We Have Yet Another New Home on The Web

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

Mama Manuscripts has gone on (likely permenent) hiatus, but I hope you’ll join me over at Real Life: Unscripted.

(It’s also the new home for Goal Planning Monday so I hope you’ll come take a peak!)

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A Perfect Pet for Peyton – Review and Giveaway

Posted on March 29, 2012 by

Last year I had the chance to read Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Got Married by Gary Chapman, author of the bestselling The 5 Love Languages books. As I loved the book, I was eager to review the newest addition to The 5 Love Languages series, a book especially for your kids, A Perfect Pet for Peyton.

From the publishers:

This wonderfully imaginative children’s hardcover book by bestselling authors Gary Chapman and Rick Osborne, featuring four-color illustrations (with hidden details!) by Wilson Williams, Jr., will help children learn the importance of love. Based on Gary’s highly successful The 5 Love Languages®, A Perfect Pet for Peyton tells an entertaining and playful story of five children who each, with the help of Mr. Chapman and the unique pets at his special emporium, discover their own personal love language. Children and parents alike will experience firsthand the power of the love languages as they cuddle up and spend precious time together reading this book over and over again.

The children (ages 8, 6, and 2) cuddled up with this book as soon as it arrived. The kids were happy to sit quietly to look for the hidden details on each page (which was a relief, as we were getting antsy after weeks of illness but weren’t really well enough to get out there in the real world, yet. Anything to occupy their time was a plus). However, the special part was that the kids really did get the 5 Love Languages after reading this book and we had a lovely discussion on how different people feel love differently. Liam (8) was quick to tell me that his Love Language was quality time and Morgaine (6) said that her love language was probably gifts. These are absolutely the languages that I would have chosen for them so the really did get it!

To find out more about A Perfect Pet for Peyton, The 5 Love Languages for Children, and Gary Chapman, be sure to visit the following links:

The 5 Love Languages: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

We really enjoyed this story and I look for to telling you more about The 5 Love Languages for Children next week so I hope that you will be back to find out more.

Until then, I am THRILLED to be able to offer a copy of A Perfect Pet for Peyton to one lucky reader. For your chance to win leave a comment and let me know what you think your perfect pet would be!

Addition entries (please leave a comment for each).

1) Follow me on Google Friend Connect and/or Networked Blogs.
2) Like Mama Manuscripts on facebook and tell me about it.
3) Follow @mamamanuscripts on twitter and tell me your twitter ID so I can follow you.
5) Tweet/retweet about this giveaway and let me know.
6) Blog about this contest and give me your link (3 entries) – Don’t forget to comment 3 times for this one!

Good luck! Comments close Friday, April 6th, 2012 and 1pm eastern time. Winner will be chosen at random.

 “Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it 
on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Posted in Books, Homeschooling, Reviews | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Goal Planning Monday – Week 61

Posted on March 26, 2012 by

If you are new here be sure to check out the guidelines and join in. We would love to have you! If you are returning, I hope you had a good week. Thank you for stopping in and sharing with us. Be sure to keep sharing with your friends as we all could use some accountability from time to time! I hope to see some new members this week. Keep spreading the word as we could all use some encouragement and support as we go about achieving our goals. If you have a moment get sure to hop over and see what others are doing.

You’ll never guess! We’re sick. Or we were all last week. Liam was mostly recovered by Monday evening but Tuesday morning, Mike woke up with fever, chills, aches, and a cough. Yep, the flu. The baby also had a sky high fever again (that lasted through to Friday, gave us a one day break, and came back Saturday evening) and a couple bouts of vomiting on Tuesday. With him spending several very lethargic days in my arms, I haven’t been that into meeting my goals! Mike still isn’t feeling great but the baby seems to be better this morning. I’m not even going to venture to say we are getting well because every time I say that we get something new!

Here’s my update from last week!

1. Get out and enjoy the warmth. DONE! It was 23 degrees on Thursday and I did take the kids out on the deck most of the day. We weren’t terribly active but I did some geography with Liam.

2. Design some kind of blog header. NOT DONE. Haven’t been on the actual computer all week. The iPod is my lifeline when trapped under a baby but you can’t really do work on it.

3. Try not to hound the doctor about our allergy testing (that we finally gone done).

4. Drink water. DONE!

5. Cook enough so that all the nutritious food daddy bought doesn’t go to waste.

6. Do something that makes me feel like the kids are learning something. NOT DONE! The kids threw a horrible fit at the suggestion of school work and Liam has a complete and total melt down. It’s going on what, 7 or 8 weeks, that we’ve been ill. Liam needs routine and hasn’t been getting it and I have no emotional reserves, whatsoever, to deal with melt downs so I pretty much let it be. He played some online learning games and did some math.

7. Research an online, free class of some sort. Partial done. I looked into a couple ideas on Monday but didn’t choose anything yet.

My GOAL for the week.

Do everything I can possibly think of to get my family healthy once and for all.

What are YOUR plans for the week. Be sure to stop in and let us know!

Posted in Goal Planning Monday, Memes/bloghops | Tagged | 3 Comments

Goal Planning Monday – Week 60

Posted on March 19, 2012 by

(Guess what? We are still sick. I’ll be back to post my goals later today (I hope). Feel free to link up before I’m back with my update……and I’m BACK!)

If you are new here be sure to check out the guidelines and join in. We would love to have you! If you are returning, I hope you had a good week. Thank you for stopping in and sharing with us. Be sure to keep sharing with your friends as we all could use some accountability from time to time! I hope to see some new members this week. Keep spreading the word as we could all use some encouragement and support as we go about achieving our goals. If you have a moment get sure to hop over and see what others are doing.

It’s a good thing that I never got back to post more goals last weeks because by the time the baby was on the mend out oldest boy was getting sick. He has some immune issues so he’s working hard to get rid of this bug (actually all the kids…and Mum….had to work hard at but it’s lingering for sweet Liam). I miss his little active self. The house is too darn quiet.

Here’s my update from last week!

1. Write two articles for Homeschool Horizons so that if we get hit with the crud again I’ll still have something scheduled. Partially Done. I’ve only written one. I have to come up with something else between now and tomorrow.

2. Drink water. DONE!

3. Get the biggest of the cleaning up done. DONE! The house is pretty decent. There’s always stuff to be done but I’m not overwhelmed with catch up jobs this week.

4. Get to the library. DONE! Liam desperately wanted to go so we took him out for his craft day. At that point we thought he was having an allergic reaction. *sigh*

This week’s goals:

1. Get out and enjoy the warmth. We are going to have a few nice days and I desperately need to soak up the sun so if I have to sneak out while people are resting to sit on my deck then I will do that. I hope I’ll be able to convince the kids to join me.

2. Design some kind of blog header. I was waiting for one to come but I don’t think it is. It’s spring. I need to come up with something nice and fresh. Contemplating a new blog…would you follow me? I’m not feeling Mama Manuscripts anymore…….I’m having an identity crisis. *lol*

3. Try not to hound the doctor about our allergy testing (that we finally gone done).

4. Drink water.

5. Cook enough so that all the nutritious food daddy bought doesn’t go to waste.

6. Do something that makes me feel like the kids are learning something. There’s been a whole lot of laying around and I’m beginning to feel my brain go to mush.

7. Research an online, free class of some sort. Again, this has to do with my mushy brain and maybe my identity crisis. I need to find something to do for myself, I think. I’d love suggestions.

What are YOUR plans for the week. Be sure to stop in and let us know!

Posted in Goal Planning Monday, Memes/bloghops | Tagged | 5 Comments

Hot Rock Craft

Posted on March 18, 2012 by

If there is something that we have a lot of in Cape Breton it is rocky beaches. While the kids were too ill this week to walk on the beach, we were able to complete an art project using some of our previously collected rocks.

Here’s our bit of youtube inspiration:

Here are our finished projects:

My creation. The rock already had lines dividing it and Morgaine wanted them to still be there so I made the pink and filled in the other parts.


Liam’s scenery.

Morgaine’s rainbow.

Simple, fun and pretty, too.

Posted in Cape Breton Island, Crafts, Homeschooling, Waldorf | Leave a comment

Goal Planning Monday – Week 59

Posted on March 12, 2012 by

(Sorry, I’m late. We ended up taking wee boy to the doctor and this slipped my mind.)

If you are new here be sure to check out the guidelines and join in. We would love to have you! If you are returning, I hope you had a good week. Thank you for stopping in and sharing with us. Be sure to keep sharing with your friends as we all could use some accountability from time to time! I hope to see some new members this week. Keep spreading the word as we could all use some encouragement and support as we go about achieving our goals. If you have a moment get sure to hop over and see what others are doing.

Well, if I though we were sick the week before last then we were VERY sick last week. It started with the baby getting the big boy’s cough and cold, that promptly went to his lungs. It made for a very lethargic baby and long, long nights as I sat upright with him. Then it was the girlie’s turn to get the same crud and it wouldn’t have been complete if Mum didn’t get sick, too. So yeah, goal acheiving wasn’t at the top of my priority list. The good news is that while we still have a cough, EVERYONE has been sick so we should be good for a while so I have hope for this week.

Here were my goals for last week:

1. Write review of Clever Dragons. DONE!

2. Write several different things for Homeschool Horizons. NOT DONE. Opps, Shannon, will you have my head?  Wednesday totally slipped my mind as we were dealing with the plague.

3. Finish quilt top and at least get it pinned to the backing. NOT DONE. I pinned two squares together. Does that count?

4. Keep posting resources on my doula page. NOT DONE. Poor neglected page. Contemplating starting a website/blog on birth, baby care, attachment parenting.

5. Go through the kids toys and simplify again. Partially done, but not really.

6. Reduce the amount of sweets I eat. DONE! But not intentionally and those fudgicles were good on the throat.

7. Drink water. Not done. There’s nothing worse than drinking plain water when you have a sore throat. I had some herbal tea but not near enough liquids. I blame being pinned under a lethargic baby for the better part of the week.

This week’s goals:

1. Write two articles for Homeschool Horizons so that if we get hit with the crud again I’ll still have something scheduled.

2. Drink water.

3. Get the biggest of the cleaning up done. The guys kept themselves fed over the week but housework is not their forte and there’s a fair amount of cleaning, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and laundry to do.

4. Get to the library. It’s generally my main  social thing and we haven’t been in a couple weeks.

What are YOUR plans for the week. Be sure to stop in and let us know!


 

Posted in Goal Planning Monday, Memes/bloghops | Tagged | 2 Comments

Clever Dragons ~ A Review

Posted on March 11, 2012 by

While we try to limit electronic for our children, I’ll admit that I was curious about Clever Dragons as I’d seen the ads popping up on my facebook for several months. When we were giving to opportunity to blog about Clever Dragons or Always Ice Cream (their sister site for girls) I jumped on the chance. Clever Dragons is a virtual world where your child from K-8 can play educational games and watch videos to earn gold that they can use to buy pets and furniture, design their own castle, and more.

The Good

  • Set up is really easy! There’s no messing around and your child can be playing in 5 minutes.
  • The educational games are fun! I have no issues whatsoever getting my son to play and not only because he wants the gold pieces for the “fun” extras. He is excited to learn new things. The geography games are the biggest hit in our house (and our long neglected world map, that was once loved, is now a center piece in our homeschool again). He does take the time to try all the other activities as well.
  • The amount of gold given for games is well balanced making it not to difficult to get enough money to buy things but not too easy either.
  • My son loves that there is a running tally of how much gold other children are making while playing on Clever Dragons as it motivates him to try and reach the top (with no encouragement from us…we didn’t even mention it to him).
  • While there is a social media aspect to this site (we haven’t tried it out), it is fully moderated and no posts or artwork will go live/to your child’s friends until they are looked over by a group of people that take great care in making sure that your child is safe and not exposed to anything unsavory.
  • The site is well designed, pretty and doesn’t seem to glitch.
  • The games cover a variety of subjects: math, typing, geography, Bible and more!

