You may recognize some of her books - The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, and The Ultimate Homeschooling Planning system (see our review of one of the planners).

We reviewed the complete set of Writers in Residence which includes an over 500 page all-in-one student text and workbook in spiral binding. It also includes the 144 page Answer Key. The set sells for $89 or you can purchase each item individually. This is the first volume also known as the Apprentice level and it is the only volume available at this time. The suggested grade level for volume 1 is 4th through 8th grades. Upon completion, there will be a total of four volumes.
The How To Use section has 18 pages worth of information to help you understand the philosophy behind the curriculum, how it is set up, and how to teach it.

The answer key provides the teacher with answers to questions that are fill in the blank or have a limited range of answers but not to the open ended questions or writing assignments. However, there are are sample student writing texts included in the student text and workbook.

This course is broken into 6 units that contain 24 modules. If you follow the suggested 4 day schedule this amounts to 32 weeks of lessons.

Each unit contains repeated elements through out the curriculum. Some of those include checklists rubrics for the student and teacher, expert samples of writing from published authors, student samples of writing assignments, expert strategies to aid in writing, graphic organizers, vocabulary terms with a glossary in the back of the book, word collection chart to add words that a student may struggle to spell, mastery tests to review terms taught, and so much more!

Writers in Residence is written to the student and designed for the student to complete independently but parent review and feedback is a necessary portion of this curriculum. Younger students may need even more assistance. Students are taught new concepts and given the opportunity to practice their new skills with their own writing exercises as well as using the samples from experienced authors.

Some of the language arts skills taught are parts of speech, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and prepositional phrases. Some of the writing skills taught are complete sentences, creative writing, research writing, short story, and opinion essay.

The curriculum uses the six traits writing model that students will refer to over and over again during their writing process. The six traits are ideas, organization, sentence structure, voice, conventions, and word choice.

All concepts are taught with a Biblical worldview including why we are to even write in the first place.

In Our Homeschool
I used this with my daughter, Sarah, who is currently in 7th grade. She lacks confidence in her writing abilities so we've been on the search to find a curriculum to help boost her confidence. We used the suggested 4 day schedule.

One of Sarah's favorite assignments was putting her story in order using sentences she had been working on through the modules of Unit 1. She wrote each sentence on a slip of paper and then placed them in the order she wanted for her story. This was a great visual activity for her to make sure her sentence structure made sense.

We found this to be a pretty rigorous curriculum for Sarah. We decided after a few lessons, to answer some of the questions orally because she was feeling pretty frustrated about it taking her a while to finish. Early on in the how to section, I had read this may be needed for younger students so I adapted it to fit us too. She did complete all the writing assignment sections, however. The checklist rubrics included were very thorough and helped her to makes sure she completed her assignments.

I also found the teacher rubrics to be very helpful when we discussed her finished papers too.  They helped give me ideas for feedback and opened discussions about improvements and successes.

In order to learn to write, you must practice by writing! I loved the way this curriculum connected language arts concepts with writing because they do go hand in hand yet most of the time they are taught separately.

Check out this 75 page sample to help you decide if this will be a good fit for your student.

We love Apologia Educational Ministries and everything we have ever reviewed or purchased from their company. They offer curriculum in Bible, Science, encouragement, planners, and much more! You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Blogging Through The Alphabet With God's Word - Letter W and Letter X

Sharing a little ABC's of the Bible!

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.

Letter W is ...Psalm 56:3  - When I am afraid, I will trust in You.

Letter X is ...Psalm 99:5 - eXalt the LORD our God! Bow low before His feet, for He is Holy.

Join us in Blogging Through the Alphabet.

Here are the letters we've already done in case you missed them:

Letter A         Letter G        Letter M           Letter T
Letter B         Letter H        Letter N            Letter U
Letter C         Letter I         Letter O            Letter V
Letter D         Letter J        Letter P
Letter E         Letter K        Letter Q
Letter F         Letter L        Letters R&S

Review of HomeschoolDiploma.com #HSReview #HSGraduation #Diplomas

Wow, I cannot even believe that is possible for me to be writing this review.  You see, in order to tell you all about the Exclusive High School Diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com my son must be graduating!! Class of 2016 seemed like so many years away and yet here it is. In less than a month, our little homeschool will be graduating it's first Senior! I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that!

It was like Christmas time when we received your box in the mail from HomeschoolDiploma.com.  As soon as we received our package, we dove in to see the beautiful goodies that we have both worked so hard for!  A homeschool Senior has done their part but so have you, Mom and Dad! Congratulations to us all!  It felt as though I was graduating all over again myself.

We were given the chance to review their Exclusive High School Diploma which has several options available to personalize.  It sells for $48.99 and choices for personalizing include:

• four engraved seals to choose from
• four wording choices (each with their own variations) For example we choose the wording "Thanks to God" to be added to ours
• three Bible verses to choose from - Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV), Proverbs 3: 5- 6 (KJV), or Proverbs 9:10 (KJV) You can also choose to add your own verse or motto for additional $3.99
• option of adding Title names under signature lines such as "Signature of Instructor", "Signature of Administrator". They have suggestions for choosing the title names or you can just leave it blank.
• choice of ivory parchment paper or cream-colored card stock
• Lettering style for the student's name comes in printed gothic font or you can add the hand calligraphy option for an additional $10.50
• optional Honors seals can be added for an additional $2.95
• 4 padded diploma covers in various colors and styles that come with the diploma - also additional options of adding school name and students name to the outside of the cover (these options cost extra)

Also offered for additional fees are archived copies of the diploma as well as wallet size options.  I ordered an extra copy of ours to keep with our school records at home too.

They have 4 styles of diplomas available for purchase - standard, personalized, exclusive, and gilded. To see which style would fit your needs best, you can use this chart that explains the differences. The basic differences include the wording and seal options. You can also see more on the different seal types and paper types here.


Since our homeschool group has 5 graduates this year, we had already decided to order our cap/gowns and tassels so they would match from HomeschoolDiploma.com. I chose to go with the Exclusive Diploma Package which included the Exclusive High School Diploma with the 8.5 x 11 Deluxe Cover, Any Matte Cap & Gown, Any Tassel for $76.48 without any add-ons. Since this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I went all out in ordering our diploma and added Jonathan's favorite Bible verse to the diploma and his name to his diploma cover for an additional fee. The black line on the diploma is where your city and state would go.

Our order shipped really quickly and we received it in less than a week from when we ordered even with the additional choices.  Everything was nicely wrapped for packaging and we are very happy with what we received.  The padded diploma cover with the engraving is so beautiful and Jonathan will be able to treasure his diploma for years to come.  The diploma itself was also nicely finished and very professionally created.  The company they work with to engrave has won world wide acclaim for their work.  The engraving die is engraved by hand under magnification. It's such a wonderful way to celebrate and commemorate many years of hard work and perseverance. Seriously, have tissues in hand the first time you see it!

Also included in the Exclusive Diploma Package was a choice of any matte cap/gown and tassel.  We chose the Navy cap/gown and navy and white tassel with silver clamp. There are several color choices to choose from for the gowns as well as the tassels and clamps.  You also have 4 options of tassel charms to pick from (2 choices are free, 2 cost an additional fee).  We choose the 4 digit "2016" in silver to match the tassel clamp which is one of the free choices.  Again, we found the quality to be of excellent standard.  And again, my school gown was in Navy - so many memories!  We used the directions given in the sizing chart to determine the size which fit perfectly for Jonathan.  We still need to steam it but we gave it a quick try on out of the box so you could see.  

Our graduation ceremony will be held at our homeschool group's annual promotion ceremony so I also purchased the Simply Stated White Panel Card to share with a few family members and friends. I did crop out the address in the picture so the card when folded measures about 4 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches long. It's also hard to tell in the picture but the printed portion is on a raised panel.  You can choose from several different foil colors for the lettering as well. We chose navy.

HomeschoolDiploma.com also sent us some sample invitations.  The samples they sent were on thick card stock paper and the beautiful foil lettering really makes these trifold announcements pop.  The black is really prettier than I thought it would be.

If you're looking for a more classic style, then be sure to check out these 2016 White Semi-Personalized Cards which include a space to add in name cards, envelope seals, and personalized insert cards. Name cards, envelope seals, and ceremony details on the personalized insert cards are all sold separately.  I really wish I had chosen the envelope seals now. They add such a nice flair to the white envelopes.

HomeschoolDiploma.com has everything to meet your graduate needs including class rings, invitations, diplomas, t-shirts, thank you notes, senior portfolios and so much more! You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  

I'm so thankful for companies who help make graduating from homeschool high school easier especially for us first timers!