Author: Grace-Filled Writer
French Essentials: Review
My girls are always asking how to say things in another my response is typically, “Ummmm….let’s look it up a little later!” Foreign language is not one of my strong-suits. I did take a few years of a foreign language in high school, but it became very clear my freshman year of college I didn’t retain very much! Needless to day, foreign language hasn’t really been on my radar for homeschooling yet…until now!
French Essentials uses a combination of downloadable pdf files and online content to explore the French language and culture in a unique blend of interactive and pencil-to-paper instructional activities. The available assessments are a wonderful way to check and gauge the students progress. You can choose either to purchase a full set with access to all modules and downloads or to purchase modules individually. Each module can be purchased for $69.95 (available for 90 days) and the full-package will all modules (available for 1 year) is $149.95. We were given the Full Access Online Program for review. 
My girls really enjoyed getting to hear the letters, words, and phrases pronounced correctly. As I said before my foray into foreign languages wasn’t all that fabulous and my pronunciation is simply dreadful! Native French speakers teach correct pronunciation and the entire program was created by experienced French teachers. I appreciated how grammar is incorporated so as the students learn the language they also learn how to put the parts of speech in the correct order. Another nice feature are the audio files embedded into the pdf files so there is no need to open multiple programs. 
I loved the very first activity in the first module. In order to help student learn to identify the correctly pronounced French alphabet a native French speaker calls out letters which will spell English words. This unique activity really resonated with Rose. She quickly picked up on the different vowel sounds and I really think the connection to English helped her do this more rapidly. Beth also liked the activity although it was harder for her.
This program is ideally used with students 3rd through eighth grade, but it can be used with students who are younger because of the extensive amount of oral practice and older if they are interested. The worksheet portions are best suited for students with a 3rd grade reading level or higher.
As I mentioned before many aspects of the French culture are included which provide a nice balance and a fuller picture of what the language is all about. This is a really fun portion which I think would also encourage students to be open to more cultures as they learn.
Although the girls did enjoy using this, I learned something very important. None of us is ready for language study this extensive or in depth yet! The program is excellent, but it will take more time than we have right now to add it in daily as I would want. With that in mind, when we are ready for a full foreign language curriculum, this is definitely something we will revisit. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a full-course language curriculum as it is high quality and seems to thoroughly explore the language.
Click here to see what else my Crewmates had to say!
Family Photo Shoot: 2013
Fall has traditionally been our time of year for family photo shoots. We chose a local historical site for the photos and it was a perfect location. This is the second year a good friend of our family has blessed us with an absolutely beautiful and amazingly fun family shoot! Here are a few highlights of our fun day.
Week in Review: November 4-8
This week has been good…just so amazingly good! Not only has our week been incredibly fun, I was surprised with a nomination for Best Encourager Blog for the Homeschool Blog Awards hosted by The Homeschool Post! Wow! I was shocked, humbled and really, really excited! What excited me most wasn’t so much the nomination, but knowing I was meeting my purpose. When I started out blogging it was with the full intention of encouraging other homeschooling families. If you were the one who nominated me, can I just say, “Thank you?” I’d love to give you a hug and speak to you in person, but I can’t. I may never even know who you were, but know this was a great blessing to me.
You can vote for my blog and your other favorites in the other categories once a day through November 18 on multiple devices, so make sure you pop over there to show your favorite blogs how much you love them!
I’ll be honest, writing my weekly updates has not been very exciting for me this year. I’ve been highlighting the best moments, but it has simply been a struggle because we just couldn’t seem to get into our groove. I know there is an adjustment period at the beginning of every year as you begin new levels and challenge your kids in new ways, yet no matter how hard I tried, we seemed to be getting nowhere. After some evaluation and discussion I decided to start our days earlier and consistently, more in line with what we had done in the past. The complete turn-around was quite amazing to behold.
Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 27
Grace is finding that learning to read is quite easy, and this week she figured out she could read words in books other than her reading book. How fun it was to have her run up to me and say, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I just read is!” It is pure joy to see these learning moments with my girls.
Grace was thrilled to have her sisters join her in some of her Little Hands to Heaven activities this week. We talked about how if God takes care of the flowers we can trust He will take care of us. They pretended they were flowers growing through the seasons. It was so sweet for them to join in with her!
On this day Grace insisted on being Hello Kitty. She’s so funny! Rose also was eager to be teacher this week. She helped Grace with some of her About 3 workbook pages and I think they both enjoyed this quite a bit.
We have very much enjoyed the ABC Bible Verse devotional. I like the questions at the end and the discussions we’ve been able to have. I’m constantly amazed at the depth of understanding even little children can have of deep spiritual truth. Part of this is because they do not question as we grown-ups tend to do. My children are a constant reminder of what child-like faith should really look like.
I love how Little Hearts for His Glory helps me make sure I cover all the typical preschooler skills. Maybe I should know these things intuitively, and sometimes I have already done the suggestions or variations of them, but knowing I have something to make sure I don’t miss anything gives me great peace of mind. This week she spent some time sorting. We used our Nature Blocks to practice sorting. She really enjoyed this!
And here is what my other two sweeties do being so very diligent while I teach Grace! They never even knew I snapped this shot. It is a great blessing to be able to assign my girls’ tasks so I can work with Grace with more focus. I won’t pretend it’s always this easy, but it really is more often than not.
Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 9
Beth adores old-fashioned readers. She zipped through the Dick and Jane reader from her great-grandmother last year and Grandma found a book called Busy Times from Rod and Staff which she is using now. We are still doing the emerging reader’s path, but she really wanted to read with this so I’m letting her. I am using the opportunity to help her with narrating skills.
Beth likes our poetry study each week and really likes putting it in order now. This was not something she liked at first, but now she looks at it like a puzzle. It really is a fun way for her to think about the poetry.
This week I also started working with Beth on learning to write paragraphs this week. She did a great job writing about a classroom rule we have: Always work diligently. She wrote two sentences after her topic sentence and I am very pleased with her work!
She finished up All About Spelling Level 1 this week and is incredibly anxious to move on to level 2! She was actually a bi disappointed when I told her she was going to have to wait until next week.
For history this week we are continuing on with the pilgrims. Rose became really excited when I started explaining the history activity to Beth. “Oh Mommy! I remember that! It was so much fun!” You see, this is my second time through Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. It makes me really happy Rose remembers things we did from two years ago and remembers enjoying them!
The activity centered around following north, south, east, and west directions to reach a basket of corn. I made out the grid and Rose gave the directions. Both girls had fun and did a great job!
Beth also really, really enjoyed the Bible activity. Just like the pilgrims persevered building a new life for themselves in North America, Nehemiah also persevered in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem in spite of obstacles and individuals trying to stop them. We played a game where Beth would build a wall, three blocks high. I would slap the floor 10 times and start tearing down the wall until she made a trumpeting sound. We played until she was able to build the entire wall. We talked about how much harder it was to build this way and how much perseverance Nehemiah and the Israelites must have had.
Here I am drawing the grid for the map activity. Silly Beth grabbed my camera to take a shot of me writing. She loves photography and wanted to take some shots like I always take of her!
Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 5
We are officially full-speed! Yay!!!!! It took a while, but with our minor scheduling change we breezed through unit 5 at full-speed. This made Rose incredibly happy because she has been complaining we aren’t doing enough history each day! She is really enjoying Draw and Write Through History.
Here is her picture of a pyramid. My little artist really loves this! I especially like how she gave the sky a sunset look.
Rose is now working on three paragraph writing assignments. This week her topic was about uncommon weather events. She wrote about a couple of years ago when it snowed. She is now very intent on seeing snow this year. Our area of the south is hit or miss, so I’m hoping she’s right!
Rose was so happy to be reading Grandfather’s Box once again. She is doing really well with her narrations as well. I have to admit I was pretty excited as well. This is such a great addition to our history and I understand why she is so excited!
Rose really showed patience with her sisters. I appreciate giving her opportunities to help teach them. I don’t do this often, but I may let her help out a little more as it seems to be something at which she is quite good.
