One More Birthday Post.....

This time it isn't one of ours though.

S-girl has a friend whose birthday was also in April and she got invited to the party.  She was very excited.  We ended up with a house showing, so I took the rest of the kids over to my friend's house and S-girl and I went all alone to the party.

Yes, just the two of us.  It was a strange and beautiful thing to dedicate all my time and attention to just one little human being.

We had fun.

Can't remember if I told you...but she lost one of her front teeth!

They had this huge bouncy pillow thingie....lots of fun....but hot feet.

At the end of the party, all the little girls got to pick their own pint of strawberries.

She had a blast. 

I had fun just walking from activity to activity with her....just holding hands.  Just she and I.  We were even a little separate from the other kids and moms at the party sometimes.  I felt sort of bad....but  I was having a such a good time just paying attention to S-girl that I decided I didn't care if people thought we were the weird homeschool family, you know?

She didn't have to give up her spot for a more depending or in need sibling.....which she has to do a lot and she is so laid back and kind hearted that she almost always gives up her spot easily.   I think we both liked having time just for each other.

I love you S-girl!

Learning In Spite of Labels

This is a review.

Do you think it is possible? 

Can you learn in spite of the labels you have been given...either by yourself....or others?

Author, Joyce Herzog, tackles this issue and gives real-life tips to make it possible, in her book Learning In Spite of Labels.



I will be honest, when I received this book, I was surprised that the book was really intended to be used with special education or learning disabled learners....somehow, in my researching this book, that little fact escaped me. 



 But, Joyce Herzog explains that we are all learning disabled in some way or another.

For example, I am disabled in my learning of algebra and gardening without killing everything, and,  Rainman is learning disabled in the art of fixing little girls hair and music.

I really enjoyed this book even though none of my children are learning disabled in the traditional sense of that terminology.

I mean, I took 4 pages of notes as I read this book....and I honestly don't have any kids that would traditionally be considered learning disabled.

If you have a child who you have been told has some sort of learning disability this book is for you.

If you have a child......this book is for you.

Seriously.

I found so many little gems of ideas in this book.  Some common sense.  Like, only have as many rules as you are willing to enforce.  Or, stop if it isn't working.  Genius, right?

Some just plain creative.  Put smiley faces on the inside arch of shoes....if shoes are on the correct feet, the smiley faces will kiss each other.  Or, putting a green dot in the left margin of a piece of paper and a red dot in the right margin.....green means go....so that is the side of the paper you start on.

Ms. Herzog has experience and numerous degrees under her belt, but talks like a regular person.....who loves kids and wants them to succeed beyond their wildest imagination.

We all want the best for our kids and she gives us real, easy to follow examples for helping them on the road to success academically and, really just in plain, old, life. 

Who knew that I was a "love 'em and shove 'em" parent?  I didn't.  But, I am and Ms. Herzog explains why it is a good thing. 

In general, I think Ms. Herzog makes teaching your learning challenged child - doable.  She takes things in small steps that starts with simply loving them.  What is the first subject to teach them about?  God.  The rest will come.  Plain and simple.

Again, even though none of my kids have traditional learning disabilities, I took a lot of notes and got a lot of ideas and goals.  Like, from her Twenty-Five Teaching Techniques That Work - #22 - I will stop thinking grade levels and grades and begin to think in terms of learning and progress.  I fall into this trap too often with my kids.  I need to let them master a subject.  Period.  The move on, irregardless of where we are in the school year.

I loved the whole Teeny Tiny Tip section, which is just general living life ideas so you can have less drama in your day.

I loved Chapter 11 - which is titled:  A Person, Not A Problem!  I can't even fully explain why this chapter touched me.  Just the switch in perspective it showed me...and I don't usually think of my children as a "problem".  (It really made me think about all those aborted babies that people think of as a problem...not a person.)

She has chapters on the law, learning styles in addition to the information I have already mentioned.  Chapter 14 has mini-biographies on people in history who struggled with various learning problems.  People like:

Michael Faraday
Thomas Edison
Helen Keller
Ben Carson
Chris Burke
Chuck Yeager

(The links are to a Wikipedia page, in case you aren't familiar with who they are and perhaps, with what area/areas they struggled.)

