Amy&#039;s Blog

Product Review and Giveaway! SchoolhouseTeachers.com from The Old Schoolhouse

Posted on May 15, 2012 by amyb

When SchoolhouseTeachers was first introduced, I was like “What?” I didn’t really pay that much attention to those first few emails because I just didn’t get it. At some point I found out that I would be given a membership to Schoolhouse Teachers as a gift because I am on the TOS Homeschool Crew. With a vested interest, I started paying much closer attention, and Wow! I was not expecting to find so much value.

The first thing that caught my eye was the access to all past and future Schoolhouse Expo events while you are a member. You already know that I love on-line conventions that help encourage and rejuvinate Mom. I can’t wait to check out this coming feature.

While I am waiting for the Expos to go live at SchoolhouseTeachers I decided to find out what else might be a good fit in our home. Daily writing lessons from Kim Kautzer of WriteShop, definitely a good idea. Geography lessons with Terri Johnson, “Oh, Yeah we’re in.” Daily activities for my three-year olds… we needed that for sure! Pretty soon I realized that we could use just the materials from SchoolhouseTeachers and cover our entire homeschool needs! It’s like buying a full year of curriculum in history, writing, geography, art, music, reading, grammar, chemistry, home economics, high school math, lapbooking, and even technology.

I forgot to tell you that your membership also includes full access to all of the Schoolhouse Planners! Every form you will ever need is included in these planners. You can even hand off the student planner to your teens and let them take charge of their own education!

The cost of SchoolhouseTeachers is just $5.95 per month and that is a great bargain if you are using this for your entire homeschool curriculum.

Did you know that military homeschoolers can get free access to SchoolhouseTeachers?

The Giveaway: One very lucky winner is going to get full access to the SchoolhouseTeachers website for one year. You are going to love this! Please visit the Schoolhouse Teachers website and tell me which feature you are most interested in by commenting on this post. That’s your first entry and you need to come back up to the Rafflecopter form and click enter. After that you will open up several other options for additional entries! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Keep Hopping thru the Homeschool Crew Blog Hop! Just click on the graphic below.

Posted in Giveaways!, Homeschool Technology, Homeschooling, Product Reviews | 9 Comments

Homeschool with Audio! (Day 1) Five Days of Technology in the #Homeschool

Posted on May 14, 2012 by amyb

My experience with using audio files in our homeschool was born out of necessity. My constant struggle to breathe has presented many challenges, not the least of which was my inability to read more than two sentences out loud without pausing for a deep breath! Imagine my relief on December 10th of 2006 when, after nearly 2 years of struggling just to breathe, I was diagnosed with an idiopathic tracheal stenosis and was finally able to pursue treatment. During those two years as I learned to compensate in our homeschool, I began to recognize the incredible value and versatility of owning and using audio files of all types for homeschooling purposes. Audio files are great in the car, through the home stereo in the schoolroom or family room, or for helping older children to concentrate, using headphones and mp3 players. You can use portable speakers and your mp3 player anywhere you need to listen.

Audio files can be used during breakfast, at lunch, on the way to doctor’s appointments, while you clean together, on the way to Soccer practice or AWANA, even right before bed in the hallway so that everyone can listen at once. Any wasted time in your day is the perfect time for an audio file.

No matter what subject you need your children to study, you can use audio files. Do you need your children to learn Spanish vocabulary? Do you want your children to memorize Scripture? Are you struggling to fit Science into your day? Would you like your preschool children to get more read-aloud time? Free audio files abound on the internet, and even more audio files are available for purchase or come with the curriculum you already use. Working these listening libraries into your day is not as daunting as it seems. You do not need an idiopathic tracheal stenosis to take advantage of the vast collection of audio recordings available.

I hope you are getting excited by the possibilities!

Free E-Book – Listening To Learn! (Value $14.95) I can already hear some of you saying, “But I don’t know how!” ”How can I get started?” ”Where do I find audio files?” ”What if my kids don’t like listening?” The bad news is this: I can’t answer all your questions in one blog post. The good news is this: I have a free e-book for each of you. This book has been designed to help you figure out how to make audio recordings work for your family. You will find links to free audios, definitions, detailed instructions and illustrations on using these three mp3 files, iTunes, your public library, information to help you supplement any subject, and so much more. Just right click on the graphic below and choose download linked file.

Related Posts:

Giveaway #2 – One Lucky Winner! (Value $59.95) Read my review and enter the giveaway here: Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 One Lucky Winner will win this amazing collection of audios. This audio collections will help moms and dads learn and grow and recharge their batteries as they enjoy the speakers of a homeschool convention right in the privacy of the home or car.

