NotebookingPages.com: Notebooking Pages Lifetime Membership Review ~ TOS Crew

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My girls and I loved the Lifetime Membership from NotebookingPages.com. I found that it is a great way to enhance learning while also creating a beautiful portfolio that will be a display of everything that you have learned.

What is notebooking? Well, I am so glad you asked! Notebooking is keeping a compilation of what you have learned by: reflections, sketches, pictures, notes, short stories, etc. This is different than simply taking notes, or even keeping a diary. Notebooking is a way cement the learning process through multi-sensory methods. 
I want you to understand that there are a lot of benefits to notebooking for your child. I think the biggest thing it did for my girls was relieve the stress of traditional methods of learning. In brick and mortar, you are required to simply memorize information and then regurgitate it all whenever asked. Notebooking helps bring the stories to life in a more relevant way....which in turn leads to lifetime learning. As your child captures new knowledge through a variety of methods and stores it in the notebook, you will see a love for learning grow! Our kids want to not only be successful in their education, they want to feel successful! 
What we received with the Lifetime Membership was:

• All the current notebooking products...and they are nearly innumerable. You can take your pick from: Art Study, Famous People, Geography, Modern Times, Music, Science, History, and much more!
• All the future notebooking products...anything that comes out in the future is available to you without having to do anything else. It will just become available as it comes out.
• Search bar & Table of Contents....this is so great, because it makes it so much easier to navigate your way through all the available pages, and find just what you need.
• Tutorials, Tips and Videos...I love that you have access to all the homeschooling tips and videos. This is a wonderful resource and will impact your homeschool for the good.
• Unlimited Lifetime Access....I love that this membership is a Lifetime Membership. That takes the pressure off when it comes to downloading and using the product. This way you can use what you need when you need it without any hassle or deadlines!!

With my girls on summer break, we utilized this product in a "freestyle" manner and I allowed them to use it as they chose. I gave them the guidelines and time-frame parameters and then left them to it. I loved that we were able to use this as a summer learning program of sorts and increase our knowledge during what would have normally been an "off" time! They bounced around between the topics, but absolutely loved these notebooking pages. My oldest loves to write and found that the pages which allowed her to write short stories or create poems were her favorite. My youngest is not that fond of writing and she found that color pages were her favorite. So even though their interest and personalities are different, what I found similar was their love of this product.

With notebooking being a fairly new idea for us and our homeschool, I found this product to be top notch. Not only because of the fact that the pages are well thought out and creatively done....but because of the vast number of them. This product is so versitile and wonderfully crafted...you can put it to use anywhere in your homeschool and see it impact your child positively!

If you want to find out a little more about NotebookingPages.com click here.
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MySchoolYear.com: My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) Review ~ TOS rew

This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my blog and homeschool! See my full Disclosure statement for more information. I have been homeschooling my girls for the past 5 years, and I can tell you that the one thing that frightened me the most about giving this a try was the record keeping portion. As a girl who has always wanted to stay well withing the boundary of any given rule....I get a little "OCD" when it comes to making sure that I keep good records for their schooling. Let me tell you this though...we as homeschoolers have sure come a long way when it comes to record keeping!! Gone are the days of the old, print grade book and lesson plan books. No longer do we need to hand write out 2 separate lesson plan books: one for the teacher and one for the students, instead we can utilize our electronic devices to help us make sense of the intricate details of tracking multiple students. Recently, I've been using My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) from MySchoolYear.com to plan and track our school work.
I am always excited to give new products a try, and when it is one that will make my life easier that is even better! When I began loading the class information for my daughters, I found the website a little bit confusing, but the trade-off is well worth spending a little bit of time making sense of the process. 
What you find when you utilize My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) is a one stop shop for tracking the classes, progress, attendance, activities, and a lesson plan generator. I have no doubt that this product will make your homeschool life easier. I really like that they offer a free trial for you to give it a whirl before making up your mind. That will give you the opportunity to check it out and play around on the website to customize it to fit your educational needs.
How Does it Work?
I love that this product can be used for one child, or multiple children! So, when you dive into it...you get to set up a section for each one of your kiddos! Once you do that, you can add subjects and curriculum. You can also add activities, and track the time and progress of your student for each one. After creating a slot for the curriculum, you can decide whether to use the Rapid Repeat (for repeat of same item) or Quick Split (for splitting up books by pages, etc.) This way if they are reading a book, or working in a textbook, etc...you can split it up easily and quickly.
How Did We Use It?
I have two daughters. One is in the 9th grade and one is in the 12th grade. Under each name I added the subjects that they will be doing, and the curriculum that will be used. At that point you can select which days they will be doing each subject and the time frame that will be spent in each subject. We generally do the majority of our schooling Monday through Thursday. We leave Fridays fairly open for extra-curricular activities or any catch up that needs to happen.
My Bottom Line:
I have to say that this product is vast. For those of you....and you know who you are....that love to plan everything out and track it all, you will love this product! You can do just about everything on this website, up to creating high school transcripts. So this is designed to stick with you from Kindergarten through High School!!

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LearnBop: LearnBop for Families Review ~ TOS Crew

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I'm not saying that this is the case today.....but we have had some anxiety induced meltdown moments during home school, all because of MATH! Are any of you homeschool parents feeling me right now?  LOL!  Many students have a love/hate relationship with Math. I completely understand that, since that was me during my high school years! LearnBop has a great new way to practice math with their LearnBop for Families subscription! Finding the right tool to help each of your children learn effectively and efficiently is not always an easy task. Sometimes, this daunting task seems unmanageable, but I am hoping to help you out today! Since I find it to be the absolute greatest responsibility as a homeschool parent, I wanted to share this great online math tutoring site with you. Some of you may also feel like me, I feel that the task gets harder as my children get older...That is why I am so happy to have the opportunity to review this product for LearnBop. 

With LearnBop for Families , math help is just a click away. You can take it on the go and utilize this wonderful help from anywhere. Which I'm sure your kids will love!! LOL! LearnBop for Families  is a tool to help your student navigate through the world we call math, and come out successful on the other end! This online Math subscription service provides personalized Math tutoring/instruction for students in the 3rd to 12th grades, and they have one goal in mind....Math education! No matter whether your student is behind and needs a boost to catch up, or your student is bright and needs some guidance on how to move ahead, LearnBop has got you covered!
Beginning with the Adaptive Roadmaps, LearnBop will recognize any learning gaps that your student may be struggling with and then customize a learning experience just for them. This experience will include: instructional videos, math problems (hints included), feedback and motivational aids. I have found LearnBop for Families  to be a "full-service" learning site!

I used this program with a 9th grader and a 12th grader. I loved that the program is easy and fun to use. When I signed my girls into the program, they were able to easily navigate the system and find their way through their own roadmap!

Because we are currently on Summer Break....I didn't put a lot of requirements on my girls. I told them to work through the program 3 days a week, and they went to work! They worked through the units as they wished...and enjoyed the instructional videos a lot. My youngest really enjoyed the opportunity to warm up before beginning. It was wonderful watching them solidify previous concepts they had already learned, as well as learn new things in prep for the beginning of the school year. 

I found this product to be beneficial and practical as a homeschool parent. This is a great way to provide additional helps and tutoring so that your child is always moving forward in their educational needs. LearnBop for Families is a win.....win!

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God's Perfect Creation

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I absolutely love the diversity you find in nature. How many of you are like me? I find myself at peace when I am surrounded by the creation of God and I can take in all of his creative work! Think about how many different types of flowers there are....or animals for that matter. Think about the colors of the fish, and the diversity of trees. God created each one through the power of His Word....and it is all so good! I for one have never pondered why God would create one tree with big leaves and yet another with small ones. I have never questioned what God was doing when I look at a giant bullfrog next to a small tree frog. Instead I feel that it speaks to my heart in a way that only nature can and assures me of a God larger than anything......larger than everything, and I find peace in my soul through the stillness of that moment.

Yet, how is it that the same diversity....the same unique creativity can be called into question when we ponder the creation we individually call "me?" Do we revel in His creation, trusting that a Great and Almighty God crafted us with purpose and intention? Do we look at the unique qualities that only we possess and take pleasure, or do we try to take it upon ourselves to redesign what has already been perfectly crafted? OUCH! I dare say that we, the created, have been known to tell the creator what He should, could, ought to do to make us more like a different creation......Can I get an amen!? My three daughter pictured above are all three so different and unique, and I really wouldn't want it any other way!

I know that I spent most of my childhood and part of my adult life believing that God made a mistake when he created me. I could be happy if I was like ______. I would be successful if He would have made me like _________. I wanted more friends like _______, I wanted more kids like _______, I wanted a laugh like _____________, and hair like ___________. I mean seriously, we fill those blanks in with different things and people all the time. Then, on top of all that I would torment myself with these questions.....why did you laugh at that? Why aren't you more talkative, why aren't you less talkative, why, why, why????

In the book of Job we see God lay out a few questions that I will pass on to you....
Job 38 - "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?......Who kept the sea inside its boundaries?...Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?..." Read the rest of the chapter.....better yet, start at the beginning and read the entire book. Allow it to speak to your heart. 

God takes His creation seriously. You were crafted and designed with purpose. I took a pottery class with my friend. Never once did my piece I was working on start telling me what I should do with it.....yet, we do that to the Maker of the Universe! What would we do if that happened to us? Probably scream and run away, but God is patient with us. God wants us to trust in Him. He wants us to rest in Him. When we do that, we will be free to be exactly who God made us to be.

John 14:1-3 has been my favorite portion of scripture since I was a child. I grew up full of anxiety and broken inside, yet John 14:1 says, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me." We have a choice!!! We can choose to keep our hearts from being troubled.......by putting our trust in God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Trust that the same God that designed a way to rescue us from the penalty of our sins, designed you perfectly and with a purpose!!! You are amazing my friend! 

Progeny Press: The Scarlet Pimpernel E-Guide Review ~ TOS Crew

 Study Guides for Literature,

with a Christian perspective

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My daughter and I had the pleasure of reviewing The Scarlet Pimpernel E-Guide from Progeny Press. You have no idea how happy I was to find Progeny Press! Gone are the days where I have to pre-read books and make my own study guide!! Woooohooo! Come on....I can't be the only person that did that!

I love that this is an E-Guide too. We are not a very traditional homeschool family...with me working outside the home as well...so having it in digital format was great! I was able to have it downloaded on my computer, and my daughter had it downloaded onto hers. This way if she had any questions or problems she could call and I had it right at my fingertips if necessary.

There are two things that I absolutely love, love, love when it comes to education and that would be History and VOCAB! I don't know why I love vocabulary so much, but my girls and even their friends can attest to the fact that vocab is a LOVE with me!  LOL!  Don't judge...we all have our little quirks! So for me, the vocabulary section at the beginning of each section was my absolute favorite part of this E-Guide! I don't say that to discount any other part of the E-Guide. Progeny Press is amazing at putting together a well thought out and superbly executed guide that help your child acquire a well-rounded knowledge of the book they are reading. Although The Scarlet Pimpernel E-Guide is for high schoolers, Progeny Press also has guides for Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle School, so be sure to read the other reviews to learn the full range of what Progeny Press has to offer.

My daughter was able to put this to quick use because she was finishing up British Literature, and this flowed nicely with our lesson plans. One of her favorite parts of the E-Guide were all the optional activities and pre-reading activities that they included. I am definitely one of those people that learns better with a "hands-on" approach and I believe I may have passed that on to my daughters. She really enjoyed the activities and I feel that it gave her a better understanding of the book.

My bottom line is simple. Progeny Press is a fabulous company that makes my job easier as a homeschool mom. They go above and beyond to print quality materials while still maintaining their Christian perspective. I feel that this E-Guide gave my daughter a true critical analysis of The Scarlet Pimpernel and that was my goal! You too may be searching for a company that will help make your job as a homeschool parent easier, and I believe you have come to the right place. Way to go Progeny Press!!

If you are looking for study guides for any books for your children, click here today! You can also check out Progeny Press on the social media links below.

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