So, overall, an excellent week. I can’t wait to write the post about our art projects! They turned out beautiful!
On Pitching Fits
One night a few years ago as I was up for the fifth time with one of my daughters. Sleep seemed more than elusive for our household!
My oldest daughter pitched a fit worthy of an academy award the previous night night when we announced bedtime. We are used to getting the usual chorus of, “I don’t want to go to bed!” However that night seemed to reach a new level. I reminded her that fits don’t help; they only cause more problems, but it didn’t seem to help very much!
My middle daughter (three-years-old at the time) went to sleep okay, but struggled to remain there. She was up no less than five times within two hours, which conveniently started just as we were heading to bed. I suspect it might have something to do with the restless older sister who made the top bunk squeak. She was inconsolable unless either my husband or I were in the room with her. She kept peeking to make sure we didn’t leave.
The littlest one (she was about one) had the unfortunate problem of 3 teeth trying to break through. For the past two evenings she has fussed on and off every hour or two throughout the evening. The worst part is when we went in to try and comfort her she would push us away and didn’t even want us around. I suspected she was a little bit angry we couldn’t fix her problem and make the pain go away.
How often do we treat God the same way? We pitch a fit and do our best to get out of the things He wants us to do, all the time knowing we will have to submit and are just making matters worse. Sometimes we are so nervous about doing new things we are terrified God won’t be there with us. We want something tangible to give us comfort. Then there are the times when God doesn’t do what we expect Him to and we get upset. We’d rather He just leave us alone if He isn’t going to fix what we want Him to fix or how we think it should be done.
Many Scriptures talk about God as our Father and how much better are the things He gives to us than we, who are lowly sinners, give to our kids. I don’t believe this is necessarily talking about tangible gifts. I love my kids and want what is best for them even when they don’t always want to accept it. Not giving in to their every want is a gift. Providing for their basic needs is a gift. Teaching biblical truths is a gift. Loving them unconditionally is a gift. These are things I aim for, yet my human flesh often gets in the way. Our heavenly Father does each of these perfectly, without blemish.
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
James 1:17
IXL.com: Review
What do my girls work hard for each day? Computer learning time! They know they must wait for my permission, but usually at some point during the day, unless they have lost the privilege, the girls get to play learning games on the computer. I am not a fan of a full computer-based curriculum for our studies, but I do like for them to have opportunities to learn on the computer. My girls have learned far more computer skills than I would have imagined at their age! I was eight when we got our first computer, an IBM, and I was one of the first in my grade-school class to turn in a typed assignment. Now children take computers for granted as part of learning, so I am always on the lookout for high quality programs.
IXL.com is a website dedicated to enhancing math and language arts learning for students. Their math site is for pre-K through 12th grade and language arts is for 2nd-4th grade. We were blessed to review the math portion of the site. A subscription to IXL is $9.95 for math only, $9.95 for language arts only, or $15.95 a month for both. If you purchase a yearly subscription it is $79.00 for either math or language arts, and $129.00 a year for both subjects. Each additional child is only $2 per month, or $20 per year.
Screen time has been a hot commodity since our family acquired an iPad. Rose really loves the IXL app and I love that she is able to further master certain skills like multiplication. I love having so many options of activities for her to choose from and that I am fully aware of what they are working on. Rose’s goal was to get everything under her name checked off!
Grace also thoroughly enjoyed the app! She loved being able to sign in on her own. Each of the girls had their own unique symbol and they signed in with a password they would remember. The parent must be logged in first, but then the kids are able to access it on their own.
A feature which is really nice, especially for preschoolers, is that each question can be read aloud. It took her a little while to figure out what some of the questions were asking, but she soon mastered many of the preschool skills. She has completed the most of any of the three girls. She has really enjoyed growing in her math skills. I appreciate that even though it is fun, it is still more traditional math practice rather than games. It checks their knowledge directly rather than using flashy pictures and cartoons which in my opinion can sometimes distract from the skill. While it is very colorful, unneeded background scenery and distracting music is blissfully absent. I never once had to ask any of the girls to turn the volume down because it was distracting to the others.
I do hope that a language arts app is in the works. I have found that learning and play is much easier for the girls, especially Grace, on the iPad. She doesn’t waste time and get frustrated with the mouse. I’m so glad IXL has this app available so she can have a better experience.Click below to see what my Crewmates had to say!
If You Were Me… from Away We Go Media: Review
Our girls have always loved learning about other places. We frequently have missionaries in our church and what my daughters are most curious when they visit is what the country where they are from is like. They want to know about the food, the people, the music, the clothes…just everything! I’m always on the lookout for resources to encourage their curiosity.
Carole P. Roman and Away We Go Media has created a wonderful set of resources for children to explore other cultures. They are beautifully illustrated and give children an idea of what life is like for other kids all around the world. So far If You Were Me and Lived in… South Korea, If You Were Me and Lived in… Mexico, If You Were Me and Lived in… France, and If You Were Me and Lived in… Norway (link coming soon!) are included in the series. The first three books in this series are available for purchase on Amazon in two formats: Kindle ($.99 each) and Paperback ($8.99 each). If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway is $1.99 (Kindle) or $10.79 (Paperback). They can also be purchased at Barnes and Noble for $9.99 each with the exception of If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway which can be purchased for $8.63. They are geared toward preschoolers through 8-year-old children. My girls thoroughly enjoyed each of the four and enjoyed taking turns reading them!
AAEach book contains information about the language, customs, heritage, and lifestyle. I loved the inclusion of various tourist sites as well as what children would do at every age. The girls snuggled up on the couch and took turns reaching through each title in one sitting! Something I liked about the cover was that the location of each country was shown on a globe. Many other books on other countries I have seen show the country’s shape or in the context of its neighbors, but I have never seen it shown on a globe. This world-wide view gives them a wonderful big-picture sense of location.
Beth’s favorite was If You Were Me and Lived in South Korea. She really liked learning about the variety of food. She also really liked the picture of the baby, which is why I think she most enjoyed this one! 
Rose and I really liked If You Were Me and Lived in Norway. We have good friends and neighbors who moved their a couple of years ago. It was a lot of fun to think about what our friends might be doing, eating, or seeing! I also enjoyed the inclusion of words from other languages. The girls are forever asking me what other words mean in different languages. I’m not very good at knowing those things, but these books gently introduce new languages and give children an opportunity to use context clues to decipher what they mean.
While I haven’t had a chance to do this yet, I also plan on using the books in this series with our children at church during our missions meetings. We meet once a month and I have the opportunity to teach the children more about missions. I love how easily these will fit into the other activities I already have planned!
Take a minute to watch this preview of If You Were Me and Lived in Mexico!
Check out what my Crewmates had to say!
Week in Review: October 28 – November 1
This week was mostly finishing up from last week. Everyone was still recovering from the fever/cough virus which infected our home last week so we took it easy. I’m thankful everyone has improved dramatically!
Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 26
We took our time finishing up Unit 24 in Little Hands to Heaven. Grace just loves her time for lessons. She was not as excited about school this week, but this was mostly is because she still felt pretty bad. One of her favorite things to do is play with our All About Spelling tiles. She likes to mess up the order and then rearrange them!
She is doing so well remembering the letter sounds from what we have already covered in Little Hands to Heaven. Sometimes because of her age I don’t always know if she is retaining what she is learning. I shouldn’t ever worry about this. I really ought to know by now just how wonderful this preschool program is and how much my littlest sweetheart is learning!
Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 8
I am so pleased with the new maturity I’m seeing in Beth. Beyond Little Hearts has really helped her mature spiritually. Each week we have a new Bible verse to study. Her understanding of what the Scripture means grows daily. One of the things I absolutely love about Heart of Dakota is how discipleship is built right into the day. Although I always look for ways to encourage my girls in their walk with God I know what they study throughout all their years with Heart of Dakota is intentionally bringing them to a closer relationship with Christ. 
We spent some time this week talking about countries, states, and cities. This will obviously take some repetition and review, but she had a lot of fun finding the locations on our globe. I find it interesting how a child’s awareness of their location in the world develops in stages. I can’t simply explain the concept of continents and countries and expect Beth to just suddenly understand. I know from going through this guide previously that we will revisit this idea.
Beth is one unit away from finishing All About Spelling Level 1! Yay! She does really well with spelling now and takes time to think about how the phonics she has learned relates to spelling. I also think her handwriting is improving a lot. She was trying out a finger-grip just for fun, but found she preferred not using them.
Preparing Hearts for His Glory (Unit 4, 2nd half)
Rose is anxious to move through the history at a quicker pace so I’m planning to start her at full speed through the guide next week. This will mean we need to get our day started earlier, but no doubt the time change will help!
Math continues to be more fun now with Life of Fred. We’ll plan to continue this along side Rod and Staff and see where things go. We’ve been very pleased with the more traditional approach.
Rose loves to read and has been enjoying an American Girl book called Mia as her selection for realistic fiction. She has enjoyed this and is getting very good at identifying the various aspects of novels. Literature has become something she really loves!
When it comes to school Rose is incredibly serious and focused, she does have fun and enjoys it, but she is so very studious! I can’t say she looks incredibly happy in these pictures, but she really does enjoy school.
The timeline entries have been a lot of fun for her this year. We’re using index cards taped together for a stretched out timeline. She enjoys each entry and I appreciate that they often give her a chance to practice what she drew earlier in the unit from Draw and Write Through History. My little artist loves this fact too!
Here are three fun reviews recently posted…
IXL.com
Rosie’s Doll Clothes Patterns
If You Were Me… book series
I hope your week was as fun-filled as ours!
Rosie’s Doll Clothes Patterns: Review
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| A sewing project from last year…Yogi, Cindy, and Boo Boo Bear! |
My husband and I got married two weeks after I graduated from college and my sweet man bought me a sewing machine, something I’d wanted for a while but didn’t have any clue how to use. This was obvious from the fact that it sat in a closet for several years. I finally pulled it out to give a go at sewing a plain straight curtain. My husband (who took a home economics class in junior high in the hopes of meeting girls) taught me how to use it. I got frustrated, made a curvy curtain, and into the closet it went again for a few more years. I’ve had a good friend helping me gain courage and I’ve managed a few projects for my girls. When Rose came to me during my last project and asked me to teach her to sew I panicked! I barely know what I’m doing and don’t have a clue how to teach an eight-year-old!
Enter Rosie’s Doll Clothes Patterns! This simple to use site was just the thing I was looking for. The How to Make Doll Clothes Video Course ($47.51 for a 1 year membership) is excellent for beginners as it teaches the most basic aspects of sewing and is easy to follow. Since the videos are online I could access them from my computer or iPad. I found it easiest to use the computer because of the larger screen. Patterns are available for 18 inch (American Girl Doll size) and 18 1/2 inch (Cabbage Patch Size) for a variety of seasons and uses. They are all very simple patterns, perfect for those just learning.
These lessons are intended for students 8 and up (which means adults can learn too!) There are six modules intended to be used over a period of 6 weeks, but as with any course such as this you can speed up or slow the pace down as needed. Each module is broken down into smaller sections which is then divided into video segments. I much prefer this over a long video without sections because there were some things I already knew, and this way I wasn’t concerned I would miss something if I skipped ahead. In addition to the course instruction are 8 doll clothes patterns along with video instruction for each. This was great for Rose because she had the visual explanation along with someone who actually knew what they were talking about!
Rose was very interested from the start. Rosie’s gentle voice and soft Australian accent kept her captivated! She attentively stayed engrossed for each segment and was so excited to finally be learning how to sew.
I appreciated that even the most basic steps, such as pattern cutting, were fully explained in a way Rose could understand. I also appreciated that not once has Rose had to ask me what something. It isn’t that I mind answering her questions, I just know I probably wouldn’t know the answer!
Another aspect which I appreciated was the emphasis on sewing safety. It is so very important that children especially are aware the tools used for sewing can be dangerous if not handled properly. Since my other two girls were up at this time they received some much coveted iPad play time. They’ll have their chance to learn to sew when they are older.
For Rose this has been a dream come true. She was very careful to pin the fabric pieces together just the way Rosie instructed her and patiently followed every step. She asks me frequently how soon we will get to practice sewing again. This is been a real joy for us to work on together.
Whether you are just beginning to sew yourself or have a child interested in learning, this is an excellent way to learn! No confusion, no pressure, and no hassle! My favorite quote was when Rosie was explaining the various tools used for sewing. When she got to the seam ripper she said no matter how experienced you are at sewing everyone makes mistakes and needs the seam ripper to help fix them. It meant to much for me to hear that because my daughter with perfectionist tendencies gets very frustrated when she gets something wrong. This one matter of fact statement put her at ease for the rest of her time with Rosie. See what my Crewmates had to say by clicking below!
Week in Review: October 21-25
We were doing so well…just so so good! We were on track, everyone was having fun…it was fabulous!
And then the fevers started on Tuesday…sigh.
So what did I learn? For all my good intentions, for all my planning, life still happens. And it is okay. Grace for every moment is how I try to live. I used to get really frustrated when we got off, but this past year has taught me so much about leaving room for life and being flexible.
Unfortunately because of their fevers the girls have not been able to spend as much time with Diego as they usually do. He is our sweet neighbor who is currently battling cancer. Click here to read more about his story.
Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 24
We’re getting really close to finishing up the About 3 series from Rod and Staff. I have loved these books for helping her fine motor skills. They are age appropriate for preschoolers ready to learn to write. They progress well from the beginning to end of the four book set and they are inexpensive. Grace loves these too and will even go back and do the pages again.
Grace’s favorite new show is Peg Plus Cat on PBS. It’s a funny little show and she was thrilled to find a game online she could play!
U was our letter for the week, even if it was a short week! This is one of Grace’s favorite things to do each week, especially since I let her eat the leftover Cheerios. I let her choose what she wants to clue on to the letter and since she can’t eat the beans or uncooked noodles, Cheerios usually win!
Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 8
Beth was the first to succumb to the fever of the week, which started the evening after these pictures. She’s so very easy to teach. She may sometimes ask if she has to do work, but when I say, “Yes,” she goes right to it with a good attitude. She is also often the first one to have her school books out on the table. (…Or on the living room floor!)
She very happy to move on in her cursive book. She loves the artistic aspect to what we’re using now from Classical Conversations. I’ve encouraged her to be more careful and take her time using her colored pencils for the fine details. I’ve told her it is better to take a break and come back to it if she gets tired of coloring than to just scribble. This seemed to be an incredible revelation to her and she is much more willing to do fine detailed work now.
Yay for getting back to history! My girls were so very excited we were back to our regular readings. We finally got those Pilgrims on the Mayflower! Here she is counting out 180 Cheerios and loading them onto the Mayflower she made. This was a really fun math/history connection. Another reason I love Heart of Dakota!
Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 4 (2nd half)
Life of Fred continues to delight and we finished up with our 3 times tables. Next week will be review of 0-3, which I anticipate going very well. Rose started Butterflies from the Life of Fred and is happy to be moving on through this new book. She’s already on chapter 5!
Rose was also excited to get back to history and continue on with her notebooking pages. She has loved history so much! I understand now why so many on the official Heart of Dakota message board rave about how Preparing is their favorite guide. We are also looking to start full-speed next week. We did the last two days of the week at full-speed and it went very well! I just have to include several short breaks and be willing to do some work after lunch if needed. Other highlights of the week…
Playing Kids of Catan with Grammy and Grampy. This was actually the previous week, but it was fun!
Beth lost her 2nd top front tooth. Now we’re working on learning All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. If it goes well I’m sure you’ll get to hear it!
And of course the sickness. Poor sweet Beth got the worst of it and has a fever which keeps spiking throughout the day and night. Her sisters tried to make her feel better by surrounding her with their favorite stuffed animals. Poor thing…she felt so bad, but gave me a sweet smile in this picture anyway!
gracefilledwriter.com 