Explode the Code Review

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This is another subject that I saw my siblings go through before I chose it for my own homeschooling year. While initially an easy choice, these have been workbooks that I've had a hard time getting used to. I've even considered changing to something else after the first few weeks, but I told myself to just get through the first book, and I'm so glad I did! If you've been considering using Explode the Code for your own little one, you can check out my pros and cons list of this phonics program.

Pros: 
First off, the Primer Books (Get Ready for the Code) were amazing! Because my son was already quite familiar with the alphabet, he sped through the primer book I found for him, and really enjoyed the simple graphics, and fun pre-reading activities.

For the other books, I like how there are very frequently reviewing lessons to go over everything that has been taught.

I love all the silly sentences that get to be read at the end of each lesson (this is Book 1). My son is really bad at trying to guess what the sentence will be based on the illustration, so the crazy sentences help me know that he is actually sounding them out.

The books seem to go at a really good pace. This is good since my son struggled in the beginning. He is going over all the concepts he had a hard time picking up, and each book is thorough with the concepts they teach.

Cons:
While the illustrations are cute and simple, after seeing the beautiful colored illustrations of A Reason for Handwriting it's hard not to compare the two. The black and white drawings are fun, but sometimes they can be a little hard to guess what they are. (which is actually good for sounding out the sentences and not guessing what comes next)

My personal opinion is that there is a lot of writing back to back. We do three pages per day, and it seems they put a lot of handwriting together. For a beginner writer, this can be a struggle. For a little boy who wants to get everything right, or takes a long time writing certain letters, this can make the lesson drag on. As he learns handwriting, and understands the concepts, this is getting easier and easier.

My son would get frustrated when he couldn't understand the concept or sound out the words. He had such a hard time in the beginning, and while they DO repeat concepts over and over again, this didn't make the first few lessons any easier.

Closing remarks and tips:
Overall, I would say I have enjoyed these books, and as my son grasps the concepts I enjoy it more (and so does he)! This past week he asked to keep going past the amount of pages I assigned to him!
Something I would recommend doing is set a limit for each day, so your child doesn't get too frustrated or over tired. My mom would set a timer, for us we do 3 pages a day. Do whatever works for you and your child!

Have you used Explode the Code? What do you think?

Day in the Life of a Homeschool Mom

Trying to write a 'typical' day in my life, is like trying to ride a unicorn on a rainbow...it's impossible! I decided to try my best to be realistic. Just know that there are days when I accomplish more, and days when I accomplish absolutely nothing but keeping my children fed and somewhat happy (points for that, right?!). If you are finding such days in your own life, grab a coffee, read a good book, and remember that tomorrow is another day!

6:15am I wake up to the sound of my husband getting ready for work. I put Baby Girl in her crib (because no matter how good of intentions I have, she always is there by morning), and head like a zombie towards my coffee pot. While the haze starts to lift, I read my Bible, post a picture to Instagram, and do any blogging I need to do. 

7am By this time Little Man is awake and has asked at least 5 times if it's time for breakfast yet. I sigh at the empty coffee mug and slave in the kitchen to assemble his favorite breakfast: yogurt with a granola bar (okay, so maybe I'm joking over the slaving part-but not his favorite breakfast part! He literally just wants to eat this everyday!). I have started eating oatmeal in the morning, as a quick but warm fall breakfast!

8 am At this time, Little Man has eaten and gotten ready for the day, I've gotten ready for the day, and Baby Girl might be awake and wants to be fed. Even the dog has been taken care of for the morning. This means it's time for school!

9am We've covered Music, Bible, Read Aloud, Science/History, and sometimes Art. I used to include Phonics (you can look at this post for what my son's schedule looks like), but we've figured out that Phonics and Math are best done during Baby Girl's nap. 

10am Recess! We head outside where I make sure Baby Girl doesn't consume grass or leaves, and we watch Bubba play. We will sometimes go on nature walks, or just simply watch Little Man do tricks on his balance bike. 

11am Lunch This includes me making what I make every.single.day. Peanut Butter and Jelly, fruit, cheese stick and whole wheat goldfish crackers. This is where Little Man gets to watch a small cartoon while I eat leftovers from the night before (or something else). I normally put Baby Girl to bed and let Little Man lay down for about 20 minutes. 

