Blue Ribbon Winners 2017

It's that time of the year again, time to vote for this years best review products from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Review: Thinking Like an Engineer

Do you like it when your children and students ask questions, and have interest light up their eyes?  I would not have thought of my lad as being an engineer....but for the past few weeks he's been designing,creating and asking questions as we work through Thinking Like an Engineer by Innovators Tribe. It has been fascinating watching his mind at work and his delight that genetic engineering is considered ENGINEERING!!!

So what can I tell you about Thinking Like an Engineer?

Review: Brinkman Adventures #4, Audio Stories

Imagine having stories about missionary adventures, or fun stories that teach important truths being at your beck and call whilst cooking supper, traveling in the car, or wherever you are. Over the past few weeks I have been privileged to listen to Christian Stories of adventures, in Brinkman Adventures Season 4 published by Brinkman Adventures. 

Who are the Brinkman's?
A fictional family produced by Beachglass ministries, a non-profit, non-denomination Christian ministry. Their focus is inspiring and motivating the younger generation of Christian believers. The Brinkman's are a family the walk us through many adventures showing us Christian's in action, and God at work.

What do you get? 
12 Christian Stories brought to life!  Each is about a 1/2 hour long so easy to listen to while preparing supper or folding laundry (can you tell how I used it?)  These stories are a mixture between being based on real life, while others tell a moral story.

I have to admit, my favourite story involved the raccoons. :)  The one that caused me to pause and think "Remember Nhu".  The one that amazed me most was The Five Guys.

These are the stories:

•   A Paradise Lost - learning what missionaries go through at family camp.
•   Remember Nhu - searching for and rescuing a girl from slavery, mission started.
•   Aisha’s Fear - fear turned to praise = evangelist for the Lord
•   Heart Song - the song of Russian Christian, imprisoned, prisoners changed, singer saved from death because
•   The Crashed Kitchen - a crashed kitchen, love shown, hope restored
•   Crisis In The Congo - meeting the flying machine (pt 1)
•   The Mysterious Palm Feller - learning to face up to opposition (pt 2)  This was a good reminder of how it's hard for missionaries to know what to do sometimes.
•   War of the Raccoons - moral story, just a silly story :)
•   The Five Guys - ways God called people to him
•   Toughest Man - the story of a man who gave up everything for God, even trusting God with his family.
•   Cambodian Quest - safe places to live where slavery isn't possible
•   What Brings Us Together - it's a wedding, with mishaps

 The real stories behind each of the tales can be found here. I very much appreciated how they showed what was true and what was changed, they gave a depth not found in the story as well.   It was great to be able to follow links such as this one for Remember Nhu. 

Each story contains a lot of realism from crickets chirping, the real family experiences, with a variety of world wide experiences.  

Another website feature is the Episode Preview section.
Here you can discover the theme of each episode, along with what part of the world is featured, as well as get an audio preview.

How did I use it?
I listened while doing dishes, preparing supper, while cleaning up, doing laundry etc.  It was so very portable carrying them around on my tablet. 

What did I think?
Are they easy to listen to?   Yes.  1/2 hour long, interesting stories.  Approximately 5 hours worth of listening time.
Are they appropriate for all ages? Debatable. I appreciated that they would warn you when adults should listen alongside their children. My son wouldn't have had an issue with any of the stories before age 10, but I know other children are more sensitive.
Are they Faith-based?  Most definitely.  These stories introduced us to different ways that God acts, how his people can serve him, how even missionaries can struggle with doing what they should, or even in knowing what to do, and more.

All that said, I really enjoyed season two previously reviewed.  This set, didn't seem up to the same standard, at least not as completely.  I found that one episode was overacted, and another was slow to get going. When it comes right down to it though, I think part of my discontent is that I want longer stories.  I want more depth, and intrigue, something that will get ME fired up as an adult. For instance, the story with the five guys and how they came to faith, I wanted to know more about their stories.  I wanted to know more about the guy behind the scenes.  I just wanted MORE.  :)

Right now I listen to full length books with my family and the biggest reason they don't want to listen to Brinkman Adventures with me is not that they don't enjoy the stories, but like me, they want MORE. It would be fascinating to have a full length story made up of these tales, showing God in action in a person's life, giving more detail and what not. It's fact that I liked the stories, but I wanted more depth provided. Time perhaps for an adult version of these stories or just a longer CD???  I think it would be interesting to listen to, to have these stories (or new ones) made for a teen or adult audience as well.