  • It is easy to customize your child’s level with a click of a button. While the games start easy your child can progress quickly through the levels to reach a more challenging section for them.
  • It fits our budget at 5.95$US/month (other payment options discussed here….lifetime membership available for a one time payment of 119$US).

The Bad

  • I’m not one for segregating boys and girls and calling something a girl’s site or a boy’s site. Clever Dragons and Always Ice Cream are VERY similar but I know girls that would love to play knights, earn gold and colour cars, swords, etc. I also know boys that love hearts and those type of “girlie” things found on Always Ice Cream. I suppose you could always give you child an account on whichever site you think would be better suited to their personality but I don’t really see the need for separating the sites.
  • While this site is supposed to cover subjects up to grade 8, It just wouldn’t be enough for my son who usually slides the bar over the the 8 grade level when he gets on (he is a somewhat precocious 3rd grader). As I mentioned above, the levels do get harder and it might be good review for an 8th grader but I’m not convinced that my child would still be interested in it at that age.

The Ugly

  • Nothing ugly to mention here. Good clean fun. Well moderated. No foul language. No ads. I have no worries about allowing my son access to this site without standing over his shoulder to make sure it is all okay.

All in all, we LOVE this site. We would not hesitate to recommend it to a friend looking to supplement their child’s education with online drills, games, and fun! I invite you to visit Clever Dragons and Always Ice Cream to find out more about this program for your K-8 student(s).

The good, the bad, and the ugly are my own personal opinions based on my own family’s needs, experiences, circumstances and morals. I was given a lifetime membership to Clever Dragons in return for an honest review. I blog with integrity and will not recommend a product that I would not use with my own family.

Posted in Homeschooling, Reviews, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Goal Planning Monday – Week 58

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

If you are new here be sure to check out the guidelines and join in. We would love to have you! If you are returning, I hope you had a good week. Thank you for stopping in and sharing with us. Be sure to keep sharing with your friends as we all could use some accountability from time to time! I hope to see some new members this week. Keep spreading the word as we could all use some encouragement and support as we go about achieving our goals. If you have a moment get sure to hop over and see what others are doing.

I didn’t have a very good week with my goals. The little girlie was sick at the beginning of the week, the big boy by midweek all the way through the weekend and the baby starting last night. Can I say that I am ready for spring as we can’t quite get rid of the bugs this winter? I did try to get some stuff done so let’s see what I actually accomplished.

1. Blog three times. NOT DONE! Not even once. I’m not 100% sure that I want to keep up with blogging.  I know that I go back and forth on it all the time and blog about really wanting to, but try as I might, I’m not really feeling it.

2. Get my quilt top sewn together. Partially Done. I’m a tiny bit over half way and would have completed it if I hadn’t run out of thread early on in the week. I expect to get it done early this week if I can get wee boy healthy.

3. Call the doctor and do whatever I need to so that I actually get the requisition in my hand. DONE! Requisition is in my possession. Blood tests to be done tomorrow morning if we can make it out of the house.

4. Up fruit and veggie intake for the whole family. DONE! For the people that ate well last week, I think we did pretty well. I cut up fruit frequently as snacks and I always added one extra veggie to meals. 

5. Finish the puzzle we are working on and put the puzzles and table away. DONE! But only completed it last night and I did not enjoy it, not one little bit. That didn’t stop me from starting another one this morning, though!

6. Dedicate time each evening after the kids go to bed to work on various homeschooling projects that are on the go. Partially Done. Didn’t happen every evening but I did try to dedicate time most mornings. I didn’t accomplish all that I set out to do but I did make decent progress.

7. Write review of Clever Dragons. NOT DONE. Hopefully early this week. I did use it with Liam quite a bit this week so I have a better idea of how it all works.

Goals for this week:

1. Write review of Clever Dragons. Yep, if nothing else I’m writing this review.

2. Write several different things for Homeschool Horizons. Have you been checking out my “Wednesday Resources” feature?

3. Finish quilt top and at least get it pinned to the backing.

4. Keep posting resources on my doula page.

5. Go through the kids toys and simplify again. Through not fault of our own they are multiplying again. I know people are well meaning but I don’t do stuff well and neither do my kids.

6. Reduce the amount of sweets I eat. We don’t have many in the house right now so that should be too hard if Mike doesn’t go out and stock up. We eat pretty healthy most of the time but we also like to indulge maybe a little too much so we have to careful about that.

7. Drink water. See, it wasn’t on my list last week and I didn’t drink enough.

 


What are YOUR plans for the week. Be sure to stop in and let us know!

 

Posted in Goal Planning Monday, Memes/bloghops | 1 Comment

Goal Planning Monday – Week 56

Posted on February 27, 2012 by

If you are new here be sure to check out the guidelines and join in. We would love to have you! If you are returning, I hope you had a good week. Thank you for stopping in and sharing with us. Be sure to keep sharing with your friends as we all could use some accountability from time to time! I hope to see some new members this week. Keep spreading the word as we could all use some encouragement and support as we go about achieving our goals. If you have a moment get sure to hop over and see what others are doing.

Here’s my update on last week’s goals:

1. Drink that water! DONE! I did better at the end of the week than the beginning but I’d say that overall I drank that water.

2. Go to bed before my husband 3 out of 5 nights this week. DONE! I had insomnia something feirce, though.

3. As a result, finish at least the first book of Fablehaven. NOT DONE. Because  above mentioned insomnia I was tired at night. If I were to read it would have hadd to be something light and enjoyable and while Fablehaven is good it isn’t really my cup of tea (especially when sleep deprived).

4. Clear the upstairs hallway. DONE. I’ll be back with a picture soon.

5. Call and get a doctor’s appointment for myself and the three kids and followup with the blood tests as necessary. Partially done. I called and the secretary and she was going to get the requisition without me having to drag three kids in. She hasn’t so I wasn’t able to get the blood work done. I’ll call her back this morning.

6. Spend time outside with the kids three times this week. Partially done. I kicked them outside more. We went for a long walk one day and then I helped them make jumbo snowballs another but I didn’t really play with them a third time.

This week’s goals:

1. Blog three times. This should be manageable. I have the posts in my head and they are just waiting for a quiet moment to be put to paper, umm, computer.

 2. Get my quilt top sewn together. I have all the squares made and I’m quite impressed with myself. Now, on to the next step!

3. Call the doctor and do whatever I need to so that I actually get the requisition in my hand.

 4. Up fruit and veggie intake for the whole family. We aren’t quite getting as much as I would like. It’s harder when we aren’t having platters outdoors like in the summer.

 5. Finish the puzzle we are working on and put the puzzles and table away. I’m NOT enjoying out current puzzle and I’m ready to have my living room back for just a while. Puzzle burnout, I’d say.

6. Dedicate time each evening after the kids go to bed to work on various homeschooling projects that are on the go. I’ve dedicated myself to several things but don’t seem to be keeping up as well as I would have liked.

7. Write review of Clever Dragons. Liam is loving this site.

What are YOUR plans for the week. Be sure to stop in and let us know!

Posted in Goal Planning Monday, Memes/bloghops, Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

A Rainbow Quilt – Or Not?

Posted on February 25, 2012 by

We’ll have to wait and see.

I woke up this morning with a sudden urge to do something really domestic…..quilting to be exact. I’ve never, ever quilted. I’ve used my sewing machine for a grand total of three projects in my 5 years of owning it. Thank goodness that Walmart sells nearly ready made packages for people like me!

With a little patience and some work, for  25 dollars I should end up with a rainbow coloured quilt.

Stay tuned to find out!

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