Mood:  bright

Recently, The Old Schoolhouse started a new line of products, Wee-books, that I was really excited to try out. What are Wee-books? The TOS website describes them perfectly:

Packaging concise nuggets of wisdom from your favorite homeschool authors, covering a variety of topics of interest to homeschoolers, these bite-sized E-books are designed with today’s busy, homeschool mom in mind. WeE-book™ offer quick, affordable content that educates, inspires and encourages. WeE-book™ may be small in name, size, and price, but they are big in value.

When I first read that description, I thought "Aha...Joshua". Bite-sized nuggets of information are exactly what our asperger's child needs. I immediately found two Wee-books that I thought would be excellent fits for him. We are constantly looking for small, science unit studies for him, so I picked out "The Real Hummers" about Hummingbirds. He also is always needing help with math so I thought "Building Strong Arithmetic Thinking" would help. Then, "Writing Essays" caught my eye for John Allen, our 12 year old sixth grader. So, I ordered all three.

After first looking them over, I had mixed emotions. I was extremely pleased with one, satisfied with another, and a little dissapointed with the third. I quickly realized, though, that my mixed emotions were partly my fault. I was looking for mini-unit studies that I could take out and immediately go to work with my child. However, that's not what the description says. It says that they are "concise nuggets of wisdom from your favorite homeschool authors, covering a variety of topics of interest to homeschoolers". After rethinking, I concluded that all three Wee-books delivered exactly what they promised.

I was really encouraged with "Building Strong Arithmetic Thinking". It really gave me a new perspective on how to teach Joshua. It was written by Dr. Ruth Beechick and the more I read from her the more impressed I am. For arithmetic, she puts more emphasis on everyday activities than traditional math curriculum. One statement that I found very liberating was "...get rid of any textbooks or workbooks you have for kindergarten and first grade. And second grade, too, if you’re brave." Her approach was like a breath of fresh air. 

 "Writing Essays" was also written by Dr. Ruth (dare I call her that?). It, again, gave many good thoughts on how to teach not only essay writing, but all types of writing. I did find that it was geared for a little more advanced student than John Allen, but I am looking forward to using it with him in the near future.

The one Wee-book that I misjudged was "The Real Hummers" by Jeannie Fulbright. Jeannie is the author of Apologia's great elementary science series. Although it was not the ready to use mini-unit study that I was hoping, it was very informative and offered some great ideas for attracting hummingbirds. It's "further resources" section also led to notebooking and lapbooking ebooks that could be further used to study these smallest of birds.

All in all, I am very excited about these small (around 20 pgs each) ebooks. The topics are wide ranging and, along with the titles mentioned above, include, not only educational topics, but general homeschool topics as well. I'm looking forward to trying "Homeschooling the Rebel" and "I was Raised by Wolves" in the near future. Wee-books are also one of those items that are perfect for parents or grandparents that want to supplement their student's public/private school education.

With any product you have to read the description carefully before you buy. With larger ebooks, even if it's not entirely what you were looking for, there is bound to be something included in the ebook that you can use. The information in Wee-books is so concise that there is not much room for error. However, even if the Wee-book is not at all what you expected, the $1.95 price tag can make the mistake much easier to swallow, and you may be able to use it in the future. Have fun looking through the 41 titles, and happy homeschooling!

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Mood:  a-ok

When I first looked at "HomeWork - Juggling Home, Work and School Without Losing Your Balance" from The Old Schoolhouse, my first thought was "I don't have time to read something boring about starting a home business!" I was wrong on three counts. It's not boring, it's not just about starting a home business, and it goes by so quickly that it doesn't seem like any time has gone by at all.

This small, 95 page, ebook is packed with heartwarming stories of how families homeschooled, spent valuable time together, had fun, fulfilled dreams, and even made a little extra money on the side...all by doing just one thing, starting a home based business. The chapters are divided into five sections - HomeWork: A Labor of Love, HomeWork: Computer Based, HomeWork: Creative Writing, HomeWork: Business Support and HomeWork: Tricks of the Trade. The first three sections describe different types of creative home businesses. The last two talk about the technical stuff - bookkeeping, organizing, legal issues etc. Each chapter is written by someone who actually has begun a home based business but it is all written in a very easy flowing style. Even the technical sections are interesting. Before I knew it, I was finished! 

Even if you aren't planning on starting a home business, you will learn from reading "HomeWork". I learned tips on how to organize your school day; how to teach your children using unconventional methods; how to budget your money and so much more. Even if you think you have everything together, it's worth the read just for the stories of how these home business adventures began.

When I decided to try my hand at reviewing homeschool products, I made a vow to myself that I would not give every product a glowing review just to be nice. I was going to be critical where needed and complimentary if deserved. Before reading "HomeWork", I totally expected this to have more critical than complimentary areas. Boy was I wrong. I can't find a thing to criticize. I give this product two thumbs up!

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Mood:  incredulous

If you have not seen this, you have to watch it! I have not been this moved in a long time. Use this to teach your children (or anyone - including yourself) to never give up on your dreams. But, you had better watch it alone first. You will at least be awestruck, if not moved to tears. I am not able to download it onto the blog, yet, because of copyright issues, but will as soon as I can. Until then, just click on the picture above, or press on the link below. The lyrics are posted below. Please read them before you watch. When you think about the situation and then listen to the words, it will move you all the more.

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Mood:  a-ok

Recently I found out about an opportunity from The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) Magazine where I could become part of a select group of reviewers to recieve free homeschool products. All I had to do was try them out, review them on my blog and generally let others know about them. Well, you know that with the Tinkel's budget, anything free sounded very appealing. So I looked into it. One hundred people are going to be chosen to be part of TOS' "Homeschool Crew - Focus Group". To be picked as part of the crew, I have to write a review of a preselected e-book (Don't know what an e-book is? You'll find out!) and a preselected line of products by the end of April. So, be looking for my first review in the next few days.

Now, I know what some of you are going to say..."We aren't homeschoolers!". That would almost be true. Many of you do send your kids  to a public or private school and aren't homeschoolers. But, what if I changed it from home "schoolers" to home "educators"? Did you teach your children the ABC's? Did you teach your kids how to tie their shoes? Do you help your young students with their homework? Are you always looking for those teaching moments when you spend time with your young ones? If you answered "yes" to any of the above, then you are a home educator, and many of these products will apply to you as well. Homeschooling doesn't always mean that you have to go out and buy expensive curriculum. Many home educators use everyday things or develop their own resources. Many of these things are appealing to parents who just want to help their child in school or supplement their education. Grandparents or babysitters may even find some of these products useful. I read some of the reviews from last year and they were for some really neat things that anyone can use with any child. I'm looking forward to trying out some new products and passing on what I think to you. I hope that you find some of them useful even if you don't homeschool. Let me know if you enjoy reading my reviews, and happy homeschooling...er...I mean home educating!

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Mood:  chillin'

No, this isn't a commentary on all of the shootings that have taken place around our country this past week. However, my heart and prayers go out to all of the families and individuals involved. If you were to ask me what this post is about, I really couldn't give you a definite answer. It's kind of general, it's kind of about my family, and it's kind of political, but since I couldn't fit all three in the Topic line above, I just put Family. After all, this blog is primarily about the family and how to strengthen it and my family is a priority.

I am forever joining email lists...freebies lists, political lists, homeschool lists, you name it, I am a member. Sarah gets super irritated with me because our email box is so full, I rarely get around to cleaning it out. Recently I subscribed to an email newsletter titled "The Shooting Wire". It was suggested to me by the people at Bend of the River where Joshua and John Allen shoot. The following Herbert Hoover quote was contained in the newsletter:

"We have overworked the word 'new.' The practical thing, if we want to make the world over, is to try out the word 'old' for a while. Some old things made this country. Some old things are slipping and if they slip too far, the light will go out of America - old virtues, old religious faith, whole truth, integrity, honor in public office, economy in government, individual liberty, willingness to sacrifice. Our greatest danger is not from invasion by foreign armies. Rather our great danger is suicide by compliance with evil."

Whether you think Herbert Hoover was a good president or not (read his Wikipedia biography, it's fascinating),  I think the above quote speaks volumes when compared to our countries' situation today. This isn't a commentary against or for anyone in particular. There are good and bad people and good and bad actions being taken on both sides of the aisle. This is, however, something to read and "chew upon". That is my political contribution for the day.

Now for my family contribution. Two weekends ago, March 28, was the pre-state shooting match and both John Allen and Joshua did great. Pre-states is a preparatory match that any shooting club can attend that prepares the shooters for the upcoming state match. Joshua, for a first time shooter, shot well. Better than John Allen did at his first pre-state match. John Allen ended up doing much better than anyone expected and shattered his personal best record. He qualified for the shoot-off where the top 8 shooters compete head to head in the standing position and ended up placing 6th overall! He was in the top 10 in three out of four positions, and placed 2nd in the test portion (check out the results here)! After the competition, his coach sent an email saying that John Allen "had improved his chances greatly for going to internationals". John Allen is really pumped, and we have been traveling to Bend of the River during the week for extra practices. Last Saturday, however, wasn't one of his better practices, but everyone is entitled to one bad day, and this Saturday is a new practice and a new chance to improve. April 18 is the official state match and I will let you all know what happens. Thanks for all of your support and prayers.

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