Even though it is summer, it seems as if we have not done much traveling, but I know many families who travel a lot during the summer months. However, we are planning a trip for this coming Fall so I was excited to have the chance to review an e-book provided to me from The Old Schoolhouse magazine store called Travel Kits: A Simple Way to Bless Others by Donna Rus.





In the past when we have traveled by car for long trips I had put together small bags for each of our kids with an assortment of things to do and little snacks for along the way. The e-book, Travel Kits, takes this concept a step further and gives you not only ideas for travel kits but tells you all the basics that you need to know about travel kits. Did you even think that you can bless others with a travel kit you have made especially for them? What a wonderful idea! The is e-book lets you know that travel kits aren’t just for little kids; you can include everyone in your family. The e-book reminds us to make sure we include Mom and Dad as well as the kids.

This e-book includes a lot of information as well as pictures to illustrate those ideas. There are even a few recipes and instructions included as well. I was amazed at how many practical tips and concrete examples that were included in this book on making travel kits as well as personal experiences mentioned.

So I decided not only to plan and make up travel kits for our next family trip but also to think of some others that might be blessed by one. Now I have ideas of items that I can be on the lookout for when I shop and go to places like the dollar store, grocery, and other places. This e-book lets you know that whatever your circumstances and budget that you can make travel kits that can be a blessing to you as well as others.

You can purchase Travel Kits from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine Store here for $12.45.

Check out what other TOS Crew members had to say about this product on our homeschool blog here.

Please note that I received Travel Kits for free in order to provide you with my honest review of this product.

Well a new TOS Crew review year has begun. Hard to believe we are starting over again. We are beginning this Crew year with a review of the e-book from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Store.

At the beginning of last crew year I reviewed the The Old Schoolhouse planner which is again a wonderful homeschool planner and has even been improved for this year. What I didn’t do last year was to review the e-book modules that go along with and supplement the planner. This current review focuses on the June 2010 module e-book: Travel the World . You can use this e-book as a standalone product or with the Old Schoolhouse planner as a supplement. Either way I think you will enjoy all this e-book has to offer you and your child.

In this e-book you will learn about geography including the earth, maps, land and waters and all about the different continents. That is just a brief view of what you will be learning about in this e-book. You can view a full description of this e-book and information on what exactly you can expect out of the individual modules such as this e-book by visiting this link.

The information you learn from Travel The World e-book is presented in various ways using Bible verses and quotes, song lyrics, factual reading passages and pictures, games, crosswords, links to activities online, fill in the blank pages, rebus puzzles, lap-booking and through many many other methods and activities. It also includes some recipes that you can try as well. This e-book has something for all ages. There is also a specific section in it just for high schoolers.

My kids and I just touched the surface of this e-book and were thrilled with what we did so far. We plan on continuing to work through this book a little more in the weeks to come. If we were in our normal “school year” mode we would take the time to read some of the material and choose one or more activities from the e-book to do during each week. It seems like it would be easy to incorporate the material from this e-book into your regular lessons whether you school eclectically like we do or if you homeschool by unschooling, using a specific curriculum or other methods.

You can purchase the June 2010 Module: Travel the World for $7.95 through the Old Schoolhouse Magazine Store here.

Check out what my fellow Crew members had to say about the Travel the World E-Book here on our blog.

I received this product for free in exchange for writing an honest review of it for my readers.

Recently my kids have been playing an online game produced by a major company and received an email asking us to take a survey and in exchange would receive some items from them to thank us for our participation. Ok I was surprised that they were going to be so generous but since it was a big company then thought, “Cool. ”

Sometimes you get offers like this and they have a disclaimer stating you must qualify to participate before getting the reward etc. This email was not written with any indication that you would not receive what they indicated if you selected to take the survey.

Guess what? My one daughter started taking the survey and we got the I’m sorry but we have enough responses in your category or some sort of thing like that and we were promptly taken out of the survey mode. Hmmph.
Very very appalled that this well-known company did this and in my opinion did not act responsibly and seemed to deceive and lead folks on without following through with what they tell us.

I know I should expect them not to care but I sent them a comment on their website. We will see if they choose to reply so that is why I have not disclosed what company and product this was for. I have no qualms about letting you know later how they handled the situation if they in fact do reply to me.

I teach my kids to act responsibly and honestly in their friendships and business type transactions and do not appreciate a business acting this way toward my kids.

That said we shall see how they respond if at all to my comment I sent them.

1776 was a spectacular year, and it’s a smashing, save-more-money price! Grab your subscription to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine during their four-day Fourth of July sale, and check out the craziest price on July 1 only! Receive a 2-year subscription, free Homeschooling with Heart tote bag, and five FREE E-Books for just $17.76! While supplies last. U.S. and Canadian residents. July 2 through July 4 the unprecedented savings continue. The sparks are flying at TOS Magazine . . . join in the celebration and savings! Get the details here at http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/2010/Fourth-of-July.htm

I have changed my blog’s look in time for the upcoming TOS Crew review year. We are getting ready to do a a practice review and then off we go! I am so excited since this year will be my second year with the Crew and I have a fantastic group of women who are joining me on this year’s journey. Our mini-crew is named Treasure Seekers and I know each of these women are going to have a fantastic year reviewing this year’s products and blogging about them. Something new for this year is that our Crew is divided between upper and lower grade level groups and each person is on either one or the other of the groups. I happen to be on the older group for this year so I will be mostly reviewing products for older students about 6th grade to 12th. However I will include the link to the younger crew product reviews so you can also view those as well.

I have always struggled with gaining weight since I became diabetic about 13 years ago. I think the major stress in my life is what pushed me into having diabetes (I was about average weight back then) however after about 9 years of being on medication for it I gained a lot of weight and was in that insulin/weight cycle that I could not break out of no matter what diet or way I tried. Recently a friend of mine told me about Herbalife so I tried a few samples of it and had lost a few inches as well as 2 pounds while on it for just a week. Needless to say I went ahead and signed up as well as have been on a program for a week now. Well let’s say with my daughter’s recent birthday week I was on the plan for about half the week.. (yes I ate ice cream and cake and snacked with the girls at the party) Ok normally that would be a I fell of the bandwagon kind of week and I would stay the same or even gain weight. Guess what? I lost 2 pounds and a total of 9 1/2 inches over my whole body. I averaged about an inch loss at each measured spot. I was so happy with my success so far I just had to share. I know my friends will know why since I have struggled so much with wanting to go off insulin and to lose the weight and be back to my “normal” self again… It is so stressful gaining weight and not being able to lose it when you really aren’t doing that badly with eating and exercise habits. I just know folks who don’t know me probably look at me and how I look and probably think I sit around eating bon bons all day long watching tv. I really wanted to feel good about myself again too… I’ll let you know how it goes through the summer. My goal is to be half way to my ultimate goal by the Fall.

This past TOS Homeschool Crew year had our family using Rocket Phonics as part of the products we reviewed. I wrote an earlier review of our experience of this product and wanted to give everyone an update on how our year ended with using Rocket Phonics.

Like other programs my children learned phonics and successfully developed into readers, but the difference was that with Rocket Phonics it took it a step further and my kids learned other things such as homonyms and homophones, prefixes and suffixes, developed reading comprehension skills, as well as spelling and reading decoding skills. All of this was learned through interesting stories and text throughout the Rocket Phonics program.. I would say that unlike some other programs we have used in the past that this was a much appreciated bonus to a reading program. Most of the others would only lead your child into reading and stop there. Rocket Phonics went that step further and brought a more complete educational experience for my children. I still recommend this to anyone looking for a reading program for their child. I especially feel that if your child requires a multi-sensory learning tool for reading that this would be a good fit for your child. My oldest started out having trouble getting past the initial stage of learning letter sounds and this would have been a good fit from the beginning for her. While she was a little beyond that when we tried Rocket Phonics, she still benefited from this program and I feel as if it solidified her reading skills and abilities.

You can check out my initial review of Rocket Phonics by viewing my homeschool reviews from this blog and check out Rocket Phonics information for yourself at the Rocket Phonics website here.

Recently I finished Billy Graham’s book, Storm Warning, which has been updated since it was first written in 1992. With terrorism on the rise, conflicts in the Middle East, economic crisis, the frequency of natural disasters, and the increasingly sinful nature of people in today’s society, it is difficult as a Christian not to see that the end times are close at hand. Billy Graham discusses the world events and state of today’s society along with Biblical prophecy. He correlates what we see today with the visions that John received and wrote down in the book of Revelation. For everyone, Billy Graham’s Storm Warning helps us to understand the critical need to be prepared and ready for the return of Christ.

This book is a must read for Christians and for those who are being nudged by God to accept His call to become a child of God. I would definitely give this book a 5 out of 5 because of its significance and relevance to today’s world as well as the importance of it to each person in the world. I could barely put this book down and it provoked me take seriously the Great Commission found in Matthew 28: 19-20.

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for an honest review through BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. All opinions are my own.

The Winners of the 2010 Homeschool Crew Seaworthy Awards:

Favorite Language Arts Product => EDUDPS

Favorite History Product => Bright Ideas Press (All American History and Mystery of History)

Favorite Science Product => Nature Friend Magazine

Favorite Math Product => Math Mammoth

Favorite Online Math Product => Mathletics

Favorite Handwriting Product => Zeezok (Presidential Penmanship)

Favorite Fine Arts Product (art, music, etc.) => Artistic Pursuits

Favorite Pre-school Product => Time 4 Learning

Favorite Elementary Product => Critical Thinking

Favorite Upper-Grade Product => Professor in a Box

Favorite College Prep Product => Cerebellum/Standard Deviants

Favorite Special Needs Product => Super Star Speech

Favorite Health and Beauty Product => Virginia Soaps & Scents

Favorite Christian Product => Grapevine Studies

Best Resource I Didn’t Know I Needed => Studypod

Best Homemaking Product => Sue Gregg

Best Customer Service => Graphics Toolbox

Best Online Resource => ABC Teach

Best e-product => Nutrition 101

Best Office and Technology Resource => Web Designs for Kids

Best Homeschool Resource => Apologia – Ultimate Guide …

Best Map Resource => Homeschool in the Woods

Best Book, Novel or Magazine => Sarah Books

Best Children’s Book => Children’s Bible Hour

Best Hands-On Resource => Journey Through Learning

Most Adaptable Resource => Sue Patrick’s Workbox System

Most Unique Resource => Lobster Network

Most Family-Oriented Product => Family Mint

Kid’s Choice => Maverick Books

All Around Crew Favorite => All About Spelling

As one of the last products that I am reviewing for 2009-2010 TOS Homeschool Crew year, I received Andrea Carter and the Trouble with Treasure by Susan K. Marlow and provided to me by Kregel Publications.

This book is number 5 in the Circle C Adventure series which is geared for ages 9 through 14. The series follows a girl named Andrea Carter, her horse, Taffy, as well as her friends and family. The setting for the series is Fresno, California, in the 1880s. These are wholesome books that you can feel comfortable having your kids read. You may even enjoy reading them for yourself or reading them to younger kids too.

In the book we received, Andi, her brother Mitch, and her friends Cory and Jenny start out getting into trouble in town then find themselves in the midst of more problems after they venture out on a two week camping and horseback riding trip. The plot keeps your attention and we get a good sense of who the characters are and what they are experiencing throughout the story. As a parent, I appreciated the sense of values and lessons learned by the characters within this book. Being a Christian myself, I loved that the main character attempted to keep her eyes on God through her ordeal. The references to God by Andi do not seem artificial or awkward which makes the character appear very believable and make the lessons learned more plausible at least to myself as a reader. You can read an excerpt about Trouble with Treasure here to get a good sense of the story for yourself.

You can also find out more about the Circle C Adventures series by visiting the website here.

We really enjoyed reading about Andi, her brother and her friends and think you may too.

You can purchase each book from the Circle C Adventure series for $8.00. The website also has free study guides that you can download for free from their website.

Check out what my fellow Crew members had to say as well by visiting our Homeschool Blog.