12:30pm By this time Little Man is laying down for half an hour, Baby girl is napping, and I'm sipping my afternoon cup of Joe. This is where I get 20 minutes of 'me time'. This can be Youtube videos, a good book, or art. Right this second I'm in this time slot, and typing an extra blog post!

1pm Little Man is normally up and around, and this is where we will complete any school that didn't get done in the morning time. I also do housework during this hour. I do some in the morning, but it's more like 'what can I squeeze in here' than actual checking boxes off a list. (you can find a wonderful checklist here by Clutter Bug!)

2pm On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays It's time for me to teach piano. Most days I will only have a small break between each lesson before doing another one. On Thursdays it's homeschool group activities day. Wednesday is my 'off' day where I only have one piano lesson in the evening before church. 

4pm Piano is normally over, and my husband is headed home from work. It's time for me to make supper! We eat supper early, because of my husband coming early, and I feel like it's better for us to do so. 

5pm Ideally supper is being cleaned up (I am working on being more consistent in making sure I clean up things right after supper) and Little Man has asked my husband for the 20th time if he can play/build/play video games. At least my husband is now getting all the questions and not me! ha!

6pm This is the time we are visiting as a family. In a perfect evening this would be discussions about our day, maybe a board game, or a delicious dessert. What it normally ends up being is a chaotic tornado of toys swirling around the living room, and at its chaotic center, my two children-and also my husband. 

7pm A nightly, week day tradition is  watching Andy Griffith. Since we've watched most of these by now, I am also getting things prepared for the next day, maybe folding clothes, or playing with the kids. 

8pm Bedtime for the kids! That beautiful time of the day when the house is quiet. My husband and I go to sleep around 9:30, so we get a little time to catch up on a tv show, or sometimes I'll read. 

2am Baby girl cries

4am Baby girl decides sleeping through the night is a thing of the past, and this is probably the point she ends up in my bed. You wanted this to be realistic, right?!

As I said before, no day is typical, but this is as close as I can get! What kind of day are you having? Productive, or 'At least the kids are alive' kind of a day?

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A Reason For Handwriting Review

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When it came time to pick my son's handwriting curriculum (which you can see the full list of here), there was no hesitation before choosing A Reason for Handwriting. I had two of my siblings go through the handwriting course when they were young. Not only did it help them obtain great handwriting, but they were copying Bible Verses. I remember my sister carefully coloring the illustrations and copying the verses, and when she was finished, she would gift these to family members. I was in Thailand at the time, and I think I still have a few of these keepsakes.



The Kindergarten version is a little different, in that there are no Bible Verses yet. Kindergartners learn how to form shapes, then letters based on these shapes. I really like how they do the letters in order of how they are made, not in order of the Alphabet. This makes it much easier for my little 5 year old to grasp, and his handwriting has flourished. Like the other books, there are still adorable illustrations, that my child can color and gift. There are already colorful animals gracing refrigerators in our family!










I am not sponsored by this company, and I paid full price for the book, but I just can't say enough good things about this course! When we received the book, my son ooo-ed and aaahh-ed over the colorful pictures inside, and Wednesdays (the day we focus on handwriting) is his favorite day of the week for school.






What do you use for handwriting? Let me know in the comments!

Whirly Squigz: A Timberdoodle Review

Back in July I talked about how I was including my Baby Girl in our homeschool year. She is 10  months old, crawling everywhere, but not quite walking yet. While she may not be walking yet, she is into everything! My hope was that adding these Whirly Squigz to her basket would help in keeping her occupied while Little Man and I worked on his Kindergarten studies.








The first thing I noticed about Whirly Squigz is how durable they were! Made out of silicone, they are very durable and perfect for little fingers to grab. Baby girl puts everything in her mouth, and these toys were no exception! She's been teething a lot here lately, and these made the perfect teething toys.

Another thing I liked about these toys, is that they could be separated and put in three different areas, and really function as three different toys. The suction cup on the bottom suctions really well (but not so much a baby can't pick the toy back up).I have tried several different surfaces, and unless the surface is uneven or bumpy, it will pretty much suction to anything.

