Freebies and Deals, Deals, Deals

I had several blog posts that I had hoped to share with you this week, but life has been busy. I think this is one of the busiest times of year as we wrap up all of our spring activities, finish the school year and prepare for summer! I am so excited for summer and the chance to relax with the kids as well as get caught up on some blogging and share some great ideas and resources with you. I have several fun things in the works that I can’t wait to share.

May Deals and Freebies!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

I did want to take a few minutes to tell you about some great deals that are happening right now. I didn’t want to spam you with too many deals posts so I put them together right here. I encourage you to bless others as well as our family by sharing this post with other mom’s that might benefit from these deals.

First, The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle is on sale this week! It is only available for a short time and is an amazing deal. The bundle includes 104 products worth $2,294.37. This includes 30 eCourses & Videos, 28 eBooks, 25 printable packs, 16 workbooks, 3 summits & 2 membership sites and some really great bonuses! You may be thinking that you really do not need that many items and you would be correct. Most folks can’t and won’t use all of them, but at less than $30 for the whole bundle, using even just a few items can save you money! We are really enjoying the bookroo bonus, the Fit2B bonus (if you are not already a member you can get 2 months for free or get a $15 store credit for current members), and the soap from Puro Co. I am also loving some inspirational printables and can’t wait to try out some of the homeschool planning sheets as well as the homeschool conference workshops this summer as I reset our homeschool for next year. I encourage you to take a look and see what courses and printables might be helpful in your homemaking. this would be a great early Mother’s Day present.

Second, The Tummy Team is having a 35% off sale! This makes for some very reasonably priced online rehab programs or esessions. I am excited to be getting a course to help me get back to being in my best health! I have loved the other courses that I have taken from them and they are so helpful and supportive. I know this one is not directly homeschool related but it affects so many moms that I wanted to share.

Third, The Productive Homeschooling site is now up and running and offering special pricing through May 10th! You may have heard of NotebookingPages.com but they have opened a new site with notebooking pages, apps, and so much more all on one easy to use site. They even have some great free resources. I encourage you to check them out and see what they have to offer.

Finally, Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a May sale if you missed out on the April $1 sale. You can get a monthly subscription for $9.95 or a year for only $99. If you want to know more about Schoolhouse Teachers you can always check out my post about our hobbies.

May Sale

Fit2B just announced they are having a Mother’s Day sale! Use code mothersday25off for 25% off! We use this for both my personal fitness and some of our PE for the kids (all included in one membership). A great way to get you safely moving and incorporate fitness into a busy day.

Freebies!

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

FREE Writing About Books: Book Reports and Beyond from Write Shop!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

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When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Hamelin Stoop Series (Review)

As much as I love reading, fantasy has never been my favorite genre. However, my son really enjoys it. Finding quality books that meet our family’s standards can be difficult, so I was excited to review the first two book in The Hamelin Stoop Series by 12 Gates Publishing. This series is written by Robert B. Sloan and was his debut into novels. Prior to this debut into fiction he was known for his work in nonfiction books and articles. He is also the president of Houston Baptist University.

We received Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1) and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2). My husband read book one before we passed them along to my twelve year old son to read. The book is engaging and full of adventure. However, my husband did note that there are some very intense scenes in the book. There are scenes of torture and implied infanticide (this is not condoned but performed by the evil characters). There’s also a short story arch that focuses on two characters conceiving a child for their the evil overlord. We felt that is was appropriate for our twelve year old and he was able to handle the intensity and mature situations, however, I would not have read it aloud to my younger children as I think it would have been too much for them.

I think these books would be great for people who like books about other worlds. They were exciting and I want to find out what happens in the end. Matthew, Age 12

A brief overview of book one in the words of my twelve year old son:

“A baby boy got left on the steps of an orphanage in Texas because his parents were

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being chased by people from another world. The orphanage director found him in a tomato box on the front steps with a note that only had one readable word “Hamelin”. She kept the name and added Stoop as his last name since she found him on the step. He grew up and found a cave and followed a strange eagle until he found a strange footbridge to the other world.”

20190501_154234 The second book picks up where the first book left off and furthers the story of Hamelin and his quest to find his parents. We also meet two new characters Lars and Eraina while learning more about the evil Chimera. Each book answers some of our questions but leaves more questions for the next book.

All in all these books have a lot to offer to the right audience. I think that they offer an exciting story set in a fantasy world. While they are intense and mature, they also do not contain the inappropriate material found in many of the books in the young adult/middle grades fantasy genre. Every child is different but I would recommend these books for middle grades and older students. My son is looking forward to the next book in the series when it is published! I encourage you to check out the other Crew reviews below and to read more about the The Hamelin Stoop Series on the website.

How to Get More Out of Your Nature Walks

One of my goals with our nature walks is that my children learn to enjoy nature; however, I also want them to learn from their walks. Some days they seem to want to run down the trails as fast as possible, and they miss everything around them. I do not want to make our walks a chore, but I want to help them be more observant about their surroundings.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links; see below for more information. *

Simple Hiking Activities

We can do some simple activities while we hike to help them. One great activity for all ages is the ‘pick three things’ activity. I simply ask them to find three things along the way that they find interesting. They can either collect those things or take pictures, depending on what they find. Then when we finish the hike, everyone gets to share what they saw. We also enjoy trying to find something from each color of the rainbow. This one is easier in spring and summer but can be done anytime.

As the seasons change we love to go on hunts for various seasonal signs. So early in the spring we will go on a hike looking for signs of spring. We look for the first flowers blooming, leaves on the trees, birds building nests, and other springtime signs. We can do the same thing at the beginning of each season.

Deer Track

Ant Hill

Looking for animal’s signs is probably the children’s favorite hiking activity. This can be as simple as finding tracks on the path, seeing birds nests, or holes/burrows in the ground. As the children got older we also looked for things like scratches on the trees, scat, and plants that had been partially eaten.

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Helpful Tools for Nature Study

We also have edible wild food cards and a collection of nature guides. We can choose one of these before we hike and focus on finding various varieties from with-in that guide. So, if I take the trees book, we can see how many different trees we can identify. We also have a wildflower guide, mammal guide, and even a fungus guide. (Though harvesting fungus is another ball game for which I am not yet trained.)

For my older children, they will sometimes bring their nature journals and colored pencils or chalk pastels and choose something to draw. I have found that doing nature-based art lessons beforehand helped them feel better prepared to draw what they saw. I am always very careful to not expect perfection but to have them just enjoy the process of drawing what they see.

One final simple way to keep children engaged and learning on a nature hike is to give them a magnifying glass. This does not have to be an expensive tool; sometimes, you can find them at the dollar tree. I have found that children, especially young children, can often spend hours looking at ants, bugs, leaves, and more with the magnifying glass that they would simply overlook if they were hiking without it.

Make it an Adventure!

All of these activities keep things fun while helping them learn. They feel more like an adventure than a ‘school assignment’ but they become so much more aware of their surroundings and develop a love of nature. Does your family enjoy hiking? How do you engage your children on hikes? I always love new ideas and I would love for you to share in the comments.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links, and it does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is having a sale.

Starting August 31st all of Evan Moor’s Daily Practice titles will be on sale 20% off!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

FREE Historical Fiction from Write Shop!

Field Trip Friday: Wright Brothers Memorial and Jockey’s Ridge State Park

I am a big fan of the ocean and will happily accept any opportunity to take a field trip to the beach. Something about that salt air seems to take the stress away. A few weeks ago we had the benefit of studying about Orville Wright as my son read Orville Wright: The Flyer by YWAM publishing. We decided to finish that study with a quick trip to the Wright Brothers Memorial and Jockey’s Ridge State Park.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

We had been to the Wright Brothers Memorial several years ago but were excited to go back because they recently finished renovating their visitors center. The visitors center is not large but has some really neat information in it along with a replica of the Wright Flyer. The original flyer is actually located in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. There is also a small gift store and rest rooms located at the visitors center.

