Vintage Remedies began with one homeschool mom that was eager to share all of the information she had been collecting with others. Now the business has books, curriculum, and classes to offer.
I received the opportunity to review Vintage remedies for Kids. This is a fabulous health and nutrition curriculum for kids ages 2-6. My son is 7, but it is still perfect for him.
There are 18 chapters, and each chapter has a lesson that you read to the child. There are plenty of hands on activities, projects and recipes to keep your little one involved.
The chapters are:
1. Why do I eat food?
2. Natural Candy-Fruit
3. Vegetables: Keeping me Healthy
4. A Rainbow of Food
5. Nuts and grains
6. Foods that are not real Foods
7. I can grow Food!
8. How I Grow
9. How to Catch a Bug
10. staying Healthy
11. When I get Sick
12. Bruises and Scrapes
13. My Little Apothecary
14. A Great Big World with Lot's of Surprises
15. Taking care of My World
16. Things I can Use Again and Again
17. Staying Clean
18. Outside of My Community
The first thing we did was make homemade pizza! My son loved this. He made the dough and everything! I did take pictures but I can't find my memory card adapter. lol (I'll try to add them when I find them.)
One of my favorite parts of this book are the recipes. There are so many like, homemade pizza, Almond Butter Crunchies, and hot cocoa mix.
I highly recommend this curriculum for your family.
You can purchase Vintage Remedies for Kids here for $25.00. Be sure to check out everything else Vintage Remedies offers.
*I have received a copy of Vintage Remedies for Kids, free, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, in return for my honest opinion.
No other compensation has been given to me.*
The CD that we reviewed is Volume 1- The Prophets.
Volume 1 - The Prophets
The Blazing Furnace
The Handwriting on the Wall
Daniel in the Lion's Den
Elijah & the Prophets of Baal
The Prophecy of Jonah
We listened to this in the car, and we had a mix of opinions. At first I really liked it. I felt like I was understanding the Scriptures better than just reading them.
My kids thought it was a little weird, but they started to like it too. As we got further in to the CD however, they kept asking if I would turn it off. They said it was too creepy. I have to say that there were parts of the stories that the voices were kind of creepy and made us a little uncomfortable.
However, I still feel like it is a good way to get the Scriptures into yourself and your children.
I do wish that a woman would speak alongside of George for the women's parts. It would definitely make it better and not as odd.
Over all, I would recommend this CD, but I would say that there are a few parts that are a little creepy sounding. I don't mean that to come of badly either, I just don't know how else to describe it.
And all my kids kept saying in the car was, "This is creepy mom, turn it off." So I want to be honest with out opinions. But, please, listen to the samples yourself to see if you would like it.
You can order these CD's here for $7.95 and you can choose between KJV or NIV.
*I have received a copy of The World's Greatest Stories CD, free, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, in return for my honest opinion.
No other compensation has been given to me.*
I wanted to share something with you. The other day my lips were so chapped that I just had to do something about it.
So, I was thinking about the lip scrub I used to use from Mary Kay, and thought, hmmm, I should just make my own.
So, I went to the kitchen cabinets and got out the sugar and the honey. I mixed some sugar with some honey and scrubbed it all over my lips. IT WORKED GREAT!
So next time that you need a good lip scrub, just go mix one up real fast. It's cheap and natural.
When I saw this Spanish program on the list of vendors this year, I went to their website to check it out.
After I saw this video, I knew I had to have this program. This video shows the author telling a fellow homeschooler about the program. Please take the time to watch it in it's entirety.
What really struck me about the program was that it incorporated Charlotte Mason's methodology and that it was a Christian Spanish program.
One CD contains the student activity sheets and the first half of the lesson audios. The second CD is the second half of the lesson audios.
The text also includes the phonogram cards needed for this program. You can tear them out and laminate them.
El Espanol Facil can be used by younger and older students, starting in the 4th grade.
Younger students will take 3 years to complete this program while older students will take one to two years depending on their age/grade level. A one year track is a high school course.
This really is a unique program. I have never seen one like it before.
As I mentioned above it is a Christian program. The author wants to equip children to be able to go on mission trips and converse with Spanish speaking people.
It includes Bible memory verses that your children will memorize in Spanish! How cool is that?
The audio recordings are done by native Spanish speakers, so you are getting the real deal here.
Each lesson starts out with a story. Your child listens to the story while reading along. They listen to the story each day of the week.
After the story your child listens to the accompanying vocabulary words. Also to be repeated each day.
Now, depending on the age of the student your child will complete a variety of activities.
A younger student will tell a narration about the story they are learning while an older student will complete a CM activity. These activities vary by lesson.
Children of all ages will learn a Bible memory verse, and keep a notebook.
Older students will keep a journal each day in Spanish.
We love this program. In my opinion it is perfect for homeschoolers.
It is perfect for one on one teaching, and is easy to teach once you get the hang of it. We are not very far into it, but I know it is going to be great. I have looked into a lot of Spanish programs, and this one beats them all.
It did take me a while to get the feel for the program, and we were going very slowly at first so that it wasn't overwhelming, so I am not far enough into the program to really tell you how the whole program worked for us, but I will update this post as we get further into it.
I was jumping up and down excited to be able to review this product, and I am still just as excited. Since we didn't get that far into the program we are going to put it away until after Christmas so that we can make sure we do it every day. Right now with the holidays and all, we aren't able to use it daily. I don't want her (or me) to forget what we are learning.
Next year it will be one of our top priorities in school. As I said before I will update as we move along, but with everything that I do know about the program, I highly suggest it.
*I have received a copy of Easy Spanish, free, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, in return for my honest opinion.
No other compensation has been given to me.*
Your child can build his own fort anywhere he likes and can leave your furniture in place!
All Toydle Forts are constructed with
Hand made wooden blocks 3” sq. made with high quality, laminated poplar.
High Quality PVC tubes 29” long & 1/2in wide.
All Toydle Forts include an industrial strength storage bag.
All Toydle Forts include clips to help secure your sheets and blankets.
Toydle Forts are made in the USA—in Boise, Idaho. Each tube is cut, each wood block is hand-shaped by an American worker.
The PVC pipes are phthalate free.
Toydle will replace any product or piece thereof that fails for any reason, even if your little critters leave a block out in the rain, or try to do pull-ups with a tube.
You can purchase the Toydle Fort for $149, or the BIG Toydle Fort for $229 here.
BUT, here is the great news. You can enter to win one of 3 BIG Toydle Forts. All you have to do is go to the TOS Crew Website and enter to win. Good Luck!
NOTE: This contest is open to residents of the United States ONLY. TOS Staff and TOS Crew Members (and their families) are not eligible to enter this contest.
Today is day 22 of the 2011 Gratitude Challenge and today I am thankful for a comfy bed. We had a good bed, but after about 8 years it started to wear out. Mostly because my son slept in our bed with us and the middle was a lot higher than the sides. lol
Well, we bought a bed from Sears. A Sears-o-Pedic. We went with a firm. I don't know why because we like soft, but the one in the store felt like a firm plush to me.
It was awful. So we exchanged it for the plush version. It was softer, but it was not comfortable. At all.
Well my husband finally said to return it, but two weeks after the 30 days was over. Well, I called and luckily they said I could return it since we had so much trouble with the beds.
Well, they came and picked it up and we had no bed. lol
Anyhow we finally went and found a bed. A comfy bed. So I am very grateful to have a comfy bed to sleep in.
Today is day 21 of the 2011 Gratitude Challenge, and I am bummed that I missed posting over the weekend. I totally forgot.
Today I am grateful that my son slept in his own room last night! He was OK and is going to start sleeping in there now! We finally get our bed back! lol
It is good and sad at the same time, ya know? It is hard to watch your babies grow up. I am happy he is sleeping in his room now, but you know how it is as a mommy. He is still little to me and it is different not having him right there to keep an eye on him, but I know it will be OK.
I did sleep good last night without being smashed all night. lol
He can still come sleep with us sometimes. That will make me, umm, him happy. lol
My son and I have been playing a new game from the author of WORDLY WISE, Kenneth Hodkinson, called The Reading Game.
The Reading Game is very reminiscent of the Memory Game. It is played in the same way except that in this game your child is matching words.
The game comes with six readers, and six sets of cards, with six levels per set.
