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Five Finds Friday (surprise! & the warmest socks & the silliest picture)
We all know why this week sped right past all of us. Yes – it’s already Friday you guys. Here we go …… FUNNY Humor plays a vital role in my life. If it’s not outright sustaining, it absolutely is what makes certain days feel endurable. (Is endurable a word?) Our friend Abby has endeared herself to my children through several methods. One – she sends stellar care packages that have rather specific instructions on the outside. Instructions such as “For Kids Eyes Only” and “Whatever You Do – Don’t Let Your Mom Open This Box”. Two – she shows up in surprise ways and says yes…
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Top That, U-Turn & Pinpoint: Blue Orange Game Reviews
Yesterday the internet was dead. Not across the world or anything. Just, you know, in my own house. It wouldn’t work and it was late and I couldn’t figure out the problem through my many varied methods of trouble shooting. (And by many varied methods I mean call a friend and unplugging it and plugging it back in again.) Anyway. I couldn’t get my connection to work and therefore I could not complete a blog post. So instead, I finished a novel (Brown Girl Dreaming – so very good) and added a few pieces to the puzzle on our kitchen table, ate four clementine oranges while standing alone in…
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Marie’s Words: A Timberdoodle Review
This game is certainly an educational game and it’s not really disguised as anything else. But it’s not a drudgery or a bore, by any means. Marie’s Words is a vocabulary building game that can be played in several different ways. It can be used alone or it can be played as a game with several variations. I’m literally just now seeing that the website suggests this as a part of their fourth grade curriculum set. Maybe your fourth graders would be ready for these words, but I know my fourth graders would not have been. Honestly, the majority of the words listed on the cards are…
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Uncle Sam and You: A Timberdoodle Review
I’ve always enjoyed our Ambleside and Charlotte Mason inspired history “curriculum”, which is actually not a traditional curriculum at all, but a guided list of non text book readings about history and historical characters. The past two years we have enjoyed the whole family approach of the Simply Charlotte Mason history guides. I admit, I did find myself a little nervous when I found myself staring at the trio of middle schoolers and wondering if we had studied history “enough”. Pretty sure this is a common homeschooling parent’s fear and, although it plagues me from time to time, it is not one that rests too heavily for too long…
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Five Finds Friday (picking out a Christmas tree and eating Chinese food)
It sort of didn’t feel like Friday last week because I didn’t do one of these routine little posts. Funny how small habits keep you on schedule. But I’m all on track this week and there’s no holiday pushing at our backs so here we go ….. FUNNY I mean, I think my kids are funny. They think they are hilarious. It’s a daily something or other. From London adding to her school list: Be Awesome. (Oh wait. I’ve already conquered that.) To Bergen entering a room and telling us to forget we ever saw him taking whatever item he just took and then waving his…
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The Fallacy Detective: A Timberdoodle Review
I can’t believe my year working with Timberdoodle is drawing to a close. A year? I mean, we aren’t quite there yet – but almost! Every item I’ve received from Timberdoodle has been a new-to-me choice. Until this review. The Fallacy Detective was a logic book that I purchased and worked through wth Riley back in the day. I held on to that book actually – when I let most of her curriculum go as I quickly morphed into primarily using exclusively Charlotte Mason methods with the younger kids. My copy is an older version and this edition from Timberdoodle has a workbook inside the book itself,…
Keep Reading . . .
downhill: a commentary on this thing called aging.
pendulum swinger
Guatemala: Day Two
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The Instant Pot: A Review
Months ago – was it this summer? – someone shared an Amazon deal on their Facebook page about this little creation called The Instant Pot. I had never heard of it. The comments were aglow with praise for this magical pot. I chimed in with a few questions about why this deal should be scooped up and why – in amazing two days prime shipping time – the Instant Pot should be sitting on my counter changing my life too. I was on the fence when my phone alerted me that a text had arrived. I was on Facebook. My neighbor was texting me from her house…
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Aquarelle: A Timberdoodle Review
Watercolor is one of those artistic endeavors that both intimidates and frustrates me. The intimidation part stems from the fact that I find blending colors and controlling the amount of water vs. the amount of color difficult. That color wheel graphic just doesn’t live icy mind as vividly as it does in an artist’s mind. The frustrating part comes from the mess watercolor can cause. The drippy paintbrushes on the kitchen table. The soggy paper that sticks to the table if I forget to put something else down first. Some place to dry the art for a few days. You know, all those details. But – lest…
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Kid Coder: A Timberdoodle Review
KidCoder is a complete program sold by Timberdoodle that offers an online web design course. The target age for KidCoder is 4th grade and up and it comes as part of the 8th grade curriculum if you prefer to order your curriculum whole. This summer I had London, my eighth grader, begin the KidCoder course, knowing that this review would come due in the fall and I wanted to be able to have given it a good go before I commented on it. Just like Bloxels, I really handed this one over to London because the point for me was to have a web design program that…
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Doodle Your Day: A Timberdoodle Review
I have always been a fan of journals and notebooks that encourage you to record some memory or some thought daily. I like them for me, personally. And – I like them for the kids as students. Sometimes I create journal topics myself for the kids to use in their school work and some years I know it will be much more productive to purchase an already planned journal for the kids to use. This Timberdoodle journal – Doodle Your Day – was given to my family in exchange for a review and it is one of the items in the box that the kids almost fought over. In…
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The Puzzleball Globe: A Timberdoodle Review
Our family loves puzzles. Every year for Christmas there will be a puzzle under the Christmas tree. Actually, I prefer to leave the puzzle under the tree, all wrapped up, until the day after Christmas. And then, on that quiet day-after morning, there’s one present left to open. Perfect for the after Christmas crash, we can just hang around the kitchen table, eat holiday leftovers and work lazily on a puzzle together. The last wrapped gift is a puzzle – and we all know it – but no one knows what the subject of the puzzle will be. (I like to match the puzzle’s theme to the previous year…
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Grove Collaborative Giveaway & Special: Don’t Miss This One
Oh friends. Today’s post has all the good stuff. It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned Grove Collaborative. It’s been a busy summer autumn year. I still love my monthly box deliveries from Grove Co. for all the same reasons as always. It’s a good deal on stuff I already buy. (Prices are lower than Target’s, which is where I usually buy my Mrs.Meyer’s products.) It’s so incredibly convenient. (I haven’t run out of dish detergent or hand soap or dish soap or sponges since I started using Grove Co. over a year ago.) It’s one less thing I have to think about and plan for and take care…
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Bloxels: A Timberdoodle Review
Perhaps this review should begin with a confession. I have hardly looked at Bloxels. I read the description of it on the website when Timberdoodle offered it for a review. (You can order it by itself of course, or it comes as part of the second grade curriculum kit.) I thought, “I bet my kids would like that.” Bloxels is a create-your-own-video-game. And my kids – like most human children – are attracted to screens and games. I figured an educational video game could be better than your average video game. When the box arrived the kids were very excited to try it. I wasn’t ready to look…