When we first arrived, we talked to the ranger and two of my children picked up a junior ranger packet. Most of the national and state parks have these programs and we love to utilize them. They are almost always free (one park we went to charged $1.25) and they really help us get the most out of the park. They have various activities that the children have to complete prior to finishing our visit and it helps them to learn more about the nature or history of the park.

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I think that one of the coolest parts of this park is that they have marked off the place where the first flights took off and then they have markers showing how far out the flights went. You can run the length of the flights. This is such a great visual and really helps them to better understand the distance and connects you with the history.

Next, we climbed up to the top of the sand dune where the gliders were first flown. There is now a monument to the Wright Brothers that sits atop the hill. It is a steep climb but offers a beautiful view.

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Once we had climbed to the monument, it was time for lunch. In keeping with the Wright Brothers theme of our trip, we went over to the Black Pelican for lunch. This modern seafood restaurant is located in what was once the life saving station. The very life saving station where the Wright Brothers sent the famous telegram to their father, telling him of their first successful flights.

While we were in town we decided to take an hour or so and visit Jockey’s Ridge State Park. This park is free to enter and is home to the tallest living sand dune on the Atlantic coast. There is a nice little visitors center that has information about the plants and animals that are native to the dunes and the area around the dunes. My daughter chose to work on another junior ranger badge at this park.

One of Our Latest Hikes: Jockey’s Ridge State Park

Once we looked around the visitor’s center it was time to take a walk in the sand. While the baby and I did not go all the way to the top of the dune, the older children and my husband climbed to the top. The views are beautiful and the children enjoyed rolling back down the dune!

This was a wonderful day of family fun! We were able to visit a site where history was made, learn more about nature, and overall just really enjoy spending time together as a family. On our way home, I found out that Nana over at You Are An Artist had a cute art lesson that we could use to go along with our trip and studies. This chalk pastel lesson of the Wright Brothers airplane is included with our Clubhouse subscription or in the Inventors History Course. This was a great way to extend what we had already done.

If you get a chance to visit, let me know how you like it and don’t forget to take your parks passport and get it stamped! We have found that the passport is a great way for the children to get a souvenir at each park with no additional expense after the initial purchase of the passport. North Carolina State Parks also offer a passport program. You can get those passports for free at any state park.

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Where:

Wright Brothers National Memorial
1401 National Park Drive
Manteo, NC 27954

Hours of Operation:

seven days a week, year-round, 9:00 am–5:00 pm (Closed Christmas Day)

Costs: $10 adults (16+) Children Free (If you have a 4th grader you can use the Every Kid in a Park Pass for free admission)

Homeschool Discount: You can apply 4 weeks ahead of time for an educational fee waiver.

Website: https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

Food: There are drinks available for purchase and space for picnics outside.

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Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale! If you want to give it a try, your first month is only $1 or you can get an entire year for $111. My daughter is getting ready to use a photography class from our subscription to help her learn more about her new (to her) camera.

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

FREE Writing About Books: Book Reports and Beyond from Write Shop!

Are you ready for some spring cleaning? Need to do a little decluttering?

What is your scariest place to declutter?

There is a great FREE Decluttering Challenge going on right now. If you are looking for some help or encouragement join this FREE declutter challenge. Saturday is the last day to sign up so hurry!

J is for Jules Verne…

I decided to switch it up a little bit this week. Instead of focusing on a specific children’s book I wanted to talk a little bit about an author. Our family just finished listening to the audio book, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. We have also listened to his novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Those are two of his most well known novels, but he wrote over sixty books.

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His writing is lengthy, a bit wordy like the British Victorian tradition, and might be a bit difficult for younger readers to follow, but he has some wonderful stories that are perfect for middle school and high school students. They are full of adventure and often a bit of science fiction. There are many abridged versions but, I think the full-length versions are best to really get the benefits of the depth of language (despite being translated from the original French) and character development.

I remembered 20,000 Leagues under the Sea from when I was a child, but I had never read or listened to Around the World in 80 Days. I found it to have a bit of a slow start but once the story really got going it was a great story. It told of a man who had made a bet that he could travel the whole globe in 80 days. This was of course in a time before airplanes made it easy to travel the world in a day. The book told of his adventures and setbacks as he made his way from country to country using boats, trains, carriages and other interesting conveyances. The children really enjoyed it and were quick to remind me to turn it on each time we got in the car.

Have you read any of Jules Verne’s work? Do you have a favorite? I would love to hear your thoughts about this author or any of his works. Don’t forget to check out the other J posts this week and come back next week for the letter K.

PS. If you really wanted to children’s book that begins with the letter J, check out James and the Giant Peach. Someone reminded me of that book this week and it was one my children really enjoyed. We had the chance to read it aloud and then watch the musical based on the story. Do note that there is one use of a word that is commonly considered to be inappropriate.

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Deals and Freebies

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Are you ready for some spring cleaning? Need to do a little decluttering?

What is your scariest place to declutter?

There is a great FREE Decluttering Challenge going on right now. If you are looking for some help or encouragement join this FREE declutter challenge.

Techie Homeschool Mom Unit Study: Ancient Rome (Review)

I debated for a while before deciding to review the Ancient Rome Online Unit Study from Techie Homeschool Mom. It looked like an amazing program but our plates were full and I didn’t know if I was up to taking on planning for another program. Thankfully, I decided to give it a try and figured out that I didn’t have to take on planning. It was all laid out and ready to go without any additional work on my part! My fifth and seventh graders were able to work together and begin working their way through the unit study.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Once I had them logged in to the program, it was very easy for them to navigate. They could complete each section, mark it complete and move on to the next section. Some of the sections had reading for them to complete online, some had activities and recipes, and others had short videos for them to watch. She also included a book club where they could choose a book and then throughout the study they had a chance to answer questions in a comment thread about this book. This gave them the opportunity to read what other students thought about the book.

We are almost half way through the unit study and the only thing that I purchased was a book selection for my son. The activities and recipes are fun and use mostly common household items. For example, they worked on a model of the Parthenon that used popsicle sticks, glue, newspaper, and a balloon. They also made a sun dial using a print out from the website, a compass and tape. I think my son’s favorite activity so far was the Roman honey cake. This was a simple recipe that only called for honey, flour, and eggs. It tasted delicious (especially topped with a little fresh whipping cream).

Roman Honey Coake

Whipped cream might not be historically accurate but it was yummy!

Sun Dial

Each section took my students about 15 or 20 minutes to complete unless it was an activity like the Roman honey cake that required extra time. They were able to work together to complete it, which was a really benefit in my opinion. It saved us time and made it more fun for them. They could complete one section a day or if we had more time that day they could keep working. I really appreciated that it was laid out in such a way as to give us a lot of flexibility. We used it as a supplement to our studies and therefore, did several sections each week. It could also be done in a single week if you made it the focus of your studies that week. Another alternative might be to spend one day a week focused on the study.

This particular study focused on Ancient Rome and included a variety of sub-topics. They started with an introduction, learned about Roman mythology, daily life, architecture, entertainment, Roman military and the Roman language. They are excited about the final section, movie night. She includes a variety of suggestions for movies that feature Ancient Rome.

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Techie Homeschool Mom has a variety of studies of historical topics, science, and even artists. These studies are easy to complete either independently or as a family. Once you have purchased them you have them forever, so there is no time limit in getting them finished. Now that I know how easy they are to complete and how much my children enjoy them, I am looking forward to including more of these studies in our home school. Be sure to check out the website to see which studies might be beneficial to your students and check out the other Crew reviews.

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2019 Goals First Quarter Update

It is hard to believe that it is the middle of April already! The arrival of April means that we are a quarter of the way through the year. I thought that would be a good time to look back over my goals for the year and see how I was progressing and what I needed to change to help me achieve those goals.

