A Quick Trip Home

When I think of home, I think of my husband's childhood home back in our hometown. His family moved into the house when he was in middle school. I love waking up in his old room. I should add here that shortly after my husband and I got married, my mother-in-law redecorated my husband's and his brother's old bedrooms. I'm fairly certain she did this so I, Nia, and future grandchildren would feel more comfortable and welcome in her house. The reason I'm certain of this is because she asked for and then used my all of my opinions on how to decorate the rooms. Also, now that I have known her longer, I realize the colors I picked out are some of her least favorite. My husband's old room is for grown ups and his brother's old room is set up for the kids. So, to set the seen for you at waking up in my mother-in-laws house...

The house is located on the Little River (actual name of the river) which winds through our little hometown. On the other side of the river is farm land and the river's bank has several large, old trees. As I wake up in the morning the sunlight dances through the lace curtains in only the way light can dance off water and through lush tree leaves. I'm in a room that has been loving decorated to specifically make me comfortable by the sweetest women in the world. The lace curtains came over with my husband's family from Germany. Although we didn't know each other at the time, my husband and I grew up in the same area of Germany, so the curtains add another touch of sentimental value. If I look out the window, I see the back yard and the river. If I stand up, I can see over the trees to the acres of farm land. If it's a Saturday, everyone will wake up to the smells of my mother-in-law downstairs making breakfast. Maybe it's becoming clear to you exactly why I think of this when I think about home.

This trip only lasted 4 short days, but we were able to pack plenty into that time. Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley are not far away, along with Ft. Campbell Army base, Nashville, a zillion caves, and a ton of fun (and educational) things to do. We spent a day at the lakes and a day on Ft. Campbell.

The view from the pic-nic shelter where we stopped to eat lunch

The recycled glass counter top inside the planetarium. The planetarium at the lakes runs shows for only $2 a person on the hour, every hour. Because of it's rural location and frequency of shows, it's very likely to be the only ones in the auditorium for a show. When this has happened in the past, the person giving the show has always asked if there is any certain show we would like to see. He is also extremely happy to answer any and every question I've seen many kids through the years throw at him. I'm not sure if there is more than one person that runs the projector, but it has always been the same man when I have gone.

Daffodils also known as buttercups to many Kentuckians. We picked these on the way home for both grandmas.

A creek the girls played in and got water for the daffodils from.

Photos I snapped on the way back from the lakes. If you look into the water of the bottom picture, you can see a little crescent shaped island. As a kid, my dad would take me camping on that island. We would head out on a little boat and set up camp for a night or weekend.

At the lakes we also went through the antelope and bison reserve. We went just after lunch time, which we already knew to be the worst time of day to go. The best times are morning and dusk. Animals sleep during the warmest parts of the day and head to the areas of the reserve that humans can't see. So we were only able to a few antelope and they just weren't in good spots to get a good photo of. We saw many horse back riders at the lake and had to promise Anara that on our next trip to Kentucky she would get to ride. John has actually never been riding. Not exactly sure how one grows up in Kentucky and never rides a horse, but somehow it happened.

John's father worked on helicopters when he was in the Army, so no trip to Ft. Campbell would be  complete without viewing at least a few aircraft.

This amazing drawing Nia did is of a friend that she has known for many, many years. The friend lives a few houses down from John's mom.

All of us began this month with some icky respiratory crude which quickly turned into pneumonia and RSV for Cameron, Bronchitis for John and me, and a sinus infection for Anara and me. The warm southern air was just what we all needed to clear out the last bits of what was lingering in our lungs.

Health Update

I have great news to update you about my health. I mentioned a couple of post ago about being on doctor ordered rest and feeling like the walking dead. To make a long story short  I was having a few issues with my heart that was being exaggerated by not being able to get enough of certain nutrients into my body. It was causing me to black out several times a day and generally fell absolutely horrid. I was talking to my chiropractor about the whole thing and he suggested taking pro-biotics. He said people with celiacs (which I have not been diagnosed with, but do have wheat issues) should take them for about a month so their stomachs will be able to absorb all the nutrients it can. For kids and women that pregnant or nursing he recommended Activa yogurt twice a day. Others he recommends taking a supplement that runs about $13, we picked up some of this for Nia. After a few days of the yogurt, I stopped blacking out. After about a week and a half, I was feeling almost normal.

