Our Top Ten Picks

For the past two years I have been a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. It's been a great time and I'm thrilled to announce I've been asked back for a third year and I accepted. Over the past two years I have the chance to review some really amazing products. Today I thought I'd share my Top Ten Products from this past Crew year. (This list is in random order and does not denote how much or how little I liked each product in comparison.)

[One] - Eagle's Wings - Considering God's Creation. 

My Review

[Two] - Talking Fingers - Word Qwerty 

My Review

[Three] - Institute for Excellence in Writing 

My Review

[Four] - See the Light

My Review

[Five] - Collectorz

My Review

[Six] - Corps of Re-Discovery

My Review

[Seven] - North Star Games: Wits & Wagers

My Review

[Eight] - Maestro Classics: Peter & the Wolf

My Review

[Nine] - Apologia Press: Read For the Heart

My Review

[Ten] - City Creek Press: Times Alive

My Review

If you'd like to check out the list of all the products I reviewed this year (all 38), then please check out the page with all the links HERE.

Top Ten Audio Books for Kids

We live in rural Maine and it's always a drive to get anywhere. So much so that I don't measure how far I need to go in miles but rather in time. Church takes 20 minutes one way. Grocery shopping and, well, really, any type of shopping is at least 20-30 minutes away. The little dinky library we use to touch and feel real books is 15 minutes away. The "corner store" is 15 minutes away. Well, you get the picture.

Thankfully my boys love audio books and so do I. Over the years I've collected quite a stash and I'm always on the lookout for more. Since my boys are captive audiences while we're driving, it works out great. I've tried having them listen while at home and it's just not the same. Thankfully we always have time to listen while driving and it helps make the time speed by. 

Here, in no particular order, are some of our favorite audio programs:

1. Chronicles of Narnia - Focus on the Family Radio Theater version
2. Any Adventures in Odyssey
3. Story of the World  Volumes 1-4 (In fact, my hubby heard part of this while driving to church on day and now wants them for his audio listening! He commutes two hours - at least - every day and listens to audio books on his drive.)
4. Lamplighter Theater - We just bought our first one at our state homeschool convention this year. We'll be getting more - lots more.
5. Classic books from LibriVox.org (all in the public domain read by volunteers - I use a FM transmitter to listen via my MP3 player)
6. Jim Weiss CDs - I'm collecting as fast as I can. The boys love all the ones we've listened to so far.
7. Classical Kids - Fun way to learn about various composers and their music.
8. Jonathan Park - Great adventure stories with a creationism theme.
9. Lost! On a Mountain in Maine - specific Maine based book (great btw)
10. The Sign of the Beaver - the one that finally hooked my older son on reading. He's never looked back.

Happy listening!

Be sure to head over to oh Amanda to see what other Top Ten Lists have been posted. And you really should go read Amanda's post. She is highlighting a pretty cool charity. If we didn't have over a foot of snow on the ground and mud (lots of mud where there is no snow), I'd join in.

My Top Ten Favorite Blog "Meme's"

Recently I made mention that the The Old Schoolhouse Magazine will begin new tryouts for the new TOS Homeschool Crew. I'm in my second year and I'm really enjoying it. Every year they tweak the program just a bit and so I'm helping to get the word out. In the coming year, if you want to be considered for the Crew, you need to have a blog, post at least four times a month, and have a following with a minimum of 25 followers. This led a friend to ask me...."How do you get followers?"

It can certainly be hard to do this if you are new to the blogging world. One thing I have found that works really well is to participate in blog "meme's." What is a meme? It stands for "me! me!" so it's a post typically about you. There are quite a few of them out there. 

Oh wait - I'm participating in one right now as I explain this! Each has their own rules. Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by oh Amanda, is when you share ten related things. One of my most hit on posts (most visitors = most potential followers) is the one I did on my Top Ten Free Homeschooling Sites. 

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite blog meme's to participate in....(and I'm going to totally cheat here a bit. I have more than 10 to list so since I have already listed Top Ten Tuesday, I'm not going to include them in my list below. Be sure to check it out all the same!) 

