A couple of weeks ago I introduced you all to the new YouTube videos that our mission BCM International has put together. The first one that I posted was a ministry that is near and dear to our hearts, children's ministry. Another core ministry of BCM and also one that we are very involved with is evangelism. I hope this video gives you another insight as to what BCM is all about. As usual, if you have any questions about BCM or about our personal ministry here in Tennessee, please feel free to leave a comment or send us an email.
You Are What You Eat! Mood: hungry Topic: Homeschool Product Review
Over the past few years, while trying to raise a family, I've come to one conclusion. It's hard to keep three hungry boys fed! It's even harder to make sure they eat healthy. AND, when you do find healthy foods, it's even harder to convince them to eat them or to explain why they should eat them.
Enter Nutrition 101:Choose Life! Nutrition 101 was a real life saver in this area. I must admit that when I first saw Nutrition 101 I was not convinced. I pre-read the first couple of chapters, and thought that there was no way that my 13 year old, John Allen, was going to understand this, let alone Joshua, my 8 year old asperger's child. Boy was I wrong. They both loved it.
Published by Growing Healthy Homes and written by four, well educated (one with a doctorate) homeschooled moms, Nutrition 101 is a Christian health/nutrition curriculum that is divided into two sections. The first half is a six unit study on good nutrition. Each unit is divided into four chapters and cover two or three of the 12 bodily systems and how proper or improper eating habits effect those systems. Each chapter takes about a week to cover so the entire study should take you about 24 weeks.
They layout of each unit is very well done. Each unit begins with a couple of paragraphs that explain what you will be studying for the next few weeks. Then the fun begins. The first unit is "The Brain and Nervous System" with the first chapter being "The Brain". Each chapter begins with an explanation of that system of the body and why good nutrition is important. It includes foods that are high in the vitamins and minerals that are beneficial for that particular system. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and age separated activities that reinforce what you have learned. The really fun part of the chapter, however, is the "Power Recipe". The Power Recipe uses ingredients that have the vitamins and minerals talked about in that chapter. After reading the chapter and discussion questions on Monday, you do activities, shopping or gathering ingredients for the recipe, or, the best part, preparing the recipe the rest of the week. On Friday you have a family discussion as to what your favorite part of the week was. All recipes are fairly kid friendly but require an adult to work along side the child. Our first week we made Guacamole and it was an experience. I wouldn't say that we are ready to open a Mexican restaurant, but it was palatable.
Each week is fairly similar with a new system or part of a system explained, new activities, and a different recipe to be prepared. We've had a blast with the chapters that we have covered so far but I have had to break much of the information down so that Joshua could understand. My only real complaint, however, is the recipes. They are simple, delicious and fun to make, but frequently require ingredients that aren't the usual things that you have in your pantry. If you are on a limited budget (who isn't these days ), then you may find it difficult to justify buying avocados or flax seed oil (just two of the examples) for a special food. There are alternate recipes contained at the end of the unit that you could use, but they still often require unusual food items.
The six units cover the following systems in each:
Unit 1 - The Brain and Nervous System
Unit 2 - The Digestive System
Unit 3 - The Respiratory, Olfactory, Auditory and Visual Systems
Unit 4 - The Skeletal and Muscular
Unit 5 - The Cardiovascular and Immune Systems
Unit 6 - The Endocrine System and Emotions
That first section is a whopping 299 pages, but that is only about two thirds of the book! The other third is the 29 (twenty nine) appendices! The appendices contain everything from vitamin and mineral charts to sections on molds and toxins. All in all, this book is a huge 448 pages!
If you would have told me at the beginning what a gem Nutrition 101 was, I wouldn't have believed you. I had my doubts about the level it was written on and how interested my children would be. But, my children do love it! They enjoy getting together as a family and discussing the parts of the body and what foods are good or not good for them. They have even brought up different things after the chapter is over, like when we are at a grocery store! I found that amazing.
I think this curriculum is a great one to have in your home. The appendices are worth having by themselves. Nutrition 101: Choose Life is available in a CD Rom or book format. The CD Rom is priced at $79.95 with the book selling for $99.95. There is also a combo pack available that includes both the book and CD Rom for $129.95. I know that for some that may be priced out of your budget, but you need to consider that this is more than just a book, it is a complete health curriculum that will be used not just once, but over and over again.
Let me also give a brief personal testimony. Nutrition 101 has been very beneficial to us as a family with special needs children. Many childhood and adult illnesses can be helped - if not completely healed - by special diets. We have been searching for a diet that would help not only Joshua, our asperger's child, but also his younger brother, Jacob, who is beginning to exhibit many of the same behaviors. We have joined organizations that push special diets and bought cookbooks until we are blue in the face (and broke in the pocketbook). Many of the membership costs and material fees for such organizations can be much more expensive than the price of Nutrition 101.
The following YouTube video has other user testimonies as well as the reasons behind writing Nutrition 101.
If you are still unsure, read some of the reviews written by the other Homeschool Crew members by clicking here, or look over the Growing Healthy Homes website by clicking here or on any one of the highlighted links above. As usual, happy homeschooling, but in this case also, happy eating!
The StudyPod is a unique, one of a kind, book holder that my family loves. Soon after we received ours to try out, John Allen confiscated it and has been using it since. And it has really helped. You wouldn't think that a small thing like the StudyPod would revolutionize your way of living, but this really does. It starts out the size of a book but opens up to hold almost any size book that you can think of. It really is the answer to each of the above problems that I mentioned. You can use the StudyPod to hold a book that you are taking notes from. No, more trying to hold the pages of the book down so that they won't turn, the StudyPods nifty arms do that for you. And, like I said, they expand to hold any size book. You can put your cookbook on it so that it is out of the way but still able to be seen while preparing a meal. You can even hold a sheet of paper on it so that you won't be looking up and down or back and forth while typing. After you are done, it folds right back up so that you can stick it in your back pack to take it with you wherever you are going! It even has convenient pockets on the inside and outside to hold pencils, pens, even an ipod! Check out this really neat video that tells all about it.
Now that you've seen the video, you can see why I am so happy with this product. Let me tell you, with three boys, the house gets cluttered. Anything that will cut down on the clutter is a plus for me, and the StudyPod does just that!
The StudyPod comes in Black, Blue or Pink, but if you click on their BookPod link, you will see the same item, under the name BookPod, in Gray or Beige as well. They are the exact same items, made by the exact same company, but with a different name to market to a different type of clientèle.
The StudyPod normally sells for $19.95 for one StudyPod or $16.95 each for two or more. But, the makers of StudyPod have given our readers a special discount! You can get $5.00 off of your order by using the coupon code TOSBLOG5! This is just in time for Christmas! StudyPod even has a "Buy it. Try it." 30 day, full refund, gaurentee. They even have a fundraising opportunity if you are looking for ways to make money for your club or organization! You can go to their website by clicking on any of the highlighted links above, or here. Cut down on your chiropractor bills! Go to their website today!
Praises for Rocket Phonics Mood: a-ok Topic: Homeschool Product Review
Now I know that it seems like I exude enthusiasm for every item that I review on my blog. And, I also know that I promised that I would not just point out the good in everything just to be nice to the vendor for sending me a free product. But, I am not joking, I really like Rocket Phonics! Now, having said that, at the beginning, I did have my doubts. And, there are a few minor things that, if I had my druthers, I would change. I will explain a little further in my post. But, all in all, I really think that Rocket Phonics is a great fit for, at least, Joshua, our Asperger’s child. Here’s why!
I have used (believe me when I say this!) many, many, phonics programs over the years. Some I have really liked, others I have not. One, I credit for really setting Joshua on the road to reading. However, these phonics programs have been just that, a phonics program. Rocket Phonics is so much more than a just a “phonics program”. It has much more than cutsie stories that reinforce the phonics sound of the day. Along with the phonics sounds, Rocket Phonics also includes punctuation, thinking skills, critical thinking and more. These are all things that Joshua has experienced in the few short weeks that we have been using this program. But, since Joshua reads on a 2nd - 3rd grade level, let’s begin at the very beginning with Rocket Phonics.
Rocket Phonics is a “research-based, scientifically proven method of teaching reading” developed by Dr. Stephen Guffanti . You can begin using this program whenever you feel that your child is ready to begin learning letters and letter sounds. This can be done as early as three years of age. To teach beginning sounds, the Rocket Phonics kit contains “Play and Read Cards” with instructions on how to play simple games such as Bingo, Go Fish, Memory Games, Simon Says - even a Treasure Hunt Game! And, that’s not all! With your purchase of the Rocket Phonics kit comes 28 weeks of email bonuses and games that you can download and print out to supplement your regular materials! Their bonus gifts include more games, more stories, a complete beginning writing curriculum, spelling strategies to help you with spelling, and more. There are even YouTube videos that you can access that will give you teaching tips.
After your child learns the basic letter sounds and can put sounds together to make words, then you begin using Rocket Phonics’ unique “helpers”. Helpers are used when a word can’t be pronounced phonetically, or if there is more than one way to say a letter(s). All of the words are printed in blue except for the letters that present a difficulty. Those letters are printed in gray. When a child sees a gray letter, they know to immediately look below that letter to see how the letter is supposed to sound in that word. See the below section for a sample.
This is where I would have changed a few things. I am a perfectionist when it comes to sounding out words. For example, I think that the word “Begin” should be pronounced with a long e - be/gin. Rocket Phonics is more practical. They know that most kids are not going to pronounce it with a long e, but make more of a short I sound to pronounce it bi/gin. There are a couple of instances when I would change the way they sound out their words, but by and large, there helpers are exactly what I would use.
Later, when a child becomes more proficient at reading, they move to reading Aesop’s Fables then on to reading short chapter stories. If your child gets distracted by all of the words on the page, and needs to focus on just the word at hand, the kit includes a really cool rocket shaped “peeker” that will block out everything but the word that the child it reading. As they become more advanced, they even begin learning Latin and Spanish sounds, and common prefixes and suffixes.
This is no simple phonics program, but a complete reading curriculum. But, it all happens so quickly and easily. Rocket Phonics does not encourage you to push your children too quickly, but if you are consistent in using this program, your child could advance two or three grade levels in one year! Already, in only using this program for a few weeks, Joshua has advanced probably a half a year in his reading. And it is all plainly laid out and easy to use. I am so sold on this curriculum that I am going to begin Jacob, our three year old, on the very basic levels of this program soon. I will let you know in a later post how he and Joshua both are doing.
The price of Rocket Phonics is very comparable to other phonics curriculum. Some other curriculum want you to buy their products piece mill. For example, levels one, two and three may all be sold separately. With Rocket Phonics you get everything for one price of $160.00 plus shipping and handling. But, that includes everything, including all of the bonus downloads. The free gifts are worth well over $100 by themselves. Rocket Phonics also has a three month payment plan of only $54 a month available, and everything is completely satisfaction guaranteed. Your Rocket Phonics Kit comes with three bonus gifts already, and even if you are not happy with the program and choose to send it back, you get to keep the bonus gifts! You really have nothing to lose, but don’t take my word for it, read the testimonials of some of the other crew members by clicking here, or go directly to the Rocket Phonics website by clicking here or on any one of the highlighted links above. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Happy home schooling!
If you thought that last month's reviews were cool, wait until you see this month's! Yep! I'm about to review five (5) (FIVE!) new items this month! These include lapbooks, phonics curriculum, study aids, writing helps, and a neat healthy eating program. I just posted their links over to the left if you want to check them out early. Just click on the icon and it should take you right to the company's website. This month's products are really neat. Keep checking back for the new reviews.
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), then you may find it difficult to justify buying avocados or flax seed oil (just two of the examples) for a special food. There are alternate recipes contained at the end of the unit that you could use, but they still often require unusual food items.
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