An American Girl Weekend Extravaganza, Part 2 - Birthday!

Julianna's birthday fell on a Monday this year, so Dad made it a long weekend and we took her to American Girl Place near DC.  (Maybe this birthday pilgrimage will become an annual tradition.  I'm thinking Boston or Chicago or Los Angeles (read: BEACH) next year.  Here are some pictures of our adventure.

The seven year old

Here we are!

Julianna and Samantha ready to shop.

Trying cheese fondue for the first time.  She liked it.

 Stuffed after lunch.

McKenna (2012 Doll of the Year) is the next doll she wants.  I want  She wants her loft bed.

Annual family picture at American Girl Place.

All her treasures. She had saved $91 (which she told everyone about) to buy some of the stuff in the picture.

A good day.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime!

It has been HOT on the East Coast this week.
Hotter than blue blazes.
Hot and humid.
Over 100 degrees hot.
I'm possibly going to suffer spontaneous human combustion.
I hate it.

Unless I am on the beach or in a pool, I would prefer the 70s.  Grumble, grumble.  Being hot makes me testy. I'll just look at the picture below to take my mind off the heat.  Ahhhhh...

My post really isn't about the weather.  I wanted to tell you about a great business I found for custom-made swimsets, Modest Swimwear and Activewear by: Cori. I discovered Cori's site a few years back when I was searching for modest swimwear for an upcoming beach trip.  I ordered two sets from her then and loved them, so now that I've dropped a couple pounds, I thought I'd get me a new set and one for Julianna.

Being able to customize pretty much everything is a definite advantage.  You can choose from sets (top/skort, top/skirt) or separates, adult and girl's sizes. To order, the first thing you do is pick the fabric and sports style you want (you have four styles to choose from and many different fabrics - I chose Sports Style 2 and a tie dye print and Julianna chose #3 and peace signs).  Next, contact Cori with the info and she'll have you do some measurements (standard measurements, plus sleeve length, skirt and shirt lengths, length of shorts under skirt (if you choose to get them), etc.  Payments are made through PayPal.  Cori's turnaround time is pretty quick (3-4 weeks), but  if you need it by a certain time, order early...especially in the summer months.

Here's Julianna modeling her's:

I'm not brave enough to post my picture, but I really love my new set too.

I cannot recommend Cori and Modest Swimwear and Activewear high enough.  She also does ski bib skirts for Winter fun.
Ahh, snow.  178 days until Winter!

Check her out, friends!

TOS Review: Creation Illustrated Magazine

Creation Illustrated is a magazine that celebrates the beauty of our Creator and his creations.  Started in 1983, by homeschoolers, Tom and Jennifer Ish, CI has both beautiful pictures and a high quality feel.  As they tout on their website, "The Christian answer to National Geographic."  

Their Mission Statement:

Our purpose is to share the wonders of God's creation. By revealing fresh insights of His infinite wisdom, gentle touch, undeniable justice, redeeming love, and flawless design, pure truth shall bring renewed peace. Each part of this publication is offered as a reprieve from the daily rigors of life so that all can look to the future with unbridled gratitude and hope.  

Each edition is divided into three sections - Creation Illustrated in Nature, in Scripture and in Living.  There is also an Instructional Guide in the back that provides ideas and activities for further study - questions about articles, field trip ideas or supplemental activities, etc.  

My musings:  

I had heard of Creation Illustrated through advertisements, but had never had the opportunity to see one in person.  I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality.  Most magazine pages are so thin, but these are printed on heavy, high gloss paper.  It's definitely a magazine that you keep, rather than toss each month. Each article and feature celebrates the wonder of nature and our amazing God behind it all.  Julianna has been hoping to see a hummingbird this summer (I guess I should get a hummingbird feeder to aid in the process.), so we were excited to see an article in one of the magazines we received about hummingbirds. (Did you know that they beat their wings 70 times per second and up to 200 times per second in flight?  Amazing little creatures.)  

Because Creation Illustrated believes that you, my friends, are groovy, they are offering you a FREE introductory issue.  Subscriptions are $19.95 for 4 quarterly issues.


You can read what the other Crewmates thought of the magazine here.

* Disclaimer:  As a  member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received 4 issues of Creation Illustrated in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was given. *

TOS Review - Rainbow Sentences App for the iPad

This is the first time I have had the  opportunity of reviewing an app.  Since my iPad and me (and Julianna - she wants to use it almost as much as I do) are joined at the hip, I was excited to give this new program a try.  Rainbow Sentences is the newest educational app offered by Mobile Educational Store.  

Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues. The who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure.

My musings:
Rainbow Sentences is simple to use and the color coding makes it easy to identify the who, what, where, why of the sentence. We've lightly touched grammar this year: nouns, verbs, etc. (mostly by completing Mad Libs - Ha!), but haven't focused on sentence structure. This app was a good way for Julianna to get exposure to building correct sentences without knowing she was doing it. Plus, the sentences (and pictures that went with them) were usually silly (i.e. "The bear is reading" that went along with a picture of a bear drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.  Of course, she recording it as, "The bear is drinking icky, stinky coffee and reading."), so she enjoyed that. With each correct sentence created, the student earns a puzzle piece that, when completed, is an animated picture. This was not motivating to Julianna at all. Some type of game would have been better. You have the option to record (and save) the student reading the sentences for playback. She loved this. Of course, if she read the sentence correctly (which she sometimes did, with her own vocal characters added), but most of the time she made up her own narration to go along with the silly picture. We didn't make it through many levels, but it's definitely an app we'll continue to explore.


Julianna's musings:
"I think the pictures are kinda silly and I like to record whatever I want."

Details:  Rainbow Sentences can be downloaded from iTunes for $7.99.

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a copy of the Rainbow Sentences app for the iPad in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was received.

It's Animal Kingdom 'round here!

I guess our house was given the all clear within the animal world for baby deliveries this Spring.

The other day I was looking at all the new, baby hydrangeas buds that will soon be blooming and what walked out on a leaf?  A teensy praying mantis.  I didn't have my camera handy to get a picture of it.  Bummer!  Praying mantises (I'm guessing at the plural here.) love hydrangeas, so I'm sure we'll see them periodically throughout the summer.
**Edited to add:  I went back out to see if I could find him again and there he was! (I can't guarantee that it's the same one, but we'll pretend.)  He's twice the size he was last week, though.  Little buggers grow quick!

Last week, I noticed a new Robin's nest under our back deck, so I peeked through the slats and saw three little blue eggs.  No, the Robin family was not happy when I snapped this picture (dangerously teetering on a chair, by the way.)

Today I checked and we have babies!  I'm not sure how many.  I only saw one bald head and big eye looking back at me through the slats.  My picture of the babe (that I almost got attacked by Mama Robin for trying to take) is fuzzy, so I'll try again later.  

Also today, I was going to get the mail and I saw a hole in the ground near my front porch.  I had chased a stray cat away from the area this morning (cause I thought he was going to use it as a public restroom).  Not so.  He was trying to get these little guys.  

Three (at least from what we could see) little bunnies.  So cute!  Now I'm fretting over their well-being.  I recovered their hole, so I hope Mama Bunny will come back to tend to them or move them to a safer place.  I've already checked them, through the window, a hundred times today and will be looking out at the hole a million more times before bed, I'm sure.  

Sheesh!  Being a self-appointed, wildlife overseer is exhausting.  

Gotta go check my bunnies.  

Update:  One bunny didn't make it through the night.  He was lying beside the nest this morning.  I'm not sure if the Mama took it out because it was already dead or if something else pulled it out.  The other one was recovered and is a feisty, little thing.  I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the hole today.  :-(  


Update 2:  Mama Bunny came and moved the other little baby.  I am so glad she did (at least that is what I am believing happened - I haven't seen any evidence that something else got him) because his eyes weren't even open yet and he kept trying to hop around and leave the hole.  Sheesh, bunny.  Get back in your hole.  You're hopping around with a bullseye on your back if you don't!  Fingers crossed that the little guy's going to make it.  Julianna kept praying for it's safety, so all will be well.  :-)  

Drumroll, please....

As the 2011-2012 Crew year comes to a close, we are once again presenting the TOS Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Awards to our vendors. The following vendors are the recipients of the award this year. Click on their name to check out the Crew reviews! 

