Operation Christmas Child
 http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/         Last week was the national collection week for OPC. I’ve seen a few posts and comments on Facebook about this lately. My favorite was the video of one lady demonstrating how she was able to fill 45 boxes for $45! As usual we were running behind so didn’t get ours dropped off on time at church, the items were gathered, just not put together in the boxes. When our family first started participating in this, each of the kids filled one box for a child their age. This year we got to help out at the local collection site, with our Keepers at home group. (Thankfully we got to bring our over

TOS Review of GyMathtics
              Sometimes when a concept is taught in a different way, it can be remembered more clearly. For example, I can remember my Mom teaching me by rhyming “stalactites hold tight to the ceiling. Stalagmites might reach the ceiling.” Maybe the GyMathtics DVD will work for some kids that way- be just the thing they need to help understand a difficult concept. It is a DVD gymnastics type workout, demonstrated and explained by Ms. Carrie, who is accompanied by children of multiple ages, to the theme of math concepts. As you workout she reminds that you are “getting flexible, getting healthy, and challenging the min

TOS Review of AVKO
             “AVKO is a non-profit, 501(C)3 membership organization that focuses on the development and production of materials and especially techniques to teach reading and spelling, handwriting (manuscript and cursive), and keyboarding.  AVKO is dedicated to the teaching everyone how to read and spell, regardless of their mild to moderate learning disabilities, dyslexia, poverty, or opportunity.”           As part of the TOS homeschool crew I was given a free 1 year membership to the AVKO site. The one year membership in the AVKO Educational Research Foundation sells for

pumpkin
           Last year, on a homeschool fieldtrip to Mitchell Farms, another Mom shared that you can cook pumpkins, whole, in the oven, then scoop out the seeds and puree the good part to use or freeze. That amazed me. I was in my late twenties before I was taught how to make applesauce from apples. I cooked a lot growing up, but cooking and preserving some fresh fruits and vegetables somehow got missed.          We brought home four big pumpkins from the pumpkin patch last year, and I have learned since then that you can add it to a lot of food without changing the taste. We have just one bag left in the fr

Review of Watch Over Me
                    Bethany House publishers provided me with a copy of Watch Over Me by Christa Parrish In return for this book, I get to blog about it and share my opinion.             This is a story of complexities in life, woven together so skillfully in a handful of very different characters. Christa Parrish blends the day to day struggles of a soldier haunted by memories of war, a young boy fighting for his life, a hurting wife in a strained marriage, and an abandoned baby.             In the news w