And just one more clarification...the first link will be to the "rules" page and the second to the blog homepage of the host. These are not in day order...

{one} Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom 

Have you tackled some sort of project this week? Big or small it doesn't matter. Perhaps sharing will help others solve a problem they have. If nothing else, it always feels good to mark something off the "to do" list.

{two} The Simple Woman's Daybook hosted by The Simple Woman

A series of questions you answer each week. It's typically posted on Tuesday and there is on long link-up for the month. They are simple things like "what are you wearing" to "what are your plans for the week." Questions that make you take just a moment to capture a day in your life.

{three} Friday's Fave Five hosted by Living to Tell the Story

Have you ever felt like you had a horrid week? Or have you ever had a wonderful week? This is a great way of remembering five things from your week that you are grateful for. 

{four} Sunday Snapshot hosted by Ni Hao Ya'll

The only rule to this one? Share a memory of your week (Are you seeing a theme yet? A lot of the meme's I like have something to do with remembering or thankfulness.) Obviously sharing a photo plays a roll as well. Just a note, as of today the button photo has been updated. It's not shown on the rule page yet, but it is on the home page.

{five} Wednesday Wickedness hosted by Janera Jepson (only one link as it's pretty self explanatory)

Every Wednesday Janera picks a famous person and asks some questions for you to answer based on quotes from them. It's sort of a fun way to get over the mid-week point. 

{six} Monday Miscellany hosted by lowercase letters

It really says it all doesn't it? Just be random. Be miscellaneous. And you'll be all set.

{seven} Multitude Monday hosted by A Holy Experience

Ann Voskamp is an amazing writer. I actually have her geography books that we use in our homeschool. She hosts a weekly "gratitude" post. Begin a list of the things you are most thankful for and continue it each week. Big or small - it doesn't matter. The goal? Reach a 1000 and keep going.

{eight} Tiny Talk Tuesday hosted by Not Before 7:00

As any mother of small children knows, they can sometimes say the most outrageous and cute things. This meme is designed to help you remember them.

{nine} Works for Me Wednesday hosted by We are THAT family

Do you have a neat tip you want to share? Something that just really "works for you?" Then link up and tell everyone about it. There are monthly themes (first Wednesday of the month) which are optional. 

{ten} Weekly Wrap-Up hosted by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Obviously this one only works for homeschoolers. It's a neat way of sharing all the things you have accomplished over the course of the week. If nothing else, it serves as a record when you think you are getting absolutely nothing done. Proof positive that you are!

And a general rule of thumb about blog following....if you visit a blog, leave a comment. Many times this will bring someone back to your blog. Will it guarantee followers? No, but it certainly helps.

What I Love About Autumn

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love it all, but here are my top ten reasons…..
{One} The colors. Oh my. It is simply gorgeous out there!




{Two} The cooler weather. I’m not a hot weather gal nor a cold weather gal. Kind of like Goldilocks…I like it “just right.”  For me that is in the high 60s to low 70s with no humidity and sunny days. The weather during these fall days is what gets me through the cold New England winters.

{Three} Wood fires. Ahhhh….while it’s getting colder it’s sometimes hard to know when we should start a fire or not. If the day warms up too much after a cold start, then the wood fire really heats up the house. However, there is absolutely nothing better than a hot wood fire on a cold fall day.



{Four} Going for walks with the boys. Autumn means cooler weather to walk in and (drum roll please!) no bugs! Well, virtually no bugs. It makes walking outside so much more fun.




{Five}  Did I mention the color? So, so, so pretty……




{Six} Landscape scenes like this one below – in abundance. “Leaf peeping” is out in full force and I like nothing better than to take a turn myself.




{Seven} Photo opportunities that abound everywhere. I tend to carry my camera with me even more in the autumn. You never know when you’ll see something interesting and colorful that truly captures the essence of the season.




{Eight} Knowing there will be a slowing of my schedule. Once snow comes it’s harder to plan much in advance. While I enjoy the busyness (mostly) of our schedule, I like knowing that things will soon settle in for winter.

{Nine} Leaves. I love the crunching noise they make when you walk in them. I love the fun kids have playing in them. The only thing I don’t love is raking them, but I don’t do that until the spring.

This is a photo of Miss H from last fall.

{Ten} Watching my dog. She definitely has some little quirks, but they really make life fun here. She spends the majority of her autumn days outside chasing blowing leaves. Well, to be more accurate, she is really chasing the shadows of the blowing leaves. She also is fond of chasing the shadows of butterflies and birds flying as well as flashlight beams.  Lasers just about put her over the top.

Head over to oh Amanda to check out other Top Ten Tuesday posts.

The Best Homeschooling Freebies

A couple days ago I talked about the cost of homeschooling. I thought I'd jump on the Top Ten {Tuesday} bandwagon and post my top ten favorite places to go for homeschooling freebies.

{One} - Homeschool Share - This is hands down my favorite free spot on the web. They have free lapbooks covering everything from "Abraham Lincoln" right on down to the "zoo." There are hundreds of topics for all age groups covered. I love Homeschool Share! And if you enjoy Five in a Row - you need to check out the resources there for that unit study. Fabulous.

{Two} - Donna Young - If you are in need of homeschooling planners or even home planners, you should check out this site. Donna has put together oodles and oodles of free planning forms for your home and school. This is not just a homeschool resource. I can't even begin to touch on what's there so be sure to check it out.

{Three} - Oklahoma Homeschool - Don't let the name fool you. Once you get to the main page you need to check out two things there. The first is FREE! Homeschool Forms and that's just what you'll find. The other - and one of my favorites and one I've used from time to time - is the FREE! Lessons Plans, FREE! Unit Studies, FREE! Timeline. I've used her photography unit study and others. A good source for free learning.

{Four} - The Lab of Mr. Q -  A really fun science blog/newsletter. Every month Mr. Q emails out a really neat experiment. We did one with gummy bears a while back that my boys still talk about. Click on Labnote Archives at the top of the website to see all the monthly experiments. However, are you looking for an affordable elementary school science? Mr. Q allows for a free download of his Elementary Life Science book. Yup, free science.

{Five} - Ambleside Online - I tell everyone about this one. Ambleside Online is an entirely free curriculum based on the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. You will need to add math and phonics and perhaps buy some of the books (or borrow). It can all be done relatively inexpensively.

{Six} - An Old-Fashioned Education - If you are looking for an entirely (and I mean entirely) free education, then this is the place. An Old-Fashioned Education has full curriculum listed for grades K-11 (there are plans for grade 12, but it's not up yet). This uses public domain books so most are older texts, but very high quality. The entire schedule is even written out for you. It really couldn't be easier.

{Seven} - Free File Folder Games - I love file folder games. My boys love file folder games. This site has a bunch! Oh, what are file folder games? Just that....a game that is made out of a file folder. Typically the file folder is the base and if there are any cards or extras, they can be stored in an envelope attached to the back. I have a bunch of these and try to use them often.

{Eight} - Homeschool Helper Online - This site has some really nice lapbooks as well as unit studies. I've used the one on library skills (a state requirement for homeschools in my state) as well as the baseball one. There are also free unit studies. There are some more freebies as well (notebooking, record keeping, phonics, etc.) so be sure to check them out.

{Nine} - Head of the Class - I used this quite a bit for J6 this past year. Head of the Class is another free curriculum. Currently they have grades PreK to 3rd completed. Fourth and fifth grade are slated to be done this fall while 6th-8th will be done by next spring. It's interactive. Some of the work is done on-line and sometimes there are printable pages. J6 had a good time with this and we'll probably continue using it to some degree.

{Ten} - 1000 Good Books List - If you do nothing else, get a library card and read, read, and read some more. This list is a fantastic place to start if you don't have a clue what constitutes a "good" book. In fact, I'm off to print some of them off for my own use right now.