Brinkman Adventures Season 4
Brinkman Adventures
Produced by Beachglass 

Series: Brinkman Adventures
Type: MP3 or CD

$25.99–$31.99 depending on format

Reviewed for: Homeschool Review Crew

80 members of the Homeschool Review Crew had a chance to listen to these adventures, see what we thought by clicking the image below or RIGHT HERE.

You can find Brinkman Adventures on facebook. 

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Is There Anything Better Than Candy? Box-Tract

Getting in interesting products to review is always a fun thing to do. And this one is a FUN one.  Imagine having a fun way to present the gospel to children, in a way that is non-threatening and provides a double benefit?  Is There Anything Better Than Candy? Box-Tract, produced by Let the Little Children Come come is one such a product, it comes as a ready made halloween tract.

How did we use it? 
My lad and I made up three of them at a time, we took them with us on our weekly trips to the foodbank.  This was our main way of using them.  I also brought them along to a homsechool get-together and some of the teens put a few together to give to siblings.

They were really easy to put together, though if you look you'll see that one of them somehow got put together just a bit incorrectly.  There's really no excuse though, as Let the Little Children Come provides an easy to follow diagram for putting it together. 

Anyways, while at the foodbank we would hand them out to the youngsters who came by.   It was fun to see their delight.  It was such as easy way to bring the word of God into needy families.   Such an easy way to share the gospel with children.

I was amazed at the amount of candy I could fit in and there was even room to spare!  Chocolate, taffy, caramels, peppermints and more!   

We reserved four of them for our annual trick or treaters!  :)

My thoughts:

• It holds a good amount of candy, I was surprised how much fit in and I still had room to spare.
• In making them with a couple of young teens I discovered there was a bit of a learning curve in how to put it together and fill it.  Some got the idea quicker than others, but once the pattern was learned, each pumpkin thereafter went easily.
• It holds a good message, I loved that the message included a prayer.  A nice message for doing child evangelism.
• I can see a variety of ways to make use of these little pumpkins.  They are big enough you could put in a small baked good (tartlets/cookies/donut holes) and bring them along to nursing homes, siblings can give to younger sibs, kids can use them as a surprise for their folks, as rewards at a harvest festival or Hallowe'en party, your imagination is the only limit.   
• How can you share the gospel with children in your life?

Comments from parents:
"This would be a fun craft before Hallowe'en with my girls club"
"Oh, that's such a cute idea!"
"Can I put one together?   Are they hard to do?  Oh!  That's easy enough and oh.. they hold quite a lot don't they?!"

Comments from children:
"Mommy look!  It's a pumpkin!"
"MOMMY  I gots a chocolate!"
"Can I have one mom?  Please?"
"Can I make one for the girl my mom babysits?"

Let the Little Children Come
Is There Anything Better Than Candy? Box-Tract

20 boxes in one pack.

Price per Pack:

US$ 15.95 (1 - 10 packs)
US$ 14.95 (11 - 20 packs)
US$ 13.95 (21 packs or more)

Reviewed for: The Homeschool Review Crew

 Social Media Links:

• https://www.facebook.com/LetTheLittleChildrenCome/  

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Journey Through Learning Lapbooks

The Greatest Inventors has been a delight to us to use over the past few weeks. We've laughed, we've talked, and we've discovered so much thanks to A Journey through Learning Lapbooks.  Let me tell you all about it!

Review: Everyday Homemaking with Everyday Cooking

Want to try a new cookbook?   Well, Everyday Homemaking provided me with a collection of tried-and-true recipes in their book Everyday Cooking.  Included in this cookbook are numerous hints to make your cooking journey simpler, while emphasizing whole foods.  

Are you Prepared to Wait?

As I sat here thinking about what to write as a letter of encouragement I had to admit, I was drawing a blank.  I thought about combining this post with my Five minute Friday post...and I actually might still do that, but my mind is full of the activities of the day.

I woke up this morning to a note left by my lad "I'll be back at 8:10" he was out looking for ant, he came back all delighted he found a  new type of ant (queen and male).   But what kind was it? Soon I heard the request.  "MOM!!!   Can you help me email the ant man?   Maybe he can help me figure it out."    For the rest of the day the kept asking "Mom, have you heard from him yet?   How long do you think it might take?"

He happily helped me care for our critters and then did his math and history for the day, I started working on the cold cellar.

I thought, this will take maybe a couple of hours.. I.... was.... wrong...

You know what we discovered?  A stinky smelly potato bin.. oh my.   Now.. we knew we had something going on there, but we needed the time and motivation to deal with it.  Our move in another six months is good motivation yes?

First we had to clean out all the stuff that a certain loved one had tossed in there over the years, then we removed the potato bin.. the wood was rotting!  Hence the odour... Loved one to the rescue, figuring out how to get it out!  Once it was out I kicked (literally) the guys out of the way, donned a mask and cleaned up the mess under the potato bin.  Boy.. rather icky that!  

Then came the fine work of sorting through and deciding.. am I willing to move this? NO?  Okay, list it for sale after cleaning it. Do I want to keep it?  Okay.. clean it up and organize it. I toss old canned jars of food, and garbage and.. well..  should have taken a picture but didn't.. our lovely big bin couldn't fit ALL THE TRASH!  

Wow.. I have to admit, it feels so good having that big job done.  And it's clean and no spider webs or icky smell. It's lovely.

Which brings me to this point... It took me ALL day to clean it out.  ALL DAY.. I was so very tired, the lad was tired as I had him running up and down the stairs taking things out to the recycling and garbage bins.  He worked hard.   

All day to clean a mess up from before we were married and was just added to over the past 15 years, cause it's the basement right?  Hubby wasn't prepared to deal with getting rid of stuff (cause he's as much a pack rat as I am) so I just left it, I knew sooner or later he'd want to and why put pressure where it simply didn't need to be?

Which makes me ask this momma... are YOU prepared to be patient?  Are you prepared to let time take care of that struggle that staring you in the face?

I could have pressured hubby over the past 15 years.. I could have really.  I could have said let's argue about it, let's make a stink ... but I didn't.  I knew that in time it would be dealt with and then it would all over and done with in one day (a long day mind).  When a fellow is ready to let go so it's not a stressful matter.  

That boy child who is so focused on whatever issue... are you prepared to wait it out.  To enjoy the good, to train the needful and to just wait for the right timing?  To see that boy become a man full of character and wisdom?   That girl who is becoming a woman and doesn't fully see who she is yet... are you willing to wait her out, to give a nudge when needed, a hug and a spot of encouragement saying  "it'll come out okay in the end lovey?"

Are you prepared to NOT be stressed out over something that time will take care of?

I just want to encourage you... to wait.. and then in the waiting.. to be ready, ready to act, to talk, to work, to encourage, to don a mask (if needed) and clean out the ickiness from bad decisions made, to sweep out the old, to make it look new again, to just get the job done even if it's exhausting.  But until then.. to just wait and see and enjoy what you have now.

The good Lord tells us to wait on him.  He knows the right timing for things.  Don't rush it.
Trust him, oh just trust him, believe me.. IT'S WORTH IT!!! It really is. 

Come along won't you on this last day?   You can find us all here, and you can start with this list.
Annette – A Net in Time -Five days to celebrate back to school, curriculum choices, supplies, things to do and encouragement for you. Come join us won’t you?
Ashley  – Gift of Chaos – Join us as we go “back to school” with a First Grader and a Preschooler!
Betty – Let’s Get Real – I am a veteran homeschooling mom.  Our family’s passion is to glorify God in all we do and say and we pray that God will use our lives for His glory.
Chareen – Every Bed of Roses – I’m about to enter into my 20th year of home educating.  I have two graduates and am currently homeschooling our youngest. I’m looking forward to sharing with you in the week ahead.
Christy  – Unexpected Homeschool – Join us on our journey as we homeschool our only child through her high school years while dealing with chronic illnesses.
Crystal – Living Abundantly – Living Abundantly seeks to help Christian women and homeschooling families live abundantly, even when the thief tries to destroy your joy.
Desiree  – Our Homeschool Notebook – I am Mom to 4 kids, and this is our place to share our family and homeschool adventures. This year we will have children in 11th, 6th, 4th, and 1st grades, and we are all excited to get back to school.

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

You can't do it all!

Did you know that you can't do it all?

You can't.

It takes a community to educate a child.

To that end.. we happily use the community to educate our son in the things that we can't.

What do we farm out you ask?

Planners? I think NOT!

You know what happens to me every year around this time?

I feel like a failure.

Want to know why?

The "I've planned out my year".  "I'm using this awesome planner".  "I've got my studies all worked out and planned out".   

And I think to myself... I've tried, I've failed, I'll never pull this year off because I don't plan everything out.   I don't even plan out a month ahead of time.   

Are you like me?  

Technology in the Classroom

I have to admit, I really struggled with this topic.  I think school supplies and I think.. oh yay.. talking about pencils, papers and glue.  BIG YIP! How in the world can I make THAT topic exciting?   Should I talk about how I organize them?  Should I talk about the differences in pencils when it comes to doing art?  Hmm...

I sat and pondered.  Thinking about what school supplies would I prefer to not live without.
Then it hit me.

My cell phone!  My Laptop!  The Tablets!   Seriously...this tech I would not want to be without.

If I combine them with my boy and his questions, and me and my ingenuity... we have a workable solution for our homeschooling needs.

YES we still need paper, printers, pencils, pens, erasers, glue and what not...but in the end.. what we really would have a hard time living without for our schooling purposes is the internet and how it comes through in the cell phone, laptop and tablet.

These three items make our schooling so much easier.

Grade Seven Curriculum Choices

 Today on the Homeschool Review Crew Five Day Blog Hop we are talking about Curriculum.

I thought I would take a moment to talk about the materials the lad and I hope to use this year.

Back to School Blog Hop!

 Hey Hey Hey!

Guess what's coming up next week?

It's the Back to School Blog Hop hosted by the Homeschool Review Crew!  YEAH!!!  It's always lots of fun and busyness and I do hope that you'll join us.


What Will I be talking about?

I dunno, I haven't quite figured that out yet, You'll have to COME back to find out.

Day One: Curriculum. I'll talk about what the lad has in store this year.  Grade Seven!
Day Two: School Supplies?   Hmmm.. might do something different...
Day Three: Record Keeping?  HA!  haven't worried on that yet.
Day Four: Outside the home, will probably talk about farming things out or field trips or something
Day Five: Ah.. a letter of encouragement I'm thinking

BUT you will have to come back just to double check eh?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Life Pleasures 1: Hike

 One of my pleasures in life is to go hiking with my family.   The older the lad gets the more he doesn't stay with me and the more he hikes off out front with his dad.  They frequently check back with me to make sure I'm not lost or stuck as I'm not as nimble as I used to be... but it's fun to get out and explore.

I thought you might like to see some of the walks/hikes we've done and some of the treasures I've found along the way.  :)

I admittedly have a thing for mushrooms.  Whenever I go on a hike or walk I'm bound to find some sort of fungi to take a picture of.  One year I went for a walk and I found red and orange fungi, I was so stoked as that was a first time event.  Unfortunately...those pictures have been lost and I was so sad to discover that. But look!  I still have pictures from 2016!  :)

 I managed to get a clear, up close and personal shot of this fungi.  Are they so interesting looking?   

Anyways...you might not be as keen on fungi as I am so moving on....

Who doesn't love a leaf strewn path with trees all around, making you feel like you are alone in the world... just you and nature.  The sound of birds singing, the patter of small critters scurrying away, and if you are quiet enough and early enough in the morning...the odd deer moving silently through the trees.  It is SO cool!

You know, I like geese and ducks and what not.  Waterfowl are pretty cool.  But in town when you walk around and they are begging for treats it's like.. ICK.. go away stupid birds.  But when you see those same birds in a natural setting it's like .. wow.  

I've been trying to find some of the neat rock ones and stuff we've seen but I think they have alas... gone the way of most of my cool fungi pictures....  :(   From the trails up north and stuff but I..... ah well.. you get the picture right?   Long walks/hikes in the middle of nowhere is a lovely lovely thing to do.  :) 
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This post is part of the Crews Instagram word prompt challenge. I find them fun to turn into posts, don't you?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Doctor Aviation

Did you know I have a nephew who is big into aviation, and another who trained to be an airplane mechanic?  I have a brother who is training to be a helicopter pilot... so an interest in the air and flight runs in the family. Ergo, when I had a chance to review Doctor Aviation I snatched it up!  I'm listening to it as an adult, though I freely admit, I shared interesting bits with my lad.  :)  Doctor Aviation is an aviation education and history course run by Daryl Smith, taken online.

What do you get?
You get six sections with 1 to 4 lessons in each section.  Each Lesson runs 45-50 minutes and follows the same routine.  Technical Trivia, Notable Innovators and Legendary Events or Aircraft.  Every few lessons, if you are taking this for credit, you can ask for a test. (there will be a prompt in the actions steps).

Technical Trivia is the meat of the program.  Here Daryl Smith is usually found standing in front of an aircraft with his notes.  He presents the information in a lecture format, interspersing his presentation with slides to help present the information more clearly.  These aviation history videos are interesting to listen to indeed.

The Notable Innovators section is where he talks about the people important to aviation history. We are given a chance to learn about Earhart and Bernouli as well as many others.

Legendary events or aircraft speaks to times in history that were important to aviation, such as breaking the sound barrier, why Earhart flight didn't work, the trip to the moon and such like.  Facts that shaped the history of aviation.

You can see how the lessons are laid out.  See how the sections are labeled, with the appropriate lessons contained within.  15 lessons in all.
Section one: Course Overview (1)
Section two: The Aircraft (4)
Section three: Air Traffic Control (2)
Section four: Aircraft Maintenance (2)
Section five: Airfield Operations (2)
Section six: The Aircraft II (4)

 

How did I use?
I plugged my ear phones into my lap top and listened as I worked.  When I was intrigued I stopped what I was doing, clicked over to where the video was playing, backed up the video and listened again.  Watching the images that would pop up, taking notes for the complicated stuff, and then returned to my work.  It was a great way to learn new material, refresh my mind over the old, and to inspire my thinking.   Seeing how things fit together, listening to the easy break down of the technical details, the interesting people in aviation and some of the legendary events.  

I have to admit, I didn't do ANY of the optional exercises.  I just listened and learned. :)
But they have a ton of things you can do to broaden your learning, from books to read, to models to build and essays you can write.   Here is but a small sampling.  Rather cool eh?

Oh!  I mustn't forget to tell you about this handy feature: GUIDED NOTES.  They follow the script really well and help you retain the information presented.  You need to forgive my scrawl and the fact that I didn't completely fill it in (honestly even when I was in school I never filled sheets in all the way).  A bit of rebel you know?  :)

My thoughts:
Darryl Smith talks well, he keeps to his notes but looks at the camera. The notes just keep him on topic and prevent the forgetting of details.   You can tell that he spent
24 years in the Air Force as a Command Pilot with over 2,000 flying hours and that he was an instructor in the United States Air Force Academy.

I loved having the notes.  I admittedly didn't use them often as I mostly listened, but when I needed them, they were right there, easily saved to my computer for later reference, and easy to print off for when I wanted them.  They followed the script really well.

If I had planned to use this as a student, I would have found ALL the options for increasing the scope of the lessons great.  Books to read, projects to do, so many options it was great.   Incorporating the different senses and styles of learning.  Let's build a wind tunnel, or draw a map outlining someone's journey or.... so many options it was great!

I disliked that "oh don't be alarmed by the technical stuff I'll make it easy for you" type conversations.   I find when people do that it's easy to think it will be over my head rather than just assuming that I'll get it.  I want the assumption there that the instructor will make it clear what I need to know, instead of making me feel like I'm set up for failure.

I wish his labels would always precede each new section and that dots were put on the time line to show where they started.  That way I could easily review a section if I want to or if I think "oh.. the lad will like hearing about this aviator" and I wouldn't have to hunt for it.  :)

I LOVE how the lessons are set up the same.  Course title, video, things you need to see about doing and additional resources.  It's all quite logical, with clean crisp edges that don't distract from the lessons to be learned.

This is a course that you could EASILY stretch out to fill six months OR if you are rushed and just want to listen to the lessons, you could complete it in less than a month.  The guided notes are yours to keep along with the additional resources.   Making this a very handy and useful elective for you or your students to take.


Doctor Aviation
Six month subscription
Recommended for age 16 and up.

Each of the 15 lessons includes a 45-50 minute video. Divided into three sections that naturally feed into each other.  Each also includes a PDF of "To Learn More" suggestions. This includes extra readings, YouTube videos, movies, hands-on activities, research and writing assignments, etc.  Each lesson has guided notes.  There are tests included as well.

64 people are reviewing Doctor Aviation.  To see what we have to say, click here or below.

Social Media Links:

• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/doctoraviation    Tag:   @doctoraviation   
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/draviationguy    Tag:   @draviationguy   

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This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .