Layouts from this week! Still plugging away at 2009. Oh my good how precious these little girls are!!! The days are long, but the years are short….
Our girls love to listen to audio drama. They almost always listen to one when they go to bed at night and many times in the car, even on short drives. We just pickup where we were the next time we hop into the car. They will even choose to listen to wonderful audios during their free time. We have never heard any of the Brinkman Adventures but they were so excited to have a new series and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Brinkman Adventures Season 4!
These modern, and true, missionary stories are brought to life through the Brinkman family. The family approaches life with a biblical worldview. It is always nice when a source of entertainment will reflect our own family’s worldview. My younger two girls especially enjoyed their adventures. Beth, age 10, wanted to listen to them over and over!
While the girls often listened at bedtime, we also enjoyed them in the car! One of my favorite episodes was “The War of the Racoons.” While this particular show was not based on an actual situation it was quite humorous and kept us laughing! I also liked the way the story portrayed repentance and restoration. There were also some interesting themes about marriage and relationships. While we are not in that season with our girls yet, it was nice to have a more biblical viewpoint on relationships presented as opposed to what the world presents.
The episodes are about twenty-five minutes long. This is a great length for trips around town. We usually are able to listen to one on the way to and from wherever we are running our errands. It was the perfect length for a one-way trip to their science class on Wednesday mornings! The girls really enjoyed these stories. They have asked if we can listen to more. In addition to the Brinkman Adventures there is another series called The Time Chroniclers which looks intriguing! Don’t forget to check out what my Crewmates have to say! 
Math seems to always be that one subject that I find myself questioning if I’ve chosen the right curriculum. If you have a math-minded kid this is usually not an issue. My experience is they will thrive with any curriculum as long as it is challenging enough. It’s a completely different story with those kids who are less mathematically inclined that the struggle begins. I have heard rave reviews about CTCMath online. We had the opportunity to review the Family Membership and right now homeschoolers can get 60% off + 6 bonus months. This is an amazing deal if you are looking for an online program! Also there is a wonderful free trial available. (Hurry! Both of these offers end November 15!)
All three of my daughters used CTC Math.Grace – 3rd GradeBeth – 5th GradeRose – Basic Math and PreAlgebra (7th grade) I appreciated very much that this is perfectly suited to customize to each student. Grace has a late birthday so while she is “officially” in 2nd grade she is much more advanced in her studies and is ready for 3rd grade work. Beth is also advanced although not a full grade-level ahead. Rose has always felt a struggle with math. I personally feel it is simply a mental block because it isn’t enjoyable for her, but even so she needs some shoring up in certain areas. Having the opportunity to adjust their mathematics studies to their personal needs is spectacular. With most other online programs I’ve used my girls are assigned a certain grade level and must work through in an orderly pace. This is not necessarily bad, but for us the customization abilities have been a great benefit.
I missed last week’s peek into our week, but it was a good week! It was just very busy. So here what this last week looked like!
Template: Autumn Template Grab Bag
Kit: The First Thanksgiving Full Kit by Trixie Scraps Designs
Template: Everyday Diamonds Templates by Miss Fish Templates
Kit: Egg Hunt Digital Scrapbook Kit and Egg Hunt Add On Mini Kit from Just So Scrappy
One of the biggest needs in the homeschool community is resources to fill gaps. Any teacher, homeschool or traditional, will tell you there is no perfect curriculum which will teach absolutely everything in a way which is perfectly suited for every student. There are also times when the first round of teaching a topic doesn’t quite stick. Because of this I’m always on the lookout for good resources to help fill in the gaps. I was intrigued to try out the Individual Membership from Super Teacher Worksheets to see how it would work for our family.
The website is laid out in a very logical and easy to use manner. Every elementary subject is covered including Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, as well as several electives and fun puzzle activities. I spent a lot of time researching through this site and there isn’t a single area I could find which was neglected! I utilized the language arts worksheets the most. I liked the writing prompt worksheets for all three of my daughters. The ideas were interesting and it was a nice way to provide a journal type writing assignment which is very different from what we usually do. I liked that I can pick very easily from the topics available.
I really like this prompt in particular: “How old were you four years ago? Describe some things you can do now that you could not do then.” I really liked the amount of space on the page and the thoughtful topic. Beth seemed to like the writing assignment as well and talked to me for a while about how different she is than she was 4 years ago. The mark of a good writing prompt is one which engages students beyond merely checking an assignment off their to-do list.