It's been about 3 weeks and I feeling much better! I'm back to doing normal things like cooking, cleaning, shopping, and baby nesting. I haven't been brave enough to drive yet. I think it may take a bit of time before I am comfortable getting behind the wheel after blacking out so many times.

Early Baby Scare

Yesterday we had an early baby scare. I was sitting at one end of our couch and Caneron had repeatedly been running across the couch to kiss my ever enlarging baby belly. Cute huh? Well, he suddenly switched from super cute mode to mischievous mode and instead of an adorable belly kiss he took a flying leap and landed knees first right on top of my tummy. This sent me into about a 12 hour stint of Braxton Hicks contractions. The first ones were very close and very intense. Thankfully, yesterday was a day John got to work from home and he I was able to get to my doctor's office very quickly. As we drove there, the contractions got less intense and less frequent. After a through check of baby and myself, we were able to return home. For the rest of the day the contractions would get stronger and weaker. At one point we considered heading to the hospital, but finally around 1:30 or 2 a.m. they had eased up enough for me to fall asleep.

This morning I woke up a little extra tired, but contraction free!

This is a fairly recent picture of me. Not the best, but since I'm the one that generally takes the pictures around here, a shot of myself in the mirror is about as good as it gets.

Moon Phases With Cookies

Science is my favorite subject, but it generally requires a mommy that is not on bed rest to execute properly. So, our science projects these days have been few and far between and have all been very simple and easy to do. My plan is to put science on a back burner until summer. Then, after the new baby comes and I can get out of bed, we will being tackling this year's science. However, this is a project that  can be handled from my easy chair and done mostly without my help.

It's a given that if bribed with sweets, you can get kids to do just about anything. So, this is a science lesson that has been done many, many times by many, many teachers both at home and in traditional school settings. My kids are gluten free, so they only see these kind of cookies maybe once every year or two.

We started our lesson by going over the phases of the moon. There are several sites online you can do this with. We used this one by gwit.org. I couldn't get the intro video to work, but the site has several other interesting facts and little demos about the moon. It even has a spot to type in your weight to see what you weigh on the moon.

I started by drawing 8 circles in a circular pattern then labeled the small circles with the 8 phases of the moon shown on the site. I used the lid to a gatorade bottle to draw the circles. Gluten free sandwich cookies are generally a little smaller than their original counterparts, but the gatorade bottle lid was the perfect size for us. The girls used a case knife to pry open the cookies and then scrape and spred the cream in the desired positions. They looked at the chart on the above site to see the order and how much of the moon was showing in each phase. Then, they put the cookies in order. After they were done, they got to eat the cookies. Finally, they used their papers to draw in the moon phases.

Bed Rest Changes Things

Surprisingly, I am actually finding stuff to keep me busy while on bed rest. However, I have deep routed desires to get out of the house. I'm not on total bed rest. I am allowed to sit up with my feet up, and probably do so more than I should. I do get out every once in while, mostly to church and occasionally a dinner. I have made 2 very short trips to the craft store, hence the reason I have a few things to keep me busy. There have been many changes in our house hold to accommodate the rest of the family and myself while I spend so much time laying down. We are normally a very green, cloth diapering, healthy food eating type of family. Since a lot of the cooking, cleaning and laundry have fallen onto John and Nia, we have more throw away items and more fast food. We have paper towels for the first time in years and Cameron is in disposables. I have to continuously remind myself that I can't expect my family to do things the way I would do them, Especially with items such as cleaning and cooking.

School in this season of our lives looks a bit different also. I'm focusing on language arts and math (that really hasn't changed). Our multiple times a week field trips are totally gone for a while though, along with play dates, my coffee Mondays with other moms, extra curricular activities and the two homeschool groups we joined this year. I have decided to put science on hold until our new little bundle arrives. History is done mostly through videos right now and we haven't been doing to many projects to go along with them, just worksheets. Instead of using the table to work with manipulatives, Anara uses  a tray on my bed. She actually seems to think this last one is kind of cool. The kids are in charge of what they do for art and P.E. Previously we have always tried to be done with school work by around 4 or 4:30. Now we do it at any time I feel up for it, even if that means we are making fraction pizzas on my bed at 10 p.m.