Favorite Reading Instruction Product: Reading Eggs 
Favorite Writing Product: Write Shop
Favorite Language Arts Product: Progeny Press
Favorite Social Studies Product: TruthQuest History
Favorite Science Product: Amazing Science
Favorite Math Product: Math Mammoth
Favorite Online Math Product: Math Rider
Favorite Foreign Language Product: Visual Latin
Favorite Fine Arts Product: Artistic Pursuits
Favorite Christian Education Product: Apologia: Who Am I?
~~~
Favorite Preschool Product: Before Five in a Row
Favorite Elementary Product: All About Reading
Favorite Middle School Product: Write with WORLD
Favorite High School Product: Excellence in Literature
Favorite College or College-Prep Product: Excellence in Literature
~~~
Best Online Resource: Reading Eggs
Best e-Product: Heritage History
Best Homeschool Resource: Apologia: Educating the Wholehearted Child
Best Book, Novel, or Magazine: Apologia: How to Have a HEART for Your Kids
Best Children's Book: Amazing Animals by Design
Best Game or Toy: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything
Best Hands-On Resource: Pitsco Education 

~~~
Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: eMeals
Best Customer Service: K5 Learning
Most Adaptable Resource: Creek Edge Press
Most Family-Oriented Resource: Northstar Games: Wits and Wagers and Say Anything 

~~~
Kids' Choice (favorite of CHILDREN ages 0-12): Reading Eggs
Teens' Choice (favorite per the TEENAGERS): Pitsco Education
All Around Crew Favorite: Visual Latin  

Each winning vendor has received this wonderful award to display with pride:

  Congratulations to our winning vendors! We hope you will sail with us again!  
Many Crew Members are blogging about these awards as well. Click below to see what they have to say! Powered by Linky Tools Click here to see the Crew Blog Posts...

TOS Review - Write Shop Primary, Book B

We didn't have a formal writing curriculum this year.  We had a handwriting curriculum, but any writing was done on the fly.  (I won't dwell on my anxieties of how "behind" other first graders that we are.  That's why we homeschool, right? Right?!? Don't leave me hanging!)  Anyhoo, I was hestitant when asked to review WriteShop Primary, Book B, but it turned out to be right up our alley.

WriteShop offers incremental writing programs for Kindergarten through 12th grade.  The first products they offered were for middle/high school students, but now they have Primary (K-3) and Junior (3-5) levels.  This is an overview of the Primary level from the WriteShop website:

WriteShop Primary teaches the skills of the writing process at the very simplest level through activities, crafts, and picture books. It accommodates pre-writers as well as beginning and developing writers, so your youngster needs no previous reading or writing experience. Slowly and gently, the child is asked to help with the actual writing, first in simple words and later, through copywork. And by turning these stories into a little craft, he will have a project to proudly share with others.

Several schedules help you plan according to your child’s grade or skill level. Lessons are divided into eight Activity Sets to thoroughly cover a topic without hurrying the child. Examples abound to make teaching oh, so easy for you!

Each Activity Set includes Guided Writing Practice. Activity Sets 2-8 also include a key activity or project.

Activity Set 1: Guided Writing Practice only

Activity Set 2: Pre-writing Activities and Picture Book

Activity Set 3: Brainstorming

Activity Set 4: The Writing Project 

Activity Set 5: Editing and Revising

Activity Set 6: Activity Set Worksheet

Activity Set 7: Publishing the Project 

Activity Set 8: Want To Do More?

My Musings:

For our writing pace, WriteShop Primary was a good fit for us.  It's lessons are laid out in three, two or one week plans depending on how quickly or slowly you want to progress through the activity.  The writing activities can either be done by the student or as teacher guided writing (which is the way we went). The beginning units we completed were on writing a friendly letter (page formatting and expanding on what you want to say) and how to address an envelope.  Those both came at the time we were working on her Thank You cards from her birthday, so she was able to see it used in real life.  (Not saying her thank you messages were full of information, but she got the basics covered.  Lol)  Another activity that we did was learn about acrostics, so we did one for SUMMER.  I should have taken a picture of it, but it included swimming, making cupcakes and running outside.  All kinds of fun.  The lifeblood of the program, in my opinion, is the Teacher's Guide.  It is totally scripted (if you like that kind of stuff - it does have to be edited for your family) and has all the activities and instructions that you need to teach.  Some curricula you can fudge your way through without the TG, but you cannot use this program without it!  There is an activity pack for each level that is purchased separately.  Here is a sample lesson from Book B:

The Teacher's Guide is available in a print edition for $29.95 or as a digital e-book pdf $26.95 and the Activity Pack is available in a print edition for $4.95 or as a digital e-book pdf for $4.50.  WriteShop is offering my bloggy friends (that's YOU!) a 15% discount on the WriteShop Primary and Junior products. Enter in the coupon code: CREW15 at checkout.  Offer is good through June 15, 2012.

*Disclaimer:  As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew,  I received a set of WriteShop Primary Book B in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was received.*