Terrible Weather

  Has anyone else had ridiculous weather this week? I know ours is nothing compared to what happened in Oklahoma earlier this week. We've been praying for the families there. I am just so saddened at the loss of lives, especially the children. I cannot imagine anything happening to my babies.

  We have had so much crazy rain this week. I was on my way home from church last night and was afraid I'd have to pull over for a bit because I could barely see anything. Luckily there was a car in front of me, so I was sort of able to use their tail lights as a guide. We did make it home safely, praise the Lord!

A Brand New Old Schoolhouse Resource!

I'm so excited to tell you about it! Schoolhouse Library is a brand new library resource available to everyone! Whether you're a new homeschooling parent who's not sure where to turn, or a seasoned homeschooler looking for something fresh and new, this library is for you! For a one-time purchase of $25, you get to a library of over 175 e-books and audio books that include over 25 topics. The topics include Art, Geography, Organization, Grammar, Spelling, Special Needs, and more! '

 And, while you're at it, check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com for most ALL your homeschooling needs. I can teach my children with JUST this site if I wanted to!

Spanish For You! Estaciones (Seasons) ~ A TOS Crew Review

  We have a lot of Spanish-speaking people in our area, moreso than any other foreign language, so I was pretty stoked about Spanish For You! This is a theme-based curriculum for grades 3-8, and I love that I could use this with most of my kids (Ethan is 2nd grade so I did still work it in some with him). As of right now, there are 2 packages available: Estaciones (Seasons) and Fiestas (Celebrations). I chose to review Estaciones since my kids really like weather-related things. Spanish For You! is designed to be worked 3 or 4 days a week, and each theme is about a year's worth of instruction. You can either purchase the entire curriculum at once for $64.95, or purchase each grade level for  $39.95. From the website:

ALL Spanish for You! packages come complete with:

• soft cover book or e-book (currently only our trial pkgs.)
• 24-30 week lesson guide for the grades you need (24 weeks for G5-6 & 7-8, 30 weeks for G3-4) (PDF download)
• self-checking worksheets (PDF download)
• audio files of entire book (includes bonus audio of native speaker of entire book) (MP3 download)
• flashcard/activity pictures (PDF download)
• *Teacher lesson plans are NOT included. These need to be purchased separately. ($12.95)

   I really liked the audio files. I think I did a pretty good job with my pronunciations (I took Spanish in High School), but it was nice to have someone pronounce the works perfectly. One audio file is from a native Spanish speaker, and the other is the author of the curriculum, and both are very clear and easy to understand. Our Spanish teacher always made fun of us in class because we spoke Spanish with a Southern accent. :p Here you can view sample pages of Estaciones. 
  For my initial ease of use, I printed off everything and put the sheets in a 3 ring binder. This helps me to be less overwhelmed with things. I love how easy Spanish For You! is to use. The lesson plans are clearly laid out and tell you exactly what you need to do and teach each day, so there's not much in the way of planning for you to do. You don't need to have experience in Spanish in order to teach Spanish For You! so don't be afraid you can't do it. We did about 30 minutes of work per day. You could certainly do more, but I'm a pretty laid back teacher for the most part. 
  As I said earlier, Spanish For You! is for grades 3-8, and it's broken down into grades 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, so there was something for almost everyone here. 



 Estaciones is Spanish for Seasons, which is what the theme is, and what your child will learn. It covers Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Weather-related phrases

(¿Qué tiempo hace? Hace frio.), etc. There are several sheets of commonly used words and phrases as well, which I really like. There are also lots of fun games and activity ideas in the curriculum.

  For our use of Spanish For You!, I did as much as I could reading aloud, listening to audio files, etc. Then everyone broke up to themselves to do their worksheets. We were able to do the games together. In doing the reading aloud and audio files together, I was even able to include Lucas in the fun, and he even picked up a little Spanish as well, which I was very impressed with! Spanish For You! is a fun, engaging curriculum that I can highly recommend.

Happy Mother's Day!

  I hope all of you lovely mothers have a special and blessed Mother's Day today!

Papa's Pearls~ A TOS Crew Review

 I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Papa's Pearls: A Father's Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren. The book is about Carol Joseph Flynn, aka Papa, written by his daughter, Diane Flynn Keith. It tells the story of Papa, how he rose from rough living in the Great Depression, and owning his own successful plumbing business.

  I love the positivity of this book, and the way Papa turned his life around for good. It's fairly short at 112 pages, but it's not short on wisdom.  When Papa had to go through raw sewage as part of his job, he told his son " Just tell yourself you like it (the smell), then it's not so bad." How many of us today would do or say something like that? Not many, I bet. When Papa found out that his daughter Diane was writing this book, be said to her, "I think this is a good idea. You gotta tell 'em,. This world...They don't know. They don't know they're loved. You gotta tell 'em they're loved. And tell 'em to say it out loud every day to their families." How precious and humble Papa was. There are SO many pearls of wisdom, but the two  things that stuck out the most for me were "Where's my hug?" and "I love you. You know that, right?"
 
  I really love all of the practical advice in this book. I admit, I teared up some reading this book. It's hard for me to find a lot of time to read books, so I took this along with me when I got my allergy injections. I guess that's a good place to get teary-eyed since people who go there have allergies. I could sniffle and cry a little and still look normal! :)


  As I said before, I read this book myself. Rachelle may enjoy it, but it's not a children's book. You can get your own copy of Papa's Pearls either directly from the author for $21.97, which includes shipping, or from Amazon for $13.47 for the paperback, and $6.97 for the Kindle version. When you buy from the author, the book is autographed with one of Papa's Pearls of wisdom! :)
  I feel very blessed to be able to review this book, and I highly recommend it. It would make a wonderful Father's Day gift!

Mother's Day Plans?

  What are everyone's plans for Mother's Day? I need to pick up gifts later, and then we'll be spending part of the day tomorrow with my Mom, and then tomorrow evening with my Mother-in-Law. We normally eat at the ILs on Sundays, but they'll be out of town then, so we'll just hang out at home after church instead. :)

  Our school year is winding down. I am ready for a break, and I know the kids are as well. I renewed our co-op membership today, and I need to register them with our umbrella school soon as well. The 3 oldest will be going to church camp this Summer. Rach will be going to Youth camp for the first time. We're both pretty excited! Ethan has improved so much in reading this year. He's still not where I'd like him to be, but I'm very happy with the improvement. Lucas has even picked up word sounds. He's a smart little boy! He turns 5 in September, so I'm waiting until next year to officially start him in Kindergarten.

  Back to Mother's Day. Mom asked me what I wanted, and I told her that I wanted wide mouth canning jars. Yup. I'm hoping for a great garden this year, and I want jars! I also found a pressure canner that I really want on Amazon. It's $70, so I'm gonna start saving GCs that I get from Swagbucks. It works on smooth-top stoves, which is what I have. I'm so excited! Jeremy thought  I was crazy when I told him I wanted canning jars. Yeah, I'm turning into THAT person. I don't know what to tell him what I want from the kids, though. Non-gaudy shirts are always nice I guess. Or maybe an herb garden? Hmm

Literacy Soft~ A TOS Crew Review

I was very anxious to try out the Phonics and Reading with McGuffey app from LiteracySoft with Ethan. He is 8 years old and was struggling quite a bit to read. I mean, a lot. I've worked with him quite a bit, and he had improved some, but was still getting very frustrated with reading.  I had heard of McGuffey Readers, but never actually utilized them in our homeschool life. Some info about the app from the website:
This app includes: 
• All 52 McGuffey Primer lessons 
• All 44 letter sounds of English and their graphemes 
• 60+ letter sound animations 
• 400+ practice word vocabulary 
• 9000+ nonsense word audio dictionary 

You can use Phonics and Reading with McGuffey on your PC, Mac, and Apple Devices! Ethan used this on my iPhone. I must love him a lot to let him use my precious phone; it's one of my most favorite thing! :p
It's SO easy to get started. You can have up to 10 users on your app. You'll select which space you want to set up for each user, or which user you'd like to work with.


 As you can see, Lucas "needed" to use it as well. Once you choose which user you're working with, you can get started! The app speaks very clearly and tells you exactly what you need to do. You can either start with Lesson 1, which is what we did, or you can go to the Table of Contents and choose your lesson. You can even repeat lessons! This is a very user-friendly app. It allows you to go at your child's pace with no rushing along.



I love how easy it is to read and see everything. All the letters are very clear. It goes through each letter sound, and shows pictured of things beginning with that letter. It doesn't matter where you are in your reading level; you can use this app. It's very straightforward and easy to navigate. Lucas is 4 and can use it very easily.


This is an example of the spelling practice.

  Each lesson contains Letter Sounds, New Words, Phonics Flashcards, Phonics Blender (you can make words and hear them read!), Lesson Illustration, Reading Practice, a Quiz, Spelling Practice, and Sight Word Drilling, where the narrator says a word, and you select the correct word on the screen. Go as fast as you can to beat your time score, and see the train speed down the track!

 I mainly used this with Ethan, but as I stated before, Lucas was able to use it as well. I pretty much let them use it how they wanted. Ethan can do a whole lesson a day, but Lucas can't be still for that long and usually did a few parts of each lesson per day.
 You can purchase Phonics and Reading with McGuffey for $19.99 from the App Store or for your PC. The first 10 lessons for PC, and also the lite version for iOS are free, and there's also a free ebook you can download.
 I am very happy with the app. Ethan has definitely improved in his reading abilities. Many thanks to LiteracySoft for providing this app!







P.S. I'd love you to come visit me on Facebook at C Family of 6!