Balancing Diapers and Deadlines {Review}

I have had the pleasure of reviewing Balancing Diapers and Deadlines by Lisa Tanner Writing.  Lisa is one of our own Review Crew mompreneurs and she has written this online course to help moms juggle raising kids, managing a household, and running a business.  

While I'm not running a business per se, I do work from home as a homeschool teacher for my two children.  That's my "business"...and, trust me, that takes more patience and planning than I ever used when I was in the corporate world!  But also, someday I'd like to spend more time on this blog and grow it to the point that it might bring in a little income.  I think Lisa's course is helpful for moms just like me because she teaches how to streamline your home to make things run more smoothly so you are able to maximize your time and meet your deadlines.

There are 30 lessons in the program that are divided over 8 units.

The course offers some great ideas about setting goals and scheduling your time.  You should write down your goals for your business (or homeschool, in my case) and share those with the family.  Make sure you are all on the same page.  Also, when dealing with kids and households, you have to be flexible.  Rigid time schedules may not be the best fit because it is hard to stay on a time schedule when each day is different and so many things are out of your control.  Algebra is just hard and some days my kid might need to spend extra time on that subject.  Or a toilet overflows.  Or we have a doctor appointment in the middle of the day and who knows how long that will take.  Instead of trying to stick to a schedule laid out in 15 minute increments, come up with a plan for the day with a list of what needs to get accomplished and a suggested order of how the day should be proceed but allowing flexibility to cut or add things along the way, as needed.

I love that Lisa offers some great ideas for running a household by minimizing your decisions.  She suggests letting each child have a day where they are in charge of certain decisions and they are the main helper in making things happen such as cooking dinner.  Man, I like that idea.  It's just one less decision I have to worry about!  She also encourages a house cleaning schedule where everyone works together to focus on one room each day.  Other rooms might need tidying up throughout the week but at least each room gets a good cleaning once a week.  There is also a full unit just on meal planning.

The course also covers how to manage everything at a sustainable pace.  It covers taking care of yourself like making sure you get enough sleep and finding time to relax.  You also have to set boundaries and know when it is better to just pay someone for a service than to always try to do everything yourself.  I should probably read this unit again.

There is a whole unit on Growing A Business With Your Kids Around.  It covers lessons on kids at various ages and how they can feel included and even helpful in your business.  There is even a lesson on managing your business with special needs children.  Here is just a glimpse at some of the great ideas suggested for integrating kids of various ages into your business....taking pictures for your business, putting postage on mail, add affiliate links to your posts, scribe for you in the car, and straighten up your desk, just to name a few.

I have really enjoyed working through Balancing Diapers and Deadlines.  I like the course is self-paced and that the lessons are short so I can complete a lesson while sitting in a doctor's waiting room (got to maximize your time where you can!).  I like that it is all text-based so there are no videos or interactive pages to slow down my progress.  I want to just read at my own pace.  There are action step assignments that I can choose to do to implement the suggestions along the way and even printable worksheets to help me apply the lessons to my own chaos life.  Once I have completed a lesson, I just click on the "Mark Complete" button and the program will remember where I left off and show me a percentage of the course that I have completed so far.  

I think all moms could benefit from this course even if they don't homeschool or run a business.  It is full of great ideas for to just make a mom's day run more smoothly while cherishing time with their children and meeting deadlines too.  I have already implemented many of the suggestions from the course and I can feel a difference in our day.

If you would like to read additional reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew, please just click on the banner below.

Bible Study for All Ages {Review}

Bible Study Guide for All Ages is a fun interactive homeschool Bible curriculum for teaching your children about the Word of God and how to apply it in their lives.  The Homeschool Review Crew gave us an option to review this program so Rachel has been working through the Intermediate (3rd and 4th grade) curriculum.  They also offer a Beginner level for ages 3 - Kindergarten, Primary for 1st and 2nd grade, and Advanced for 5th and 6th grade.

The curriculum is a four unit program containing 416 lessons total.  It is intended to be completed over the course of four years.  Each unit can be completed in one school year if your student works on lessons 3 times per week.  Each unit is divided into 4 quarters and there is a separate book for each quarter.  For the purpose of this review, we received Unit 1, Quarter 1 Intermediate Level Student Pages, the accompanying Teacher Key, and the Small Bible Book Summary Cards.  I will cover how to use those as we go along.

