Your Finances God’s Way ~ a book review

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are my honest opinion.

Welcome to the Blog Tour for the Your Finances God’s Way book and workbook by Scott LaPierre, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Your Finances God’s Way

Author: Scott LaPierre

Publisher: Harvest House

Release Date: May 3, 2022

Genre: Christian living – nonfiction

Experience the Peace that Comes with Wise Stewardship

Financial insecurity can be one of the greatest threats to your well-being—but the good news is that even if you’re on a tight income, you can eliminate many of your monetary worries when you create and abide by a biblical plan for your spending.

In Your Finance’s God’s Way, you’ll identify the negative money management habits you need to break and the positive habits that should take their place. Implementing the teaching laid out in the Bible, this book gives you advice and practical steps backed by proven principles, helping you

• get the most out of your money by paying off debt and building up savings

• make wise spending decisions that enable you to avoid anxiety, regret, and conflict

• find a healthy balance between being financially frivolous and frugal to a fault

Even when you have less to spend, you can use what God has provided to thrive. Whether you’re young or old, married or single, working or staying at home, Your Finances God’s Way will give you everything you need to be a careful steward of the resources you’ve received from the Lord.

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound | Christianbook | BookBub

ALSO AVAILABLE

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott LaPierre is a senior pastor, author, and popular conference speaker. He holds an MA in biblical studies from Liberty University. Scott and his wife, Katie, live in Washington State, and God has blessed them with nine children. Learn more about Pastor Scott at his website, www.scottlapierre.org, and connect with him on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

CONNECT WITH SCOTT: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

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TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card and a signed copy of the Your Finances God’s Way book and workbook!

Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight May 9, 2022 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on May 16, 2022. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Books US only, Amazon gift card where available. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links from JustRead Tours.

My Thoughts About The Book and Workbook:

Your Finances God’s Way: A Biblical Guide to Making the Best Use of Your Money has been an interesting read. I have found it, thus far, to be biblically based and without denominational influences. This is a huge plus when talking about money and God’s word. The style of writing is easy to understand and Scott LaPierre approaches the topics with a unique approach.

Topics included are:

• stewardship and faithfulness,
• God’s kindness and severity,
• Money is the foundation of faithfulness,
• The Dangers of loving money,
• Learning from a rich fool,
• How to avoid being a rich fool,
• Give willingly,
• Give sacrificially,
• God’s Generosity encourages giving cheerfully,
• Good stewardship toward the poor,
• Spending problems versus an income problem,
• God’s view of debt,
• Avoiding and eliminating debt,
• Saving the right and wrong way,
• Retiring well,
• The greatest riches.

So far, one of my favorite chapters has been when he is dealing with the parable of the unfaithful servant in Matthew 25. He really dissects the parable in a way I have not seen done and deal with the monetary decisions made in it. While this parable is often used to talk about the use of the talents, Mr. LaPierre looks at the fact that the steward was going to have to give an account and that he took that very seriously. Did he do it right? No, as Jesus called him dishonest but looking at how seriously the steward took the fact that he was going to have to be accountable, he prepared for the future. He knew he had a limited amount of time so he worked quickly, he knew it was coming so he worked hard, and he used the situation to create some safety for him in the coming days after he had faced judgment. I found this look really interesting. And there have been other looks at things that were different and interesting. I am really enjoying this study.

As for the workbook, well, I am not as impressed with that. It is a good supplement, especially if you are needing something to document completion (as with a high school student getting credit) or as a guide for a small group study. As an independent study, I feel that the workbook is unnecessary. A large part of it is basic knowledge questions that don’t require a depth of understanding or application. Those types of questions are there but they are not the majority. Still, the workbook has its place in certain situation but it is not required to make the study helpful.

As of this writing, I am only about halfway through the study. There could be things later in the book that I have not yet come across to be concerned about but I don’t suspect there will be based on what I have read so far. I am finding this an enjoyable study that has presented some financial ideas in a bit of a different way. I have enjoyed that.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

2019 Blue Ribbon Awards ~ a look back at the Crew year

As we do each year, the Homeschool Review Crew has voted for their favorite products from the reviews done in 2019. Our last reviews for the year will post next week, so every has had a chance to use all of the products for several weeks. The Crew chooses the categories and we spent a bit of time a week ago working through our choices in each category. Today, we are sharing that with you. So, let’s jump right in.

