A Day on the Mountain!

The boys decided to spend the day at Snowbird for their birthdays. We are blessed to live in such a beautiful area with so many family friendly things to do.

They bought the All Day Activities Pass which included 8 different activities that you could visit as many times as you wanted.

The Alpine Slide

The Ropes Course

 The Bungee Trampoline

Riding the Ski Lifts

They were celebrating Oktoberfest so there was some wonderful German food and entertainment going on as well.

The boys had a great time and it definitely made this mom realize the "little boys" are not so little anymore!

It's a Brand New Year....

School year that is. I've taken a year off from blogging but am excited to get back to it as we begin our new year. So first things first!


Our 2012-13 School Plans:


Josh (11th Grade):

Notgrass Exploring World History
TT Geometry
Apologia Chemistry
Latin
NDT Course (taught by dad)
ASVAB Prep
Vocabulary from Classical Roots
PE


Noah (6th Grade) & Micah (4th Grade):

History-Sonlight Core D (American History Pt 1)
Math- Horizons
LA- Sonlight, IEW, Vocab from Classical Roots, Growing with Grammar
Bible- NT-Gods Great Covenant OT-Grapevine
Latin
Science-Sonilight D-Biology, Taxonomy, & Human Anatomy
Five in a Row (choosing from all 4 volumes)
Various Unit Studies based on interest (first up: Elections)
Art- Great Artists, Sketch Tuesday, Various


Our school year starts Sept, 4th. Cant wait!!!

Wondermaps Review

I have been looking at this product for quite some time now so I was thrilled when Timberdoodle offered me the opportunity to review it. We love history here and so I am constantly looking for maps to print off the internet, which can be quite time consuming and frustrating to find exactly what I need to go along with what we are studying.

Enter Wondermaps from Bright Ideas Press: Problem Solved!

WonderMaps is designed with easy-to-use layers that allow you to enjoy great customizable features with just a click. Select:

• historical or modern-day maps
• outline, reference, political, or topographical maps
• black-and-white or color maps
• features including: names, borders, rivers, cities, physical features, and graticules

WonderMaps includes:

• 60+ maps of the world
• 60+ maps of the USA
• 125 historical maps, including 25 biblical maps
• The complete map sets from The Mystery of History vols. I–III and All American History vols. I & II

This year we are learning about Early American History and we were able to easily find and print a map of 13 colonies and then add the modern geographical boundaries. There are over 350 customize-able maps to choose from. Everything you could possible need right at your fingertips.

Here are a few screen shots from the program. You can use color or print in black and white for your child to fill in. Some of the other options include: Physical Features, Cities, Borders, and much more.

Wondermaps is very easy to install and use. Also included on the CD is a Teachers Guide and tutorial, as well as several other bonus features.

I think this could very well be the only map resource that our homeschool will ever need. I love how versatile the program is for a wide range of age groups and studies. This is a great program that I can highly recommend.

You can learn more about Wondermaps at Timberdoodle or Bright Ideas Press. Timberdoodle offers the Wondermaps CD for only $44.95. If you would like to learn more about Timberdoodle and the products they offer, be sure to order their Free Homeschool Catalog. You can also find them on Facebook.

***Disclosure Statement*** As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of WonderMaps in exchange for a frank and unbiased review. The opinions expressed here are those of myself or my children.

DNG's Expedition Israel Review

Have you ever wanted to visit the Holy Land? Walk where Jesus walked? Experience the sights and sounds of the disciples? Expedition Israel is a wonderful way to do just that!! What a great way to prepare for the Easter season.

Just in case you are not familiar with Amanda Bennett's Download N Go series, they are a 5 day unit study geared towards K - 4th grade students. Each unit is filled with websites, videos, activity pages, lapbook components and so much more. All the hard work is done for you. As the name suggests, you just download and go! If you would like to learn more about these units and see all the titles available- Check out Amanda's website here.

On your expedition to Israel, these are some of the things you will be learning each day:

Day 1: Where on Earth is Israel?

Day 2:Some of the Special Places in Israel

Day 3: A Bit of History

Day 4: Cool Things to Know about Israel

Day 5: Fun and Games in Israel

We have learned so much this week! We have studied about geography, animals, Bible heros, foods, vocabulary, a few Hebrew words, music, foods, and the list goes on.

Here is our map that we worked on all through the week listing the places we visited.

Take a look at some of the beautiful sample pages included in Expedition Israel. Of course, my boys favorite parts are always the science experiments. So they really enjoyed learning all about The Dead Sea. We explored the differences between Salt and Kosher Salt. Then we hypothesized about how much salt it would take to make certain things float. We tried an egg, a marble, a rock, and an apple. Here the boys are playing the vocabulary game included in the study as we reviewed our week.

As always, Amanda has done a great job building an exciting, interesting, and intriguing study. Its been a great week of learning for both mom and kiddos.

Up next for us...Easter Promise! It's not because I am reviewing it, its because I love it! I think it will be the perfect follow up to Expedition Israel.

*** Disclosure Statement*** I was given a copy of this unit, in exchange for, an honest review on my blog. The opinions give are those of myself or my children.

DNG Kite Kapers Review

Who doesn't love kites? and Springtime? Looking for a fun way to beat the winter blahs and kick off a serious case of Spring Fever? Download N Go's Kite Kapers is the perfect way to do just that!





Each Download N Go Unit is geared to children K-4 but could easily be expanded to include older children as well. Planning and preparation is so easy because all the work is done for you. Everything you need is included--websites, videos, fun activities, and lapbook pieces. You can easily expand on it if you choose with more books and rabbit trails or you can use it as it is and have a wonderful study. I usually spend about 30 minutes or so over the weekend looking over the unit, printing, and putting books on hold so we are ready to go on Monday morning.

Here are the objectives we had this week:

Day 1: What is a Kite?

Day 2: The History of Kites

Day 3: People and Places of Kites

Day 4: Science Secrets of Kites

Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Kites

These are some of the books we chose to compliment our studies this week. There is a comprehensive booklist included in each unit.

Kite Kapers is so much more that just a study about kites. We learned about wind, weather, clouds, Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, China, The Wright Brothers, China and several other countries.

As always, Amanda has included so many fun and interesting topics in a interesting and engaging way.

Take a look at some sample pages from Kite Kapers by clicking on the picture below.

One of the activities this week was to draw some of the different kinds of kites. Here are a few the boys drew.





We found some great kites at Sams Club this week so each of the boys picked out their favorite. They had about 10 different styles to choose from so needless to say, we were there quite awhile before the final decisions were made!

Noah's Kite

Micah's Kite

Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated with us. We have had snow and rain for the last week. Hopefully, we will be trying these beauties out very, very soon!!

If you haven't tried DNG yet, I encourage you to check out Amanda's website. I cannot recommend her products highly enough.

See what other homeschool moms have to say at the Kite Kapers Blog Tour.

Be sure to check out the DNG Blog for $5 Fridays.

Enter here for your chance to win a family registration and Tim Hawkins Live Tickets at the MidWest Homeschool Convention.

**Disclosure Statement** I was given a copy of this product, in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are those of myself or my children.

Snow Day!

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin


Kindness is like snow--it beautifies everything it covers.

A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together! ~Author Unknown

Snowmen fall from heaven... unassembled. ~Author Unknown

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels. ~Author Unknown

"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship." — Markus Zusak -The Book Thief

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.~ Doug Larson

"I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas: It brings people together while time stands still. Cozy couples lazily meandered the streets and children trudged sleds and chased snowballs. No one seemed to be in a rush to experience anything other than the glory of the day, with each other, whenever and however it happened " — Rachel Cohn