We received 5 Name Bookmarks, so the boys each got two and Kandy got one.  Their website was filled with a great variety of designs and options, I did find it was easier to make my order on the computer but they do have a mobile webpage for ordering that works best in landscape mode. Shipping was fast, and as you can see by their expressions, the final product was a big hit! Not only do these bookmarks have their names, it has their name's meaning and bible verses or quotes.  I highly recommend this as a gift for all the little book worms in your life!

Along with the bookmarks Krissy got the AmazingName Print Activity Sheets which is like special coloringbook customized for him, in addition to the printed one we received with our package, we also got the PDF of it to print off more!  Multi level word searches, tracing in print & cursive, crosswords, coloring sheets and mazes are some of the activities included in the set.  Krissy and I really enjoyed doing the "Are you Crazy" level wordsearch together!

​We have enjoyed these products by CrossTimber, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

​We have enjoyed this subscription by Truth Becomes Her, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

We have enjoyed this subscription by Homeschool Code Academy, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

We have enjoyed this subscription by Drive Thru History® Adventures, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

I love being very involved with my kids and their schooling but I struggle sometimes being able to be with all three of them as they go through their day.  With Karter being my oldest at 10 years old I lean more on him being more independent, but I struggle with him wanting me to walk through everything with him.  Well now with MathandAlgebra.com I've found a great online program that basically has a tutor to walk through the steps with him for me!  

MathandAlgebra.com has four complete courses; Basic Math which includes 96 lessons, Advanced Math which includes 74 lessons, Pre-Algebra which includes 56 lessons, and Algebra with 101 lessons.  This program includes video tutorials with each lesson and a dashboard to track progress for both students and parents.  There are also periodic quizzes that get recorded to help make sure they're retaining information.  

Karter's been working his way through Pre -Algebra, some of it is still over his head but with the tutorials and watching them be completed he's gaining great knowledge through it!  He espeically likes the medalions and badges he earns, it makes for a great motivator!  

MathandAlgebra.com is a very user friendly web based program that can work as a supplement or as a curriculum.  I definitely recommend it!!

​We have enjoyed this subscription by MathandAlgebra.com, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

Mom guilt is so real!! In a world of so much busy-ness I often feel like I'm not doing enough for my third child, because when my first was that age we were doing so much more.  Yes, I was that mom, we went to baby massage,  library story hour, arts and craft playdates and we were members at a baby gymnastics place when my first child was just FOUR months old. Fast forward to today and my 3 year old is just a tag along to the many activities we do for the school aged children! She's no less advanced than my first, but now with three kids and all of their activities there's less time, energy, resources and money available for things specifically for her.  So when I got the opportunity to trial Musik at Home with their Musik at Home Membership I jumped on it.

Musik at Home is an online subscription membership geared towards infants through 7 year olds.  There are four different series that have recommended age groups; Babies & toddlers, Preschoolers, 4-7 year olds, and mixed ages.  There are anywhere from 10-17 episodes in each series. Outside of the series they have clips that include individual songs, activities, instruments, etc.

​The lessons are with the instructor Kathryn Brunner and two guest children in each episode.  She participates with them and they usually participate with her.  I love how they sometimes "squirrel" (get distracted) and she lets them.  The lessons have variations of dancing, mimicing movements, listening, echoing, rhythms, imagination, rhyming, poetry, singing, etc.

While it's not extremely parent intensive, parent involvement is ideal!  This was a very special time for my daughter and I. I loved seeing her light up when we picked imaginary flowers for each other or when it said to hug! It was so sweet!  I did have to walk away at one point and big brother stepped in, it wasn't quite the same though! (They might have been playing tug-a-war with a scarf when I came back)

There are a few tools you will want to have around for the lessons, while most are fairly inexpensive to purchase you totally can repurpose things from around your house to work as well.
Rhythm sticks -  we used wooden blocks or wooden spoons
Shaker - we had some wooden morraccas on hand, but you can make some with easter eggs and rice.
Scarf- I had plenty of these laying around but she says you can even use a napkin.

I have a crate of odds and end music stuff and I added others to it but I learned real quick don't put it all out at once or it's a little distracting and over stimulating.

Kandy, my 3 year old daughter and I have been working through Family Music for Preschoolers.  We both love it, her favorite is the scarves dancing and imaginative play. I truely have enjoyed doing this class with her, I love how I can do it on my schedule at our own pace  where ever we want.  They even have an apple app and we can do it on the go with the ipad while the boys are swimming.

​We have enjoyed this subscription by Musik at Home, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

​Gloria Brooks created NatureGlo's eScience, she leads the lessons through videos and powerpoints with integrated questions to help keep students engaged.  There are over 25 different couses available, some are a single lesson, others are 3-6 week long lessons.  I enjoy having the freedom to pick and choose what lessons we want to do and in the order we want.  The website is easy to manuever, I do recommend bookmarking the login page for easier access than through the home page of the website.

We have been working our way through the Herp's Explorers lessons, which is 6 weeks longs and teaches about frogs, geckos and chameleons. I really like how it's a broad spectrum of studies that include, science, reading, art, poetry, writing, etc.  This unit study style learning is great for large families with kids of all ages, they can be learning the same things but you cater up or down to their grade level.  

​We have enjoyed this subscription by NatureGlo's eScience, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

Remember as a kid being a part of a top secret club, it's fun being in the know, having friends who look out for you and having access to something or somewhere special.  Well I've found the twenty-first century virtual homeschool mom equivelence with the Download Club  by My Teaching Library.

My Teaching Library has something to offer for all ages and grade levels, in a variety of different subjects including core and electives.  The website is very easy to navigate, all of the downloads have great photos and descriptions.  There's also a search bar to help find m ore specific topics.  All three of my children have been able to benefit from the resources available on the My Teaching Library.