First, I am thrilled to say that I am rolling right along with my reading goal. I doubled my reading goal from 12 books in 2018 to 24 books in 2019. So far, I have read Book Girl, Becoming MomStrong, Uninvited, Just Open the Door, Girls Club, Building Family Ties with Faith Love and Laughter, Get Your Home Office Organized, and since the beginning of April I read Capital Gaines. (I want to note that I read the hard copy but I did notice that it is free on Kindle right now.) I enjoyed that book even though it is not in my normal reading genre. It was a nice evening read and very motivational. I am also continuing to read The Organized Homeschool Life, which is designed to done one week at a time. I plan to finish Caught Up in a Story and The Journey that Saved Curious George this month.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

bookupdate — A few of the books I just finished and those I’m still working on.

I have done reviews of several of the books in the list above and I won’t repeat those here but I wanted to take a minute to talk about Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter. That was a book I found at a yard sale one day and decided to give it a try. I had not researched it or seen it talked about before. I am so glad that I picked it up. It was an easy read that was full of great ideas for building strong family ties. This is an area that my husband and I prioritize and it was great to have some encouragement and easy to implement strategies. The author talk’s about many components of building family ties from family mission statements, adding laughter to your lives, family dinner tables, and even serving others.

We set a family goal of de-cluttering 1,000 items from our home. That sounds like a crazy number but we are at 800 and hoping to make it to 1,000 by the end of the month. We haven’t even gone through our attic storage area yet, so I think we will set a goal specifically for that area and work on it after we are finished with the 1,000. It is amazing how motivating it is for the children to color in the blocks for each thing that they de-clutter. They are also finding it easier to keep their rooms clean with few things taking up space. I got the idea here but chose not to track it in as much detail as she did. We didn’t keep track of what we got rid or or where it went. We simply printed out charts that had blocks numbered up to 1,000 and colored in the block each time we got rid of an item. We did not count actual trash that we threw away each day or food that we consumed, but broken toys, toys no longer played with, old magazines, dishes we didn’t need, clothes that were too small or no longer worn, and other similar items have all added up quickly. It is amazing how quickly things seem to collect in our homes and I’m grateful to be de-cluttering and lessening the visual clutter as well as the time and effort it takes to keep things tidy. ( I also want to note that there is a big FREE de-cluttering challenge coming up! I will be sharing more details on April 23rd so stay tuned.)

sand hike — One of Our Latest Hikes: Jockey’s Ridge State Park

Another family goal was for each of us to walk/hike 100 miles this year. I joined the NC State Parks 100 mile challenge and had planned to track our hikes and walks. I can say that we have not hiked as often as we hoped due to many local trails being closed due to hurricane damage, but we have been walking more often and have recently been able to get out and hike a few different trails. Now I just need to remember to track those miles. I have been very slack about tracking the miles, but I am hoping that with my renewed focus, the warm spring weather, and our trails reopening I can get to work on this goal and still make 100 miles by the end of 2019.

I have been continuing to work on my goals and focus of being still with God and being present with my family. I honestly, love the progress I’ve made at being able to walk away from the to-do list and spend time just playing with my children at some point each day. My two youngest and I have been getting outside four or five mornings a week to take a walk or just play int he grass. I have also enjoyed playing catch with my oldest son.

I started out the year spending some time each day copying out scripture verses and felt that it was a great way for me to spend time ‘being still’ and focused on God. With some changes to the baby’s schedule that sort of fell to the way side but I am working on changing up some things so that I can still get that time. I have also gone back to reading my Bible and doing a devotional on my phone. This allows me to do it quietly in my bed before the children wake up. My children seem to have little alarms in their heads that wake them up the moment I climb out of bed to try to have quiet time, so being able to have that time without getting out of bed is ideal.

All in all, I still have some work to do but I am pleased with the progress that we have made toward our 2019 goals. I am looking forward to reading even more good books, getting out on the hiking trails, and spending more time focused on the things that are important in my life. Have you taken the time to evaluate how your year is progressing? What things are going well? What do you need to work on?

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Deals and Freebies

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Only A Few Days Left to Sign Up For the Free Independent Play Challenge:

It sometimes seems that the kids need you ALL. THE. TIME!

It’s okay to just want 20 minutes of quiet… so you can get things done.

Join the FREE Independent Play 5-Day Challenge!

I is for If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…

I struggled a bit with books for the letter I. There were not any that jumped out at me at first and then I was looking at my son’s book shelf and thought of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and the others in the series by Laura Numeroff. This series is perfect for read aloud time! I am even thinking about using them for a special ‘tea party’ featuring some of the foods from the books.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

If you have not seen these books, the premise of the book is that if you give a mouse a cookie he will want a glass of milk, and he will need a straw, and on and on it goes. It is a cute little book that is lots of fun to read with young children. The patterned language allows them to quickly pick it up and begin to help you ‘read’ it even when they are not yet actually reading. Other books in the series feature pig, moose, and other animals and their adventures. The illustrations by Felicia Bond are absolutely adorable.

There is even a free movie series made about the books on Amazon Prime. I have not seen all of these but we enjoyed the Christmas Cookie episode. There have also been cute poems and memes made using the same language pattern, such as this If You Give A Mom a Muffin example.

These are simple fun reads that are great for preschool and elementary age students. Have you tried this series? Which one is your favorite?

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Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Only A Few Days Left to Sign Up For the Free Independent Play Challenge:

It sometimes seems that the kids need you ALL. THE. TIME!

It’s okay to just want 20 minutes of quiet… so you can get things done.

Join the FREE Independent Play 5-Day Challenge!

CrossWired Science (A Review)

CrossWired Science is unlike any science program that I’ve used before. We had the unique opportunity to review this program while it was still in development. I had the privilege of reviewing the Sound, and Fluid Dynamics projects. Typically, the programs I review are completed and on the market. Reviewing a program that was still ‘under construction’ was a very different experience. There were times when it could be frustrating because a quiz might not be ready or the schedules were not published. However, the really neat part about reviewing a product that was not fully complete is that the Review Crew was able to give feedback as we worked through the projects. The folks at CrossWired Science were very receptive to feedback and made a lot of great additions to the program during just the few weeks that we worked through it.

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*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

One of my favorite additions that they made during the review period was a suggested schedule. I think that the schedule really helped me to get a better idea of how to plan this curriculum into our school days. I felt very overwhelmed when we first started using the program because there was so much information. Once I had the schedule it made it a lot easier for me to understand how to best utilize all they had to offer.

We focused on the Fluid Dynamics project which covered a variety of topics including rocket aerodynamics, fin types, avian lungs, bird feathers, flight, insect drinking and the space station. The Sounds project includes topics like how ears work, sonars, ultrasounds, and bird songs.

The program has a variety of components. My children really enjoyed the core video lessons and the included quiz that was completed and graded online. This was beneficial to me as a parent because it allowed me to check and be sure they understood what they were learning.

crosswireddevotional

Next, they have the Digging Deeper and Gold Dig components. As they state on the website, “The Digging Deepers and the Gold Digs are heavily illustrated with fun, beauty and quite stunning “concept pictures”.” These were a great way to go deeper and learn more about a particular part of a concept. My children went through the Gold Dig components about bones and learned a lot of interesting information.

In addition, there are research links to help them dig further into a variety of topics, field trip ideas. At this point the field trip ideas are mostly general science field trips but they are developing this section with more specifics. Throughout the curriculum, they point science back to God, but they also have specific devotionals included at the end of each project. They also offer suggestions for books, audio CDs and other materials to extend your studies as well as other science activities. They give a wide selection of experiments that you can choose from to go with the related topic.

The program offers a wide variety of information and opportunities from which to choose from, much like a buffet line. For some folks this is great, because you can pick and choose what you want to learn and leave out what doesn’t interest you or work for you. However, for others, it maybe a little overwhelming and a little too disconnected.

crosswired8

If you want a program that gives you a script and walks you through every step, this probably is not the right fit. However, if you want a program that gives you lots of resources and tools and then allows you the flexibility to use it how your child works best, this could be a very good fit for your family. I even see this as a great resource for unschoolers, because it would be very easy for a child to just go to the site and spend time learning and digging into the topics of interest. Right now they only have the two projects that I reviewed, however, they are adding more daily and will eventually have twenty-four of those projects. They even have plans to take the first two even deeper. Their long-term goal is to provide a curriculum that will cover all of science from pre-kindergarten through chemistry.

Overall, this is an up and coming curriculum that will have a lot to offer for many homeschool families. It is a program that allows for flexibility in both content and scheduling. and keeps a God honoring view of science. They are still working hard and adjusting the program to make it a better curriculum

. While I struggled a bit with the variety that was offered, my children really enjoyed having lots of choices. They are hoping to complete the other project over the summer in their own time. I suggest going to the website and taking a look to see if it might be a good fit for your family. They even have a sample unit available. As an added bonus, CrossWired Science is generously offering my readers a $5 discount. Just go to CrossWired Science and use the code: dp18. Be sure to click below and check out the reviews from other Crew members.

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Exploring Hobbies on a Time and Money Budget

When it comes to hobbies you might call my children, ‘jacks of all trades’. They love learning new things and tend to prefer to dabble in multiple hobbies rather than focus on one thing in particular. In many ways I think this is a blessing and a very positive experience for them. It helps to make them well rounded, prepares them for many situations, and allows them to try out a bunch of different things to see what they enjoy. However, if we are not careful, it could get quite expensive and time consuming to keep so many different plates spinning.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

In order to balance our desire for them to have many experiences with the need to manage our time and money wisely, we have found a few programs that balance those concepts.

One key to managing our time wisely is that we do several hobbies together as a family. This keeps us from having to go in several different directions at once and allows that hobby time to also be quality family time. For example, our family is interested in history and more specifically Colonial and Revolutionary War era American history. We love to take day trips to various historic sites and learn about history but even more, we enjoy being a part of living history events. We volunteer with our local historic site, Tryon Palace, and participate in various events. The children love to dress up in colonial attire and teach others about history. We love that they are learning and we get to spend time together as a family.

Another way we have found to help use our time wisely is to find programs that can be done at home. This minimizes travel time and allows various children to be working on different projects at one time. This helps us to be able to have them each work on hobbies that they enjoy without making me feel like I am spending my days running them from one practice to another.

For their interest in art, we use the You Are An Artist Chalk Pastel classes. These are recorded art lessons that use either chalk pastels or acrylics (new) to help with a variety of beautiful artwork. I love that we can fit in their desire for more art with a teacher that can help them, without ever needing to leave our home. The lessons typically take us about 20 minutes. These also meet our criteria for using money wisely because the supplies are very inexpensive and by utilizing the Clubhouse you have access to a wide variety of lessons for everyone in the family for one low monthly price. If I were paying for in person lessons, I would only get one short lesson per month for one student for the price I am paying to get as many lessons as they want to take for all three of my students (the 4th is only a year old so no art lessons yet).

Music has never been my gift but both of my children expressed interest. Years ago my son tried guitar lessons but the drive back and forth got to be difficult with the other small children. I also had to entertain them in the car while we waited for him and that was no fun. Eventually we stopped lessons. However, this past year I found a solution to their interest in music. My son is working through a subscription to Guitar360 Method. Since it is a lifetime subscription, he can take his time and work at his own pace. He works on it when he has time and interest. My daughter and just recently my 5-year-old son, are taking violin lessons through Practice Monkeys. There program is also online but is different in the fact that they can go online Monday through Thursday at their appointed times and take part in a fifteen minute lesson along with other students of their same level. This allows the teacher to offer feedback and them to ask questions. If we cannot make it to the live online class, we have access to the replay so that they can still practice. This has been a really great fit for my daughter. I’m still not sure how my son will do at his young age, but as it is a family subscription, I felt I did not have anything to lose by letting him try.