We have also had to move things around a bit. It was to challenging keeping Cameron out of all the homeschool stuff while it was in our one large main room. It is now all in the master bedroom so little fingers will leave it alone. We also invested in a few more organizational items so I can tell the kids exactly where to get things. Our furniture in the main room has been moved around so I can keep a better eye on Mr. Mischievous when I'm in the living room.

Lately we have started hosting a few more things than usual at our house. The thought is that if I can't get out, then we will just have to have people in. It's been fun. We have one set of friends that is at our house at least once a week and often more. This has been a huge blessing to me. They haven't told me, but I know this is a conscious choice on their part. Since meeting them a couple of years ago, they have always been very busy people.

My children are learning things through this that I would have never even thought threw exactly how to teach them.

They are learning compassion and how to truly be helpful. I need so much help right now and they are the ones providing most of that help. Sania is the main cook for the house right now. Through the week she makes sure everyone has breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks. Anara is usually my go get'er. She fetches nearly everything I could possibly need from books to bottles of water. This is on top of keeping up with school work and chasing after Cameron all day.

They are learning the importance of seizing the moment. More and more often lately, I feel like the walking dead. However, sometimes I feel almost normal. At those times we try to do something a little more fun. Within the confines of my bed rest rules that is. Today, John took me out for breakfast then this afternoon he drove us all to the park and I watched the kids play as I sat in car. This may not seem like much, but when doctors orders keep you confined to the only the ground floor of a small townhouse, any excursion, even ones where you don't leave the car, are exciting.

They are learning how to work together. It takes real team work for the girls to keep an eye on Cameron and get a gluten free lunch or dinner ready. It also takes a tremendous amount of effort and teamwork to keep little Cameron entertained while school work gets done.

Invisible Ink

For social studies this year we are studying U.S. History. John was a double major in college and one of those majors was history, so this is a subject we don't have a curriculum we follow. Part of what we are doing this year is watching Liberty's Kids (Click here to find out more about Liberty's Kids). We rented these videos a few years ago from the public library and this year we found them on Netflix. Today's episode was entitled 'Postmaster General Franklin' and we did a little project to go along with it. Invisible Ink!

With simply baking soda and water it is easy to make invisible ink. We used about 2 spoonfuls of each, but then poured off a little of the water. The girls used cotton swabs to draw with the solution on printer paper.

Next let the paper dry.

There are a few different ways to make the invisible ink become visible, a heat source such as a light bulb or candle, grape juice, or lemon juice. The show used a candle as a heat source. I wanted to  stick with using a heat source, but a light bulb instead of a candle. I just imagined our whole house going up in flames at the thought of the kids holding paper over a candle. Using a light bulb, you still have to be careful. The paper can still catch on fire. This was the plan, however, all of our light bulbs are the low heat, energy efficient variety. They just don't emit enough heat for this project, so we went with lemon juice. Anara used her fingers to spread the juice on the papers. By the time Nia got back to the table, Cameron had already finished her paper for her.

Here are the results, which were only a little easier to make out in person than by this picture. They must have used a better medium or tools in Franklin's day or the messages would have had to of been really short. These didn't turn out great, but the kids got an idea what it would have been like to use invisible ink. It's a challenge writing something when you can't see what you are writing.

Maternity/Due Date Count Down

You may have noticed the little maternity counter on the side of the blog that counts down how many days remain until my due date. On day 101, I decided to take a little break from the norm and make a counter of our own for the house. We also watched 101 Dalmatians. If this had not been so impromptu, I may have planned a few more activities for the day.

This is the latest image we have of the newest member of family!

I find it really exciting and very sweet how the kids interact with their pre-born sibling. Every time Cameron is on my lap he lifts up my shirt and talks to my stomach. This is really cute unless we have company. He also pushes gently trying to get his little brother to push back, which actually happens more often than not. Both of the girls also talk to my belly. Nia generally says something short like, "Hi, baby," "I love you little guy," or "I can't wait to hold you and get out of doing school work while I take naps with you." Anara has a different approach.  She is determined to make herself this baby's most favorite person. She thinks the key to this is to be the person that spends the most time talking to him. I can usually expect 2 to 5 conversations or stories from Anara to the baby each day that last anywhere from 3 to 15 minutes.

