He Makes Me Smile

Nana found the little guy an outfit for $3.00. 

Can you believe it?  A three piece outfit for 3 bucks!

I had to do an impromptu photo shoot.

Oh, this kid makes me laugh.

The way he smiles his winning smile is with eyes closed and face raised towards the heavens.

Openings For the Crew Next Year!

The announcement is out ... applications are available to become a part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew Review team . . .

If you plan on homeschooling next year and you would like to receive free products in exchange for an honest review of the product, then check out next year's adventure by clicking here!  You will need to fill out a demographics form first by March 12, 2010!

I would encourage you to see if this would be what God has for you next year -- especially if you are a blogger.  I have so enjoyed my experience and we have been blessed by several of the curriculum's we were exposed to!  
July 2010 through June 2011

If You Give A Mom A Book

Transition can be a difficult thing. And our transition from vacation mode to family life came with a few moguls and black diamonds along the way.

We read books, did school, learned to get along (multiple times), welcomed a new family member into the world, shoveled snow, began to learn about the United States, and worked towards getting my Once Upon A Book post ready over at Totally Tots.

The fun book of the week that made our imaginations soar was . . .




We have the board book of this that we videoed Brian reading to the boys while he was in India two years ago.  So it was fun to hear about how the Lazarado's acquired Bob.

It was one of our first good snugly moments of the week . . . 

Sorry this is brief . . . but there is a lot to do today!  But always still time to take a minute and read a book to one of my kids!

What did you read this week? 

If you don't know what a Sustaining Book is check out my first blog post on this topic, If You Give a Mom a Book.

Some things that you could discuss in your blog post would be:

• What is one book that stood out to you this week?
• What was the title of the book, and who were the author(s) and illustrator(s)?
• What conversations did it spark between you and your child?
• Did the book come up randomly in conversation at some point causing your child to create an application on their own?
• Set the scene—where did you sit?
• Did you have anything yummy to eat or drink while reading?
• Was music playing?
• How did reading together help your day?
• What was the story about?
• Did you like the illustrations?
• What was your favorite part about snuggling?
• Why was your book a Sustaining Book?

Guidelines

• Link up 1x a week. My goal is to post every Friday.
• Pick one book—your favorite book from that week.
• Use any one of the suggestions I listed above to include in your post.
• Grab my button on the sidebar to compliment your blog post.
• Enter the exact blog post address in Mr. MckLinky!
• Leave me a comment that you linked up!

I can’t wait to read about your Sustaining Book!

Kinderbach ~ A Review

My poor children have a mom with no musical inclination.  I can’t dance, I can’t sing, and I can’t even clap to the beat.

But I like music.

So any help I can get in the music field is appreciated.

And God helped me out quite a bit this winter.  There was a sale on some guitar  computer lessons, so I purchased that CD-ROM.  And then . . . The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew was given the opportunity to review Kinderbach. 

What is Kinderbach?

KinderBach is designed to provide an introduction to music using the keyboard or piano. First and foremost, KinderBach's primary goal is to ensure both student and parent have fun with this curriculum. Hundreds of hours of professional video instruction coupled with printed materials in the form of PDF files provide hours of well planned exercises. All student and teaching aids can be constructed from the PDFs

Our initial problem:  we lacked a keyboard.

Problem solved:  Mr. Me-Too’s Mama (grandma) gave him one for Christmas!  It isn’t big and it isn’t a full keyboard, but it worked. 

We printed out the curriculum booklet from the Kinderbach website and set about learning how to play the keyboard.  We learned about Dodi the donkey and Dodi’s house.  We turned kitchen utensils into musical instruments.  We cut, glued, and colored.  And I think we even learned about meter, or beat, or something like that. 

My boys enjoyed Kinderbach.  They could count on whimsical songs, bright colors, and silly pictures.

We often did a week’s worth of lessons in one sitting.  The lessons are that short and entertaining.  The boys enjoyed accomplishing a whole “unit.”  In a nutshell, this is music at your own pace.

But . . . even after sitting with the boys on every lesson, I’m not sure what we learned.  I still feel musically illiterate other than I know where Dodi lives and how to play a quarter note. 

It’s hard to learn something new – at least for an old gal like me.  And maybe I missed something—I was often entertaining a 1 year old at the same time.  Nevertheless, we had fun.

You can try it out.  Kinderbach offers a 2 week free trial.  If you like it, here is what you can plan on spending– you have three options. 

• $7.99/month (billed in a 1-time payment of $95.88 – a savings of 60%)
• $19.99/month (billed monthly)
• buy a DVD/CD package starting at $40.45

According to the Kinderbach website,

The Year Membership gives access to 6 Levels of entertaining music education for 3 to 7 year old children through about 22 hours of video and interactive coloring pages. Miss Karri introduces preschoolers to the keyboard characters, as well as the Grand Staff clefs. Kids will enjoy playing simple songs, identifying music direction, learning new rhythm notes and their beat value. Level 1 to 6 covers proper hand and finger position for the music scale, as well as staff note reading by pattern for voice, and keyboard.

Find out what the other Homeschool Crew members think of Kinderbach by clicking on the below picture!

I was not paid for this post.  A subscription was given to me from Kinderbach to use for three months to review this product as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew.

The Great Postcard Swap

I heart mail. 

And I am pretty certain that for the next 50 weeks, we will actually receive some personal mail.

From complete strangers.  But my kids will learn about the United States in a unique and fun way.






The idea is that we will mail 49 Indiana postcards -- one postcard to a designated family in each state.  And hopefully, we will receive that many in return.

We are ready.  Kind of.  We need to write a fact on our postcard or some sort of little note, address the postcards, and stamp them.

Mr. Smackdown and I went to the teacher store today.

I know that I probably could have gotten a lot of our state "education" from the web . . . but I really need to step away from computer.  It takes a lot of time to search for what you want . . . (I have included what I bought down at the bottom of this post--in case you are part of the swap or you want to start your own!)

The map is waiting. One postcard was saved for us. 

Let the Great Postcard Swap begin!



And if you are wondering . . . the reason I also have a world map up is because we are doing a world postcard swap using the website PostCrossings.

I’m Filing a Complaint Against My Cow

 

 

I hear it is because you are eating baleage these days.  Can you please eat dry hay instead? 

Or God will you bring Spring quickly so part of my cow can eat some FRESH green grass? 

Or better yet, can you change my taste buds?  (Oh, maybe you are.  Are you trying to tell me something?)  The Hottie would like to think so.

My chai is at stake here.  Just thought you might want to know. 

Words That Rhyme with Orange ~ A Review

If only you knew what I was listening to right now. 

I’m not ashamed.  Nope.  It makes me happy.  I thought that only one particular music group could instill happy endorphins.  (You know . . .I have a bit of an affinity for U2.)  

The particular CD that I am listening to sounds NOTHING like U2 . . . but it produces the same effect. It makes me happy.

Words that Rhyme with Orange, Music CD for children

Age Group This Book/Product is for: 2-12 (adults, too!)

Put out by: Ross King of Ross King Music

Price: $12.00

Buy Cd and listen to a sample

Purchase at itunes

Purchase at Amazon.com

Note: Ross King Music is independent and “self-produced, which means this product in only available online and not in stores.

I heart Words That Rhyme With Orange by Ross King because Ross blogs.  His wife even blogs! 

I like Ross King’s music, plain and simple. (OK. . .  I used his full name because I always get confused on where to put the apostrophe when a word ends with an “s.”) 

But seriously.  I got to “know” Ross before his CD arrived at my house.  His sense of humor comes out in his blog and especially the titles he gives for his various links.  His humor resonates with me. 

I guess you could say, I was partial to the CD before I even got the CD.

But it is like HE WROTE THIS ALBUM FOR ME!  The songs ARE my life.  Check out the titles to the songs and I might add a few comments:

1. Happy to Be Me

2. Juicebox – Just so much fun to sing!

3. If I Wasn't So Cute – Mad at your kid, put this song on!

4. More

5. The Sound of Whining – Who doesn’t have this lovely sound?

6. The Food Trying Song – I can even learn from this song!

7. Lionmonkeybacondonkey

8. Play Outside

9. Don't Do It – Any booger eaters at your house?

10. Afrikiddo Roomp – Get out your instruments and jam with this song!

11. Learning My Alphabet

12. Sleepyhead – Do you have any children who want to stay up late?

13. Naomi's Lullabye

When things are getting tough in our household, this CD relieves the tension.  (Click here and listen to a sample.)

For example, as you all know the Hottie and I just returned home from our anniversary ski trip to Utah.  The transition from marital bliss to family life has been what you might call bumpy or mogul-ish (if there is such a word).  Mr. Smiley was awake 5 times our first night and he didn’t even know we were home!  The second night the dog puked all over our bed—I had just put on fresh sheets, too.  On the way to music class on Monday, Mr. Smiley got car sick and of course I HAD FORGOTTEN TO BRING A CHANGE OF CLOTHES.  (Which just reminds me . . . I forgot to clean out the car . . . 24 hours later.  Nuts.) You couldn’t tell that Mr. Smackdown and Mr. Me-Too had been apart for 4 days – they have been fighting like cats and dogs. 

Sigh.

By dinner time last night, I had just about used up all of my rest and refreshment emotional restraint reserves from being gone and was about to send an avalanche down into my home.  And then . . . I remembered . . .

Buy it.  Ask for it.  Give it to your kid for their next 1/2 birthday.  That is all I have to say.

This delightful post was brought to you as part of my participation with MamaBzz. I was given a copy of the CD for free and I do not have to return it.  You couldn’t make me return it.  I was not paid for this post.  I wrote it with joy!

P.S.  If you visit MamaBzz, you will discover that a giveaway is going on to win a set of Ross Kings CD’s.  I’m all over that!

 

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