Writing Curriculum: Jump In from Sharon Watson

Language Arts (complete curriculum): Hewitt Homeschool’s Lightning Lit

Grammar Resource: Easy Grammar

Literature Curriculum: LitWits (review posting next week)

History/Social Studies: Drive Thru History

History Supplement: Library and Educational Services books

Science Curriculum: CrossWired Science

Math Curriculum: CTCMath

Math Supplement: Channie’s Page-A-Day workbooks

Middle School/Young Adult Book: Britfield & The Lost Crown by C.R. Stewart

Biography: Elizabeth Prentiss: More Love from Christian Focus

Poetry or Audio Drama: Heirloom Audio’s For The Temple

Fine Arts: Creating A Masterpiece’s Drawing Program

Elective: Stopmotion Explosion

Bible Supplement: Drive Thru History’s Acts to Revelation

Favorite Elementary School Product: Homeschool In The Woods – Project Passport:Middle Ages (we used only the timeline for our elementary student though our high school student has completed the whole study)

Favorite Middle School Product: Stopmotion Explosion

Favorite High School Product: Britfield & The Lost Crown by C.R. Stewart

Favorite Parent Product: Transcripts Made Easy by Everyday Education

Best Resource I Didn’t Know I Needed: Stopmotion Explosion

Favorite Fun Resource: Brain Blox Building Planks AND Fun Family Chess (but we could only vote for one so we voted for the planks)

Helpful Tool/Resource: Transcripts Made Easy by Everyday Education

Miss J – Kid’s Choice: Brain Blox Building Planks

Miss L – Teen’s Choice: Stopmotion Explosion

Miss E – Teen’s Choice: The Kingdom Code (financial education)

Adult’s Choice: Creating A Masterpiece’s Drawing Program

So there you have them – our choices of products we really enjoyed. Now, to be fair, there were several of these categories where we had to negotiate with each other for a final choice because there were more than one choice someone wanted to vote for. So, just because it isn’t linked here, doesn’t mean we didn’t like the product. So, you could always search for TOS Reviews on the blog here to get all of the reviews we have done or search by subject or topic to narrow it down.

By the way – The Crew is still adding bloggers, vloggers, and social media influencers to the team for the 2020 Crew year. If you are interested, visit the Crew site to read more about the requirements and find the application. We do enjoy expanding our team and would like to have you join us.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Click on the image below to see the 2019 Blue Ribbon Award winners as chosen by the votes from members of the Homeschool Review Crew. You can also find a link up with other bloggers who have shared their family’s favorites from the 2019 Crew year.

The Kingdom Code (financial education) ~ a Crew review

Financial education is something that should not be neglected yet is often not considered as important as other subjects. At the Teach Them Diligently convention held in Waco, TX, we stumbled across a little gem of a company – The Kingdom Code. They offer a course in financial education through the formation of a business run fully by the students and working on personal and business budgeting in the process. Their The Complete Starter Kit  looked so wonderful. We were unable to purchase it that weekend but definitely had it in our sights for later this year, hoping to find a place to have it fit in our fall schedule.

When we got home and I opened up my Homeschool Review Crew email, I found that The Kingdom Code was the next vendor we were being asked to take a look at. Now that is not a coincidence! We were very excited, especially my 15 year old daughter who had two business ideas in her head that she wanted to figure out what to do with. We were thrilled to be chosen to be on this review.

The Kingdom Code is a company that was designed to help educate students at a young age about budgeting, spending wisely, managing money, and running a business. What a great idea! Geared towards grades 3-6, it can easily be adapted to work for older students. If you are looking to make it a high school credit, you may decide you need to add an additional budgeting book to it but there is a lot of meat to this program all by itself.

All three of the girls decided that they wanted to work through the program after it arrived and we were happy to accommodate that as we understand the importance of learning to handle money wisely. And the earlier, the better. We received

• The Complete Starter Kit – the Textbook, Student Packet, and Teacher’s Guide.
• a JR Budget Kit and
• The Kingdom Code Coloring Book

There are free lesson samples available on The Kingdom Code website.

The textbook came as part of The Complete Starter Kit. This 240-page, spiral bound text has 27 lessons that are recommended to be taught no faster than one lesson a week, through two sessions. There are a number of features that I find to be a huge asset. Each lesson has a different character focus, such as seeking wisdom, having courage, showing honor, or being thrifty. This is a code of honor that Kingdom Code Kids are encouraged to follow and is put into a Biblical context, with a focus on trusting in God to guide and provide. There are Bible verses in each lesson to help students frame the information in a Godly manner. There are studies of people who have created businesses and done well with them, highlighting that success but not ignoring the failures and struggles along the way. There are letters from “Aunt Jimmi” which helps students see the idea that is being talked about in the lesson and putting real life experiences to it. There are discussions, worksheets, additional research, and so much more!

Each lesson follows approximately the same set-up. Starting with a proclamation, the students begin their worksheets, have a quest for the clue (often historical in content and leading to the character focus of the week), learning the code of honor, applying that to their business or life, marking the treasure map and then going through some On Your Own activities. There are a few other parts of lessons that will come in but these are the main ones.

Following the On Your Own activities is a recap of the Kingdom Keys for the lesson and then some additional Bonus Code Work. These are activities to help the student internalize the ideas even more. Some of these are hands-on and some are more abstract. For example, you might write a jingle to remember the JOEYS letters for budgets, write a letter of encouragement, take a trip to the bank, make a flipchart or have a discussion. Each lesson also includes vocabulary words that are important to financial matters and the Code of Honor, including words like financial, entrepreneurs, taxes, pride, and perseverance.

The Teacher’s Guide is a black and white set of 132 pages, hole punched and ready to go in a teaching binder.  After the listing of what all is included and A Note to the Teacher, there is an Introduction that gets you started with step-by-step instructions. This walks you through the purpose of each part of the lesson and each of the additional materials that go with the program. (These additional materials are found in the Student Packet.) It is a bit intensive up front to set it all up and get familiar with the program.

Next in the Teacher’s Guide you get the lesson plans. These are extensive lesson plans and are set up for two sessions per lesson for most lessons. This gives you a full year’s worth of financial curriculum. Each lesson gives you the objective, learning goals, and essential questions, a list of materials, any suggestions or reminders, and the two days worth of lessons. There are specific instructional materials for each part of the lesson and each activity for the lesson. It is very thorough. You also have the answers to the worksheets and suggested enrichment. At the end, there are some assessments and feedback cards, with a few other blank forms that may be needed.

The Student Packet is intended for use by one student as the materials are consumable. This is where you find the worksheets to go with each lesson. There is a map for tracking progress by using stickers. There is a set of stickers to use with setting up the budgeting part of the program. There are flashcards to help students learn and remember the vocabulary for each lesson, noted with the lesson number. This is where the “rubber meets the road” so to speak – these forms, notices, worksheets, and vocabulary become the part that is carried with the student throughout their lifetime. The instructions for setting it all up are found in the Teacher’s Guide.

There are several forms and notices available on the website for those who have purchased the curriculum and are customers of The Kingdom Code. These include calendars, ledgers, income statements, and more.

The JR Budget Kit is a small package that includes a budget poster, a sticker set, six coloring pages, budgeting percentages page, and instructions on using the budget kit. It is a simple way to begin budgeting and helping students learn to allocate money. It uses the same budgeting allocation as the business kit, only does not include putting money into the business. It is appropriate for very young students with guidance from parents.

The Kingdom Code Coloring Book is a 32-page book of coloring pages for students that may be too young for participating in the business part of the program but are listening to the lessons. They can color pictures of bible verses, knights, treasure boxes, budgeting shields, and more. It could be very good in combination with the JR Budget Kit for younger students, though some of the pages are the same.

All of this comes together to be a practical application of financial literacy. We started really strong with the program and everyone is pleased with it. It is not difficult to teach, nor is it difficult for older students to work through on their own, though they will need guidance along the way. We have spent two days per lesson so far and feel that it is a fairly comfortable pace during full school days. Days can include reading text, discussion, brainstorming, or completing worksheets, among other activities We slowed down when it came time to really figure out what business was going to be pursued to get that solidly in place.

The focus of The Kingdom Code for the first business is a service based business. This is a great idea for younger students but it was a difficult thought for the older girls when they already had ideas for goods based businesses. But, after we took an extra couple of days to think about what service based might look like (not everything has to be mowing lawns or cleaning houses), some good ideas were come up with. Miss E realized that she was actually already do a service-based business – sign language interpretation.

Miss E signing to a player at a baseball game.

She took this idea and will be working further with it. It was quite a realization to discover that, without the formal recognition and paperwork, you are already working as a volunteer business. She is planning on teaching her younger sister sign language this coming year and that will be where she takes this program next – applying the business building materials to her job as sign language interpreter and instructor. We had planned to have someone teach Miss J anyhow, so Miss E will be earning pay for this service.

We are pleased with the program and plan to pause with it for the remainder of the summer as the girls’ camps, missions, and conventions are starting. But, come fall, this will be on the curriculum list for high school, middle school, and elementary. I plan to have Miss E read a book on personal finance that we really like, as well as write a paper or keep track of budget for a few months, in order to grant her a high school credit.

Miss E looking at the Student Packet.

I am going to close this out by letting Miss E have your ear/eye for a bit to give you her review of the program.

Miss E’s review:

I really liked this curriculum. I think that our whole family wanted to do the goods based business first rather than the service based, but I enjoyed the first few lessons just the same.

Something that I would change would be the worksheets for preparing your service business. I don’t see any reason to come up with 5 different businesses, then narrow it to 3 without even doing anything with them, and then working out the barest minimum of a plan for all 3. I personally had minor problems with the service based because our family’s schedule during the school year is full of commitments and on top of that, a number of my commitments were service jobs that I did not charge for.

I do understand that the curriculum was not designed for a high school freshman like me, but I think that it would work with a little bit of tweaking. The material was a little bit easy for me, except for figuring out a service based business. I would enjoy seeing a higher level KCK curriculum.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this is that it brought God into everything. Again, it was not talking about God on my level of comprehension, but a younger level. To be honest, I never really thought about what to do with the money once you had earned it. Obviously, you spend some for the business, give some to God, and save some, but I never thought about how much goes where.

I really want to learn about managing money and a business because I might want to own a business someday. Or I might sell bracelets or something. And even if I don’t, it is still a really good thing to know.

As you can see, this appeals on many levels and is guidance that is much needed in our society. One of the things I was blessed with growing up is strong financial stewardship examples. At Home Dad and I have talked often about the best way to pass Godly financial stewardship on to our girls. The Kingdom Code is helping in that goal.

I also have a code for you to use when ordering to receive 10% off of your order on The Kingdom Code webside. I do not know for how long this code will be good so don’t hesitate in using it. This is a worthwhile curriculum.

Coupon Code:  10TKC33

Blessings
Lori, At Home.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew to see what other families thought about The Kingdom Code
program.

Saving – Blogging Through The Alphabet

Do your children save? I’ll bet they do.

If they are anything like mine, they save lots of stuff: candy, collections of things they find (shells, rocks, click pencils that no longer have erasers or lead), papers that go in the round file, feathers, things they cannot bear to get rid of, etc.

Today, though, I am thinking about saving money. We do give our children an allowance. It isn’t much compared to what we know lots of children get but we feel good about our choices. The girls are expected to do the things around the house that they are asked to do and to pick up their rooms.

One of the reasons we do the allowance is because they have to learn to pay for things on their own and to save for big purchases. This is a life skill that is missing from a lot of adults. Physical money – dollar bills and coins – are required in this rather than an intangible format. We don’t do a whole lot of regulating what they can spend their money on, though we would tell them no if they wanted to buy candy every single time they had the chance.

They tend to buy things like little toys we won’t buy for them, books, and, this one I love, things for each other. Truly, this is one I need to remember – when a sister wants something like a little doll at the dollar store or a sucker but doesn’t have her own money or is saving for something big and doesn’t want to spend it, one of the other girls often purchases the little thing for her. That generous attitude does my momma heart good.

Saving, though, is the reason I started this ramble. We encourage the girls to save their money for things they really want. If they want a $20 book, that’s fine. When they have enough money, I will drive them over to Barnes & Noble to buy it. But they do buy it. If they want to buy a bed for their doll, I will take them to Target and they can buy it. Each of the girls tends to keep a jar in her room and she has labeled it according to what she is saving for.

Recently, one of the girls was able to make a huge purchase. She had saved her money for over a year. At first she was saving it for the once-a-year trip we make to an American Girl store. Then, she saw that they were bringing back Felicity. Her saving took on a bigger and more intense purpose – Felicity. The doll would not be around for a long time so she knew she had to allocate her money carefully. Each time she got her allowance or money for a gift, she calculated how much more she needed, how long it would take. She asked for some extra tasks and helped her grandmother for some extra money. When she got really close, it had been over a year since she had started saving and her birthday was approaching.

To reward her dedication to her goal, I ordered the doll early and had it here to surprise her on her birthday. She still paid for Felicity but it was a joy for her to have the doll in hand and to know that all her dedication and saving had resulted in exactly what she wanted.

Saving teaches us several things:

• self-denial (which in this day and age is somewhat unknown but a very good thing to learn)
• goal setting
• dedication to a goal
• planning
• continued evaluation of progress

All of these, and more, are important life skills. We can tell our children to save their money but it is much more effective to allow them to spend and then have them realize they don’t have enough money for whatever it is they want because they have spent it on 50 cent suckers every time we were at the store. We have never stressed saving but we have stressed paying for things themselves. When a child asks “can we get an icee?”, my response is often “Are you paying for them?” I am sure you know what the answer is and that is the purpose of them having their own money – learn to allocate it to what is important and not waste it.

This is a teaching that is taught throughout the Bible. Jesus talks about money often. We use the word stewardship with the girls so they learn that it is not just about the dollars and coins but also about how we use the things we possess. Do we try to do everything for more money or do we share with others who have need? Stewardship begins in the home and saving is a good step in learning about that.

At Home.

This is part of the Blogging Through The Alphabet series.

Please visit A Net In Time and Hopkins Homeschool and link up your ABC posts.

My ABC Posts:

A – Always Learning
B – Be A Pearl Seeker

C – Crave

D – Degas books

E – Electrical Circuits

G – Giraffe Party

H – How to let go?

I – Ice Cream

J – Just Sit Still

K – Kids Can

L – Leadership through Lads to Leaders

M – Motivation

N – Nature Research

O – Our God, He Is Alive

P – Prepared

 Q – Quizlet

R – Recital (violin)

S  – Saving

T U V W X Y Z

Budgeting in the Homeschool

Budgeting.

It is a word that many people fear.

We shouldn’t though. We should try to embrace it and think of it as freedom rather than submission to a number or slavery to a given amount.

I thought I would share a little bit about out budgeting because it directly impacts our education. And, just as a side note, we have one income. No additional income sources. Budgeting is the reason this is not a problem.

We work from a combination of a zero line budget and an income based budget. We start with the lowest amount possible that will be received as income. We deduct all possible spending, including giving at church, insurance, savings, and all utility/house bills. That leaves us with what lots of people call “disposable income.” This is where we move to a zero line budget.

I don’t know the real name of it but this is what we call it. We assume that we will spend $0. Nothing. From there, if we do need to spend something. We look at the checkbook to see if there is money there for it. We write everything down in the checkbook. Just as if we were writing checks rather than using online bill payments or debit/credit cards. We try not to spend money. It is simple as that.

How this impacts our education  is really quite simple. If we need money for something, we spend it. But, since we are working from “only spend what you have” rather than “how much can I spend” or “I have budgeted $550 for curriculum”, I can purchase what we need for unit or a book that will help us out. Honestly, I don’t know what I spent on homeschool needs last school year because it was what we needed. It was not an outrageous amount. It probably was not even $550. But, it benefitted the girls by giving them what they needed to learn what they were interested in.

Education does not have to be a big budget item. Regardless of how it is painted in the world, it does not require tons of money to teach your children what they need to be successful in life. Sure, it is a joy to be able to just go out and purchase whatever big money item you might want like a telescope for astronomy or a microscope for biology. It would be nice to be able to travel the world. Those are definitely things to shoot for and plan for (see the savings comment made in passing above – that is what that savings is for!) but education is about life.

If you are looking for a more specific post about how to lower your costs for education, check out my post on 10 of Our Favorite Ways to Save Money Homeschooling. You could also read about Teacher Discounts.

At Home.

This post is part of a round-up of budgeting ideas for the homeschool, brought to you by the TOS Review Crew. Click below to see what other budgeting ideas we have for you. (post is live on Friday, August 5, 2016)

10 Of Our Favorite Ways to Save Money Homeschooling- July Blogging Challenge

The blogging challenge word for today is simply 10. So, I thought I would combine it with something I have been thinking about – ways we homeschool on the “cheap.” I use the word cheap loosely because people define it differently. Some people use that word saying things like “I only spend $600 per child each year.” For me, it is more like “If I spend $600 on homeschooling this year, we better be taking a nice vacation with homeschool opportunities built in.” This brings us right to my #1 favorite way to save money while homeschooling.

#1

Make your learning a part of your life. Don’t separate learning from your every day activities. A trip to the grocery store is a major learning opportunity – health, math, science, and more. Going to the bank? Teach your kids how to fill out the deposit slip. Going on vacation? Look to see what is around where you are headed and make a book of free printables you find on the web that relate to those places for the kids to complete. Learn to navigate with street signs or give directions while on errands. The possibilities are endless.

#2

Use the web to your advantage and find free printables. When we were going on a visit to my parents, we were going to stop by Carlsbad Caverns and go to White Sands. Both are in the desert so I used free printables to create a notebook for the girls to complete. That post is titled Vacation Books and I included links to many of the places I got printables from.

#3

Field trips are a wonderful way to put knowledge to use or to get an experience prior to a unit study. There are tons of places that are free. Around here, we have several large parks that are great for nature study and observation. We also have a wetlands area that clean the water from a river naturally before it goes into the lake we get our drinking water from. There is a botanical garden. Our local university has an art exhibit area that is free and we have an art center at the community college that also has free exhibits. We also have a wonderful museum that we have a membership to and a great zoo where we have a membership. Don’t forget to think about local, state, and national parks. Many of these places also have a junior ranger program with a booklet for the kids to learn from and this program has been free every time our girls have participated.

#4

Ask for memberships as a family gift for Christmas or birthdays. We have been wonderfully gifted our museum and zoo memberships at Christmas for the last few years. We have gotten so much use out of those memberships!

#5

Camp experiences are another fantastic hands-on learning opportunity. Whether it is art camp, Bible camp, dance camp or any other. Again these could be birthday gifts or just an investment. Regardless, they are instruction that is hands-on and provides learning opportunities.

#6

This one could be included in field trips but it really deserves its own focus. We live where we have several high schools, a community college, a university, a professional orchestra, and a community band. We have a lot of opportunities to take the girls to musical performances without it costing us a penny. We have heard a lot of great music, as well as some more specialty performances like handbells and violin soloists. We also have been able to go to some performances for cheap, such a musicals or professional musicians. So much can be drawn from these experiences. If you don’t have access to live performances, there are a lot of web resources.

#7

Watch the sales. This is time of year to watch the sales flyers from places like Office Max and Target. Of course, Walmart and grocery stores have plenty of sales, as well. We are getting pencil pouches, erasers, and pencil sharpeners this week for a penny a piece. Know what you need and don’t stock up too much on things that can dry out (like clay or markers). Do stock up on things like paper, pencils, crayons, and glue. We will be watching for construction paper, glue sticks, and tape. Those are our big needs this summer.

#8

Play games. You don’t need much to play games and most families have a lot of games in their home already. Chess has been a fantastic addition to our family game playing. It teaches so much about strategy and planning. All games teach sportsmanship, following rules, and patience. Many of them also teach teamwork. There are plenty that have math components, science thinking, or historical recall required. Games such as Connect Four, Don’t Break the Ice, and Jenga  are fun and require logic.  Monopoly – The Classic Editionworks on math a bit while teaching planning and economics on a small scale.

#9

Jump back on the internet. Hit up Pinterest and YouTube. These are free to access and there is tons of information and projects you can find. Don’t have a CD on Medieval Dance Music? YouTube has it. Need a vocal piece of Civil War songs? Someone has pinned one on Pinterest. I use Pinterest to pin things that I publish here but I also use it so that as I am planning a unit or book study, I can find ideas that I think would be good. Feel free to check out and follow my Pinterest page.

#10

Your library. I saved this one for the end for a reason. If you have nothing else in this list, you can still accomplish a lot. Your library is an excellent resource. Whether you have a mobile library or live in a town with multiple branches, they can help you find resources to fit whatever you are studying. We visit the library every week and we check out a minimum or 20 books and videos each time. The girls read like crazy and we use the library to find books to supplement what our studies include. For example, right now, each time we go the girls check out a book on Ancient Egypt to complement our Homeschool In The Woods study/review that is coming up in the next couple of weeks. The library has a summer reading program, book clubs, Lego clubs, story hour, family nights, and so much more. There is something for everyone and it is all free. Use your library!

I hope you got some ideas for reducing your budget for home education. We don’t homeschool for nothing but we do take advantage of a lot of the resources that we have available in our community.

At Home.

Linking up at A Glimpse of Our Life and This Day Has Great Potential for the July Blogging Challenge.

This post includes some affiliate links. A purchase through an affiliate link may provide a small bit of income for our family.

Orphs of the Woodlands – a TOS review

Have you ever wished that your child’s favorite thing could be used to teach them their least favorite things? Well, get a taste of it with Orphs of the Woodlands. This is an online education resource and game that combines reading with experiencing hundreds of tidbits of knowledge.
Star Toaster introduced their first book in the Orphs of the Woodlands series not too long ago. It is titled The Treasure of HighTower and our family was thrilled to get the chance to review it.

The Treasure of HighTower did not disappoint. Star Toaster has created a story line about a squirrel, whom your child gets to name, that becomes a spy and helps to rescue orphaned forest creatures. The story is so exciting, so full of adventure, that the girls had a hard time not reading all the way through it in pretty quick succession. They wanted to just keep reading. But, if they did that, they were going to miss an important and exciting part of the program.

As the story goes along, Spy (what we’ll call the squirrel for the time being) runs into orphans, or orphs, that need help. If Spy doesn’t learn what is put before him in his day to day life, he won’t have the money to provide the help these orphs need. So, Spy must learn and pay attention and do the jobs in order to earn money and rescue the orphs. The more NID (New Information Daily) that is learned, the better Spy does on his jobs and the more money he has to rescue and provide for the orphs.

 

Now, don’t misunderstand. These are fun jobs! I mean, who wouldn’t want to be in charge of creating the exact color of paint needed for the HighTower Highbrow Museum of Art? Or what about being a number namer for the bank? Letter Linguist? Synonym Specialist? Maybe you want to bake something for the Badger Bakery? Whatever you want to try out, there is a job for you!

How do you get these jobs? Begin reading the book at the beginning. After each chapter is completed, there are new jobs that you can work. Each job completed correctly will pay gold stars, with which you can take care of the orphs. Do a good job and more orphs will come to be taken care of. The girls loved seeing how many orphs appeared at the end of each chapter.

I want to share a couple of thoughts about the product. I am impressed with this product. It has done a wonderful job of exposing the girls to about 240 different aspects of learning. (This is how many jobs were completed by E when she had finished the book.) Some of the jobs reappear with a bit more difficult learning tucked in there but I don’t consider the girls to have gotten significant instruction on most of these topics. They were definitely exposed to them and it opened up a world of ideas to the girls, which is fantastic. (We took several “rabbit trails” to explore some of these worlds of ideas based on the information presented.) This does in no way diminish the quality or worth of this program. The more exposure the girls have with more difficult concepts in a familiar context, the easier those concepts are for them to learn.

Reading is the bridge for this program. You definitely need to have a good reader with good comprehension for this program. The range for this program is suggested 4th – 7th grades. I think this is a good range but it could easily stretch younger or older. My 3rd grader was easily able to read it but she loves to read. There are lots of words she didn’t know but there are rollovers embedded in the story that give the part of speech and several synonyms in varying degrees of difficulty for the word. There are also rollovers for quotes and ideas that are shared as part of the story, exposing the reader to thoughts of great thinkers from all walks of life.

Because this is an online program you will need to purchase a subscription for the book and you will need a computer to read and complete the jobs. I hope everyone has easy access to a computer because this was worth the time and effort. The girls learned so much and I have a much better idea about some of the curriculum choices we need to make for them because I saw how much they enjoyed learning that was embedded in reading a story.

As I close this review, I want to share one more thing that we absolutely loved about Orphs. Throughout the book, there are videos. Prof. Forp is the instructor and he is hilarious! He cracks jokes that help them remember information and repeats things in such a way that they are remembered AND make sense. You can see an example of his video on the Star Toaster home page. The girls, E especially, really enjoyed the Professor.  And I loved the jokes. This is one I can wholeheartedly say “Go check out.”

We are waiting anxiously for the next book to come out in the Orphs of the Woodlands series by Star Toaster. If this sounds interesting to you, they have a free trial that you should check out. (Psst – this would also be a fantastic addition to a summer reading program.)

At Home.

 

Connect with Star Toaster on Social Media.

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TWITTER: https://twitter.com/StarToaster

 

A Review – LearningPalette.com

Are you familiar with Learning Wrap ups? This is a company that created a unique product years ago to help students learn concepts in any area, from math facts to vocabulary words to music theory to Spanish and more. The product is a plastic card, shaped somewhat like a key with a string attached to it. The student uses the string to connect two things that match or the problem to the answer. The student can then turn it over and self-check the answers. This is a fantastic product and we use a number of these in our home.

So, when it was announced that Learning Wrap Ups had created a new product, the Learning Palette, and they would be offering an online version so we could have access to all levels of it, we were really excited. We were selected to review LearningPalette.com and the girls were very excited. Jumping up and down excited.

LearningPalette.com is marketed for users in kindergarten up through 5th grade, though the younger end of this group (especially non-readers) will need a significant amount of adult help since there is no audio for instructions. It is a full online family subscription for all levels of reading and math palettes, for up to 5 users, for a full year. The cost of this subscription is $59.99 for the year.

LearningPalette.com works like this. Go to their website and login. The student then chooses if they are going to work on math or reading. From there, the student chooses the level they are going to work on and the card that comes next in their series. Then, click load! and off they go.

The student matches the problem or question from the center of the palette to the correct color marker. The student then moves that color marker to the corresponding answer. For example, using the picture below, the student would determine that 8+7=15 and that problem has a solid red circle next to it. The student would then locate the solid red circle on the left, click it to move it and click it again in the circle next to 15 to drop it there.

This was easy for the oldest giggly girl, at age 10, to understand and use. It was much more difficult however for the middle giggly girl, at age 8, to use. The youngest giggly girl, at age 5, could not do it without a parent sitting right there helping her know which problem she was working on and helping her check which marker she was using for which answer. Additionally, the instructions are often difficult for the student to see and understand so a parent will need to be close by to help the student know what she is supposed to do on each card.

The girls were really excited to use LearningPalette.com at the beginning. In fact, I was going to ask not to be put on the review until the oldest giggly girl saw the sample. When she saw it, she got very excited and worked with the sample for a long time, just for fun. All three of the girls were excited to use it for a while. However, the enjoyment of it quickly wore off, especially if it was not a review card they were working on. If the card contained information that was not simple for them, it was not an enjoyable activity for anyone. By the end, the product was one that no one wanted to use anymore.

The concept for LearningPalette.com is a good one, in my opinion. I think what is missing is the ease of use. It takes work, even for me as an adult, to make sure that I am choosing the correct marker for the correct problem and putting it in the correct answer. That work is not “do I have the right answer?” or “do I know how to do this problem?” The work is simply “do I have the right color?” , “is it supposed to be solid or have a hole in the middle?”, and “did I put it in the right place?” That makes it not so much fun.

Another frustration that we encountered over and over was the program marking the answer wrong when it was right. This happened on a number of cards in both the math and reading sections of the program. When the card was redone, with the same answers, it might mark it correct that time. There was no way of knowing if you were going to get marked one way or another and the girls began asking if everything was actually right, even when there were checks on each of the problems to indicate it was correct.

This is a program that might work better for us if we focused on using it only for “fun time” and “reinforcement”.  In my opinion, it does not work as an instructional program but rather as a practice program. We will continue to use it sporadically as a game and something fun to use to do review on concepts the giggly girls already know.

If you are looking for an online program, I encourage you to head over to LearningPalette.com and sign up for their demo. See if it is a good fit for your family. Learning Wrap ups is currently offering a coupon code for 20% off of the full price of $59.99 if you use the code HOMESCHOOL when you sign up for a year. That is a fantastic deal!

At Home.

 

Others on the Review Crew were given physical products to use and review. You can find reviews for the physical products, as well as others who used LearningPalette.com, by clicking on the banner below and visiting the Review Crew blog.

 

Enterprise

The girls are on another tear with earning money. I try really hard not to interfere in these moments because they are full of ideas and energy and go-get-’em. They are doing something that I am too scared to do. They are trying out something new to see if it will produce income for them so that they can buy the things they want. I am in awe of how fearlessly they go at it.

A common theme to their enterprise is the bedroom sale. Never hear of it? Really? Think garage sale at the bedroom door. They choose things from their own rooms that they no longer want or need, price them (a few cents each, generally), and put them just outside their doors with price tags on them. Their sisters then come by and shop for things that they can use. This happens every few weeks. It is very fun to see and observe.

More interesting, though, has been the last couple of days. L has been making crowns for their bears. She added bracelets this morning. Each creation is unique and she really takes her time making these. They are special and fun. J and E are making necklaces and bracelets. Charms are being talked about by a couple of the girls.

E is talking about making some purses and crowns and charms out of felt or fabric. We talked last night about placing them in the Etsy shop that I have but has not been used a lot lately or posting them on the At Home Facebook page. This may be the start of true enterprise for her. I would love that! She sees possibility where I tend to see the possibility of failure. I love how brave she is and I am going to work on following her lead.

Currently, there  is a different form of enterprise going on and here is what it looks like:

The girls are providing a service to each other’s animals this morning. They are having storytime. Each girl has at least one animal from a sister and is reading to them, having discussions, and teaching them. I LOVE THIS!!! Makes my heart sing.

What a way to pass a summer morning – reading, helping each other out, and making a few cents. All is cheerful and happy today. At Home.