Homeschool Opposition, The Nay Sayers

One of the most challenging parts of being a homeschool family is dealing with those wonderful people that feel you shouldn't. Of those people, family members are the absolute worst. When in the general population, if someone disagrees with homeschooling, they tend to just roll their eyes and keep their comments to themselves (or if they do comment, you can walk away). However, have a family member, oh say a grandparent or aunt that feels homeschooling is done only by weirdos and you get an ear full on a constant basis.

Every once in a while you may run into someone in public that doesn't agree with homeschooling. We have only had this happen a few times. I've been ready to dish out a quick, "It's our legal right to make this choice for our family." However, what I have found is that my children are very assertive and capable of defending their right to be homeschooled all on there own.

Our household really only has one opposer. We have a huge extended family, so I think only having one is extremely lucky. She lives 6 hours away so we don't see her very much, but she does call often. The conversation generally takes a nose dive when she asks the innocent sounding question of, "So, how is homeschool going?" Coming from anyone else in the world, I'm happy and quick to answer this question. Coming from this relative I know it's her spring board for lecture on socialization, learning discipline by sitting in a classroom all day, my incapabilities, well, the list will go on and on if I let it. The conversation always ends with her asking me exactly when my husband and I will allow our kids to go to school like normal children.

So, how do we deal with this relative? At first we repeatedly told her the reasons why we homeschool (which you can find here). Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to resinate with her or she just feels her opinions should change our mind. So, now we simply tell her we are not having the discussion again. If she persist, we get off the phone.

How do you or would you handle those people that disagree with you homeschooling?

Sisterly Love On Valentine's Day

This year Anara desperately wanted to have a Valentine's day party for a few of her friends. The plan was to do this, until mommy was put on bed rest. She has been completely bummed about the whole thing for several days now. So, last night, after ash Wednesday service at church, Nia had John take her to the store to buy Valentine's decorations and stuff to make cupcakes with. She did this with her own, hard owned money. Then she stayed up until about 1 a.m. decorating the house and making cupcakes. Nia left a package of the window clings, like pictured above, so Anara could put them up herself. Could you imagine growing up with Sania as a big sister?

The hearts here and in the next picture are all 1 banner. It's positioned to be over head as you walk down the last couple of steps of our stairs.

On a side note, the little man hanging from the ceiling in the top left of this picture has been there since July. He was a party favor at Anara's birthday party.

These cupcakes are gluten free with bubblegum flavor icing. Nia let my husband and I try one last night, they were so yummy.

Can't wait to see Anara's face when she wakes up!!

and... 

Here are some photos from when Anara got up

Hearing Impaired Homeschooling Mishap

Recently Cam got a hold of Nia's hearing aid, ripped it into 2 pieces and lost part of it (luckily it was the cheaper part). The kids were upstairs and I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but it happened. Not having her hearing aid makes life and school a pinch harder for Nia. Without it she must be looking exactly at your lips to really understand what you are saying. Her speech is also difficult to understand when her hearing aid is out. I really didn't realize how difficult her speech was to understand until she began wearing the hearing aid and has now had to do without it. It has made a huge change in how she pronounces words and her spelling ability has improved leaps and bounds. It makes perfect sense; being able to hear how a word is formed is a key part in pronouncing and spelling it properly.

A little about Sania's hearing aid

Nia's hearing aid consists of of 2 main parts the electrical part and a molded part that fits inside her ear. The one shown has an older molding that is now a little to small and has a crack in it. These two pieces each have a tube that extends from them and the two tubes join together (This is where Cam tore it apart). The electrical part can last 3 to 5 years. For the molded part we have a to get a new mold made every few months as she grows as this is the part that goes inside the ear. It's nice that she gets to pick a new color scheme every few months for the ear piece. She gets to pick the colors, but we won't know exactly how it's maker will put those colors together until it arrives in the mail a few weeks later. Her last color choices were black and white. When it arrived, she wasn't as happy with it as she has been previously (which I believe is part of the reason Cameron was able to get his little fingers on it). The colors are usually fairly crisp, but the black and white were mudded together making a lot of gray. It kind of looked like, well, mold.

