Sunday, August 26, 2018

Review: The Fashion Designer by Nancy Moser


There have always been those in history that have started the new trends and helped move us forward in business.  In The Fashion Designer by Nancy Moser the main character, Annie, is the one setting the trends.  Annie Culver had worked as a pattern maker, but decided to branch out on her own with friends to start their own fashion house.  She is starting a new business as well as a new family.  How could life change much more than that?? Annie has received financial backing to help start the business, but when she realizes the backing is really more for personal gain than the business she has to make a decision. With prayer and support from her husband and friends they move forward in a different direction. Their ultimate goal is for wearable and fashionable dresses for the "average" lady. They ask people they know to be models to show off who they really want their fashions to be worn by in the future.  As they push forward working on designs for the shown the unexpected happens. Annie falls early one morning and they have a scare with the baby. She now has to slow it down and lets others take on more responsibility. Thankfully her mother-in-law joins the team and provides much needed support and help.  Will they be successful? Will their fashion house become known to all the "average" women? You'll have to read The Fashion Designer to get these answers.  For additional books written by Nancy Moser you can follow her social media: 







** "I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review."

Friday, August 24, 2018

Review: Dot to Dot! Philadelphia


It's been a stressful few months and recently I've enjoyed working in the Dot to Dot! Philadelphia book that Timberdoodle sent us and drinking a coffee at the same time! I enjoy puzzles and word search type activities, so I was excited to try out this Dot to Dot book. Recently my youngest and I have been enjoying some great books on some of our men in history and I thought he'd enjoy seeing some of these pictures completed.  David Kalvitis has given us a unique activity book in that we can see pictures emerge that are located in the Parkway Museums District.  There are 23 puzzles in the book that show us institutions and attractions near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.  This book debuted on September 8, 2017 at the launch of a yearlong celebration for the Parkway's centennial. The Dot to Dot activities are similar and yet different all at the same time! The directions range from stopping each time you see a star and continuing at the next number to doing sets like 1-10, 1-15, 1-61 and 1-355.  My favorite was the continuous following of numbers.  The book starts out with the first activity being 1-156 and working up to numbers 1-1690. Some of the pictures are completed with one page and others two pages.  It is recommended that you use a ruler to complete the activities if you want nice, crisp lines.  Children as young as 8 can enjoy these activities as well as adults. This book currently comes in the Eleventh-Grade Curriculum Kit as well as can be purchased alone.  

Originally I thought my 11 year old son would join me in working through this book, but the amount of small numbers on the page was too much for him. I enjoyed the challenge of having to hunt around to find the numbers. There were a few times where I was stumped and unable to find the number I was looking for at the moment. I would just put the book away and try later or ask my daughter if she could help me (LOL) One thing I realized was that I didn't complete most of the pages in one sitting and then I would get frustrated with remembering what number I had stopped on previously. I realized that by putting a little post it on the page with the number I would start with next time it cut out the frustration that I might have starting again.  


Here are some of the other puzzles that I completed. I think often times as adults we don't think of doing activities like this as a stress reliever, but I found I really enjoyed working in this book. I'll be honest that I didn't use a ruler once because I was doing this book for fun and having to use a ruler made it somehow seem more like work (LOL) I was so pleased with how clear the pictures were.  








The last few pages have a key to the puzzles. I really liked that because I was able to explain to my youngest what each puzzle was that I had completed.  I think one of Issac's favorite's that I did was pg. 7.  It's a T. Rex for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.  The back cover is pretty cool because it shows a subway map with all the pages of the book and where they are located.  


The Dot-to-Dot Philadelphia book has really been fun to play around with these last few weeks.  I've enjoyed the various difficulties offered as well as the pictures.  


















Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Thankful Tuesday 8/14/2018

So thankful for our son and all that he has accomplished in his young life. He's got a mentality that he'll try things that others might not think he should do at his young age. I've enjoyed watching him grow into such a fine young man. It's hard to imagine that in a few short months he might not live anywhere near us, but for now I'm enjoying all the time we had with him this past week!



Sunday, August 5, 2018

Review: No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope

Raising Real Men
Life seems so much more complicated these days than when I was younger. The amount of technology that surrounds us makes a parent really have to work hard to do their job.  When our babies are first born it doesn't seem like it could be harder than taking care of them 24/7. As they grow up there are always new issues that arise that may not seem harder, but are still hard to deal with.  Children go through different seasons as they grow and we have to learn how to adapt our parenting skills as they change.  Great Waters Press has produced a great product that I'm finding helpful as I maneuver these tween years.  No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope is a full of information to help during this stage.  I personally feel that the "tween" stage is one of the harder stages. My kids have struggled in this area because they aren't young children yet, but are quite teenagers. They felt at times they were treated as "babies" as my oldest said, but yet he wasn't mature enough to be treated as a teenager. Thankfully Hal & Melanie Young have given us a product to help guide us through these years!
No Longer Little by Hal and Melanie Young
I think many of us parents have wondered what alien took over our child's body as they were going through the tween stages.  One minute they are sweet and loving and the next are crying and running to their room because they were asked to sweep the floor. They are going through huge hormonal changes during this time period and are struggling to find themselves.  More than ever this is the time to focus on communication, show our love for our children and show them the right way to do things. Every parent wants to raise their child to be a solid member of the community that can take care of themselves.  One thing that really jumped out at me was that we as parents have to continually control our own emotions.  It doesn't help us to get emotional when they are already in the middle of their own emotional meltdown.  I also realized that what I often though of was disobedience was all part of the distraction and being absentminded that occurs during these years. It makes moms feel better to realize that they aren't the only one dealing with these issues! In chapter 3 we learn that neurologists say during these years that parts of the brain actually unravel!! There actually is a temporary loss of functions as the neurons are transforming into their adult configurations. Seems like such an amazing process and it truly does validate their behavior.  There is so much discussed in this book, but it's such an easy read.  I was captivated throughout the entire book. The examples that Hal and Melanie give I have seen in my own home.  The fact that they give real life examples that they have dealt with helps the reader feel so much more comfortable that they aren't alone in dealing with these changes.  Hal & Melanie have a chapter for pretty much anything you might be dealing with currently.

1.  Getting Bigger: Hormones and Body Changes
2.  The Rollercoaster: Emotional Upheaval
3.  Brains Turn To Mush: Why School Goes Awry
4.  Many A Conflict, Many A Doubt: Spiritual Questioning
5.  The Awakening: Sexuality and Virtue
6.  Social Struggles: Overcoming Awkwardness
7.  Media, Gaming, and Discernment: More Than Amusement
8.  Conflict At Home: Family Relationships
9.  Transitioning: Youth in the Bible
10.  Celebrating Growth: Coming of Age Ceremonies
11.  Producers, Not Consumers: Work and Stewardship
12.  The Next Big Thing: High School and Beyond


I have struggled over the years about what to do with my children at what ages.  I want them to have a happy childhood and not grow up too soon, but yet I want them to be responsible and capable young adults. I often think about the times of long ago when children were running households at 14. That's not necessarily what I would want for my child, but yet somehow we went from them being more capable at a younger age to being less capable.  Hal & Melanie talk about this transitioning and how they celebrate the coming of age for their children.  I really enjoyed reading about this process because I hadn't really thought of celebrating this coming of age before.  Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality is another book that Great Waters Press has written. This book is geared toward the 12-20 year old children in your lives.  This is the next book that is on my wish list to read! 

Check out their social media sites:


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Love, Honor, and Virtue  AND No Longer Little {Great Waters Press Reviews}


Thursday, August 2, 2018

Review: Home School in the Woods Time Travelers American History-The Civil War

Home School in the Woods
Home School in the Woods has fast become one of my favorite companies to shop.  They have a huge selection of items and I can find pretty much anything I want or need for history.We have been fortunate to be able to review their products several times.  We had a great time with review #1 as well as review #2 . Our youngest has gotten into that stage where he's fascinated by war. He doesn't understand what war truly means to those in it, but he's fascinated by the history of our country.  We chose to work in the Time Travelers U.S. History Studies section.  They had great options for us to chose from, but ultimately Issac wanted to learn more about Time Travelers: The Civil War.  I'm not the most techie person out there and had some type of glitch when trying to download the product. I reached out to customer service and they were AMAZING.  I hadn't had this issue previously and they hadn't either, but they worked with me until I was able to download the product.  Great customer service means a ton to me and this company is right up there at the top! Once I got my product downloaded I proceeded to one of my favorite parts: the printing of everything we needed :) I do highly recommend you make sure you have fresh ink and plenty of paper. I normally have regular printer paper, white cardstock and colored cardstock on hand. This time most of our house is packed for a move and all I had was regular printer paper. That being said we still were able to make due. I made a mistake while starting out by printing the teacher's pages for the timeline. That being said it turned out to be a wonderful mistake for us. Issac doesn't really enjoy cutting smaller things out because he still struggles with fine motor skills. I went ahead and put the "answer key" together and we used that as our timeline. I had him color or circle the events from each lesson and we were still able to see how everything fell into place time wise.  One thing I really like is having a schedule or at least a place to jump off from. I like that Home School in the Woods gives me that jumping off place. I prefer holding items in my hand while reading, so I always print the lessons off and then we keep them in the notebook when done. Here's an example from lesson 5 of the options we had.











