God's Beautiful Sky

I just wanted to share some pictures I took the other day.

God's creations are so beautiful!

Marvels of Creation - Breathtaking Birds

A couple of weeks ago I received a book in the mail called Marvels of Creation, Breathtaking Birds.

This is a beautiful, glossy, hardcover book written by Buddy and Kay Davis.

This book is different from your usual animal/nature book because it was created to glorify God as well as teach you about Gods creation...Birds.

The introduction is so amazing. It actually gives you Bible verses, and scientific evidence to refute evolution.

Your child will go into this book knowing that these birds are God's creations.

Your child will learn about 30 different birds such as the Arctic Tern, the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, the Emperor Penguin, the Great Blue Heron, and many others.

Each description is one full page accompanied by a full page picture. The pictures are really nice.

There is a section in the back of the book called Intelligent Design which goes into the scientific details of how a bird is made, the different parts of a bird, the bird's circulatory system, etc.

This is a great book to have on your shelf to teach your children about birds.

It teaches your child that God created the birds, and it has the scientific details to make it very educational.

It would be great for a unit study.

I absolutely recommend this book.

I did some research and there are more books in this series! YAY! I will be collecting this series, and getting rid of some of my other nature books that do not acknowledge God as their creator.

I love this series!

So, if you are looking for a book/series that will teach your children about nature in a biblical way, this is the book/series for you. 

Disclaimer: I have received this book from New Leaf Publishing Group in return for an honest review. No other compensation has been given to me. 

Teaching Boys

About a week ago I was doing school with my 6 year old son, and I learned a big lesson about teaching boys.

We were doing his reading lessons. PAL (Primary Arts of Language, from IEW)

With this program your child learns a lot of helpers, such as ee, ow, er, ck, etc...

Anyhow, he has a poem that correlates to his lessons, and in this poem he was supposed to find all of the helpers he has learned so far.

Well, he had been doing this for a while, and he hadn't found them all, so I gently reminded him of one of the helpers...HUGE MISTAKE!

He was so upset. He began crying and he got up from the table and yelled "You ruined it! This was supposed to be a challenge, but you told me the answer, and now it is ruined. I don't like this program anymore!"

Well, I was shocked to say the least, and really quite upset that he was acting this way.

I told him if he did not stop acting like that, he would be in trouble.

But then I got to thinking, yes he shouldn't have got so angry and yelled at me, BUT, he wasn't actually trying to be mean to me on purpose.

He was very upset. I ruined it for him.

I didn't realize how seriously he was taking this. He was looking at it as a challenge.

And I took the challenge out of it by telling him the answers. (sigh)

I recalled Andrew Pudewa's talk Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather be Making Forts all Day. 



I remember him saying that boys look at things so differently. That they look at everything as a challenge.

He was also talking about how boys like to put action into whatever they are doing. This is so true.

I learned a big lesson about teaching my son. Make things seem like a challenge, and he will want to do them. Even if it is something like finding helpers in a poem.

If I didn't let him look at it like a challenge, he probably would find it boring, and not want to do it.

Another lesson learned...DON'T tell boys the answers unless they ask you first! lol

Teaching boys is sometimes a challenge, but boys are oh so sweet, aren't they?

Do you have any tips for teaching boys?

Remember to enjoy this time with them, as they grow up so fast, and we will surely miss those days of teaching them.

I know it is difficult sometimes, even with girls, but I want to encourage you to stay strong, and try not to get too stressed out about teaching your children.

God called you to do this, and He will grant you the strength to do it as well.

Now go give your boys a challenge!!!

Vintage Healthy Home - A good week

Well, I have done much better this week,a nd have actually managed to drop a few pounds. Now, if I can just keep it up. 

I have not had pop, well, one sprite, or caffeine this week. I did manage to work out once this week, but the rest of the week I wasn't feeling well. Probably part of the reason I lost a few pounds. I am feeling much better now. 

Now that my stomach has shrunk, I hope to keep it that way, and be careful of my portion control. 

My goal is to keep up with the healthy eating, and workout at least 3 times a week from now on. 

I plan on trying to get a workout in today as well. 

I do hope that each week I will have more good news to share. 

This post is linked up with The Vintage Healthy Home.

PAL-Primary Arts of Learning-Reading-Lessons 1-5

We have been working our way through Primary Arts of Learning (PAL), and I know a lot you are wondering if this program would work for you, so I thought I would share what it has been like for us, and how we are liking it so far.

As the parent you will be using the Teachers Manual each day. This lays out for you exactly what you need to do. 

Normally I don't care for Teachers Manuals. They never lay anything out the way I would, and I rarely use them. 

This one however is perfect. 

It doesn't have a bunch of unnecessary stuff, or useless tips.

Each day starts off with a poem. 

The first day you only read the poem. Each subsequent day, you read the poem and then practice some of the stuff you have been learning. 

You can see here that my son has underlined the ee helpers. (The Squeally-e's)

We also took the word Asters, and discussed what it would do to the word if we took away the s, and what it does to words when we add an s.

You use the same poem for many lessons. 

Next on the lesson plan is to make up the needed folder games. You could do this each day with your child, or you could have them already made up. Whatever works best for you. 

The first game your child is introduced to is Letter Stories. 

Your child will learn a letter story for each letter to help them remember their sounds. 

For example, a is the angry letter because the boys often pull her hair and make her say aaa.

The second game your child will be introduced to is MUGS.

This is my son's favorite game so far. 

In this game your child will feed Mugs his bones. As they pick up a bone they say the sound of the letter on the bone, and if they get it right, they get to feed it to Mugs!

You will be adding to these games for a while. Each day, in the early days, you will be adding pieces to the already made up games, and adding in new games.

The more your child plays a game, them more repetition he will get. Jill says that a child needs to come in contact with something about 55 times before he really knows it. 

These games will give your child plenty of practice. And it will be fun. Much more so than simply filling out worksheets every day. 

You will also be introducing whole words as well in this program. 

That is part of what makes this program unique. It blends phonics and sight words into one program. 

The first sight words your child is taught are his colors. 

They practice reading their color words in the game Color Palette. 

They place the words on the correct color. (Sorry, I didn't put the words on there for the picture.)

 They are also taught This, is, and a early on.

Two other games that we have played so far are Letter Parking Lot, and Beginning Consonants 1. 

In Letter Parking Lot your child will lean about vowels and consonants, and will put them in their proper parking spots. 

In Beginning Consonants 1, your child will match the beginning sound letter to the correct pictures. 

You can let your child color these games, or you can leave them blank. 

After you have learned your sounds, helpers, and sight words for the day, your child gets to put stickers on his farm. 

My son loves this part. 

They get to put all of their helpers on their farm. I think this is very sweet. 

At the end of the day you get to take a farm tour, and go over what you have put on your farm so far. 

This is a great review. 

One of the last things you do in each lesson is what they call the agenda. 

There are student work pages that your child will do each day, and there are also reading practice pages. 

These are some of the pages we have done so far. 

They reinforce what your child has been learning in his lessons. 

There are 80 lessons in total. 

How long this program will take you really depends on long you take to do a lesson. 

We take 2-3 days per lesson, but that is because we are really busy around the house right now. 

I do think a lesson could be done in one day however. 

I think it would also depend on the age of the child. Some children may need more practice in one area before they move on. 

There is no time table. Move at your child's pace. 

It also may take you longer if you are doing the writing portion of the program as well. 

I did not get the writing portion, as we already had a handwriting program, and I wasn't sure if my son was ready for spelling, but after watching the webinar about PAL, I wish I would have gotten both parts.

I am hoping to be able to do so soon. 

I have been looking for a good reading program for a while now, and I never bought one until I found PAL.

I thought it looked like it would really work, and would also be fun.

It is really important to me that is fun.

We had been doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and while it may work, it is boring.

My 6 year old son loves PAL, and that is the biggest recommendation I can give.

I hope this helps to give you a better idea of how this program works.

This is by no means a fully detailed description of the program, and we are only on lesson 5, but I know there are many of you out there that are wondering what this new reading program is all about, and I am glad to share what I can.

If you have any other questions about PAL, please ask me, and I will see if I can get you an answer.

Let me know if you decide to try PAL with your kids!

Our family purchased this on our own. This was not given to us in exchange for a review. I am not receiving any type of compensation for writing this review.