Rachel begins each lesson with reading the scripture listed for that lesson.  Then she works through the review part called "Remember It?" and "Memory Workout" which challenges students to recall what they have learned in previous lessons and work on drills to help learn important facts like the books of the Bible and the twelve sons of Jacob.

There is a fun "Guess What" section that gives interesting tidbits and facts that relate to the lesson.  Once she has read that she begins working on the "Timeline" or "Map" activity.  There are directions that tell her what to do.  Here she is drawing a skinny cow on the timeline where Pharaoh had his dream.  She chose to make it a pink cow because she likes strawberry milk!  I like how there is structure in this curriculum yet it allows the students to be creative and make it more personalized for them.

The Map section has the student circle towns, mark arrows for travel, etc.  This is important for students to be able to "see" the geography of the Bible and how towns and landforms are located in relation to each other.

The "Apply It!" section is important because this is where the student is applying the lessons they learned in the Bible study to their own lives.  They are given scenarios and asked to finish the story or simply asked direct questions about what they should do or what the Bible says about a particular situation.  This is a great part of the curriculum.  The students aren't just reading the Bible but learning to use the lessons to spread the love of God to the world.

The back of each Student Page has the "Discover the Bible" section.  This page has a comic strip style and the student follows the directions to mark out words that are incorrect, match up pictures in the story, and fill in the blanks.  Rachel likes to add a little color to her pages too.

The Teacher Key has a page that corresponds to each of the Student Pages.  It is really needed if you use the Wall Maps and Timeline set because it directs you on which labels need to be placed on each.  

We are not using the Wall Maps and Timeline set but I still find the Teacher Key to be helpful.  It provides me with a quick reference to the answers that Rachel should be marking in her Student Pages and it also helps me see how she should be completing her individual timeline and maps.

We also received the Small Bible Book Summary Cards.  These are a great resource for any child learning about the Bible, even if they aren't using this full curriculum.  Each lesson refers the child to read or re-read a summary card.

There is one card for each book of the Bible.  The front of the card summarizes the book with colorful pictures which serve as a great reminder of what the story is about.

The back of each card has a written summary of the book.  There are also a list of questions about the book that the teacher can use to quiz their child.  The answers to the questions are in small print after the question.

Wall Maps and Timeline Set for $24.95.  The timeline is 76" x 25".  There are three large maps included in the set.  One of the maps measures 36" x 25" and the other two maps are 19" x 25".  We already have a giant timeline on our school room wall so I didn't opt to receive these but they look like great products to help clarify the time line and geography of the Bible.

Children's Songs 2-CD set is available for $19.95.  The lessons direct you when to play certain songs from the CD that correspond with what the student is learning.  It is a fun addition to the curriculum but not required.

You can purchase all of the pieces separately but I would recommend buying the Intermediate Starter Pack.  There are two versions of the Starter Pack to choose from.  The basic includes all four units of the Intermediate Student Pages, the Large Bible Book Summary Cards and the Children's Songs CD for $67.80.  The premium version includes all of these item but also the Teacher Keys, Wall Maps and Timeline set and the Label book for book that contains the labels for the maps and timeline.  The premium set sells for $135.61.

For more information about Bible Study for All Ages, please visit these social media sites:

Website: https://biblestudyguide.com/index.php
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BibleStudyG/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BibleStudyG

If you would like to read additional reviews about this curriculum from other Homeschool Review Crew members, please just click on the banner below:

Learning Cursive with Memoria Press {Review}

You have probably seen me mention Memoria Press classical education materials a few times on this blog.  We have used their homeschool curriculum for several subjects including science, history, and foreign language.  I was recently given the opportunity to review their penmanship curriculum for grades 1-4.  I have liked it so much that I have added it to Rachel's regular homeschool studies.  She has been learning to write in cursive with the New American Cursive 2 (Famous Americans) book from Memoria Press.



New American Cursive is a form of cursive that uses a simplified letter style.  All of the letters actually look like their manuscript counterparts.  It is a great way for beginners to learn cursive.

I especially love the way that Memoria Press makes learning cursive fun by calling letter strokes Smiles, Grins, and Jumps.

It also explains which line to draw the strokes on by comparing the lines on the page to a "Letter House" with the top line being the Third Floor, the dotted middle line is the Second Floor, the bottom line is the First Floor, and the part that drops below the line is the Basement.

Rachel is left-handed so I appreciate the way that this workbook is spiral-bound at the top so she isn't having to struggle with binding on the left side of the page getting in the way of her writing hand.  The workbook is also great in that it gives constant reminders about the importance of correct pencil position and paper placement.  I continuously struggle with getting her to hold her pencil correctly so these reminders are helpful.

Rachel has never tried to learn cursive so this was her first experience with it.  With that in mind, I realize that I should have probably chosen the New American Cursive 1 book for her since she is just starting out.  I have to admit that I was just in love with the fact that the New American Cursive 2 (Famous Americans) book offered quotations from famous Americans for writing practice passages.  But there is also a New American Cursive 2 (Scriptures) book that uses Bible scriptures for writing practice.  It looks wonderful too.  I'm really glad that I chose the Cursive 2 book.  It has a lot of review in it and so we started out spending a lot of time on that part so she could learn the basic strokes.  She has picked it up really well.  

The only curriculum you need to purchase is the New American Cursive 2 workbook for $22.95.  It is consumable and intended to be used by one student.  The worksheet pages teach the strokes so there is no need to buy a teacher manual.  As a matter of fact, Rachel does her cursive work independently just by reading the workbook pages on her own so I don't have to "teach" that subject to her at all.  The workbook includes 125 short writing exercises to learn and practice her skills.  She completes one page a day and is progressing well through the program especially considering her lack of experience.

Rachel is still working through the book so we will be continuing to work on this through the summer.  I looked ahead at some of the work she will be doing soon.  

The Homeschoool Review Crew was given the choice of review products.  I chose the New American Cursive Penmanship program but other members of the crew chose to review their Traditional Logic and Classical Composition programs.  If you would like to read reviews from crew members on any of these three products, just click on the banner below.



We enjoy using Memoria Press curriculum in our homeschool.  Here are some other reviews we have done for some of their other products:

• The Book of Trees: Learning Botany with Memoria Press
• The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic / 200 Questions About American History From Memoria Press {Review}
• Learning Latin with First Form Latin by Memoria Press

Home School Navigator {Review}

Language Arts is an important part of our homeschool.   There is nothing more important than being able to use language to take in information about the world around us and then communicate our own ideas to others effectively. Although I wasn't actively looking for a new language arts program to use I am always interested in learning about new programs and resources to see if they might help in our school.  The Home School Review Crew offered us an opportunity to try Home School Navigator for the purpose of a review so Rachel and I have been working through it together.  She received a one year subscription to Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts curriculum which includes access to their Interactive Notebooks.

Home School Navigator is a online comprehensive language arts program for building strong readers and writers.  It is written for homeschool families and it can be used with multiple students.  There are 6 levels named for different colors.  Each level consists of 36 weeks of material to cover one year of instruction. At first I wasn't sure which level to choose for Rachel.  She is finishing third grade and she is a good reader.  I looked over the Home School Navigator Scope and Sequence for the various levels and decided that Level Blue would be a good fit for her.  However, the subscription provides access for her to use the entire 6 years of coursework so it would be no problem if we started using the Blue level and then decided that it wasn't the best fit for her.  Since we have access to the entire program, we could just move her up a level or down a level to best fit her needs.
Home School Navigator curriculum teaches Literature/Comprehension, Reading Skills Strategy, Writing Skills, Grammar, Phonics, Poetry, and Vocabulary.  The first thing I fell in love with in this program is the organization.  Every day is planned out for you.  Your child may not cover each subject every day but if you follow the lesson plans then all of the subjects will be covered over the week.  

I like to print out the lesson plans.  I just have to have printed versions so I can make notes and make check marks when a lesson is complete.  However, the online version presents the same lesson plans for each day and at the end of the week you just click the box to mark it complete.  This way it will keep track of your progress online.

The curriculum is very rich and covers a lot of material.  However, you can choose which subjects and/or activities you want your child to complete.  It is completely flexible and I love that because you can really customize it to meet your particular child's needs.

There are a lot of books to read throughout the program.  To save money, you might be able to find a lot of them at your local library but the creators of Home School Navigator have also made video read alouds so your child can just listen and watch as the story is being read to them.  We already had the book Rapunzel so Rachel wanted to read along with the video.

The weekly vocabulary lists are short so it doesn't get overwhelming.  There are games to make learning fun.  On this week, Rachel learned words with the prefix "pre" and then had to sort and match the definitions with the vocabulary words.

Rachel's favorite part of the program is the literature that she is reading. Her current Independent Reading selection is "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". 

I just love this book and it was fun watching Rachel discover how fun it is to read a story that is mostly just pictures.

The Interactive Notebooks that are included with the curriculum make for a fun way to review what has been read, study the traits of the characters, analyze the story, look up vocabulary words, and more.  It is recommended that you get a binder or even a composition notebook for your child to use for this notebook.  We already had several blank composition notebooks on hand so Rachel chose one of those.  Then she wanted to make a nice cover for it so this is what hers looks like.

The Interactive Notebook pages are printable pages that correspond with chapters in the assigned reading.  There are little flaps to be cut out and glued into the pages of the notebook.

Some are vocabulary words where Rachel had to look up the definition in the dictionary then write it on the booklet.

Somehow just adding flaps and little booklets makes the work more fun.  She never would have enjoyed this so much if I just handed her a regular worksheet to complete.

The Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum is available as an annual online subscription for just $97/year.  If you aren't ready to dive into the full program yet, you might want to start with just trying a few of the interactive notebooks which can be purchased separately for $8.00 each.  

If you would like to see what some other homeschool families had to say about Home School Navigator, just click on the banner below.

Media-Enhanced Digital Books from Weigl Publishers {Review}

Weigl Publishers offers an impressive array of media-enhanced digital books for students in grades K-12.  A student can read the book themselves or they have the option to have the book read aloud to them as well as using other multi-media features that enhance the learning experience.  Once the digital content has been unlocked for a book, your student will have access to those multi-media features indefinitely.  This is not a subscription that will expire in a year.
Rachel was most excited about the book called Glaciers which is part of the Earth's Water series through Lightbox. It is intended for students in grades 3-6.  

The digital content for Glaciers is amazing.  Each page of the book shows symbols for the types of features that are available for it.  Here is a picture of all of the different symbols that could appear on a page. 

They include audio, video, an activity, weblink, slideshow, transparency, Google map, quiz, and key words.  These features add so much more to the content than just what is included in the book.
Here are some examples below.  This picture is of a map of glaciers around the world.  You can see on the left hand side of the page that this page includes audio, an activity, transparency, and Google maps.

The transparency features takes a plain map and glaciers all around it along with some identified featured glaciers that appear in the boxes around the map.  What happens when you click on one of these boxes?  You get a screen that shows an actual Google map of that specific glacier so you can zoom in and out or look all around it.  It is like you are visiting the actual glacier from your home!

Rachel loves the video features on the pages.  The graphics are great and the information is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand way.  Here is part of a video she watched of glacier crevasses.


There is also a quiz feature.  If the student has read the book it will be a very easy quiz.  Rachel thought it was actually a fun quiz to take.

The second book we reviewed is A Lion's World which is part of the Eye Discover series (www.eyediscover.com).  This book is a great non-fiction easy reader that is intended for students in grades K-2.



Because A Lion's World is intended for younger students, it does not contain as much media content as Glaciers does.  However it does have amazing videos of lions on each page.  Rachel's favorite was listening to and watching the lion roar.




Finally, the last book we reviewed was There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant by Helen Ketteman.  This book is an AV2 Fiction Readalong.  It has sound effects and can read the book aloud for the student.  This particular one is a really cute spin on the classic book by a similar title.  There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant is intended for students in grades K-2.



Weigl Publishers has done a great job with their media-enhanced books.  Rachel has learned a lot while reading and exploring the digital content of the Glaciers book.  She wants to get more of their books so we looked at their list of the Lightbox Elementary books.  My son Nicholas will be starting high school this fall so I think I will get him some of the Lightbox Secondary books.  



If you would like to read additional reviews about these books from Weigl Publishers from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew, please click on the banner below: