Education - Faith and Family Reviews

Tag Archive for Education

Back to School Product Guide

Posted by html404 on August 5, 2010
in Eco Friendly Products, Education, Fashion, Food and Treats

backtoschoolproductguide2010

Even though we homeschool, back to school sales are on our minds too. After all we need school supplies just like everyone else. We are looking forward to taking advantage of the IL tax break starting August 6th, I think.

Thanks to a HARO query, we have many wonderful products to share with you over the week or two starting on Monday! Bear with us as we try to post as many of them as possible. We received close to 100 pitches, however, not all of them will be featured. We are trying to narrow them down to our favorites and ones that we think best fit our Back to School Product Guide.

Here are the categories we will be covering:

School Supplies

backtoschoolschoolsupplies

Fashion

backtoschoolfashion

Lunches

backtoschoollunchproducts

Eco Friendly Products

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Technology/Electronics

backtoschooltechnologyandelectronics

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Book Review of How Lil’ Eddie Learns to Read

Posted by html404 on June 6, 2010
in Books

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you will already know that I do tend to do a lot of book reviews. We love reading and we love books, so it is really hard to pass over a book review, unless it is a topic we truly are not interested in. I believe reading is the key to all learning. After doing a little online research, I found that even though we live in a fully developed nation, our literacy rate leaves much to be desired. Some websites said 99%, 97% and one article even suggested that 14% of adults could be classified as illiterate because of their reading ability and comprehension levels. That should disturb us, really.

Most loving parents are involved in the education of their children. The author of How Lil’ Eddie Learns to Read, Rima H. Corral, is one of the first authors that I have come across that includes plenty of suggestions and ideas for how parents can actively participate in teaching our children how to read. I’ve taught three of mine to read already and have three more who are beginning to read, so what she told me really wasn’t new. I have attended many homeschooling conventions and have already researched how to best teach my children. However, Ms. Corral has provided an easy to use children’s book to help parents on their way to interact as a teacher/parent. All parents are teachers whether you consider yourself one or not. We are the first people to influence our children’s lives. They learn to eat, talk and walk from our involvement and daily interactions with them when they are little.

How Lil’ Eddie Learns to Read is a fun story of how a little boy turned three and from that point on his mother and family started to prepare him for school, especially in the area of reading, numbers and colors. Every parent of a preschooler can benefit from this book, especially those not sure how to go about teaching their child or preparing him for school. I’d highly recommend it as a resource and teaching tool.

My children and I have really enjoyed reading How Lil’ Eddie Learns to Read. To purchase this book, please visit any major book retailer’s website. Our hardcover copy retails for $18.95.

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Download N Go Davy Crockett Blog Tour

Posted by html404 on May 27, 2010
in Downloads

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Davy Crockett was another hit with our children. They have seen a movie about Davy Crockett and knew quite about him already, but we still enjoyed doing the review of Download N Go’s Davy Crockett as there was still much more to learn in this 5-day unit study.

Again, this unit study is set up much like the Wale Tales one that I just posted a review about earlier this morning. It utilizes a lapbook to keep all the information and activities in one place. The unit study itself contains activities for the children to do, links to online activities/articles, as well as a list of suggested books to read to learn more about Davy Crockett. It covered Davy Crockett’s life on the frontier, history of Texas, patriotism, geography, vocabulary and more!

This was another positive lapbooking experience for our family. Our children had fun doing the activities and using their creativity to create their own unique lapbook. They were asking to do more each day so that shows you how much of a hit it really was!

As much as the Download N Go products were made for homeschooling families, they would be a great supplement for families using alterative schooling methods. Such as summer enrichment or just a fun learning activity to do with your children.

Don’t forget about Download N Go’s special offer to you below:

DNG has decided to offer a coupon code for 20% off multiple packs of the DNG units! The code is: DNG20PKS – just use that code at check out and receive 20% off any multiple pack purchase.

Purchase now at for only $7.95 plus your 20% off! AND another contest for you to enter…

THE PRIZE:

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and Amanda Bennett Unit Studies have teamed up to celebrate the successful launch of Download N Go™ with a Sweet Treat Prize Package in The Adventure Begins … Giveaway!

They’re offering one lucky winner the SWEET chance to go EXPLORING this FALL!

The entire FALL curriculum lineup of Download N Go™ (Wow! That’s 19 studies!).
A $25 gift certificate to Baskin-Robbins (yummy ice cream).
A $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com (for those back-to-school supplies).
A $15 gift certificate to Starbucks Coffee (a special treat just for the teacher).
A full year’s subscription to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine (encouragement and resources all year long).
A “sweet” blue and brown Homeschooling With Heart tote bag (THE must-have accessory for FALL!).
ENTER HERE!

For more information just click on the icon above! Contest will run May 24 and through June 12!

http://www.facebook.com/DownloadNGo

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Artistic Nature Magazine

Posted by html404 on May 13, 2010
in Ebooks, Education

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

American Deserts Cover

American Deserts is the November-December 2009 issue of Artistic Nature Magazine. It is a magazine published by LightHome Publications, which is owned by a homeschooling family. It is a Christian magazine written for kids. One unique thing is that it has a creative focus in each issue and teaches children how to draw. It contains both fictional and true stories about the monthly topic of the magazine. For example, American Deserts taught us about American Deserts.

Animal Homes Cover

We also received the August-September 2009 issue on Sea Mammals and the January-February 2010 issue on Animal Homes. Then we decided to buy a subscription, currently only $10.50 for 6 issues! So we won’t even miss any issues this year since we also have the current issue about Australian Animals.

Sea Mammals Cover
Each magazine is reproducible for each family’s home use, which really comes in handy when you have multiple children like we do.

Here are our older girls thoughts about these magazines:

“I think these magazines are great. I really liked the deer and coyote stories.”

“I think these magazines are really interesting. I had never heard of manzanita berry! I haven’t heard of a lot of different types of trees, bushes, flowers and animals mentioned in these magazines.”

“I thought that all 3 of the magazines were very informative. They told us about many types of different things that we have never heard of before! I also like the fact they included a lot of coloring pages, puzzles and games tha tyou can print off for your younger siblings. They had a lot of color photographs, which is great if you have a color printer (we don’t though!).

Inside the American Deserts magazine it talks about everything from dangerous snakes, Native American Indians, Cowboys to many different animals.

In the Sea Mammals issue it talks about dolphins, sea otters to all sorts of whales.

Animal Homes talks about everything from bat homes, crab homes to squirrel homes.

All of these magazines are a really great resource and I liked them a lot.”

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Havoc at The Hillside Market – SuperKids Book

Posted by html404 on April 26, 2010
in Books

I received the following book in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the book.

SuperKids Book

I won this book when I entered a contest for bloggers, so I really didn’t receive it in exchange for a review but since I am reviewing it I will just keep my disclaimer in tact because I cannot remember everything that the contest entailed now!

Our older children thought the SuperKids Book, Havoc at The Hillside Market, was a cute story and educational. One of our daughters actually had to read the book three times in one sitting to the little ones! The illustrations were bright and the story held their attention. My oldest is already looking for the rest of the book series at our library!

The book has a whole page dedicated to introducing each character of the Super Crew (TM), who they are, what they do and what their names are. In the back of the book there are tips for those just getting started in teaching their children through reading. There is also a Happy Face Pizza recipe.

One thing that I noticed is that you really have to look at the pictures of the story because the words themselves do not reveal the complete story line. I thought that was rather odd for a children’s book. It almost read like a comic strip on some pages.

Overall this is an adventure story that all our children enjoyed and we like the fact that it is reinforcing healthy eating habits.

Visit www.SuperKidsNutrition.com for more information and activities just for kids!

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Book Review – Miracle in Sumatra

Posted by html404 on February 10, 2010
in Books

I received this book for free in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of Miracle in Sumatra.

MiracleInSumatra

Miracle in Sumatra is a children’s storybook written by Jeanne McNaney. This is Ms. McNaney’s second children’s book. Both books have been written in a way that will help parents and teachers educate children about wildlife conservation and endangered species preservation. A portion of the sales from her books also goes to support each of these causes.

This cute story is about a young orangutan named Gus who meets a young human girl. It is a story that teaches children what can happen when man gets greedy and forgets to think about what is best for animals and the environment. Gus is called upon to help his parents and the rest of his species with the help of his new human friend. With the encouragement from his guardian angel, he exhibits bravery and belief in himself in a dangerous situation that saves the whole community of orangutans and challenges the views of human trappers. Other virtues “Gutsey Gus” exhibit are compassion, forgiveness, love and strength.

Our six younger children said that they liked this book. They thought it was “good”, “interesting” and “cute”. It is definitely written in such a way to appeal to the younger audience and their imagination.

Miracle in Sumatra is available at:
•Amazon.com
•BarnesAndNoble.com
•Borders.com
•Buy.com

This book is a hardcover and retails for $16.95.

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