Author: Wendy

E is for Eating Bugs

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E is for eating bugs

Will’s been traveling a bit to sell his books this week, and one of the traditions he has when he’s away from home is to bring suckers back for the boys. But not just any sucker – a sucker with a real bug inside. Seahawk and Munchkin are well versed in this tradition, but it was Small Fry’s first time participating. To introduce him to the idea slowly, he got a cricket lollipop, while the other boys got scorpions. You can see the cricket suspended in the candy in the larger photograph up above. [Read more…]

Blue Ribbon Awards

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As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I had the pleasure of casting my vote in their annual Blue Ribbon Awards. All members of the Crew are invited to share their favorite vendors of the year in a variety of categories, and then the votes are tallied and awards given to the vendors. Here are the winners of 2014 (links will take you to the Crew blog post for the product unless noted otherwise): [Read more…]

November 2014 Reading List

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A new month means a new reading list! Well, the month is nearly half over (again), and the reading list has a couple of holdovers from October, but that’s okay.

Read Aloud – everyone

egypt gameWe’re still working on The Egypt Game. Because we read Wayside School first last month, we had a late start on TEG, but we’ll definitely finish it this month. [Read more…]

D is for Division

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d is for division copy

As much as we struggled with multiplication facts with the boys, I was beginning to think we’d never move on to division. But I’m pleased to say that we have done just that.

After Will saw the way our current math program was teaching the topic (it was insanely crazy and confusing, using “longs and shorts” – is this a Common Core thing, does anyone know?), he made the decision I should have: teaching long division the normal way. He spent about an hour with the boys and they came out the other end of that one lesson able to divide.

And now, on to fractions!

Blessings,

Wendy

Product Review: Snake Oil Party Potion Game

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Snake Oil - Party Potion vocabulary building game. Review at Simplicity Breeds Happiness

Can you sell a torch purse to a princess?

Do you, Miss Princess, have money to burn? Then let me introduce to you the torch purse – it burns your money for you!

How about a bone sandwich to a dog?

Mr. Dog, what you need is to eat a sandwich like your owner does. But peanut butter is too sticky for dogs. Designed especially for you, so the move to sandwiches isn’t too abrupt a change from your preferred food, I give you the bone sandwich!

If so, Snake Oil – Party Potion, from Out of the Box Games, is the game for you! [Read more…]

Schoolhouse Review Crew Seeking New Bloggers

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You guys know that I’ve been a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew this year, and that it’s been amazing experience for me. There’s a forum of great homeschool parents to chat with, buy and sell to/from, and pray with and for. There’s the opportunity to receive and review loads of great products. And you’ll (potentially) be pushed as a writer/blogger.

Well, if you’re interested in joining this great group, you’re in luck! Because sales for the 2015 year are going gangbusters, the Crew has opened up a second round of applications. Head on over to the Crew blog for more information and the application. You won’t regret it!

Blessings,

Wendy

C is for Costumes

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c is for costumes sbh

You know that Halloween was last week, so I want to talk today about how we do costumes in our family. First, though, let me go over Halloween. We don’t give the “holiday” much emphasis in our family, but we also don’t avoid it altogether. The downtown association in our town sponsors a trick or treating event every year where the local businesses along the main drag offer candy (and other goodies – coupons from the dance studio, toothbrushes from the dentist, etc) for the children. It’s a completely safe way to do trick or treating, and it’s always really fun to see all the children’s costumes. [Read more…]

Book Review: If He Had Not Come

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Christmas is coming. Like it or not, we’re already into November, and that means Christmas is just around the corner. And Christmas is a time for family traditions, both old and new.

(Please don’t hear me saying that having traditions is what Christmas is about. It’s not, and I know that. It’s about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Traditions are just a nice thing to make us humans feel “warm and fuzzy.”) [Read more…]

B is for Baking

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b is for baking sbh

Seahawk’s birthday was earlier this month. He’s 11 now. I still can’t believe it. His birthday fell on a Friday, so we did the “Grandparents’ dinner” on the day of. We served pasta with three sauce choices (marinara, Alfredo, and vodka, all from jars – I can make pasta sauce from scratch, but honestly, a lot of the jarred sauces are very tasty, have no questionable ingredients, and are cheaper than their from-scratch counterparts, which makes them a win all around), and homemade bread sticks. This is my go-to bread stick recipe. It’s so easy and so delicious. If you’re looking for a good one, try it out! It’s truly foolproof. [Read more…]

Product Review: Clued In Kids

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I have a super fun product to talk to you guys about today: Clued In Kids! For review purposes, I received both the Halloween Treasure Hunt and the Baseball Treasure Hunt. These are available as PDF downloads for $5.99 each. Having them as PDFs means, of course, that you can print as many as you’d like and reuse them, which makes these a great value.

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You can see that each clue includes the challenge for the kids in the main area, as well as the place where you need to hide the clue at the bottom. This makes it so quick and easy to set up these treasure hunts!

So what is Clued In Kids? The answer is very simple. Helen Bertelli, the founder and president of Clued In Kids, writes Treasure Hunts for kids. You purchase the hunts, hide the clues, and let your kids go. For about 5-10 minutes worth of work on your part, you can easily keep your kids occupied for 30-60 minutes (possibly more, depending on the children). Each hunt is designed around a theme – Halloween and Baseball, in my case, but there are also loads of others (Thanksgiving, Winter, Happy Tummy, Gluten-Free, Homework Reward, and many others). [Read more…]