Karter (10) - 5 Themes of Geography | Location - We found a great supplemental to help with Geography, he's  been learning about hemispheres, latitude, longitude and needed a good reference, this hit the spot. 

Krissy (7) - Character Traits (Volume 1) -He's been having a hard time lately with his emotions, self control and honesty so I have been using the Character Traits to help encourage better behaviors and morals.  To further this one we also made the bookmarks with the character traits and positive affirmations.

Kandy (3) - Letter Learning BUNDLE | Dot and Color - Kandy loves doing dobber art.  I love that this down load includes capital and lowercase letters. After 6 years of homeschooling my dobbers were very beat up so I decided to replace them when I was buying back to school stuff...fun fact: bingo daubers are much cheaper in bingo halls than most stores or online. 

All of the downloads throughout the library you can buy individually or with the download club you have unlimited access to them all for FREE.  There is an annual option or a lifetime option for the download club.  One of the best parts about the download club is you can surf through and pick lessons that you may not need right away but save it to your downloads list for later or come back to it easily without having to go find it in the library again.

We have enjoyed this subscription by My Teaching Library, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

My oldest son Karter was a bit of a slow bloomer when it came to reading. When he was 5 we were informed he had conductive hearing loss, I just wrote most of the symptoms off as him being a 5 year old boy. He has a condition where his ear drums are to thick to allow the proper vibrations required to pass sound through efficiently, it was a result of many many many ear infections as a baby.  He was fitted for hearing aids and later got a long term set of tubes that opened his ear drum to allow sound to pass through. With these interventions he was finally able to process sounds and he hit the ground running with reading from that point on.  Within a year he went from barely on grade level to multiple grade levels ahead! One of the resources we used during that time was called Reading Eggs by Blake eLearning Inc.

At the time Reading Eggs was for Pre-K through 2nd grade, which meant it fit both Karter and Krissy.  Krissy was a very early reading and I attribute that to this program as well.  So when I was given the opportunity to review this program we were all thrilled about it.  Reading Eggs now caters to ages 2-13 with multiple different sub-programs built-in ranging from reading, spelling, phonics, and even math!

The different sub-programs are:
Reading Eggs Junior - Ages 2-4 - a learing experience right on their level that includes, book read alloweds, interactive activites, and videos.
Mathseeds -Ages 3-9 - a fun interactive math program that includes lessons, games, drills and awards.
Fast Phonics - Ages 5-10
Reading Eggs - 3-7 - The original program that started it all, making reading fun!
Reading Eggspress - Ages 7-13 - The next level that helps readers continue to enjoy reading no matter if it's leisure reading or for content.

All three of my kids are able to play/learn with these program! Kandy has the options of Reading Eggs Junior and Mathseeds. Krissy has the option of all the programs except Reading Eggs Jr. Karter has access to Reading Eggspress. All three of them have thoroughly enjoyed playing them too. It's nice to have educational apps for them, they feel like they're playing but I get the reassurance that they're safe and learning!

Both Karter and Kris loved the Reading Eggs reward system, with each lesson you do you receive eggs that can be used to "buy" things. Krissy used his reward eggs to create his own avatar in Reading Eggs. Karter used his to get trading cards in Reading Eggspress.

Krissy's Avatar Creations

Karter's Trading Cards

When we first got access to the program each kid did diagnostic testing to help place them.  We did redo it a couple times because I think they rode under their levels, but I think they were trying to breeze through the diagnostics to get to the fun part!

Reading Eggs is available on many different platforms, we utilized it successfully on our ipads and using safari.  One of my favorite features is that it locks Kandy in it so she can't accidentally (or intentionally) switch to something else with out a code.  I also really appreciate the reports aspect as well, it allows me to see how the kids are progressing along and which programs they're spending the most time in.  In Reading Eggspress it also has a goals tracker, that is a nice visual aid with realistic goals for even the most avid young readers!! I get e-mail alerts when someone levels up and I can log in anytime to the dashboard and see how they have been doing! 

We have enjoyed this subscription by Blake eLearning Inc., but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well, so please be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.

Today I get to tell you all about an affordable complete math curriculum by ThemeVille Math.  ThemeVille Math has curricula available for grades first through fifth, we have been using the ThemeVille Math Level 2 curriculum for the past month or so.  ThemeVille Math Level 2 is for second graders that meets or exceeds standards.

What's included:
Student Worktext Book
Teacher Solutions book

The student worktext book is 8.5x11 and about 1.5 inches thick.  There's approximately 560 pages.  There are 120 lessons, each lesson has a two page pre-lesson exercise followed by a two page lesson.  This method helps to keep a slight spiral going, so the students are remembering previous tasks and building upon them. It takes us roughly 15-20 minutes to work through all 4 pages.  The pages have black and white graphics throughout the book, no color.  The graphics provide enough to illustrations to give the kids visual aids without being over stimulating. The entire book is 3 hole punched so I thought it would make it very easy to pull the pages out to add to the portfolio however, the pages aren't perforated and the end up ripping right at the pre-punched holes.

The teacher's solutions book is 8.5x11 and a little less than 1/2 an inch thick.  It's roughly 120 pages long.  Each page has 4 pages of the student worktext, so one full days worth of work on each page.  The pages have the answers and any work that may help to get the answers.

​The manipulatives is something we did not receive with our kit which was not a big deal to us since we do lots of motessori style learning and have plenty on hand.  If you are a new homeschool family, I highly recommend getting the manipulatives kit as well.  You will find very early on kids learn so much better with hands on activities! ​

We have enjoyed this product by ThemeVille Math, but don't just take our word for it other families from the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed it as well the other levels so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner.