"I actually left the keys in my car AND left it running this past Saturday at the store. I realized about halfway across the parking lot that I had left my keys in the car and went back to get them. Unfortunately, I guess I completely spaced the part about having to turn off the ignition. Yes, there is a teachable moment in everything and that should have been my first clue that I needed to slow down!"

I have made my mind up early this holiday season that what happened last year WILL NOT happen this year. I have made it a priority to have my focus correct right from the start!

This past weekend I read A Recipe for Christmas JOY by Marybeth Whalen. JOY, as Marybeth reminds us, is

Jesus first, Others next, and Yourselves last.

My mom always quoted that to me and it made me smile to see it in the book! The idea is not that you save nothing for yourself so that you are always empty, but instead it shows that if you have Jesus as the centerpiece of your life, you will want to serve others before yourself, and this will lead to you being full and overflowing. I like the way Marybeth put it: It isn’t Jesus, then anything… but it is Jesus in everything!!

This ebook includes many recipes, but also ways that you can make your Christmas intentional. Too often we get caught up in just being SO busy in the holiday season that we don’t know whether we are coming or going. We end up going to do last minute shopping and don’t just leave our keys in the car, we leave it running, too!

Marybeth lays out a game plan for organizing your Christmas starting in November. Are your Christmas cards bought, signed, and mailed? Have you made a menu plan and did your shopping early? Have you got your stash of wrapping paper, ribbon, tape, and scissors organized in one place? If you are celebrating Advent do you have your supplies ready to go? These are all little things that can be done VERY early before the holidays close in on us. Marybeth gives a list with even more helpful tips for facing the season with Jesus first!

One of the issues for our family that always seems to arise in late November and throughout all of December is last minute party invitations and church activities. It is not unusual for us to be out of the house two or three times a week for time spent fellowshipping with others. In this ebook you will find a great list of quick and easy meals so that you can still make sure your family is eating healthy, even if you are doing it as you are running out the door!

Other great features in the book are decorating tips as well as gifts you can make, and gift giving on a budget. Marybeth also includes a list of 25 ways to make your holidays Holy Days. It’s a great list and one I really enjoyed reading!

Finally, Marybeth gives you daily meditations to ponder from the 25th through the 31st, ending it all with asking the question “What is MY verse for this year?” It leads you once again back to Jesus and what seeking out His desires for your life really means.

Is your focus right on as this holiday season takes root? Or, perhaps, you are a bit like I was last year and are so caught up in being busy that you forget even some of the basics… like turning off your ignition and just parking it for a bit of reflection! A Recipe for Christmas JOY is a great book to get you back on target and headed into the season in a way that shows others around you that Jesus really is the reason for the season!

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Sallie

One issue many homeschool parents face, and that may cause fear in teaching our children, is the lack of a strong background in math. I was a pharmacy technician in the Air Force and HAD to become proficient in math but I know many parents who say they can't homeschool their children because they aren't smart enough. I am here to tell you that "being smart enough" has absolutely NOTHING to do with homeschooling your children!! As with ANY job you may ever try to tackle, there are ALWAYS good tools available to help you accomplish what you set out to do! One such tool in homeschooling are the MathTutor DVD's. 

I love the cover art caution! sign on the DVDs. It says: "Caution! The use of the DVD will cause increased understanding of (insert whatever you are studying) and will lead to higher grades." It's a bit of humor but its an accurate statement as well!

I recently viewed the Basic Math Word Problem DVDs and the Algebra 2 DVDs. Each set came with 2 disc's and are 8 and 6 hours long, respectively. WOW! I have to say its like having a teacher right in your living room.

The Word Problem DVD breaks down problems simply and addresses all the common issues most students have with being able to figure out word problem math. Students will learn about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers and decimals on the first disc. The second disc continues the learning experience with explaining common word problems using fractions, percents, ratios, and proportions. You child is able to work right along with the teacher and every step is fully explained!  

The Algebra 2 DVD was invaluable to our family, and will continue to be as our sons are entering high school soon! My daughter had completed Algebra 1, and Trigonometry, but upon arriving in NC last summer we discovered that she would have to complete either Geometry or Algebra 2 for her high school requirements. The video was excellent in providing her with the knowledge she needed to be able to test out and it was excellent study material for her for the SAT's.  The first disc contains graphing and solving differing systems of equations, while the second disc covers variables, radical expressions, fractional exponents, polynomial equations, and more! The lessons were easy to follow and my daughter was able to do her work on her own while I worked with her younger brothers on other tasks. The discs are also invaluable to parents who just want to brush up on their skills and refresh their memories from high school and college days ;-)

Do you want to know what one of the best reasons to try these DVDs are? There is a money back guarantee that your students grades WILL BE raised!! That's awesome whether you are a home-schooler, or a parent of a public school child lost in the sea of crowded classrooms. This is your chance to give your child a one on one teacher experience!

To learn more about MathTutorDVD, and their range of products, including physics and calculus tutor DVDs, please visit their website.

To find out what other homeschool parents are saying about this product, visit the TOS Crew Website @ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolcrew

Sallie

Most everyone in my family are avid fans of both reading and photography, and love it when books combine the two loves in one place!

I have been sorting books for a youth yard sale and sharing with friends and ran across this book again on our shelves. We picked it up on a trip a few years back when driving through the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

We originally purchased the book because of fussiness among the kids in the car. Oma made it a challenge that whoever spotted and was able to point out the largest animal of all to the family would win a prize (she's a genius!!). We bought the book to help the kids know what they were looking at. This task kept them occupied for several hours :-)

The photos in this book are outstanding!! Photos include tiny animals such as deer mice and meadow voles to the largest bison ~ which I spotted to win the prize ;-)

I highly recommend books such as this if you are traveling cross country, or just taking a scenic drive through the country or mountains, to keep all the little eyes occupied. It's well worth the money and definitely one of the books that will be staying on our shelves!!

Sallie

Science is one of those homeschool subjects that unfortunately seems to take a backseat to reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. As Christian home schoolers often we feel sick at the thought of the "institutionalized science" that was taught to us in public schools, or to our children who may have experienced the public school system for several years before we made the decision to bring our children back home. BUT, we need science! We need to teach science to our children and thankfully there are companies that exist to help us do just that in a way that allows us to live and defend our faith all at the same time!

Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. is a company that believes in the need to defend our beliefs through logic and reason as 1 Peter 3:15 states:

"But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you..."

Apologia Science is one of the best known science curricula out there with top writers of their textbooks. As a matter of fact, Dr. Jay Wile (author of the General Science book, and co-author on the Biology book) is a former university professor. Apologia provides a creation based science curriculum geared especially for home schoolers from K-12. Their text books contain full-sized modules that take between 2 and 3 weeks to finish with only 30 to 45 minutes of science per day with your children. There are study guide and summary questions to be answered with each module, as well as tests. Quarterly tests are included in the solutions and tests books.

Apologia was gracious enough to send me three books to review. The books are from their Exploring Creation series: General Science, Zoology, and Biology. The Zoology book that I was sent is Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Apologia could not have sent my family a better book if they had tried!! Our family LOVES birds and though we are not avid birdwatchers per se, we have tried to do some amateur bird watching/identifying at each new state/country we have lived. This book will be the first book we study, I'm sure!!

I could never begin to explain all of the great benefits of these science books, or the scope and sequence involved with each, and still do justice to the folks at Apologia. Therefore, I am just going to add a link with each graphic to their main page at the Apologia website. I hope you will take the time to really go look at the detailed description for each product and consider making Apologia Science your science curriculum!! 

This course can be used in 8th grade, though it is recommended for 7th grade. Its scope and sequence is quite varied, ranging from the scientific method, to archeology, geology, human anatomy, paleontology, and more. For more information and a sample module for this book, click here...

The Biology course is geared toward 9th grade students and does not have any math prerequisites. Click here for a full table of contents listing, a sample module, and a lab list.

As the website says, "This course is recommended for students in grade levels K-6. The student needs no prior science or math experience to be successful in this course." Click here for sample modules, a comprehensive course overview, flashcards, and more about the Flying Creatures textbook...

To learn more about Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. and their range of products, please visit their website. If you would like to participate in Apologia's Science Problem of the Week click here.

To find out what other homeschool parents are saying about this product, visit the TOS Crew Website @ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolcrew

Sallie

Before Christmas, I wrote about a One2Believe Nativity playset I had been given to review. I was highly impressed with the honesty of the company owners and their emails back and forth to me when I questioned them about their products being made in China. Their love of Christ, and the Chinese workers in their manufacturing plants, was evidencd in all of our correspondence and I was so glad I took the time to ask the question.

About a month and a half ago I got another package in the mail from One2Believe. This time it contained a Noah's Ark playset and I really thought it might be a mistake. I kept track at the tos crew board and realized other people were getting it to and I was so happy. Afterall, my kids may all be 11 and up but they LOVE action kind of toys and sets so I didn't want to give it back...LOL..

The playset is extra sturdy and I loved the detailing on the animals. My children each have their favorites: the monkeys belong to Noah; the ostriches belong to Jesse; Caleb snagged the elephants; and Victoria snatched up the lambs with a "Mine, all mine" attitude (yes, she is 17!).

Here are a taste of my boys reactions:

Jesse: AWESOME! I love it!!

Noah: It's fun to play with and you can use the set to make a small movie with it! (mom's note: lots of photos added up to make a small animated movie = loads of fun for ALL of the boys!!)

Caleb: It. Is. Awesome. I used my imagination BIG TIME with it!

I love the concept behind the One2Believe playsets: to put God in the toybox! It is one thing to teach your children lessons about folks in the Bible on Sunday morning at Sunday School. It's an entirely different thing to live your life everyday with a Biblical worldview and to teach your children that real everyday heroes like David, Esther, Samson, and Peter really existed and that your children can grow up to be a Messenger of Faith and Spirit Warrior as well.

I ♥ this company and feel really blessed that they've not only given me the opportunity to review one of their products, but two. Now, if they would just send me a P31 doll ;-)

Oh, well, I might just have to use my BibleBucks to get one of those...

You can find more information about this great company at: http://www.one2believe.com/

To find out what other homeschool parents are saying about this product, visit the TOS Crew Website @ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolcrew

Sallie