You start with set one, level 1 and you place all the cards face down. You and your child take turns trying to find a match. If you find a match you take the cards and say the word out loud several times.
Each set has five new words. You continue to play the same level until your child can read all of the words easily.
Once your child has finished set one, your child will know 30 new words and will be able to read the first book. (Skunk)
Play is essentially the same for sets one through six. Students are basically learning to read these words by sight. This is where I am hesitant about the game. My son is just learning to read, and I don't want him to learn all of these new words by sight, especially the ones that can easily be sounded out. I don't want to confuse him.
Set 1 has really easy words: can, cat, is, me, not. But the words quickly increase in complexity.
Set 2 contains words such as: mouse, tree, forget, meal, agree, mistake, and treat.
Set 3: awake, know, bear, honey, steal, and thing.
Set 4: fish, penguins, right, below, ice, and seven.
Set 5: behind, castle, because, people, again, and unicorn.
Set 6: alphabet, wombat, yak, zebra, dolphin, should, and once.
As you can see, there seems to be no real pattern. You are not learning with phonics. The author says that phonics can be incorporated after your child learns all of the words.
I like this game, but we are still in level one, because I want my son to sound the words out, not just remember them. Of course there are some words that can't be sounded out, so I have him remember those by sight.
I am doing what all homeschoolers do when something doesn't quite work for them. I am tailoring it to my child, and how he learns.
The point of this memory game is so that your children can learn to read a book easily and fast.
I think whether or not you would like this game is really a matter of how you are teaching your child to read. If you are focused on phonics only, then you may not want to use this game in the beginning of learning to read.
If you are teaching by sight, or even a mix of phonics and sight, this game may be great for you.
If you are teaching by phonics only, like I am right now, then you may want to wait until after your child has a better undertanding of how to read. But you can still use this game. It is a good concept.
Your child is only learning a few words at a time, so it is not overwhelming. We are using this game alongside our phonics program. We are sounding out the words that we can, and if we come to a place that it becomes too difficult, we will just put it aside and come back to it later.
I asked my 6 year old son what he thought about The Reading Game, and this was his response: "Yuck".
I asked him why he said yuck, and he said "Because it is boring, and it is about reading". I asked him if there was anything he liked about it, and he said no. He did say that if it were about animals or anything other than reading he would like the game.
See, he does not like learning to read. He is getting better at reading, and I see his confidence growing as he becomes more proficient at reading, but he is still in the avoid reading at all cost mode.
He just doesn't think reading is fun yet.
I honestly think that as he learns to read a little more that he will like this game. I really feel that his feelings about the game aren't really about the game, but reading itself.
So I still recommend this game as a great supplement to your reading program. We will continue to use it, but I may put it up for a while until he has mastered the basics of reading.
This game can be used with children of any age that is ready to learn to read. You know your child best.
You can purchase The reading Game here for $24.95. You can get a $15 discount on orders of 8 or more.
Have fun reading with your child!
*I have received The Reading Game, free, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, in return for my honest opinion.
No other compensation has been given to me.*
Today is day 18 of the 2011 Gratitude Challenge, and today I am extra grateful for all the work that my TOS leaders do. I have recently started to understand a little more about what all they do, and all the stresses that their job can bring.
I am so grateful for you all. I really appreciate everything it takes to put this Crew together. I am still amazed to be part of this team!
Math Mammoth is pretty well known, but just in case you haven't heard of it, let me tell you what it is all about.
Math Mammoth is a curriculum for grades 1-12 written by Maria Miller.
Maria strives to offer quality materials at an affordable price. She does this by offering several different packages. You can download curriculum for your kids starting at only $2.
As you can see there are many options to choose from. Math Mammoth is really awesome because you can get an entire curriculum for your elementary students, or you can pick and choose from specific topics.
If your child needs help in one specific area, say decimals for example, you can purchase a set specifically on decimals, and not have to spend your money on an entire curriculum.
All of the Math Mammoth sets come in download form, and some have a CD option. This can be a great money saver if you have more than one child. You can print off as many pages as you need for multiple children, or save the curriculum for younger children.
Another benefit to being able to print off the pages is that you can do the same page over again if your child needs more work on one area. You can't do this with a typical workbook. (A hint about printing: If you print in draft or grey scale the cost of printing is very small. )
Your younger children will love the colorful pages and the reasonable amount of problems per page.
Math Mammoth used to be mainly for students in grades 1-6, but recently Maria has added the Make it Real Learning series, which can be used for grades 3-12.
The Make it Real Learning series is the answer for when your children ask you the dreaded, "When am I ever going to use this" question. Here are a few examples of the Make It Real Learning series. There are more to choose from though so be sure to check them all out.
You can download a FREE activity sampler (a PDF file) that contains 10 sample activities from the Make It Real Learning product line.
"Besides the workbooks mentioned above, Make It Real Learning also has a series of smaller workbooks called States by the Numbers. This series contains 50 workbooks — one for each state in the United States. The data in each workbook is taken directly from the Census Bureau's 2008 Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Each of these workbooks includes basic instruction and 80 practice problems. Additionally, the “What's the big idea?” pages give learners the opportunity to reflect on the things they've learned. Throughout the workbook series, we have consistently sought to address the content and process standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Read more about States by the Numbers series workbooks here." (Taken directly from the website.)
And something else new for this year:
November 2011 - the PDFs in the download version of this product are now enabled for annotation!
This means that if you prefer, your student can fill them in on the computer, using the typewriter and drawing tools in Acrobat Reader version 9 or greater.
Maria offers a variety of freebies and tours to help you decide which sets will work for you.
You can download a PACKAGE of over 300 free sample worksheets so that you can get a feel for the program, and see where your child needs to be. I have downloaded this sampler and it is awesome!
You will not have a doubt about whether or not this program is what you need if you download the sampler. There is plenty to work on.
The package of 300 free worksheets and sample pages; 7 math teaching articles 2 emails discussing the books Maria's Math newsletter
OR you can sign up for the Math Mammoth Tour and you will receive:
A package of over 300 free worksheets and sample pages 7 individual emails on 7 subsequent days that answer the most commonly asked questions, including "What is the difference between all these different-colored series?" Maria's Math Newsletter (see archives)
This way, you'll have time to digest the information over one week, plus an opportunity to ask me personally which book would be right for your child or students.
Scroll to the bottom of the main page to find out where to sign up for these tours.
You can even watch videos to help you teach your children.
As you can see Math Mammoth has a lot to offer. You can purchase your order in either download format or CD format if available. Prices vary depending on which set you choose.
Disclaimer: As part of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, I was asked to do an informational review on this product. All opinions are my own, an no other compensation has been given to me.
I saw this book and thought it would be cool. When I got this book I thought it was awesome!
It is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It has 256 beautifully illustrated pages.
Once you start reading the introduction, you will see that this book is different than your typical animal fact book. This animal fact book truly contains fact because it tells the truth...that God is the one who created the animals.
You will not see any millions and billions of years in this book. YAY!
It can be hard, if not impossible, to find good, Christian science books like this one.
This book contains information from microscopic cells to amphibians, dragonflies, owls, mammals, and everything in between.
My kids love these types of books, and they frequently buy them with their own money. I try to be careful and not get any that are too evolutionist. Now, I don't have to worry about that!!!!
I asked my kids what they thought about The World of Animals, and my son gave me a thumbs up and said "Awesome!", so I think that means he likes it. lol
My daughter said "It is very cool".
I love it because I don't have to worry about it telling my kids that animals have been here for millions of years. I love that the introduction tells them that God is the one who created all of the animals.
The only negative to this book is that there is not a lot of info on mammals. But it is because it is so full of other things. You usually only find books about mammals that don't include what this book does, so I am OK with it. I do wish they would make a separate book just for mammals though. That would be awesome!
I absolutely recommend this book. If you would like to see more Christian based science books in your home, then this one is for you.
You can find The World of Animals here for $24.99. Well worth it in my opinion.
*I received this book for free from New Leaf Publishing, in return for an honest review. No other compensation has been given to me.
OK, so today I am screaming with joy! As many of you know, I am part of the TOS Crew, and last night I found out that I was chosen to review a product from Toydle! It is a fort! Oh my, I am so thrilled.
I am going to give it to my son for his birthday! He is about to be 7! Wow, I am just so thrilled about reviewing this product, and I am so thankful! Thank You Brenda!!!
