If you have been reading my TOS Homeschool Crew reviews, you know that recently I wrote a review for Virginia Soaps and Scents. They generously sent all of the great folks on the crew a packet of ingredients to make your own laundry soap. We loved it, but soon ran out. I had seen other people's recipes for homemade laundry soap, but had never tried it. So, today I did. I kind of combined a couple of the recipes, took pictures, and decided to invite you to come along on the Tinkel's new laundry soap making journey. Here are the pictures and the original Tinkel recipe - a patent is on the way!

1. You take a bar of soap and grate it. We are very blessed to have a friend who makes and sells soap. A couple of years ago she gave us some of her bad soap that came out discolored and was unsellable. We passed out most of it to the families that we work with in the low income housing area but had a few bars left over. So, we grated one of them. You can, however, use whatever soap that you choose.

2. You put the soap in a small pot, cover with water, and slowly melt it. I made the mistake of putting it on high and leaving it. Joshua called to me a few minutes later to tell me it was boiling over. I caught it before losing too much, but next time I will put it at a lower temperature and stir occasionally as I go.

3. I then poured the melted mixture into a large pot that we had. I would recommend a bucket if you have one handy. I added one cup of borax and one cup of baking soda. Some recipes suggest washing soda, but others say that the extra expense isn't needed - baking soda works fine.  I also added two gallons of water and stirred the whole mixture and let it stand for a few minutes.

4. I then cleaned out a couple of old liquid laundry soap containers that we had ready to throw away and poured my new laundry detergent into them. I plan on using 1/2 cup for regular loads or one cup for more soiled loads. The mixture should thicken into a gel after time. There may also be some hard pieces. Just give the container a good shake before measuring the soap. 

The first load came out great. We'll see how things work in time. Next up on our new money saving experiments - dishwasher detergent. We'll keep you posted!

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Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! I've made the finals of the Homeschool Blog Awards!.This blog is one of the seven blogs that you can vote for in the "Best Homeschool Dad Blog" category. I would love to have your vote. You can find the "Best Homeschool Dad Blog" category by clicking here. If you click on the name of the blog, you will be led to that blog. If you click on the box, then you are casting your vote for that blog. The judges ask that you vote only once, but up to 5 people can vote per household, so ask your friends and family to vote as well. Don't forget, the name of my blog is Families Again! You can vote up until November 21st. To see the rules and the rest of the categories, just click here. Thank you ahead of time for your votes. I'll keep you posted as to how I do.

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I have mentioned before how much I love history and teaching history. I must admit, however, that when I saw that we would be receiving the American Heritage CD: America's Heritage: An Adventure In Liberty, I was not excited. I had already downloaded their curriculum years ago, and couldn't recall getting a lot out of it. In fact, I never used it. But, I gave it the old college try and, when, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free CD from American Heritage to try out and review on my blog. I opened it, previewed it once again and really liked it. I was thinking about something for Joshua, but after looking it over, decided that it was something that John Allen might actually benefit from. Especially since he is studying American History right now.

According to the CD America's Heritage: An Adventure In Liberty was:

Developed and provided by:
The Houston Independent School District
in cooperation with
The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation
and
The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

They go on to say that:

Teachers are provided these resources as a supplement to school resources as they
deliver instruction focused on developing an understanding and teaching of our
nation's factual and philosophical heritage to promote Freedom, Unity, Progress, and
Responsibility among our students and citizens. (Emphasis mine)

The American Heritage curriculum focuses on our American history by dividing historical events into four themes which I emphasized above - Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility. They teach these themes by using games, puzzles, and, factual historical documents. The topics are divided by age level. The Elementary Edition is for grades k-5, the Middle School Edition is for grades 6-8, and the High School Edition is written for grades 9-12. There are some overlapping topics and some topics that are unique to the age group. Some of the elementary topics include:

• 1776 - The Declaration of Independence - Theme:Freedom
• 1782 - The Great Seal - Theme:Unity
• 1864 - The National Motto - Theme:Progress

The middle school topics include:

• 1776 - Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor - Theme:Freedom
• 1791 - Bill of Rights: Rights and Responsibilities - Theme:Responsibility
• 1776-1791 - Our National Documents - Theme:Progress

Included in the high school topics are:

• 1622 - The Mayflower Compact - Theme:Responsibility
• 1794 - Entrepreneurs in History - Theme:Progress
• 1998 - Religious Expression in Public Schools - Theme:Unity
• 2000 - What is an American? - Theme:Responsibility

So much of history today is what is called "revisionist history". It is rewritten to fit the needs of a specific people group, or of a certain philosophical group. Things are added or taken out in the name of "political correctness". I really like the fact that this curriculum doesn't water down what our country was founded on. The authors weren't afraid to mention that our founder's religious beliefs were behind much of the decisions that they made. Don't let the fact that this curriculum was written for a public school system fool you. This is no typical public school curriculum. It is very diplomatic in it's teaching, but overall tells it like it is. It is great for homeschooling, and I could see a public school parent using this to supplement what their child is learning in school. I'm definitely going to continue using it with my kids.

America's Heritage: An Adventure In Liberty is very well laid out and written in an easy to use way. And, everything is included on the CD's but the pencils! All you have to do is download and print out what you need for the day. But, do you want to know what the really, really neat thing is about this curriculum? It is totally FREE!  Yes, I said free!!!. Their website claims that the curriculum would sell for $150 but they are able to provide it for free because of donations and grants. All you have to do is go to the website to download the entire curriculum. If you would rather have the CD version, they will send that to you totally free as well! Or, you can order the printed binder editions for $19.50 per level. What could be better than that? What have you got to lose? Just click here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above to go to the American Heritage website. If you are still not sure, then click here to find out what the other TOS Homeschool Crew members are saying about this curriculum.

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Recently I was introduced to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where you are challenged to write a novel during the 30 days of November. Their website has a lot of helps and encourages you to set a goal of so many words per day until, at the end of the month, you have completed a whole novel. John Allen and I gave it some serious though, but then decided that, with our busy schedules, we really don't have the time.

Then I heard about National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) and decided that this might be just what I am looking for. I have been dissatisfied with my blog for a long time. Oh, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy being on the TOS Homeschool Crew and receiving  free homeschool products to use and review, but it seems like that is all I have been doing lately. I've been asking myself, "What happened to the core values of my blog? The values that I began my blog with - strengthening my own family and the families of others?" I need to get back to that.

NaBloPoMo encourages you to write a post per day for the entire month of November. Since I started late, I'm going to attempt to write up until Dec. 8, which would be 30 days for me. I'm looking forward to it. I don't know what all that I am going to write about. I know that I will continue writing reviews. They have really helped me improve my writing. I'm going to write about some other things, though.  I'm going to try to add some pictures, posts about ministry, posts about things that I care about. Who knows what I'll blog about? But, I do know, that it will be about the things that I care about...faith, friends and family. Make sure you keep checking my blog every day. There could be something about you!?!

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Mood:  caffeinated

I have always loved geography! I love to travel, and I always enjoyed learning about our United States and about different countries. I even enjoyed learning about peninsulas and islands and the difference between a gulf and a bay etc. etc. !

With all that being said, though, it seems like geography is becoming a lost art. I don't think it is being taught as much or focused as much on in the school system these days. Perhaps that is why the US is trailing behind in this area. Some folks couldn't even tell you what continent the US is on let alone where to find some other countries on the map. That's why I was so thrilled to receive the book Hands-On Geography free from Bright Ideas Press in order to use and post a review on my blog.

Hands-On Geography is not a curriculum, but a plethora of ideas that you can use to teach geography in a very hands on way! I took it with me to peruse recently while we were traveling. Sarah enjoys driving when we travel (that's a topic for another post), so I usually have plenty of reading time while sitting in the passenger seat. The first thing that caught my eye were the many ways that you can creatively teach your child about your own country and other countries from around the world. Some of the ideas mentioned included:

• How to make a game to help you learn geography.
• Learning geography by making books.
• Beginning a postcard collection from different states or countries.
• Even...using the book "Around the World in Eighty Days" to help learn Geography.

When we got home, one of the first things that I did was to assign John Allen a project to make a game for Joshua to help him learn his states and capitals. After thinking and reviewing things for a couple of days, he decided to create a matching flashcard game that Joshua could use to play "memory" with. John Allen was saved from having to design it when we found something for free that we could download off the internet. All he had to do was cut them out. It was, however, his idea and he was excited to be able to help out his brother.  Joshua loves it as well, and is learning more about the states than I could have ever dreamed of for a first grade student.

For John Allen I chose one of the book ideas. Hands-On Geography had everything that I needed. Even the pages that you are permitted to photocopy for your own use. After we get done with his present study on WWII, we are going to embark on a journey learning about various countries around the world.

Later I would like for Joshua to write to the tourism departments of every state to gather information and for John Allen to correspond with various embassies to learn more about the countries that he is studying.

I was thrilled to have received Hands-On Geography. There are ideas that we can use to teach that often forgotten subject for years to come. It was another one of those products that I would never have dreamed of buying until I saw it myself. It sells for $14.95 from Bright Ideas Press and says for grades K-5, but you can easily adapt the ideas to older students. Check out their company by clicking here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above.  Bright Ideas Press also sells many other history, geography and science products that some of the other crew members received. You can check out what they had to say about them by clicking here. Have fun browsing, and remember - Happy Homeschooling.

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