The one 'con' I can give this toy is that Baby Girl was still too young for this toy when we got it. It is made for 10 months-3 years, and she just turned 10 months a week ago. Since she didn't quite 'get' the spinning aspect of the toy it didn't keep her attention as long, and I was unable to get a picture of her spinning it. However, big brother has really enjoyed these over sized 'figit spinners' -what he calls them-and showed Baby Girl enough times, that she has attempted to spin them a few times.

I also want to add the 'flower' with only 2 'petals' doesn't spin as well as the others. However, this is the one Baby Girl really enjoys as a teether.






Overall I would say that these would make great birthday or Christmas gifts for babies 10 months or older. They can be separated and make great toys to occupy little ones when you are out and about, or at home. They suction on tables, high chairs, windows, and refrigerators. You can click this link to buy it separately, or it also comes with the tot school curriculum from Timberdoodle. This would be great for introducing your little one to school (especially if they have older siblings they want to be like!), and helping with motor skills. Later I'll be writing Christmas gift suggestions for little ones, and I see this making the list!

Smart Farmer: A Timberdoodle Review

If you've followed me very long on this blog, you know we are using The Playful Pioneers Curriculum from The Peaceful Press. Right now we are in the middle of Farmer Boy and learning all about farm animals, planting, school in the 1800s, and all the wonderful life lessons you can find in all of Laura Ingalls' books. When getting our curriculum ready for the new school year, I knew I wanted this game from Timberdoodle, to help with critical thinking.

My son received this on his birthday, and couldn't wait to open it! He loves other thinking skills games from Timberdoodle, like Rush Hour Jr. (he plays this all the time at my moms) so he was excited for a game all his own that was similar. 

Smart Farmer is a game perfect for his age, and I don't think I would go any younger. He had no problem setting up the pieces in the correct places, but struggled to figure out how the game worked at first. Once I explained how it worked, he managed to figure out the first puzzle. He worked many levels on his own, but didn't quite understand that you needed to group the like animals together. I believe he will figure this out soon. 

Smart Farmers comes with a game board, fence pieces, itty bitty farm animals, and a puzzle manual. Each puzzle in the instruction manual increases in difficulty, to help keep the game challenging. The pieces are a little too small for baby sister to get a hold of, so we have to be sure and play it on the table or higher surface. Each piece is made very well, and I can see it lasting a long time! 

If you are thinking about a curriculum for building thinking skills, this game might be perfect for your 5-10 year old! It's cute, fun, and very educational. It even caused this momma's brain to stop and think a minute! My son loves puzzles, and I feel like this one is  a 'next level' puzzle. I am now also considering getting other puzzles like this from Timberdoodle. This game is also a part of the complete Kindergarten Curriculum from Timberdoodle, so you could have this as part of your main curriculum. I highly recommend this game for little ones who love puzzles, farm animals, challenges, or all of the above!

Fall Front Porch Makeover

Thanks to my Instagram and Facebook followers, who helped decide this week's blog post, I was able to transform my front porch this past weekend! So now I'm here, ready to share everything I did, how much it cost, and how you can transform your own front porch for very little $$. I would like to call the after 'minimal', but let's be honest...it's because I didn't want to spend very much. I'll also be sharing links to other things I would like to add, and as always, those links may be affiliated. So without further ado-here is the before:

I am really bad about forgetting to take a before picture, so I had already put my first coat of paint on the front door before I remembered to take a picture. Here is a picture I took earlier of the front door, to refresh your memory on what the front door looked like. 

Unfortunately the outside of the house has been neglected over the last 7 years. While doing updates on the inside of the house, the outside had been put on the back burner. When we started doing the Dave Ramsey plan with our finances, I knew my normal house makeover budget needed to be small, and in a small area. I decided to redo the front porch and give my front door a fresh coat of paint. 

First, we gave the porch a good cleaning. I took off our window screens, which had holes and scratches. I decided that they needed to be trashed, as their purpose was to keep bugs out when I opened the windows, and the holes weren't allowing them to do their job! This made the windows much clearer and lots of natural light is pouring through our kitchen now! I also got Little Man busy with the broom, sweeping off the leaves and dirt off the front porch. 

I then took off everything that didn't belong on the front porch, like lawn chairs and broken planters. We need to have a big dumpster day, to take all the junk sitting on our carport. For now it will have to stay there! 

Next came the fun part! I used this paint to transform the front door. I didn't even use half of it and gave it two good coats! This color came out the perfect shade of red. Because I didn't paint the inside of the "X" it gave the door a more rustic feel. 

Now it was time to decorate! I bought a medium white pumpkin, with a set of 3 mini ones. Unfortunately, we had a stray dog that came into the yard and took the little ones off, so I don't have any to show for the next pictures. I bought a scarecrow and hay bale at Hobby Lobby for about $5 (for both), and with the pumpkins, that brings me to a grand total of $10 for the decorations. If you add the paint for the door ($14) plus the paint roller ($5?), and the wreath, this puts the whole project at less than $40! I will admit, that it's not a super big and overwhelming transformation, but I love the way it looks! I will be using the tips in my previous blog post to purchase some more things at the end of the fall season, for a substantial discount. 

My mom gave me this beautiful outdoor rug for my birthday! I am hoping to eventually buy this gingham rug to put underneath for more cohesive style (as long as it's still in style by the time I find a good deal on it! haha!)

Something I love about this rug is how it is season neutral. I love things that can stay out all year long!

 A little Colonel Reb to represent my husband's favorite team sits among the fall decor. And though football and fall go hand in hand, this little guy sits out all year long!

To the left of the door, there isn't much picture worthy yet, but the windows have been cleaned, and the porch has been swept. As always, tag me in your photo, whether on Instagram or Facebook, and when you makeover your own front porch for the fall! Below you'll find some things from Amazon I would like to add to my front porch in the future-perhaps even this coming year! 

I added this metal thankful sign from the Dollar Tree to my already DIYed wreath (instructions here)

Fall Time Learning With Littles

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Here in the south, the temperatures are slowly starting to lower out of the 90s and hot muggy mornings are being replaced with cloudy cool ones. For me this is a time to head outside to do nature walks and come inside for hot apple cider and fall crafts! Over the last couple of years I've found some cute ones that are normally a part of a unit study we are doing. Below I'll share the craft, and the unit study that goes with it. These are great for ages 3-5 but can be adjusted for multiple age groups!

Salt Paint Pumpkins:

Click here to find all the unit studies I did for Pre-K. For two weeks in October, we learned about pumpkins. One of the activities was to make salt painted pumpkins. Simply make an outline with glue, add salt, and let your littles add wet watercolor paint to the shape. Kids love watching the color bleed into the outline. 

A more mess-free activity is to put orange finger-paint in a ziplock bag and have your little make letters, or fall time shapes with their fingers. This is great pre-writing practice, and won't make a big mess all over the table!

Little Blue Truck Unit Study:

This whole unit study was an amazing introduction to fall! Learning about color changing trees, muddy puddles, and being friendly are all things your little ones will learn in this unit study. Follow this link to learn more!

During this unit study, we did what is called ooblek-which is cornstarch and water. For muddy puddles we added cocoa and threw in some farm animals, a little people's blue truck, dump truck and lots of farm animals. Little Man acted out the story time and time again! There are so many fall time crafts and activities for the kids to do. Make sure you check the link to find more ideas!

Fall Foil Painting

So...I can't tell you exactly where I got this idea from. It may have been from Pinterest, or from The Peaceful Preschool. For this activity, you need washable paints, and a wadded up piece of foil. I made a tree outline, and my son took the foil and dipped it in red, orange and yellow paint to make a fall tree. It was simple, low maintenance art that I love! My son is a perfectionist, who gets frustrated when art projects don't look like the picture. This was an activity that was basically a no fail art piece. Win/win for mommy and preschooler!

Extra Fall Unit Study

I wanted to add this unit study for more fall time learning. This is another literature study from Simply Learning, and it is all about Bear Says Thanks. It's a great study for before fall time. We did leaf place-mats and collages, plus learned all about being thankful. Check out this link for more!

Have a favorite fall time craft? Let me know in the comments!
Also, I am joining Timberdoodle's fall time blog hop! Click on a blog post below to find more fall inspiration!

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