How we try to prevent this sort of thing

Several places in the house we have tiny bowls perched in high places, well high enough Cameron can't reach them. I think most of the bowls, like the one pictured, would be considered salt bowls. Nia generally takes her hearing aid out if it starts to get a bit itchy, when she is home alone or for an assortment of other reasons. I started grabbing up these bowls because without a designated spot close by for Nia to put her hearing aid, it was being placed anywhere and everywhere. This led to it constantly being lost. We would find it in pockets, amongst dirty dishes, under clothes in the bathroom, in a shoe, I'm sure you get the picture. Although usually very cheap, this bowls can be a little hard to find. Most households just don't use salt bowls anymore. We currently have 4, but my goal is to collect enough to put close by to all of the spots she has a tendency to take off the hearing aid. I think another 4 would cover it.

Episencial Bubble Bath Review

Product: Episencial Sweet Dreams Bubble Bath

What I paid: Nothing, but it retails for $9

Where I got it: I recieved this for free when agreeing to host a Healthy Child Party at www.healthychild.org You can purchase it on the Episencial.com

What I like: It is made with organic products and the even the bottle is earth friendly. My kids have ubber sensitive skin so I'm really reluctant to try anything out on them. This is free from additives and other icky stuff that could bother their skin though and it really doesn't have a sent. So I thought it was worth a try. The bubbles lasted a really long time also. Cameron and Anara tried it out together and since this was the first bubble bath either of them have ever had, they stayed in for long while. We re-warmed the water twice and there were still bubbles to be played with.

Could it be better: Love it how it is.

Do I recommend: Yep, in fact I 'm about to buy some more. I realize it's a bit more pricey than other bubble baths out there, but I really haven't seen another brand I would consider trying on my kids.

Walk Through Baby Gate Review

Regelo Easy Step Metal Walk Through Baby Gate

Product: Regelo Easy Step Metal Walk Through Baby Gate

What I paid: $31.50

Where I got it: Amazon.com

What I like: -The latch is easy to manipulate, my 6 year old daughter could easily do it.

Could it be better: Oh yes, way better. This is my 3rd child and I spent a good deal of time working in childcare so I've used a far share of baby gates. This and one other run a tie in being my least favorite. The other however at least will keep your toddler out of where you don't want them to be. This one comes with little cup things that are to be screwed into the wall then tension is used to hold the gate into the cups. That being done, my son could knock it over easy at 12 months old, which is when this was purchased. -The gate relies on tension to hold it in place, however the same tension is used to adjust the spot where the gate closes. Too much tension and the gate won't close, to little and it won't close or stay up. - The gate door opening is not wide enough.  Even very slim people would go through gate and have to turn sideways. This generally ended up in them bumping the gate, knocking it over, and me having to put it up again.

Do I recommend: No

Little update:
We have now moved to an older home where the doorways are a wee bit smaller. I have found that the gate works rather well in the smaller doorways. The doors I have used it in have all been between 29'' and 33''. So, if that fits the spot you need a gate in AND you never plan on wanting/needing it elsewhere, then it is a decent little gate. I don't think it would work well on a door past 33 inches.

High School Credit Planning For Homeschoolers

Whew, this last week I've been looking more into planing for Sania's high school years. Basically what I'm finding is that it's a real headache just planning for it. As a homeschooler, her possibilities for earning credits are endless. However, I've found different colleges actually require different numbers of credits and may have slight differences in the basic classes they may or may not require. One site suggested checking with possible colleges your child plans on attending before planning out high school course work.

When I start a conversation with Nia about high school, her eyes kind of glaze over. She is clearly uninterested. Who can blame her, if she were in public school, Sania would be a 7th grader this year. Being homeschooled, she is working on 3 high school level classes right now. She is interested in her future, but like any 13 year old, right now she is more interested in right now. If I were to try and get her to figure out her top college choices, I think she would have me taken straight to the looney bin. 

