No, I'm not giving away a Target Gift Card.  I'm trying to win one for myself!  But you can try for it, too!  I just found this lovely blog, called Oodlekadoodle Primitives.  It's written by a tech-savvy great-grandmother who lives down the road from me in Faribault, MN.  On her blog, she shares lots of yummy recipes.  And $25 Target gift cards!  That could come in handy when Christmas shopping for four kids and extended family!  Even if I don't win the card, though, I think I'll go back for some of those delicious-looking recipes!

Gymathtics is an educational DVD that helps you exercise your brain while you exercise your body. It is approximately 30 minutes long and is good for all ages; however the math facts are geared towards 2nd - 5th graders.

We all exercised with it and I have to admit, I am out of shape. It was a good workout for me. Making my legs go down into a rectangle was pretty humorous. The kids enjoyed the workout. I will say that the instructor's words are a bit cheesy, but I didn't expect anything different with a children's DVD. The instructor shows what exercises to do and there are 4 children on the video that do the exercises with her.

During warm up, you learn about different types of lines, rays and shapes. Counting Calisthenics includes counting whole numbers, odd & even numbers, skip counting, place value, and prime numbers. Pattern Power is all about patterns. Lots of physical exercises go along with the brain exercises. The Well-Being Wind Down is a cool down session. 

 You can get your copy for $24.99 and free shipping is currently be offered.

To see what my crewmates have to say about this product, click here.

I received this free in exchange for my honest review. 

Today we did a workout with Gymathics by Exploramania.  It’s the next product up for review with the Old Schoohouse Crew.  The creator of  Gymathics states, “I wanted to create products that synthesize education and a healthy lifestyle, beginning with my passion for math education.”  I would describe it as a cross between a kids workout class and a math concept introduction.

The DVD is about 30 minutes of exercise set to some background music with graphics put up on screen showing various math concepts.  They concepts are things like skip counting, prime number, types of triangles and patterns.  It’s recommended for grades 2-5 for the math concepts and the exercise for kids of all ages.  There is a clip on their site so you can get an idea of the format.   For my own kids I could only get my 4^th grader to try it out.  My older kids gave me looks like, “You’ve got to be kidding.”    

One of the teaching concepts Gymathics is taking advantage of  is multi-sensory learning.  I know from my own research in teaching language arts to younger children that motion is simply more then keeping the kids busy, it’s actually been proven to help make brain connections.  Their web site has a page devoted to the research behind this philosophy.  The basic idea is that kids will retain the knowledge better the more senses they involve to learn it.

Lexie liked it okay but I don’t know if it’s something she’d do more then a few times.  I think younger kids may want to do it over and over more readily.  It sells for $24.99 so I know for our family I would want it to be something we’re going to watch more then once or twice.  My daughter already participates in a fit kids class so the exercise part may not be as novel to her.  The math concepts she didn’t already know she wouldn’t fully get from doing this once or twice but if you had a child who watched it repetitively I think they could gain familiarity if not mastery of some of the concepts.

It’s a great idea especially to get kids active and moving! 

One thing I do just have to note is that in one scene the main instructors t-shirt appears a bit too tight (or the room was too cold) which would be bothersome if my teenage boys had been watching.  They have been trained to look away if something like that appears.  I’m sure it was not intentional and my daughter did not notice but it was obvious to me and just want to mention it as it might be offensive to some families.

*The DVD Gymathics was provided to me free from Exploramania for the sole purpose of my honest opionions in the review.

I don't think waiting is all that hard for me.  I usually find ways to fill my time, even if it is just a good book to read.  But these past two weeks have redefined waiting.  After my last post, I did have to go to the ER, and was diagnosed with a kidney stone which was lodged in the ureter.  I followed up with my urologist, the only one in the area, and scheduled a lithotripsy (sound waves blast the stone into tiny gravel that are easier to pass).  Since I had come down with a bad cold and had lost my voice, he also prescribed an antibiotic to make sure I didn't develop any other nasty bugs before the procedure.  Unfortunately, I had a severe reaction to the medication and ended up hospitalized.  Since then, my heart has been racing.  And racing, and racing.  While I was in the hospital, the doctor placed a stint to make sure my kidney could continue to function.  Lithotripsy was rescheduled, and home I went.  The tachycardia did not go away, though, and a subsequent EKG proved abnormal (inverted T waves), so lithotripsy was cancelled again. 

So here I am.  Two weeks and I still have a stone.  Thankfully, oh so thankfully, I have no pain.  My pulse seems to be returning to normal after 1 1/2 weeks of racing.  Hopefully, I will find out soon what the new plan is.  And hopefully, we can wait until after thanksgiving.

As to our Thanksgiving study--we finished Leif the Lucky and started Columbus today.  We should finish Columbus tomorrow and next week we will read Pocahontus and If You Sailed on the Mayflower.  We are also using a globe to trace the routes that Leif and Columbus took and a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words.  And The Usborne Book of World History has been a great resource with this unit study.

When December comes, we will begin our Christmas study, which always includes reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

We were given a free membership to the Avko site as part of the Old Schoolhouse crew in exchange for our review on the information there.  I have to say I was initially overwhemelmed by the amount of information that I found and quite unsure where to start!

For starters there are five e-books on various spelling and reading issues, along with one on teaching a dyslexic student.  These are not small e-books, but rather lengthy and in depth pieces of work.  For instance the one I downloaded on word families is almost 1500 pages!  It lists words by their patterns (like CVC, homophones or prefix) as well as Greek and Latin roots and so much more.  I don’t even think I can explain everything that’s in it!  It would be useful if you were devising your own spelling lists and wanting to take them from  those groupings.  The first pages of this large e-book goes through their method and philosophy of learning spelling to give you some ideas.

The book on teaching dyslexic students would also be helpful if you are thinking you may have a child who is struggling and either is or may be dyslexic.  I might mention also that there is  an audio file on, “I Think My Child Might be dyslexic, Does it Matter?”

Besides the e-books and audio’s of various convention workshops there are a variety of other stories and articles.  Some seem to be humorous, inspirational, information and some even a little goofy (like one titled, “TOP 8 MORONS.”) 

Some of the information on the site could be useful for any homeschool family but I think it would be especially useful for those using their Sequential Spelling program.  I have never used it and much of the site refers to it or is extra evaluations or worksheets to go with it.

If you’re looking for lots of information on spelling and somewhat on reading this might be for you.  For myself personally having not used their program much of the information was not particularly useful to me.  If my children were younger and I was still trying to figure out the spelling/reading thing the reading might have pertained to me more, or if I had a child struggling in that area.

The membership is $25 per year and their site lists ALL the many resources available there.

For Johanna's birthday, Mom, Sam, Johanna and I went to the American Girl Place at the Mall of America.  Johanna doesn't have an American Girl.  She has this doll from Vision Forum, but she loves "Felicity" from the American Girl series.  In the picture above, Johanna is posing beside the Felicity display. 

For a snack, we went to the American Girl Cafe where Johanna and Sam were each allowed to choose a doll to take care of at our table.   

Sam named his doll "George." 

As we sat there waiting for our pretzel bread and cheese fondue, a waitress brought out mini-muffins and tiny cups of pink lemonade for the dolls.  Here, Sam is demonstrating to Johanna the proper way to feed the dolls.

We had a lovely time. 

When we were done, Johanna was allowed to pick out her birthday presents - a Felicity movie and a beautiful new dress for her doll. 

I hope Johanna thoroughly enjoys being eight years old.  It's a magical age and never comes back again.  Of course, no age comes back again, but none has the same dreams and amusements as being an eight-year-old girl. 

I had never heard of AVKO before but with being on the TOS Crew, I have now been exposed to it. AVKO is "a non-profit organization devoted to helping teachers, parents and researchers since 1974." AVKO provides free and low-cost resources "in order to achieve literacy for all, even despite learning challenges or dyslexia." With comments like that, it has my attention.

AVKO is multi-sensory. Their name stands for: Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, & Oral. If you need help with teaching a struggling reader or speller, I encourage you to check out this website.

Their membership costs $25 / year for Basic Membership or $100 / year for their Deluxe Membership. With both memberships, you save 25% on their printed AVKO materials. The Basic Membership also offers hundreds of dollars worth of free e-books, Don McCabe's workshop recordings, pretests and placement tests, and more. The Deluxe Membership includes all of the above plus some.

The website is pretty busy, but I encourage you to look around and, if nothing else, check out the freebies section. There is a lot of info to glean from. To see what my crewmates had to say, click here.

We had the inspection yesterday. All went well with the exception of the leak in the wall in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Hopefully the seller will have it fixed and if so, we will happily take the house. :) Here are two pics - one of the outside and one of the kitchen.

Here's the birthday boy from yesterday. 

Hard to believe that 12 years ago I was holding my precious baby bundle for the first time.  I never got tired of staring at him, watching the expressions as they flitted across his tiny face.  He was the sweetest, cutest, best baby ever.  Of course, I went on to have three more sweetest, cutest, best babies, but William was the first. 

Twelve years feels like such a short time and such a long time.  He has changed quite a bit, to say the least, but I have changed, too.  Motherhood has brought out the worst and hopefully the best in me.  My older brother, Tom, sometimes complains about being the oldest and how tough that is and I being the middle child must staunchly pooh-pooh this idea.  Now that I'm a parent, though, I have to admit that, at least in our family, being the oldest really is tough.  Poor William is our guinea pig, he leads the vanguard in teaching us how to be parents: how to make rules, set limits, enforce them, be flexible, back down, apologize, start over, do better.  He paves the way for the younger ones, breaks down the parental strongholds, so their lives won't be so difficult.  He's a real Lech Walesa.  Okay, maybe I'm getting dramatic now. 

We had parent/teacher conferences last night and it was so wonderful to hear his teachers talk about what an amazing young man he is becoming.  We talked about his faults and struggles as well, but we really are so proud of our William and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for him.