Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Monday, October 26, 2015

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- October 27, 2015

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups.

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would like to follow the hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaways

Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9 US only Ends 10/30

"My Leaf Book" by Monica Wellington US only Ends 10/31

"Robo-Sauce" by Adam Rubin US only Ends 11/7

Paper Towns Bluray US only Ends 11/5

My All American Prize Package Featuring $25 Visa GC Plus A My All American Hat, Shirt, and Bag US only Ends 11/9

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Photo Round Up- October 26, 2015

It is time to share my photos from the photo challenges I am participating in! Let's start with Scavenger Hunt Sunday, shall we.

Leaves, A Hat, Stop, My Town, Up

Leaves

It appears what LEAVES are left were covered with some frost and a small amount of snow last Sunday on the way to the Bills game.

A Hat

We had a blast with our impromptu "photo shoot" over at the park last week. I needed this picture of A HAT and I remembered we had this hat from VBS. It has last the rim around the outside, making it appear like it is falling apart, but I quite like it as it is. It sort of reminds me of a scarecrows hat or something. So, We the children had a bunch of fun posing and just having fun with this hat. I plan on sharing more in my Wordless Wednesday post, but I chose picture featuring each child to share here.

Stop

At first the only thing I could think of to do for STOP was to take a picture of a stop sign. Then we went over to the park and I had this cute idea. Have one child stand there and have another child run at her and have her raise up her hand to signal her to STOP.

My Town

MY TOWN is a small rural town where the walk around town measures about 1 mile. Unfortunately, there aren't sidewalks all the way around, which is really annoying at times. However, the children love balancing on the curb and walking in the grass. On this walk we were measuring how far we could go in 8 minutes, because that is how long it takes the light from the sun to reach the earth.

Looking UP at the top of this bare tree against the cloudy sky made for a neat picture. I didn't mean for it to be a "spooky" picture, but I have been informed by a couple of people that it is.

Photo A Day Round Up

I am still participating in the three photo-a-day challenges. I did fall a bit behind when it comes to posting the pictures though. I didn't have a chance to get all caught up or make my collages, so I am going to post a separate Round Up post later.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9 {A Review and Giveaway}

We had the wonderful opportunity to review the newest movie from Phil Vischer called Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9. You may recognize the name Phil Vischer if you are a fan of "VeggieTales." I have been sharing VeggieTales videos with my children since my oldest kiddos were little (and they are now all grown up and out on their own). Mr. Vischer has since moved on from "VeggieTales" and has been working on new projects. I have heard of his "What's in the Bible?" series, but we haven't had a chance to watch any of them yet. When the opportunity came up recently to review Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9, I jumped at the chance. I loved that there were going to be nods to both Star Trek and Star Wars, as I love both of these science fiction worlds.

About the movie:

Buck Denver has a simple dream - to save the galaxy. Working for the Galactic Mission Board, Buck dreams of carrying God's love to every corner of the Milky Way! Except he doesn't have a starship. Or a crew. Or even a captain's license. He just needs a chance. But when that chance comes and Buck finds himself leading a real mission into deep space, things don't go at ALL like he imagined! If he's doing what God wants him to do, why is everything going wrong? From VeggieTales® and What's in the Bible? creator Phil Vischer, Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9 is a wild, galactic adventure that teaches kids a powerful lesson about trusting God with everything - even our dreams!

Run time: Approximately 40 minutes

We were given access to the movie online in order to watch the movie before it was released, so we all gathered around the computer with our ice cream to enjoy the movie. From the start, the movie grabbed my girls' attention, though Harold wasn't really interested. He did end up gravitating toward the computer while we watched though. This movie seemed to be just right for the girls' age range, 5-8 years old. I have to admit, they were a bit unsure about the fact that the characters were puppets at first, but after a bit they thought it was "cool."

We enjoyed watching Buck's journey in learning to discern what God wants from his life. He was quite dissatisfied with his work at the Galactic Mission Board, answering phones and making sure people received their tote bags. He felt that God had bigger things for him. In fact, he had a poster hanging on the wall of his cubicle that stated, "God wants you to do big things!" His dream was to go into space to share the gospel, but was that where God wanted him?

When a transponder malfunctioned in Sector 9, Buck convinces Pastor Paul to allow him to lead a team on a mission to fix it. Though Buck didn't have a captain's license, he had been taking online classes, and the mission could count as his final exam. His friends from the call center become his crew, along with Sunday School Lady who was to be supervising his "final exam."

Of course, they were expecting things to go smoothly. I mean, who would have thought the power rod for the transponder would be missing, or that there would be aliens living on a supposedly uninhabited planet. In the end, it wasn't making sure the gospel message was preached, but that it was lived out, that made their mission a success, of sorts.

I was quite pleased by what the older girls took away from this movie. The Biblical teaching was clearly taught.

Here are a couple of pictures of what the children wrote about the movie.

This is what my 7 year old got out of the movie.

And this is from my 8 year old.

This was our first experience with Buck Denver, and I was quite impressed. I can't wait to watch more of the new products from Phil Vischer. I am so glad he is still reaching children with the message of Christ.

Here, check out the trailer for a sneak peek:

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

Throwback Thursday Blog-Style #70: October 22, 2015

Welcome back to...

I know, I know, Throwback Thursday seems to be all about sharing pictures from the past, great memories that mean something to you, that you would like to share with others. At least that is how it appears to me. Throwback Thursday wasn't something I was participating in, and then I came up with an idea.

I thought it would be great fun and a help to my blog to share old content, but not just any old content. Each week I will share an old blog post from a previous year, any year, BUT it has to be from the current week (for example, something I've posted around October 22nd, from any previous year) I will go in, edit the post if needed, add a pinnable image if I don't already have one, and share it on Facebook.

I have reviewed some great products in the past (and continue to do so). I thought it would be a neat idea to choose review posts this year and highlight some of these great products again.

Would you like to join in? You do not need to edit your past post in any way, you don't need to create a pinnable image, though it couldn't hurt, in fact it will help your blog traffic to add quality pinnable images to your posts.

Just go into your archives, choose a favorite post from this current week from any previous year, and link it up below.

I will be pinning posts to my appropriate Pinterest boards and will be randomly selecting a Featured Throwback Thursday post to share next week. Just a note, I will be sharing a picture from your post if you are selected as the featured post, but I will link back to your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. By linking up you are giving me permission to use your picture in the post.

Here is my Throwback Thursday post:

Originally posted October 28th, 2014
Discovering the Truth About Our American History With Anthem For a Nation {A TOS Review}

Here is this week's randomly selected

Featured Throwback Thursday:

Kym from Homeschool Coffee Break shared:

Weekly Wrap Up: In Which We Have Plenty To Celebrate

To participate, link up below. It would be great if you could visit several of the other posts that have linked up. Stop by, comment, and pin images so we can help each other.

If you would like to help spread the news:

Happy Throwback Thursday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Learning Grammar the Charlotte Mason Way With Sheldon's New Primary Language Lessons {A TOS Review}

When I was researching homeschooling, I was introduced to the philosophy of Charlotte Mason. One of the reasons we decided on the core curriculum we did was because of the Charlotte Mason influence. Though I didn't agree with all of her philosophy, and didn't feel I could use a complete Charlotte Mason curriculum, I was definitely drawn to her ideas of copywork, narration, and dictation. When we were offered the introductory grammar book titled Sheldon's New Primary Language Lessons from Brookdale House through the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I decided I would give it a try.

We received a physical copy of Sheldon's New Primary Language Lessons written by Kimberly D. Garcia. This 240 page softcover book contains an introduction, a table of contents, 96 lessons, and an appendix. Using copywork, narration, and dictation, along with fill-in-the-blank exercises, a child will learn about punctuation, parts of speech, sentences, paragraphs, and poetry. According to the preface, this book is updated from the original to make it more Charlotte Mason friendly. It is now more gentle and child-friendly, and it is in a workbook format.
As the book is appropriate for children in grades 3 to 6 as an introductory grammar book, I decided to use this with my my oldest homeschooling student, Tabitha, who is 8 years old. It is recommended that children on the older end of the age range do more writing in the exercises, while younger children complete them orally. I had Tabitha do a mixture of the two as she is quite capable of writing the answers. However, if she already had a bunch of writing in other subjects on any given day, we would then complete the exercises orally. We would complete 1-3 lessons during our English time. The lessons aren't designed to be done one per day. Sometimes a child will work on more than one a day, other times it will take a while to complete one lesson. It is important to go with what is comfortable for your child as well. Some of the lessons fit together well and can be done all in one sitting, as long as the student doesn't get tired of it.
The book begins with lessons on different types of sentences. These include: statements, questions, commands, and exclamations. At times there are pictures to study. The lesson then focuses on that picture, with the child being asked to focus on details while working on the concept being studied.

As you can see in the picture above of the first lesson, we were learning about statements. There were sentences to read that helped describe the picture. In this lesson they were all statements. Tabitha was then required to make her own statements about the picture in response to the sentences in the text box. Then in the second lesson there are questions asked and Tabitha needed to answer them using complete statements. The text boxes on the pages guide the parent in what to say about the concept being learned and gives questions that the parent is to ask the child.
Additional exercises include picture stories where Tabitha had to fill in the blanks (orally or written),

memory selections,

written copywork exercises,

and writing from dictation.

When Tabitha does the fill in the blank type exercises and the dictation, she has been printing. However, the copywork throughout the book is in print or cursive. Sometimes poetry is memorized and other times it is studied by answering questions about it. When there is a memory selection, it is recommended to learn a bit at a time, and then review it periodically.
The beginning lessons were a bit of a review for Tabitha, though it appears there are some things we never really covered, such as what punctuation is used for commands. It also seems that this review is good for Tabitha because she is not catching when she misses that a letter is to be capitalized. She knows it, but forgets it while doing the actual writing. I am looking forward to continuing with this book and seeing her improvements.

There were a few issues we had with the book. Tabitha would get frustrated because we were asked what we thought the name of the girl in the picture was, and then later on in the same lesson, the book already had a name for her. So, in the following lessons she couldn't use the name she chose as she would need to use the other name. I know this seems minor, but it was a bit frustrating for Tabitha.
I was also confused as to how a parent was supposed to read the dictation passages for the child. The student is introduced to the sentences before they are expected to dictate them. The child is to study the words and try to spell them, checking for any that might give them problems. The dictation will focus on the lessons learned prior to the dictation lesson. Then the child is to write the sentences as they are dictated to them by the parent. One problem, the lines the child is to write on are on the opposite page from the sentences.

We had to fold the page underneath so she couldn't see them, which would have turned it into a copywork exercise. However, I couldn't read the sentences to her. The sentences are also available in the appendix found in the back of the book. Yet again, I still couldn't reach those while Tabitha was writing. The only ways I can see making this work is to either cover the page with a piece of paper and remove it to read the sentence to her, or write them down on a separate piece of paper. It would have worked so much better if the appendix pages were perforated so the parent could keep them separated from the book.
I also wish the pictures that are used for the picture study were clearer so the details we are supposed to be studying are easily discerned.
We are enjoying this gentle approach to grammar, with its short lessons where we can move at a pace that s comfortable for Tabitha. This is a wonderful way for a child to learn about grammar. When using copywork, narration, and dictation, the child is exposed to the language and learns the proper way to use it. I think Tabitha enjoys the fact that she doesn't have to do a lot of writing as she can answer a lot of the questions orally.
You can find Brookdale House on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+.
My fellow Crew Mates and I were able to choose between quite a few different products for this review. Besides Sheldon's New Primary Language Lessons, the Crew has been using the following:
Drawing Around the World (Europe or USA), The Fun Spanish, The Grammar Workbook Set, and Writing Through History. There were 4 different time periods to choose from (Ancient History, Medieval History, Early Modern History, and Modern History). For each of these time periods they were able to choose between cursive or manuscript.

I invite you to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about all these different products.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Robo-Fun With Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin {A Review and Giveaway}

Greet-ings human-oids, my name is Momdroid4. This blog is now un-der my con-trol. Beep bop beep.

Wait! No! Tots and Me is still under the control of Karen, homeschool mom of 4. Don't worry, I won't let the robot take ov....

Re-sist-ance is fu-tile. The ro-bots are taking over. You can not stop us from sharing about Robo-Sauce. The robots will rule the world! Beep boop beep.

Robo-Sauce is the key. Robo-Sauce will turn all humans into robots. You will not be able to resist. We will use this blog to spread the word. Boop beep bop beep.

Okay, you are not taking over my blog! You are not taking over the world! But, I will share about the great new book called Robo-Sauce written by author Adam Rubin, and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri.

Robo-Sauce is a fun book about a boy who turns into a robot with the help of "robo-sauce." In this book, the narrator is talking to the kid in the book. When the book starts, the boy is dressed like a robot and is pestering his human family. The next thing he knows, they have all disappeared and the narrator is asking where they went. The narrator goes on to convince the boy that he can create "magical robo-sauce" to turn himself into a robot so people will want to play with him. The narrator lists the benefits of becoming a robot, such as having lasers for eyes and rockets for feet. Plus, he lists some of the things a robot doesn't have to do, such as eating steamed beans or taking baths.

It didn't take a lot of effort on the narrator's part to convince the boy that he needed this robo-sauce. The "top-secret" formula is then shared for everyone to see. Don't worry, your children won't be able to make this sauce because the ingredients are all made up items. The boy in the book does make the sauce. At first it appears that the robo-sauce isn't going to work. However, it does end up working, turning the boy into a robot. Unfortunately, the robot is even more destructive that the kid was.

Things aren't going quite as planned, so the narrator offers the robo-kid the "Robo Antidoto." Unfortunately, the robo-kid isn't interested in an antidote, so he destroys it. Instead, he decides to turn everyone and everything into robots. This does not make the narrator very happy as he was trying to get the boy to understand that he would miss being human. This is when it gets very interesting. Suddenly the robo-kid decides to turn the book into a "Robo-Story."

Instructions are included in the book for turning the book into this "robo-story." It is really a simple unfolding of a pull-out page, with some special re-folding, and flipping of the book.

See, you will have a completely different book when you are done:

Just make sure you don't miss one of the steps, because it might take you several minutes to figure out what you are supposed to do. A-hem. Um, yeah, that was me. However, I quickly rectified my mistake and we were able to read the end of the story. If you would like to see the book being transformed, you can check out the information at robo-sauce.com. And no, I am not going to give away the ending of the story. We enjoyed trying to read robot language and were surprised by the twist at the end. That is all I am going to say.

I think it is obvious that we are in love with this book. It is quite innovative. I love the way the "narrator" is speaking to the boy in the story and helps him along. The illustrations are great and do a wonderful job helping to tell the story. We enjoyed the hands-on aspect of the book and the twist at the end of the story. If you have a child who is "into" robots, I highly recommend this book. Heck, if your children aren't "into" robots, I still recommend this interactive book. It might just turn them into fans of robots. I know my son was having a blast turning his Lego blocks into robots after reading the book.

Now for some great news. I have been given the opportunity to offer a giveaway for 1 lucky person to win their very own copy of "Robo-Sauce" by Adam Rubin.

All you need to do is enter in the Rafflecopter form below.

There are only 2 simple mandatory entries, with the remainder of the entries being optional.

Remember, you do not have to do the extra entries, but they will increase your odds of winning.

This giveaway is open to US residents 18 and over.

The giveaway runs October 21st through November 7th 2015.

Thanks for stopping by, and good luck!

By entering the giveaway, you understand and agree that your contact information will be shared with the sponsor.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: I received Robo-Sauce in exchange for my honest review. No further compensation was given. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Wordless Wednesday: October 21, 2015 (w/linky) - First Time On Skates

Our homeschool group goes out to the skating rink every so often and this was the first time we ever joined in. In fact, this was the first time the children have ever had skates on their feet. Things were a bit rocky at first, in fact, Harold was crying because he didn't want the skates on his feet. I don't know if he was upset they took his shoes, or scared about the skates, but he just kept crying. We finally got everyone out on the skating floor.