So how do we plan for the future. Obviously, I'm not going to ask my 13 year old to make any concrete plans on the mater. I was 30-ish before I actually knew what I wanted to do with my life. There are several basic credits you can plan on your son or daughter needing. Then electives should be based on things they are interested in or if they do have a planned college major or a few they are thinking about, plan electives around these. Nia recently picked out a few possible career choices (you can read about that in a post here), and we are looking at electives that will help her decide if she is really interested in these choices. Here is a bit of break down on what high school credits are generally needed.

Math - 3 to 4 credits, Most colleges require Algebra 1 and Geometry.

English - 4 credits

Science - 3 credits - Some colleges ask that all 3 have labs, others require only 1 lab.

Social Studies - 2 to 4 - US and World history are generally required, some colleges also require a credit in government.

Foreign Language - 2 to 4 -  Most colleges require 2, some require 4, and there are a few colleges that do not require any foreign language credits.

Physical Education - 1 to 2, some colleges may require this to be broken into health and p.e. components.

Fine Arts - 1 - This may or may not be required.

Electives - Enough electives should be included so that the student has a total of 21 to 25 credits.

Ok, now that I've gone over all the things your kid needs to qualify as a high school education, I'll go over what exactly it is that qualifies work as a high school credit. High school credit can be counted in 1/2 credit or 1 credit increments. If your child is working out of a High School level book, then, obviously in earns a high school credit. If your teen is working through book that would equal 1 credit in public school or one designed similarly for homeschoolers, then finishing that book earns them 1 high school credit. If you are not using a traditional curriculum then you can count up hours. This can be done either by literally counting up the hours or looking at hours per week.

1 Credit = between 120 and 180 hours = 3 to 5 hours per week for an average school year

1/2 Credit = between 75 to 90 hours = 1 to 3 hours per week for an average school year

The above information was gathered from eHow, The Princeton Review, and from a webinar  done by Lee Binz. You can find Lee Binz's blog here.

Health Issues

Lately I have been having a few little health issues, mostly with my heart. I won't go into the exact details, it makes me crazy tired and causes me to randomly black out. Both of these things are compounded by low sodium levels. My doctor has told me to spend most of my time resting. This is annoying phrase to me that doctors seem to throw around a bit. They generally don't give specifics on this. So I asked how much is most of my time? My doctor further explained this by saying I should spend a lot of time in bed and otherwise sitting with my feet up. So, I'm still not exactly sure as to how much time I'm supposed to be resting as opposed to not resting. I have found that if I don't spend more than an hour or so a day on my feet, I generally feel ok. If I do to much in a day I really feel horrible for the next 3 or 4 days.

Needless to say 'The Go' hasn't been a big part of our homeschool lately. The blacking out makes it where I can't drive. The need for rest wouldn't allow me to stay anywhere for very long even if I could drive. I do get to out some, generally just to dinner or one quick shopping trip (don't worry, my husband drives). All of this staying in has made the kids a bit crazy and on each others nerves. They miss their friends and they just miss doing things in general.

Here are is a photo of the rest of family heading out so this mama could get some rest.

...and one of Cameron getting into mischief, his most favorite activity since mommy can't chase him down right now.

IXL For Math Review

Product: IXL.com

What I pay: $9.95 a month

Where to get it: on their website linked here and above

What I like: -I mostly like that Anara actually begs to do math on a regular basis. Really, I have to make her not do math and move on to other subjects. Days (like Sundays) when math isn't even on the agenda she ask to do math. -Also, if your child misses a problem the program shows them how to do it properly. -I like that the company emails you with updates on your child's progress. -I like the parent side of the program where you can check on how much time your child has spent doing math and each lesson. This part is actually really cool, the photo attached to this post is a screen shot of part of the parent report. It gives you information on how many problems were missed, time a lesson took, percentage of time they have spent on different subject matter (like addition and fractions). This information is presented in both list form and graph forms. I really look forward to printing out the parent section at the end of the year and adding it to Anara's math binder. -If you are worried about covering everything that would be covered in public school in your area, there is a portion of IXL that lines up what they do with your area's standards be it state or country.