A boy and his pig!

My children enjoy being outdoors, working in the garden and with our animals. We have chickens, ducks, and bees that we keep year round but they wanted some experience with other animals. We were already involved in 4-H which is a great program that offers a variety of opportunities from science, art, public speaking, and more. Through 4-H we have connected with various chicken and livestock shows for them to begin growing their knowledge in those areas. 4-H has programs in place to help children of set the costs of raising and showing the animals to make it more accessible to all children. They even have programs to help students who want to raise animals but do not have the space to do so. We have found 4-H to be a great way for our children to explore a variety of different topics with minimal cost. The other benefit is that all of my children from 5-18 can do this together.

Finally, my secret weapon, our annual subscription to SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Schoolhouse Teachers offers over 400 different courses. Many of these are more standard core classes, such as English and math, but they also offer a huge number of electives that can help your child explore various hobbies. I love these because when my child shows an interest in something, I can give them resources without any added expense or commitment. If they enjoy it they can keep working further, if the interest fizzles out, they can move on without the worry of wasted money.

For example, my daughter recently spent $25 to buy herself a digital camera at a yard sale. She is really enjoying taking point and click pictures with it but wants to learn more about the different settings and how to take better pictures. This month was super busy for us but next month she is going to begin working through one of the photography courses that they offer. I could also have them take the homesteading course (or selected lessons from the course) to help them with their animal and gardening projects. This summer I am hoping that they can work through a few lessons in the heritage crafts course to add to their knowledge and skills when we do living history events. There are so many different options for various electives, music classes, and art classes. They are all included in a single family membership (either monthly or annually), you can start and stop them at any time, pick and choose from the lessons as needed. I love the flexibility to offer my children a virtual ‘buffet’ of learning opportunities to allow them to explore their interests without breaking the bank or becoming a full time chauffeur.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to offer my children a wide variety or experiences to allow them to explore their interests and gain new skills without busting our budget or wasting all of our family time. I hope that this gives you some ideas. I would love for you to share with me in the comments about what you use to help your children pursue their hobbies.

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Deals and Freebies

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Freebies!

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Simple Hiking Activities

Helpful Tools for Nature Study

Make it an Adventure!

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Deals and Freebies

Where:

Wright Brothers National Memorial 1401 National Park Drive Manteo, NC 27954

Hours of Operation:

Costs: $10 adults (16+) Children Free (If you have a 4th grader you can use the Every Kid in a Park Pass for free admission)

Homeschool Discount: You can apply 4 weeks ahead of time for an educational fee waiver.

Website: https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

Food: There are drinks available for purchase and space for picnics outside.

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Deals and Freebies

Are you ready for some spring cleaning? Need to do a little decluttering?

What is your scariest place to declutter?

There is a great FREE Decluttering Challenge going on right now. If you are looking for some help or encouragement join this FREE declutter challenge. Saturday is the last day to sign up so hurry!

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Deals and Freebies

Are you ready for some spring cleaning? Need to do a little decluttering?

What is your scariest place to declutter?

There is a great FREE Decluttering Challenge going on right now. If you are looking for some help or encouragement join this FREE declutter challenge.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Only A Few Days Left to Sign Up For the Free Independent Play Challenge:

It sometimes seems that the kids need you ALL. THE. TIME!

It’s okay to just want 20 minutes of quiet… so you can get things done.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Only A Few Days Left to Sign Up For the Free Independent Play Challenge:

It sometimes seems that the kids need you ALL. THE. TIME!

It’s okay to just want 20 minutes of quiet… so you can get things done.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Only A Few Days Left to Sign Up For the Free Independent Play Challenge:

It sometimes seems that the kids need you ALL. THE. TIME!

It’s okay to just want 20 minutes of quiet… so you can get things done.

Wright Brothers National Memorial
1401 National Park Drive
Manteo, NC 27954