Christmas Sale on our website!

I wanted to let you all know about a sale that we are having over at Integritas Acadamy. (Our family's online business.)

BTW, if you want to blog about the sale, including a link to our site, I'll send you the files to one of our Integritas Academy File Folder Games for FREE! Just leave me a comment below to let me know that you've posted and which file folder game you would like. (Don't forget to include your email!)

Here's the info:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Our lowest price ever...

Purchase Integritas Academy File Folder Games Collection 1 CD-ROM and SAVE!!!

17 games for only $15 $10!!! (until Dec. 25th)

(plus s&h)

Includes:

AM or PM
Buried Treasure
Busy Buzzing Numbers
Contraction Contraption
Counting Coins
Crocodile Chomp
Crocodile Chomp Addition & Subtraction
Don't be Late!
Let's Play Doubles!
Let's Play Doubles! Multiplication
Letter Match
Name That State
Parking Patterns
Rainbow Ice Cream
Seasons Change
Skip Counting
Who Has the Patience for all these Patients?

Purchase one for you and all your friends. We will gift wrap and mail to multiple addresses for FREE!**

Visit Integritas Academy now to purchase!

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Needing your prayers again.

I'm searching for the right words tonight...real words.

I know that God is here. And I believe with all my soul that He is here. But I have been having a hard time feeling that He is here.

It's my fault, of course. Because I move and I move without stopping and sometimes without thinking. And then all of the sudden life happens. A blow. A punch in the gut and I'm not prepared, because though He is here, I wasn't drawing near.

Our most recent blow...Chad lost his job about a week and half ago. I could go on a bitter rampage about how wrong they were in their reasonings and the way they did it. But I won't because it doesn't matter.

If I'm honest, though, I am bitter. But it didn't start a week and half ago. It started almost three years ago when our financial famine really began. It's been three years of not answering the phone without checking the caller ID, of late fees, of red letters on our back statements, of robbing Peter to pay Paul, of gift cards "from Jesus" left on our front porch, and of praying for an end but hearing silence. We have been living paycheck to paycheck and right now there isn't any coming.

Funny thing is...I'm not panicked. And better than that, I'm beginning to feel Him again. I'm beginning to see His hand moving. And I'm beginning to think that this is not a curse at all, but that God is answering our prayers.

Don't get me wrong...we've had interviews, but no callbacks.

Would you pray for us again? Pray that God moves another miracle for our family. Pray that this job loss is actually the end of our financial woes and not the beginning. And pray that I would find my comfort and strength from the only One who can truly give it to me.



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Life on the Farm for preschoolers

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

It's not often that I can find a game that all of my children enjoy playing but the Preschool Edition of Life on the Farm has become a big hit around our house recently. H4 has been especially excited about this new game since she can be her own player...instead of being a "helper" to another older player.

So what makes this game so appealing? For starters the board and pieces are made of a thick, durable foam that is so appropriate for little destroyers...uh, I mean toddlers/preschoolers. The gameboard is actually four large puzzle pieces, which makes just putting the board together a fun game in and of itself. The characters on the board are cute and colorful and the game play is simple and fun.

Players are each given a barn shaped, foam board and move around the board collecting shapes with different farm animals on them to fit like a puzzle piece in their barn. Players can be pre-readers as well since they move around the board simply by drawing a card. The card will show them where to move. For example, if there are two blue squares on the card the player simple moves to the second blue square from where they are on the board.

I absolutely loved that this was a game that even E2 could play. Of course he still needed help, but he had a blast collecting his farm animals and fitting them into his board. And I wasn't worried at all about him bending or tearing the pieces. It's also been wonderful to pull Life on the Farm out when I am otherwise occupied with the baby since this is a game that doesn't require my instruction or supervision. I recently sent the kids upstairs to play it while Baby L's home therapists were over for a consultation. All of the kids played quietly without interrupting us!

The Original Life on the Farm Game (for ages 8 and up) and the Preschool Edition of Life on the Farm can be purchased from We R Fun, Inc. The Preschool Edition is $20.

For more reviews, visit the TOS Crew blog.

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AVKO

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.




AVKO is the creator of the popular homeschool curriculum, Sequential Spelling. What you may not know is that there are many more resources available on the AVKO website including a one-year membership for $25. When you join the AVKO membership, you are helping this non-profit organization in its "fight to bring literacy to all" as well as getting quite a few online perks.

As part of the TOS Crew, I received a one-year membership to AVKO to review. The perks of membership include:

* 25% discount on all printed AVKO materials

*Free ebooks:
The Patterns of English Spelling (All 10 Volumes) with Word Families in Sentence Context
To Teach a Dyslexic
Starting at Square One
The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words

*AVKO newsletter

*MP3 Downloads of Don McCabe's workshops

*and more

It seemed that a lot of these materials were supplemental to the Sequential Spelling curriculum and since we don't use that, it was hard for me to find much that would really be beneficial to our homeschool. However if you are using this program, or have a child with reading problems such as dyslexia, than the $25 AVKO membership is a treasure trove of information for you.

Read more reviews at the TOS Crew blog. Pin It Now!

Frightening

It will make even the bravest of mothers shriek in horror!

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First Smiles

You know, I could be in the foulest mood and still when a baby smiles, it's just impossible to not smile back.

Baby L has just started smiling in response to us and making sweet baby coos. It's such a relief to see him hitting his milestones and making progress. I mention in our last update that he was having reflux issues. We've been thickening his bottle feeds even more which seems to keep him from doing a lot of spitting up anymore. However he tends to be rather fussy after he eats which is a big indicator that he's still refluxing even though we're not seeing it.

He had his first official visit with the physical therapist as well. She noticed that he seems to be looking mostly to his right and seems to be unable/doesn't want to look or roll to his left. She said that some babies will tend to favor one side if they have had brain bleeds so that could be the issue. But it is just as likely that he simply has a stiff neck because we mainly hold and feed him on our left which forces him to often look towards the right at us. I mostly hold him on my left because I am right handed and it keeps that hand free to do other things. So basically right now our goal is to get him looking and rolling towards the left more.

Once again, this is just a huge praise because they are such small issues. I keep thinking that probably many of our babies had issues like this but we just didn't notice because we weren't on pins and needles looking for them.



I love this picture...such a flirty smile! Pin It Now!

Crochet on the go Pattern

I created this case to carry my crochet hooks and other essentials (scissors, yarn needles, markers, etc.) a few weeks ago and I'm totally loving it. I've gotten in the habit of taking my crochet with me so that I can work when I'm riding in the car or sitting in a waiting room. Before, I would do mad search for anything I might need right as I left the house. Now all I need is this case, a pattern, and my yarn and I'm ready to crochet anywhere.








A couple of fun features I added were the long crocheted tie that wraps around the case and then circles the multi-colored button to fasten closed. The handle makes it easy to tote around. I finished it with a simple embroidered butterfly.


Inside are 4 compartments. Three skinny compartments hold needles and scissors and one large compartment for other items. Needles and markers can be attached directly to the case.

It's really a simple pattern and quite a handy little tote. Let me know if you have any problems with the pattern directions.

I used a size H hook.

ch = chain
sc = single crochet
dc = double crochet

Ch 30
Row 1 - sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across. Ch 1, turn.
Row 2 - sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
Rows 3-46 - Repeat Row 2, 44 times.
Row 47 - Working in front loops only, sc in each sc across. (This makes the flap fold nicely.) Ch 1, turn.
Rows 48-64 - Repeat Row 2, 17 times.
Row 65 - sc in 1st sc from hook. *sc, ch 3, sc in next sc (pivot stitch)*. Repeat from * to * all the way across. At the end of the row slip stitch and tie off.
Weave in ends.

Finishing:
Your crocheted piece will measure approximately 17" by 9".
Fold the case to create a pouch that is approximately 4 1/2" deep. Sew sides with same color yarn.
Again using the same color yarn, backstitch to create a total of 4 compartments in your pouch. 3 of the compartments are about 1 1/2" wide and the fourth compartment is about 4 1/2" wide.

To create button:
Ch 2.
Round 1 - dc in 2nd ch from hook. 5 dc in same stitch. Slip stitch in 1st dc. Tie off.
Round 2 - Change color. 2 sc in each dc around. Slip Stitch to 1st sc. Tie off.
Sew button to front of flap.

To create tie:
Slip stitch same color yarn on the underside of flap to attach. Crochet a chain that is long enough to go all the way around case and circle button.

To create handle:
Ch 45.
Row 1 - sc in each ch across. Ch 1, turn.
Row 2 - sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
Row 3 - sc in each sc across. Tie off.
Sew ends of handle to underside of flap.

I just added the embroidered butterfly free-hand. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the way it turned out, but I guess it prettied the case up a bit.


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Free American History

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

I'm writing to tell you about a COMPLETELY FREE American History Resource valued at over $150!! What is it exactly?

Well, the American Heritage Education Foundation is...

"a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens."

AHEF has produced American History lesson plans for students in grades K-12 and distributes them to teachers and families all over the United States. You can either download these lessons plans from the AHEF website or request a free CD-Rom.

Lessons are separated for the Elementary, Middle School, and High School levels and are in PDF format. You'll find that this is not a complete curriculum, but a supplement. However, there is still 184 pages of elementary lessons alone! These lessons are divided into 2 units a month. Units include:

Colonial America
Declaration of Independence
Thanksgiving
US Presidents
The Statue of Liberty
And many more!

The units are mostly suggested activities, games,and printables to use to enhance your studies. Activities are geared towards a classroom setting, so many would need to be modified to fit the homeschooling family.

So what do I think? We will be definitely be referring to this CD often as we continue our American History studies this year. Not to mention...it's free! Why haven't you downloaded it already??!

For more reviews of this product, visit the TOS Crew blog. Pin It Now!

Awesome FREE Holiday Resource!

This is the perfect “idea book” to get your family ready for the upcoming holidays!
And it’s yours at no charge—no strings attached.
This 180-page Digital Holiday Magazine is not your typical E-Book. Created with the same high-quality format that’s used in the digital version of our print magazine, you can even “turn” the lavishly illustrated, full-color pages of this supplement. And we hope you will enjoy this timeless, practical, and beautiful resource for years to come—all at no charge.
There’s so much included in this exciting supplement! Make this the gift that keeps on giving—link your friends and family up to receive their own fantastic copies!
Simply go to the link below to get your free copy. Again, no strings attached.
Feel free to share it with your site or blog visitors, newsletter subscribers, or Facebook friends.
Use this link to give this gift to your family and friends:
http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Digital-Supplement/Thanksgiving&Christmas.html

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Bright Ideas Press

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

I'm always excited to find new companies offering homeschool curriculum. Bright Ideas Press is a homeschool company offering "Practical, Fun, and Affordable History, Geography, and Science Resources". I was pleased to review two curriculum from BIP.
A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers is a full year's curriculum studying the lives and works of well-known composers from a Christian perspective and in chronological order. Being completely ignorant on this topic myself, I am thrilled to now own this incredible resource!

Here's what you'll find in this book:

• 32 Weekly Lessons• 26 Bios of Famous Composers• 6 Eras of Music Explained• Easy-to-Use Comparative Timeline• Easy-to-Use Maps• Composer Info-Cards & Game Directions
• Note-taking Pages• Quizzes• Answer Keys• Listening Suggestions• Intricate Coloring Pages• Resource Books

The book is geared towards grades 4-8, but I have found that it is quite suitable for my kids in grades 3 and below. We have used the curriculum as a family read aloud and listened to music selections via the online links suggested in the book. Since each lesson also has reproducible coloring pages, my little ones can keep their hands busy while they're listening.

A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers can be purchased from BIP in a print version or on CD-Rom. I did find that I had to do a lot of flipping back and forth from the lessons to the Appendix to get all the information I needed. For that reason, I'm certain that I would prefer the print version. It sells for $34.95.

If you are looking for a teacher-friendly, easy guide to teaching Biology from a Christian perspective then you will certainly want to check out Christian Kids Explore Biology. This curriculum is written by Stephanie Redmond, a homeschool mom who found it difficult to find a science curriculum that was appropriate for her children...so she wrote one herself!

Each lesson can easily be completed in 1-2 days with only a few short paragraphs to read, some review questions, and a hands-on project. You'll also find beautiful coloring sheets, memory verses, and more in the book that correspond with each lesson.

There are 35 lessons and 8 units that include: Biology Basics, Plants in God's World, Birds of the Earth, Mammals in the Wild, The Human Factor, Reptiles All Around, Insects High and Low, and Water Creatures.

If you like your science lessons to be short and simple and easy to prepare you will definitely like Christian Kids Explore Biology. But if you enjoy a more thorough science lesson, I'm afraid you may find these a little lacking. Each lesson is more of an overview of the subject than an in-depth exploration of it.

Christian Kids Explore Biology can be purchased for $34.95 from BIP. They also offer Christian Kids Explore Chemistry, Earth & Space, and Physics.

For more reviews of products from Bright Ideas Press head on over to the TOS Crew blog.

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abcteach

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

Abcteach is a website that offers thousands of printable worksheets and activities for teachers, homeschoolers,and parents. How many thousands of worksheets will you have access to as an abcteach member? How about over 35, 000!!! Plus, you can even use their exclusive custom document generators to make even more worksheets.

As you can imagine, it would be impossible for me to post all that abcteach has to offer but here are just a few of the topics:


Holidays, Months, & Seasons
Reading Comprehension
Theme Units
Research/Reports
Think Green, Teach Green
Teaching Extras
Learning Centers
PowerPoint
PreK/Early Childhood
Portfolios
Middle School/Junior High
Flashcards
Homeschoolers & Parents
Fun Activities
Languages/ESL
Clip Art

AND new materials are added weekly. Click here to see a helpful video tour of the abcteach website.

As a member of the TOS Crew, I received a free one month subscription to abcteach so that I could review their membership. However, I didn't need it as I had already purchased a one year membership the same month.

Am I enjoying my membership? You bet! I'll admit I felt a little overwhelmed at first because there is just so much to look at on the abcteach site. But after using it a couple of times, it became much easier to navigate. There is a helpful search engine tool to look for specific topics and members also receive a weekly newsletter detailing what has been recently added.

Some of my personal favorites from the website include...

-A teacher's extra section with certificates, planning sheets, incentive charts, and more to print out. There are even recognition candy bar wrappers to print and wrap a special treat in.

-I was recently planning a unit on nutrition for the kiddos and found a ton a printables and worksheets to add to my lessons.

-Games and activities for the car and trips include a license plate game, I Spy grocery store game, and Backseat Bingo games.

-I love using the worksheet generator to create word searches and more with the kids' spelling lists.

-Board games (otherwise known as file folder games) and crafts.

A one year subscription to abcteach is $40. There are also group buy options available. As a matter of fact, you can get a one year membership to abcteach for only $20 through Homeschool Buyers Co-op right now, but that offer expires on November 30th.

I have no doubt that we will get a ton of use from our abcteach membership and will be renewing it again next year.

For more reviews of this product, visit the TOS Crew blog. Pin It Now!

All Dressed Up

What do you get when you have two jedis...


a mermaid...















a ballerina...














a boxer...















a unicorn...
















and a banana?

...A LOT OF CANDY!

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Mmmm...Smells good

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

Luxurious, delicious-smelling, handcrafted, all-natural, homemade soaps....now this is a review that I have truly enjoyed taking part in!

Virginia Soaps & Scents is a company that has created a line of all-natural, hand crafted soaps and it all started as homeschool history lesson! I found this story of their soaps and the results they've seen quite interesting.

As a member of the TOS Crew, I received a sample pack of Virginia Soaps & Scents products to review that included 3 of their soaps. The scents I received were Fresh Orange, Coconut Lemongrass, and Oatmeal Milk & Honey.

The Fresh Orange was a very sweet smell which I put in the kids bathroom. Coconut Lemongrass had a nice clean smell, but my favorite scent was the Oatmeal Milk & Honey. I expected the scents to be stronger and probably would have preferred it because they smelled that good. The soap itself felt sooo creamy and nice.

Virginia Soaps & Scents sell their 4.5 oz. bars for $4.50 a bar, or 3 for 12, or Buy 4 Get 1 Free. They come in many different scents, including three holiday scents...I'm especially wanting to get my hands on the Peppermint soap! You'll also find their soaps packaged in beautiful and reasonably priced gift packs...perfect for Christmas!

I also received an Unscented Shampoo Bar to try....again, another very interesting story behind the Shampoo Bar on their website. However, as much as I wanted to like it, I'm afraid I didn't have great success with this bar. When I used it in the shower, it lathered up pretty well, but once I rinsed it my hair felt a little stiff. It still felt stiff when I was blow drying it, sort of like I had soap residue on my hair. It did look clean however, so I decided to go to bed and wait until the next day.

The next day, I styled my hair as usual and left for co-op. But by the end of the day, I was dying to get home and wash my hair. Other TOS Crewmembers have had wonderful results with Shampoo Bar and some liked it better after using it a few times or combining it with a vinegar rinse. In addition, my kids and husband both seemed to really like the ease of the Shampoo Bar...so much so, that they completely used the bar up before I got a chance to try it a second time!

The 5.5 oz. Shampoo bar is sold for $5.50 or 2 for $10 in three different scents and unscented.

Lastly, I also received Virginia Soaps & Scents Laundry Soap Kit which sells for $4.95. It includes all the ingredients necessary, including VSS' unscented cleaning soap, to make 2 gallons of a heavy gel laundry detergent. I've made the powder version of homemade laundry detergent before, but this was my first time making the gel version. It was very easy and my laundry has been fresh and clean with this detergent. Personally, I prefer to make my own since it is cheaper and I also prefer to use a scented soap. I do think VSS Laundry Soap Kit would be perfect for someone who just wants to try out homemade laundry soapmaking and I also think it would be perfect to include in a gift basket...maybe to a new bride or new neighbor.

I highly suggest checking out the Virginia Soaps & Scents website and supporting this homeschool family. You might also enjoy reading more reviews on the TOS Crew blog.

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The Amazing Bible Timeline

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

I have to say that The Amazing Bible Timeline is quite an impressive sight to behold....a 37" by 45" wall chart designed to show 6000 years of world and bible history. It's quite intriguing and well, a little overwhelming to see all of this information at once.

Nevertheless, I was excited to receive a resource like this to use as a reference. I imagined hanging it up on our homeschool wall and just having it there would make us look smarter, you know? However, further research has me a bit concerned.

It seems that The Amazing Bible Timeline has been marketed with more than one website. One is here, the website TOS Crew was given to do their review. It is also marketed as the "LDS Book of Mormon Timeline" here on this website. Bill and Margaret are the distributors of this product and explain that there are two separate versions of the timeline here in response to some of the TOS Crew's concerns.

But regardless of their explanations, I still have the Book of Mormon referenced on my copy of The Amazing Bible Timeline - which is not the LDS version. See the picture that I took below:


I personally do not believe the Book of Mormon is historically accurate, nor do I believe that it aligns with the Truth of the Holy Bible so we will not be using The Amazing Bible Timeline in our home.

The Amazing Bible Timeline sells for $29.99 and can be purchased on their website. You can see more reviews on the TOS Crew Blog. Pin It Now!