Fall Soccer has begun

First off, a great big thank you to Uncle Todd who outfitted Jake with new cleats and cool soccer clothes, Hank with new shin guards and cool soccer clothes, and Ella with new shin guards, pink laces and wrist bands. (Shane is enjoying a new football which is more his style-soccer isn't violent enough for him) :)

I'm a few weeks behind, but soccer started a couple of weeks ago, and the kids are really enjoying it. We play in a rec league so it's just one night a week. It's more of a PE credit than 'real' soccer, but it suits our current schedule and needs. Jake's team plays just far enough away from the little kid fields that it's hard for me to get over there to take pictures and keep Shane where he needs to be.

Here's Hank waiting to get started

He's a scrappy little player, and he's fast. We're considering signing him up for a league team.

Red Light, Green Light. Ella's favorite soccer drill. Her coach this season doesn't like parents to interfere (get too close taking lots of distracting pictures, ahem) so I don't have many photos of her either.

I signed Shane up, but once again he has refused to play. He likes to spend his time at the water cooler. A career as a office worker, perhaps?

TOS Review The Complete Career, College, and High School Guide for Homeschoolers

We received two e-books from Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services or EDUDPS. The author, Jill Dixon, has extensive experience in special education, serves has a consultant for the HSLDA and is a fellow homeschool mom with two highschool-graduates-attending-college under her belt.

The Complete Career, College, and High School Guide for Homeschoolers is an excellent guide to discover your student’s best career choice by using the proper, specific tools that he/she needs to succeed. This is accomplished by taking four clear self-administered and self-scored assessments. Through these you will be equipped to make the proper course choices for middle school, high school, and college and, most importantly, find the right career for your child!

This book is 200+ pages long. The assessment tests are only a small part of the arsenal of information provided. After each assessment you are provided with a list of careers and college majors that best suite your personality or preferences.

You are given a number of jobs and professional fields that afford future breadwinners maximum time at home as well as part-time and work-from-home jobs for wives/mothers.

The author then provides a list of common career fields listing the middle and high school courses you should take and extra activities you can participate in to better prepare you - or give you an opportunity to discover you don't enjoy that line of work before you invest in a specialized degree.

The latter portion of the book is dedicated to successfully navigating highschool with topics like "Activities That Can Be Counted Towards Credit Hours" and "Scholarship Sources."

After Jake completed the assessments we confirmed that he is a Visual and Kinesthetic learner who does not work well under pressure. It also confirmed that his desire to be a park ranger or forester is in line with his natural giftings and interests.

This is a great resource particularly for parents who are considering homeschooling a high schooler and need guidance planning the high school years. I wish I had used this when Jake was in 7th or 8th grade so I could have better laid out his high school classes and volunteer opportunities.

You can purchase The Career Guide two different ways:
$39.95 for a soft cover book, or
for a limited time your can purchase it for $26.20 which 25% off the original price of $34.95.

A word of caution about purchasing it as an e-book- The very nice folks at EDUDPS suffered copyright theft and have had to protect their work by very tightly securing their e-products. I am not technically savvy and personally found this to be difficult to work with. You are allowed only two printings -printing even a single page counts as one printing. So carefully read the fine print before purchasing this as an e-product.

You can go here to read the reviews of other TOS Crew members.

TOS Review EDUDPS- Write With the Best, Volume 1

We received two e-books from Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services or EDUDPS for short. ;) The author, Jill Dixon, has extensive experience in special education, serves has a consultant for the HSLDA and is a fellow homeschool mom (with two highschool graduates under her belt).

Write With The Best, Volume 1 is a descriptive writing program written for students in grades 3-12. The idea is to teach your child how to write descriptively by having him model great works of literature.

Nine different genres are covered:
* Describing an Object from Jules Verne
* Describing a clace from Charles Dickens
* Describing a character from Daniel Defoe
* Writing dialogue from Kenneth Grahame
* The Short Story from O. Henry
* Fables from Aesop
* Friendly Letters from Robert Louis Stevenson
* Poetry - Rhyming Verse from William Wordsworth
* The Ballad or Narrative Poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In the event your student doesn't care for the suggested literature or finds it too difficult to read, alternate literary passages are provided.

Each daily lesson takes only 15-45 minutes, is addressed to the student and can be used with all children in a family at the same time. The program includes all needed excerpts from all of the literature that it models so that teachers are not required to purchase additional material. It comes complete with a helpful answer key, grading criteria, and an invaluable “How To Write Guide” to assist in teaching each genre.

Each unit is designed to take ten days or two weeks to complete; though your older student could easily do them in four or five days. Hank is too young for this curriculum, and Jake really is too old for many of the suggested activities so I had him complete them more quickly than suggested. We did the first three units.

He already knows the definitions of the parts of speech and can easily identify descriptive and specific adjectives, adverbs, verbs and nouns in literary passages. He is also pretty handy with a thesaurus so he was able to do the first five activities in about 30-45 minutes, or one class.

Jake dislikes writing almost as much as math so the remaining five activities took four days to complete. In the end, he was able to produce a decent descriptive paragraph.

The Proofreading Checklist and Grading Criteria were very helpful for grading his work. It also gave him specific criteria to look for before giving me his paper to grade. The author also provides suggestions for teaching the material geared towards different learning styles.

I think this is a great writing program though I think the grade spread is a bit skewed. Any 3rd grader attempting it would need to be a pretty advanced reader and writer. And it's not what I would call a high school writing curriculum. I would suggest it for students in 5th through 8th grade.

You can purchase this product three different ways:
$24.95 for hard copy with binder;
$22.45 for hard copy but no binder;
and for a limited time you can buy it as an e-book for 25% off the regular $19.95 price for only $14.95.

A word of caution about purchasing it as an e-book- The very nice folks at EDUDPS suffered copyright theft and have had to protect their work by very tightly securing their e-products. I am not technically savvy and personally found this to be difficult to work with. You are allowed only two printings -printing even a single page counts as one printing. So carefully read the fine print before purchasing this as an e-product.

You can go here to read the reviews of other TOS Crew members.

TOS Review Nutrition 101

I was very excited to receive Nutrition 101: Choose Life! from Healthy Homes LLC for review. This is much more than a health and nutrition curriculum; it's an incredible resource for your whole family whether you homeschool or not.

The authors are Christian women and the dedication of the book reads: Dedicated to all the families who read and implement the healthy living suggestions outlined in Nutrition 101: Choose Life!, so they may have the physical and emotional health to fulfill God's calling on their lives. And each chapter begins with a Scripture reference to encourage you.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is a three-in-one family nutrition and health program for all ages that presents the major body systems, how they function, their common health issues, the benefits of good food and the consequences of bad food.

Its 448 pages include six units:
1) The Brain and Nervous System;
2) Digestion and Elimination;
3) Respiration and Olfactory;
4) Muscular and Skeletal Systems;
5) Cardiovascular and Immune Systems; and
6) Endocrine System and Emotions.

Within each unit are 4 chapters chock-full of information including key words, fun facts and nicely done graphics. Each chapter ends with discussion questions (answers are provided at the end of the book!), activities - for both elementary and secondary students, and a list of additional resources for more indepth study such as other books or websites.

There is also at least 1 "Power" recipe at the end of each chapter. I think this is one feature that really seals the deal for me. The recipes are yummy, and most of them are safe for Shane's allergies. Very nice.

There are also elementary and secondary-level activities outlined for the recipes. For example the elementary activities for the Guacamole recipe that compliments Chapter 1, The Brain and Nervous System , are:
1) At the grocery store, learn how to pick out fresh, ripe and ready-to-eat produce for the recipe (refer to Appendix D);
2) Help make the guacamole by measuring and adding the ingredients while learning or reviewing fractions;
3) Experiment to find out how to make avocados ripen faster with some unripened avocados, an apple and a small paper bag. Compare the process with a regular avocado sitting by itself next to the bag. Is there a difference? Give your findings in an oral or written report.
4) Grow an avocado plant

Another excellent feature are the appendices which cover 31 topics ranging from Health Statistics in the Labels and Household Toxins- the latter provides a number of recipes for natural cleaners. It's clear that a lot of time and research was invested in the contents of the appendix.

How we used it:
I didn't approach this like I would a curriculum, but rather I sought to integrate it into our daily lives. Because of Shane's allergies- dairy, wheat and corn- we already eat fairly healthy, most of the time. But it was good to learn the "why" behind our food choices.

The information in the chapters is over my little ones' heads so I would read the chapter on my own and then share key points with them while either making the recipe or doing a craft activity.
Unit 1 is about the brain and nervous system so we made brain hats and talked about where in our brains different body functions are housed.

Hank and Ella tried eating with their non-dominant hands (they're both lefties), and later we all brushed our teeth with our non-dominant hands

We learned how the ingredients in guacamole and Greek salad are good for our brains and nervous system. And how rice stuffed tomatoes are good for our hearts.

We made nut balls for a healthy skeletal system.

We tried many other recipes that I didn't photograph. As we ate, we talked about why those particular ingredients strengthened and nourished our bodies as opposed to fast food or junk food. We also talked about why, as Christians, it's important to take care of our bodies so we can better serve the Lord.

Also, after reading the appendix on the dangers of microwave ovens, we moved ours to the basement. And we've been getting along just fine without it!

If natural living and healthy eating appeal to you at all, I highly recommend this book. It's not inexpensive, but I think it is worth saving for. You can purchase a CD version of the book for $79.95 or a hard copy for $99.95. They also offer a CD/Hard copy combo for $129.95.

You can buy it here, and you can read what other TOS Crew members have to say about it here.

The authors graciously explained their pricing strategy to the TOS Crew members and asked us to share the info with our readers. So here you go!

The pricing of the Nutrition 101 was not determined lightly. First of all, we are Christians and know it is our duty to be good stewards with the resources He has given us; we are committed to making His priorities our priorities. Second, we are all moms that understand the costs of running a household and doing so within a budget.

Factors that contributed to the cost:

1) N101 is a three-in-one product: a curriculum, family health program and exhaustive nutrition guide. As a curriculum, it includes the unit studies with activities for elementary and secondary, power recipes with activities and a complete teacher's guide. Everything you need is all together, so no purchasing separate books or workbooks.

2) There is nothing like it on the market. We looked at the mainstream health genre, but found nothing comparable. We conducted market research on similarly sized and packaged (book, ebook and combo) products in the homeschool market. Although we found similarly packaged products, N101 was the largest, only full color and graphically/photo intense. We knew that N101 was more expensive to produce, but we priced it competitively based on what was well received on the market.

3) N101 is multi-generational and multi-directional. Although homeschoolers are our biggest market, our customers include health professionals, public and private school teachers, and adults with empty nests or without children who are seeking solid health information. As a curriculum and health program, Nutrition 101 is designed to be used over and over and over and over again.

I use it with my three-year-old and am already introducing her to basic biology with it. The biggest reward for me is that she is loving to eat good food and why. (We are avoiding sugar right now because of the high levels of sickness in our town. Yesterday, she was offered a lollipop when I was in the next room, and I heard her say "no thank you.") Of course, I loaned my 88-year-old grandpa a copy to read because of his interest in sweetners and healthy alternatives. So, I plan to be using N101 the rest of my life ... in my home and to help others experience abundant health.

TOS Review STUDYPOD

A few weeks ago we received a STUDYPOD bookholder to review. This is such a nifty little product!

Developed by a teacher, the STUDYPOD provides a simple way to improve your studying. It holds any size textbook and study sheets upright at a comfortable level (similar to the angle of your computer screen) helping maximize your focus. It holds virtually any textbook wide open, freeing hands for writing, typing or eating.

It is very simple to set up and use. If you get stuck, it comes with easy to follow instructions, and you can watch a video on the STUDYPOD website to see how to use it.

The STUDYPOD comes in 3 colors: black, blue and pink, and it is quite compact but also sturdy; Jake uses it for his 300+ page math book.
I use it primarily for Hank's language arts. He needs to copy sentences from his book and then punctuate them correctly or identify the parts of speech. The STUDYPOD saves me from having to write all of his work on the whiteboard for him to copy, and it helps him follow along more easily than if the book was lying flat on his desk.

So far we've been able to share just one, but I can easily see how having one of these for each student would be extremely helpful.

The usefulness of the STUDYPOD isn't limited to the schoolroom. It has many uses:

• Presentations- prop up your presentation materials on a STUDYPOD.
• Art projects and music- Use the STUDYPOD as a portable easel or music holder.
• Perfect for tutoring and group work- Working with a group and have to share a book? No problem! The STUDYPOD makes it easy for a group to read from the same text.
• Use the STUDYPOD in the kitchen as your cookbook holder,
• Or when you exercise.

It's approximately 7" by 9" and not quite 1.5" thick so it stores easily on your bookshelf, and there's a handy little pocket inside to store small supplies.

You can buy a STUDYPOD for $19.95, but the very generous folks at STUDYPOD are offering TOS Review readers a special discount; you can get $5 off your order when you use coupon code TOSBLOG5. You can also sell Studypods as a fundraiser.

You can read what other TOS Crew members have to say about it here.