Issac really enjoys the hands on activities that Home School in the Woods provides. We typically don't do the newspaper portion that is included. That would work better for my older daughter, but the writing is a bit hard for Issac.  There are so many other activities though that we are never bored.  We worked on maps of the underground railroad, a lantern to light our way, women of the civil war and badges which was one of Issac's favorites. I even found this time that he enjoys having me read the lesson pages without even doing the activites.  We also checked out several books from the library to go along with the activities.  There are so many different options that it's hard to chose just one.  







The newest item they are excited to share is Project Passport: Ancient Rome (CD version coming in fall 2018).  The complete Project Passport Bundle (all 5 world history studies) (CD version coming in fall 2018) is available as well.  The crew reviewed so many different items, so if there is a particular item your looking to check out someone probably reviewed it. As always Home School in the Woods is active on social media.  Follow them on FacebookTwitterGoogle+ and Pinterest.  




Hands-on-History, Project Passport, À La Carte Timelines and Time Travelers {Home School in the Woods Reviews}

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Review: Northwest Treasures

Northwest Treasures
There is something mysterious and magical about dinosaurs in the eyes of children.  Their size alone is enough to lure children into learning more about these creatures.  Northwest Treasures was founded to share a information and a love of geology.  A good foundation in geology is needed to better understand anthropology, biology, earth science and paleontology.  This foundation will lead to a better understanding of the Bible and what God has said. There are several  Online Courses currently available.  We were able to view two of the courses.  The first being Taking the Mystery Out of Geology and the second being Dinosaurs and the Bible.  
Take the Mystery out of Geology Online Course
Taking the Mystery Out of Geology is a 20 minute course in which Patrick Nurre shares his love of geology.  There are 13 terms that will help students to better understand geology:
1-Science
2- History
3-Philosophy
4-Uniformitarianism
5-Evolution
6-Creationishm
7-Bible
8-Geology
9-Rock Cycle
10-Rock Types
-Igneous
-Sedimentary
-Metamorphic
11-Tectonics & Orogeny
12-Geologic Time Scale (Deep Time)
13-Fossilization (petrification)
I think we all enjoy picking up a pretty rock and looking at it, but most of us don't know anything about these rocks that we find. This class gives a little more information on how to know what rocks we are finding.  For those that have a love of Geology this may just be a refresher course, but for those of us that don't know much it's a great starter course.  For additional information check out the Video provided.  This class is geared for 5th grade and up and currently can be purchased for $5.00.  You will have a 3 month subscription after purchase.  


Dinosaurs and the Bible Online Course
The other class that we watched was the 6 part Dinosaurs and the Bible.  We have all heard about dinosaur findings, but do we really know much about them.  Do we really know how they lived or died?  In this class your student will have access to the following: 
  • How We Got Our Modern View of Dinosaurs
  • The Classification of Dinosaurs
  • The Great Dinosaur Rush
  • The Extinction of Dinosaurs
  • Dinosaurs and the Ice Age
  • Fossils, Age and Soft Tissue
  • Worksheets and answers 
  • Comprehensive exam and answers






This class is geared towards 5th grade and up. Your student could use just the videos or if you prefer the worksheets and exam as well. My son is going into the 6th grade and has some developmental delays. I found that the worksheets were too hard for him. If I used the worksheets to discuss with him he could answer most of the questions. Some of them were just looking for more information that he could produce. The amount of space to write the answers wasn't enough for him as well. That being said he loved the videos and is still talking about the information that he learned in them.  I think with any program it is up to the parent to adjust if needed and we were able to do that with the worksheets without changing the integrity of the program.  For a little more info on this program check out the video. This class is currently on sale through March 31st for $19.99. The regular price is $39.99.  

Northwest Treasures offers quite a selection.  They offer a wide variety of Educational kits and curricula.  They also have a great kit for the younger kids to start their study of geology.  Geology for "Little Eyes" (PreK-3rd) is a great way to get the younger kids involved.  

For more information check out their Facebook or Pinterest pages. The crew had several different items to chose from, so I highly recommend checking out what others thought of the different programs.   


Online Geology Classes{Northwest Treasures Reviews}

Review: Roar Like a Lion

Raising kids has always been a hard job, but with technology the way it is now I think most parents would say it's become harder.  We al...