She has a section on ADD/ADHD and I agreed with most of her opinions.  She also has a section about what is considered "normal" in child development.

Like I said, I found lots of stuff I could use with my kids. Lots of stuff.  I highly recommend this book if you homeschool.  I also highly recommend this book if you don't homeschool and your child has been labeled as having some sort of learning disability.

I loved this book.  It really was filled with practical teaching tips and a Christian perspective of education.....like the subtitle said.  If I haven't convinced you yet, go download a free sample portion of the book. 

You can get a copy of Learning In Spite of Labels for $15.00

Joyce Herzog has a ton of other offers available on her website and the TOS crew got a chance to choose which of her books they wanted to review.  Go take a look and see what they thought

.

Science, Naturally....

This is a review of a fun little book called, One Minute Mysteries:  65 More Short Mysteries That You Solve With Science!

It is from a company called, Science Naturally.


One of their tag lines on their website is "Bridging the gap between the blackboard and the blacktop".  I love that, because it is so necessary not to just teach your kids book smarts, but street smarts too.


The book we got to review, 65 More Short Mysteries That You Solve With Science! , is actually the sequel to 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!  Both books were written by the father-daughter team of Eric and Natalie Yoder.

Apparently there are a lot of scientific mysteries floating around the world!

Okay, so what is this book?

They are little short stories...and, by short stories, I mean 1-2 page stories that have a little "mystery" that can be solved using basic science knowledge.  Sometimes the "mystery" was so basic, we didn't really think that it could be the answer to the problem....but it was.  Once we sort of got the swing of it, we had a lot of fun.

The book is intended for about ages 8-12, but, we used this as bedtime reading.....for everyone.  Even D-man would join us once in a while!  We would pile into my bed and I would read aloud the story.  It took us a few stories to figure out exactly where we should stop and do our sleuthing, but we figured it out.

The book sat on my bedside table until one day.......it just......disappeared. 

It was another mystery to be solved.  Dun, dun, duuuuuuh!!

Actually, A-man took it....apparently my reading 3 or 4 a night wasn't enough for him, so he took it to his bedroom to read some more.  The only problem was when we went back to read the stories to the other kids, he would already know the answer...and sometimes he couldn't stop himself from blurting them out....which sort of ruined everyone's fun.

These stories are short and sweet, so plan on reading more than one in a sitting.  Every single time, I would be faced with a chorus of "just one more". 

Was it a little tactic to stall bedtime? 

Maybe. 

Possibly.

Probably.

But, really.....is it that horrible that they go to bed 10 or 15 minutes later because their mom is reading to them and they are learning a bit more about science?

Nope.  I didn't think so either.

The only thing I might change is for them to put in a STOP sign where you are supposed to start figuring out the answer before you plow ahead and accidentally read the answer.  Like I said, it took me a few stories, but I did figure out to stop at the bottom of the first page, on my own, so I didn't give away the answer before the kids had time to think.  It really wasn't rocket science....but apparently, by bedtime, I am a little slow.

I will admit that I didn't know all the answers to the mysteries, so that made me feel a little dumb...but when I did know the answers, I had the sense that I was really smart.....so, I guess things evened out. 





On the Science Naturally website, you can try the "Mystery of the Month" too to just sort of try your hand at what these books are all about.  And, I don't have an iphone, and ipad or any of those fancy schmancy things, but if you do, they have a FREE app based on their 101 Things Everyone Should Know books.

You can get this fun little book for $9.95.  But, if you are interested in a few more books from Science Naturally, they have a coupon code that will give you a discount. 

Just use the code 3SPEC to purchase any 3 books on the website for $19.95 plus $2.95 shipping. (a $12.90 savings)

They have a few book sets I want to tell you about too.  There is the Smart Kid Set, which has two of the short mystery books and two of the 101 Things That Everyone Should know for $34.95.  The I Love A Mystery set is $24.95 and has the two mysteries you solve with science books and one book that solves mysteries with math.  That one sort of scares me, but maybe I would know more math than I thought????

I really just think these are fun little....(don't really realize that I am learning something)...kind of books.  I mean, if a book is stolen from you by one of your children, I think that is a pretty good indicator that it is a great book!  Perfect for every family....even if you don't homeschool!

Take a look and see what the other TOS reviewers thought of this fun little book.