Soft Scrub Review and Giveaway

 

Soft Scrub sent me Soft Scrub Mold and Mildew Stain Remover to try out a few weeks ago. I immediately took it to the bathtub – and I’m pretty happy with it. It cleaned up the nastiness that happens without too much fuss or scrubbing. It shined my kitchen sink and worked to clean up all the surfaces in my bathroom.

Soft Scrub:

• Doesn’t stink. It smells clean, like bleach, but it’s pretty mild. In a small bathroom, I really appreciate not feeling like I might die from inhaling chemicals!
• It’s a gel. It stays where you spray it remarkably well.
• It cleans tile, grout, tubs, showers. Might I add to their list and say it also cleans sinks, countertops, and faucets. I used it as a one-spray-fits-all during this review and found it able to stand up to everything I tried.

Sweepstakes: One winner will receive $1,000 and a year's supply of Soft Scrub, while 250 second place winners get to try NEW Soft Scrub® Mold & Mildew Stain Remover for FREE by clicking here.

Giveaway: I have three coupons to giveaway. Comment here, like this post on Facebook, and comment on my Facebook page for three chances to win! I’ll draw for winners Monday night.

The story of us. Part 6.

 

Read part one here.

Read part two here.

Read part three here.

Read part four here.

Read part five here.

The regular pediatrician was gone for Thanksgiving vacation, and I got the doctor on call. He ordered a test to check for acid reflux, prescribed Zantac, and within three days we had a very different baby. She quit crying all the time, and by six months, she was sleeping through the night. Motherhood wasn’t looking so bleak.

When Liberty was eight months, I quit nursing. Upon realizing her weight gain wasn’t what it should be, I was threatened with a call to child services if I didn’t stop nursing and start formula. At 19 and scared, I bought formula on my way home. Liberty still was small, and didn’t gain weight any better on formula. I tried to tell her I had a very thin husband, but it didn’t matter. I switched pediatricians and learned a hard lesson. Fight for what I believe in, and no one will stand up for my family better than my family.

April 30, 2004 we bought our first house. A few weeks later, we found out I was expecting. I was working at our church as a secretary, babysitting one little girl, and also cleaning a few businesses and homes to make ends meet. Our marriage was stronger than ever, and we were starting to learn what it meant to become one. Liberty clung to me and cried each evening when Blaine got home and I headed out to clean. In the end, I quit the cleaning business and babysitting in exchange for Blaine working extra hours at his job instead. Life settled into a new routine again.

Our Great Pyrenees liked our neighbors better than us, and she went to my parents’ to live. We got a border collie mix we named Heidi. Walks with Liberty and Heidi became routine, and I got to know the streets of the tiny town we lived in pretty well. My pregnancy went along far easier than my first, and I found contentment far easier when life was easier. Understatement, eh?

February 1, 2005, Eden Rayne was born. You can read her birth story here. Her first year had many more changes for us. Just before Labor Day, 2005, Blaine was laid off from his job. He’d been longing for the East Coast, so we put a “For Sale By Owner” sign in the yard.

Four days later, we had a signed offer. We were moving.

Well, then.

May 3, 2013. The garden, some of it planted.

Southwest Missouri. The picnic table we ate supper on just two days ago.

The lawn I’ve mowed four times now. The lilacs are in full bloom.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Soft Scrub Review and Giveaway

 

Since one review and giveaway deserves another… and another… watch this next week for more coupons for FREE Soft Scrub.

Soft Scrub sent me a 4-in-1 Toilet Care toilet bowl rim hanger to try out. It cleans the toilet, prevents buildup, and freshens up to 4 weeks.

If you have a normal amount of people using the bathroom. For us, it lasted about 2 1/2 weeks. But I think we have an extreme case of toilet usage.

I hung this in the toilet when the toilet was dirty. I was curious if it could get rid of my weekly ring that I’m forever scrubbing off.

It did. Ring disappeared, and the bathroom smelled like Soft Scrub for several weeks. My only complaint was that it didn’t clean outside of the bowl. I’m probably wishing for something that will never happen, but wouldn’t that be neat?!

For now, we’ll have to settle for the inside of the bowl. It’s fresh, clean, and while I’m not certain my cloth diapers appreciated it, the rest of you might appreciate not having to scrub.

Sweepstakes: One lucky winner will receive $1,000, while 250 second place winners get to try NEW Soft Scrub® 4-in-1 Toilet care for FREE!

Giveaway: I have three coupons for Soft Scrub. You may choose any Soft Scrub you like, up to a value of $3.39. The other Soft Scrub products I’ve reviewed are available, along with this toilet bowl hanger. Comment here, like this post on Facebook, and comment on my Facebook page for three chances to win!

I’ll close this giveaway Saturday night at midnight… and post another one! Soft Scrub is being generous. (:

Leaving that one alone.

Today at Hobby Lobby, the kids found rabbit skins for sale. After much to do about why on earth anyone would kill a rabbit (wonders Ruby) and feeling them and asking if they are real (wonders Sterling), Eden had the final say that made me choke on my gum.

Sterling asked how much the rabbit skins cost. Eden announced she hadn’t seen the price but she was sure they were expensive.

Sterling asked why, and then it came.

“Because rabbits are really rare.”

I choked. I snorted. It was entirely unladylike.

And then I started to tell Eden that people actually refer to something that reproduces often as… and then I thought better of it. I do not want to go there, and certainly don’t want to spark such conversations in Hobby Lobby. So we walked away, leaving it at “Rabbits aren’t rare, honey. There’s lots.”

Central confusion.

About a month ago, when I changed out winter clothes for summer clothes (What was I thinking?! Winter refuses to go away.) I rearranged Ruby’s drawers. With threats thrown out for the neatness to last longer than the next load of laundry, she’s taken her job seriously. Every time she puts her clothes away, she asks where each thing goes.

Tonight, as she held up a skirt, I said,

“Bottom drawer. In the middle.”

She walked toward the stairs, spun back around and looked at me quizzically.

“So if I go in my room, I open my…”

Seriously?

“Bottom drawer.”

“And then I put it on which side?”

“Middle Ruby. In the middle.”

Sheesh. I do not get paid enough.

Review and Giveaway: Purex with Crystals Fragrance

A few weeks ago, I was given a chance to review Purex with Crystals Fragrance. With fabric softener and a lovely fragrance that stays with the clothes long past wash time, I really enjoyed this review. The clothes came clean, smelled great, and static was kept to a minimum.

Want to try it out too? I have three coupons to give away, provided by Purex. Maximum value: $6. Just leave a comment here, comment on my facebook page, and like this post for three chances at a coupon for a bottle of Purex of your very own.

I’ll randomly draw three winners Wednesday, May 1, at 8pm CST.

The story of us. Part 5.

Read part one here.
Read part two here.
Read part three here.
Read part four here.


June 21, we celebrated Blaine’s birthday and having made it to the nine month mark. Now it seems funny, but at the time, I was pretty concerned with appearances and did not want questions as to the conception of my child.

June 25, labor began. I was admitted, confirmed to be in labor, and left to progress on my own. After several hours, I was moving along, and then it stopped. The next morning, when given the option to induce labor or go home, I stupidly made the decision to induce and get it over with. The doctor broke my water, began pitocin, and that night, Liberty Skye was born. You can read her birth story here.

And so, another of my plans was altered. A girl? First? Certainly we’d have a boy first. It’s the American Dream, after all. A girl first was not on my radar. I struggled with wanting the perfect life – and this was not what I’d envisioned. More money, peace in my home (and heart) and less struggling were what I thought I deserved. I wasn’t content. I had so much to learn. Apparently, I was one of those. You know, the ones that have to learn the hard way.

We settled into life with our first child. We moved from our apartment to a rented old farmhouse, where we burned wood for heat, got a Great Pyrenees dog who drove me nuts, and we worked towards buying our first home. Choosing not to heat the whole (big) house, Liberty’s bedroom sat empty and her crib hung out in the kitchen, closer to the wood stove. Flies and box elder bugs were abundant, and some unknown creature chewed on the floor boards from the dirt crawlspace. The pipes froze when it got really cold, and paint flaked off the living room walls and fluttered to the floor on a regular basis. God was working on me and this whole contentment thing.

Our marriage was rough. Blaine changed jobs, we’d been married a year by that point, and had a new, very crabby child who screamed day and night for the first five months of her life. I knew something was wrong, but the pediatrician kept saying it was normal. Finally, after many sleepless nights and at my wit’s end, I took her into the doctor’s office again, handed her to the doctor, and told him to figure out why she wouldn’t stop crying.

A day in the life: Wednesday

Yesterday I ran out of gas in the lawn mower. I had it straddling the ditch, stuck, one tire in the air, another in the mud, and the mower died. I couldn’t have planned that if I’d tried.

My kids now know what the N means on the shift column. Important lessons, folks.

I managed to load the kids into the van, run to town for gas, drop off library books (the day they were due!) and drop of clothes to be donated (that rode around for at least a month in my van first) and was home again in 20 minutes to rescue the lawn mower. Maybe, just maybe, the successes outweighed the failures.

Our Yorkie-Poo Brady is forever sleeping on my laundry. She sleeps in the laundry room at night, and she’s forever abandoning her bed for the basket full of laundry instead. It drives me crazy. I don’t leave clean laundry in there (Lesson learned!) but still. She’s a dog. No matter how hard I try to keep on top of it, she drops ticks. In my laundry. And if it happens to be her bi-yearly… oh, that can get ugly.

I figured out how to stop her. I had just checked her over for creepy crawlies, had Liberty give her a bath, so it was high time to make this discovery.

Don’t have any laundry left in the laundry room.

That’s right, my friends. I hit the bottom of the basket yesterday. It hasn’t happened very many times in recent history, but I even had the kids’ clothes from the day washed. I started the last load after they changed into pj’s. And wouldn’t you know, this morning, Brady had opted for her own cushy bed over the cold, hard, empty laundry basket.

Score one for me.

We planned to make these yesterday. I found out, shockingly, I cannot braid six strands. Or five. So, we opted for three. I can do three.

They still turned out pretty fun. I ended up making seven of them. One for each of the girls, one for an anklet for Liberty, and two for Ruby and Charlotte’s baby dolls.

Getting Charlotte to smile though… that got interesting.

Babe, you’re old.

Liberty was asking what she ought to do about her history project for co-op. She’s supposed to ask an “older relative” about how the streams, rivers, terrain, etc. were back when they were young. She was confused on who she ought to talk to.

Eden told her to talk to Daddy.

Blaine was oh so thrilled when I told him.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Today we’re clearing off the school shelves, putting last year’s books in storage and getting out next year’s books. It’s almost fun. Folders are cleared out and put into manila envelopes, scores are recoded, and it all goes away. It’s a beautiful thing.

Actually, it’s not so pretty. I momentarily thought of taking a photo to go with my blog post, but my piles of books weren’t the most attractive thing I’d ever seen. I opted for no photos.

Our new books are all here. We’re gearing up to start again, and Sterling is really worried about Ruby. She’ll be doing Saxon Math 1 – the book he just finished.

“Ruby, you’ll have to do timed tests. You won’t know what to do. What’s 6 + 6?”

Her answers aren’t instilling confidence.

“4.”

Sterling sighed, exasperated.

“Ruby! You have to learn this if you’re going to do that book! 6 + 6 is 12!”

Ruby scrunched up her nose at him.

“Oh. How do you write 12?”

He covered his face with his hands.

“RUBY!”

The conversation went on for many minutes. He doesn’t believe me that he began the year in the same boat. I showed him a place in his old book that had 14 written 41. He remains unconvinced. This big brother stuff is really stressful.

Goodbye, Monday. You’ve been swell.

Saturday, I went to the community rummage sales down the road from us. Got some good deals, nothing fabulous, but at the end of my morning out, I parked on the hill at a sale, and when I opened the door of the van, the wind caught it. I didn’t think a whole lot of it until the van door wouldn’t open when I got back to the van. Rummage sale: 2 glass baking pans and a shirt for Blaine. $3. Driver’s side van door: stuck.

Perfect.

The bumper was dented, the door wouldn’t open more than 2 inches. I’m wider than two inches. Climbing out of the passenger side puts a whole new spin on strange that I hadn’t considered. As if the 12 passenger van wasn’t quite odd enough.

Today, I took it to town with plans to stop and two different places for body work quotes. The first place offered to fix it, free, then and there. Um, yeah! He popped out the fender and told me if I wanted it perfect it would need body work, but it was functioning and barely dented and opening well. Sounds good to me. I took it to Blaine’s office to see what his thoughts on it were.

We decided to stop at the second body shop, just to get an idea of what it would cost to get the dents perfected. I got the quote, got groceries, and got a tube for Eden’s bike tire. Went to the bank. Door worked great.

I pulled into my yard, and the door wouldn’t open. What on earth?!

Climbing out the passenger door, I set to work changing Eden’s bike tire so we could continue to the park with friends for a ride, as planned. The tube I bought now in her tire, I put it back together. Forgot to put the chain on. Found out the front tire was also flat. It lost it’s air within two minutes of being pumped up. Perfect. Liberty tried to ride my bike. It’s 10 inches taller than hers. No go. Eden rode the scooter. She’s a good sport.

Van door opens better on flat ground, but still not right. Blaine to the rescue. It’s now more dented than when he started, but it’s fixed and he figured out why it didn’t stay fixed last time. Speculating on whether the door has been replaced in the past. That would explain why the key doesn’t work in that door.

(That’s a funny story. Blaine’s key never worked, and he didn’t have a key fob like I did, so we went to the hardware store to get a copy of my key made. We figured we’d use his old key as a spare, since it worked in the other doors and the ignition. The new cut key didn’t work. She cut another. Three keys later, it dawns on me I’ve never tried my key in the driver door, only the passenger. My key didn’t work either. We now have multiple copies of that key, none of them work in the driver’s door, and I can only imagine we’re on a black list at ACE.)

In other news, Blaine thinks the house is booby trapped. I think it’s just him. Things jump out at him constantly. You know, things like non-working keys, flat bike tires, and dented fenders.

The story of us. Part 4.

Read part one here.
Read part two here.
Read part three here.

Finally, I started to come around. I was huge, swollen, but no longer losing most of my food. My hormones stopped telling me how awful my husband was. I was starting to think maybe I hadn’t made a huge mistake in walking down that aisle. And steady as a rock, Blaine was there for me.

My due date was June 30, 9 months and 9 days after our wedding date, and it loomed in front of us. We joked that the baby had better stay put until Blaine’s birthday, June 21. It was our nine month mark.
June 6, labor began. I drove myself to the hospital and Blaine met me there.

This was not supposed to happen yet.

We were checked in on the maternity floor of the small Spearfish hospital. They kept me for observation and informed me that if I was in labor, it would be stopped. If they couldn’t stop it, I’d be sent to Rapid City, the larger town in the area. Spearfish doesn’t have a NICU and won’t deliver a baby less than 37 weeks. I was 36 weeks and 4 days. If I had been 3 days further along, they would have left me to labor.

But I wasn’t. A few hours later, I had dilated 1 cm, and a shot of awful was injected into me. I shook and froze and felt generally awful for an hour or so, but contractions stopped. I was sent home.

TOS Review: Fun Physical Activities for Young Children

My most recent curriculum to review with the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew has been Dr. Craft’s Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young Children from Dr. Craft’s Active Play Books. I used this with Sterling (5), Ruby (4), and Charlotte (2), although my older girls and Pierce couldn’t resist joining it a bit as well.







From their website: 8½ x 11 with 130 pages with DVD showing 30 physical activities
This book and DVD set:

• Shows how to make physical activities irresistible.
• Teaches academic concepts through physical activity.
• Includes a chapter of physical activities for infants, 6 months to 15 months of age.
• Includes physical activity ideas for school-age children.

Active Play! is all about getting your young children moving. With much information regarding the importance of physical activity for young children, it’s a great resource for ideas on how to do this. With 52 activities suggested, 30 of them demonstrated on the DVD, all using pretty ordinary household objects, (Laundry baskets get new life!) this book could be a valuable tool with daycares, classrooms, VBS, and birthday parties. It has a great list of all the activities and the skills they help practice.

With six super active children who don’t lack at all for physical activity, I don’t really want to organize their play. They’re pretty great at that all on their own. On a rainy day though, I might refer back to this book to see what might keep them busy and entertained inside the house. It’s full of great ideas that aren’t overly competitive – great when you have different abilities present. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The activities are easy enough to set up that my older girls (9 and 8) can do it, and they love the play “teacher” – having them all playing together and helping one another helps all of them learn lifelong skills.

I took photos of the day we did “Matching Socks”. It was a favorite all around, with minimal prep for me and the kids had a blast on a sunny day. We grabbed a bunch of pairs of socks, left one of each pair in a pile and spread the other of the pair around in the front yard. Each kid grabbed one from the pile and set out to find it’s match as quickly as possible. Since our yard is a hill, we had a lot of tipping over as they bent for socks. Oh, the giggles. Even Pierce (18 months) gathered up socks. He didn’t quite get the rules, but he was very concerned that we’d scattered our laundry all over the yard. (Yes, he’s pants-less. I am so sorry. We’re approaching potty training, and I didn’t plan on him being included this go around – but he was having too much fun not to photograph him too!)

Dr. Craft’s Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young Children is available here for $39.00 plus taxes and shipping. It’s set up well enough to work for young new walkers and up, with older children helping with set up and helping the younger children. Each activity took us about 10 minutes to complete, but the kids chose to continue playing long after we finished the first round.

To read more reviews on Dr. Crafts Active Play Books from the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, click here.

Bird Accommodations

When we bought our house three years ago, it was immediately obvious that the people who owned it before us really, really liked birds. Really. With a grand total of eight birdhouses on the property, these birds were well cared for. After three years of working more on our own home and less on birds’ homes, the birdhouses were all in a pretty sad state of disrepair. Last Saturday, they all came down. These two were on 15 foot poles, way up in the air. Blaine pulled them out with the pickup for me. One came down with a crash and fell open.



Upon inspection, under all that old nest debris was wallpaper.
Yeah. These people were serious about their bird accommodations.



Wow.

Spring 2013 Projects: Rock Wall

I married a man of many talents. He doesn’t cook or clean if he can worm his way out of it, but he fixes things and builds things and takes fantastic photos. These photos are mine, not his, so photography judgments aside, here’s the latest thing he’s made me.

After my meager attempts to begin a flower bed last year (See lavender and dianthus plans in the background.) Blaine jumped in and made me a real dirt flower bed. I only had to use the pick for one plant. (Near the back, where the dirt got thinner and the rock shelf we live on was arguing with me.) Every single plant I planted last year required the pick and a ridiculous amount of labor. Blaine, compassionate that he is (and lover of outdoor beauty – and me) maneuvered his pickup oh so carefully up the back pasture to get the rocks. If you could have been a fly on the wall during that ride… you’d have splatted against the windshield. It’s ridiculously rough, full of brush, and all uphill. Flooring the pickup and avoiding trees as he bounced up the hill, I gained a new respect for my husband’s driving abilities. And so, the rock wall was built.

After composting all year, we had a nice pile of rock-free dirt. We moved it down to the front of the house and today I planted flowers. Very fun.

The new rock wall looks remarkably like this one, that he built for me last spring:

 

(Don’t mind the perennials. Spring is still working on springing. I should have wrote this post in a month.)

It also looks a lot like this one, built last summer around the non-bearing cherry tree Sterling insisted his Daddy needed for Father’s Day:

We seem to have a theme going on. And a lot of rocks.

TOS Review Crew: MathRider

For the past month or so, I’ve had Liberty, Eden, and Sterling using MathRider as part of a review for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. MathRider is an “intelligent” math game download that teaches and reinforces multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction with numbers 0-12. I’m able to enter each of my school-aged children’s names and capabilities and MathRider takes it from there. Once they are doing well with one area, I can set it up for them to move on to a harder set. It keeps changing it’s expectations based on the kids’ performance, and expects them to do as well or better as they have in the past.

Liberty has LOVED MathRider. She finished her 4th grade math book for the school year right about the time we began using MathRider, and she asked if she could do MathRider each day in place of her finished textbooks. She’s advanced through many levels now and continues to ask to use it. It got to the point I had to tell her enough was enough – she’d gladly play for hours! Her times have improved and she’s gotten better at the math facts she’d already learned. The program tells her when she’s answered a question faster or slower than she has in the past and stops to correct any incorrect answer immediately. It awards “points” toward their level goal where appropriate.

Eden just finished 3rd grade math and doesn’t enjoy it so much, but still wanted to play MathRider after watching Liberty play. Something about making math a game made life so much better. She has timed tests in her regular math curriculum each day and, in playing MathRider, her times on those timed tests improved! She was thrilled, and I’m thrilled for her. She asks to play each day as well. All the kids crowd around the computer, enamored with the story line – and quite frankly, if they want to watch math facts float across the screen and yell answers at the player, I’m good with that! (Ruby, age 4 and not yet learning math, has been hilarious. She hollers out any and every number she can come up with. I figure it’s good for learning dedicated attention – right?!)

Sterling has just finished kindergarten, but he did first grade math this year. He knows his math facts but has a hard time coming up with the answers quickly. He’s gotten frustrated with MathRider because he isn’t fast enough in remembering the answer and typing it in, but we’ll keep on this one. I’m certain he’ll get better and faster at it with a bit of perseverance.

I can pull up the statistics and see where each of my kids have improved – and things like Liberty and her obvious liking for doing division problems over anything else, while Eden chooses subtraction most often. It shows their “mastery level” and where they were when they started.

Regarding system requirements, from their website:

“MathRider uses the Adobe® AIR™ runtime. This means our Math game runs on Windows and Mac. Your computer requires about 80MB of available hard disk space. Your monitor (and graphics card) need to support at least a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels.”

There is a 7 day free trial available for MathRider. To purchase, MathRider is $47 and includes free updates for life. This allows for 8 players who each create their own “rider” and settings. The game constantly adjusts itself based on your child’s progress.

Read more reviews on Math Rider at the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog.

Things I wish I knew 10 years ago.

As we wrap up our school year, (Ours goes May-April. I don’t really know why. It’s just the way it started years ago and here we are.) life gets a little easier. With many subjects finished for the year, our school days are shorter and the weather outside is nicer. It makes for a cleaner house and more laundry. Who wants to fold laundry inside on a nice day?! Baskets litter the living room, and just when I get it all folded and put away there’s more to fold. Around and around we go.

Today: Things that make my life easier.

I sweep. The kids follow me with a little broom and dustpan and clean up the piles. The baby has less chance of crawling through them this way.

The kids all have laundry baskets with their names on them. Laundry is folded into them, and each big kid takes care of their own basket and their buddy’s basket.

The Buddy System: Liberty and Pierce are together, Eden and Charlotte, Sterling and Ruby have each other. After much deliberation, putting the two middles together works phenomenally well. They aren’t old enough to be responsible for a little one, but are old enough to take care of most things themselves. They keep each other in check.

The buddies help each other out. Charlotte needs to go potty? Eden helps with that. Pierce needs to be washed up? Liberty’s all over it. Sterling has a job he finds daunting? Ruby will pitch in. Buckling up in the van is so much faster when I can put them all in, close the door, and kids set to buckling seat belts for one another. It’s spread the extra workload I can’t do fairly evenly and strengthened the sibling relationships. Ask Charlie who her buddy is and she’ll pipe right up and tell you. The hollers from the bathroom when she needs wiping assistance is pretty hilarious. “EDEN! You. Are. My BUDDY! I need HELP!”

If you finish your job early, it’s beneficial to you to help someone else out. This lesson was long in coming, but they are finally getting it. Free time begins when everyone is finished. Help them, you get out sooner too.

The One Finger Rule: touch that item on the store shelves, go ahead. With ONE finger. Decide to straighten rearrange destroy the shelves with that one finger and your privilege was just revoked and your hands are now in Pocket Detention.

My keys are on a string. This helps me find them quickly in an overcrowded diaper bag. It also provides a leash. Any child who repeatedly has obedience issues must hold on to the string that dangles from my keys in my pocket. Letting go is not an option.

Time stamps. Kids are up by 7am. Breakfast must be finished and cleaned up by 8am. School starts at 8:30. Lunch is at noon, unless you have had a bad attitude and haven’t tried your best. Attitudes result in all school being finished before lunch. Supper is at 6pm. By setting times for certain non-negotiable moments in our day, we keep on task.

My list. It’s the “If nothing else happens today, these are the bare minimums necessary” list. School, food, at least one load of laundry washed and dried, and the house straightened. If these things happen, we’ve had a successful day. More is obviously great, helpful, and necessary to run the house, but we won’t fall apart and tomorrow won’t be an awful day of catch-up if we’ve done these things.

What things make your days easier? What rules do you have in your house?

TOS Review Crew: Progeny Press’ Dragon’s Hoard

As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve been given the privilege to review The Hall of Doors series The Dragon’s Hoard by Rebecca Gillenland from Progeny Press this month. I also received and used the Hall of Doors: Dragon’s Hoard Study Guide. Liberty (9) and Eden (8) each used a copy of the study guide.

Written for upper elementary grades in the spirit of The Hobbit, The Dragon’s Hoard was much enjoyed by all of my children. Sterling (almost 6) and Ruby (4) thoroughly enjoyed listening to the story alongside Liberty and Eden – although I didn’t have them do the interactive study guide with the girls. The girls begged and begged for me to read them more. I was impressed with how well they learned and retained what we’d read. After making two copies of the downloaded study guide, each girl was on her own for answering questions in the space provided in the PDF file.

The interactive study guide did a great job of picking the story line apart, asking the student to evaluate the characters and their motives. Fear, worry, and courage were main themes in the book and further discussed in the study guide. The study guide did a great job of giving scripture references to look up and evaluate the characters and their responses to situations that arise in the book. It also includes a word search and cross word puzzle and many ideas for further study, book reports, field trips, art, and further reading.

The Hall of Doors: The Dragon’s Hoard was easily read in an hour and a half, but the study guide slowed them down and sent them back to the book often. I read it aloud the first time, but both Eden and Liberty were able to read it as well, and did as they went back to the book to find answers in the chapter-by-chapter study guide.

The Hall of Doors: The Dragon’s Hoard book is available here for $6.99. The Hall of Doors: Dragon’s Hoard Study Guide is available here for $15.99.

Read more reviews from other the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew members here.

 

Skip the self-control and use determination.

I work hard at teaching my children self-control. Since it’s a lifelong skill necessary for a Godly life, it’s a lesson I begin to teach early. Their first lesson in this is to be taught to stop crying on command. Each of them have learned this, some younger (and more readily)than others.

Pierce has been a difficult student. He’s finally learning this lesson, and I’ve had a few times, mid-tantrum, when he’ll obey and stop fussing. After six children, I have my first tantrum-thrower. All out, drop to the floor, express-my-displeasure tantrums. It’s been a learning experience on how to deal with these. Highly unpleasant.

This morning, when he wanted to play with a loud toy and we were doing school, Sterling took the toy from him and placed it up, out of Pierce’s reach. Pierce hit the floor. I scolded him and told him to stop fussing, and seconds later, he got up, dusted himself off, and went on his way, happy. Score one for Momma.

And then. He came back with a stool and took it over to the place where the toy sat, out of his reach.

Perfect. Give Momma’s point to Pierce.

While he never got onto the stool, and after many tries, he gave up and went to find something else to play with, I didn’t really win.

We’re still working at this lesson. Obviously.