Creation Science Class – Check out my review of the Creation Science audio class published by Media Angels. This is just one example of the wonderful resources you can find to learn through audio.

Finished entering the giveaway? Keep Hopping thru the Homeschool Crew Blog Hop! Just click on the graphic below.

Posted in Giveaways!, Homeschool Technology, Homeschooling | 3 Comments

Product Review and Giveaway! Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 by Felice Gerwitz of Media Angels

Posted on May 14, 2012 by amyb

I just finished downloading all of the audios and all of the bonus e-books and bonus audios and bonus articles from the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012. I am now sitting at my computer just blown away by all the amazing stuff included in this year’s set. This set includes 100 audios. I’ve listened to eleven of those audios live, and in my opinion even just two of those audios make the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 worth buying. More on that later. Speakers include some of my own personal favorites such as Hal and Melanie Young, Heidi St. John, Andrew Pudewa, Cindy Rushton, Tyler Hogan and also some speakers whom I have never heard before. I can’t wait to listen to those audios – some for the second or third time…

Okay, now I am starting to sound like a commercial, so let me just back off for a minute and tell you what Ultimate Homeschool Expo has already meant to me. This is my story.

I can remember what I think was the very first Ultimate Homeschool Expo in 2005 or 2006. I was able to purchase the expo set and download them to my iPod. Over the course of the summer, I listened to about 25 audios and then my 1st generation iPod died. I wasn’t able to replace my iPod for a while. In the meantime, my computer died. I purchased an iPhone and did not replace the computer for almost a full year. All that time, I was resting secure in the knowledge that the back-up we had made for my old computer would restore the audio set from Ultimate Homeschool Expo. It did not! I lost the whole thing, along with most of my other saved podcasts and audios. Somehow in doing a separate back-up of his iTunes library, my husband accidentally erased all of my old files.

When we figured out what I had lost – well that was a very sad day. I will tell you why. I used the audios from Ultimate Homeschool Expo to rejuvinate during one of the hardest years of my life. I would play the audios in the car as I drove back and forth from John Hopkins University hospital for endless doctor’s visits and surgeries. This was my only “me time” and let me tell you, that drive around Washington D.C. was not stress free. However, I would come home encouraged and upbeat — blessed by the audios and the speakers who shared their hearts. I was looking forward to finishing that set! So, when I realized the files were permanently lost — I cried.

Fast forward a few years to this past month. Felice offered me a review copy of Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2011 for this Five Days of Homeschool Technology series, and then chose to bless me with the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 at the very last minute this weekend. She also specifically asked me to attend and help promote the live event. (Thank you!) In those five days – listening twice each day for an hour or so – I was blessed beyond measure. Two of those live events – Tyler Hogan and Heidi St. John – were exactly what I needed to hear in that exact moment of my life. In my opinion, those two audios make Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 worth the cost.

Today, I am in awe because I feel like God has restored to me what the locusts had eaten. I have my audios back, and more then before! I know this is a God thing and as I sit here typing it makes me want to cry.

If you choose to purchase Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 and listen — you will be blessed.

The Giveaway: One lucky winner will receive a ticket to Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 — full access to all of the audios and bonus gifts. Please visit the Ultimate Homeschool Expo website and tell me which speaker you are most excited to hear in a comment below. Then click enter on the Rafflecopter form and you will have options for additional entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Finished entering the giveaway? Keep Hopping thru the Homeschool Crew Blog Hop! Just click on the graphic below.

Disclaimer: I received Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2011 in exchange for an honest review on my blog. No further compensation was received. The opinions expressed in this blog entry are my own.

Posted in Giveaways!, Homeschool Technology, Homeschooling | 13 Comments

Product Review: Creation Science with Felice Gerwitz

Posted on May 14, 2012 by amyb

We weren’t even ten minutes into the first audio from the Creation Science class before my son started asking questions about what “Mrs. Gerwitz” had to say. He was so interested in what she was teaching, he couldn’t wait to get all of his questions on the table. I eventually had to tell him to wait and listen, and then see if his questions got answered by the end of the audio…

The Creation Science course from Media Angels has six class sessions, each of which has at least 1 hour of audio. One of the sessions has two hours! The set also includes a preview chat, and a bonus audio about lapbooking. The combined audios are about 12 hours in length. Each session has a handout, experiments, notebooking pages and bonus information in the student manual. The student manual is 72 pages long. The topics covered include:

Days of Creation
Flood Geology
Noah’s Ark
Fossil Record
Evidence of a Young Earth and the Big Bang Theory
Thermodynamics
Problems with Darwin’s theory
False Concepts
DNA and Protein
Ernst Haeckel
Human Sense
What Scientists Believe is Truth
Bad Science
Hoaxes

As we listened to the audio sessions, my son remained interested and continued to discuss the various pieces of information presented. We were engaged in what we were learning! Creation Science is so critical for our children as they approach adulthood and especially the college years. I want my children to know that their belief in Creation is going to be attacked and that scientists/professors do not want to even look at Creation as a possibility. So many children are pulled away from their faith and into sinfulness when professors convince them that Creation science is a farce, and that the idea of Creation does not belong in the scientific realm. Therefore, we need to build a firm foundation so that our children are able to defend and even promote their Christian worldview. The Creation Science class is designed to do just that. In fact, as we worked through the material I realized that what Felice Gerwitz has given us is a Creation Science bootcamp with an overview of topics ranging from dinosaurs and the flood, to proteins and dna. It is a wonderful tool to add to your Creation Science arsonal!

Keep Hopping thru the Homeschool Crew Blog Hop! Just click on the graphic below.

Disclaimer: I was not given a copy of Creation Science in exchange for this blog post, I purchased my own copy a few years ago. All opinions expressed in this post are honest and they are my own.

Posted in Creation, Homeschool Technology, Homeschooling, Product Reviews | 1 Comment

Five Days of Homeschool Technology – The Place to Be! – May 14-18

Posted on May 10, 2012 by amyb

When you think about using technology to enhance your homeschool, are you excited about the possibilities, or befuddled by the sheer volume of available options? Whether technology makes you jump up and down or you want someone to hold your hand and get you started — even if you fall somewhere in between — next week you are going to want to hang out right here at Bow of Bronze for an awesome, fun-filled week of prizes, information, product reviews, and guest posts. In fact, you should go sign up for the RSS feed of Bow of Bronze right now so you don’t miss a single giveaway!

Here is the official line-up so far:

Monday – Audios in the Homeschool

Listening To Learn: Using Audios in the Homeschool – FREE copy for ALL blog visitors! ($14.95 Value)

Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2012 – One Lucky Winner! ($59.95 Value)

Creation Science Audio Class with Handouts – Product Review

Tuesday – On-Line Resources in the Homeschool

Schoolhouse Teachers Premium Membership - One Lucky Winner! ($64.26 Value)

CapJaxMathFax – Product Review

Wednesday – Apps in the Homeschool

MapTrek: Ancient World App – One Lucky Winner! ($4.99 Value)

Wonders of Old – Ancient Timeline App – One Lucky Winner! ($4.99 Value)

Wonders of Old – Medieval Timeline App – One Lucky Winner! ($4.99 Value)

Wonders of Old – New World Timeline App – One Lucky Winner! ($4.99 Value)

Medieval Life for iPad – One Lucky Winner! ($5.99 Value)

KQ Time Traveler for iPad – One Lucky Winner! ($1.99 Value)

I Plan Lessons App – One Lucky Winner! ($6.99 Value!)

I Live Math : Animals of Africa App – One Lucky Winner! ($4.99 Value!)

TOS Magazine Apps – Review (Free App!)

Thursday – Video Learning in the Homeschool

Homeschool Programming - One Lucky Winner! (One First Semester Course w/Videos $85-$90 Value)

Go Science DVD Review

Friday – E-Books in the Homeschool

Artistic Nature Magazine – One Lucky Winner! ($8.50 Value)

A-Z Homesteading Cursive – One Lucky Winner! ($8.50 Value)

Beethoven Who? – One Lucky Winner! ($19.99 value)

In the Hands of a Child Technology Project Pack – One Lucky Winner! ($14 value)

Shining Dawn NaturExplorer Books – One Lucky Winner! (up to $32.50 value)

Heritage History – Review

As you can see we have quite the line-up! That’s over $300 in giveaways! Technology in the Homeschool is part of the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog Hop happening from May 14-18. Each blogger has chosen a homeschool related topic to blog about for five days. 65 bloggers. Over 325 posts. Lots of fun. Come Hop with us!

Posted in Giveaways!, Homeschool Technology, Homeschooling | 5 Comments

Using Produce: Baby Bok Choy

Posted on May 9, 2012 by amyb

It has been a long time since my last post on using produce, and I just could not resist sharing this recipe. We have been getting baby bok choy in extremes from our Farm Fresh To You delivery. Last week we got 20 heads! We have been eating it each week in stir fry, which is wonderful if you throw it in for the very last minute. However, we were getting a little tired of stir fry and wanted to try something new.

My husband found this recipe where you dip the bok choy in a sauce and put it on the grill for just a few minutes. The sauce is a mixture of garlic chili paste, vinegar, and brown sugar. You cut the baby bok choy in half lengthwise, and dip the halves in the sauce mixture. Then you place them on the grill for just a few minutes.

The result was spicy and delicious. My six year old even enjoyed the bok choy this way! And much to my surprise, my veggie-phobic eleven year old enjoyed the bok choy as well. We will definitely be grilling bok choy again! Especially since I still have several heads of it in my refrigerator.

Posted in Recipes, Using Produce | Tagged CSA, Produce, Vegan | 1 Comment

Curriculum Review: Judah Bible Curriculum by Bill Burtness

Posted on May 9, 2012 by amyb

One thing you can tell right away as you start perusing the Judah Bible Curriculum is that this man (Bill Burtness) is passionate about the what he is sharing. He truly believes this method is the best way to study the Bible as a family and he wants everyone to experience Judah Bible!

Judah Bible Curriculum looks at the Bible through these lenses:

1. The hand of God in History
2. The hand of God in the life of the individual
3. Christian self-government
4. Individual Christian character and national liberty.

Should you purchase Judah Bible Curriculum, you will get a methods book and an example of an actual student notebook, plus 8 audios explaining how to use this method with your students. You also get access to the same materials on-line. The manual is 94 pages, and starting on page 63 you will find the handouts for the audios in an appendix. The cost is $44 for the digital version with mp3s, and $74 for the printed version with audio cds.

In my opinion, Judah Bible Curriculum is less of a curriculum and more of a teacher training intensive. When I read the word curriculum in the title, I expect to see lots of printables for my child to use and I expect very little work on my part. Instead, Judah Bible Curriculum is intended to teach you (the parent) to use the Principle Approach to build a Bible notebook with your children as you teach them five themes from the Bible. These themes are:

Creation
The Plan of Redemption Begins
The Kingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of God (God’s New Covenant)
The Early Church

Each year, you will focus on a different set of themes as you work your way through the Bible. You will complete what Mr. Burtness calls Key Sheets each week. These sheets provide a way for your child to visually organize the information about key events, key people, key documents, and key institutions contained within that week’s passage. Key sheets are the only printable part of this curriculum. Each year, you will build on the notebook your students have already started. In addition to the key sheets, you are expected to find your own notebooking pages, coloring sheets, copywork, maps, and other notebook elements. If you choose to use Judah Bible Curriculum, it is a lot of work! I don’t say that to put you off. Usually, the best things in life come at the cost of significant work.

My Bottom Line: My children and I are having a bit of trouble wrapping our brains around this one. Some days I think it is going to be absolutely perfect for us long-term and other days I want to pitch it out the window and give up. The books and audios you receive provide teacher training, but a lion’s share of work is placed on Mom to pull everything together, especially if you have younger children.

Disclaimer: As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this curriculum in the digital format at no cost to me, in exchange for an honest review on my blog. No further compensation was received. Here you have it. Check out what my crewmates have to say about Judah Bible Curriculum.

Posted in Book Reviews, Homeschooling | 1 Comment

J is for Jonathan and Joshua – Blogging Through The Alphabet

Posted on May 8, 2012 by amyb

Jonathan. He’s Eleven. When he was about 18 months old, he snuck into the living room at Christmas time, grabbed them two ornaments off of the tree, slammed them together and watched them crack into a million pieces. Then he very joyfully and excitedly announced ” I MADE it HAPPEN!!!!!” He has enjoyed Making Things Happen ever since. At 11 years old he is just three belts away from Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He loves to help, and has been my best helper since the time he could toddle and follow simple directions. He also still likes hugs, staying up late with me to play canasta or just talk, and reading almost as much as his Mama!

Joshua. He’s Three. He likes bear hugs and sand and he is super strong for a three year old. He loves his bear costume, legos, and sitting on someone’s lap. He is also a fantastic helper. Interesting that my two J’s are the best helpers. Joshua almost seems to need to clean things up sometimes… Joshua also enjoys wrestling with his brothers, beating them up, and sitting on top of them when he “wins.” And, he loves to eat. Oh boy, does he ever love to eat. I am a little scared of the day he is a teenage eater. Yikes!

If you want to see what my fellow bloggers are writing about J and K this week, please stop by Marcy’s Blog.

Posted in Family LIfe | Leave a comment

Mother’s Day Giveaway and Review: Batter Bowl and Mix Set

Posted on May 6, 2012 by amyb

Pancakes anyone? Saturday morning is a big breakfast at our house. I think I owe that to my mother, and probably my husband’s mother too. Saturday was normally the only day of the week my Mom would cook breakfast. Sometimes she made pancakes or waffles, and usually we had scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, sausage, and toast. Pancakes were my favorite.

When I first saw the size of this container, I was concerned that it would even feed us one time. Fortunately, I was wrong. The Farmhouse Pancake mix has four cups of pancake mix, and each cup makes one recipe – supposedly five to six plate-size pancakes. When I mixed up this batter I was very surprised at how thin it was. The pancakes themselves were very thin and crepe-like. I ended up using all of one can of this mix to feed my family of seven. (We have family of eight, but one of my daughters is gluten free and enjoyed her special french toast instead.) Surprisingly, the twins ate more then anyone else, at three pancakes each. We had sixteen pancakes, plus one that had to be thrown away. Not quite the number promised on the can – but arguably close.

The set also came with blueberry syrup and blueberry jam. I wasn’t sure my family would like this, but we ended up draining almost the whole jar. Apparently, it was a hit. We didn’t end up using the jam with the pancakes, but they certainly could have been spread with jam and rolled like crepes — I can see how that would work. I almost tried it, but I was enjoying my pancakes with syrup a bit too much.

Finally, we have the beautiful bowl. Nothing is better for mixing up pancakes then a batter bowl. This particular one easily held 1/2 the can of mix made into batter. I suspect mixing up the whole can would have been do-able but a bit tight. I also used the bowl later in the day to make corn muffins. I love the pouring spout, and the design is very pretty. This is a bowl that will get a lot of use in my kitchen.

As you can see, the mix spreads out quite far and thin on the cast iron skillet. Unlike other mixes I have tried, these pancakes cooked beautifully. I personally prefer thin pancakes, but some members of my family were disappointed by the lack of depth in these. It did also take more pancakes to feed my crew. To compensate for the increased time, we just popped a cookie sheet in the oven set to 250* and kept all the pancakes hot until we were ready to sit down. The taste of these pancakes was terrific! I will definitely purchase this mix again.

This complete set is available right now at Maggie’s Direct for $24.95. It does make a fun Mother’s Day gift from the kids.

One lucky reader will win this complete set – even the pretty blue spatula which I did not even talk about. Please start by scrolling all the way past the contest entry form and leaving a comment about your favorite breakfast tradition. After you have done this, you can click “enter” on the first contest entry box and open up even more chances to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I receive some free “social bucks” at Maggie’s Direct each month with which I can purchase review and giveaway products. In this case, the full cost of the products being given away was not covered. Every link to Maggie’s Direct in this post is a referral link and allows Maggie’s Direct to track the success of my post. Should you create an account at Maggie’s using my links I will receive one social buck, plus a small percentage of social bucks should you choose to purchase anything. On my blog, Maggie’s Direct posts are the only that posts that contain referral links and only because they are required as part of the blogger program. All opinions expressed in this post are honest and belong to me alone.

Posted in Giveaways!, Product Reviews | 31 Comments

Book Review: Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson

Posted on May 4, 2012 by amyb

Once I started reading this book, I thought “Shoot, I needed to read this book earlier.” My girls are 8 and 13. Bringing Up Girls was published almost three years after Bringing Up Boys by Dr. Dobson and that seemed like a very long wait. I loved Bringing Up Boys! I use what I learned in that book all the time. In fact, I think I need to read both books again just to refresh my memory. I already find myself referring back to Bringing Up Girls in the same way. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“I believe there are many approaches to instilling healthy self-worth in girls, but it begins within the security of a loving family. Specifically, it depends on a caring and affirming father. Moms are vital in countless ways too, but self-worth for girls hangs precariously on their relationship with their dads. ” (p. 19)

“If attachment is the goal of parenting and it certainly is, that objective is achieved by expressing genuine love, affection, and dedication, combined with reasonable discipline, defined limits and firm leadership. They work in tandem.” (p. 70)

My Bottom Line: This book is a keeper! Bringing Up Girls is a book I will refer to over and over again for the next 15 years at least. After that I will give it to my children to read. Every parent of girls needs to read this book. My highest recommendation.

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by Tyndale House at no cost in exchange for an honest review on my blog. Here you have it.