For Grace I used the spelling lists as cursive practice. She has learned her alphabet in cursive and can copy something already in cursive very well. This was a great way to have her start remembering how to form the letters and words herself. This was a great format and she did quite well with this. Grace said she liked it and was excited to see a bonus word at the bottom! Overall I feel like this site is a bit more useful for a different audience than myself personally. We have a pretty structured curriculum and I only rarely supplement with other material. For those who unschool or feel themselves to be more eclectic in style I think this would be a very helpful source. I also see this as a highly valuable tool for full-time school teachers and substitutes because of the need to filler material for during the day. I do recommend this as far as quality and content. There are so many options available and it is high quality in content. I also felt the grade levels for each assignment were very appropriate. If you are looking for a supplement to fill in gaps or as a worksheet resource for concepts you are teaching this is an excellent site in which to invest. Check out what my Crewmates have to say!
Just a couple of layouts this week. I am still working through 2009 but didn’t take much time to work on the album.
My eager reader Grace was very excited when she found out she would have two new books to read! Grace is eager about just about everything, but this was extra exciting because it was a sequel. She is a big fan of book series because it means she gets to read more adventures with the stories she loves. The first two books in the The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls series from WorthyKids/Ideals completely captivated her!
Quality entertainment we consider “safe” for our girls to enjoy is hard to come by these days. We feel the need to screen just about every form of media they encounter be it visual, audio, or in written form. There are only a handful of companies which we trust to always provide this safe entertainment we seek for our family. Although our first experience with Heirloom Audio Productions was only a few months ago, this wonderful company is absolutely at the top of that list. We anxiously awaited the arrival of Captain Bayley’s Heir and were not at all disappointed! 
This wonderful story begins in London with the story of Frank, a school-boy accused of a dishonest act which he did not actually do. Fear leads him to feel trapped in his circumstances with the only opportunity to redeem his good reputation being to feel to America. His life in America is very different from that in London. His desire is to make his fortune, believing that will be the only way to earn back his reputation. Throughout the story Frank is faced with the reality that his life matters and that God’s grace will abound. The ending was surprise to me and I love that his family finds him and they are reunited in the end as well as the fact that Frank’s name was indeed cleared of the accusations! We listened to this wonderful story on our way to and from a field trip to the zoo. The 90 minute journey there and back went by very quickly with this as our entertainment! All five of us completely enjoyed the story. We listen to a lot of audio drama while driving, but not many that are this long and it captivated our attention thoroughly. Many of the voice talents were recognizable from other audio dramas and movies or television. The acting was superb and I absolutely love the background music! In addition to the audio is the opportunity to participate in the Live the Adventure Club. There are sooooo many amazing resources with this! The study guide is an amazing tool which can be used to make this part of your school-day and be incredibly educational. There are questions to help your children listen well and deeper, more thought provoking questions to help them with inference and predictions while listening. These are great skills which will translate into reading assignments as well. The vocabulary list is really helpful since these are older stories with rich words rarely used these days in modern conversation and writing. Also some of the historical references which may be unfamiliar are covered, like cobblestone.
I really like that the guide explored the historical context of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the settlement of western America was predestined because of the country’s political and economic power. I really appreciate an honest discussion of this with our kids and the fact that the drama also delves into an understanding that the tribal nations native to this country were not to blame for all of the bloodiness of the past. Honest discussions about what really happened between Americans and the tribes is needed rather than imbalanced teaching. Having my girls listen to entertainment that strives to be fair and true to history is very important to us. As I mentioned before I loved the background music. I’m a huge fan of sounds tracks and one of the cool things about the Live the Adventure Club is that you can listen to the soundtrack! There are also three study guide options which are simple to follow, yet very deep and will provide a great spring-board for discussion. Don’t forget to check out what my Crewmates had to say!
The two digital scrapbooking layouts I finished this week were actually a very recent event! We went to the zoo a week ago and while we were there had fun on the Air Hike course. This was the girls and my husband’s second time up, buy my first time. When they worked through it before I stayed on the ground to take pictures…and maybe because I have a little problem with heights, or at least a fear of falling from them!
Beth is very nervous in new situations anyway, but heights bother her as well. She desperately wanted to go on the zip line, but was too afraid last time. She told me if I went the next time she would go on it. So I got up my courage and made the trek into the treetops. The staff was amazing. They encouraged her and cheered her on the whole way! There was even a group of zoo goers who were cheering for her while she braved a rope net. They also let me hold her while we rode the zip-line the first time! It was really hard for me to make that first step, but I had to be bold and brave for my sweet girl! She asked me to ride with her one more time and then she went on her own three more times!
And that my friends is why I scrabook. I want to remember these moments and I want my girls to have the memories to keep and share with their own children some day. Memories matter and so I preserve them.
Credits
gracefilledwriter.com 