Schoolroom Makeover

A current topic at the TOS Crew member site is schoolrooms. Do you have one? Or does your family just gather around the dining room table or on the living room couch? If you have a dedicated 'schooling' space, what does it look like?

Our house is older with a lot of strangely laid out rooms so I've moved our schoolroom from room to room over the years. Last year, it was in the front room. I really, really loved doing school in that room. It has a large window out to the front yard and a door to the outside just around the corner. But - there just wasn't enough space in it for 4 kids, 1 mom and 2 dogs.

Jake's desk

Ella and Hank's desks

And my bookshelves...I also needed more room for more books. Soooo

...I moved it all to the basement.

My and Jake's desks and half the bookshelves

Shane, Ella and Hank's desks and the other half of the bookshelves (and I still could use at least 1 more!). I wanted to be able to have a dedicated art area for Ella as well as a place to put science and geography stuff-that's the table on the left.

Hallway to the rest of the basement. I have timelines and some preschool posters on these walls
Maybe next summer I'll get around to painting the basement...or not. :)

I signed up Hank to run his second 1 mile race and me to run my second 5k this past Saturday. Some friends of ours also signed up for the same race so that added to the fun.

Our friends' 9 y/o son and a friend of his also ran the 5K. Once Hank realized they weren't running the 1 mile, he really wanted to run the 5k. It took some convincing that he would need to train in advance and couldn't just hop on the course and take off. :)

So Shane ran around while waiting for Hank's race to begin

And Ella stood around looking mighty cute

while Hank and I walked around to warm up a little. It was chilly Saturday morning!

Here's my little super star running to the finish line

I have to brag on my boy a little. He finished 3rd overall by running a 9:10. I don't run that fast...granted I'm a slow runner, but that's a pretty good pace for a beginner 7 y/o

The boys waited patiently for the 5k runners to finish

Hank and mommy

The kids and I just mapped out our training course. Our road is narrow and winding so we're limited as to where we can run near home. We were able to map out a safe, 2.7 mile course so training begins tomorrow. Poor Jake thought he was off the hook because Bible Quizzers is on Saturdays. But I have his Bible Quizzers schedule on the calendar now, and he has no choice but run with us. He'll thank me for it one day. :)

TOS Review Rocket Phonics

Jake went to public school pre-K through 5th grade so when I began schooling him he already knew how to read. When it was time to teach Hank, I used a lesser known classical phonics curriculum for K and 1st grade, and he'd progress in spurts but never really take off. It has been frustrating for both of us because he really enjoys books and will sit and look at them for long periods of time, but he was really having a hard time gaining reading fluency.


I used the same program for Ella for K, and while she made more progress than Hank at the same level, she also didn't take off and begin reading independently.


Early in the summer, I began looking at different phonics programs and praying for wisdom - and provision. The budget is really tight so I couldn't just buy a bunch of curriculum and experiment to see what would work for them both! Once again the Lord has provided through the TOS Crew. A handful of us have the opportunity to review Rocket Phonics .


Rocket Phonics is different from other phonics programs because it teaches that one letter creates one sound. This has really helped Hank who had a hard time keeping track of all the 'rule breaker' sounds his previous program introduced.


Rocket Phonics gives your child helpers. The helpers show your child how to pronounce each word so your child can read all the words in his or her spoken vocabulary! As your child learns, and no longer needs the helpers, we gradually remove them.

We color-code each word. The blue letters keep their sound. If the letter doesn't keep its color (blue) it doesn't keep its sound and the true sound is underneath. The child sees the word correctly spelled and decodes the word every time.

Each Rocket Phonics kit comes with:

• 2 big Rocket Phonics readers
• Two sets of Play & Read symbol cards
• Bingo chips
• Rocket Peeker
• Bingo sheets and Word lists for testing
• New! Big-movement games for preschoolers and active learners

As a special gift with your purchase you will receive three free bonuses valued at over $100

Free Bonus Gift #1: Free 28 bonus gifts: With your purchase, you’ll receive by email free each week for 28 weeks a bonus gift to your kit. New! Now incuded: Spelling Strategy— multi-sensory, developed by spelling specialists, and nearly foolproof! Also, 12 Writing Lessons, perfect for kindergarten or first grade. You and your child will be thrilled with each week’s additional stories, riddles, games, beginning reading tips and more. There's extra practice for each grade level! ($69.95 value)

Free Bonus Gift #2: Two Rocket Phonics Treasure Hunts: The rhyming clues are written both with and without Rocket Phonics’ unique helpers, so very early readers can read beyond their grade levels to figure out clues and find the treasure. Your children will love these. Prizes, such as sticky hands, kazoos, etc., are all included and ready for fun. ($16.95 value)

Free Bonus Gift #3: Rocket Phonics Word-Find Treasure Hunt and the Rocket Phonics phrase Game: Your child will delight in finding and reading one word or phrase at a time with these games emailed to you. ($19.95 value)

How are we using Rocket Phonics...

We begin by going through the Play and Read cards which teach the Initial Teaching Alphabet; these cards are sturdy and the pictures are a nice quality.

I was worried that I would need to un-teach and then re-teach my kids the phonics sounds, but that hasn't been the case. They are both doing really well with it. An example of the cards is a picture of an ape; under that is 'ay', and then under that is the word 'ape.' So I hold the card up and we say, " 'A' (long A) as in ape." I am also using these with Shane separately, and he's doing a great job with them, too.

We've played Bingo with me calling out the sounds. Once we had a winner, I had both kids go back and read the sounds out loud that they had chips on. They both want to continue playing Bingo after several games. It's strange for me to have to make them stop doing school. :)

One of the Bonus Gifts includes riddles which they've gotten a big kick out of. It's a lot of fun to watch them work to read the riddle and then they realize that what they've just read is a joke and both start cracking up.

They also play Simon Says by taking turns being Simon by reading what Simon Says to do.

Go Fish is a favorite of ours, too. They ask for cards by saying the letter sound.

What I've noticed is that Hank is more willing to try to read. Before I'd have to insist that he read for school, but now he's willing to give it a try, and he's doing a good job at it. We're going to continue using Rocket Phonics during the year, and I'll post updates from time to time. I'm excited to see how Ella and Hank do!

Rocket Phonics costs $160, and you can divide that into 3 easy payments of $53.34.

You can order Rocket Phonics here. And you can read what other TOS Crew members have to say about it here.

The Potomac Street Mile

The Brunswick Main Street organization sponsors a 1 mile race each year to raise funds for their downtown revitalization efforts. Ella, Shane and I signed up to walk the mile, and Hank was signed up to run in the kids' race.

Obligatory pose for mom (what's the deal with that little blonde one??) :)

Stretching and warming up

When it came time to walk, Shane opted to stay with daddy and Hank at the finish line. So Ella and I walked on our own. Good thing Shane didn't come along; Ella completely pooped out, and I had to CARRY her half the way. ugh! We were second to last so it wasn't like we were sprinting along or anything. The race didn't start until after 10 so it was beginning to warm up...the Princess melts in the heat.

The Finish Line at last.

Waiting for the race to begin. He was very nerbus.

He made a friend along the way, #71. Turns out he and his friend play in the same homeschool soccer league. Small world!

Strong finish

I forgot to start my watch and couldn't clearly hear the man calling the time, but Hank ran it in 9:30-something. Not bad for a 7 year old!

Supah Stah!

I signed Jake and I up to run the 5k at the Frederick Fair this weekend, but it turns out that Jake has a Bible Quizzers match at the same time.

The very nice folks coordinating the race let me transfer Jake's registration to Hank so he can run the 1 mile race. He's very excited because the kids get to run past the fair carnival, and they get a ribbon when they finish. It should be a fun time.

Keys Game

We went with Mr and Mrs P to see the Keys last week. It was "Meet the Politician" night so there were handshakers everywhere. Unfortunately for them we don't live in the city limits so we can't vote for them, but the kids had a good time. (Plus there were bowls of candy *everywhere*)

Waiting for daddy and Mr and Mrs P to arrive

Cheesy poses while still waiting for everyone

Playing frisbee with Mayoral candidate Jennifer Dougherty. She's very friendly and the kids had a good time. I think she was ready for a nap afterwards though; 3 against 1 frisbee is hard work.

Hanging out with daddio

It was a looooong game

Getting ready to run the bases at the end

Ella and Mrs P

Shane wanted no part of "baseball dog." He prefers to look at him from way far away.

The other two with Keyote

A day at Broomes Island

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Broomes Island to hang out with Grandpop and Lisa. I don't have any pictures of Jake so I'm not sure what he was doing while the camera was out.

Here are the 3 littles on the fishing dock.

Daddy and Shane posing after Uncle Keith scared the Blue Heron away trying to take its picture Uncle Keith's picture of the sunset. Very pretty