Could it be better: -One feature I like and don't like is that when your child misses a problem an extra problem is added. What I like is that your child still has a chance to achieve a 100 on the lesson, however this can make the lesson go on forever and if your child is working independently it can take a while before you realize how many they have missed. -I think it would also be nice if there was some sort of video that could be watched to demonstrate how problems in each lesson are done. This isn't a big deal in 1st grade, but the program goes up to the Algebra level. I'm sure there are problems in that section I would have a hard time explaining. Also, it's hard to know exactly how difficult the problems will become in each lesson so explain how to do each lesson can be hit or miss.

How we found and use it: Last year while Anara attended public 1/2 day kindergarten, her school used it as and enrichment resource and Anara really enjoyed using it. I have a list of all of the lessons for first grade printed in my planner binder. I use this list to plan which manipulatives and activities we are going to do outside of IXL for math. Each day for math I either have Anara work with a manipulative or do an IXL lesson or 2. Sometimes she does both. It really depends on her energy level and desire to work for the day.

Do I recommend it: Definitely,  since it's a monthly subscription fee, I would have stopped using it months ago if we didn't love it.

When I Grow Up: Carrer Choices

This week Sania has been looking into possible future careers. You may be asking why we decided to make this a priority right now. Well, I'm trying to get somewhat of a plan ready for high school. High school will need to be a bit more organized than how we currently do things. It takes high school worthy credits to get into college and to excel through college. Allowing Nia to randomly pick subjects and study topics as she does with about half her work in the past just won't cut it.

First we made out a list of a bunch of possibilities that looked interesting to her. I have to say that many things I thought she would be naturally drawn to, she crinkled her nose at suggestion of, and a few things that made her list I was surprised by. Next we looked at the Occupational Outlook Handbook on the Department of Labor site and put a page in her journal for each occupation she was considering, there were about a dozen at this point. From here she was able to learn a little about each job. Some jobs she decided immediately that they wouldn't be for her. One of these being baker because of early mornings and low pay. Did you know the average baker only brings in about $23,000 a year? She actually narrowed down her possibly list to 4 main types of careers with this step. I'm not wanting her to make this list any smaller. She is only 12, and still has plenty of time to change her mind a zillion times before she actually needs to make any real decisions on this.

Right now her top choices are the fields of interior design, writing, theater, and archeology. The next step is to spend about a week on each field and look at the types of schooling needed for them and different careers to be had within those fields and do a project or two related to the different types of work.

Action Bible Devotional Review

This is my very first review, but I've decided to try out a few. So, here goes...

Product: The Action Bible Devotional by Jeremy V. Jones

What I Paid: $11

Where I Got Mine: Sam's Club

What I like: My hubby and kids are big fans of comics, so getting my kids into this study is no problem. We are only a little into it, but so far the lessons at the end of the story seem to be adaptable to many different age levels. My 13 and 6 year olds both are able to get something from the lessons. I've only known about the Action Bible itself for a short time, but I haven't seen a kid (or adult) yet that hasn't found the illustrations and format of the Bible very cool and engaging.

Could It Be Better: 1- The devotional is divided up into 'weeks' instead of just 'lessons.' Not a huge deal, but my 6 year old does like point this out at the start of every lesson. I don't feel like there is enough here to do a weekly lesson for say a Sunday school class or other type of kids ministry. This really feels more like a home study which is generally done daily, not weekly. 2- The stories are pulled right out of The Action Bible. I would have rather seen a book of just lessons to go along with all of the stories inside The Action Bible instead of a selection of 52 of the stories pulled out and given lessons to. It feels like a bit of a waste of paper. 3- I would prefer the devotionals to go story by story through The Action Bible. There are 215 stories in The Action Bible. I would happily purchase 4 devotionals to get a lesson for each story in the Bible. 4- Give me a game or some kind of movement. The lessons are good, don't get me wrong, but my kids have grown to expect some kind of movement with their Bible study.

Do I recommend it: YES!!! I can be little a critical of Bible studies in general. This one hits the mark of what I and my family need it to be. Captivating, enlightening, and thought provoking are the top words that come to when I think of what I like in a kids Bible study. This devotional is definitely those things.